The National Football League will host the middle of their five game International series played in 2023. The Jacksonville Jaguars were involved in the first two, played in London, and swept to a pair of victories with wins over the Atlanta Falcons and Buffalo Bills. On Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens meet the Tennessee Titans at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the final two International games will be played in Germany.
Defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City meets the Miami Dolphins on November 5th at Frankfurt Stadium and a week later, the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots collide.
All five of the games played outside the United States have a 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time Zone start, which equates to an unmanageable 6:30 a.m. Pacific Time. Qoxhi Picks is geared to gather information up to a couple hours before the 10:00 a.m. kickoffs. That means the NFL is starting games way too early for me to properly evaluate what we have on games played in the United States, and therefore I am compelled to discard the dawn starts from foreign countries.
If the Titans were playing the Ravens in Tennessee or Baltimore, I would be on the Ravens giving the points in this one. But these two rivals are not playing in either of their home stadiums, so we move to games played after the roosters crow.
I anticipated the Seattle Seahawks having a tough year this season based on low expectations last year and a surprise playoff appearance. Most often, when a team overachieves based on low expectations, they fail when expectations are high. It appeared that preseason projection was right initially, the Los Angeles Rams knocked off the Seahawks in their home stadium on opening day. But since that home defeat, the Seahawks have been down right good.
Perhaps it is time for me to reevaluate the direction of Pete Carroll’s squad.
They beat a talented Lions team in Detroit in second week action and haven’t lost a game since. On Sunday, they meet a Bengals squad that has struggled while Joe Burrow has been challenged to play his way through a calf injury.
The results have not been good.
The Bengals lost their first two games, blown out in Cleveland by a 24-3 count, and dropped a home game the next week to the Ravens, 27-24. Their first win of the year was a victory over the team that had beaten them in the Super Bowl two years ago, the Los Angeles Rams. The past two weeks, Cincinnati won one, over the Arizona Cardinals last week, and lost one, the prior Sunday in Tennessee to the Titans.
The Seahawks come in off their bye week playing better and getting points against a Bengals squad still not in sync.
Better team with points is most often a winner.
Qoxhi Picks: Seattle Seahawks (+3) over Cincinnati Bengals