NFL Week 9 Awards: A record day for kicking and the best game of the year

A week ago, we were all sitting there thinking about how bad the football in Week 8 was. 12 of the 13 games were double-digit wins, and half of those weren’t even that close. It was straight-up boring.

Week 9? Buddy… Week 9 brought the heat. We had upsets, all of the points you could imagine, close games, an overtime game, and a potential playoff preview. That caliber of football deserves an award. Unfortunately, you can’t just legally award a day for being awesome. You have to award the people, the plays, and the games that made it awesome.

A homerun derby, but football

Every week, we start with the best game of the week. With this one, you either loved it or you wanted your entire defense to be shot into the sun.

Game of the Year of the Week: Bears/Bengals

The Jaguars and Raiders game went to overtime. It was awesome, but it paled in comparison to the Bears and Bengals game. It all started with this:

There are a lot of ways to describe this game, and ‘battle of defensive minds’ is not one of them. There were 89 total points scored, but that only tells part of the story. Let’s just look at the drive chart for the fourth quarter when the Bears had a 31-27 lead: 

Bengals Fumble (31-27)
Bears field goal (34-27)
Bengals missed field goal (34-27)
Bears touchdown (41-27)
Bengals interception (41-27)
Bears Punt (41-27)
Bengals touchdown and 2-point conversion (41-35)
Bengals recover onside kick. Touchdown (41-42)

At that point, the Bears had the ball with 54 seconds left. All Chicago needed was a field goal to win, but that’s easier said than done because their kicker, Cairo Santos, had already missed a 47-yard field goal during the game. 

They didn’t need it. 

On a first and 10 from Chicago’s own 48-yard line, Caleb Williams hit his tight end Coleston Loveland, who bounced off two Bengals and ran for a 58-yard go-ahead touchdown (47-42). 

The Bengals got the ball back, tried a couple of shots downfield, and ultimately lost their second consecutive game where they scored at least 38 points. If you have a Cincinnati fan, call them and do a mental health check-in. 

There were 1,071 total yards in this game. With those kinds of numbers, there are some bonus awards to give out. 

Old Guy of the Week: Joe Flacco

This is Joe Flacco’s 18th season in the NFL, and he’s played in 219 games. His 470 passing yards on Sunday was a career-high. He’s the Old Guy of the week, and he’s making a hell of a case to be on the Mount Rushmore of Old Guys.

Rookie of the Week: Kyle Monangai

With D’Andre Swift out with a groin injury, the Bears’ seventh-round draft pick, Kyle Monangai, was the guy. He had 26 carries for 176 rushing yards and three catches for 22 yards. That’s a total of 198 yards from scrimmage. If you’re dropping almost 200 yards in a game, you’re going to be the RotW. 

We’re going to ignore that he was playing a defense that would have trouble getting a UFL offense to third down. That absolutely matters, but we’re choosing to ignore it. 

Kind of Old Guy of the Week: Taysom Hill

Remember Taysom Hill? He’s still doing stuff for the Saints. On Sunday, he had their only good play (a carry for 29 yards). Seeing that play come across the screen on Red Zone made me think: How old is Taysom Hill?

He’s 35 years old, and this is his ninth season in the NFL. Good for him. He’s kind of old, and he’s still doing things out there. It’s far less than what he did when Sean Payton was his head coach, but it’s still something. 

He’ll probably never get an award any other way, so since he’s at the top of mind, he wins the inaugural (and final) ‘Kind of Old Guy of the Week’ award.

Hypocrites: Everyone who doesn’t like the Tush Push

There is nothing more infuriating than bias from announcers. That gets cranked up to 1,000 when that bias has a real effect on the way that the game gets played and how the rules get changed. 

In Week 2, the Eagles ran a Tush Push against the Chiefs. The Fox broadcast had their rules guy, Dean Blandino, come on the broadcast to talk about it. Blandino started his spiel by saying, “I’m done with the tush push guys. It’s a hard play to officiate…” That ended up starting the new ‘Ban the play because refs have a hard time telling what’s going on,’ campaign.

Almost every time the Eagles run the play, there’s some talk on the broadcast about an uncalled false start, how they think the play is ugly, or how they don’t think it’s football; this has been going on for the past couple of years. 

Now, let’s take a look at when other teams did it on Sunday:

What are we doing? What is this? And don’t say, ‘Who cares how the announcers call it?’ Those guys are the voice of the game. If they say something, it’s going to be clipped into oblivion, and we’ll never hear the end of it (a la the Blandino thing). That’s how these narratives get started.

The Bills' one with Josh Allen is the most infuriating one because Sean McDermott was so aggressive about banning it. His whole thing (which was unfounded) was that it’s a dangerous play.

He backs that up by having his franchise quarterback, who is being paid $55 million per year, run it the second most of anyone in the league. It’s unbelievable. 

It’s abundantly clear that Roger Goodell (who hates the play) has put a target on the Eagles’ back for making this a functional and successful part of the NFL.

The Eagles, Jets, Ravens, Lions, Patriots, Browns, Jaguars, Dolphins, Saints, and Titans were the 10 teams that voted not to ban the Tush Push this offseason. Those are the only teams that should be able to run the play. They’re not, but if there was any justice in the world, that’s how it should be.

Hello Darkness: Chargers

In Week 4, the Chargers' left tackle, Joe Alt, got carted off the field with an ankle injury that caused him to miss the rest of that game and the next three games. The Chargers lost three of those four games.

Justin Herbert looked a whole lot more uncomfortable than he normally does, and the whole offense didn’t really flow all that well. 

Alt came back in Week 8, and the Chargers absolutely dominated the Vikings in that Thursday night game. Did Joe Alt fix all of their problems on the offensive line? Kind of. 

On Sunday, he reinjured that same ankle and got carted off the field again. Fortunately, this time they were playing the Titans and not a team that’s actually good. Unfortunately, they have the Steelers and the Jaguars on deck. 

The Chargers have been in hell with their offensive line this season. They’ve been dealing with injuries to starters since August, and right when it seemed like things could maybe get back on track, they get another punch to the nards. Tough. 

THE Football player: Cam Little

It feels like it’s safe to assume kickers are good people until they give you a reason not to think that… like that one kicker who was also an opera singer and also an alleged sexual deviant. But these guys are not football players, they’re kickers. 

They have one job to do: make their kicks. This season, that has seemed like the easiest thing at points, and the hardest thing a human being has ever done in the history of man at other points.

On Sunday, kickers were a combined 37-of-46 (80%) on field goals, and 62-66 (94%) on extra points. 

There were nine kickers who missed field goals, and of those nine guys, five of them lost their games. Of those five guys, three of them lost their games by three or more points. 

There were four kickers who missed extra points, and of those four guys, two of them lost their games… and both of those teams lost by one point.

HOWEVER, the Jaguars' kicker Cam Little decided to show off his mondo-sized leg and break the NFL record for the longest field goal when he smacked a 68-yarder going into halftime. 

Unbelievable. That means we finally get to stop talking about the aforementioned opera singing and alleged sexual deviant kicker who had the record before Little. 

ALSO HOWEVER, something fishy is going on with the kicking this year. Vic Fangio brought it up during a press conference a few weeks ago. “You know what you guys have missed? Not just you, but everybody is: we gave up a 65-yard field goal and a 58-yard field goal. These kicking balls that they changed this year have drastically changed the kicking game, field goals in particular. So it's almost like they need an asterisk here. It was the live ball era, or the asterisk for those home runs Bonds and Sosa, and McGwire were hitting. The way they've changed the ball. The NFL, the kicking ball has drastically changed the field goals.”

Fangio has been wrong once, maybe twice ever. Is he wrong about this, or will we get a 30 for 30 about this 10 years from now? Time will tell.

Regardless, Cam Little is the absolute man. That kick would’ve been good from 70.

Not a Sketch Comedy guy: Packers/Panthers Refs

If you score a touchdown and dunk the ball over the uprights, that’s a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. It’s sick, but it’s a penalty; Everyone knows that. 

If you score a touchdown and do three pumps, that’s a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. It’s funny, but it’s a penalty; Not everyone knows that. The people who don’t know that are the refs in the Packers/Panthers game. 

Maybe you didn’t pay attention to Key and Peele when it was on TV, but 12 years ago, they did a sketch called “Excessive Celebration.”

The sketch makes it overwhelmingly clear that the rules (should) state that two pumps are fine, but three pumps are too much.

When Rico Dowdle scored his second touchdown on Sunday, he brought his team over and very clearly did two pumps… but he still got flagged for it. That’s soooooo lame. 

That’s wrong. There should’ve been a pool report after the game where one of the beat reporters gets to interview an official about the controversial calls during the game. ‘Hey, Mr. Ref, why do you hate joy?’ ‘Well, growing up, smiling wasn’t allowed. If you showed emotion, you didn’t eat. Laughing? You didn’t eat for a month.’

Pumpkin Watch 2025: Daniel Jones

The whole thing with the Colts this year has been, ‘We’re all going to believe in them until they give us a reason not to.’ On Sunday, they gave us a reason not to, and a whole lot of that was because of how Daniel Jones played.

In the Colts’ 27-20 loss, Daniel Jones looked really bad for the first time this season. That’s scary because the Steelers shut down Indy’s running game and made Jones pick them apart, which he didn’t do. Instead, he got sacked five times and threw three interceptions. 

It was very reminiscent of what Jones looked like when he was with the Giants. If that Daniel is still in there, and all it takes to get him out is for a defense to win up front (which isn’t an easy thing to do), the Colts are potentially in trouble. 

This is just a ‘Pumpkin Watch,’ not a ‘Pumpkin Warning.’ D.J. and the Colts have given us eight other games of really, really good football, so they’ve earned society’s good graces.

But if this kind of game happens again? Uh oh. 

Wave the flag, you dumb, stupid idiot: Dan Quinn

A very important job of the head coach is to save players from themselves. It’s not a top-three job that they have, but it’s somewhere in the top ten. 

When your team is getting absolutely blown out, it’s your job to pull your starters so they don’t get hurt. You would think that Dan Quinn, a guy who’s been a football coach for more than 30 years (eight of which were as a head coach), would know better.

Nah. He’s a tough guy who’s going to fight to the bitter end. If his franchise player wants to keep playing even though his team is down 36-7 with 7:39 left in the fourth quarter… he’s going to let that guy play… and then that guy is going to get his arm dislocated and maybe broken… which is what happened to Jayden Daniels on Sunday night. 

I get it, football is a physical game. That’s why I love it. Injuries happen. It sucks, but they happen. But if you can avoid injuries to key players during plays that are just about as far away from being a key play as possible, then you should avoid them.

But Quinn’s a ding dong, and now he doesn’t have his franchise quarterback.

As a person who has both dislocated and broken his elbow (it’s a very small population of us), that injury is wildly painful, but it doesn’t have any huge ramifications. Slightly smaller range of motion, a couple of railroad spike-sized screws in your arm, and they move your funnybone nerve to the other side of the arm so you can’t get hit there anymore… 

You know… assuming his was the same as mine. Maybe it wasn’t, and everything’s going to be terrible for Commanders’ fans forever. It’s a toss-up.

Super important to the whole operation: Brock Bowers

Going into the season, a whole bunch of the talk about the Raiders is how their second-year tight end, Brock Bowers, was supposed to be the catalyst for that entire offense. Then, in Week 1, he jacked up his knee and was a different player.

In Week 1, he had five catches for 103 yards. In Weeks 2 through 4, he had a total of 14 catches for 122 yards. Then the Raiders put him on ice for a few weeks to get healthy. 

In their three games without Bowers, the Raiders scored two touchdowns… and they were against the Titans… and one of them was a drive that started on the Titans’ two-yard line. That offense simply could not function at all without Bowers. 

Well, he came back on Sunday and showed exactly how much he was missed. He had 12 catches for 127 yards and three touchdowns. It’s a completely different offense when Bowers is on the field. It goes from ‘the offensive equivalent of the Bengals defense’ to ‘That’s actually kind of fun to watch.’

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