NFL Week 9 is complete, meaning the league is at the official halfway point of the season. The AFC North is a juggernaut from top to bottom and the defending Super Bowl champions look vulnerable.
Injuries continued to take a toll in NFL Week 9. Daniel Jones of the New York Giants is done with a torn ACL and Minnesota Vikings running back Cam Akers joins quarterback Kirk Cousins in Achilles’ tendon rehab.
Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles came from behind in the second half to retain the best record in the NFL. Their win over the Dallas Cowboys leaves the Birds as the NFL’s only 8-1 team. It also opens a two-and-a-half game lead in the NFC East over the Pokes, who are 5-3.
So let’s overreact to what we saw in NFL Week 9.
5. Troy Aikman isn’t wrong about the New York Jets
On the Monday Night Football broadcast, color analyst Troy Aikman nailed the 2023 New York Jets in one remark.
“They’re a bad team with a great defense,” Aikman said.
The Jets couldn’t find the end zone with a map on Monday night in a 27-6 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. New York fumbled the ball away three times. Zach Wilson got a good look at the night-time sky over MetLife Stadium as he was sacked eight times.
New York’s first three possessions set the tone. A three-and-out turned into an 87-yard punt return for a touchdown by Derius Davis. The Jets fumbled the ball away on each of its next two drives. That they were only down 14-0 after the first 15 minutes is a testament to their defense.
At 4-4, the Jets remain in the playoff mix. But they rank 30th in the NFL in scoring at 16.5 points per game. In the state of New Jersey, however, they lead all NFL teams in scoring. So there’s that.
Reality: Zach Wilson didn’t lose his job last season without justification. While he’s markedly better than a year ago in some areas, the Jets don’t trust him to throw the ball downfield. His 7.1 intended air yards per attempt is the lowest of his career. The bottom line is that New York needs Wilson to be better, but he might not be able to deliver on that.
4. Josh Dobbs ramped up the pressure on every quarterback in the league
“They’d be better if they just picked up some guy off the street to play quarterback.” Every NFL fan has some version of this lament in their library.
And after Sunday, brand-new Minnesota Vikings quarterback Josh Dobbs gave the concept at least a modicum of validity.
Dobbs, acquired from the Arizona Cardinals on trade deadline day, didn’t take a practice rep last week. The Vikings lost Cousins to a season-ending Achilles’ injury the week before and rookie Jaren Hall needed all the work he could get before his first start.
Then Hall sustained a concussion in the first quarter and Dobbs was thrust into the lineup. Since the NFL does not allow “Hello, My Name Is” stickers on jerseys, the fourth-year pro went into the huddle with a bunch of strangers.
He lost two fumbles early but later ran for a touchdown before directing an 11-play, 75-yard game-winning drive to beat the Atlanta Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Dobbs hit Brandon Powell with a six-yard touchdown pass with 22 seconds left to win it.
His reward? A start on Sunday when the Vikings host the New Orleans Saints with actual practice reps to prepare for it.
In the process, he raised the bar for every quarterback coming in off the street.
Reality: Minnesota head coach and play caller Kevin O’Connell was in Dobbs’ head, or at least his helmet, throughout the game. The Vikings went up-tempo on offense to allow O’Connell time to talk Dobbs through reads and progressions before the radio headset cut off. The result is that Minnesota owns the seventh spot in the NFC playoff chase. Whether it’s sustainable is an entirely different question.
3. The New York Giants’ nightmare gets worse
The New York Giants were drubbed by the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday. Their 30-6 loss leaves the Giants at 2-7 and with the worst scoring differential in the NFL at minus-116. New York ranks last in scoring offense and total offense and won’t have $160 million quarterback Daniel Jones the rest of the way.
Jones tore his ACL in the loss. In six starts, he threw six interceptions — two more than he had all of last season — and just two touchdown passes. His $160 million contract extension looked bad before and worse after the injury.
But behind an offensive line that resembles a fence that has been knocked over, it’s hard to imagine any quarterback having success. The Giants are done in 2023 after a surprising playoff run in 2022. And fair or not, Jones takes the brunt of the blame for the downfall.
Reality: Convenient scapegoats such as Jones don’t mask the harsh reality for New York. Without major improvements to the offensive line for next season, the situation won’t get better. Much as it was before coach Brian Daboll arrived in 2022, the roster is a mess. There may not be a quick fix to be had.
2. The offensive struggles of the Kansas City Chiefs are alarming
It turns out that you can’t just hand an all-world quarterback such as Patrick Mahomes a receiving corps from Goodwill and expect things to function as they did before.
The Kansas City Chiefs improved to 7-2 with a 21-14 win over the Miami Dolphins in Frankfurt on Sunday. But over the last two games, the Chiefs have gained a total of 541 yards. Their 174 net passing yards on Sunday is Kansas City’s lowest output of the season and Mahomes is on pace for a career-high in interceptions (he has eight in nine games) and his yards-per-game average of 271.3 is a career-low.
Mahomes’ average air yards per attempt has fallen every season since his first year as the starter in 2018, from 9.1 that season to just 6.7 in 2023. Part of that is defenses adjusting to Mahomes and the Chiefs’ system. But part of that is the declining quality of Kansas City’s receiving corps.
Tight end Travis Kelce is the rock of the group, with 57 receptions on 72 targets for 597 yards and four touchdowns. From there, Rashee Rice is the most-targeted wide receiver with 41 and has 32 catches for 378 yards and four scores. Kadarius Toney hasn’t produced consistently and Skyy Moore has just 16 catches in 30 targets.
Reality: Andy Reid’s offense is built on passing, but the running game’s struggles add to the issues in the air. Kansas City ranks 19th in rushing offense and, save for a two-week stretch against the Chicago Bears and the Jets that produced nearly 40% of this season’s total rushing yards, has been pedestrian at best. Throw in receivers that are merely average and this is a vulnerable defending champion.
1. The AFC North is king
If the NFL playoffs started this week, every team in the AFC North would be in the bracket. Of course, if the NFL playoffs started this week, it would mean something went terribly wrong somewhere, but let’s not dwell on that aspect of the thing.
The Baltimore Ravens, at 7-2, lead the division and trail only the Chiefs based on conference record. The three wild-card spots belong, at the moment, to the Pittsburgh Steelers (5-3), the Cleveland Browns (5-3) and the Cincinnati Bengals (5-3).
Ravens coach John Harbaugh declared the AFC North the NFL’s best division on Monday and the data makes it difficult to disprove the thesis.
Collectively, the AFC North is 17-6 outside divisional matchups, far and away the best of the eight divisions.
Cincinnati’s turnaround from a 1-3 start began in Week 5 with a win at Arizona and continued Sunday with a 24-18 triumph over the consistently inconsistent Buffalo Bills. Throw in the Bengals kind of winning the NFC West title (they have already swept their interconference slate) and the AFC North is a juggernaut.
At least until Mike Tomlin runs out of rabbits in his hat with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
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