NFL Week 13 Betting – Schedule & Marquee Matchups

The defending champs from New Orleans play their homegames in a comfortable domed stadium, so when they venture to Cincinnati inearly December, they could get a little frosty. This contest, against aforemost AFC North title contender, will test the Saints’ perseverance andresilience. They’ll be coming off a punishing game against Dallas. Win or lose,it will be a challenge for coach Sean Payton to get his team primed for thiscold-weather collision. The Bengals, in turn, will be playing their first gameafter a Thanksgiving headknocker against the highly-touted New York Jets. Thisis the gut-check part of the NFL season to begin with; the fact that NewOrleans and Cincinnati will be locking horns after playing huge in-conferencegames will make this contest all the more important… and revealing.

Speaking of back-to-back battles, the Saints and Bengalsaren’t the only teams who will follow up a week 12 showdown with and equallychallenging week 13 tussle. Dallas, one week after playing New Orleans – thereigning NFC champs – will then take on the defending AFC champions inIndianapolis. The Colts, just one week after slugging it out with AFC rival SanDiego, will host the team many feel is ready to become the new boss of anot-very-deep NFC. It’s fair to say that most of the pregame buzz will likelyfocus on the sexy matchup between Dallas’ pass rush and Indy maestro PeytonManning, and that’s an entirely reasonable point of prominence in this pigskinpassion play. However, the key – since this game will be played in Indiana – islikely to be the other matchup between the Colts’ pass rush and Dallas signalcaller Tony Romo. The extent to which Romo keeps his head on the road willdetermine Dallas’ ability to not only score, but keep the ball away fromManning and the rest of the Colts’ offense.

One doesn’t know where they’ll both be in the AFC Eaststandings or in the AFC at large, but it’s a sure bet that this game will meansomething for both New York and New England. Maybe the Pats will haverediscovered their winning aura by the time week 13 arrives. Maybe the Jetswill have met preseason expectations at this point in the NFL campaign.Whatever the scenario, this will be a very important contest, barring a seriesof injuries or other unforeseen events.