As the NFL’s last remaining winless team, the Detroit Lions are desperate to pick up that first win. The outcomes of some games during Detroit’s Week 9 bye should help offer some optimism that the Lions can crack the win column no matter who they might be playing.
It was a weekend for the downtrodden to rise up. The Jacksonville Jaguars picked up their first win in North America since Week 1 of the 2020 season by stunning the Buffalo Bills, 9-6. Buffalo entered the game as 14.5-point road favorites and a compelling argument as the AFC’s best team. But a few key takeaways by Jacksonville and shoddy execution from the Buffalo offense led to the massive upset.
The Jaguars weren’t the only ones. The New York Giants improved to 3-6 by handling the Las Vegas Raiders, 23-16. The Raiders entered that game as the first-place team in the AFC West and road favorites over New York, which is tied with Detroit for the worst record since the start of the 2017 season.
Then there was Denver, which traded away its best player and somehow still blew out the high-flying Dallas Cowboys. Even without Von Miller, the Broncos stormed out to a 30-0 lead before Dallas dominated garbage time in Denver’s 30-16 win. The Cowboys had a claim as the NFC’s top team but instead went down in flames to a Broncos squad that had lost four of its last five and appeared to have waved the white flag by dealing Miller to the Rams.
On a higher plane of play, the Tennessee Titans went into Los Angeles and trampled the Rams, 28-16, despite losing MVP candidate Derrick Henry last week. Arizona annihilated San Francisco while playing without MVP candidate Kyler Murray and top receivers DeAndre Hopkins and A.J. Green and losing top RB Chase Edmunds in the first quarter, too. The Cardinals opened up a 31-7 lead on the road before the 49ers rang up two meaningless late scores.
It was an Any Given Sunday kind of Sunday. It should give some hope and viability to the notion that Dan Campbell’s Lions will get their own winning Sunday soon.