10 takeaways from NFL Week 9

Sunday Rundown recaps the most important developments from the day's action and examines the significance of them moving forward.

Jordan Love's first start was a dud

With Aaron Rodgers on the COVID-19 list and exposed for lying, the Green Bay Packers finally got to take a look at who they drafted. The organization also got to find out whether it was worth pissing Rodgers off to trade up and select Jordan Love in 2020 without informing the veteran quarterback first. Right now, the Packers have to be hoping this isn't really The Last Dance.

Love looked jittery for most of the day against the Kansas City Chiefs, who came in with the league's 31st-ranked defense. He completed just 56% of his passes and averaged a meager 5.6 yards per attempt, with his lone trip inside the red zone ending in a blocked field goal. Love did muster a late touchdown, but he only went 3-for-8 on that drive, which began at Green Bay's 47-yard line.

The best thing about Love's performance was that it made Patrick Mahomes - who struggled again - not look as awful. Rodgers could return next week against the Seattle Seahawks and would still have a chance to do his thing the rest of the way. It's only one game, but if Rodgers indeed forces a trade after this season, the Packers will be left wondering whether they can ride into 2022 with Love as their starter.

Titans beat Rams without Derrick Henry

The Tennessee Titans picked off Matthew Stafford deep in Los Angeles Rams territory twice, and both interceptions led to touchdowns that required little or no work from their offense, which totalled less than 200 yards on the night. The point is that it was more than enough.

The Titans have been banged up plenty, but they’ve won five in a row and their defense kept Stafford and the Rams offense out of the end zone until the last 30 seconds of the game. Ageless Adrian Peterson’s late touchdown was merely the finishing touch in a surprisingly easy victory powered by a defense that came in ranked 20th in DVOA. Defensive end Jeffery Simmons and safety Kevin Byard were big reasons why.

The Titans are going to run away with the AFC South. They’ve also got the New Orleans Saints and Houston Texans at home the next two weeks, when they’ll have a chance to stay ahead of the pack in the race for the conference’s top seed and lone first-round playoff bye.

Browns, Baker don't seem to miss OBJ

The Cleveland Browns played their first game since releasing wideout Odell Beckham Jr. All they did was hang 41 points on the Cincinnati Bengals on the road, with QB Baker Mayfield posting a terrific EPA/play of 0.52 while also having an excellent day throwing downfield. On throws of 10 or more air yards, Mayfield was 6-of-9 for 163 yards, two TDs, and a completion percentage over expected of 26.6%, according to Next Gen Stats.

Beckham does have an average depth of target of 14.3 yards this campaign, per PFF, so he was still capable of stretching the field. Cleveland's offense - and Mayfield in particular - just wasn't always in synch with him out there. Since acquiring Beckham before the 2019 season, the Browns went 14-15 with Beckham on the field. They're now 8-4 without him.

Half of the internet will probably try to suss out the reasons for the on-field disconnect between Cleveland and Beckham, but it's now impossible to deny the lack of chemistry was real.

Upsets galore, parity rules

There were eight games in Sunday's early window, and seven of them featured teams that entered Week 9 in playoff position. Six of those seven lost. The midpoint of the 2021 campaign arrives after Monday night's Chicago Bears-Pittsburgh Steelers contest, and parity appears to be the league's hottest trend.

The AFC now has 11 squads with winning records, with just three games separating the conference's No. 1 seed and the Indianapolis Colts, who are currently 12th place in the standings. The NFC is a bit more top-heavy, with five teams at 6-2 or better, but the conference's final playoff spot would currently go to the Atlanta Falcons, who are 4-4 with a minus-45 point differential. The club just half a game directly behind the Falcons? The Carolina Panthers.

With nine weeks remaining in the regular season, the only certainty is that no one knows anything, and anything can happen.

Cardinals fly high with one wing

The Arizona Cardinals entered Sunday without quarterback Kyler Murray and wideouts DeAndre Hopkins and A.J. Green, and then they lost running back Chase Edmonds early in the game. It didn't matter. The Cardinals boat-raced the San Francisco 49ers anyway.

Head coach Kliff Kingsbury dug deep into the playbook, but he also largely kept things simple for backup QB Colt McCoy. McCoy averaged 3.4 intended air yards, according to Next Gen Stats - a league-low for Week 9 - but he completed 22 of 26 passes and posted a solid 0.51 EPA/play. Running back James Conner also had 26 touches for 173 rushing and receiving yards and three TDs, while RB Eno Benjamin added another TD.

Arizona is 8-1 with a sweep of the Niners and a road win at the Los Angeles Rams already in tow, and the squad has the Carolina Panthers coming to town next week.

Meanwhile, the 3-5 Niners have to start wondering how long they'll keep rolling with Jimmy Garoppolo when Trey Lance is sitting right there. Head coach Kyle Shanahan now also moves to 32-40, and a rash of injuries can no longer be the excuse. And on top of all that, next Monday night will be the Rams' turn to visit Santa Clara.

What happened to the Cowboys?

The Dallas Cowboys had won six in a row, with their only loss coming way back in Week 1 in the waning seconds at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Dak Prescott was playing like an MVP, but the Cowboys were also good enough to win last week without him. So, can anyone explain Sunday's disaster against the Denver Broncos? Because nothing went right.

No, really. Dallas somehow managed to block a punt and still watched Denver miraculously pick up a first down on the play:

The Cowboys, who were 10-point favorites, went down 30-0 before punching in a pair of garbage-time TDs that made the score look more respectable. According to ESPN, Dallas became the first team to trail by 30 as double-digit favorites since Week 3 in 2001 when the Indianapolis Colts managed to do it against the New England Patriots. It was also Tom Brady's first start.

Also, what happened to the Bills?

Despite coming in with a pair of losses and Josh Allen going through a bit of regression, the Buffalo Bills could still make a fairly decent case as the AFC's best, most complete club. So, can we safely call Sunday's fiasco against the Jacksonville Jaguars the biggest upset of the season?

Penalties have been a problem for the Bills all year, and they had 12 for 118 yards against the Jags - both season highs. Allen, who was also sacked four times and hit on eight occasions, threw a pair of interceptions and lost a fumble. And Buffalo had no semblance of a run game when the passing attack stalled: Devin Singletary and Zack Moss combined for just nine carries to offset Allen's 47 pass attempts. Have I mentioned that Jacksonville came in with the NFL's worst defense?

The Bills do get a chance to right themselves at the New York Jets next week, so there's that. But all of a sudden, they're just a half-game ahead of the New England Patriots in the AFC East.

Cordarrelle Patterson, playmaker

The Atlanta Falcons officially list Cordarrelle Patterson as a running back. Patterson, of course, was once drafted in the first round as a wide receiver. That might have been eight years and four teams ago, but he's pretty much established himself as a damn solid utility player.

Patterson rushed nine times for 10 yards but helped the Falcons stave off a near embarrassment against the Saints, catching all six of his targets for 126 yards - including this 64-yarder in the final minute that set up Younghoe Koo's 29-yard game-winning field goal:

Patterson is proving to be a matchup nightmare that head coach Arthur Smith can deploy anywhere. Per PFF, Patterson has played 145 snaps out of the backfield, 13 as an in-line tight end, 34 in the slot, and 61 out wide, which is where he was on that big catch against the Saints.

Atlanta blew a 24-6 lead in the final 10 minutes and nearly sustained what would have been a devastating divisional loss. Instead, they're now 4-4 in the thick of the NFC playoff chase with a trip to Dallas on deck for next Sunday.

Zimmer's seat getting hot?

We've established that the Vikings make no sense. Minnesota's overtime loss at the Baltimore Ravens - after blowing both a 17-3 and 24-10 lead - was just the latest example. But how much longer can head coach Mike Zimmer keep doing this?

Just look at the squad's lone offensive possession in OT. Facing a second-and-8 from their own 40, the Vikings called a run for Dalvin Cook that nearly everyone in the state of Maryland immediately swallowed up. Then on third-and-9, with the Ravens showing an all-out blitz - the kind of call defensive coordinator Wink Martindale loves to make in such situations - Minnesota dialed up a pass play that didn't present the ever-dangerous Cook as a hot read to quickly neutralize the rush. Kirk Cousins lobbed the ball into traffic, and the Vikings had to punt. The offense never got it back.

Minnesota's offense boasts tremendous skill players, and Cousins has been one of the league's most efficient passers for several years. But situationally, this team keeps making mistakes at the worst possible moments. The Vikings have now lost five games by a total of 18 points, and each defeat always seems like the same one played on a loop. If things don't improve, will Zimmer survive this?

Fullbacks are people, too

Today's pass-happy NFL isn't always a hospitable place for fullbacks. Many teams don't even carry a fullback, and those that do typically only use them in short-yardage situations to block or power ahead for a yard or two.

The 49ers' Kyle Juszczyk is a big exception to this, of course, but Sunday afternoon offered up a rare treat: Highlight-reel plays from three fullbacks not named Juszczyk.

The Ravens' Patrick Ricard caught a touchdown pass:

The Vikings' C.J. Ham made this spectacular 27-yard catch on third down to keep alive a drive that tied the game at the end of regulation:

And the Las Vegas Raiders' Alec Ingold hurdled a dude:

Give it up for the fullbacks, people. They had themselves a damn day.

Dom Cosentino is a senior features writer at theScore.