Sunday’s NFL Week 9 action got going from Germany early in the morning with the Kansas City Chiefs defeating the Miami Dolphins by the score of 21-14. It was a brilliant overall effort from Kansas City’s defense.
The early-afternoon games saw Joshua Dobbs lead his Minnesota Vikings to a win over the Atlanta Falcons in the veteran’s debut with the team.
The Arizona Cardinals were a disaster class in a shutout loss to the Cleveland Browns. Meanwhile, the Baltimore Ravens had their way with the Seattle Seahawks in a blowout win. As for the late-afternoon games, the Las Vegas Raiders came to play in Antonio Pierce’s debut as their interim head coach while the Dallas Cowboys self destructed late in a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Here are the biggest winners and losers from Sunday’s NFL Week 9 action.
Related: NFL Week 9 power rankings
Winner: Joshua Dobbs does the unimaginable for the Minnesota Vikings
Acquired from the Arizona Cardinals ahead of Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline, Dobbs was thrown into action Sunday after Jaren Hall went down with a concussion. This came a week after QB1 Kirk Cousins was lost for the season with a torn Achilles.
Without any real knowledge of Kevin O’Connell’s offensive system, Dobbs was pretty much making it up on the fly against the Atlanta Falcons. Boy, did he impress. The journeyman completed 20-of-30 passes for 158 yards, including the game winner to Brandon Powell with just 22 seconds remaining.
By virtue of this 31-28 road win over Atlanta, the Vikings sit at 5-4 on the campaign. They’ve now won four consecutive games. And while the injury to Cousins has Minnesota facing an uphill climb, Dobbs’ performance tells us a whole heck of a lot about the veteran.
Loser: Disaster class of a performance from Bryce Young
Coming off their first win of the season last week, most expected the Carolina Panthers to continue improving at home against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. Boy, we couldn’t have been more wrong.
Bryce Young was a complete and utter disaster, completing 24-of-39 passes for 173 yards with three interceptions. That included two pick-sixes into the hands of Colts cornerback Kenny Moore.
This is a continuation of what has been an up-and-down rookie campaign for the No. 1 pick. Through seven starts, he’s accounted for eight touchdowns and seven interceptions. The three picks Young threw on Sunday played a huge role in Carolina’s 27-13 home loss to Indianapolis.
Winner: Kansas City Chiefs defense continues to step up
Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City’s offense has not been the same all season. This unit headed into NFL Week 9 averaging just a hair over 23 points per game. However, it’s been all about the Chiefs’ surprising defense. We’re talking about a unit that entered Sunday’s game in Germany yielding the second-fewest points in the league.
Taking on Tua Tagovailoa and a Dolphins offense that was on a record pace heading into Week 9, this defense stood up big time. It shut out Miami in the first half, taking a 21-0 lead into halftime. The likes of Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson did their thing at cornerback, holding Tua to less than 200 passing yards. Meanwhile, the Chiefs’ defensive front got to Tua for six hits and three sacks. The end result was an impressive 21-14 win and a major bounce back effort after last week’s ugly loss to the Denver Broncos.
Related: NFL Week 9 defense rankings
Loser: Geno Smith and the Seattle Seahawks overmatched
Seattle entered NFL Week 9 at 5-2 on the season and surprisingly in first place in the NFC West. While the team had not played pretty football thus far, winning five of seven to open the campaign had to be seen as a success.
About that? Seattle was completely overmatched by the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, losing by the score of 37-3. Smith threw yet another interception en route to completing just 13-of-28 passes for 157 yards. He also lost a fumble in turning it over twice. He’s now accounted for nine touchdowns and nine giveaways on the season. That simply isn’t going to cut it.
Winner: C.J. Stroud is absolutely insane
Stroud might have put up the best performance for a rookie quarterback in the history of the league during NFL Week 9. That’s not hyperbole. The No. 2 pick from Ohio State was downright brilliant, completing 30-of-42 passes for 470 yards with five touchdowns and zero interceptions.
Stroud’s 470 yards represent the most for a rookie in single-game NFL history. But what we saw during a 39-37 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was about more than mere stats. Tampa took a 37-33 lead with 46 seconds remaining. Taking over at their own 25-yard line, Stroud led the Texans down the field 75 yards on six plays, culminating in a game-winning touchdown pass to Tank Dell.
Talk about coming up clutch. Just amazing stuff from the youngster as he led his Texans to a win and a surprising 4-4 record. Through his first eight career starts, Stroud has tallied 14 touchdown passes and just one interception. Simply insane.
Loser: The Arizona Cardinals are absolutely pathetic
Kyler Murray’s return couldn’t come soon enough for the now 1-8 Cardinals. If we needed another example of that, look no further than Sunday’s pathetic effort in a 27-0 loss to the Cleveland Browns.
Rookie mid-round pick Clayton Tune got the start under center after Arizona opted to trade former QB1 Joshua Dobbs. He responded by compleying 11-of-20 passes for 17 net yards with three total turnovers. All said, the Cards’ offense tallied 58 total yards on 48 plays, picking up a mere seven first downs in the process. Talk about setting an NFL offense back decades.
Winner: Baltimore Ravens are the NFL’s best team
Baltimore entered NFL Week 9 having won three consecutive while outscoring its opponents by an average of 10 points per game. Lamar Jackson (14 total TD, 3 INT) is playing at an MVP level. The defense has just been absolutely dominating.
Seattle found that out first-hand Sunday afternoon, going into Baltimore and being manhandled by the score of 37-3. Jackson was darn good (21-of-26 passing, 247 total yards). Undrafted rookie free agent Keaton Mitchell went for 138 yards on just nine rush attempts, including this 40-yard touchdown run at the end of the third quarter.
Everything is clicking for John Harbaugh’s squad, and it has Baltimore looking like the class of the league following Sunday’s NFL Week 9 action.
Loser: Dallas Cowboys self destruct at the end
Dallas had itself in prime position to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles on the road Sunday and make it a race in the NFC East.
Down 28-23 late in the fourth quarter, Dallas drove all the way down to the Eagles’ six-yard line with 27 seconds remaining after three penalties on the home team. What followed was a disaster of epic proportions for Dallas.
Tyler Smith committed a false start on first and goal before Dak Prescott was sacked on the very next play. After an incomplete pass, the ‘Boys were called for a delay of game penalty. Then, facing a third-and-goal from the 27-yard line with five seconds remaining Prescott hit CeeDee Lamb short of the goal line. The end result was an ugly 28-23 loss and pretty much an end to Dallas’ division title aspirations.
Winner: Antonio Pierce had his Las Vegas Raiders playing great football
It’s a new day in Las Vegas. Mere days after Raiders owner Mark Davis opted to fire head coach Josh McDaniels, they took on the New York Giants at home on Sunday. We didn’t know what to expect from the team with interim Antonio Pierce calling the shots and rookie Aidan O’Connell replacing a benched Jimmy Garoppolo under center.
Pretty much from the get, Vegas pounced on the Giants in a big way. They opened up a 24-0 halftime lead with O’Connell and Josh Jacobs doing their thing on offense. The young quarterback completed 16-of-25 passes for 209 yards without a touchdown or an interception.
Vegas’ defense intercepted Tommy DeVito twice after he replaced an injured Daniel Jones under center. The end result was a blowout 30-6 win for the Raiders in Pierce’s debut. This is what Davis wanted when he made the decision to fire McDaniels. That is to say, a refreshing brand of Raiders football.