Sunday, December 22, 2024

NFL Week 12 picks straight up and against spread: Ravens or Chargers in battle of Harbaugh brothers?

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Week 12 of the 2024 NFL season is a light one, six teams on bye weeks. It’s also not exactly frontloaded, Thursday’s Pittsburgh Steelers-Cleveland Browns matchup offering little intrigue aside from the hope division rivalries tend to produce compelling football.

But the drama should pick up late Sunday afternoon, when the San Francisco 49ers, badly in need of a win, visit the Green Bay Packers. The Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks will also rumble, vying for first place in the NFC West.

But there’s little doubt that the game of the week will be staged Monday night in Los Angeles, when the Chargers host the Baltimore Ravens in the latest clash of head coaching brothers Jim and John Harbaugh, respectively. Both teams seem solidly entrenched as AFC wild-card entries, but one will see its prospects damaged in a meeting of franchises that now seem quite similar philosophically.

Here’s how our football experts foresee the outcomes:

(Odds provided by BetMGM)

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