NFL Week 9 Recap: They Can't Keep Getting Away With This!

The Kansas City Chiefs are still undefeated. They sure as hell shouldn't be.

Week 9 ended with the Chiefs at home against a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team who still has both of their top wide receivers out, and it has showed. Despite this, the Bucs hung on and had two different leads: 7-3 and 17-10, the latter lead coming in the fourth quarter. The game saw DeAndre Hopkins really show out: 8 receptions for 86 yards and two touchdowns, with the second one giving the Chiefs a fourth quarter lead. Bucs had one more chance to tie it up, and with under 30 seconds left, they did just that. 24-24, and KC being forced to punt ended up forcing overtime. KC won the toss, took the ball, and that was it. Touchdown drive won it for the Chiefs.

I'm serious, this year's Chiefs have to be the worst 8-0 team I've ever seen. Remember how shaky the 2020 Pittsburgh Steelers were during their 11-0 start? Here's the thing. At least the shakiness from Pittsburgh started at around this time in 2020. The 2024 Chiefs are worse. KC should have lost each of their first three games this season, and the other wins saw them barely skate by. Out of their eight wins, only two were by double digits, but they were against a dead Saints team and a broken Niners team--neither by 20 points.

Talking heads will say, "Championship teams win those type of games." You know what else championship teams do? Not come close to losing games against teams they should blow out. BTW, the 2020 Steelers? Their first loss was against a Washington team who finished 7-9, and they totally crashed and burned after starting 11-0, with the final nail being a blowout playoff loss to the Browns. And what gets me is that Patrick Mahomes is in MVP consideration despite the fact that he entered Monday's game with more INTs than TD passes. I swear, if Baltimore was 8-0 in the same fashion as KC, with Lamar Jackson getting the same numbers, literally everybody would be laughing at the Ravens and calling them frauds.

Speaking of frauds...

Yeah, so the AFC East is the Buffalo Bills' to lose. It actually reached that point entering Week 9, but after their last second win over the Miami Dolphins, it became a constant. And yeah, I got a lot of flak from Bills fans on Twitter. All I said was that the Dolphins wound run away with the East and the Bills would miss the playoffs. That's all. Unlike Bills fans, on the very, very miniscule, atom-sized chance that I'm wrong about something, I own up to it. I said Buffalo would miss the playoffs, and now, I am eating enough crow to cover all of Upstate NY. But here's the truth. The Bills are benefactors of circumstances. The only reasons why the Bills are running away with the East: Tua's injury and Rodgers being a dictator. If only one of these things doesn't happen, it's a different story. But you can't tell Bills fans the truth; after all, they still blame Stefon Diggs for missing a bad throw that not even prime Jerry Rice would have caught. So yeah, the East belongs to Buffalo. Just don't fuck up in January again, eh?

We are gathered here today to say goodbye to the 2024 Dallas Cowboys season. Dallas' loss to the Atlanta Falcons has dropped them to 3-5 and has their playoff hopes on life support, even with nine weeks left in the season. It hasn't helped that the Washington Commanders won yet again, this time against the New York Giants, and the Philadelphia Eagles escaped against the Jags. The division is out for Dallas, and sadly, so is Dak Prescott. A hamstring injury will sideline Dak for several weeks, and even with Dak carrying the load, Dallas is now barely ahead of the Panthers in the conference, as the Panthers pulled out a 23-22 win over the New Orleans Saints. I don't know how long Dak will be out, but here are Dallas' next three games: vs PHI, vs HOU, @ WSH. That's a mini murderers' row, especially since Dallas can't seem to win at home lately.

Speaking of the Saints, losing to the lowly Panthers was the last straw, as the team fired Dennis Allen as their head coach after 2.5 seasons at the helm; the second in-season coach firing this year. This was Allen's second HC gig; he coached the Oakland Raiders from 2012-14, but was let go after an 0-4 start to the 2014 season. Allen was hired by the Saints in the 2022 season, coming after Sean Payton left the team. 2022 saw the Saints finish 7-10, but last year, there did appear to be some promise. The Saints were alive in the playoff race to the very end, finishing at 9-8 and had two chances in the final week. However, Tampa Bay's win eliminated them from the division, and Green Bay's win ended New Orleans' season. The loss to the Panthers was the Saints' seventh straight since starting 2-0. Here's a scary fact. One of the Saints' two wins this season: against Dallas in Jerry World.

Week 9 began with the New York Jets ending their losing streak by defeating the Houston Texans on Thursday Night Football. As for the rest of Sunday's early window, the Cincinnati Bengals blasted the Las Vegas Raiders, the Los Angeles Chargers won over the Cleveland Browns, and the Tennessee Titans finally picked up win #2 this season in an overtime thriller over the New England Patriots. The centerpiece of the early window was the Baltimore Ravens dominating the Denver Broncos, and for Derrick Henry, it was business as usual. Another two touchdowns on the ground, totalling 13 in all. He has found the end zone at least once in every game played this season. Henry's 30, which is normally the age when running backs fizzle, but he has definitely found the fountain of youth in Baltimore.

There were three overtime games in Week 9, and other the two I mentioned, there was this gem in the late window between the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks. It didn't look good for the Rams, but they did come back and managed to make it to overtime in Seattle. The Seahawks had the ball first, and made it to the red zone, but they decided to go for it on 4th and 1, and it fell flat. The Rams took over, and it became sudden death from that point. All the Rams needed was a field goal, but they ended up getting the whole thing--a long bomb to Demarcus Robinson won it for the Rams, 26-20. The Arizona Cardinals blasted the Chicago Bears, 29-9, so the Cards still lead the NFC West, but the Rams move past the idle 49ers, while the Seahawks, who started 3-0, have won only once since then and fall to the bottom of the division, but it's still close overall.

And that's that. The 2024 NFL season is halfway done! As for Week 10, the Cincinnati Bengals and the Baltimore Ravens will kick off the second half on Thursday Night Football. We will also receive our last international game of the season, as the New York Giants and the Carolina Panthers will face off in Germany. The Detroit Lions and the Houston Texans will face off on Sunday Night Football, and on Monday Night Football, the Los Angeles Rams will host the Miami Dolphins.

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Check out my story about the Lions/Packers NFC North battle!