The Packers (5–2–1) might be pretenders after losing to the Panthers. The Lions (5–3) don’t appear as mighty as last season. And J.J. McCarthy and Caleb Williams are far from being busts after guiding the Vikings (4–4) and Bears (5–3), respectively, to statement wins on Sunday.
As for the biggest observation in Week 9 from this division: the NFC North is wide open.
The NFC North teams deserve our gratitude for delivering three down-to-the-wire games, helping the rest of the league make up for the several lopsided results that occurred last week. What transpired in the Bears’ wild win over the Bengals might have been more bonkers than Giants-Broncos in Week 7 and Cowboys-Giants in Week 2.
Williams and the Bears continue to come out on the right side of their chaotic games, an improvement from last season. They and the Vikings now have a legitimate chance to win the NFC North after it appeared we were headed for a two-team race between the Lions and Packers.
We learned plenty about McCarthy in his signature win vs. the Lions. Here’s what else we learned from the NFC North and the other games from NFL Week 9.
NFC North is wide open after big wins from Bears, Vikings
There likely won’t be two teams that win at least 14 games from this division like last year. And maybe not even one gets that many wins, but there will still be plenty of drama within this division all the way through Week 18 again.
In last year’s regular-season finale, the Lions beat up on the Vikings to clinch the division and the No. 1 seed. But the Vikings ended a five-game losing streak against their divisional rivals after Sunday’s upset 27–24 win in Detroit. McCarthy had an impressive performance to silence all the doubters who criticized the Vikings for not re-signing Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones in the offseason. There were even reports of the Vikings searching for a trusted veteran quarterback before Tuesday’s trade deadline, signaling that maybe not even McCarthy’s own team had enough faith in him to be the starter for the rest of the season.
But McCarthy, the 2024 first-round pick, gained plenty of trust with his performance in Detroit and appeared to be a much-improved quarterback since he last played in Week 2 when he sustained an ankle injury that knocked him out for five consecutive games. McCarthy finished 14-of-25 for 143 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, and had a clutch 16-yard pass to Jalen Nailor on third down with under two minutes left to ice the game. McCarthy also had a nine-yard touchdown run.
As for Williams, he might have had his best performance of his young career, throwing the game-winning touchdown pass to rookie tight end Colston Loveland during a wild 47–42 victory vs. the Bengals. Yes, Williams torched a bad Bengals defense, but he executed all of Ben Johnson’s trick plays to perfection. Williams, who had a never-seen-before stat line, went 20-of-34 for 280 yards and three touchdowns, added 53 yards on the ground and even caught a two-yard touchdown pass from DJ Moore.
It was a good time for the Bears to experiment with their playbook against a horrendous defense, and the glimpses we saw on Sunday showed a bright future for the Williams and Johnson partnership. Once Williams establishes more consistency, this team will be a tough out on a weekly basis.
With the Packers falling to the Browns and Panthers and tying with the Cowboys, expect more hiccups from a Green Bay squad still searching for identities on both sides of the ball. Jordan Love continues to look great against bad teams and doesn’t have much of a track record against the true contenders. But the Panthers are far from being viewed as contenders, and still, Love struggled to find the end zone in Sunday’s 16–13 loss, going 26-of-37 for 273 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.
With the Lions, their defense continues to be inconsistent and the same could be said for the offense. Detroit’s once mighty offense hasn’t cracked 30 points since Week 5 and Jared Goff again struggled playing from behind. The Lions aren’t very good when the rushing attack isn’t clicking—they only had 65 rushing yards vs. Minnesota.
This will be an intriguing division for the final two months of the regular season. Don’t be surprised if the Bears or Vikings come out on top.
Colts can’t be trusted to win the Super Bowl
The Colts (7–2) are good enough to contend for a Super Bowl. They also can’t be trusted to win it all. Both these statements can be true at the same time, considering how poorly Jones played without a balanced offense in Pittsburgh.
Indianapolis has earned the right to be on the list of Super Bowl contenders based on what it achieved in the first two months of the season. There might be no stopping this offense when star running back Jonathan Taylor is rolling. But we saw how poorly it can go for the Colts when Taylor is off his game. Jones threw three interceptions during the ugly 27–20 loss against the Steelers, which wasn’t as close as the deceiving final score.
Taylor was held to a season-low 45 yards on 14 carries. It was also the first time he was kept out of the end zone since the Week 4 loss vs. the Rams. So that’s now two losses for Indianapolis when Taylor isn’t playing at a super-human level.
The Colts will likely be fine and cruise to an AFC South title. They had a bad game against a desperate Steelers squad that finally saw stellar contributions from their talented defensive front—sacking Jones five times on Sunday.
However, we shouldn’t rush to place money on the Colts to win the Super Bowl in Santa Clara in February. The more trusted options to come out of the AFC played each other in Buffalo, and the Ravens suddenly have hope to turn it around and possibly morph into a legitimate contender in the coming weeks.
Maybe it’s cowardly of me to put more stock into the familiar contenders, but the Colts still have plenty to prove in the next two months. Perhaps they’ll gain more trust when they play the Chiefs in Week 12.
Turns out, the Chiefs aren’t fully back after their dud in Buffalo
The claims of the Chiefs being all the way back were evidently premature based on how poorly Patrick Mahomes’s offense played against the Bills’ up-and-down defense.
Credit to the Bills for making their defensive adjustments during the bye week because they’ve been a different team during this two-game winning streak, including the dominant win in Carolina. But the Bills’ 28–21 win doesn’t say much for them in the long run because it’s all about what they do in the postseason against the Chiefs. Buffalo has a five-game winning streak vs. Kansas City in the regular season, but has dropped four consecutive playoff games against its biggest rival.
As for the Chiefs, this loss says plenty. I’ve rolled my eyes quite a few times seeing the Chiefs atop most power rankings in the past month when their offense clearly hasn’t established an identity. Yes, the return of Rashee Rice has helped Mahomes, but Rice’s presence hasn’t opened up the field for speedy wideouts Xavier Worthy and Hollywood Brown. It’s time to have an honest discussion about Worthy because he hasn’t played up to expectations since being drafted in the first round last year.
Also, the rushing attack had another sluggish outing, only recording 79 of the Chiefs’ 305 total yards in Buffalo. Kansas City’s defense has shown signs of age and fatigue throughout the season, including allowing James Cook and Josh Allen to do what they want on Sunday.
I get that the Chiefs deserve the benefit of the doubt, but this is not the same team of previous seasons. They’re losing one-score games, including to the Jaguars not that long ago. It was impressive that the Chiefs defeated the Lions, but even in that game they didn’t appear as mighty and caught a break with Amon-Ra St. Brown’s drop on fourth down, which changed the momentum of the game. And it doesn’t say much that they beat up on Marcus Mariota and the Commanders last week.
The Chiefs (5–3) should be fine in the AFC West because the Chargers (6–3) just lost their left tackle Joe Alt for an extended period due to an ankle injury, and it’s obvious the Broncos (7–2) still have a consistency problem on the offensive side, with the narrow win in Houston being a perfect example. It just doesn’t seem right to assume the Chiefs are all the way back when they have their own set of concerning issues.
Raiders make the right decision to go for two vs. Jaguars
I finally have something positive to say about the Raiders (2–6) that doesn’t involve Brock Bowers, who was a monster on Sunday against the Jaguars.
Coach Pete Carroll executed the playbook for tanking competitively to perfection. He went for the two-point conversion with hopes of stealing the victory over the Jaguars in overtime, but Geno Smith had his pass batted and the Raiders lost, 30–29.
The loss will likely sting for days, but the Silver and Black will benefit in the long run, especially if they land a top-10 pick in next year’s draft. Carroll should continue to be aggressive and coach with a nothing-to-lose mindset. If the Raiders come up short, Carroll can always say he had belief in his team to win games while knowing Bowers will get more help with a potential top-10 pick in April. If the Raiders end up winning more games with this aggressive approach, then so be it, maybe the momentum carries into next year.
With the trade deadline just a few days away, more teams should take a page out of the competitively tanking playbook.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as NFC North Is Wide Open After Packers, Lions Show Key Weaknesses.
