NFL Week 9 winners and losers: Tyler Bass in the clutch, Dak Prescott exits early

NFL Week 9 winners and losers: Tyler Bass in the clutch, Dak Prescott exits early originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The calendar has flipped to November, and it’s time for NFL teams to start getting serious.

With the season now halfway over, time is of the essence as squads look to position themselves for the playoffs. That jockeying continued in Week 9, with several playoff hopefuls suffering painful losses.

Here are all the winners and losers from Sunday’s games:

WINNER: Buffalo still owns Miami

It took a 61-yard field goal by Tyler Bass with five seconds left, but the Buffalo Bills continue to own the Miami Dolphins.

The Bills have now won six straight overall against the Dolphins, plus nine straight in Orchard Park. The Dolphins needed this one to cling to life in the AFC, as they now drop to 2-6 with a lot of work to do to make the postseason. Miami’s offense continued to look solid with Tua Tagovailoa back in action for his second game back from a concussion, but it wasn’t able to hold up defensively.

Meanwhile, Josh Allen just keeps building his case for MVP. The Bills quarterback had 235 yards and three touchdowns as his team improved to 7-2.

LOSER: Dak Prescott

The Dallas Cowboys lost another game — and their quarterback.

Dak Prescott exited with a hamstring injury and did not return in the 27-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, with Cooper Rush finishing the game for Dallas. Even before the injury though, Prescott wasn’t helping the Cowboys much. He went 18 of 24 for 133 yards.

Atlanta, on the other hand, is now 6-3 and firmly in control of the NFC South. Kirk Cousins was solid yet again with 222 yards and three touchdowns.

WINNER: Jayden Daniels keeps rolling

The Washington Commanders can’t stop winning.

Rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels helped the team to another victory, their seventh of the season, in a road game against the New York Giants. It was a narrow 27-22 victory in the end, but Daniels had another standout effort. The LSU product went 15 of 22 for 209 yards and two touchdowns.

The Giants now boast the opposite record of the Commanders at 2-7. After falling behind 21-7 at halftime, Daniel Jones turned things around in the second half but it still wasn’t enough. He ended up with 174 passing yards and two touchdowns after totaling 0 passing yards in the first two quarters.

LOSER: Jameis Winston’s magic

Last week, it looked like Jameis Winston had transformed the Cleveland Browns. This week, it was back to reality.

The former No. 1 overall pick had three interceptions in Sunday’s 27-10 blowout home loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. The Browns, now 2-7, don’t appear likely to make another Cinderella postseason run like they did last year with Joe Flacco.

On the other side, the Chargers are 5-3 and continuing to improve offensively. Justin Herbert had 282 yards and two touchdowns as the team scored four total touchdowns for the first time all season.

WINNER: Bengals at home

It took nearly two months, but the Cincinnati Bengals finally have a home victory in 2024.

Joe Burrow’s squad rolled to an easy 41-24 win over the Las Vegas Raiders behind five touchdown passes from their QB. After falling behind 7-0 in the opening minutes, the Bengals finished the game on a 41-17 run to seal the victory and improve to 4-5. It’s been a season full of disappointment for Cincinnati, but it’s still alive in the wide-open AFC wild card chase.

For the Raiders, they are now 2-7 as the season is slowly slipping away. Antonio Pierce’s team has lost five straight games following their 2-2 start — and the quarterback situation remains a problem. They have flip-flopped from Gardner Minshew to Aidan O’Connell multiple times — and Desmond Ridder even got some action on Sunday. Until that gets sorted out, results like this will continue to happen.

LOSER: Broncos defense can’t hang

The Denver Broncos’ defense entered Week 9 as a top-five unit in terms of scoring (third), total yards allowed (third) and passing yards allowed (fourth). That all fell apart in Baltimore when the Ravens put together a dominant performance.

The Ravens walked away with an easy 41-10 win in a game that got out of hand quickly. It was 17-10 with Baltimore leading late in the first half before a broken play gave Zay Flowers a 53-yard score in the final minute. The rout was on from that point, with the Ravens carrying momentum into the second half to cruise to victory.

Lamar Jackson had 280 yards and three touchdowns, while Derrick Henry added 106 yards and two scores on the ground. Bo Nix came back down to earth for the Broncos, going 19 of 33 for 223 yards and an interception — although he did have an impressive touchdown catch.