Greetings from Chicago. Here for hoops, but hopeful for a football Clinchmas.

These will be brief.

I'm going to write about this at greater length on Sunday night, but if being a Bengals fan involves continually watching as the franchise finds ways to hit rock bottom,then putting me in a place where I will be actively rooting against them on Sunday is a new low. I know some have done this all season, and I've understood for a while the possible benefits of the Bengals finishing 2019 with the league's worst record, but Sunday's tilt against the Dolphins will be the first Bengals game of my life where I will be actively rooting for a loss.

When you've arrived at a place where you're rooting against the team you've spent three and a half decades caring about, you've bottomed out.

Cincinnati (pick 'em) over Miami. Yet they'll even screw this up. As bad as they are as a team, the Bengals special team units are actually pretty good. In a game matching two dreadful squads, I'll take the team that has the one good unit, even if I don't want to.

Houston (-3) over Tampa Bay. Jameis Winston is too erratic, and he's going to be without his best two wideouts.

Buffalo (+6.5) over New England. In a low-scoring, bad-weather game, this number is too big. Josh Allen is 15-9-1 as an underdog, and the Pats have injury issues in their secondary.

Washington (-2.5) over the Giants. The Redskins are playing okay, and I'll bet on the letdown coming after the Eli Manning show last week.

Haven't looked at the bowl game matchups much, but I think I'll lean on Charlotte (+7), Kent State (+7) and SMU (-3).

NFL Mark in 2019: 47-28-3

College Mark in 2019: 42-35-1