The National Football League kicks off their 104th season today and some showers or rain storms are expected at five of the NFL outdoor sites, including Baltimore, Washington, Denver, New England and for the New York Giants visit from the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night.
On Monday night, Aaron Rodgers will open his career with the New York Jets against AFC East Division rival Buffalo in the same stadium the Giants host the Cowboys tonight. Rain expected for the Giants, no rain on Monday night in the forecast for the Bills visit to MetLife Stadium.
While there is scattered precipitation around the league, no weather conditions appear likely to seriously affect the play on the field. Last year, the Los Angeles Rams followed up their Super Bowl winning campaign by compiling the worst mark in history for a defending champion, 5 wins against a dozen losses. Thursday night, the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs got beat on their home field by the Detroit Lions.
You’ve got to keep your eye on this stuff, because things can change drastically in a short period of time.
In today’s battle in Ohio between the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns, the game offers a look at two teams with legitimate Super Bowl hopes. We all know what the Bengals Joe Burrow is capable of, and new Cleveland field general Deshaun Watson had led the Houston Texans to a playoff win. He may have been real, real good, because the Texans have been real, real bad since he left.
If the Browns beat the Bengals today, which would be their sixth straight home victory over the Bengals in a run that has never allowed Burrow to win in Cleveland, then one can add the Browns to the list of bright Super Bowl hopefuls.
Another heavyweight match between two Super Bowl caliber teams will be staged in Pittsburgh when the Steelers host the San Francisco 49ers. For San Francisco, who added one of the best defensive linemen in the game with Nick Bosa ending his holdout, the prospects all hinge on quarterback Brock Purdy. The team cleared out any confusion on who is in charge on the field of the 49ers offense when they jettisoned Trey Lance to the Dallas Cowboys for a fourth round draft choice.
If Purdy’s sophomore season is anything like what he flashed in his rookie year, the 49ers chances for their first Super Bowl victory since the 1994 season take on an air of confidence. The Steelers also have high hopes going into this season based on a second-year signal caller. Kenny Pickett was the Steelers first round choice in the 2022 NFL draft and got valuable experience down the stretch of last season while guiding wins in six of the Steelers final seven games.
The public knows who they like today, and for those of you new to Qoxhi, we view public plays, particularly on non-elite teams, great to go against. The three public plays today in order of preference are the Philadelphia Eagles (-3½) over the New England Patriots, Jacksonville Jaguars (-4½) over the Indianapolis Colts and Washington Commanders (-7) over the Arizona Cardinals.
As for our rated selections, we have two games today and they are now posted on this site.