The Bills came out sluggish in week 12, but beating Jacksonville doesn’t require much effort. I escaped week 12 with my best bet and sleeper (the Saints), so now it’s time to regret all those picks made earlier this season.

Having the New England Patriots, like my brother does, would be the best bet this week. However, like most in Survivor pools, New England was already picked. The week 13 slate features some several close calls, so it would be nice to still have the Patriots in my back pocket, or even Denver or Seattle.

But this is week 13 for a reason, so the Survivor picks get a little more interesting.

Here’s the week 13 Survivor pool picks.

Teams Used: Seattle, Carolina, Miami, Washington, Baltimore (lost), New England, Green Bay, Denver, Minnesota (lost), Arizona, Pittsburgh and Buffalo.

Phillip Rivers was a good start this past season. Flickr
Phillip Rivers was a good start this past season. Flickr

Best Bet

San Diego Chargers

My choices are limited, so this isn’t something worth betting the house on. But despite being only a field goal favorite, I’m the most confident in the Chargers in the teams I have remaining.

If you’re caught up on Tampa Bay’s recent resurgence on the defensive side of the ball, forget about it. While the last two wins have been an unexpected surprise by many, there’s an explanation for the three-game winning streak. Three weeks ago, Tampa Bay played a listless Chicago squad that is attempting to get this season over.

However, the last two weeks have featured wins against Kansas City and Seattle, both teams destined for the playoffs. The win against Kansas City doesn’t necessarily surprise me. Despite Kansas City’s record, it has been playing with fire in about every game this season (see week 12 for instance). The Chiefs don’t generally lose by much, but they also aren’t a good favorite. The Buccaneers found the Chiefs in a good spot, one week in-between two road games against Carolina and Denver.

The Seattle win was a bit more surprising, but when the Seahawks look bad, they look really bad. That offensive line isn’t fixed yet and it showed in week 12.

But what these last three opponents don’t have is a strong passing game. That’s important to the Tampa Bay defense. All three offenses rank in the bottom-half of the NFL in passing offense, while the week 13 opponent, San Diego, owns the fifth-best passing offense. Against teams with top-10 passing offense, the Buccaneers have been outscored 137-90.

The Chargers are better than their record indicates and showed that once again in week 12 against a good pass defense in Houston. San Diego also has shown the ability to stop the run, which should be a significant statistic in this contest.

Tampa Bay likes to run the football and generally has success when it can run. During the last two games, the Buccaneers have rushed for more than 100 yards. San Diego allows less than 90 yards per game on the ground.

San Diego is a small favorite, but it should have enough to get by the surging Buccaneers at home in week 13.

Sleeper Pick

Atlanta Falcons

Surprisingly, Kansas City doesn’t stop the run. That will be disastrous against an Atlanta team that can break off big runs at any moment.

The Chiefs actually own the fourth-worst rush defense in the NFL, giving up 121.4 yards per game and 4.3 yards per carry. The Falcons are ninth-best at breaking off runs of 20 or more yards.

That will help against a Kansas City team that, as mentioned earlier, is playing with fire. Kansas City could easily be riding a four-game losing streak, instead of winning three of the last four games.

The team doesn’t necessarily do anything spectacular and the offense can be extremely stagnant at times. During these last four games, the Chiefs have scored less than three touchdowns in three of the last four games. The defense is still decent, but I’m not sure if it’s good enough to keep up with an Atlanta team scoring an NFL-best 32.5 points per game.

This is back-to-back road games for a team that doesn’t score well. That’s a bad sign for Chiefs fans.

Be Careful

Chicago Bears

It may seem like a good idea to take a flier and go with Chicago, especially if you don’t have many teams remaining.

The only problem with that strategy is that the Bears are terrible. And banking on a terrible team to beat another bad team is a difficult proposition in a Survivor Pool.

And lately, the 49ers haven’t been as bad as the Bears.

Colin Kaepernick is quietly one of the best fantasy football quarterbacks at the moment and the offense is moving the chains at a regular pace. The Bears, on the other hand, are doing the opposite. Other than a frantic fourth quarter last week against Tennessee and a decent first half against the New York Giants, the Bears have been atrocious.

Injuries are piling up and the desire to keep this season going is likely at an all-time low. I’ve seen more from San Francisco in recent weeks, and with Chip Kelly at the helm, now may be the time that the 49ers are finally putting things together.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*