With the Kansas City Chiefs playing Monday night, it was a chance for the rest of the AFC’s best to show off on Sunday. The Ravens, Bengals and Chargers all put together blowout wins, while the Bills overcome some red-zone follies against Miami thanks to Tyler Bass’s right leg.
TYLER BASS!!!!!!!!!!!!
📺: @paramountplus pic.twitter.com/0YUMp5a5qI
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) November 3, 2024
Meanwhile, the Dallas Cowboys stumbled again, this time in Atlanta. The Athletic NFL writers Mike Jones, Ted Nguyen and Michael Silver share their thoughts on all of these storylines and more.
After Week 9 wins by the Ravens, Bills, Bengals and Chargers, who is the second-best team in the AFC?
Jones: It’s Baltimore. It was good to see the Bengals look more like themselves, but let’s be honest, it was the Raiders. The Chargers are improving, but they’re not elite. Buffalo is very good, yes. But they’re quite not on the same level as Baltimore, and I’m not just saying that because the Bills got throttled by Baltimore earlier this season. I have the Bills in a tier just below Kansas City and Baltimore. The Ravens have the more well-rounded offense, led by Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry, who should both receive MVP consideration and can each single-handedly take over games. They have some work to do on defense to achieve the level of consistency that they’re capable of, but they definitely deliver some game-changing plays on that side of the ball as well.
Nguyen: Easily the Ravens. They made one of the best defenses in the league look like child’s play. Again, Lamar Jackson looked calm, cool, collected in picking apart the defense. Zay Flowers looks healthy again and he was phenomenal after the catch. The secondary is still spotty — they gave up several big plays in the passing game but they tightened up in the red zone, allowing only one touchdown in four trips. The Bills have been impressive as well. The offense missed Amari Cooper’s presence today but Josh Allen played at an MVP level and led them to a win. Both the Bengals and Chargers are elite on one side of the ball but very bad on the other.
Silver: Not to be boring, but the Ravens are the obvious call. Lamar Jackson is a game-changer, and the addition of Henry — the best running back of his generation — has taken the offense to another level. (Shout out to all the NFL teams who decided not to pursue Henry when he was a free agent.) Defensively, I think Baltimore will improve down the stretch. Right now, I believe in the Ravens more than I believe in the Bills, who have all but wrapped up the AFC East [checks notes…] before Election Day, and who just took down the desperate Dolphins on a 61-yard Tyler Bass field goal, outdoors, in Western New York, in the heart of autumn. Josh Allen can carry this team a long way. If you don’t have an elite quarterback, don’t even bother trying to insert yourself into the “Who Willl Win the AFC?” conversation.
Do you have any confidence that the Cowboys will play a meaningful game after Christmas?
Silver: Last Sunday night, after the Cowboys fell short against the 49ers, a Dallas executive told me, “I have this bad feeling that this could be one of those years.” A 27-21 defeat to the Falcons, in which quarterback Dak Prescott was sidelined with a hamstring injury, should fortify that sentiment. Despite owner Jerry Jones’ “all-in” proclamations, the 2024 season has been shrouded in bad vibes since the spring. The team was passive in free agency, neglecting to pursue Derrick Henry (oops) and instead bringing back Ezekiel Elliott, who stayed home Sunday for disciplinary reasons and may not be long for the roster. Jones waited until the last minute before getting massive deals done with Prescott and CeeDee Lamb while pushing pass rusher Micah Parsons’ negotiations to next offseason. Parsons, who has missed the last four games with an ankle injury, is surely being advised not to return until he’s absolutely healthy. Unless Prescott elevates his game to the point where his massive salary ($240 million over four years) seems like a bargain, the Cowboys can devote their focus after Christmas to planning New Year’s parties and Cancun trips.
Nguyen: The Cowboys didn’t treat the offseasons seriously; they have a thin roster and they’ve been hit hard by injuries. There really aren’t any more buttons for them to push — this is not a serious team. The Eagles are playing better and Washington looks like one of the best teams in the NFC. If it weren’t for the ineptitude of the Giants, the Cowboys would be bottom dwellers. The defense sells out to stop the run because they don’t have a choice, and they routinely get beaten over the top. They can’t protect Dak Prescott and he has no one to throw to consistently outside of CeeDee Lamb. We should be merciful and not speak of them again until they show they are a serious team.
Jones: Define “meaningful.” The Cowboys may own a disappointing 3-5 record following Sunday’s loss to Atlanta, and they certainly are plagued by all kinds of ills, and Mike McCarthy has no apparent cures up his sleeve. But Dallas still has five NFC East games to go in the final nine weeks of the season, including Philadelphia and Washington twice apiece. Those games are almost always knockdown, drag-out affairs where anything can happen. So, there are plenty of meaningful games remaining for Dallas. Do I think they can turn their season around and reach the playoffs? No. But I see a 7-10, 8-9 finish as realistic.
Was Sunday’s blowout loss in Baltimore an indication of the “real” Denver Broncos, or just a blip for a Wild-Card contender?
Nguyen: The Broncos ran into a buzzsaw in Baltimore. Bo Nix has been playing better and he made some plays on Sunday, but couldn’t finish in the red zone. Denver has an elite defense but the Ravens offense presents unique challenges that they won’t see every week. That score doesn’t indicate how good this Broncos team actually is. I don’t think they are a playoff team this year but they’re going to be a competitive team every week, and opponents won’t look forward to playing them. Considering where they were after the disastrous Russell Wilson trade, this isn’t a bad place to be as far as longterm team-building.
Silver: This wasn’t a blip — the Broncos aren’t nearly in the Ravens’ class, and with Baltimore coming off a disappointing defeat to the Browns, this outcome was somewhat predictable. Vance Joseph’s defense, which had been so good through the first eight games, was essentially powerless against Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and friends. And yet… seven teams make the watered-down playoffs in each conference these days, and it’s certainly plausible that the Broncos could be one of them. The AFC East and AFC South don’t have a ton of wild-card contenders at the moment, and Denver has some very winnable games (at Raiders, Browns at home, Colts at home, at Chargers) remaining, along with some tougher ones (Chiefs twice, Falcons at home, at Bengals). Despite Sunday’s beatdown, the Broncos — even if they lose their next two games, to the Chiefs and Falcons — can keep hope alive.
Jones: The Broncos are a young, still-developing team. The Ravens — a true powerhouse with Super Bowl aspirations — should have walloped them like that. But the loss doesn’t mean Denver is trash, they just aren’t anywhere close to elite. If Baltimore had struggled against the Broncos, then we would have been really concerned. But instead, we saw a legit contender handle business and the upstart squad take its lumps. The Broncos probably have another rough day in store next week against the Chiefs, but a Wild-Card berth is a realistic goal for Sean Payton, Nix and Co. They might come up short, but they will at the least be in the mix down the stretch as long as they continue to make the improvements we have seen during the first half of the season.
(Top photo: Greg Fiume / Getty Images)
