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What We Learned From Week 9 of the NFL Season Pt 1 of 2
NY Times by Benjamin Hoffman Nov. 8, 2020 (edited by lethe200)
Sunday’s Top Performers
Top Passer: Patrick Mahomes
You can make a case for Buffalo QB Josh Allen’s huge day in a win against Seattle - which was probably the best overall game of his career - or New Orleans QB Drew Brees’s total destruction of TBay. Or even Arizona QB Kyler Murray’s eye-popping statistics in a loss to Miami. But it’s not every day a player breaks an NFL record held by Dan Marino. Patrick Mahomes did just that, throwing for 372 yds and the 98th, 99th, 100th and 101st passing TDs of his career.
In 40 career starts, Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs has 101 TD passes, which is four fewer starts than Marino’s previous record, which had stood since 1986. Mahomes has thrown for 300 or more yds 22 times and has been held to fewer than 300 just 18 times.
Top Runner: Dalvin Cook
There have been eight games of 150 or more yds rushing this season, and Cook has three of them. He had 181 in Week 3, 163 in Week 8 and a career-high 206 this week. His latest performance pushed him ahead of Tennessee’s Derrick Henry for the NFL lead in rushing yds despite Cook having played in one fewer game than Henry.
Top Receiver: Tyreek Hill
A few players had more catches than Hill on Sunday, and several had more yds, but Hill’s nine-catch 113-yard day stood out because of his two TDs, both of which came in the fourth quarter of a tight game. The first of the two was a beautiful 28-yarder in which a coverage breakdown by Carolina led to Hill being comically open for the 100th TD pass of Mahomes’s career.
One* Sentence About Sunday’s Games (*Except when it takes more.)
Bills 44, Seahawks 34. Want an idea of how bad Seattle’s defense has been this season? Despite giving up 44 points - the most the team has allowed in Coach Pete Carroll’s 11 seasons with the team - the Seahawks actually performed better than they typically do this year. The 420 total yds they gave up were 40 fewer than they were allowing per game coming in. The seven sacks they had were a season-high.
Seattle’s porous defense may want to ask Russell Wilson if he’s interested in playing both ways, as the QB made a solid tackle of Tre’Davious White that prevented the Bills cornerback from scoring following an interception. Seattle maintains its lead in the NFC West with a 6–2 record, thanks to Arizona losing to Miami, and the LA Rams with a bye week.
While the offensive output was nice, Buffalo was probably just as excited by a defensive performance with five sacks, 11 QB hits and four turnovers forced against the top-scoring offense in the NFL.
It was Buffalo’s first game with 40 or more points since 2018 and gave Josh Allen the second 400-yard passing game of his career. The Bills improved to 7-2, which matches the team’s best nine-game start since 1993.
Ravens 24, Colts 10. An interception can look a lot like an incomplete pass. Colts QB Philip Rivers was quietly livid over a ruling that gave a batted ball away to the Ravens, who then went down the field for a TD. Instead of the Colts leading 10-7 with a chance to score, the Ravens went ahead 14-10 and never looked back.
It was a quiet day for Baltimore’s offense, with just 266 total yds, but Lamar Jackson’s 9-yard TD run in Q4 put the Ravens over 20 points for a 31st consecutive game. The Ravens broke the previous record of 30 they had shared with Denver, which had its streak stretch over the 2012, 2013 and 2014 seasons.
Steelers 24, Cowboys 19. Pittsburgh is in uncharted territory. The Steelers have never started a season 8-0. Sunday’s win was far from pretty, as Dallas made this look like a football game, leading Pittsburgh right up to 2:19 left in the game. But then Ben Roethlisberger threw two TD passes in quick succession, the second involving TE Eric Ebron hurdling a defender on his way to score. The Steelers scraped by with yet another win and Dallas, despite great improvement from last week, fell to 2-7.
Chiefs 33, Panthers 31. It got way too close for KC’s comfort toward the end of the game, with Carolina’s offense firing on all cylinders thanks to the return of RB Christian McCaffrey who, along with QB Teddy Bridgewater and the do-everything receiver Curtis Samuel, makes Carolina a threat to score in bunches for the rest of the season. In his first action since Week 2, McCaffrey had 151 yds from scrimmage and two TDs for the Panthers in a hard-fought loss to the Chiefs that went right down to 0:0 on the clock. A last second TD was ruled incomplete, dropping Carolina to 3-6.
Saints 38, Buccaneers 3. The Saints’ Taysom Hill continues as a force both as a TE and a trick-play QB. He completed two passes for 48 yds, ran the ball seven times for 54 yds and caught one pass for 21 yds. The Saints scored early, and that eliminated the Bucs running game. All the dominoes fell over to hand the Saints a rout of their division rivals.
The Bucs' only points came from kicker Ryan Succop, who now has the third-most points of any kicker in the league with 74. He has an 89% field goal success rate this season. An injury-ridden OL allowed pressure on QB Brady, one of his few weaknesses since he’s not a mobile passer. Tampa’s D got tired, and the punting sucked. The Bucs made the night memorable by setting an NFL record with only five running plays in a game, breaking the previous record of six. They finished the day with just 8 yds rushing.
Titans 24, Bears 17. After six games, Chicago was 5-1 and looking like a possible playoff team. But after three consecutive losses Chicago is 5-4. The Titans go to 6-2 to keep their first place lead over the Colts – but this Thursday Nite match-up between these two teams gives the Colts a chance for a temporary tie if they win.
What We Learned From Week 9 of the NFL Season Pt 1 of 2
NY Times by Benjamin Hoffman Nov. 8, 2020 (edited by lethe200)
Sunday’s Top Performers
Top Passer: Patrick Mahomes
You can make a case for Buffalo QB Josh Allen’s huge day in a win against Seattle - which was probably the best overall game of his career - or New Orleans QB Drew Brees’s total destruction of TBay. Or even Arizona QB Kyler Murray’s eye-popping statistics in a loss to Miami. But it’s not every day a player breaks an NFL record held by Dan Marino. Patrick Mahomes did just that, throwing for 372 yds and the 98th, 99th, 100th and 101st passing TDs of his career.
In 40 career starts, Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs has 101 TD passes, which is four fewer starts than Marino’s previous record, which had stood since 1986. Mahomes has thrown for 300 or more yds 22 times and has been held to fewer than 300 just 18 times.
Top Runner: Dalvin Cook
There have been eight games of 150 or more yds rushing this season, and Cook has three of them. He had 181 in Week 3, 163 in Week 8 and a career-high 206 this week. His latest performance pushed him ahead of Tennessee’s Derrick Henry for the NFL lead in rushing yds despite Cook having played in one fewer game than Henry.
Top Receiver: Tyreek Hill
A few players had more catches than Hill on Sunday, and several had more yds, but Hill’s nine-catch 113-yard day stood out because of his two TDs, both of which came in the fourth quarter of a tight game. The first of the two was a beautiful 28-yarder in which a coverage breakdown by Carolina led to Hill being comically open for the 100th TD pass of Mahomes’s career.
One* Sentence About Sunday’s Games (*Except when it takes more.)
Bills 44, Seahawks 34. Want an idea of how bad Seattle’s defense has been this season? Despite giving up 44 points - the most the team has allowed in Coach Pete Carroll’s 11 seasons with the team - the Seahawks actually performed better than they typically do this year. The 420 total yds they gave up were 40 fewer than they were allowing per game coming in. The seven sacks they had were a season-high.
Seattle’s porous defense may want to ask Russell Wilson if he’s interested in playing both ways, as the QB made a solid tackle of Tre’Davious White that prevented the Bills cornerback from scoring following an interception. Seattle maintains its lead in the NFC West with a 6–2 record, thanks to Arizona losing to Miami, and the LA Rams with a bye week.
While the offensive output was nice, Buffalo was probably just as excited by a defensive performance with five sacks, 11 QB hits and four turnovers forced against the top-scoring offense in the NFL.
It was Buffalo’s first game with 40 or more points since 2018 and gave Josh Allen the second 400-yard passing game of his career. The Bills improved to 7-2, which matches the team’s best nine-game start since 1993.
Ravens 24, Colts 10. An interception can look a lot like an incomplete pass. Colts QB Philip Rivers was quietly livid over a ruling that gave a batted ball away to the Ravens, who then went down the field for a TD. Instead of the Colts leading 10-7 with a chance to score, the Ravens went ahead 14-10 and never looked back.
It was a quiet day for Baltimore’s offense, with just 266 total yds, but Lamar Jackson’s 9-yard TD run in Q4 put the Ravens over 20 points for a 31st consecutive game. The Ravens broke the previous record of 30 they had shared with Denver, which had its streak stretch over the 2012, 2013 and 2014 seasons.
Steelers 24, Cowboys 19. Pittsburgh is in uncharted territory. The Steelers have never started a season 8-0. Sunday’s win was far from pretty, as Dallas made this look like a football game, leading Pittsburgh right up to 2:19 left in the game. But then Ben Roethlisberger threw two TD passes in quick succession, the second involving TE Eric Ebron hurdling a defender on his way to score. The Steelers scraped by with yet another win and Dallas, despite great improvement from last week, fell to 2-7.
Chiefs 33, Panthers 31. It got way too close for KC’s comfort toward the end of the game, with Carolina’s offense firing on all cylinders thanks to the return of RB Christian McCaffrey who, along with QB Teddy Bridgewater and the do-everything receiver Curtis Samuel, makes Carolina a threat to score in bunches for the rest of the season. In his first action since Week 2, McCaffrey had 151 yds from scrimmage and two TDs for the Panthers in a hard-fought loss to the Chiefs that went right down to 0:0 on the clock. A last second TD was ruled incomplete, dropping Carolina to 3-6.
Saints 38, Buccaneers 3. The Saints’ Taysom Hill continues as a force both as a TE and a trick-play QB. He completed two passes for 48 yds, ran the ball seven times for 54 yds and caught one pass for 21 yds. The Saints scored early, and that eliminated the Bucs running game. All the dominoes fell over to hand the Saints a rout of their division rivals.
The Bucs' only points came from kicker Ryan Succop, who now has the third-most points of any kicker in the league with 74. He has an 89% field goal success rate this season. An injury-ridden OL allowed pressure on QB Brady, one of his few weaknesses since he’s not a mobile passer. Tampa’s D got tired, and the punting sucked. The Bucs made the night memorable by setting an NFL record with only five running plays in a game, breaking the previous record of six. They finished the day with just 8 yds rushing.
Titans 24, Bears 17. After six games, Chicago was 5-1 and looking like a possible playoff team. But after three consecutive losses Chicago is 5-4. The Titans go to 6-2 to keep their first place lead over the Colts – but this Thursday Nite match-up between these two teams gives the Colts a chance for a temporary tie if they win.