Rain is in the forecast at two outdoor National Football League game sites today. The wet stuff will for sure fall in Foxboro, where the New England Patriots host the Los Angeles Chargers, and is expected in Pittsburgh for the Steelers game against the Arizona Cardinals.

As we move into December, playoff berths and positioning are included in motivational factors. Today, when the San Francisco 49ers return to the site where Brock Purdy lost his only game last season, a contest he was injured in early and the 49ers lost the NFC Championship Game at Lincoln Financial Field to the Philadelphia Eagles, the 49ers need the game a lot more than the home team.

San Francisco has lost three games this year, the Eagles only one. If the 49ers are to have any chance of earning home field advantage for the playoffs, a win here is an absolute necessity. Falling three back of the Eagles with only five games left on the schedule and handing Philadelphia the first tiebreaker with a straight-up win for Nick Sirianni’s squad would create a near certainty that the best the 49ers could do in playoff positioning would be the number two seed.

This is only one factor why the team with the best record in the league and the defending NFC Champions are home underdogs today. The books would only have that line if they truly expected a San Francisco victory … as do I.

In the American Football Conference, three division leaders have eight wins and three losses while the current top seed in that conference is the Baltimore Ravens, who have nine wins against three defeats. The three division leaders with 8-3 marks are the Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville Jaguars and Kansas City Chiefs.

The Ravens have their bye this week, while the Dolphins play an early game against the Commanders in Washington and the Chiefs are at Lambeau Field tonight to meet the Green Bay Packers. The Jaguars host the Cincinnati Bengals in the Week 13 Monday Night Football matchup.

The public has gravitated to three teams this week with their most popular play the Detroit Lions (-4½) over the New Orleans Saints. The second and third most-bet teams this week are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-3½) over the Carolina Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers (-6½) over the Arizona Cardinals.

The Qoxhi rated selections are now posted on this site, and if a Bullet Play develops in the final hour leading up to the day’s first kickoff, that contest will be added to the list of recommendations by 9:45 a.m. Pacific Time.