In this week's column, I'm backing two AFC North teams hitting the road, and I'm seeing low-scoring games unfolding in San Francisco and Atlanta.

On to the picks:

Tennessee at San Francisco (O/U 41)

This looks like a defensive battle to me. Yes, the Titans scored 30 points last week vs. Jacksonville, but two of Tennessee's touchdowns came on long Chris Johnson TD runs against a poor-tackling defense. The 49ers are much sounder defensively, and the Titans are going to have to string drives together to score. And the Niners' offense isn't going to have it easy, either. The Titans' defense played well last week save for some terrible tackling on a pair of lengthy TD runs by Maurice Jones-Drew.

One other factor I like: both offenses aren't going to look to stretch the field vertically very often. I'll admit: I thought the Niners would significantly open up the offense with Alex Smith under center, but that wasn't the case last week at Indianapolis.

Put this all together and there's a pretty good case for this game being a plodding affair.

Wilkening's pick: Under 41

Baltimore (-3) at Cincinnati

When these teams played back in Week Five, I took the points with the Bengals. This time around, though, I'm leaning toward the Ravens, who were awfully close to squeaking out a win against Cincinnati back on Oct. 11 even after playing its worst full game of the season.

Sometimes handicapping divisional matchups just comes down to whether you believe a team can repeat a strong effort a second time, and I don't see the Bengals rolling for more than 400 yards vs. Baltimore in the rematch between the clubs. I do, however, expect significant improvement from the Ravens, whose 4-3 record belies how good they are, in my view. Coming off a thoroughly impressive 23-point win vs. then-unbeaten Denver, Baltimore is the play.

Wilkening's pick: Baltimore

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Washington at Atlanta (O/U 41½)