This week’s slate features teams in various states of mind after trade-deadline moves that either signaled a team is pushing for the playoffs or waiting for next year. How the latter teams respond will be very interesting and unpredictable, but we’ll forecast it anyway…

Last week: 8-6, pushing the season forecast to 72-50

Thursday night

– Philadelphia Eagles at Houston Texans (+13.5): We’re back to a bad matchup to kick off the week, and with Houston possibly playing without top WRs Nico Collins and Brandin Cooks, this one could be over quickly. The Eagles stay unbeaten and cover the point spread by the fourth drive of the game.

Eagles 38, Texans 16

Sunday games

– Los Angeles Chargers at Atlanta Falcons (+2.5): Perhaps the most underwhelming team relative to talent going up against the most overachieving roster in the league? Yeah, gimmie the strivers in front of an energized home crowd.

Falcons 26, Chargers 24

– Minnesota Vikings at Washington Commanders (+3.5): One team was a buyer at the trade deadline. The other is for sale. Literally. Take the team reinvigorated by the potential removal of a wildly unpopular owner playing at home over the one acquiring (overhyped but quality) TE T.J. Hockenson to fill a hole they weren’t expecting to have. That Commanders crowd is going to be wildly happy and raucous at the best news coming out of Washington since the birth of giant panda cub Xiao Qi Ji at the National Zoo.

Commanders 27, Vikings 20

– Los Angeles Rams at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-3.5): These teams are both disappointing examples of what happens to star-laden teams whose stars aren’t shining so bright. For as much as the media has piled on Tom Brady, Matthew Stafford is having a comparatively worse season. Stafford is dead last in air yards per attempt and has thrown 7 TDs against 8 INTs. He’s gone from winning a Super Bowl as the golden child right back to Detroit circa 2010 a little too quickly.

Bucs 20, Rams 16

– Miami Dolphins at Chicago Bears (+5): In the last week, the Bears dealt away defensive stalwarts Robert Quinn and Roquan Smith. You’d better believe the demoralization of Chicago is real. It washes away genuine improvement in Justin Fields at QB. Meanwhile, Miami added a much-needed RB in Jeff Wilson and a top-shelf pass-rusher in Bradley Chubb. Give those points to Chicago, take the money and run like Jaylen Waddle on a deep crosser into the end zone.

Dolphins 36, Bears 10

– Carolina Panthers at Cincinnati Bengals (-7.5): Upset alert! The Bengals come off an ugly Monday night loss to face a team whose strength is the defensive front. Bad matchup for Joe Burrow if the Panthers can do anything like what Cleveland did with Myles Garrett and Isaiah Thomas against the guys dressed up as Bengals linemen on Halloween. It won’t be easy for P.J. Walker against the home defense, but I smell chaos.

Panthers 23, Bengals 20

– Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions (+3.5): The fact the Packers are favored by only 3.5 points against what is statistically one of the three worst defenses in NFL history tells you all you need to know about how far Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay roster around him have fallen. The fact I’m seriously considering predicting the Lions to win, and it’s not an absurd concept. I suspect the Lions will find some way to blow it — it’s what they do under Dan Campbell. But man, they’ve got a real shot here. Don’t forget, Rodgers has had some of his worst career games in Detroit.

Packers 36, Lions 35

– Indianapolis Colts at New England Patriots (-5): The Colts fired their offensive coordinator this week, apparently frustrated that Marcus Brady couldn’t keep the carousel of QB corpses provided to him by GM Chris Ballard spinning. I say congrats to Brady for finally not being hamstrung by Philip Rivers in end times, Carson Wentz at his team-killing worst and Matt Ryan looking like he retired five years ago. Go fly elsewhere, Brady. It’s now somebody else’s problem to get greenhorn Sam Ehlinger ready to face Bill Belichick’s defense. If you haven’t used the Patriots yet in fantasy survivor pools, now is the time!

Patriots 30, Colts 13

– Buffalo Bills at New York Jets (+13.5): This is quietly an important game in the career ascension of Jets QB Zach Wilson. He was awful last week and the biggest reason why the Jets lost. Rebounding strongly against the AFC’s best team would do wonders for both his confidence and the team’s confidence in Wilson. Tough to expect marked improvement against a smart Bills offense with Matt Milano in the middle of the action.

Bills 28, Jets 14

– Las Vegas Raiders at Jacksonville Jaguars (+1.5): Two teams that were supposed to be among the most improved in the league but have quickly proved to be among the most disappointing meet in a game ripe with draft implications. These are two teams likely to be selecting in the top five overall next spring, and neither one would be expected to draft a quarterback. Neither fan base thought we’d be talking draft the first week in November, but here we are…

Jaguars 38, Raiders 28

– Seattle Seahawks at Arizona Cardinals (-2): Wait, what? The Cardinals are favored?! They were in the book I was using as of Tuesday afternoon. I know the Seahawks are propped up by opening tomato cans with pull tabs on their way to five wins, but one of those W’s came against Arizona three weeks ago. The Cardinals aren’t any better now than they were when Seattle’s defense smothered them in the 19-9 Seahawks win. Doubt Pete Carroll at your peril. Hey, that rhymes!

Seahawks 29, Cardinals 21

– Tennessee Titans at Kansas City Chiefs (-10.5): The massive spread here clearly indicates the sportsbooks do not expect Ryan Tannehill to play or to be effective if the Titans QB does go with his injured ankle. The Titans’ combination of Derrick Henry and an underappreciated defense can definitely keep them close even with a limited Tannehill. So this forecast gets a conditional variable.

If Tannehill plays, the Chiefs win 24-20

If Tannehill sits more than half the game, Chiefs win 30-15

Monday Night 

– Baltimore Ravens at New Orleans Saints (+3.5): Doesn’t it feel like these two inter-conference teams have played twice already this season? It’s like the inevitability that Rambo will be on some cable network every single time I’m in a hotel. As I do with the ’80s classic, I’ll watch about the first 45 minutes before I realize that sleep is a better use of my time than watching a stone-faced, mush-mouthed fading hero, be it Stallone or Aikman.

Ravens 31, Saints 24

College games

Not often do we get No. 1 vs. No. 3 at this point in a season — even rarer when neither team is Alabama, but here we are with Tennessee at Georgia. Hendon Hooker has been great, but the Bulldogs defense is a different animal than anything he’s seen. The Vols win if they get a defensive or special teams TD, but that’s difficult to forecast.

Georgia 32, Tennessee 28

Alabama 25, LSU 17

TCU 37, Texas Tech 29

Clemson 40, Notre Dame 19 in a game I’ll be attending in South Bend

NC State 50, Wake Forest 44