NFL Week 9 Picks w/Capitals Report

The 2024-25 season was a banner campaign for the Washington Capitals that ended with a little bit of a thud. Alex Ovechkin set the all-time goal scoring record and the team entered the playoffs as the top seed in the Eastern Conference. However, the Carolina Hurricanes beat them quite easily in the conference semi-finals for an early departure from the playoffs. 

Much like last year, Washington entered this season with little fan fair. General Manager Chris Patrick made a couple of moves during the offseason, but did not shake anything up dramatically. The Capitals will once again attempt to squeeze one more run out of an aging core and some decent young players that have yet to truly breakout. 

After jumping out to a 6-2 start, the Capitals hosted the Ottawa Senators last Saturday at Capital One Center in the District. Being a weekend game and a 7pm puck drop, it allowed for the senior editor to join the coverage team and pregaming at the City Tap House in Penn Quarter. City Tap is a great pregame spot because it is a short walk from the arena, but far enough way you can always get a table. 

After quality pregame festivities, things went sideways. Ottawa out shot Washington 34-13 on the way to a 7-1 victory for the visitors. While the local fans had the opportunity to celebrate Ovechkin’s 1500th NHL game (all with Washington) they were denied seeing him score his 900th goal. 

The performance by the Capitals was so bad that we cut coverage after two periods. No big deal though. That allowed us to get the senior editor back to headquarters by 9:30pm. 

Ben Raby projected Washington to finish third the Metropolitan division in The Hockey News preseason issue. The Capitals currently sit in fifth place, just outside the playoff top eight. There is no need to panic this early, but they do need to up their game. [Written before the Oct. 31 matchup versus the New York Islanders]

HOTPO staff covering the Ottawa Senators drubbing of the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C, Oct. 25. 

View from the "press box" as Alex Ovechkin's 1500th NHL game was recognized.  

Let’s get to the picks. 

NFL Week 9 Picks

Chicago Bears (-2.5) at Cincinnati Bengals: Neeraj Sharma of Goal reports Cincinnati QB Joe Flacco has a 50 percent chance of playing this weekend. If Flacco can’t play, the Bengals will have to rely on Jake Browing who didn’t fare well earlier this year. Chicago looked bad last week against a now resurgent Baltimore Ravens team, but the Bengals defense is putrid. – BEARS 

Minnesota Vikings at Detroit Lions (-8.5): Quarterback J.J. McCarthy, essentially a rookie, will start for Minnesota this week after missing five games due to an ankle injury. He did not play well prior to his injury (58.5 completion percentage, 2 TDs, 3 INTs). Detroit is 3-0 at home, winning all three by 15 points or more. – LIONS 

Carolina Panthers at Green Bay Packers (-13.5): Both Carolina quarterbacks, Bryce Young and Andy Dalton, are banged up, although it looks like Young might be good to go. Green Bay hasn’t lost since Week 3 and are massive favorites. Let’s not overthink this. – PACKERS 

Denver Broncos at Houston Texans (-2): This will be an interesting matchup between two great defenses (Houston #1, Denver #5) and two young quarterbacks (C.J. Stroud for Houston and Bo Nix for Denver). This is a 1pm ET start for a team from the Mountain time zone and western teams often struggle with early Sunday starts. The Texans three wins have come against a bad team and two teams that were dealing with a significant number of injuries. – DENVER 

Atlanta Falcons at New England Patriots (-5.5): Allen Strk recently wrote in the Falcholic that Atlanta has the look of a team in “total disarray” after two straight ugly losses. The Falcons offense hasn’t scored more than 14 points in three weeks. The Patriots’ 9th rated defense in Foxboro is not a recipe for that offense “getting right.” – PATRIOTS 

San Franciso 49ers (-2.5) at New York Giants: The loss of RB Cam Skattebo removes an energy and attitude that was sparking the Giants efforts, according to Jordan Raanan of ESPN. Backup running backs Tyrone Tracy, Jr. and Devin Singletary are serviceable, but rush for 3.5 and 3.1 yards per carry, respectively – fairly pedestrian. The Niners are dealing with injuries too, but have a track record of dealing with them successfully. – NINERS 

Indianapolis Colts (-3) at Pittsburgh Steelers: Indianapolis is having a magical season. Pittsburgh is on a two-game losing streak, probably getting a little desperate as they see the Ravens gaining on them and at home for this game. I rarely pick the Colts, too (the emotional hedge). – STEELERS 

Los Angeles Chargers (-9) at Tennessee Titans: The Chargers sacked Vikings QB Carson Wentz five times last week in a 37-10 victory. The line seems too close to me. This will be a blood bath. – CHARGERS 

Jacksonville Jaguars (-2.5) at Oakland Raiders: Both of these teams are coming off of horrible losses and a bye week. Many of the reporters in a Tim Walters article for the Jacksonville Florida Times-Union see this as a bounce back game for the Jaguars. They watch a lot for Jacksonville than I do (I watch none). – JAGUARS 

New Orleans Saints at Los Angeles Rams (-14): Sometimes when I am cranking through these capsules, it is nice to get an easy one that requires zero effort. – RAMS 

Kansas City Chiefs (-2) at Buffalo Bills: Buffalo has won the last four regular season games and Kansas City has won the last four playoff games between these two teams. This will be close and can go either way. The Chiefs will be missing their leading rusher, RB Isiah Pacheco, so I will go with that being the difference. – BILLS 

Seattle Seahawks (-3) at Washington Commanders: I don’t need to read anything about this game. Local sports radio continually peppers me with Commanders news in my commutes. The Washington defense is awful and star WR Terry McLaurin is back on the injured list. – SEAHAWKS 

Arizona Cardinals at Dallas Cowboys (-2.5): Dallas hasn’t lost or won two games in a row yet this year and are coming off a loss to the Broncos. Arizona has lost five in a row, but none of them by more than four points (twice by one point). The Cowboys do have the 2nd ranked offense in the NFL and the Cardinals offense is probably just mediocre enough to help the 31st ranked Cowboys defense to not look totally inept. – COWBOYS  

Next week: we hope to bring you a college football update. Enjoy the games.