NFL Week 14 Picks by Cooper NFL Analyst and Cup of Joe in the D

       Week 14 of the NFL Season kicks off with an NFC South match up between the New Orleans Saints (9-3) at the Atlanta Falcons (7-5).  A must win for the Falcons to stay in the hunt for a playoff position and the Saints to stay atop the NFC South. In good news for the NFL and its Players, the NFL is giving $90M to address social issues on many issues that the players deem important to them, the bad news is the NFL will take these monies away from other charities it gives money too.  The NFL isn't asking for anything in return but does hope the players will stop their protest of the National Anthem.
      Sunday kicks off in the early games as the Green Bay Packers travel to Cleveland to take on the Browns. The Browns are looking for their first win of the season and the Packers look to keep their slim playoff hopes alive as they wait and see if QB Rodgers will play the rest of the season or not. The NY Giants host the Cowboys in a game where the off the field antics are more interesting then the on the field ones as the Giants fired their HC and GM this past week and have also decided to start QB Eli Manning a week after benching him. In Kansas City, the struggling Chiefs take on the Raiders in a battle for first place in the AFC West.  The AFC West is up for grabs with 3 teams in a 3 way for first place at this point in the season.  The Bears visit the Bengals in Cincinnati in a game where neither team has a chance at the playoffs but are looking at players for next season now.
     The Detroit Lions travel to Tampa Bay in a must win game for Detroit as they must win out to have any chance at a Wild card in the NFC. Lions QB Matt Stafford injured his throwing hand last week as will be questionable to play in this game.  The 49'ers travel to Houston. San Francisco won their 2nd game of the season with a last second FG last Sunday and in Jimmy Garappolo's first game at their QB will face a Texans team riddled with injuries and has no chance to make the playoffs. In perhaps one of the 2 big games of the da,y the 1st place Minnesota Vikings travel to Carolina to face the Panthers in an important game for both teams. The Bills host the Indianapolis Colts in a game the Bills must win to keep their playoff hopes alive.
      The late games start as Denver will host the NY Jets. The Jets, who continue to surprise teams this season face a Broncos team that continues to be a disappointment and is looking for its identity.  The Titans visit Arizona in a game that means much more to Tennessee then it does to Arizona.  The Titans are tied with Jacksonville for 1st place in the AFC South.  The 1st place LA Chargers, yes you heard that right, host the struggling and won't make the playoffs this year Washington Redskins. The Chargers have won 3 straight and are playing great on both sides of the ball.  Seattle travels to Jacksonville in a game where a good passing game meets the best pass defense in all the NFL.  In another big game, two 1st place teams face off in LA with the Rams hosting the Eagles. This should be a high scoring shootout.  The Sunday night game showcases the Baltimore Ravens visiting the Pittsburgh Steelers in an AFC North battle. The Ravens must win to have any hopes of making the playoffs and the Steelers look to win their 7th game in a row and are vying for the top seed in the AFC and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. 
      On Monday night, the Miami Dolphins host the New England Patriots who will be without TE Rob Gronkowski as he serves his one game suspension for a deliberate illegal hit last Sunday. The NFL once again caved in and gave way too light of a suspension for this act. He should of gotten 3-4 games for this.
      On a separate note, we also seen a continuing and very disturbing trend of players trying to deliberately hurt opposing players, especially with helmet to helmet hits. Case and point was this past Monday night game between the Steelers and Bengals. This is a heated rivalry filled with hatred between the teams and it happened again when in separate instances we seen Steelers Juju Smith-Schuster intentionally lead with his helmet and injure Bengals LB Burfict and Bengals Safety George Iloka try and decapitate Steelers WR Antonio Brown. Both players received a one game suspension but they should of gotten at least 2 games, especially Smith-Schuster who then stood over Burfict and taunted him as He laid on the ground. Iloka appealed his 1 game suspension and the league rescinded his suspension, meaning hurt another player on purpose and appeal it and you might get a fine but no suspension. Just another Black Eye for the NFL who also resigned Commissioner Roger Goodell to a 5yr./200M contract.
      Cooper went a perfect 16-0 in week 13 and YTD is 139-53 and CupofJoeintheD also went 10-6 in week 13 picks.  We will continue to post His record for each weekend and season total.  twitter; @cupofjoeinthed   email; cupofjoeinthed@gmail.com    www.cupofjoeinthed.blogspot.com

Cooper contemplating his Week 14 NFL Picks  WEEK 14 CupofJoe Cooper New Orleans at Atlanta NO ATL Green Bay at Cleveland GB GB Oakland at Kansas City KC KC Seattle at Jacksonville Jax Jax Chicago at Cincinnati Cincy Cincy Detroit at Tampa Bay DET DET San Francisco at Houston SF Houston Minnesota at Carolina Minn CAR Indianapolis at Bufalo Buffalo Buffalo NY Jets at Denver  NYJ NYJ Tennessee at Arizona AZ Tenn Wshington at LA Chargers LAC Wash Dallas at NY Giants Dallas Dallas Philadelphia at LA Rams Philly LAR Baltimore at Pittsburgh Pitt Pitt New England at Miami NE NE