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| Week 9 of the NFL season began with a battle of one-win teams from the Bay Area, with the San Francisco 49ers picking up win No. 2 by hammering the Oakland Raiders. |
| Niners quarterback Nick Mullens made history in his NFL debut by setting a post-merger passer-rating record for QBs who threw at least 15 passes in their first game. Mullens finished the night 16-for-22 passing for 262 yards and three touchdowns in a 34-3 win. |
| Perhaps more interesting than the game itself was the pregame reports of a 49ers cheerleader kneeling during the national anthem. |
| Luckily for NFL fans, the weekend slate promises to bring much more excitement with the Ravens and Steelers renewing their rivalry, the Chargers and Seahawks facing off, the Saints and Rams battling for NFC supremacy and Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady squaring off on Sunday Night Football. |
Week 9 picks, burning questions & more! |
| - Week 9 picks: USA TODAY Sports' panel of experts has provided fans with the great public service of making prognostications for every NFL game this weekend. |
| - Hot Seat rankings: Hue Jackson is already gone. Who could be next? There's usually at least a half-dozen openings annually, so plenty of other head-coaching spots could become vacant. |
| - NFL trade deadline winners, losers: Tuesday's trade deadline was unusually frantic. Some teams ramped up their Super Bowl odds. Others, not so much. |
| - Curses! In honor of Halloween, witches and scary clowns, ghouls and Cleveland Browns, Nate Davis (@ByNateDavis) acknowledges the league's condemned. |
| - NFL QB Hot Sheet: Lorenzo Reyes (@LorenzoGReyes) assesses the league's most important position. Which QBs are trending up (Deshaun Watson is back ), which QBs are trending down (is Jameis Winston's time up in Tampa?) and which QBs you need to keep an eye on in Week 9 (Brady vs. Rodgers!)? |
 | | Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints look to take down the unbeaten Rams on Sunday. | | Brace Hemmelgarn, USA TODAY Sports | |
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| - Jerry Jones vs. former NFL player: Former NFL player Colin Allred is running for Congress in a key district where Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the NFL players union have gotten involved. |
| - Power rankings: See how every team stacks up entering Week 9. The defending champs are this week's biggest riser. Also, don't forget to check out the Fan Rankings and how they compare to our experts. |
| - Betting on NFL Week 9: We want you to become a better bettor of pro football games. So, listen up and find out the bets you need to make and which to avoid this weekend in the NFL. |
| - Saints LB Demario Davis hopes to make big hit on Election Day: Davis is campaigning for voters to pass Louisiana Amendment 2 on Tuesday, which would scrap the "10-2" system - it takes only 10 of 12 jurors to vote guilty for a felony conviction to be secured - and represent a huge step toward reducing the chances that innocent people are wrongfully convicted. |
| TOP PICS: Week 9 highlights | Cheerleaders | Celebrations | Fans |
Midseason report |
| - Updated predictions: With the NFL season at its midway point, it seems like an appropriate time to revisit/update some preseason prognostications. Who do our experts pick to win Super Bowl LIII now? |
| - Midseason awards: Who is MVP? Offensive and defensive rookie of the year? Coach of the year? Comeback player of the year? Jarrett Bell (@JarrettBell) has his picks, plus others for some unconventional awards. |
| - Winners and losers: While Patrick Mahomes and Andrew Luck have been first-half standouts, but the second has been unkind to rookie quarterbacks. |
| - One pressing question for every NFL team: Entering the second half of the season, Nate Davis looks at the biggest questions facing each NFL team. |
| - What we learned in the first half of the NFL season: Mike Jones (@ByMikeJones) looks at the biggest surprises and disappointments across the league. |
| - 10 games that will shape the rest of the season: Jim Reineking (@JimReineking) examines the games that will have the biggest impact on the second half of the NFL season. |
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Q&A: Your questions answered! |
| USA TODAY Sports' Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz (@MikeMSchwartz) answered questions from inquiring fans through our NFL Facebook group, The Ruling Off the Field (there's still time to join!): |
| From Gerard Cox: At this point do you think a Rams-Patriots Super Bowl is more or less inevitable this year? |
| Los Angeles and New England might be the front-runners in their respective conferences, but that matchup hardly seems like a fait accompli. |
| In the NFC, New Orleans has won six straight games and looks like a legitimate threat to end the Rams' undefeated run on Sunday when they host Sean McVay and Co. And even if the Saints can't unseat Los Angeles, a close call last week against the Packers showed that the Rams aren't invincible. Keep an eye on the likes of the Eagles, Panthers and Vikings (even though Minnesota couldn't keep up in a Thursday night game earlier this year) as potential challengers. |
| The AFC field is considerably thinner, but the Patriots shouldn't book their ticket to Atlanta just yet. The Chiefs have already shown they can hang with Tom Brady's bunch, and at 7-1 they're a threat to claim home-field advantage. The Chargers look like a sleeper, as they have an electric offense and formidable defense. The Texans are also surging and could threaten New England in the postseason. |
| From Glena Ackley Waterhouse: What NFL coaches do you think will be getting the axe soon? I think the Miami Dolphins Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke is next to go. |
| USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis took a look at the coaches who could be next to go after Hue Jackson, and the two front-runners seem to be the Broncos' Vance Joseph and Buccaneers' Dirk Koetter. Joseph is 8-16 in a year and a half, and the struggles from both quarterback Case Keenum and a once-touted defense might leave him on shaky ground with general manager John Elway. Koetter, meanwhile, faced a no-win situation at quarterback yet opted to go back to Ryan Fitzpatrick and bench Jameis Winston. Three years with no playoff berth might prove to be grounds for dismissal for both Koetter and general manager Jason Licht. |
| As for Burke, it's probably not a great reflection when he's saying this about his defense: "At some point, they have to learn some (expletive) and play some stuff." |
| Hello, football fans: Don't forget to submit questions either through our Facebook group or right here (be sure to leave your name!). |
Week 9 schedule |
| Click on team name to get updated news on your team from our NFL wire sites.
(All times Eastern) |
| Bye week: Arizona Cardinals, Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles |
| Thursday
49ers 34, Raiders 3. |
| Sunday
Chicago Bears at Buffalo Bills, 1 p.m. (FOX)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Carolina Panthers, 1 p.m. (FOX)
Kansas City Chiefs at Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m. (CBS)
New York Jets at Miami Dolphins, 1 p.m. (CBS)
Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. (CBS)
Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings, 1 p.m. (FOX)
Atlanta Falcons at Washington Redskins, 1 p.m. (FOX)
Houston Texans at Denver Broncos, 4:05 p.m. (CBS)
Los Angeles Chargers at Seattle Seahawks, 4:05 p.m. (CBS)
Los Angeles Rams at New Orleans Saints, 4:25 p.m. (FOX)
Green Bay Packers at New England Patriots, 8:20 p.m. (NBC) |
| Monday
Tennessee Titans at Dallas Cowboys, 8:15 p.m. (ESPN) |
Don't forget to join our NFL Facebook group! |
 | | The Ruling Off the Field - USA TODAY Sports NFL Facebook group logo | | USA TODAY | |
| If you love talking some football, we have the perfect spot for you. Join The Ruling Off the Field, to engage in friendly debate and conversation with fellow football fans and our NFL insiders. Sign up now! |
| As an added bonus, USA TODAY Sports' NFL experts will answer questions from fans posted in our NFL Facebook group. |
Valuable fantasy football advice |
| Our panel of experts is here to help you prepare for fantasy football domination in Week 9. |
| - Fantasy rankings for Week 9: For your convenience, these position-by-position rankings were updated for this week's games. |
| - Start 'em or sit 'em: Listen to our fantasy expert Steve Gardner (@SteveAGardner) as he tells you which players to feel confident about in Week 9, and which players you should think twice about putting into your starting lineup. |
| - Waiver wire: Bye weeks and injuries might be leaving some huge in your lineup this week. Need more receivers? Consider adding D.J. Moore or David Moore. |
| - Fantasy impact of deadline deals: FTW's Charles Curtis ( @bycharlescurtis ) examines what the trades of Golden Tate to the Eagles and Demaryius Thomas to the Texans might mean for your fantasy football team. |
| Want to keep this conversation going? Head to Facebook, and/or give a Twitter follow to your friendly neighborhood football guys who put together this newsletter, @JaceTEvans and @jimreineking. |
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