{"id":117029,"date":"2025-11-05T03:25:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T03:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=117029"},"modified":"2025-11-05T03:25:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T03:25:31","slug":"%f0%9f%9a%a8%f0%9f%8f%88-nfl-shockwave-super-bowl-favorites-fall-apart-in-week-9-chiefs-colts-packers-and-lions-all-go-down-fans-say-this-week-changed-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=117029","title":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udea8\ud83c\udfc8 NFL SHOCKWAVE: Super Bowl favorites fall apart in Week 9! Chiefs, Colts, Packers, and Lions all go down \u2014 fans say this week changed everything!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Just when we were beginning to confidently pick the real Super Bowl\u00a0contenders,\u00a0Week 9\u00a0shuffled the top of the NFL’s deck.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Four of the five favorites to win this season’s title by ESPN’s\u00a0Football Power Index\u00a0(FPI) lost on Sunday. The only team in the top five to make it through the weekend unscathed was the Eagles — who were on bye. And after Sunday’s series of upsets, each team has at least two losses on its record by Week 9. That has happened only one other time in the past 35 years, a 2010 season where the eventual Super Bowl champion Packers finished the regular season as the sixth seed in the NFC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

I’m going to break down those four Super Bowl contenders — the Chiefs, Colts, Packers and Lions — who lost in Week 9, including what happened and whether it’s something to be concerned about moving forward. Were these momentary missteps? Or is the race to the Lombardi Trophy as wide open as records around the league indicate?<\/p>\n

Let’s start with the latest matchup between the class of the AFC, where the Bills held serve on the Chiefs in the regular season for another year. (I included FPI chances to win the Super Bowl for each team both before and after their Week 9 losses.)<\/p>\n

\"\" KANSAS CITY CHIEFS<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Week 9 result:\u00a0Lost 28-21\u00a0to the\u00a0Buffalo Bills<\/p>\n

Chances to win the Super Bowl before Week 9:\u00a015.2%<\/p>\n

Chances to win the Super Bowl after Week 9: 11.1%It’s become a running gag. After earning the best one-score game record we’ve seen in a single season in 2024, the Chiefs have now lost all four of their games decided by seven or fewer points this season.<\/p>\n

Sunday’s 28-21 loss to the Bills wasn’t as close as the final score indicated, but after Buffalo’s Matt Prater booted a 52-yard field goal attempt off the uprights to keep the game alive, you could sense the panic and fatalism of what was surely going to happen next permeate through the television.<\/p>\n

Twenty-two seconds and no timeouts? For Patrick Mahomes? Might as well start preparing for overtime now.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Bills quickly closed out their fifth regular-season win over Mahomes and the Chiefs in six tries, knocking him down twice on the final three pass attempts of the game.<\/p>\n

The story was pressure and what it did to Mahomes, who had a sub-50% completion percentage in a game for the first time as a pro quarterback, going just 15-of-34 for 250 yards with no passing touchdowns and one interception. After years of averaging the shortest pass distance or something close to it, Mahomes’ average throw traveled more than 14 yards in the air on Sunday, the deepest average throw distance of his career.<\/p>\n

The Bills pressured Mahomes on more than 52% of his dropbacks per NFL Next Gen Stats, the fifth-highest pressure rate Mahomes has faced in his illustrious career.<\/p>\n

He went 3-of-16 for 61 yards and an interception under duress Sunday, throwing all three of those completions to\u00a0Travis Kelce, still the pass catcher Mahomes trusts most when he’s in trouble. Sean McDermott and the Bills created all that pressure despite blitzing Mahomes just three times all day.<\/p>\n

This was the Brandon Beane game, though. The Bills’ general manager was\u00a0excoriated by local fans\u00a0this offseason and even as recently as October for failing to add playmakers for\u00a0Josh Allen\u00a0this spring and summer, as Buffalo’s only notable signing at running back or receiver was\u00a0Joshua Palmer, who was\u00a0injured\u00a0and missed the victory.<\/p>\n

I ranked the Bills\u00a028th in my playmaker rankings\u00a0this year, concerned that Buffalo didn’t have a WR who could separate against man coverage or in situations where the Bills needed a big play. That’s essentially code for “against the Chiefs.”<\/p>\n

Beane instead loaded most of the money he had into fixing the team’s pass rush, trusting that it would be the way to compete with the Chiefs and slow down Mahomes.<\/p>\n

In addition to extending\u00a0Greg Rousseau, the Bills\u00a0signed\u00a0Joey Bosa\u00a0to replace\u00a0Von Miller\u00a0and added\u00a0Michael Hoecht\u00a0and\u00a0Larry Ogunjobi\u00a0(though both players were\u00a0suspended\u00a0for the first six weeks of the regular season after violating the league’s PED policy).<\/p>\n

The schedule wasn’t yet made, but Beane’s plan wasn’t exactly difficult to understand: Win up front, and they have a shot at beating Mahomes when it matters most.<\/p>\n

That line delivered, even\u00a0without\u00a0DaQuan Jones\u00a0and\u00a0Ed Oliver\u00a0in the lineup at defensive tackle. The Bills have looked notably better on defense over the past two weeks with Hoecht and Ogunjobi active, though the Bills revealed after the game that Hoecht\u00a0tore an Achilles\u00a0in the second half, an injury that will end his season.<\/p>\n

To be fair, this wasn’t as dominant as the Eagles were against the Chiefs\u00a0in the Super Bowl, where Philadelphia’s star linemen kept winning over and over again at the snap and left Mahomes with no hope.<\/p>\n

The Bills won the occasional one-on-one immediately for a quick pressure, but most of their pressures were after 2.5 seconds.<\/p>\n

In the past, that might have been enough time for Mahomes to find a receiver for a short completion and stay on schedule.<\/p>\n

But with the Chiefs big-play hunting, the extra time needed for those routes to develop gave the Bills a little bit of extra time to get home.<\/p>\n