Five outrageous predictions for Week 11 of the NFL season

There are some intriguing games on this week's NFL schedule — games that could help make or break the season for multiple teams around the league.

John Fox and Jay Cutler will look to exact some revenge against a Denver Broncos organization that parted ways with them after each had previous success with the team. They will look to do so while attempting to keep the Chicago Bears in the NFC playoff race.

In Philadelphia, two teams still in the thick of the playoff conversation will take on one another in a game that could go a long way in determining the NFC wild card race. Can the Tampa Bay Buccaneers continue their recent stellar play by handing the Eagles what would be a disastrous home loss?

These are two of the games we will focus on below in our weekly outrageous predictions article.

1. John Fox and Jay Cutler exact revenge against the Denver Broncos

It was just a couple short weeks ago that this seemed to have blowout written all over it. The Chicago Bears were 2-5 and reeling following close losses to the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings. Meanwhile, the Broncos' record remained unblemished at 7-0 on the year.

Fast-forward two weeks, and everything seems to have changed on a dime. Chicago has won two consecutive games and four of its past six to pull into contention for a wild card spot in the NFC.

Meanwhile, Denver finds itself reeling from a two-game losing streak and the loss of its future Hall of Fame quarterback. Out of action this week with an injury, Peyton Manning will be watching from the sideline as his Broncos attempt to break said losing streak with Brock Osweiler under center.

Not that Osweiler is going to be any sort of a step back from this year's version of Manning, but we have no idea how he's going to handle his first NFL start on the road against a suddenly charging Bears team.

On the other hand, Bears quarterback Jay Cutler will want to join head coach John Fox in exacting some sort of revenge against an organization that threw him out like trash just a few years back. Having his best season since he was a member of the Broncos, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Cutler lead Chicago to a win here, pulling the team to .500 on the campaign.

2. Blaine Gabbert throws multiple touchdowns against the Legion of Boom

In their previous two home games prior to a Week 6 loss to the Carolina Panthers, the Seattle Seahawks yielded a total of 10 points and 400 yards. Including the Panthers game, their defense has given up 66 points and 834 total yards. It's not a coincidence that Seattle lost both games — its first losing streak at home since back in 2011.

No one here is going to pretend that a Gabbert-led San Francisco 49ers offense is anywhere near up to the level of the Panthers and Arizona Cardinals. That would be utterly foolish.

However, there has to be something to Seattle's recent struggles at home. Here's a squad that yielded 451 total yards and 39 points to the Cardinals last week. It's the fifth time that Seattle's defense has blown a fourth-quarter lead on the season. And at 4-5 on the year, the two-time defending NFC champions have to be feeling the pressure here.

Coming off a two-touchdown performance in his first start as a member of the 49ers, Gabbert had an entire off week to pick up the nuances of the offense. While San Francisco likely won't keep this game too close, I can easily envision a scenario in which Gabbert turns a couple red-zone opportunities into touchdowns — further indicating that he will remain the man under center for the remainder of the season in San Francisco.

3. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers even record on road in Philly

Tampa Bay is officially one of the most surprising teams in the NFL heading into Week 11. It's already doubled the team's win total from last season and finds itself somewhat in the NFC wild card race.

At 4-5 on the year and just two games behind the division rival Atlanta Falcons for the last playoff spot, the Buccaneers have a golden opportunity to make a statement against a mediocre Philadelphia Eagles team that will likely be without starting quarterback Sam Bradford.

As this one scribe preached in an article earlier this week, fundamentals are what has these two teams headed in different directions.

Tampa Bay is the second-most penalized team in the NFL, but it's stepped up to the plate when it has counted the most recently. The most recent example of this was the nine-play, 56-yard touchdown-scoring drive led by Jameis Winston late last week with the Buccaneers down by three points against the Dallas Cowboys.

The same cannot be said for Philadelphia. After replacing an injured Bradford in the lineup last week against the Miami Dolphins, Mark Sanchez threw a late-game interception with his team down by one and inside the Dolphins' 10-yard line. That simply can't happen if you want to win consistently in the NFL.

All this seems to indicate that Tampa Bay is prepared to go into Philly and hand the Eagles what would be a disastrous loss for the team's playoff hopes.

4. Matt Hasselbeck leads the Indianapolis Colts to road win in Atlanta

Let's be honest here for a second. Both of these squads might make the playoffs, but neither is really going to do much damage when January comes calling.

For the Falcons, the struggles have primarily been on the offensive side of the ball. Here's a team that was held to one touchdown by a bad San Francisco defense in its last game prior to a Week 10 bye. Overall, the Falcons have scored an average of 16.8 points in their past four games after netting an average of 32.4 points in their first five games.

It's not a coincidence that Atlanta has lost three of four since seeing this downturn in production from its offense.

For the Colts, the primary issue has been turnovers. When they've coughed the ball up two times or less, Chuck Pagano's squad is 4-1 on the season. Two or more times, and they are 0-4.

While this is a statistical split we could probably use for every team around the NFL, there's one minor difference in Indy.

With Andrew Luck sidelined earlier in the year, Matt Hasselbeck led the Colts to wins in his only two starts of the campaign. Interestingly, Indianapolis turned the ball over just twice in those two games. Conversely, the Colts have turned it over 17 times in Luck's seven starts.

Playing against a lackluster Falcons defense on the road, the expectation here is that Hasselbeck (zero picks in 76 attempts this season) will be able to avoid the turnover bug that has plagued Luck. If so, the Colts have enough talent on offense to take advantage of a suddenly fledgling Falcons team.

5. Alex Smith outgains Philip Rivers as the Kansas City Chiefs even their record

Smith has been known as nothing more than a dink and dunk artist since entering the NFL with San Francisco more than a decade ago. While that has been true for the most part, Smith has taken more chances this year than we have seen in the past. And it's led to a certain narrative being thrown completely out the window.