It was only a matter of time before the underdogs took a hit, and Week 9 delivered it in a big way. After eight weeks, teams getting 6.5 points or more had covered 22 of 41 times, with three pushes, and 11 of those covers were outright wins. Then the favorites rolled across the board.
All five favorites covered in Week 9, and the spreads didn’t even need to be close. Three games ended with margins of 21 points or more: the Chiefs beat the Jets 23-0 as 10-point favorites, the Jaguars handled the Ravens by 23 as 9.5-point favorites, and the 49ers beat the Raiders by 21 as 10-point favorites. The Seahawks topped the Cardinals by 14 as 8.5-point favorites, and the Lions beat the Dolphins by 10 as 7-point favorites.
Jess Root and I were on opposite sides in one of the tougher calls, with Jess taking the Raiders and me landing on the Cardinals. That one stung. Arizona had covered in four straight H-bomb eligible games and won three of them outright, and a late chance to score from the 2-yard line made it feel like a cover might have been there for the taking.
Week 9 also knocked down both eligible double-digit-spread games. Even so, the underdogs’ overall 6-5 record still includes a strange wrinkle: a 4-0 mark in games with a spread of 10.5 points.
Now Week 10 brings four more eligible games, and every favorite is on the road.
Buffalo is laying 7.5 at the Jets, Jacksonville is a 10.5-point favorite at Tennessee, Seattle is giving 6.5 at Las Vegas, and the Rams are favored by 9.5 at Arizona.
Two of those underdogs will have rookies making their first NFL starts at quarterback. Fernando Mendoza has appeared in one game for the Raiders this season, while Carson Beck is set to take the first regular-season snaps of his career for Arizona.
Jess is taking the Bills, who are coming off Monday night’s win over the Vikings. I’m sticking with the Cardinals, even though the receiver room is down to a thin group after losing Michael Wilson, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Kendrick Bourne from the season-opening top three. The current top three - rookie Reggie Virgil, kick returner Devin Duvernay and Simi Fehoko - have combined for eight catches this season.
Arizona will also be without center Hjalte Froholdt, who is missing his first start since joining the Cardinals in 2023 because of a concussion. That leaves Hayden Conner to step in against a Rams front led by Aaron Donald.
In Other News...
Cardinals Already Have A Mike LaFleur Problem They Can't Ignore
Nine weeks into Mike LaFleurs first season running the Cardinals, the offense has not given the team much reason to feel settled, and the red-zone issues have become especially hard to ignore. For a franchise trying to build something more stable on that side of the ball, the early returns have raised the kind of questions that usually arrive much later in a coachs tenure.
LaFleurs background only adds to the unease, since his previous stint with the Jets came with its own quarterback-development frustrations around Zach Wilson. The Cardinals are not there yet, but the conversation around whether they could move on after one season is already starting to sound more realistic, especially with history showing teams do not always wait long when an offensive plan stalls and a new coaching search begins to take shape. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Quarterback Depth Suddenly Looks A Lot More Fragile
The Cardinals quarterback room took another hit this week when Jacoby Brissett was dealt to the Ravens, a move that came after Baltimore was suddenly forced to patch together its depth chart because of injuries to Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley. Brissett has had only about a week to get up to speed, but he has already started practicing with his new team as the Ravens try to steady the offense through a difficult stretch.
For Arizona, the trade is a reminder of how quickly quarterback depth can disappear in the NFL, especially when a veteran backup is moved out of the building on short notice. Brissetts arrival in Baltimore is meant to bring some stability, but from the Cardinals perspective the more immediate concern is what his departure leaves behind and how much margin for error remains if the position gets tested again. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Enter A Defining Stretch As Quarterback Uncertainty Grows
The Cardinals have spent much of this season trying to piece together a competitive roster around a wave of injuries, and the results have left them at 3-6, already matching last years win total. Even so, there has been some outside appreciation for how Mike LaFleur has managed the situation, with former wideout Frank Sanders pointing to the lack of healthy athletes available and the importance of keeping the operation steady while the roster has been thinned out.
Now the attention shifts to the quarterback spot, where Arizona has moved on from Jacoby Brissett and is expected to give rookie Carson Beck playing time as part of the evaluation process. For a team already trying to survive the injuries around it, the next stretch feels especially important because the Cardinals need more than just reps at the position - they need clarity on whether the answer is already in the building. [Read more 🡒]