Colin Cowherd’s NFL Week 14 Predictions: Bengals-Bills, Texans-Chiefs, Dolphins-Jets | THE HERD

Colin Cowherd’s NFL Week 14 Predictions: Bengals-Bills, Texans-Chiefs, Dolphins-Jets | THE HERD

Welcome to the Herd’s official YouTube channel. Make sure to like and subscribe. Don’t forget to check out the Colin Coward podcast, all of our NFL instant reactions, and more football content. Last couple of weeks, I’ve been one under 500. So, at 58%, which I would keep I would sign off on today if I could get 58 12%. This is the strangest Blazing Five ever. I’m taking games I don’t want to watch necessarily. Um, and I’m also taking uh underdogs. I’ve been heavy favorites this year because the market called for it. The winter weather is moving in. I like four underdogs this weekend. And here’s the blazing five. That’s a hot one. Let’s blaze it up. Fire it up. It’s Collins blazing five. Bengals at Bills. I like Cincinnati getting T. Higgins back plus six. Coming off extra rest. 19 and9 last five years December, January. That’s Burrow, by the way. What’s Burrow in his last eight starts? 8 and0. He is back. The Bills have not been good. McDermott’s one for his one for four against the Bengals. The offense now for Buffalo multiple giveaways in four straight games. They can’t stop the run. And the Bengals, three straight games rushing for over aundred yards. T. Higgins is back. Joey Bosa out for Buffalo. Joe Burrow more time to throw. Upset. Take Cincinnati plus the six to beat Buffalo outright. Joe Burrow T. Higgins. Here they go. 30-28. Colts said Jaguars. I’ll take the Jaguars at home plus one and a half. They’ve won 10 straight games against the Colts in Jville. They own them in Jacksonville and they’re on a three-game winning streak and they have the number one rush defense that will force force the Colts to throw. The problem is Daniel Jones has a fibula fracture, not moving particularly well and over the last couple of games he’s completing 57% of his throws. The offense feels a little broken. Since week nine, these are two different teams. Jacksonville very good. The Colts averaging about 22 a game, one and three. Jaguars always good against the Colts in this spot. Win it 30- 24. Dolphins and Jets. What am I doing? I’m taking the Jets as a home dog plus two and a half. Tyrod Taylor. I’m going to go with him. AD Mitchell, that wide receiver that came over from the Colts. Did you see what he did last week? Ah, it’s got some good numbers. Eight catches. You see that top 10 pass defense without S Gardner. Listen, the Jets are playing their butt off. They’ve won three of five and they’re scoring points and they’re at home and they’re a dog. And did you watch Tua over the last month? I don’t know what’s wrong. First of all, he’s terrible in cold weather. No touchdowns for Tua in three of his last four games. Leads the NFL with 14 interceptions. Tua, something’s off. It’s getting cold. The Jets are playing hard for Aaron Glenn. Not a great team. Playing hard. I take the Jets to win and cover 2724. Take them in the points. Texans at Chiefs. I have to take the hook. I’m taking the Texans plus the hook. Three and a half. Four-game winning streak. Five of their six road games this season have been one-score games. Number one scoring defense. held opponents in five of their last six games under 20 points. Hunter and Will Anderson against a beat up Kansas City offensive line that three of their five starters on the O line are injured, including left tackle, guard, right tackle. I’m sorry, it’s a lowscoring game. I’ve got to take the hook here. Chiefs have been outgainained in three of their last four games. By the way, in 12 games, they have 22 sacks. Kansas City’s 27th. CJ Strad going to have a little extra time. I don’t know who wins. I don’t know who wins, but I’m taking the points and the hook. 24-23 Kansas City in the last second field goal. I am taking Houston though three and a half points. Eagles at Chargers. I’m going to take the Eagles minus 2 and a half as my only favorite. They’re 4-2 on the road. They beat Kansas City Bucks and Green Bay on the road. Number one red zone offense. Number five offensive line. and Saquon Barkley may not be running, but Jaylen Herz, for some reason, is often a better road quarterback. The Chargers have faced two teams with a winning record over the last 10 weeks, they got hammered by both of them. And the offensive line, it’s not good at all. So, Jaylen Herz last two years on the road, I’m telling you, he’s better away from Philly. And I think I think I have maybe the best O line and unquestionably the worst O line. I think it’s close. I think the crowd is 6535. Philadelphia feels a little bit like a home game. I’m going to swallow the two and a half. I’m going to take Philly 24- 20. Jmack a reaction. I I don’t take dogs. I don’t like to bet games like the Jags Colts, which I find hard to watch, but I’m taking the underdog Bengals. I get the Jaguars. I’m taking the Jets. I’m I know. But the I love the Jets call, by the way. You know what they’re calling Tyrod Taylor? God, Taylor, cuz he’s 70 and one against the spread in his last eight starts. All he does is cover. And it is cold in New York this week. I like that call, buddy. I saw this story this morning, and it’s just kind of instructive. Google’s number one trending athlete last year. Was it show Otani? Was it Josh Allen? No. Google’s number one trending athlete was Shadur Sanders proving that trending is the dumbest trend of my life. Sometimes Patrick Mahomes trends, you know, when he’s winning Super Bowls or his brother Jackson is being, you know, a little goofy. For the record, the LA Dodgers were not a top 10 trending Major League Baseball team. Trending and attention is not quality. This morning, George Pickkins is trending, not for a great catch he made last night. So, Shador Sanders is interesting, and I’m in the interesting business. He will never be great because he doesn’t have any great traits. His arm is not great. His athletic ability is not great. um his athleticism, you know, it’s not great. In the summer when we’re dying for topics, there were days and weeks he was the most interesting. And I’ll be honest, let’s be totally upfront about this. I’m in the media. We don’t report on safe landings. We report on airplanes that crash. That’s what we report on. Uh, all trending means is stop and look. That’s what trending is. And it’s the auto accident of sports. And I do think Shadur can be interesting. But the fact that he’s the number one trending athlete, and this is instructive, is why he dropped to the fifth round. He just started starting. And he trends more than Otani. Otani had a scandal at the beginning of this year. Look at all the great athletes. This is exactly and precisely why he dropped to the fifth round. Nobody wanted this auto accident on the i5. Stopping, pining, looking, slowing down. GMs don’t want that. I’ve always said if you’re going to be a backup quarterback in the NFL, what GMs want is a guy that can put a baseball hat on in a mall, walk through it, and nobody notices him. That’s what you want. That’s why I said Bellich got rid of Cam Newton the minute he was going to start M. Jones. T-Bo as a starter. I didn’t buy it. It doesn’t work as a backup. Shadure is a backup. It’s just too much noise. So, I mean, I I want my quarterback to have followers. 52 in a locker room or another 10 in a huddle. I don’t care about your IG or your ex account. I I don’t care. And so, at this stage, Shadur is more of an interesting trend than he is a franchise quarterback. and he seems like a nice kid, but you know, going viral used to mean you witnessed two rainbows in the sky. Like, like now it means, you know, you hooked up with a coworker at a Coldplay concert. Like, that’s not what I’m looking for. And by the way, Sophie Cunningham should trend, too. She’s amazing. And people trend for different reasons. Beauty, funny, pile up on the freeway. So, but but when he dropped in the fifth round and I contacted people in the league, this was kind of it. They don’t want quarterbacks trending unless it’s like winning playoff games. And and that’s just the reality of the position. Again, George Pickkins is trending this morning and it it’s not because he made a great one-handed catch, right? Detroit beats Dallas and because of that Detroit has a much greater shot to go to the playoffs and the Cowboys are kind of toast. The AFC equivalent to that, the other conference is the Texans facing the Chiefs. If the Texans win and beat them this weekend, and I think it’s a last second field goal game, I don’t get three and a half as a line at all. Um, Houston 85% chance of making the playoffs. If the Chiefs lose this weekend and go six and seven like Dallas last night, they’re in big trouble. They’re done. But I can I just say this, and I’m not saying this because Tom Brady works for Fox. I’ve always believed this, but um let’s just say Kansas City loses and Mahomes doesn’t make the playoffs. When you look at the Brady Mahomes and I don’t know if it’s a rivalry, but I mean until Tom went to Tampa, everybody was saying there were a lot of people saying, “Well, you know, it’s just it’s it’s Bichc system quarterback and he went to Tampa, won a Super Bowl.” You’re like, “Yeah, that’s nonsense.” And Bellich’s Patriots circle the drain. But never forget in the whole Brady Mahomes rivalry, and they’re both all-time greats, and I love both. Brady never got thoroughly blown out in a Super Bowl. Mahomes is already at two in counting. Brady beat Mahomes twice. Once with Tampa in a Super Bowl blowout and then once in the AFC Championship at Arrowhead. That’s in the books forever. Can’t be argued. And number three, Brady and his peak never missed the playoffs. You can give me 20 excuses. Two of those you can’t turn around. The Super Bowl blowouts, Brady didn’t have them. and Brady beat him twice. Super Bowl and AFC Championship. This would be the third thing you can’t argue about because Tom in his prime didn’t miss the playoffs. Now again, I’m celebrating both. It’s like Jordan and LeBron, two best basketball players along with Magic I ever saw and probably Kareem, but um and this is with Andy Reid and with Travis Kelce. I do think some of the problems and this a well-run organization in Kansas City are out of Patrick’s control. They’re not right now dependable at offensive tackle. And the two times they got whacked in the Super Bowl, they weren’t very good in the O line, specifically tackle. So, and they also haven’t run the ball particularly well. Listen, they had to move off Joe Toney. Joe Tuni is the best guard arguably in the sport. Their tackle situation’s not good. So, it’s just it’s really hard to win a Super Bowl, even to get to one when you’re line. you don’t trust him. Here’s Momes on the must-win game against a gnarly defense in Houston this weekend. I don’t know if we’ve been in this situation this early in in the uh season. And so, uh I think just learning from it together, um building together, and then using what we can use from prior seasons, um to hopefully make a run at this thing and try to get ourselves in the playoffs and see where we can go from there. So, if you look at the playoff picture today in the AFC and the NFC, um, in the AFC, New England, Denver, Jacksonville, Baltimore leading their division, wildcard, Chargers, Colts, Buffalo. I I I be very wary of the Colts right now. In the hunt, Houston, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City. When you take those in the hunt teams, Houston, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City, what’s the best unit of all three teams? It’s the Texans defense. My take is the Texans are going to be probably find themselves as a wildcard team. If you look at the NFC playoff picture right now, it is very much established San Francisco is the seventh seed. So, Chicago’s in Rams, Philadelphia, Tampa, Seattle’s dangerous, Green Bay, San Francisco. Uh, keep your eye on Detroit. Uh, I think Carolina’s defense will eventually be their issue. Dallas played their themselves out of it last night. I I think Detroit’s got more good players than San Francisco does in terms of overall talent. Um, I don’t know if it’s even that close. Most of Detroit’s best players offensively are just entering their prime or in their prime. A lot of the great players for the Niners are old. KD, Christian McCaffrey, Trent Williams, Hall of Famers, but old. So, uh, I I the Texans, Kansas City is is not as good as Green Bay, Chicago in terms of game of the week. Uh, and I I it’s hard to bet against Kansas City in these spots. I think it’s a field goal game, a go either way game, but that’s where we are. Uh my blazing five picks are at the top of next hour. Uh I just took one out. It has been reported that Jaden Daniels will play for Washington and I had Minnesota at home in that game as one of my blazing five picks. I have removed that uh because I am not betting against Jaden Daniels, whoever the quarterback is for the Minnesota Vikings. So, I just took that one out. I put the Chargers Eagles in. Uh, it’s not the season on the line for either team, but wow. Philadelphia loses on Monday night. It’ll be a 6535 Eagles crowd. There are Philadelphia fans, I’ve been told, all over Los Angeles. Jay Mack with the news. No, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the Herdline news. Let’s get to the NFL. Justin Herbert Colin, he will play likely likely, not a lock, likely to play on Monday. Um, he only missed 10 snaps after busting up his hand against the Raiders. Um, and he did operate exclusively out of the shotgun in that matchup. Um, here’s the bad news for the Chargers. If they decide, hey, Herbert, sit this one out. Let’s we want you as close to 100% next week against the Chiefs. That’s a huge game, Colin. much bigger than this non-conference battle. That’s right. That That’s one of the reasons in the Blazing Five that I lean Philadelphia. Jaylen Carter may be out. No, he’s out. He’s out. Yeah. But they have other I mean, their defense is not a concern. Herbert I mean, ask yourself this with the Chiefs coming up. What if Herbert in the first quarter gets hit a couple times and you’re like I you could see the Chargers going timeout. Get him out of there. that we’re getting. I mean, if Philadelphia in the first quarter starts winning the line of scrimmage and Herbert gets whacked, which by the way, this year he and Cam Ward have been hit more than any other quarterback, you could see the Chargers saying enough. Let’s keep him for next week. I just the season’s over if Herbert goes down and can’t play for the next couple games. So, that’s why I would sit him. Now, I know that Harbaugh is a tough guy. Herbert’s a tough guy to he’s going to want to play, but just remember the Chargers don’t have their starting tackles, okay? and their interior line is the lowest rated in the league. This is not a smart decision. Again, maybe it’s just me. Um a Tre Lance would give them no chance. This line probably balloons to seven and a half. Uh if it’s Lance, maybe more. I mean, Trey Lance is he’s not an NFL quarterback. So, uh tough one for for the Chargers. And that’s more bad news for the Cowboys who uh who will be very upset if the Eagles win. All right, let’s move on to more quarterback issues. And that’s uh my guy JJ McCarthy in Minnesota. I I don’t want to take credit for him as my guy. He only has six starts, but he’s been terrible. And it’s really impacted Justin Jefferson. Colin, I don’t know if you saw this. Justin Jefferson did like nothing last week. Two catches for four yards from Bromer, but he hasn’t done well in the McCarthy starts. Here’s uh one of the best receivers in the league. This is not diva behavior, but he’s just a little upset, which is understandable. Here we go. No, I wouldn’t say wasted. Uh obviously, it’s a difficult season. uh you know, it’s the probably one of the most difficult seasons just off of the circumstances, uh having a young quarterback, having a a different team, having young players on the on the team. Uh so it’s just, you know, one of those years, you know, not every year is going to be, you know, a top tier uh uh year for me. You know, it it’s really a part of the game. Uh so it’s just all on me to to, you know, expect a lot from these guys and uh to improve on uh anything that we we need to improve on. Yeah, this was going to be one of my picks until I heard Jaden Daniels was uh was going to play. I backed out of it. I’m not a a chicken like you are, so I will be talking about this game in the uh headlines final hour. Just a quick note on Jefferson. Um there was news today elsewhere in the league that could impact Minnesota for next year. I’m sure you saw Kyler Murray done for the season. Even I did not. I did not. Thank you. I did not see that. Even the Kyler put a cryptic thing on Instagram stories like what a weird way. It was just odd. Something’s a miss. It sounds like Kyler’s done. I think you got to give McCarthy another chance. But I’m curious. Do you think Kevin McCarthy and the Brain Trust uh not Kevin McCarthy, Kevin O’Connell and the Brain Trust in Minnesota says, “Do we kick the tires on Kyler Murray?” I think I think it’s I think you can get M. Jones for a much cheaper price. Not a lot of drama. I think M. Jones. Remember, Kevin Oonnell wants you to run his play. He doesn’t want you to ad li out of it. Yeah. So, I I think M. Jones is the play. I I really do. That’s I And by the way, bring M. Jones in. If you get a again, if you get the Baker number, if you get the Sam number, you can keep all your other great players. That sounds good. I need to check his contract. I think he signed a two-year deal with uh Lynch and Shanahan. I don’t even know that he I mean you don’t trade him if you’re the ners, right? Um yeah, that Kyler Murray though his market Colin is going to be real interesting because I again you cold weather division just forget about it, right? You don’t want him going outdoors twice a year in 30°ree weather. I I So I think that removes like half the league and then like Pittsburgh you’re like oh maybe Pittsburgh. Really? You want him outdoors in Cleveland and Baltimore? Well, I mean, Pittsburgh needs to solve their quarterback position for the next 15 years. They’ve been duct taping it for too many years. Yeah, this uh Minnesota, we’ll see. McCarthy will get another shot. Final story, Colin, is the Kansas City Chiefs. They have arguably the biggest game of the weekend, Sunday Night Football against the Texans. This number had dropped to three. It’s back up to three and a half. Listen, the Chiefs were dominant in one-score games last year. They have been less so this year. Here’s Travis Kelce talking about these close games. I’m sure everyone’s sick of us saying it, but we’re a few plays away from from being a, you know, a one scene. In my mind, all the losses are within one score and there’s a handful of plays within those games that are determining the outcome. It’s crazy that you you watch the film and you see what’s real. And what’s real is that we’re this close, man. We’re thising close. Um I I think there’s two issues. One, the O line as of this morning is a mess going up against Houston. That is bad. That is whatever the under is, go below the under. And the second problem is, and it’s fair to say, Chris Jones, Jason has not had a great year, and they just don’t get people off the field on third down. And as you know, I mean, there’s never been more talented receivers, never been more talented quarterbacks. They’re not getting people off the field. And now in their division, Denver and the Chargers have elite coaches and really talented quarterbacks. So, I think it just, if you look at the history of dynasties, the windows closed pretty quick. Even the Patriots close. They had two different dynasties, the early one and the late one. For 10 years, they didn’t win a Super Bowl. So, and that’s why you didn’t like them to make the playoffs. I did, but I didn’t. I said I think the dynasty part is over. And it’s just age. Chris Jones is older. Travis Kelce older. Can’t get people off the field. This is what it looked. They haven’t fallen off a cliff in terms of performance. They were in close games last year, won them. They’re in close games this year. They’re losing them. So they haven’t gone they’re not getting blown out but you can tell they just they just the old line they have got to attack it in the offseason. It feels like the last three years once they moved off Joe Tuni you’re like uhoh Joe Tuni Chicago picked him up boom and look what it’s done to their interior O line. No that’s a good point. Um I just looked and it looks like a gentleman named Wana Morris may be starting at one of the tackles this week. Colin don’t look at his pro football grades. you will go blind from all the redness. It is very bad. This guy’s not good. Remember, they went and addressed the offensive line with I think Jaylen Moore. Is that who they got? The kid from San Fran. Yeah, he It’s not really working out. He was a backup with the Ners. So, again, Kelsey could talk about being close. By the way, uh how about the pass off Kelsey’s hands at the goal line against the Eagles that results in an interception going the other way. That changed the game. He’s not wrong about that. I just don’t see how they turn it around this quickly. I agree. I totally agree. Uh Jac with the news. Well, that’s the news and thanks for stopping by the Herd Lie News. Yeah, it’s we can put the schedule up. It’s a very interesting weekend. I mean, there are games that don’t feel high profile like Colts at Jags. Uh that’s going to go a long way in determining playoff seedings. Yeah, thank you for the staff. They just put this up. Chris Jones PFF rank this season’s 37th. Last year it was first. And that’s that’s one of the reasons Chris Jones has always been a big play guy in big moments. He’s like he’s like Like Aaron Donald was like this. Like if it was a big third down in a Super Bowl or a playoff game, you had to triple Aaron Donald. That was Chris Jones. You don’t have to anymore. So they can’t get people off the field like they used to. Um there’s some interesting games and I think there’s all sorts of potential upsets. I already told you I think Cincinnati upsets Buffalo. Um I I do. Um I think the Jets upset Miami. I You know what? You talked me out of taking the Bears in Green Bay. You singularly did it. And then I started once you did it, I went and listened to people who I respect and a lot of people like the Packers. Oh, interesting. Uh, real quick on that Browns Titans. Um, I I kind of want to call the Titans outright dub and then Shadur loses to the Titans and now it’s like, oh, we got to get we got we got to get Who’s the guy from Oregon? What’s his face? We got to get Dylan Gab. No, Dylan Gabriel. Yeah, we got to get him back in starting next week. Um, that would be a bad loss for Shadore if they lo lose to the Titans at home. It’s It’s going to be a great Sunday. Saturday’s phenomenal with the college football game. Dude, I you got to be careful with the gambling this weekend. There’s so many good games and feel I started the week with a loss last night. How about Georgia Bama? Yeah, a lot of injuries popping up in that. I don’t know if we’ll get to it in uh final hour, but I I like Georgia, but Bama has absolutely had Kirby Smart’s number. That That is a great coaching matchup. Kalin Dbor and Kirby Smart. Those are good staffs. Forget the NFL guys. Great staffs.

Colin Cowherd gives his Blazin’ 5 Best Bets of NFL Week 14 including the Cincinnati Bengals vs. Buffalo Bills, Washington Commanders vs. Minnesota Vikings, Indianapolis Colts vs. Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins vs. New York Jets, and Houston Texans vs. Kansas City Chiefs. Then, Colin gives his thoughts on Cleveland Browns QB Shedeur Sanders being the No. 1 trending athlete on Google in 2025. Next, Colin takes a look at the current NFL playoff picture and shares his thoughts on what missing the playoffs would mean for Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes’ legacy. Finally, Colin and Jason McIntyre react to the latest news around the NFL before discussing the biggest matchups in the Week 14 slate.

0:00 Blazin’ 5
5:54 Shedeur Sanders top trending athlete
9:49 Playoff Picture/Mahomes’ legacy
15:30 Herdline News
23:12 NFL Week 14 Schedule

All lines provided by @hardrockbet

Subscribe to The Colin Cowherd Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@ColinCowherdPodcast

#buffalobills #kansascitychiefs #clevelandbrowns