Each week, we’ll give you 10 things to keep an eye on during the upcoming games. From one-on-one matchups to players on the mend, we’ll talk about 10 things that could have an impact on your favorite team, or your fantasy team.

1. Dallas Cowboys looking for number nine, again: The Cowboys have gone 8-8 each of the last three seasons under head coach Jason Garrett, but after winning their eighth game of the season in Week 12, it seems inevitable that the team will finish the season with a winning record for the first time under Garrett, who has gone 37-31 during his tenure. The Cowboys travel to Chicago to take on the struggling Chicago Bears on Thursday night in what most expect will be Dallas’ ninth victory. The Bears have been awful this season, with their only impressive victory coming way back in Week 2 when the team beat the San Francisco 49ers. Lately the Bears have looked poor even in their victories as the team barely snuck out a pair of 21-13 wins over the Minnesota Vikings and Tampa Bay Buccaneers the two weeks prior to their 34-17 loss to the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving. The Cowboys better find a way to win Thursday night’s game with Chicago as they have the Philadelphia Eagles and Indianapolis Colts over the next two weeks, and the last thing Garrett and the Cowboys want is to be heading into Washington Week 17 at 8-7. Jerry Jones has said that Garrett is safe regardless of how the season ends, but if the Cowboys were to lose out and finish at 8-8 again, that sentiment could change really quickly.

2. The Cincinnati Bengals host the Pittsburgh Steelers in key AFC North battle: The AFC North couldn’t be closer with every team boasting a record of at least 7-5, but with six 7-5 teams and a team at 8-4 and another at 6-6, nobody wants to have to rely on trying to secure a wildcard berth to get into the playoffs. At the moment, Cincinnati leads the division at 8-3-1 and holds the best divisional record at 2-1. A victory over the Steelers Sunday would give the Bengals a 3-1 division record and a 6-3 mark in the conference. The Cleveland Browns made themselves very difficult to believe in with their recent decision to play quarterback controversy in the middle of a playoff race, so with the Bengals already sweeping the Baltimore Ravens, it makes the Steelers, who still have both of their games against Cincinnati coming up, the team with the best possibility of knocking the Bengals out of first place. The Steelers have been extremely inconsistent this year, and if anything, it seems to be getting worse. Over their last three, Pittsburgh found a way to lose to the New Orleans Saints and New York Jets while sneaking out a tight victory over the Tennessee Titans. It’s hard to believe that same team can beat the Bengals twice or the Kansas City Chiefs, but crazier things have happened, and if the Steelers can find a way to win three of its last four, Pittsburgh may just sneak away with the AFC North crown.

3. New York Giants look to end seven game losing streak in Tennessee: Everything about the Giants – Titans matchup leads you to believe the Giants would win. Of course, you probably would have made that exact same comment about the Giants game against the Jacksonville Jaguars last week. It was easy to explain away the previous six losses because you could see them coming from a mile away. We even predicted the possible six game slide before it happened here on Football Insiders. The Giants were banged up and heading into a stretch of games against teams that were clearly better than they were, and it looked unlikely the Giants could win any of them. After jumping out to an early lead at Jacksonville, the Giants imploded and handed the Jaguars a 25-24 comeback victory. I’ve been on record saying that Tom Coughlin has earned the right to walk away whenever he sees fit, but it’s possible that Sunday’s game against the Jaguars changed that. The Giants are reeling, and in need of a lot of help. A loss to the Titans on Sunday may be a signal that it’s time for a massive rebuild in New York that doesn’t just stop on the field.

4. Minnesota Vikings – New York Jets provide flashback game: The only thing this game needs is John Facenda, and it could really feel like old school football. In a day and age where we see quarterbacks throwing the ball for record numbers each year, a game like we could see on Sunday is pretty rare. First, the Vikings playing outside in December, is pretty awesome. I don’t know why they decided to put a dome on their new building next season. Maybe if they got back to playing in the bitter cold, they could get back to intimidating and dominating opponents at home. Anyhow, that’s not happening, but what does have a chance of happening is a game where both teams may bring offenses back into the 1960’s as Geno Smith and Teddy Bridgewater can’t seem to get anything going through the air this season. While Smith may already be nearing the end of his career as the starter for the Jets, Bridgewater is just getting started in Minnesota. Both quarterbacks have really struggled to get it done through the air this season, and playing in the Minnesota cold in December might just make that job even tougher this Sunday. The Vikings and Jets passing games have been so anemic, that a week ago the quarterback combined for just over 200 yards passing! Teddy Bridgewater was actually very efficient a last Sunday as his Vikings beat up the Carolina Panthers 31-13. Bridgewater did not turn the ball over, and had a pair of passing touchdowns, but finished the game with just 138 passing yards. Smith’s team however took a 16-13 loss and Smith did turn the ball over once on an interception. Somehow Smith managed to finish the game with just 65 passing yards. Last week Bridgewater and Smith combined for 203 passing yards! Colt McCoy threw for 392.

5. The Carolina Panthers’ last chance: For weeks it seemed as if the Carolina Panthers may still have the best chance to win the NFC South as it looked they had a much easier schedule at the end of the season than the New Orleans Saints or Atlanta Falcons. With a favorable schedule and head to head match-ups with the Saints and Falcons, the Panthers had their fate in their hands if they could have found a way to get on track, but after pathetic showings in each of their last four games, a loss to the Saints Sunday would all but eliminate Carolina. With Atlanta playing in Green Bay Monday night, the Panthers would make the division very interesting again if they could find a way to win in New Orleans, where the Saints have lost three straight. However, Carolina has been absolutely terrible of late, so it’s likely the Saints can jump back into sole possession of first place with a victory Sunday and a Falcons loss Monday. The saddest part might still be that one of these teams will host a playoff game in January.

6. When do the Johnny Football chants begin in Cleveland? As good of a job as Mike Pettine has done with the Cleveland Browns this season, he made a grave error a week ago in inserting rookie quarterback Johnny Manziel into the conversation. What a very Cleveland thing for Pettine to go and do. Look, if you’re certain Hoyer isn’t the guy long term and you want to turn the team over to Manziel when the season is over for you, fine. But you don’t switch to the kid and then go back, and you sure as hell don’t switch to the kid after your veteran quarterback has actually gotten you into a playoff race. So what if he struggled for a couple of games before Pettine sat him. This is the NFL, Tom Brady struggled for a couple of games earlier this season. Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson, and Aaron Rodgers have all hit bumps in the road. Sitting Brian Hoyer, regardless of his struggles was incredibly short sighted in the midst of a season where the Browns had a legitimate shot at making the playoffs. Had may have been the correct word to use too, because the conversation has already changed from whether or not the Browns could make the playoffs to when they’ll make the switch to their rookie quarterback. So, since the Browns clearly don’t care, let’s skip past the question about if they’ll make the playoffs, and get right to it. The biggest question going into a 7-5 Cleveland Browns’ game is, when will the Johnny Football chants begin? Well done Browns, way to screw up narrative.

7. Arizona Cardinals host Kansas City Chiefs as both try to hold on for dear life: The Chiefs and Cardinals have been two of the most surprising teams in football this season. We all knew the Cardinals were a good football team, but there probably weren’t too many predicting they’d have the best record ten games into the season at 9-1. While the Chiefs shocked many a year ago, their offseason losses suggested they’d take a major step back, but the Chiefs overcame those as well as early season injuries to start 7-3. Each of these teams seemed destined for the playoffs two weeks ago, but after losing two straight, both of them find themselves holding on for dear life. For the Cardinals, they’re trying to hold onto first place in the NFC West with the Seahawks and 49ers breathing down their necks. If Arizona loses either of their next two games against the Chiefs or Rams, they could find themselves tied with Seattle and only a game ahead of the Niners. The Cardinals finish the season with a home game against the Seahawks who just beat them in Seattle and a road game in San Francisco. It’s entirely possible the Cardinals could fall into third place and out of the playoffs after starting 9-1. For the Chiefs, they’re just trying to hold onto hope that they can sneak into the playoffs and come out of a jumbled group of wild card contenders. As we mentioned above, there are six 7-5 teams behind the 8-4 Chargers, and a game ahead of the 6-6 Texans in the AFC playoff hunt. The Chiefs have the Oakland Raiders next before finishing against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chargers. If the Chiefs can pull off the victory Sunday, they’ve still got shot.

8. Pete Carroll – Chip Kelly renew rivalry in huge NFC match-up: Despite the fact they’ll certainly be, and have probably already been asked dumb questions about USC and Oregon this week, Kelly and Carroll won’t be thinking about their days in college when the teams meet in what could the biggest game of the weekend Sunday in Philadelphia. In the pros, Kelly doesn’t have to hope someone will vote for him to play in the biggest game of the year, and if he hopes to get his Eagles there, he’ll have to go through Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks. This is a match-up of strengths, as the Seahawks defense tries to slow down Chip Kelly’s amazing offensive machine. This might be the week the loss of Brandon Mebane is felt most, as the Eagles run the ball as well as anyone in football. With Mebane down for the year, and Red Bryant and Chris Clemons in Jacksonville, the Seahawks front four is a shadow of what it was a year ago, and it’s probably the biggest reason the team isn’t as dominant as it was in 2013. If the Seahawks want to prove they still have enough to be the NFC representative in Arizona in February, a victory on Sunday in Philadelphia would be a great start.

9. San Diego Chargers try to hold off AFC Wild Card pack: Have you heard that there are six teams at 7-5 in the AFC? I know, I’m beating it to death, but it’s a huge part of the reason the last quarter of the season is going to be very interesting and loaded with some very intense playoff-like football. Right now, the Chargers hold the top wild card spot at 8-4, and they know a loss on Sunday could get them stuck right in the middle of the playoff mosh pit with so many other wild card contenders. At 6-3 in the conference, the Chargers could set themselves up very well for the final three weeks on Sunday if they could just find a way to beat the New England Patriots. Because, of course the Chargers can expect to beat the Patriots who are coming off of a loss to Green Bay, right? As unlikely as it is, if the Chargers could pull off the upset over the Patriots on Sunday night, the AFC would get very interesting. However, a loss to the Patriots Sunday will drop the Chargers to 8-5 where they’ll find themselves tied with several teams and facing the Broncos, 49ers and Chiefs to close out the season. This folks, is why we love football!
10. Colder weather, warmer seats: As we enter the NFL season’s final quarter, the weather is going to start getting colder, but the seats under some NFL coaches will heat up considerably. First, to address the situation in San Francisco. The 49ers may want to remind themselves of what the decade before Jim Harbaugh was like before they consider trading away their head coach. If any of the rumors out of San Francisco about the team wanting to move on from head coach Jim Harbaugh are true, it’s a mistake. Frankly, I don’t care if he’s a jerk. He’s a jerk that led that organization to three consecutive NFC championship games after said organization was a joke for about a decade before he got there. Shame on the 49ers for having the hubris to believe they can just bring anyone in here to get the job done. Whichever team ends up with that jerk Harbaugh next is going to be damn lucky to have him jerking things up for them. Just like every year there are a number of teams that will be looking to fill coaching vacancies again, and the next few weeks will help determine some of that. While there’s already one coaching vacancy in Oakland, and there are coaches like Rex Ryan who are clearly on their way out, there might be a couple of guys who can save or lose their jobs based on how their teams finish. It will be interesting to see how the situations with the Giants and Falcons play out. I do believe those teams players could be playing for their coach’s jobs. Frankly, that shouldn’t be the case for a Hall of Fame coach like Coughlin, but that’s New York for you.