The Cleveland Browns take the field this afternoon under the watchful eye of their new leader, former Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Holmgren. How will they perform in their home game against the Oakland Raiders?

The Indianapolis Colts play today with everything they can accomplish from a regular season complete … they have home field advantage in the American Football Conference for as long as they last in the playoffs. But, they are still in pursuit of a perfect season … will they go for it or call off the dogs in their home game against the New York Jets? The team that wears green from the Big Apple still has an outside shot at a playoff berth even though their head coach, Rex Ryan, thought they were eliminated with last week’s home loss to the Atlanta Falcons.

The Colts also had everything wrapped up last week, but first-year Head Coach Jim Caldwell decided to play his most prized player, quarterback Peyton Manning, for the entire game in Indianapolis’ win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Perhaps that was because the Jaguars, who have the fewest sacks recorded against opponents this season, 14, never put pressure on the Colts QB and Caldwell might have determined Manning was safer in the game against the Jaguars defense than he would have been on the sidelines, where perhaps the television trucks were a greater threat than the Jacksonville pass rush. This week, against the Jets, Manning could easily see greater pressure and he may be pulled from the action to better insure his availability for postseason play.

The San Francisco 49ers were eliminated from any possible postseason action last week, will they show up with enthusiasm for their game against the Detroit Lions at Candlestick Park today, or might San Francisco fall flat after being eliminated?

These are the added questions for the final weeks of an NFL regular season. Who wants it, who needs it, and who is playing out the season without enthusiasm in during the week in game preparation … which in most cases will determine how motivated they show up on game day.

While we can expect a sincere effort from teams still in the hunt for a postseason invitation, and a possible lay down from squads locked into their postseason slots and subject to rest key players while already focused on getting their units ready for the playoffs. Yet, surprisingly to many, the teams that are often most motivated and in a perfect position to excel this week are squads that have no chance to advance to the postseason and playing against a team that needs to win in order to gain a postseason slot.

Why?

Because teams that are out of the playoffs have only one thing left to play for this season … make another team as miserable as them. These teams can be lethal when they have both the incentive of knocking a team out of the postseason competition and can play without the pressure of failing.

The Seattle Seahawks are out of the postseason picture, and the Green Bay Packers are only a win away from grabbing one of the two NFC Wild Card spots … this is a textbook advantage for the Seahawks if they are inspired to play at all. Last week, at home, they were not when they allowed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to earn only their second win of the season at Seattle, 24-7.

The Kansas City Chiefs are out of postseason consideration, and the Cincinnati Bengals are still a win away, or Baltimore loss, from wrapping up the AFC North Division title and entering the playoffs for only the second time this decade. Seems easy, right, but not necessarily so.

We have sifted through motivation, preparation and team needs to generate this week’s rated selections, which are now posted on this site. As for the public, they have gravitated first to the New York Giants (-8) over the Carolina Panthers, while their second most popular play is the Indianapolis Colts (-4) over the New York Jets. The third most bet on team of the week is the Dallas Cowboys (-7) for their Sunday night matchup against the Washington Redskins.

In addition to the selections now posted on this site, if a Bullet Play develops this morning it will be added to the play list at 9:45 a.m. Pacific Time.