We’re about halfway through the NFL season, and the playoff picture is beginning to come into focus. I’d like to say I have a good read on which teams are for real and which aren’t. I thought that a month ago, too, so maybe don’t hold me to it.
Here are my main takeaways from Sunday’s Week 9 games.
Cincinnati has its flaws, but it looks like a team capable of winning a championship.
The Bengals had been starting slowly and came back from 13-point deficits in each of their previous two games, including an overtime win over Tennessee. On Sunday, they gave up a touchdown on Atlanta’s opening drive, then took control in Spain. It was another comeback, but this time it never felt especially close.
Cincinnati put together four consecutive scoring drives and went into halftime up 24-10. Atlanta didn’t get closer than seven points after the break, and the Bengals answered with a touchdown as soon as the Falcons threatened to make it a one-score game. If the defense keeps playing this way, Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins will be difficult to stop.
Sometimes a win is just a win.
The Giants aren’t suddenly a great team, but they’re 5-2-1 and firmly atop the NFC East. Bringing in Super Bowl-winning coach John Harbaugh after Baltimore let him go already looks like a terrific move for New York. The Giants have had to deal with a long list of injuries, including one to starting quarterback Jaxson Dart, but they’ve kept their season on track.
Sean Payton may want to send the officials a thank-you gift.
Controversial calls have played a big part in two Denver wins this season. On Sunday, the Panthers were penalized 13 times for 119 yards, including several third-down flags that extended Broncos drives. Not every call was necessarily wrong, but Denver seemed to get the favorable end of things more often than not.
Officials also let Payton challenge an incompletion after Carolina had already run another play, ruling that he had thrown the challenge flag before the snap. The review gave Denver the ball after Devon Key’s interception. Even with those breaks, the Broncos nearly squandered a 12-point lead with under six minutes left. Nik Bonitto’s strip-sack finally sealed the win.
The so-called superteam is finally above .500.
Few teams have been hit harder by injuries than the Rams, but they now have more wins than losses for the first time this season. It wasn’t a pretty performance, which has been the case for much of their year, but Los Angeles held on for its third straight win after opening 2-4. Sean McVay has turned around slow starts before, and the team is getting healthier, with Myles Garrett back on Sunday.
The Rams don’t look like the obvious Super Bowl favorite many expected them to be. Still, they could be a tough opponent come January.
Kansas City did what it was supposed to do.
When the Chiefs host a struggling Jets team, they’re expected to take care of business. They did, outscoring New York 21-0 in the second half and cruising to the win. Kansas City also had a scare when Patrick Mahomes appeared to hurt his right arm. He returned for the next possession, but his health is worth keeping an eye on. An injury to Mahomes is about the only thing that might derail the Chiefs’ bid for a fourth Super Bowl title in eight seasons.
Detroit won the game it was expected to win.
The Lions weren’t especially sharp on offense, but they didn’t need to be against Miami. Jake Bates made four field goals, Jahmyr Gibbs scored the only touchdown, and Detroit’s defense kept the Dolphins out of the end zone. The Lions have won four straight and are now 6-2, which matters more than this particular result.
Beating a 1-7 team won’t change anyone’s opinion of Detroit. Losing to one, though, would have.
Neither Dallas nor Indianapolis looked like a good team, even in an entertaining game.
The Colts kicked a go-ahead 50-yard field goal with 1:37 remaining, then Dallas answered with a game-winning touchdown less than half a minute later. It made for an exciting finish, but exciting isn’t the same as good. Indianapolis has more or less given up on the season, and the Cowboys still needed a late score to beat them.
The teams combined for 23 penalties and four turnovers. Dallas alone gave up an astonishing 153 penalty yards. Somehow, the Cowboys are still in the NFC East race, but they haven’t looked like a particularly strong team.
Shedeur Sanders did enough to stir up a quarterback debate in Cleveland.
For much of Sunday’s game, Sanders reminded me of Deshaun Watson in terms of his play. His numbers—297 passing yards and two touchdowns—look better than the overall performance, and his receivers deserve some credit. But Sanders’ 30-yard throw to Jerry Jeudy, delivered as Chase Young hit him, helped set up the game-tying field goal. It may have been the best throw by a Browns quarterback this season.
Sanders also moved Cleveland into position to win in overtime, before a failed two-point attempt ended the game. Watson hasn’t done much to secure his place as the starter. If the Browns are going to get inconsistent quarterback play either way, perhaps it makes sense to let the 24-year-old develop through it.
At some point, somebody is going to have to lose their job.
Offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel is an obvious candidate, though the Chargers’ problems go beyond him. He isn’t helping, either. Los Angeles went 12 full quarters—three games—without an offensive touchdown before finally scoring, by which point it was already down 38-9 in the fourth quarter.
The bigger issue is that the Chargers aren’t even competitive right now. This was their third straight loss by at least 15 points, and five of their eight defeats have been by double digits. “Disaster” doesn’t quite cover it. The question now is whether Los Angeles will use what could be a top-five draft pick on a quarterback to replace Justin Herbert.
Brock Purdy should be the favorite for NFL MVP.
Purdy may not be the league’s flashiest or most naturally gifted player, but his season deserves serious attention. San Francisco has been depleted at receiver: Mike Evans and Deebo Samuel are out, Brandon Aiyuk is unavailable, and Ricky Pearsall and Christian Kirk are on injured reserve.
Even so, Purdy has completed 69% of his passes and is on pace to throw for more than 4,000 yards. Jordan Watkins, who had eight career catches before Sunday, led the team with 86 receiving yards and a touchdown. It hardly seems to matter who the 49ers put at receiver. If he’s wearing their uniform, Purdy finds a way to get him the ball and put points on the board.
There wasn’t much to learn from this game.
Arizona is bad; that part wasn’t new. Seattle may be good, but it’s still hard to tell. Drew Lock started in place of Sam Darnold, so we didn’t get much of a look at the Seahawks’ offense. And shutting down a Gardner Minshew-led Cardinals offense doesn’t reveal much about a defense that gave up 34 points to Chicago a week after holding Kansas City to three.
Seattle has been inconsistent since its Super Bowl win, and this game didn’t settle anything. The Seahawks’ trip to San Francisco on Nov. 29, against the NFC West-leading 49ers, should tell us more.
I’m trying not to get carried away, but the Packers look terrific.
New England isn’t the team that made the Super Bowl last season, and Drake Maye hasn’t looked like the MVP runner-up he was then. Still, the Patriots aren’t terrible. Green Bay made their defense look badly outmatched and forced four turnovers, including three interceptions from Maye.
Since Atlanta embarrassed the Packers in Week 3, Green Bay has gone 5-1. Its only loss came in a game it probably should have won against Detroit. Upcoming matchups with Minnesota and the Rams will offer a better sense of whether the Packers are genuine Super Bowl contenders. For now, they look the part.
Sunday night gave NFL fans the full Caleb Williams experience.
Williams may be the most physically gifted quarterback in the league, and he can make throws few others can. But his decision-making is still a concern. For the first 21 minutes of the game, he looked like the best quarterback in football, making off-platform throws and hitting receivers in stride.
The trouble with being able to make every throw is beginning to believe you can make every throw. Williams started forcing the ball and threw interceptions on back-to-back attempts in the second quarter. He added another interception on the final drive of the first half and a fourth in the third quarter.
Williams completed 11 of his first 16 passes for 150 yards and two touchdowns. Over his next 16 attempts, he completed just seven for 73 yards, with four interceptions. The Bears got a break: Tampa Bay scored only three points off those turnovers, and Baker Mayfield threw two interceptions of his own, including a pick-six.
The talent is obvious. But if Chicago wants to become a real Super Bowl contender, Williams has to cut down on the mistakes, and soon.
