NFL Week 14 picks against the spread

Denver Broncos (-5.5) @ San Francisco 49ers

This matchup just got complicated. The Denver Broncos just lost Emmanuel Sanders for the season after he likely tore his Achilles tendon running a route in practice. That really hurts the Broncos. Even if he wasn’t producing at a level we were once used to, opposing defenses still had to prepare for Sanders on every play.

Now they are stuck with Courtland Sutton and… well… Tim Patrick? The receivers on the Broncos who aren’t Sanders or Sutton on the current roster have a total of nine catches. That’s all season. Things are bleak for the Broncos.

The San Francisco 49ers are playing for Nick Bosa at this point. They look lost every single week, and it has some questioning Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch. The 49ers will use the last four games to evaluate who will remain on the roster in 2019. That’s literally all they want from these last four weeks.

Even with the injury to Sanders, the 49ers are not good enough to win this matchup. The Broncos have a good enough defense to keep them in this game by themselves. Case Keenum isn’t good enough to make this receiving core work, but the running game has been stellar the past few weeks.

Denver 21, San Francisco 10

Cincinnati Bengals @ Los Angeles Chargers (-14)

The Cincinnati Bengals come into this matchup without their starting quarterback, their star wide receiver, and their on a four-game losing streak. Jeff Driskel is attempting to lead a team that has Joe Mixon and nothing else on the field. John Ross has been a disappointment, and Tyler Boyd is leading the team in receiving. It’s just not what people thought of this team when they were 4-1.

The Los Angeles Chargers are coming off their biggest win of the season, taking out the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road. However, this is a ton of points. 14 points against any opponent is a large hill to climb. We’ve seen a lot of these lines this season as four or five teams are straight terrible, but they don’t cover very often. Teams have trouble motivating themselves to put everything on the line when they are already up two touchdowns.

Even with the point spread, I’d still say go with the Chargers. The Bengals have lost three of their last four games by at least 14 points. Those weren’t even against teams on the level of the Chargers. Philip Rivers will look to pad some stats on his run to MVP consideration, and they will look to get momentum going into next week’s matchup with the Chiefs.

Los Angeles (C) 42, Cincinnati 10