6 winners from Week 9 of the 2019 NFL season

The early slate of Week 9’s games was a smorgasbord of schadenfreude. Ugly football abounded.

The Jets made their move to take over the tanking throne, assassinating the sitting king (the Dolphins) in an effort that saw Sam Darnold regress to a junior high version of himself. The Colts gifted the Steelers three free points with a stupid penalty in a game they later lost by two. The Chiefs got a comeback win made possible, in part, by a shanked Dustin Colquitt punt that allowed them to drive just 19 yards to kick a field goal to beat the Vikings.

But while the week was filled with losers, it had its share of winners as well.

A few standouts made the list, but it wasn’t ...

Chicago is reaching a crisis point at quarterback. Here’s how Mitchell Trubisky’s unit stacked up against the Eagles’ 21st-ranked scoring defense after two quarters in Philadelphia.

Chicago went three-and-out in each of its first five drives as Trubisky failed to give the Eagles’ defense anything to worry about. He’d recover in the second half en route to 102 net passing yards, but the Bears remained stuck in neutral even as Philadelphia gave them multiple opportunities to punch their way back into the game. Trailing by five with approximately nine minutes to play, Trubisky threw back-to-back incompletions on short second- and third-down passes before Chicago punted from midfield.

One Eagles field goal and a muffed kickoff return later, the Bears fell to 3-5 and were left to try to figure out how to get a decent starting quarterback without a first-round pick (traded away for Khalil Mack) in 2020.

Now, on to ...

The Washington-Buffalo game featured a showdown between future Hall of Famers Frank Gore and Adrian Peterson. And while Peterson turned back the clock with a 100+ yard performance and Gore, uh, also played, their thunder was stolen by a rookie third-round pick with two career NFL starts to his name.

Singletary accounted for 79 yards from scrimmage in the Bills’ first two drives as Buffalo took a 10-0 lead. The young back finished with a game-high 140 total yards from scrimmage — only five fewer than Gore and Peterson combined.

The former Florida Atlantic star has been electric for the Bills in his rookie season, but he hadn’t seen much playing time until Sunday. A combination of Gore’s strong start and a hamstring injury limited Singletary to just 20 carries through the first seven games. In Week 9, he matched that and added four targets as Josh Allen’s biggest safety valve.

Gore is 36 years old and has 20 carries for 49 yards in his last two games. He’s still got something left in the tank — his 109-yard performance against the Patriots in September is proof — but having a young workhorse like Singletary to shoulder the burden could be the key to keeping him well-rested and at his most dangerous as the Bills push toward their second playoff berth in three years.

Joe Flacco threw one touchdown pass as the Broncos’ starting quarterback in the entire month of October. Allen threw two ... in the first 20 minutes of his NFL debut.

Allen, thrusted into a starting role after both Flacco and rookie second-round pick Drew Lock landed on injured reserve, was a capable fill-in for a Broncos offense in need of a spark. Although his pace slowed as the Browns’ defense adjusted to his play behind center, he still finished his day with 193 passing yards on just 20 attempts, no interceptions, and a 125.6 passer rating in a 24-19 win. No Broncos first-year starting QB has ever posted a single-game passer rating that high — not John Elway, not Jay Cutler, and not Tim Tebow.

Alright, that list started a lot more impressively than it ended. Oh, but hey! He was one of three guys with the surname “Allen” to win in Week 9. Neat.

Gordon’s 2019 had been a disaster before Sunday. The free agent-to-be held out through the first three weeks of the season in a contract dispute, then returned to the active roster in Week 5 after the Chargers failed to budge from their modest extension offer. His first four weeks back on the field were a challenge: 44 carries and 112 rushing yards, which included two stuffs and a game-sealing fumble at the goal line against the Titans.

That made Gordon’s trek toward a pricy contract a long and arduous one, but his performance against the Packers suggests he’s ready for an uphill climb. Gordon had his biggest game of the year in an upset win — and finally looked like the explosive Pro Bowler who’d emerged as one of the league’s top backs over the last four years.

Gordon finished his day with 109 total yards (80 rushing, 29 receiving) and a pair of touchdowns, nearly tripling his 2019 single-game high in the process. It was an important flag-planting for an athlete at the precipice of the most pivotal offseason of his career.

It could also be a key indicator of a storied Chargers tradition: the too-late rally. Gordon was a boost to a Los Angeles offense that gained more yards against Green Bay (442) than in any other game it has played this season. That lifted the club to 4-5 and back into the tail end of the AFC Wild Card race. But with a tough back end of the schedule (including the Chiefs twice), even a 110 percent Gordon might not be enough to gloss over the Chargers’ early mistakes.

Stafford was bad in 2018, and that led to reasonable discussions about whether or not he was headed for a late-stage regression in his 30s. Now, with a little better blocking and a green light to air the ball out deep, he’s in the middle of the best year of his career.

Sunday’s game in Oakland was a prime example of the revived Stafford. The former No. 1 overall pick had 239 passing yards before halftime, 191 of which went to Marvin Jones and Kenny Golladay.

He finished his afternoon with 406 yards on 41 passes, three touchdowns, and an interception as his Lions fell just short of victory thanks to some truly uninspired goal-line playcalling. It was the first time he’s cracked the 400+ yard barrier this fall, but the fifth time he’s thrown at least three touchdowns.

Stafford’s return to the upper crust of veteran QBs has been predicated on his ability to link up with Golladay and Jones. The dueling deep threats have empowered their quarterback to raise his average target depth to a league-high 10.5 yards downfield through Week 8. That’s the highest he’s seen since SIS began recording that data in 2015.

On Sunday, he completed eight passes that sprang for 17 yards or more.

Stafford is having a renaissance at age 31 with a 64.3 percent completion rate, 19 touchdowns, five interceptions, 312 passing yards per game, and a 106 passer rating. Those are MVP-caliber numbers — you know, if he weren’t playing for a 3-4-1 team that currently has the league’s 31st-ranked defense.

And if Russell Wilson wasn’t fixing to lap the field after his latest monster game. And also if Lamar Jackson wasn’t out here doing bad, bad things to the formerly unbeaten Patriots. Hot damn, this is gonna be a fun MVP race.

The Chiefs rolled into Week 9 missing their starting left tackle, right guard, defensive end, cornerback, and defending MVP quarterback. But they, had Matt Moore and Harrison Butker— and that’s all they needed to derail the Vikings’ four-game winning streak.

Moore, playing in relief of Patrick Mahomes, shined for the second straight week. The backup-turned-starter — a man who didn’t plan on playing pro football in 2019 — was a stable, turnover-averse presence in the pocket. He finished his day with 275 yards and one absolutely gorgeous touchdown:

Tyreek Hill was his top target, and for good reason. The Vikings struggled to stick within grabbing distance of the speedy wideout, who routinely roasted whichever defensive back was tasked with hovering around his atmosphere (mostly Trae Waynes. Poor, poor Trae Waynes).

Hill finished his day with six catches on eight targets for 140 yards — more than half his team’s passing output! — and a score. If that weren’t enough, Hill got to show the world he’s still the world’s fastest Chief in the middle of a play where he didn’t even touch the ball:

The team’s biggest hero at the end of the game, however, was Butker. The third-year specialist made all six of his tries Sunday, parting the uprights with four field goals — including his first successful try from 50+ yards this season — and two extra points. His last kick was the most important. That 44-yard field goal was the difference between sending Minnesota home sad and heading to overtime.

It happened. Long after Laremy Tunsil, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Kenny Stills, Kiko Alonso, and Kenyan Drake had been sold off for future draft picks, the Miami Dolphins won a football game.

Granted, it came against the now 1-7 Jets, but it still counts as a positive integer in the win column. Behind three Ryan Fitzpatrick touchdown passes, Miami assured it won’t join the winless 2008 Lions and 2017 Browns among the NFL’s least-respected and most unsuccessful teams of all time.

How’d they do it? Primarily, the Dolphins made Sam Darnold look like a lesser Luke Falk so ...

many ...

times.

Granted, that’s not much of an accomplishment, but it’s still a moment worth celebrating for a team with few reasons for optimism. From there, a depleted roster turned to whatever remaining skill players were left to shoulder the load. Undrafted rookie Preston Williams tripled his career touchdown haul with a two scores. DeVante Parker, one of only three of his team’s first-round picks since 2010 still on the roster, had four catches and a touchdown. Second-year tight end Mike Gesicki led his team with six catches for 95 yards.

The victory may not ultimately have any effect on the the Dolphins’ journey to the top of the 2020 NFL Draft. Miami will host Cincinnati in Week 16, and the loser of that game will likely take home the No. 1 overall pick next spring — depending on how Washington finishes the season. Sunday’s win was a major morale boost for a team that desperately needed one ... and it probably won’t derail its tanking plans, either.