Action in the NFL It’s never been closer through the first nine weeks of a season. Seventy-five games have been determined by seven points or fewer in 2024, the most in the first nine weeks of a season in NFL history, according to CBS Sports Research.
With such tight margins, anyone could win in any given week and anything could happen in any given week. So what surprising sequence of events will occur in Week 10? Let’s take a closer look at the latest batch of our bold CBS Sports NFL predictions.
Panthers win first game with Bryce Young as starting quarterback outside Bank of America Stadium
Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young, first overall pick in 2023 NFL DraftHe has never won a game outside of Bank of America Stadium in his NFL career, as he is 0-10 in his career away from home. In those 10 games, he has a 54.3% completion percentage, an average of 5.1 passing yards per attempt, and a 7-to-10 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Although Week 10 against the New York Giants, also 2-7, is technically a home game for the Panthers, it will take place in Munich, Germany, at Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena. Young and the Panthers will surprise the Giants with Young’s first victory outside of Bank of America Stadium.
The Giants are currently on a four-game losing streak and are the only NFL team that hasn’t held a lead in the last month, dating back to Week 6. Their four consecutive games without a lead ties the longest drought since 2000 along with with Weeks 5-8 in 2019, which was Daniel Jones’ rookie year. In fact, New York has lost 12 of Jones’ last 15 starts. The only thing Carolina has to stop New York from doing is going after Young with the best pass rush in the NFL. They lead the league with 35 sacks as a team, and defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence’s nine sacks are the second-most in the entire NFL. However, Carolina, after her offseason spending spree, is ready to meet the challenge. The Panthers are allowing the fifth-lowest quarterback pressure rate (29.9%) in the NFL and have allowed just 17 sacks, tied for the eighth-fewest in the league. I bet Carolina and Young will hold on and escape with the victory.
The New England Patriots (2-7) have lost four straight road games and the Chicago Bears (4-4) have won their first three home games this season.
However, New England will snap its road losing streak thanks to 2024 third overall pick quarterback Drake Maye out-dueling 2024 first overall pick quarterback Caleb Williams. Maye, with six touchdown passes and 209 rushing yards in five career games, is the first rookie since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger with five or more touchdown passes and 200 or more rushing yards in his first five games. Last week, Williams completed just 22 of his 41 passes (53.7%) for 217 yards and was sacked six times in a 29-9 loss to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 9. Chicago’s third-down conversion rate 19.2% in the last two weeks is the worst in the NFL, and they have had five scoreless quarters in the last two weeks.
The Patriots aren’t the best team, but Maye’s magic outweighs Williams’ magic as the Bears are trying to find themselves while Maye gets carried away.
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Patrick Mahomes and Chiefs offense get 30+ points from Broncos’ No. 3 scoring defense
One could look at this bold prediction and disagree with his entry in this column. Let’s discuss why it’s bold and why it will come to fruition.
First, the Kansas City Chiefs side. Yes, the back to back Super Bowl The champions are 8-0 and are the NFL’s last undefeated team in 2024, but they aren’t winning by any style points. They have the lowest point differential (+56) for an 8-0 team in NFL history, according to CBS Sports Research. Patrick Mahomes has played mediocre football this season: He has thrown 11 touchdowns to nine interceptions, a touchdown-to-interception rate that ranks 28th among 35 qualified quarterbacks, and he ranks 18th in passer rating (90.1). . Both marks would be career lows in seasons in which he has multiple starts.
The last time these two teams met in Week 8 last season, the Denver Broncos handed Mahomes the third biggest loss of his career with a 24-9 loss. His 11 career interceptions and 21 sacks against the Broncos are the most against any opponent in his career. Mahomes’ last four games against Denver have not been productive: he has seven touchdown passes and seven interceptions in addition to being sacked 11 times.
That’s on top of the Broncos having the third-ranked scoring defense in the NFL, allowing just 17.9 points per game this season. Denver’s 31 sacks are tied for second in the NFL, they rank third in quarterback pressure rate (40.2%) and lead the league in blitz rate at 42.6%. Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl MVP and considered the best player in the NFL today, doesn’t see the blitz very often: He’s been blitzed on 20% of his dropbacks this season, the second-lowest figure in the season. league.
After Denver exhausted itself to stop the Baltimore Ravens’ running game in Week 9, they were attacked in the air as Lamar Jackson completed 16 of his 19 passes for 280 yards and three touchdowns. Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid will successfully identify the weak link and exploit it to score at least 30 points for the second time this season.
No quarterback and wide receiver combination has been more in sync this season than the Detroit Lions’ dynamic duo of Jared Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown. St. Brown has caught his last 30 targets from Goff, which is the longest streak in a single season by a quarterback, wide receiver and tight end duo since at least 1991, according to NFL Pro Insights. He also caught a touchdown in six consecutive games, tying the longest single-season streak in Lions history, according to CBS Sports Research.
Goff eventually throws an incomplete pass when targeting St. Brown, and the duo fails to connect in the end zone for a touchdown in Week 10 against the Houston Texans. Here are a couple of reasons. No. 1 is Texans cornerback Derek Stingley, whose 52.1 passer rating allowed in man coverage this season is the fifth-lowest among NFL cornerbacks this season, with a minimum of 10 targets in man coverage. Another is the pressure on Houston’s quarterbacks. They’ve generated pressure at the second-highest rate in the NFL (42%), according to NFL Pro Insights, and Goff will get rid of the ball quickly when pressured, throwing it 0.41 seconds after the initial pressure on average, which is second . fastest in the league, according to NFL Pro Insights. The combination of Stingley and the Texans, Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter, will stop Goff and St. Brown in a way they haven’t seen since their six-game winning streak began in Week 3.
Chargers WR Quentin Johnston enters his second straight game with 100+ yards receiving against the Titans’ No. 1 pass defense.
Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Quentin Johnston, the 21st overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, was heavily criticized for a disappointing rookie year, but he’s starting to turn things around in Year 2. He departed for the first game of his career with more than 100 receptions. yards in Week 9 at the Cleveland Browns, racking up 118 receiving yards and a touchdown while catching four of his five targets. That included a 66-yard scoring drive in which he sneaked behind the entire defense.
He’ll have a tough task in Week 10 against the Tennessee Titans, who are allowing the fewest passing yards per game (155.8) in the entire league, but Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert is starting to warm up. He has thrown for 286.8 passing yards per game over the last four games, and is on pace to reach career highs in passing yards per attempt (7.7) and passer rating (101.6). Herbert and Johnston continue their respective productive stretches and light up the NFL’s best pass defense.
