NFL 2024 Season - Week 7
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Articles published multiple times per week, offering insights and picks on upcoming games.
 
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All Good Things
by Dennis Ranahan

EARLY ALERT: The game played in London between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Chicago Bears this Sunday morning that starts at 6:30 a.m. Pacific Time is simply too good of a point spread play to pass up. Therefore, if our Friday night numbers continue to show an edge on this game that warrants a rated money play, that choice will be posted on this site on Saturday morning. The early release will offer clients an opportunity to get down on the game prior to early Sunday start.

It has been quite a start for Dan Quinn in Washington, his second National Football League stop as a head coach. In his first, Quinn led the Atlanta Falcons to Super Bowl LI and looked to have them in position to win with a 24-3 second half lead over Tom Brady and his New England Patriots.

Then.

Well, that didn’t end as well as it started for Quinn as his Falcons were run down and beaten in overtime.

Quinn never regained his winning edge in his final years in Atlanta, but a new start with the Commanders has the coach on top of the football world. His rookie quarterback, Jayden Daniels, has broken passing completion records to start his career that used to not be owned by rookies but rather any quarterback ever.

After an opening weekend loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Florida, 37-20, it looked like the Commanders had a long way to go to even get competitive. A second week win over the New York Giants didn’t yet turn heads. The Commanders behind Daniels never cracked the endzone, using seven field goals to eke out a 21-18 victory.

In third week action, the Commanders met the Cincinnati Bengals in a Monday Night Football primetime telecast. The Bengals were coming off a home opening loss to the New England Patriots and a narrow one-point defeat at Arrowhead Stadium to the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs.

Still looking for their first win of the season, most figured the Bengals would pick it up against Quinn’s squad. Instead, for a national television audience, the Commanders young signal caller put on an offensive show and outscored Joe Burrow and company on the losers home field, 38-33. Six days later, in Arizona, they pinned the Cardinals with another loss on their opponent’s home field. It wasn’t close on the scoreboard: Washington 42, Arizona 14.

Last week, at home against Cleveland, the surging Commanders diffused the struggling Browns with a one-sided home victory, 34-13.

As Butch Cassidy may have said in regard to the Commanders roll, “Who are these guys?”

I’ll tell you who they are. They are suddenly one of the most exciting teams in the NFL with a rookie quarterback looking to rewrite the record books in his first opportunity. Quinn’s Commanders are playing inspired football on both sides of the ball, and this week are still underdogs on the point spread.

Washington an underdog?

Hasn’t the betting world figured out how good they are?

Who are they the underdog to, and where?

On Sunday, they meet the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium and are currently posted as a six-and-one-half point underdog.

Let’s see, the Commanders beat a bad Giants team, overconfident Bengals squad, surprised Cardinals unit and a struggling Browns group. So, why not beat a … wait a minute, this is not a spot for them to win.

The Ravens are not looking past the Commanders, they already made that mistake once this season when they allowed the Las Vegas Raiders to upset them on their home field. Nope, we don’t have an overconfident, struggling or overmatched opponent this week for Washington. What we have is a lot like what happened to Quinn and his Falcons in the second half against New England in Super Bowl LI … a steamroller they can’t stop.

Qoxhi Picks: Baltimore Ravens (-6½) over Washington Commanders