NFL Week 9: A turning point

Not every game on Sunday came down to a matter of inches — just the most exciting ones.

Somehow, we are now at the halfway mark of the 2023 season. From this point on, teams will be making (or failing to make) playoff pushes. Awards will be won or lost. Important decisions about the future will be determined. 

For the Raiders, that major decision happened earlier in the week when Mark Davis fired Josh McDaniels. What reportedly led to McDaniels’ dismissal, and Antonio Pierce’s elevation to interim coach, is almost too absurd to believe. Considering the people involved, though, it’s completely believable. 

It doesn’t really matter what prompted Davis to get rid of McDaniels, just that he did it. The Raiders were full of so much more life this week, both on and off the field. On Sunday, they scored more points in the first half than they had in any game this year, and they also ran the ball effectively and avoided turnovers.

Of course, they were also facing a hard-luck Giants team that had just gotten Daniel Jones back, only to lose him for the rest of the season again. (Not that I would have been surprised if McDaniels had found a way to lose to Tommy DeVito.)

Elsewhere around the league, the Ravens established themselves as the top team in the AFC with a thumping of the Seahawks. The Dolphins still can’t beat opponents with winning records, even overseas. The Bills are the anti-Steelers, with a worse record than the advanced stats would suggest. And if the season ended today, the entire AFC North would be in the playoffs. 

Fortunately, there are still nine more weeks to go, and a lot will change between today and the first week of January. So let’s not worry about the future just yet. 

Right now, I’d like to focus on the three most thrilling endings from Week 9, the likely and unlikely heroes involved, and the one moment that changed the outcome.  

The Texans let C.J. Stroud cook and Dare kick

I don’t know if anyone expected the Texans and Buccaneers to deliver the highest-scoring contest of Week 9. The Bucs hadn’t scored more than 27 points in a single game all season. The Texans had reached the 30-point threshold twice, though they last did it a month ago and the offense seemed to have stagnated the past few weeks. 

After a loss to the previously winless Panthers last Sunday, rookie QB C.J. Stroud lamented his performance and properly diagnosed what was wrong with the offense: They needed to be less conservative and take more downfield shots. 

Well, Houston OC Bobby Slowik listened. Stroud was allowed to air the ball out, and his receivers helped him out with yards after the catch. Take, for example, Stroud’s first play of the second half, when he found Noah Brown on a crossing route. Brown then turned what could have been a 30-yard gain into a 75-touchdown. At that point, Stroud was just heating up. 

On the Texans’ next possession, he threw another long touchdown, this one a 29-yarder to Tank Dell. If not for his final drive, this would have been my favorite Stroud throw of the day: He did a little shimmy right before the pass to keep the defense guessing and then hit Dell with a complete dime. That was one of Stroud’s eight passes that gained more than 20 yards, three of which were touchdowns. 

But for a minute there, it seemed like the offense’s heroics would go to waste. Just like last week when Houston held a small lead heading into the two-minute warning, the defense couldn’t get a stop when it needed one. Baker Mayfield played good enough to win on Sunday and was particularly sharp on the Bucs’ final drive. He connected with Trey Palmer for 31 yards on third-and-23 and then scrambled for the first down on the next play. Palmer had another catch to get Tampa’s offense in the red zone — where Mike Evans came through with a drive-saving fumble recovery — and the Bucs took the lead when Cade Otton hauled in the touchdown pass from Mayfield. 

There was one problem: They scored too early. With 45 seconds left, Stroud was a surgeon, with three straight completions to get the Texans past midfield and then a laser to Dell, who displayed excellent footwork, to move the ball to Tampa’s 15-yard line. On the next play, Stroud went back to Dell for the go-ahead touchdown with only six seconds remaining. 

In the end, here’s what opening things up on offense led to: Stroud setting an NFL rookie single-game record for passing yards (470) and touchdown passes (five)¹. He also became only the sixth quarterback ever to throw for 450 yards, five touchdowns, and zero interceptions in one outing. Brown, Dell, and tight end Dalton Schultz each recorded 100+ receiving yards and a touchdown, just the sixth time an NFL team has had three players reach that mark in a game.

The turning point: I could single out any number of Stroud’s big plays here — I didn’t even mention his fourth-down touchdown or his first-down run on a lateral from Devin Singletary. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t highlight fourth-string running back Dare Ogunbowale’s contributions. Not as a runner, mind you, but as a kicker. 

Yes, you read that right. The seven-year vet stepped up when Texans kicker Ka’imi Fairbarn suffered a quad injury right before halftime. Ogunbowale, the team’s designated emergency kicker, handled Houston’s kickoffs in the second half but wasn’t asked to attempt an extra point. Instead, the Texans opted to go for two, failing on their first two tries and succeeding on their third. 

Then, when the game was tied halfway through the fourth quarter, Houston had a fourth-and-goal situation at Tampa’s 11-yard line. The coaching staff decided to call Ogunbowale’s number for a 29-yard field goal, and he nailed it. Texans coach DeMeco Ryans couldn’t suppress his smile afterward, and even Mayfield shrugged in a “gotta give him props” kind of way on the sideline. 

It was an undoubtedly cool moment, made even more so when you realize that Ogunbowale became the first non-kicker/punter to make a field goal in the NFL since 2004, when Wes Welker did it. More importantly, though, is that his field goal ended up as the decisive points in a game which the Texans won 39-37.

Joshua Dobbs took another Quantum Leap

Speaking of Baker Mayfield a minute ago, he might be the only person who understands the impossible situations Joshua Dobbs keeps finding himself in. Well, not counting Dr. Sam Beckett.

Both Mayfield and Dobbs have (or will have, once next week rolls around) made a start for three different teams all in one calendar year. And now, both have come off the bench less than a week after joining a new team and engineered a game-winning drive. 

Mayfield famously pulled off the feat last year on Thursday Night Football, mere days after the Rams had claimed him. But at least Mayfield got about a dozen reps with the offense in practice. Dobbs didn’t get that luxury with Minnesota, who traded for the quarterback on Tuesday following Kirk Cousins’ season-ending injury. 

There’s a valid reason the Vikings didn’t give the vet any reps leading up to their matchup against the Falcons. Rookie fifth-rounder Jaren Hall was making his first ever start and needed as many practice snaps as possible. However, when Hall sustained a concussion in the first quarter, Dobbs was pressed into duty. 

His afternoon began like, well, someone who didn’t know most of his teammates and had never practiced with them. Dobbs was sacked for a safety on his first drive. He was sacked and fumbled on his next drive. 

After that, he mostly kept his composure, though he was strip-sacked once more at the start of the second half. The Falcons settled for field goals after each turnover, though, which let the Vikings hang around. Head coach Kevin O’Connell took to coaching Dobbs through his headset right before each snap, and Dobbs, a literal rocket scientist, was able to absorb the information in real time. 

In total, Dobbs led five scoring drives — three touchdowns and two field goals — but the most impressive one came with a little over two minutes to play. Atlanta had just retaken the lead with a 79-yard touchdown drive that lasted nearly seven minutes. Minnesota was trailing by four and was already without WR1 Justin Jefferson and left tackle Christian Darrisaw before also losing receiver K.J. Osborn and running back Cam Akers to injuries on Sunday. 

With the game on the line, Dobbs relied on tight end T.J. Hockenson and rookie receiver Jordan Addison, as well as his own legs, to get the Vikings into the red zone. On third-and-6, O’Connell called a timeout to set up the next play, a throw that Dobbs had at least seen Hall make in practice.

Dobbs then got his first chance to make the same throw, and he did not disappoint. He hung in the pocket for a beat and then fired the ball at the goal line to Brandon Powell, a former Falcons receiver who had only caught one pass prior to the game-winning score that afternoon. 

Two journeymen coming together for the most improbable win of Week 9. What a story.

The turning point: I’m tempted to pick Addison’s toe-tapping sideline catch on the final drive that got the Vikings into Falcons territory, but I have to stick with Dobbs here. A few plays later, Minnesota faced fourth-and-7 when Dobbs avoided what looked to be a game-clinching sack and scrambled forward, escaping a couple more would-be tacklers, for the first down and more.

Dobbs finished with 158 passing yards and two touchdowns, as well as a team-high 66 rushing yards and another score. Unsurprisingly, he received the game ball — and then, presumably, introduced himself to his new teammates.

The Cowboys couldn’t get one dang inch

If I were a Cowboys fan, I don’t know if I’d feel more despondent that they lost by the skin of their teeth against the Eagles or more hopeful about the rest of the season, knowing that they can beat — and probably should have — their hated rivals who also happen to have the best record in the NFC. Eh, Cowboys fans are probably used to this feeling.

Dallas seemingly couldn’t catch a break for much of the early evening in Philadelphia. The Eagles fumbled the ball three times and recovered each one, barely. After the first two, Philly went on to score a touchdown later in the drive. The third was arguably the most crucial, however. 

On third down with just over a minute remaining, D’Andre Swift and A.J. Brown ran into each other, and the former lost the ball. Luckily for the Eagles, rookie right guard Tyler Steen, in his first ever start, came up with the loose ball. If the Cowboys had managed to fall on it, they would have been set up around the Philadelphia 30-yard line with a chance to win. Instead, they started their last drive on their own 14-yard line following the Eagles’ punt.

Sometimes, though, the Cowboys were their own worst enemy. Like, for example, 20 seconds into that final drive. With a couple of throws — and a couple of Eagles penalties — Dak Prescott had moved the Dallas offense to the Philadelphia 6-yard line with 27 seconds to go. Here’s what the Cowboys did after that: false start, a sack that lost 11 yards, incomplete pass, a 5-yard delay of game penalty, and a completion to CeeDee Lamb that was short of the goal line.

Or the drive before that, which also led to a turnover on downs when Prescott targeted Jalen Tolbert on fourth down rather than an open Jake Ferguson (who had a career-high 91 yards). Or on their other turnover on downs when rookie tight end Luke Schoonmaker’s knee hit the ground right before he crossed the plane, reversing a touchdown call on fourth down. 

The opportunities were there. The Cowboys just couldn’t take them.

The turning point: I hate to point the finger at Prescott, who otherwise battled his butt off with a 374-yard, three-touchdown performance. But in a game of inches, Prescott came up just short on a pivotal two-point conversion attempt. 

Prescott had found Tolbert for a touchdown to cut the Cowboys’ deficit to five points with six minutes and change left in the game. They wisely decided to go for two and at first, it looked like Prescott picked it up with his legs. On further review, he stepped out of bounds right before reaching the pylon. 

Had Prescott stayed in bounds, Dallas would have trailed by three points and could have potentially kicked a field goal on its last possession and sent the game to overtime. The Cowboys almost certainly would have done it too: kicker Brandon Aubrey now owns the NFL record for most consecutive field goals made without a miss to start a career. His 51-yarder in the first half gave the Cowboys their only lead of the game. So at least something went right for them on Sunday.

1. His pass chart was beautiful too.