The play-offs are soon approaching and there are still a number of teams in the hunt for the 2 wild-card places. There should be some tight games this week, as week 14 brings the Philadelphia Eagles v New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys v Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Redskins v Baltimore Ravens, but it’s New York where we start, with the Jets who travel to play the San Francisco 49’s.

The Jets look a good team with Favre at centre, they have 2 great receivers in Coles and Cotchery and on a good day, their defence is one of the best. Their running back Thomas Jones is also having a great season, he’s rushed for over 1000 yards already and has 11 touchdowns, and with an offence so good it’s no surprise that they are 2nd in the league on points scored per game. Before their loss to Denver last week, they had beaten New England & Tennessee away from home, so they won’t be worried about playing a very average San Francisco team away again this week.

San Francisco haven’t been playing too badly recently but they can only seem to win against the poorer teams. They really struggle on offence, they have a good running back in Frank Gore but as they often fall behind in games, they try to throw the ball much more in an attempt to play catch-up. Their number 1 receiver’s best years are behind, and the 36 year-old Isaac Bruce doesn’t have much left in the tank, it also doesn’t bode well that the player with the 2nd most receiving yards is their running back. Their defence is one of the worst in the league, they are ranked 27th on points allowed after giving up over 26 points per game. Backing NY Jets -3.5 on the handicap @ 10/11 is one of the safest bets of the week.

New England will be looking to bounce back this week after a heavy loss against the Steelers in week 13, the last time they lost so heavily they went out the next week and hammered Denver 41-7, we think they’ll be just as fired up as they travel to Seattle to face the Seahawks. New England’s offence is still one of the best in the league, they have 3 good running backs and possibly the best wide receiver in the league in Randy Moss – having Wes Welker and Ben Watson as backup also helps. Their quarterback Matt Cassel struggled last week, but in the 2 weeks before that he’d totalled over 800 yards and 6 touchdowns – the fact that Seattle are the worst in the league against the pass means Cassel should have another great day.

Seattle are struggling on both offence and defence and are ranked 25th and 26th respectively. They have their starting quarterback playing again but they are really struggling to score, Hasslebeck has struggled with injuries and has only thrown 5TDs in the games he’s played, it doesn’t help that their lead running back has only rushed for 2TDs this season. Defensively they are still missing a lot of key players and a couple more have missed training this week in order to be fit for Sunday’s game. They really struggle against the pass and are poor against the run so we think New England’s offensive weapons will batter the Seahawks defence. New England are 10/11 to overcome a -4.5 handicap with totesport.

The AFC North division isn’t over just yet, the on form Baltimore Ravens are looking to go for their 7th win in 8 games as they take on Washington at home. In their last 2 games Baltimore’s offence & defence have been performing great – it’s seen them outscore their opponents 70-10. They got 5 interceptions in those 2 games and returned 2 of the interceptions for a TD. It’s due to the defence that the offence does so well, having those turnovers and getting sacks always starts the offence in good field position. Their QB is pretty safe, he’s thrown over 460 yards and 4 TDs in his last 2 games and didn’t turn the ball over once. They’ll be desperate to win this game as a win against the Steelers next week will see them joint top going into the last game.

Washington started the season well but have been fading lately, they’ve lost 3 of their last 4 games and that win was due to a last minute field goal against Seattle. Their defence is strong and it sees them only allowing 18.5 points per game but it’s their offence where they are really struggling. They are scoring fewer points than they are letting in (17.3 points per game) and they could find it really hard against this strong Ravens defence. Redskins’ quarterback Jason Campbell isn’t having a bad season but in his last 3 games he’s managed only 2 touchdowns and has also thrown 2 interceptions – Baltimore should easily take this by a touchdown so backing them -5.5 at 10/11 with totesport is a good bet.

Click here for all NFL betting