Winter weather conditions have arrived at a number of National Football League Week 15 sites, although league officials are doing their best to avoid the brunt of the storms in Philadelphia and Baltimore by moving the game times ahead 3-hours and 15 minutes. Games between the 49ers and Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field and Bears and Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium, have been switched from 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time starts to 1:15 p.m.

Snow is also falling this morning in Pittsburgh, where the Steelers host the Green Bay Packers, Buffalo, where the Bills hook-up with the New England Patriots, and at the Meadowlands in New Jersey where the New York Jets will host the Atlanta Falcons. Forecasts call for the snowfall to taper off before any of these games start … but winter storms don’t always behave as forecasted.

When they do begin action at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, the defending Super Bowl Champion Steelers will be looking to end a five game losing streak against the Green Bay Packers, who have won five games in a row since being upset by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on November 8. Now, wouldn’t conventional wisdom lead one to believe that a team on a five game winning streak would be favored over a team that has lost five straight games?

In fact, the Steelers are favored by a spread that has risen slightly since it opened with them favored by 1½ points and nearly 60% of the wagers have come in on the visiting underdogs.

How can the Steelers be favored over the Packers after they have lost to the likes of the Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders and Cleveland Browns in recent weeks? Those three squads combine for only 6 wins and 29 losses in games against opponents other than Pittsburgh, but all three beat the Steelers during their current losing streak and the Raiders did it at Heinz Field.

While the main man missing on the field for the Steelers during their five game skid has been defensive back Troy Polamalu, the Steelers real problem has been overconfidence based on playing weak opponents. Pittsburgh doesn’t get Polamalu back today, but even more importantly they do pick up motivation for two reasons; first, they respect the Packers as a formidable opponent, and second, their postseason hopes are hanging by a thread and require the Steelers to close out the regular season with three straight wins.

The Packers are probably not going to catch the Minnesota Vikings in their NFC North race, the Vikings have two wins over Green Bay this year to own the first tiebreaker even if the Packers were able to make-up their two game division deficit to Brett Favre and company. Which means this, the Packers are almost assured of a Wild Card spot win or lose at Pittsburgh today, and have little chance of overtaking the Vikings.

Very little motivation for Green Bay from that equation.

Conversely, after a month of humdrum play against weak opposition and five straight losses, the Steelers catch a sprocket of motivation sprinkled with a real need to win today … which is both why they are favored, and more importantly, why they likely will beat this point spread.

The public has checked in with their three most favorite plays of the day, they begin with the New England Patriots (-7) over the Buffalo Bills in their AFC East Division matchup. These two teams last met on the opening Monday Night Football telecast of the season, and the Bills gave them all they could handle before surrendering a one-point decision. Since that matchup, the Bills have fired head coach Dick Jauron, who was replaced by defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, who has led Buffalo to a pair of wins in four games since taking over the head coaching role.

The second most popular play by the general wagering public is backing the Houston Texans (-14) for their game against the St. Louis Rams at the Edward Jones Dome, and the third most popular play for the public is also a two-touchdown road favorite, the Arizona Cardinals who look to clinch their second straight NFC West title in a meeting against the Lions in Detroit.

As for the selections Qoxhi favors most, they are now posted on this site along with their money management numbers. If a Bullet Play develops this morning, it will be added to the play list at 9:45 a.m. Pacific Time.