Only two NFL teams are on bye in Week 9 — the San Francisco 49ers and Pittsburgh Steelers — which means we’ll get a 15-game slate that features several intriguing matchups.
Looking at the NFL coverage map, let’s see which games will be broadcast in different areas of the country in Week 9 while also previewing each contest.
NFL Coverage Map for Week 9
The people at 506 Sports provide fans with weekly NFL coverage maps. They color-code the maps based on where each game will air across the major networks, and these maps are subject to change during the week.
CBS Single NFL TV Coverage Map
Red: Denver Broncos at Baltimore Ravens
Both the Broncos and Ravens are 5-1 over their past six games, with Denver (+66) holding the significant edge in point differential (Baltimore: +43). Over the past two weeks, Bo Nix is just 1-11 when pressured (43-52 when not pressured). The Ravens rank 27th in pressure rate this season and are coming off of their two lowest pressure rates of the season.
Denver picked up 64.7% of third downs on Sunday, its first game over 36.4% this season. The Broncos allow a first down on just 19.% of opponent rush attempts, the third-lowest rate in the league (Vikings and Ravens).
The Ravens are 1-2 outright when favored by at least seven points this season (they were 17-3 in such spots over the previous four seasons). Blitz at your own risk — Lamar Jackson has completed 28-of-36 passes against the blitz over the past three weeks.
In Weeks 1-5, Jackson’s sack-per-pass attempt rate was 3.3%. Since then, it has remained at 8.1%. Over his past six games, Zay Flowers has three contests with over 110 receiving yards and three outings with no more than 20. Baltimore’s defensive success rate through four weeks stood at 62.3%, but it has plummeted to 53.4% since.
Green: Miami Dolphins at Buffalo Bills
Much has been made of the Dolphins’ ability to play on the East Coast as the weather turns — they don’t play another true East Coast game on the road until Week 17 (at Cleveland and at New York to finish the season). In his return to action, Tua Tagovailoa completed 28 passes, his most in a game since Week 8 of last season.
Miami averaged 5.9 yards per play on Sunday, their best mark since Week 1, the only other Tua Tagovailoa full game. In Weeks 2-7, they picked up just 4.4 yards per play. The average NFL team records a sack on 21.5% of dropbacks in which they create pressure. Through eight weeks, Miami is 12.3%, the second-lowest in the league (Atlanta).
The Bills are coming off of a stretch where they played four of five games on the road — three of the next four are in front of #BillsMafia (Chiefs in Week 11 and 49ers in Week 13). In Week 2, James Cook ran for 78 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries while the Bills had the ball for under 24 minutes. That combination of events resulted in Josh Allen failing to throw multiple touchdown passes for the first time in 14 career games against the Dolphins.
The Bills scored a touchdown on 9.1% of their drives in the blowout loss to the Ravens in Week 4. They followed that up with a 16.7% rate in Week 5, 33.3% in Week 6, 36.4% in Week 7, and 40% in Seattle last week. Buffalo has the fifth-highest pressure rate when bringing the heat (48%), a strength they carried over from last season (47.3%).
Orange: Los Angeles Chargers at Cleveland Browns
We still haven’t seen 40 total points scored in a Charger game this season (the Browns aren’t exactly explosive on either side of the ball, but even they’ve seen 40 points hit three times this season) Over the past two weeks, Justin Herbert is 20-of-24 for 328 yards and a touchdown when throwing out of play-action.
In Weeks 1-4, the Bolts averaged 1.5 points per drive. In the past three weeks, however, that number has spiked to 2.0 (up 33.3%). Los Angeles is the only team in the league that can say they’ve recovered as many fumbles as rushing touchdowns they’ve allowed (three).
Cleveland leads the league in play-action rate this season (19.4%), which they essentially mirrored in Jameis Winston’s first start (19.7%). Winston went 8-11 when throwing deep downfield (15+ air yards) on Sunday against the Ravens, totaling 167 yards and two touchdowns.
JAMEIS GOING FOR IT ALL!
📺: #BALvsCLE on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/hAZ6Y2r9px— NFL (@NFL) October 27, 2024
The Browns completed just 19.2% of their third downs through Week 6. Against the Bengals in Week 7, they were 8-of-19 (42.1%) and, in the upset win over the Ravens on Sunday, 8-of-15 (53.3%). Cleveland leads the NFL in pressure rate this season (42.7%) and made Lamar Jackson uncomfortable on 50% of his dropbacks last weekend (the second time this season, they created chaos on at least half of their opponents’ pass attempts).
Light Blue: New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers
New Orleans has lost six straight games, matching their longest skid of the 2000s (tied with Weeks 5-11 in 2005). Derek Carr might return to a skeleton crew that doesn’t have the big play upside of the offense he left. Can he make it work? It’s possible — he’s completing a career-high 77.5% of his short passes this season.
The Saints have scored 45 points in their past three games — they averaged 45.5 points per game during their 2-0 start this season. Alvin Kamara has more targets (18) than rush attempts (17) over the past two weeks. After averaging 90.5 rushing yards per game in September, he didn’t reach 70 once in October. Over the last three weeks, New Orleans has created pressure on just 25% of opponent dropbacks (Weeks 1-5: 38.1%).
Carolina is technically the home team next week in Germany against the Giants — their next true road game doesn’t come until December 8 (Week 14 at Philadelphia). Bryce Young threw a touchdown pass under pressure against the Broncos on Sunday, doubling his career total of such passes in the process. Baby steps!
Dark Blue: Chicago Bears at Arizona Cardinals
For the first time in the 2000s, the Bears have allowed 21 or fewer points in each of their first seven games of a season. It’s been a simple story with Caleb Williams — his passer rating is 42.8 points higher when not pressured than when he is this season.
Chicago hasn’t allowed a red-zone TD in two of the past three weeks (that, of course, isn’t going to help when defending Jayden Daniels Hail Marys). The Bears didn’t run for even 85 yards in any of their first three games — they’ve cleared 125 rushing yards in all four games since. In Week 8 at Washington, they recorded a season-high 196 rushing yards. Over D’Andre Swift’s past four games, he’s produced 33.4% over expectation.
.@DAndreSwift TO THE HOUSE
📺: #CHIvsWAS on CBS pic.twitter.com/jqTPXUtLh0
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) October 27, 2024
The Cardinals are seeking their first three-game win streak since starting the 2021 season 7-0. Kyler Murray posted a 127.2 in-pocket passer rating against the Dolphins last week, his highest since Week 13 in 2021.
The Cardinals beat the Dolphins last week without leading for a single offensive snap. It’s their second game this season in which every offensive snap came from behind and their second win when they were trailing for over 87% of their offensive snaps (along with Week 5 at the 49ers). Arizona has allowed their opponent to pick up at least half of their third downs in five of the past six games (Dolphins in Week 8: 11-of-15, 73.3%).
Yellow: Jacksonville Jaguars at Philadelphia Eagles
After winning seven of eight games in the middle of last season, Jacksonville is 3-11 in the 14 games since. Trevor Lawrence’s yards per pressured pass attempt are down 26.6% from a season ago.
The Jags have won the time of possession battle just once (Week 7 vs. Patriots). Last week was the fourth time they failed to have the ball for even 27 minutes this season. Tank Bigsby has looked explosive at times, but he needs help. In three of his past four games, he’s averaged less than two feet per carry before contact. Last week, Jacksonville held the Packers out of the end zone on four red-zone trips (66.7%, their rate in Weeks 1-7: 21.7%).
No offensive line allows pressure more often when not blitzed than the Eagles (44.1%, league average: 31.6%). The Eagles have won three straight games — in those games, Jalen Hurts has -2 red-zone passing yards. Last week, Hurts had his 13th game with multiple rushing touchdowns since 2021, the most in the league (Derrick Henry ranks second with 11, and James Conner is third with seven over that stretch).
From 2022-23, only the Cowboys, Chiefs, and 49ers scored more first-quarter points than the Eagles. This season, Philadelphia has yet to score in the first 15 minutes. If you’re curious, their lowest-scoring season for first-quarter points over the past 20 years came in 2012 (31 points).
The Eagles hadn’t allowed an opponent to convert over 46.2% of their third downs through seven weeks. In Week 8, the Bengals went 10-of-13 (76.9%), though part of that can be attributed to a one-sided game (Philly won by 20).
FOX Early NFL TV Coverage Map
Red: Dallas Cowboys at Atlanta Falcons
Strong second half? The on-field product is struggling right now, but this franchise does have back-to-back-to-back seasons with a four-game win streak in the second half of the season. Dak Prescott has been intercepted multiple times in three straight games, a first for him and the 11th time the franchise has seen a QB do that. Only twice in their long history has it happened in four straight (Danny White in 1983 and Craig Morton in 1972).
In Weeks 1-4, Dallas allowed pressure 25.8% of the time, a rate that has spiked in their three games since (37.3%). The Cowboys are 2-3 over their past five games. In three games against teams favored to make the playoffs over that stretch, they’ve allowed 105 points (35 points per game). In the other two games, there were 32 points total. They face playoff hopefuls in each of the next four weeks (Falcons, Eagles, Texans, and Commanders).
In Week 8, the Falcons improved to 3-0 following a loss this season, winning those games by five points. Kirk Cousins’ 62.4% quick pass rate is his highest since 2018, his first season with the Vikings.
Atlanta converted 3-8 third-and-long situations (seven-plus yards) in Week 5 against the Bucs; since then, they are just 2-15 in such spots. The Falcons have the lowest sack rate in the NFL (2.2%), and it isn’t close (Carolina ranks 31st at 3.6%). We’ve only had two sub-3% sack teams over the past decade (the 2018 Raiders and the 2020 Titans).
Blue: Washington Commanders at New York Giants
Washington begins a stretch this week where they play an NFC East team three times in four weeks (Eagles in Week 11 and Cowboys in Week 12. Against the Bears, Jayden Daniels threw 12 deep passes, five more than he had attempted in any other game.
For the first time this season, Brian Robinson failed to score and didn’t reach 100 yards on the ground in Week 8. Tress Way had five punts on Sunday against the Bears — he had four in September. Washington has held its opponents to five first downs on 22 third-down conversion attempts over the past two weeks (22.7%). Through six weeks, that rate stood at 46.2%.
The last time Daniel Jones threw a touchdown pass at home was January 1, 2023 — one day before the Damar Hamlin injury. Monday was Jones’ fourth game this season with 20-plus completions and zero touchdown passes. Since 2020, this is the third instance in which a QB has “accomplished” that: Jared Goff did it in 2021, and … well, Jones did it in 2020.
Since 2022, only twice has an NFC team failed to score more than 18 points in at least six games through Week 8 — the 2023 Giants (seven) and the 2024 Giants (six). The Giants didn’t allow a red-zone touchdown on Monday, but it didn’t matter … again. The Giants are 0-3 this season when not allowing a red-zone touchdown (all other NFL teams are 20-7 this year in such spots).
Green: New England Patriots at Tennessee Titans
The Patriots beat the Jets on Sunday with 247 yards of offense. Surprisingly, that was the eighth time in eight weeks a team has won with under 250 yards of offense (the Broncos also did it to the Jets in Week 4).
Jacoby Brissett has yet to clear 5.5 yards per attempt in a game this season and has two touchdown passes on 159 attempts (Will Levis thinks that’s a low rate; he has five on 125 attempts this season). Brissett might start in Week 9 if Drake Maye is still in the NFL’s concussion protocol.
The Patriots have converted six of seven red-zone trips into touchdowns over the past three weeks (after going 4-of-13 in Weeks 1-5). New England’s defensive game plan adjusts as much week over week as any. They blitzed 17.2% of the time on Sunday — they’ve been at 25%, the lowest in four games, but also at 40% or the highest in three games, including Weeks 6-7).
The Titans have been blown out in back-to-back weeks by Super Bowl contenders, but they own a +9 point differential this season in three games that are sub-.500 this season. Mason Rudolph averaged 15.6 yards per pass in the first quarter on Sunday and 3.9 the rest of the way.
Yellow: Las Vegas Raiders at Cincinnati Bengals
The NFL team average is 4.5 yards per carry — the Raiders failed to reach 3.5 in five of eight games last season (Week 8: 21 carries for 33 yards). Gardner Minshew’s average depth of throw over his past four appearances (ending with Sunday’s mark against the Chiefs): 8.3 – 7.7 – 6.2 – 4.6.
The Raiders either scored or went three-and-out on every drive on Sunday against the Chiefs. Before Sunday, the Raiders hadn’t allowed more than five third-down conversions in a game this season (28.9% conversion rate). Amidst KermitGate, Patrick Mahomes picked up 12-of-16 (75%) opportunities.
The Bengals have three wins this season — against the Panthers, Giants, and Browns. Joe Burrow’s red-zone completion percentage is down to 53.7% from 67.4% last season
The Bengals have averaged under 5.0 yards per play three times this season, two of which have come in the past two weeks. Cincinnati blitzed 28.6% of the time on Sunday (their highest since Week 3) but created pressure on a season-low 13.6% of Philadelphia dropbacks.
FOX Late NFL TV Coverage Map
Red: Detroit Lions at Green Bay Packers
The Lions have scored 30+ points in four straight games — it’s the first SEASON in which they’ve scored 30 points in four games during the 2000s. Detroit has won five straight games, and in those games, Jared Goff has a 146.6 in-pocket passer rating (78-94 for 1,023 yards, 11 touchdowns, and one interception).
Jahmyr Gibbs has a 45-plus-yard rush TD in consecutive games, the fifth running back to do that since 2016 (joining Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley, Leonard Fournette, and Kareem Hunt). In four of their past six games, the Lions have held their opponent to an under-30% conversion rate on third downs (last week vs. Titans: 27.3%).
I feel the need, the need for speed. @jahmyr_gibbs1 #TENvsDET 📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/3uBlQJaDL6
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) October 27, 2024
The Packers ended last regular season winning six of eight games, and they’ve opened this season with a 6-2 mark (of those four losses, three came by fewer than six points). Jordan Love has thrown an interception in every game this season, and eight of nine have come when operating in the pocket.
The Packers entered the red zone on a season-high 46.2% of their drives against the Jaguars. Green Bay forced Jacksonville to go three-and-out on 58.3% of their drives last week, the defense’s best showing this season.
Blue: Los Angeles Rams at Seattle Seahawks
Over their past three games, the Rams have coveted seven-of-nine red zone drives into touchdowns (prior: seven-of-17). Matthew Stafford posted his best EPA against zone in a game since Week 6, 2021 (it was the first time he posted a positive number since Week 1, the last time he had both Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua)
In the return of their two star receivers, the Rams operated at their slowest pace of the season, and it worked: they averaged a season-best 5.8 yards per play. Defensively, in Weeks 5-8, Los Angeles has allowed opponents to convert just 20% of third downs (Weeks 1-4: 50%).
This is Seattle’s fourth home game in a five-game stretch — they’ve lost the first three and been outscored 96-54 in those contests (Giants, 49ers, and Bills). In the first four weeks this season, Geno Smith completed 81% of his out-of-pocket throws. Over the past four weeks, that rate has regressed in a major way: 35.7%.
NFL Week 9 National TV Broadcasts
Sunday Night: Indianapolis Colts at Minnesota Vikings
The Colts are 4-4 this season, with five games decided by a field goal or less (2-3 in those games). Pressure is one thing; seeing ghosts is another — Anthony Richardson went 6-of-20 for 78 yards and an interception against the Texans when not pressured. Now, Indy will turn to Joe Flacco.
The Colts gained 21.2 yards per drive in the Week 7 win against the Dolphins, their lowest rate of the season. In the loss to the Texans on Sunday, that number was 21.0. In Weeks 1-5, the Colts forced a punt on 23.6% of drives, a rate that has spiked to 48.6% since.
The Vikings have played just three true road games this season. After this week, they go on the road for three straight (Jaguars, Titans, and Bears). Sam Darnold posted his highest in-pocket passer rating of the season on Thursday night (134.0, he’s been over 106.0 in six of seven games.
In Weeks 1-4, Minnesota averaged 6.5 yards per play on first down, a rate that is down to 4.8 since. The Vikings posted their highest pressure rate of the season in Week 7 against the Lions (58.6%) but couldn’t make Matthew Stafford uncomfortable in Week 8 (11.8%, 18 percentage points below their previous season low).
Monday Night: Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Kansas City Chiefs
This is the first of a seven-game stretch that sees Tampa Bay play five road games. Baker Mayfield has thrown for 325 yards and three touchdowns in three straight games — the last player with a four-game streak was Aaron Rodgers bridging the 2012-13 seasons.
The Bucs are averaging 2.57 points per drive, pacing for their second most this millennium (other: 2020, Super Bowl champions). Over the past two weeks (BAL and ATL), Tampa Bay has allowed 3.6 points per drive (Weeks 1-6: 2.0).
Cade Otton time. #NationalTightEndsDay
📺: #ATLvsTB on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/UKxppwoiSk— NFL (@NFL) October 27, 2024
The Chiefs averaged 31.1 points per game in their 2022 wins. That number dropped to 25.0 last season and is even lower in their undefeated start this season (24.7). They proved willing to ramp up the aggression last week in Vegas if they identify it as a weakness of their opponent — a 47.1% blitz rate after checking in under 28% in each of their three games prior.