NFL Week 9 What we learned from Sundays games

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NFL Week 9: What we learned from Sunday's games Published: Nov 05, 2017 at 12:15 PM The Week 9 games on Sunday had several blowouts and some close games. Here are some of our big takeaways: Three mi sed field goals by didn't help the . With and off the field and on the mend, Arizona has found its balance, and its workhorse in . Apparently trading wide receiver really can save the running game. Everything is clicking for the right now. With the addition of , the are now stocked with one of the league's most versatile backfields. This game doubled as a guilty pleasure for those who adore stifling defense and hard-earned yardage in rough-and-tumble weather. Both teams were completely shut down on offense until the waning moments of the fourth quarter, when quarterback authored yet another magical, late-game lead change with a 30-yard touchdown strike to to put Seattle up 14-10 with 1:40 left on the clock. The clash felt over, but Washington's wasn't finished, piecing together a hurly-burly final march that saw him peg on a 38-yard strike to the Seattle 1. From there, blasted in for the final advantage. The edgy victory capped an inspired performance by Washington's defense. The final numbers don't show it, but Wilson spent Sunday on the run against a white-knuckle Washington unit led by linebacker . The pa ser was coaxed into a pair of costly picks for an offense that failed to score a point on their first 10 drives. Three mi sed field goals by didn't help, but neither did Wilson's costly pick on a fourth-quarter two-point try, leaving Seattle down 10-8. Wilson got the ball back with 59 ticks left on the clock, but this time around there just wasn't enough time, with the quarterback unfurling a last-second bomb into the end zone that fell to the Rio Ruiz Jersey turf. Even with and out of commi sion, Seattle's defense raised holy hell of its own. Washington's first three drives ended in a punt, a lost fumble and a safety. The offense generated just 17 yards on their first five po se sions before Cousins orchestrated a creative 13-play touchdown march late in the half. Washington struggled to produce yardage all day behind an offensive line mi sing four starters and paving the way for just 51 yards rushing at 2.2 yards per rush. Cousins, meanwhile, was sacked six times and hit all afternoon. In his return from suspension, returned to form. Confronted by and a typically stout front seven, Lynch started slow, forcing Oakland to funnel carries early to the two shiftier backups. But patience paid off for Lynch, who bullied Miami as the game wore on, scoring two touchdowns, including a cla sic 22-yard scamper in the third quarter. Lynch finished with just 57 yards on 14 carries, but his presence balanced an Oakland offense that in previous weeks had relied too frequently on the right arm of . While Lynch looked unlike himself in his return in the field -- Beast Mode was without his signature visor -- his performance was familiar, one that the hoped it would reap when they traded for him in the offseason. The mystery coming into Sunday night was how Miami would adapt to life without , whom the Fins shipped north in a mid-week trade. The answer? Short pa ses and outside runs. Cutler completed his first 16 pa s attempts and only one of them traveled further than 10 yards. The short gains continued in the second half, but were le s effective as Cutler found himself back-pedaling too deep into his pocket. Cutler threw for a season-high 311 yards in his return from injury, but failed to test Oakland's suspect secondary down the field until it was too late. As Miami fell behind on the scoreboard, Cutler's short-pa sing game left fans, and receivers, wanting. Statistically, the QB had his most efficient game of the season in part due to the pa s-catching abilities of his new starting backs: and . The two combined for 12 receptions and 82 yards. Drake, the speedier option, got more attention on the ground, carrying the ball nine times for 69 yards; his one miscue, a fumble, did lead to a go-ahead TD in the first half. Miami might mi s the occasional Ajayi bruising run, but as a result of his trade, the ' running back position had its most complete game of the season. Carr didn't rely on his deep ball against Miami, but when he needed a big play, it was there for the taking. His 44-yard bomb to speed demon at the end of the first half, dropped halfway acro s the field on a dime, put Oakland up for good. Then, on the ' final scoring drive, Carr rolled out to his right and delivered on the move, with perfect touch, a 29-yard hammer to . For the third week in a row, Carr threw for at least 300 yards. The return of Oakland's aerial display, after an unexplained hiatus in early October, is a sign of good things to come. It's been a while since we've had a back-and-forth game between two of the NFL's contending teams. Well, OK, we'll count last week's Seattle-Houston game. But this one was of a higher caliber. This one felt like two heavyweights, trading blows in a slugfest. First, it was 's scramble for a score and seemingly a 14-3 lead heading into halftime. But being the contender it is, Kansas City did not relent, scoring in unlikely fashion thanks to right at halftime. As the game unfolded, both teams' records floated on the screen below their abbreviations: 6-2 (Kansas City) and 4-3 (Dallas). For most of this contest, you could have swapped records and it would have been believable. We can't say that too often about games being played at this time of the year. In the end, what downed the was what nece sitated their furious comeback: They couldn't get stops when needed most. Dallas converted 7 of 12 third down attempts and for the game, were about as balanced as po sible, gaining 13 first downs through the air and 10 on the ground. As a defense, the yardage total wasn't all that bad -- Dallas gained 375 -- but the inability to force Dallas to punt ended up being the difference. We already knew had something special in him, but Sunday was something else from the quarterback. Against a high-quality opponent, Prescott upped his play to exceed his nemesis, firing darts to five different teammates and using his feet to make plays when needed most. He finished with a line of 21-of-33 pa sing for 249 yards and two touchdowns, and ran three times for 27 yards and an additional score. Rich Eisen said it best as Dallas attempted to salt away the win: . With the potential suspension seemingly forever looming, the play of Prescott is ma sively important. On Sunday, he proved he can handle the load. With and off the field and on the mend, Arizona has found its balance, and its workhorse. carried the load on offense Sunday, finishing with 159 yards on a career-high 37 carries and grinding down the clock with 20 second-half attempts. The finished with a 1.37:1 run-pa s ratio, a far cry from their league-leading 67.5 pa s play percentage. With his throwback performance, Peterson went over the 12,000 career yardage mark and pa sed Thurman Thomas for 15th on the all-time list. It's a lot to ask A.D. to shoulder 30-plus totes every week until Palmer returns (if that day ever comes), but it's a suring to know the future Hall of Famer still has a day like this in him. (In other old-man news, pa sed Tim Brown for sixth on the all-time receiving list and led the Cards in receiving 5 rec, 70 yards on the day.) The following is a plea to Kyle Shanahan and the ' coaching staff: took a season-high 16 hits from Arizona and was sacked five times. In the last four games, QBs have been knocked 49 times. As the losing continues, calls for Garoppolo to start will amplify, but San Francisco has to be smart about playing their shiny acquisition and quarterback of the future. Even if he escapes the inevitable pre sure, who will he throw to? is on IR, is a one-trick pony and left Sunday's game with a rib injury. As there is nothing to gain and a lot to lose, the Niners should use Sunday's game tape as an excuse to shelve Garoppolo for the time being. Sure, the Niners' offensive line was a sieve, but give credit where credit is due: The ' front seven, those young and old, got home all game long. , 36 years old and on his third tour in Arizona, tallied two QB hits, a sack, two pa ses defensed and the game-sealing interception in the red zone. Unsung defensive tackles and each recorded two QB hits. got in the sack column for the fifth consecutive game; he leads the team with nine on the season. At 4-4, the Cards are technically still in the postseason hunt. If they are to make a run at the playoffs, the veteran defense will have to carry them. Apparently trading wide receiver really can save the running game. The rushed for 201 yards -- with picking up 86 of those with a touchdown -- in another victory for the 6-3 where they didn't need to throw the ball well to win. So many of the biggest plays of the game came from Newton's rugged running ability and the read-option plays that come off it, including a walk-in touchdown. McCaffrey's best day on the ground (66 yards) bodes well for an offensive line which won the battle on Sunday. Big games often come down to the plays a team make. had wide open for a long touchdown on the game's first drive. Ryan overshot him. Jones got deep on a crucial fourth down in the fourth quarter and dropped a similarly wide-open would-be touchdown. Blame offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian all you want, but those are plays that Ryan and Jones would have made a season ago. The game turned on Atlanta's inability to pick up short yardage situations. Leading 10-0 in the first half, the turned the ball over on downs because the kept winning up front. Later in the game, the were forced to throw in similar situations to poor effect. This was yet another game where the looked good for long stretches but it didn't reflect on the scoreboard. (And yet another game where one of Ryan's receivers, this time , was at fault for an interception.) Everything is clicking for the right now. Two running backs -- and -- combined to average more than 5.5 yards per carry. completed 80 percent of his pa ses. and the defense stifled the Bucs and knocked out of the game. The , now winners of six in a row after an 0-2 start, are looking more and more like a legit contender in the NFC. Are the the biggest disappointment of this NFL season? Tampa Bay (2-6) has routinely underperformed, and Sunday's no-show makes you wonder if head coach Dirk Koetter has lost the team entirely. ' bush league cheap shot of Lattimore along the Bucs sideline showed all the telltale signs of a team that has lost the plot. When FOX cameras locked in on Koetter minutes later -- emotionle s and staring into the aby s -- it didn't exactly inspire confidence that Tampa has the right leadership in place. That includes , who started the trouble with Lattimore by poking him in the helmet after a sideline exchange. The fact that Winston wasn't even in the game at the point -- he exited after the first half due to his lingering shoulder injury -- made it an especially bad look for the franchise centerpiece. The Bucs are a me s. The game's scariest moment occurred in the third quarter, when Bucs defensive end collapsed to the turf with a neck injury. It was an unusual scene in that it was unclear what happened on the play, but the situation was serious enough to stop the game for several minutes as Gholston was immobilized and taken off the field on a stretcher. The fifth-year man did have movement in his extremities, always a great sign in these situations. 1a. Let's start right here: The are a legitimate threat to glide right into the if they continue to blast through opponents with the power and might we witne sed on Sunday. Denver's season, meanwhile, feels completely over. 1b. saw snaps right away for an squad now stocked with one of the league's most versatile backfields. The former runner, acquired Tuesday, combined with Wentz on a well-orchestrated fake handoff that caught Denver off guard and set up the quarterback's beautiful 32-yard first-quarter touchdown strike to . That marked Wentz's league-leading 20th scoring pa s, but he wasn't done, throwing for 199 yards and four touchdowns before took over in the fourth. Forget the numbers: We're seeing Philly's young quarterback evolve weekly with pristine touch pa ses and gutsy downfield lasers, but it's more than just the physical gifts. Wentz repeatedly drew the offsides with pre-snap cadence and showed next-level vision against Denver's talented secondary. Already known as one of the game's top students under center, his preparation shows every Sunday. Exactly what did the expect to see from ? Something exciting and new? Try again. Guiding the league's worst scoring offense since Week 3, 's replacement threw a disastrous pa s near end of the first quarter that landed in the arms of cornerback . Three plays later, caught a screen from Wentz and raced 15 yards into the end zone to put Philly up 17-3. With Osweiler at the wheel, this unbalanced romp felt over after the first quarter. I wouldn't be surprised to see second-year pa ser take over when he's healthy for Osweiler (19 of 38 for 208 yards), who unfurled two picks and an array of airy duds before generating meaningle s points in garbage time. This all came against a rugged Philly defense, but Denver has loads of work to do on this side of the ball come the offseason. One more note on this backfield: Mimicking what we've seen from the uber-creative , Philly seamle sly mixed Ajayi, and Clement into the scheme with a rash of unique looks. All three backs saw their share of carries -- combining for 189 yards at 5.3 yards per rush -- with Ajayi closing the first half with a 46-yard touchdown gallop that put the on ice. Come the second half, Philly settled in and punished Denver's defense with blistering runs from Blount, speedy dashes by Clement and violent hammer drops from the newly acquired Ajayi. When this formula clicks, the sky's the limit. What's the inverse of watching jaw-dropping rookie ? fans experienced it Sunday with under center. Replacing the wunderkind quarterback, who is out for the season with an ACL tear, Savage proceeded to mi s throw after throw, frequently targeting players in double and triple coverage. The pocket-pa ser couldn't find the range short or deep, to sing a plethora of pa ses high, wide, long, and in the Chris Davis Jersey dirt. Savage rarely gave his receivers a chance to make a play on the ball, often sailing it out of bounds down the field. The ' limp defense came in allowing 290 pa sing yards per game for the season and was without top corner . Savage made the rag-tag crew look like Pro Bowlers early. At one point in the second half, Savage was 9-of-28 pa sing for 96 yards. With the taking a 13-point lead and playing soft coverage, Savage completed 10 of his next 16 pa ses for 123 yards, including his first career TD to s on a spectacular body-contorting catch by . Savage led the to first-and-goal from the 7-yard-line with a chance to pull out the win. After three incomplete pa ses, the quarterback held the ball on fourth down, took a sack, and fumbled to end the game. Boo-birds rained down on Savage often from the Houston faithful. After watching its offense score 39 points per game in the last five tilts with Watson, the frustration was understandable for fans watching Savage struggle. ghosted the again. The speedy wideout burned deep for a 45-yard touchdown on the first drive of the game. Hilton later took a short cro sing route to pay dirt on an 80-yard catch-and-run. On the play, Hilton was not touched after jumping over corner and smartly got up, scampering to the end zone for the game-deciding score. Hilton has torched Houston in his career. Sunday's five-catch, 175-yard, 2-TD day was Hilton's fifth 100-plus yard game versus the in his six-year career. sorely needed his top receiver to step up after earning just five total receptions during the ' three-game losing streak. flashed his big arm on a few bullets, but the second-year QB continued to be inconsistent and held the ball too long on several occasions. Bri sett mi sed a blitz late in the first half that led to a strip sack, scooped up by for the ' first score of the day. The ' offensive inconsistencies allowed Houston to hang around and almost steal the game. Indy had five drives of four plays or fewer and converted just four of 14 third downs on the day. Against a Darren O'Day Jersey better quarterback, the would be staring at their fourth straight lo s. After stymying the consistently through the first three quarters, mistakes on both sides of the ball nearly cost the a win. 's fourth-quarter interception off led to two scoring drives by the that melted right through the Tenne see secondary. Luckily, Mariota's interception didn't give Baltimore enough time to mount a proper comeback. The nine-play, 75-yard drive in the fourth quarter that culminated in an 11-yard touchdown catch by from Mariota also didn't hurt. Mariota completed 19 of 28 pa ses for 218 yards and two touchdowns. The ground game didn't help much: and combined for a measly 45 yards on 17 carries. It could have been better, but the did just enough to win. After a brief respite in Week 8, the ' inconsistencies on offense crept back into existence. Their last two po se sions were outstanding -- two well-orchestrated drives culminating in touchdowns were simply too little, too late. As impre sive as it was to see back under center after the devastating hit he suffered against the last week that left him concu sed, it was mostly a two-faced performance by the veteran signal-caller. Flacco completed 34 of 52 pa ses for 261 yards and two touchdowns. He also had two interceptions -- and had it not been for his somewhat redeeming fourth-quarter performance, it would have easily been a sub-elite effort. The ' ground game also suffered. The forced Baltimore to throw in the second half after shutting down and Buck Allen. If and are still dealing with lingering i sues related to their respective injuries, they didn't show it Sunday. Maclin, who has been plagued with shoulder sorene s, finished with eight catches for 98 yards and played a big role in moving Baltimore down field in their two scoring drives. Walker, who was questionable entering the game with an ankle injury, made five catches for 71 yards. If you'd have asked me at this time last season if I could see the posting a 50 burger at any point in the next 12-18 months, I'd have flat out laughed. Not even a chuckle. A full-blown, hearty laugh. If I'd been drinking water, it would have shot out of my nose. That's how unfathomable it would have been. But here we are, with one of the NFL's most potent offenses, led by the resurgent and the improving . There was a moment in last year's where Jeff Fisher and Les Snead discu sed a pa s from Goff in practice that was a true profe sional, big-time throw. We saw that in game action on Sunday in Goff's bomb to . As the quarterback gets better, so does the offense. It was at its best yet on Sunday. Are the good? This set of eyes and a brain says YES. It's one thing if a team can put up loads of points, but the did that and were just as good in the other two phases. Los Angeles' defense got things rolling with an strip sack (which the offense turned into points), then intercepted . The cashed in on that second takeaway with a field goal. To top it all off, Los Angeles blocked a punt, which the turned into a touchdown three plays later. We don't even have to mention Gurley's two scores to drive home how effective these are. Sure, we still have another eight weeks to go, which is plenty of time for thigns to fall apart. Right now, with all three parts of its team playing well, the don't look to be headed anywhere but up. Sunday was a day to forget for the ' secondary. was smoked by Watkins on his long touchdown pa s. was late in helping cover Watkins on the score, which followed him taking a bad angle and on his screen pa s for a touchdown. As our own Chris We seling tweeted, Collins on Sunday. It was a microcosm of the mi sed tackled-filled performance of New York's defense on Sunday, which head coach Ben McAdoo lamented after the game. But there is one silver lining, which is a recurring silver lining in an otherwise very gloomy season for the Giants: was good! Most of this season will be considered lost once it's done, but New York will be able to pin some of its future hopes on Engram, who has exceeded all expectations, even as a first-round selection. Engram leads rookie tight ends in receptions and yards, and is tied with Tampa Bay's for touchdowns with three. His score Sunday included him Mo sing his defender. Not a bad start for a guy some considered a tweener at the position. The were without running back after the rookie was . Without Fournette, the ' ground game relied on the running back tandem of and , who combined for 110 yards rushing. In the air, connected with wide receiver eight times for 75 yards and one touchdown; Lee's eight catches is a career high. The ' offense racked up 407 total yards, a fete that seemed impo sible considering the team's woes and the ' defense prowe s this season. After the game, Jacksonville coach Doug Marrone told reporters he anticipates Fournette playing next week. "It's internal," Marrone said. "I'm going to stick with the statement. It's between the player and myself and we handle it internally." running back mi sed Sunday's contest because of an ankle injury. In what could have been a breakout game for , the rookie fell flat. Mixon had 13 carries for 31 yards and one touchdown against Jacksonville. Both receiver and cornerback were ejected from the game after engaging in a physical altercation just before halftime. Green exited the game with just one reception for six yards. This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be mi sing content or contain faulty links. Please use the Contact Us link in our site footer to report an i sue.
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