NFL Week 9 had a lot going on–Nick Foles looked like a Hall of Fame quarterback while Aaron Rodgers was knocked out. The collapses in Atlanta and Baltimore continued, while Seattle and Indianapolis showed some escape-ability. But TheSportsNotebook’s NFL analysis is going to begin with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers, two enigmatic organizations that are showing themselves to be for real
The nationally televised games for Sunday of NFL Week 9 are games that looked at the start of the year like possible AFC divisional playoff round games. That is, until Pittsburgh and Houston fell apart and took some of the shine off these games. Even so, Steelers-Patriots and Colts-Texans make for good late Sunday afternoon/prime-time viewing, and that leads into Monday Night’s NFC North tussle in Lambeau Fiel
The Denver Broncos’ 31-23 win over the Cincinnati Bengals won’t fall in the category of dazzling, eye-catching wins. Not with the way the now 3-5 Bengals have been playing and for the fact that Denver seemed to take a while to get into gear. But the way the Broncos ended up winning has to be noted.
It’s the NFC East that gets the spotlight in NFL Week 9, as the Giants play the marquee late Sunday afternoon game, the Cowboys play Sunday night, the Eagles play Monday night and the Redskins’ game early Sunday will be seen by the largest portion of the TV audience. So it’s here that we’ll start our breakdown of the Sunday games, going top-to-bottom in the standings.