Week 9 in the NFL was a great week in football and contained a lot of important and entertaining games. Let’s take a look at this week.
Starting Thursday night with Titans at Steelers, Will Levis got his second career start in the league while Tannehill was out with a high ankle sprain. Levis looked very solid, connecting with his receivers on a few big plays to keep the drive alive on multiple occasions. If Levis isn’t the future for Tennessee, it’s hard to tell what would be. Now, let’s talk about someone whose fate in the league is still up in the air: Kenny Pickett, who had an arguably better game than Levis. Pickett threw for 160 yards and connected with Diontae Johnson for his first touchdown since week 17 of the 2021 season. Ultimately, Pittsburgh came out on top, moving them to a 5-3 record. Tennessee on the other hand, moved to 3-5.
Sunday began with a game between the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs in Germany. The Dolphins looked to prove themselves against a team above .500 while the Chiefs wanted to bounce back after an unfortunate loss to the Broncos, the first of Patrick Mahomes career. After lots of mistakes and missed opportunities from the Dolphins, the Chiefs prevailed and moved to 7-2 which puts them at the top of the AFC.
The Bears played the Saints at home, starting rookie quarterback Tyson Bagent put up 2 touchdowns and over 200 yards while also making some questionable choices leading to picks by the high rated Saints defense. Speaking of Saints, is Derek Carr back? After a questionable start to the season Derek Carr has put up multiple 300 yard games leading the Saints to a 5-4 record while at the top of the NFC South. Meanwhile, the Bears continue to struggle with a 2-7 record without presumed franchise quarterback Justin Fields. One question that comes out of Chicago is, “Is Tyson Bagent that guy?” Justin Fields has struggled time and time again in Matt Eberflus’ system. He’s only had a couple huge games sprinkled throughout his career. Meanwhile, this undrafted rookie steps in, and possibly plays better than Fields has his entire time in Chicago.
Moving on to another NFC North and NFC South matchup, how about those Vikings? After a crushing win at Lambeau, losing a quarterback who’s been playing like an MVP this year is hard. Especially when his replacement is a 5th round rookie. Jaren Hall was the starting quarterback for the Vikings coming into week 9, even though they had just traded for Josh Dobbs. When Hall goes down on the first drive of the game, Dobbs comes in. The new guy who didn’t even know his teammates’ names led the down-but-not-out Vikings to a victory on the road against Atlanta.
Enough about the Vikings, what about the Falcons? The starting guy this week was none other than Taylor Heinicke, who had a decent outing for his first career start as a Falcon. Unfortunately for Atlanta, their number one receiver, Drake London, was out with an injury this week, so Heinicke did all he could with what he was given. After a big game winning drive led by none other than “The Passtronaut,” Minnesota emerged the winners, moving them to a 5-4 record to keep their 4 game winning streak intact. Atlanta got bumped down to 4-5, but they will be looking to regain that wildcard spot.
Up at Lambeau the Pack hosted the Rams who had to start Brett Rypien, with an injured Matthew Stafford and “unavailable” rookie Stetson Bennett. This was a slow game, both teams didn’t look great, which could prove how much Stafford really does hold this team together. However, in the second half, Jordan Love seemed to be improving and ended up leading this team to a win, moving the Packers to 3-5, while Los Angeles went to 3-6.
Did someone say below .500? The Commanders headed to Foxborough this week to face the Patriots that were desperate to get any sort of win. This game was honestly closer than most expected it to be. Mac Jones played pretty well, considering the entire league is about ready to give up on him, and Sam Howell continues to put up great numbers in Eric Bieniemy’s system. Both teams put up a fight and eventually, the game ended in a field goal by Commanders kicker Joey Slye. This loss moved the Patriots to 2-7 and a ticket in the Caleb Williams sweepstakes. While the Commanders collected a win on the road, moving them to 4-5.
With the 49ers on a three game losing streak and a bye this week, the NFC West is currently owned by none other than the Seattle Seahawks, looking to prove themselves against a Super Bowl worthy team, the Ravens. Unfortunately, in a beatdown, the Hawks were no match for the absurdly strong Ravens roster. Seattle only scored once, with a field goal while the Ravens continued to score another 23 unanswered points. Whether they won or lost, Baltimore would’ve been at the top of the north regardless. The same can not be said for the NFC West, where Seattle moves to 2nd place in a division that might be a tossup, especially if the Niners continue the path they’ve been down.
Speaking of NFC West vs. AFC North, the Caleb Williams sweepstakes continued in Arizona while the Arizona Cardinals got blown out by the Cleveland Browns. With Deshaun Watson returning after a few questionable injuries, he led the Browns to a “happy ending” at home. While Arizona started rookie Clayton Tune, while Kyler Murray was still questionable (look to see him this week!). The Browns defense held the dysfunctional Cardinals to a shocking 58 yards total.
Let’s head down south where the Buccaneers headed to the great state of Texas to play the Texans at home. CJ Stroud put up the most electrifying performance by a rookie quarterback in the history of the league. 470 passing yards, 5 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, breaking Andrew Luck’s record of 433 passing yards by a rookie. The Buccaneers looked good too, Carolina Panthers legend Baker Mayfield looked pretty good for a player who was considered “washed up” Even after a loss, look for the Buccaneers to make a shot to win the division this year. The Texans could too, even though it seems clear cut for the Jags to win the division, this could still be a wildcard team looking to prove themselves.
Speaking of Panthers! In the late window for games, after the second overall pick lit the league up with his performance it was time for first overall pick Bryce Young to perform against an injured and pretty mid overall Colts team. Honestly, the Panthers had a shot at another much needed win especially because the Colts were not performing offensively at all. But, it was two (two!) pick sixes thrown by Bryce Young and another pick near the end of the game to close this one out. Usually, a record this poor puts teams in line for the Caleb Williams sweepstakes. However, since the Panthers traded their 2024 first rounder, they have a dim future ahead of them.
After Mark Davis cleaned house in Las Vegas, it was time for the brand new Raiders to play none other than the New York Football Giants. Daniel Jones left early due to injury and Tyrod Taylor on the IR, so it was Tommy Devito time, throwing 2 picks and just one touchdown against the Raiders. But in Las Vegas, spirits were high with interim head coach Antonio Pierce, benched Jimmy Garoppolo for rookie Aidan O’Connell who had a good day against the Giants. One player to be on the lookout for is Josh Jacobs, who is finally looking like his former self with almost 100 yards and 2 touchdowns under new coach Antonio Pierce.
Probably the most exciting game this week was a duel in the east between Dallas and Philly. Dallas was looking to improve to 6-2 even with a looming juggernaut in Philadelphia in the same division. This game provided viewers with a look back to 2016 with a Dak Prescott masterclass. While Jalen Hurts continued to play like Jalen Hurts. Even against a loaded defense on both teams. Overall, the Eagles prevailed and moved to 8-1, the best record in the league. While the Cowboys slide down to 5-3.
In a very emotion charged primetime game, the Buffalo Bills faced the Cincinnati Bengals at home. The same matchup that left Bills safety Damar Hamlin in cardiac arrest. On a lighter note, Joe Burrow is officially back after playing his mandatory month of playing poorly. Josh Allen was Josh Allen, rushing for a touchdown and hitting his man Stefon Diggs for another touchdown. After a lackluster performance from the Bills, the Bengals won and moved to 5-3, which is tied with two other teams in the AFC North. This loss also put the Bills in second in the AFC East.
Ending the week 9 slate was Chargers at Jets. This game was pretty much just a game of defense, it started off early when the Bolts returned a punt for an 87 yard touchdown, that pretty much set the tone of the game, non-stop punting and field goals on both sides. After a slow burn of a game, the Chargers beat the Jets, 27-6. Moving both teams to 4-4. One thought about the Jets is, of course Aaron Rodgers could fix some problems about this team, but there’s still a huge weakness to this team. The offensive line is terrible, they’re injury prone and even without injuries they’re still not great. Now Zach Wilson is still a question mark in this roster but with good pass protection he could still do well.
That’s the end of the week, some players put up some crazy performances this week. Let’s do some awards.
MVP of the Week: CJ Stroud, he just put up crazy numbers as a rookie.
Offensive player of the week: CeeDee Lamb, silently been a top receiver his career and was Dak’s number one guy this week.
Defensive player of the week: Maxx Crosby, 3 sacks on top of an already great season, he should be DPOY frontrunner.
Offensive rookie of the week: CJ Stroud.
Defensive rookie of the week: Will Anderson Jr., not a huge performance but got his second sack of the season.
This season has been a weird year in terms of injuries, let’s look at some notable injuries that occurred this week. Daniel Jones is out for the year with a torn ACL, Dallas Goedert suffered a fractured forearm and is expected to placed on the injury reserve, Cam Akers torn his other achilles which is the second of his career, Cordarrelle Patterson and Mack Hollins both left the game with an ankle injury, both KJ Osborn and Jaren Hall left the game with concussions, Brian Burns left with a concussion, and much more.
That concludes NFL week 9, see you next week.