Welcome back to Scoop City! James Palmer and The Athletic ’s senior NFL insider Dianna Russini are breaking down the midseason stretch of the NFL heading into Week 9 — including which teams are surging, who’s slipping, and what’s still to come at the trade deadline.

The Bengals offense pulled off a miracle comeback in the final two minutes against the Bears, only to be let down by a historically bad defense that gave up a 58-yard game-winning TD pass with just 17 seconds left to play. Bo Nix led another wild fourth-quarter comeback for the Denver Broncos in an 18-15 win over the Houston Texans.

The Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs were involved in another nail-biter as a fewl upsets and a record-breaker occurred over the course of Week 9.

The Panthers made an unconventional decision to receive the opening kickoff in Week 9. But that choice helped them to the biggest upset of 2025.

In another sign of the parity that has led to many good teams, but no dominant leader, 12 teams entered Week 9 with positive expected-points-added ratings on both offense and defense. Through the same point last year, there were nine such teams; the season before, seven.

Near the end of the first half at the Las Vegas Raiders, Trevor Lawrence completed a pass over the middle and spiked the ball to stop the clock with four seconds left. The field-goal attempt would be 68 yards. There had never been a field goal longer than 66 made in an NFL game. Jaguars head coach Liam Coen wasn't fazed.

Cam Little kicked a 68-yard field goal on the final play of the half, setting an NFL record. The previous long was the 66-yarder that Justin Tucker kicked for the Ravens on Sept. 26, 2021, to beat the Lions.

Little's 68-yard field goal in the second quarter against Las Vegas — inside the Raiders' domed stadium — broke the record by two yards, exceeding the 66-yard kick by Baltimore's Justin Tucker that had stood in the record books since 2021.