Best & Worst Of NFL Week Nine

Nine weeks are down in the NFL Season and a lot went down this past weekend. There was a lot to talk about this weekend too. Sure there were some bad games, like the one in Miami, but that was more than made up for by the performances in both New Orleans and New England. Julio Jones still does know how to get back into the end zone, the Rams are in fact human after all, San Francisco may have something under center and the Chargers are getting their footing underneath them. Lets get right into it. Here's the best and worst from week nine in the National Football League.

Best:
New Orleans Saints Offense
The New Orleans Saints have done it. They are the first team to knock off the Los Angeles Rams this season. It what was, beyond a shadow of a doubt game of the week and possibly an NFC Championship game preview, the Saints pulled out a 45-35 win. The Saints offense was effective on another level this week, going five for five on trips to the red zone. Their three biggest weapons acted like it in this win. Brees threw for 350 yards and four touchdowns. Alvin Kamara had three touchdowns on his own, rushed for 82 yards and had another 34 receiving yards. Then there was Michael Thomas who had 10 catches for 211 yards on the day. This game could go a long way to possibly setting up home field advantage for the playoffs and if the Saints play at the Superdome all the way through the post season, they're really going to be hard to beat.

Worst:
New York Jets Offense
This game was embarrassing to watch. Miami beat the Jets 13-6, with both teams playing horrible football. The only touchdown in this game came from a pick six thrown by Sam Darnold, who had his worst start as a pro against Miami. Darnold has seemed to really regress the last three weeks, throwing just two touchdowns and SEVEN picks. He's thrown 14 picks on the year now, which is the most in the NFL. Center Spencer Long was bad at snapping the ball to Darnold and shouldn't have been in the game for as long has he was. I know he had a broken middle finger, which could be a reason why the snaps were bad. But if he was hurt like that then why was he even playing? No run game, no pass game, the offense for the Jets was just a dumpster fire on Sunday.

Best:
Nick Mullens, Quarterback San Francisco 49ers
Talk about a good way to welcome yourself into the league. San Francisco put a pounding on Oakland on Thursday night, to the tune of a 34-3 victory. Nick Mullens was given the chance to start for the 49ers and he took full advantage of it. He finished the night going 16 of 22 for 262 yards and three touchdown passes. Nobody had ever heard of the guy before the start of action Thursday night and then he goes out there and launches three TD passes against Oakland. Now I know the Raiders are a bad team this year but still that's pretty impressive. Three TD passes and a win in your first NFL start. Not bad at all. Looks like Mullens maybe the starter the rest of the way for the Niners.

Worst:
Russel Wilson, Quarterback Seattle Seahawks
In what was a very close game on Sunday between the Seahawks and Chargers, it came down to one mistake could cost you the game. That's what happened for Seattle. it was the only turnover in the Chargers 25-17 win over the Seahawks and it was Seattle QB Russel Wilson who made the mistake. Seattle had the ball trailing 19-10 midway through the fourth quarter. After a couple of successful runs to set up first down at their own 36-yard line, Wilson committed a rookie mistake, staring down his first read and throwing to a predetermined spot. Desmond King read Wilson like an open book, pounced in front of the pass and took it to the house for six points. Seattle did turn things around and score on their next drive to get right back into the game, but had a couple of dropped passes late that sealed the win for the Chargers. Wilson's misread of the defense on that one bad pass cost Seattle a chance at a victory.

Best:
Norv Turner, Offensive Coordinator Carolina Panthers
Turner came in this past offseason to take over and Carolina seems to have turned it around. They pulled off a dominating 43-28 win over the Bucs. Turner has done wonders for Carolina, having found ways to get the ball into the hands of the Panthers playmakers. Christian McCaffrey had himself a day as he racked up 157 yards and two touchdowns. Greg Olsen is involved heavily again as well, having six catches for 76 yards and a touchdown. Cam Newton threw for 247 yards and two touchdowns. Granted, this was the Bucs. But the past two weekends we’ve seen Carolina drop a combined 78 points on Baltimore and Tampa Bay. That’s going to win some games. Carolina looks like they're on the right track on offense the way Norv's got them going at the moment.

Worst:
Dirk Kotter, Head Coach Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Talk about a team going into a tailspin. The Bucs now sit at 3-5 following a 43-28 loss to to the Panthers. He benched his franchise QB after last week's disaster, got rid of his offensive coordinator, that hasn't worked. He even tried to go for a fake punt on the Tampa 26 yard line during the game, which ended in disaster. Nothing seems to be going right for the Bucs at the moment. Turnovers are still a big issue for Tampa Bay, as the Bucs committed two more on Sunday and didn’t force any by Carolina. Tampa has the worst turnover margin in the league at a horrible minus-15. Koetter looks more and more like a head coach whose job is in danger. The way things are going, he won't be around at the end of the year in Tampa, as the Bucs need to get it together to save their coaches job.

Best:
James Conner, Running Back Pittsburgh Steelers
There had been some thoughts as to whether or not the Steelers could make it without Le'Von Bell in their lineup. Well James Conner is proving more and more that he's more than capable of picking up the slack. Pittsburgh walked away with a 23-16 win over the Ravens and Conner was one of the main reasons for that. Conner picked up 107 yards on 24 carries, and wasn't done there, hauling in seven passes for 56 yards. The running back also hauled in a touchdown reception, earning a place in franchise history as the fastest Steelers player to reach 10 career touchdowns. Conner is showing the rest of the league what he already knows, that he's a great back and is worth getting all the touches he's been getting. He's good. Really good.

Worst:
Adrian Peterson Running Back Washington Redskins
When the Redskins are going, Adrian Peterson is usually the reason for it. Just look at the last three games for the Skins. All wins for Washington and Peterson piled up 360 yards and two touchdowns. They went up against Atlanta, a team that's one of the worst rushing defenses in all of the league. This week, in their 38-14 win over the Redskins, they held the Washington run game in check. Peterson was a ghost on Sunday, gaining a total of 33 yards on 12 touches and was a non-factor. It's tough to watch at times a guy who was considered one of the premier backs in all of football. If Washington wants to have any hope of staying on top in the division, AP needs to get his game back together again.