'Dog lang syne (Week 17 lines)

It's Week 17 of the American pro football season, and we are down to the next-to-last full-schedule week in the charity underdog contest. After Week 18, we will get into the last three weeks of our game – the playoffs, with six games the first playoff week, four games the second playoff week, and just two in the final set, Week 21.

It has shaped up as a tight race at the top of our standings, and so really, nothing's been decided yet. In the end, the top three players will designate the charity winners.

This week, there are no Saturday or overseas games, and so if you can keep track of what day of the week it is (our oddsmaker lost track of that today), life is easy. We revert to the regular pick deadlines: kickoff time for the Thursday night game (which features a big 'dog this week), with all other picks (including for the Monday night game) due Sunday at 10:00 a.m. PST.

Here are the options:

13.5 DENVER at Kansas City

10 TENNESSEE vs. Dallas (pick due Thursday, 5:20 p.m. PST)

7 NEW ORLEANS at Philadelphia

6.5 LOS ANGELES RAMS at Los Angeles Chargers

6 CHICAGO at Detroit

6 LAS VEGAS vs. San Francisco

5 INDIANAPOLIS at New York Giants

4 ARIZONA at Atlanta

4 HOUSTON vs. Jacksonville

3 CAROLINA at Tampa Bay

3 MINNESOTA at Green Bay

3 PITTSBURGH at Baltimore

2.5 MIAMI at New England

2.5 SEATTLE vs. New York Jets

2 CLEVELAND at Washington

1 CINCINNATI vs. Buffalo (Monday, pick still due Sunday, 10:00 a.m. PST)

Our current standings are here. Good luck to our 'dognosticators as they enter the home turn.