Week 9 brought another slate of NFL games that included some entertaining duels and some surprising upsets across the league.
After nine weeks, the AFC East still has one team at the top of the division – the Miami Dolphins at 6-3.
Miami remained atop despite suffering another loss to a winning team, as they were downed by the Kansas City Chiefs in Frankfurt, Germany. The Chiefs put the Dolphins in an early 21-0 hole that Mike McDaniel’s team failed to dig completely out of. Heading into a bye week, they have a lot of things to work on if they want to be taken seriously going forward.
The Bills dropped their Sunday battle with the Cincinnati Bengals to fall to just a single game over an even record. While they have the talent, something still seems to be just a bit off with their team this year. They aren’t playing at the same level that they had in seasons past that resulted in consideration for a conference championship.
Robert Saleh’s New York Jets fell to the Los Angeles Chargers 27-6 on Monday Night Football. This is the type of football that many expected from the Jets when Aaron Rodgers suffered his Achilles injury in the season opener. They bring some solid defense, but the offense doesn’t do much aside from turning the ball over multiple times. At least New York fans can be enamored with Rodgers hinting that he could be back playing in a few weeks.
Then, in the basement, are the New England Patriots, who lost to the Washington Commanders 20-17 at home. There’s a clear lack of talent for Bill Belichick’s offense, and he has no one to blame but himself. Mac Jones isn’t lifting anyone else up, and their lone bright spots are Rhamondre Stevenson and a sixth-round rookie wide receiver from Liberty in Demario Douglas. If the season ended today they’d have the sixth overall pick in next year’s draft, and it wouldn’t be surprising if they had a new head coach and general manager as well.
Week 10 AFC East matchups:
- Buffalo Bills (5-4) vs. Denver Broncos (3-5) – MNF
- New York Jets (4-4) vs. Las Vegas Raiders (4-5)
- New England Patriots (2-7) vs. Indianapolis Colts (4-5) – in Germany