The NFL’s Week 9 trip to Madrid has all the makings of a track meet.
Cincinnati and Atlanta arrive in Spain with offenses built to make life miserable for opposing defenses, and both teams are staring at division races where one win could change everything. The setup is simple enough: two explosive groups, one international stage, and plenty of room for points if either side gets rolling early.
The Bengals come in after a wild Week 8 win over the Dolphins, a game that turned into the Joe Burrow show in every possible way. Burrow carried Cincinnati with a monster line: 38-of-48 passing for 462 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions, plus one rushing score. He had to do nearly everything himself, and he still got the job done.
That kind of workload may be coming again in Madrid. Atlanta’s defense has allowed 223.4 passing yards per game, and the best passing attack it has faced so far was Chicago.
In that game, Caleb Williams put up 305 passing yards against the Falcons’ secondary. Outside of that, Atlanta hasn’t really been tested through the air.
So the expectation here is another huge Burrow night. The Bengals quarterback is projected to clear 400 passing yards again and throw at least three touchdowns. Cincinnati has to lean on the pass to win right now, and that should mean a full-throttle approach from the start.
That’s where Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins enter the picture. The bold call is that both receivers top 100 yards and find the end zone.
The ground game tells a very different story. Cincinnati’s rushing attack has been one of the league’s weakest, averaging just 80.3 rushing yards per game. That number has been ugly all season, not just in a small sample, and Chase Brown and the rest of the Bengals’ backs haven’t been able to fix it.
Atlanta, meanwhile, has gone the other direction. The Falcons are averaging 134.8 rushing yards per game, a mark topped only by the Buccaneers, Bears and Bills. Bijan Robinson is the engine behind that success, and he’s been piling up 100.6 rushing yards per game in 2026 even though he hasn’t cracked 100 in four straight outings.
That’s why the Falcons are expected to build the game plan around him again in Madrid. Robinson is projected to outgain Cincinnati’s entire rushing attack by a wide margin, even doubling the Bengals on the ground. If Atlanta wants a shot, it needs Robinson to have one of those games where he takes over.
Even with that edge, the bigger picture still points toward Cincinnati. The Bengals have a defense that can be frisky and opportunistic, but this matchup pushes them away from their best strengths and into a fight they’d rather avoid. If Burrow and the passing game keep humming, Cincinnati can start to separate.
The final call is a Bengals win in a game that leans into the offensive firepower both teams brought to Madrid. Burrow’s arm should be enough to push Cincinnati through, especially if the Bengals need points late. Atlanta has the run game to keep things interesting, but the Bengals have the more reliable answer when the pressure rises.
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Burrow And Tee Higgins Are Making Cincinnatis Bet Look Right
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Higgins rise matters beyond the box score because it reinforces the idea that the Bengals did not just stumble into a star trio, they built one. Burrow has trusted him in key moments, and Higgins has rewarded that trust with steady production and the kind of downfield presence that changes how defenses have to play Cincinnati, even as the contract questions around him linger in the background. [Read more 🡒]