32 things we learned in NFL Week 9: Not your average QB matchups
The 32 things we learned from Week 9 of the 2023 NFL season:
1. Who Dat? If you’re a New Orleans Saints fan, it means one thing – more on remarkable QB/TE/FB Taysom Hill later. If you’re a casual NFL fan, it’s what you might utter when trying to figure out who’s playing quarterback for any given club.
2. Twenty teams were in action Sunday afternoon. Seven of them (35%) – whether due to performance, injuries or even a trade – started different quarterbacks than they did in Week 8. Furthermore, the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants both had to make mid-game switches after Jaren Hall and Daniel Jones, respectively, saw their days cut short by injuries.
3. Hall and the Arizona Cardinals’ Clayton Tune became the eighth and ninth rookie quarterbacks to start a game this season.
3a. All told, seven rookie QBs started in Week 9, the most in one weekend in nearly four years.
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4. Las Vegas Raiders rookie QB Aidan O’Connell made his second start of 2023, though first since veteran Jimmy Garoppolo was benched for performance reasons following Josh McDaniels’ firing last week. AOC – yeah? – and the Silver and Black responded nicely to interim coach Antonio Pierce, licking the Jones-less New York Giants 30-6.
4a. Raiders DE Maxx Crosby collected at least three sacks for the third time in his career, helping propel Pierce to a 1-0 start.
4b. There was even a Josh Jacobs sighting in Las Vegas, the league’s reigning rushing champion grinding out 98 yards and two TDs (both season highs) on the ground.
5. And how about Joshua Dobbs? Following Kirk Cousins’ season-ending Achilles tear, the Vikes acquired Dobbs from the Cardinals on Tuesday. He wasn’t supposed to play Sunday with Hall getting his shot, but all Dobbs did was step in for the injured rookie and pass for 158 yards and two scores while running for a team-best 66 yards and another TD in Minnesota’s 31-28 escape at Atlanta.
5a. Dobbs, who didn't even know most of his new teammates' names yet, became the first player in league history to account for at least three TDs in consecutive weeks but with different teams.
5b. Per NFL Research, Dobbs will likely join Baker Mayfield next Sunday as the only quarterbacks since 1950 to start for three different teams in a calendar year.
6. In his first start of 2023, Falcons QB Taylor Heinicke passed for 268 yards, a TD and one INT – a performance that likely would have equated to a win if he’d gotten any help from Atlanta’s defense.
7. The Vikings’ four-game winning streak remains the NFC’s best active heater, and they now own a full one-game lead for the conference's final wild-card berth.
7a. And "congratulations" to Hall, who technically gets credit for the win since he started the game.
8. It didn’t go nearly as well for Tune, Hall’s fellow fifth-rounder in 2023. Just an epically disastrous offensive performance Sunday for the Cardinals, who gained 58 yards – total – averaging 1.2 per play while Tune was responsible for three turnovers (2 INTs, fumble) in a 27-0 loss to the Cleveland Browns. Unsurprisingly, Arizona never cracked the red zone. Paging Kyler Murray …
9. Browns WR Amari Cooper had a 59-yard reception, besting the Cardinals' offensive total on one play.
10. But Arizona’s misfortune benefited Cleveland QB Deshaun Watson, who passed for 219 yards and two scores in his most extensive action since September 24.
11. Brett Rypien also made his first start for the Los Angeles Rams after Matthew Stafford was unable to go due to an injured thumb. Rypien (130 passing yards, INT) got next to nothing going in a 20-3 loss to the Green Bay Packers, a setback LA may not be able to recover from.
12. Sunday’s most consequential game may have taken place in Frankfurt, Germany, where the AFC West-leading Kansas City Chiefs "hosted" the AFC East-leading – at the start of the day – Miami Dolphins, both teams 6-2 before kickoff. It was the first matchup of the league’s International Series to feature a pair of clubs at least four games over .500.
13. Kansas City won 21-14 as Miami fell to 0-3 against teams with winning records.
13a. Why could that be important? Since playoff expansion in 1990 to 12 teams (two more were added in 2020), 84.8% of teams with two losses after Week 9 ultimately qualified for postseason. That figure drops to 63.4% for three-loss teams at the same point and 33.5% for clubs with four defeats.
14. Travis Kelce displaced fellow tight end and Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez as Kansas City’s all-time leader with 10,941 receiving yards.
14a. However Kelce’s production in games not attended by Taylor Swift took another hit on a day when he snared three balls for 14 yards. With Swift elsewhere this season, the All-Pro has averaged 5.8 catches for 41.3 yards … as opposed to 8.5 grabs and 108 yards, on average, for the four games when she’s in the building.
15. The Chiefs became the first team to win a game in four different countries (United States, England, Mexico, Germany).
16. Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park is the 191st venue to host a game in the NFL’s 104 seasons.
17. Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill didn’t get any revenge against the Chiefs, his former team – not that he needed any given his desire to go to Miami. But his fumble, returned for a TD and 21-0 first-half K.C. lead, essentially proved to be the difference in the game.
18. Carolina Panthers HC Frank Reich also got no revenge Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts – they stunningly fired him midway through the 2022 season – Pro Bowl CB Kenny Moore II’s pair of pick-sixes in front of his family the difference in Indy’s 27-13 victory in Charlotte.
19. Like Miami, the Dallas Cowboys also became a three-loss club after losing 28-23 at Philadelphia, the Eagles becoming the league’s only 8-1 outfit to date. Philly’s 2½-game lead in the NFC East at the season’s midway point might be a lot for Dallas to surmount ... though the Eagles' scheduled is about to get very challenging, while the Cowboys' is about to soften significantly.
19a. Should the Eagles win the division, they’ll be the NFC East’s first repeat champs since … 2004, when they last successfully defended the throne.
19b. Philadelphia is the first team to post consecutive 8-1 starts since the Colts 17 years ago.
20. Sloppy enough affair at Lincoln Financial Field, the Cowboys and Philly committing 10 penalties apiece.
21.Dallas K Brandon Aubrey continued his remarkable season, becoming the first rookie in NFL history to convert his first 19 field-goal attempts. Sunday, the former first-round pick of the MLS' Toronto FC also banked one of his extra-point tries off the upright but successfully through.
22. If the season ended today – it doesn't – the entire AFC North would qualify for the playoffs after the Cincinnati Bengals moved ahead of the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night. Buffalo is now ninth in the conference.
23. Who didn’t tab Texans-Buccaneers as the game of the year? C’mon, obvious answer, Houston predictably pulling out a 39-37 victory in a matchup that featured four lead changes in the fourth quarter.
24.Texans RB Dare Ogunbowale, a former Buccaneer, kicked a go-ahead 29-yard field goal in the fourth quarter on a day when Houston K Ka'imi Fairbairn missed the second half with a quadriceps injury. Ogunbowale became the first non-kicker or punter to convert a field goal since Wes Welker did it for Miami in 2004 and the first running back to do so since 1979. Ogunbowale also handled kickoffs for the Texans after Fairbairn went out.
25. Far more impressively, Houston QB C.J. Stroud set a rookie record with 470 yards passing and tied another freshman mark with five TD throws, and on a day – when his kicker was hurt and his run game non-existent – when Tampa Bay knew he’d be throwing. Stroud’s final attempt was the game-winning 15-yard TD pass to fellow rookie Tank Dell.
26. At 22, Stroud became the youngest player in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) with at least 450 yards and five TDs passing in a single game.
26a. The only other rookie with at least 400 yards and five TDs passing in a game was Stafford for the Detroit Lions in 2009.
26b. Stroud's 147.8 passer rating is yet another rookie record for a single game.
27. Sunday marked the first time in Texans history when they had three players (Noah Brown, Dalton Schultz, Tank Dell) top 100 receiving yards.
28. Be nice to see Taysom Hill play a little defense. All he contributed in Sunday’s 24-17 win over the Chicago Bears was a 2-yard TD catch, a 3-yard TD pass and a team-high 52 rushing yards. Be better, Tebow wannabe.
28a. How distinct is Hill? Sunday, he became the fifth player in league history with at least 10 TD passes, 10 TD runs and 10 TD receptions in his career but is the first to accomplish that trifecta in the Super Bowl era.
29. Hill and Co. were greatly assisted by the Bears’ five turnovers, their most in a game in more than two years. Rookie QB Tyson Bagent was responsible for three INTs and a fumble, probably amplifying the probability injured QB Justin Fields returns for Thursday night’s DJ Moore Bowl against the Panthers.
30. New Orleans (5-4) assumed sole possession of first place in the NFC South because Atlanta could not fend off Dobbs and Minnesota.
31. The Seattle Seahawks deserved to fall into a first-place tie with the idle San Francisco 49ers after getting tattooed 37-3 by the Baltimore Ravens. Seattle had two more points than third-down conversions.
32. Lastly – but certainly not leastly – sending a virtual hug to Bills S Damar Hamlin, who was not active Sunday night for his return to Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium, where he suffered cardiac arrest on the field 10 months ago in a scary episode the captured the nation’s attention. Yet Hamlin took the opportunity to use the occasion as a milestone to launch a new scholarship initiative in the Queen City to honor members of the University of Cincinnati medical team who helped to save his life.
***Follow USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter @ByNateDavis.