The National Football League has reached the midway-point of the 2026 season and weather today for the ten outside venues is mostly calm. There are some wind considerations while the only rain in the forecast is scheduled for Seattle where the Seahawks host the Arizona Cardinals.
The league is starting early today with a contest in Spain between the Cincinnati Bengals and Atlanta Falcons. The game is set to kickoff at 6:30 a.m. Pacific Time. Both teams are in the hunt for their division lead with the Bengals owning 5 wins in 7 games, just a half-game back of the 6 and 2 record recorded by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
While it takes a winning record to lead the AFC North, the Falcons are just a half game back of the Carolina Panthers in the NFC South with a 3 and 5 mark.
This week we have two games that rank as money plays. The Top Pick goes today at 10 a.m. while the second play of the week is tomorrow night when the Minnesota Vikings host the Buffalo Bills.
In the Sunday night game, the Chicago Bears are at Soldier Field and welcome the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This was very close to be a rated game favoring the home team. This will be a great test to see if the Super Bowl odds, which have dropped from 22 to 1 to 8 to 1 for the Bears winning Super Bowl LXI, are warranted.
The Bears look like an elite team and the addition of Jeffrey Simmons to their front-line defense is a huge hole plugged. Before they acquired Simmons from the Tennessee Titans the Bears pass defense ranked 18th in the league. That was the only offensive or defensive league ranking that was not near the top. The problem with the Bears pass defense was their front line was not pressuring or sacking opposing quarterbacks. Now, with Simmons, the Bears have what appears to be a winning Super Bowl combination.
If they win and cover tonight, we will be reassured of just how good they are. But a wager on them tonight is high risk for two reasons. First, Chicago is coming off an emotionally draining road win over the Seattle Seahawks, and second, the Buccaneers provide competition from a team that currently has a losing record even though they have won both games since starting quarterback Baker Mayfield has returned to action.
The Buccaneers current record is a notch below their actual talent level, which makes them a live underdog and eliminates us taking a position against them.
The public has no trouble backing the Bears, Chicago (-6) is their second most bet game of the week. The top game by public preference is the Detroit Lions (-6½) over the Miami Dolphins and the third most popular public play is the Kansas City Chiefs (-9½) over the New York Jets.
As for Qoxhi money rated play, our Week Nine Top Pick is now posted on this site, and if a Bullet Play develops in the final hour before the 10:00 a.m. games start it will be added to the list of recommendations by 9:45 a.m.