There were 141 offensive plays in the crazy and wildly-entertaining football game between the Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. But one specific play had to make Chicago fans deliriously happy.

Caleb Williams to Colston Loveland, down the seam. Let’s run this thing on repeat.

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For the last year and change, it’s been an open question — did the Bears draft the wrong quarterback in 2024? After all, Jayden Daniels was the instant rookie star last year, not Williams, and Drake Maye has turned into a legitimate MVP candidate this year.

For the past few weeks, it’s been an open question — did the Bears draft the wrong tight end? While Loveland wasn’t doing much for Chicago in the early weeks, Tyler Warren was smashing secondaries in Indianapolis. Sometimes it’s a curse to be the team picking first — paradox of choice and all that.

But maybe Sunday was a tipping point for the Chicago kids. Williams hit Loveland for a 58-yard touchdown pass with 17 seconds left, a seam-busting home run that lifted Chicago to a 47-42 win. When the smoke cleared in the 1 p.m. ET window, Williams was sitting at QB1 and Loveland was holding the TE1 belt in the fantasy streets — Brock Bowers later passed him with a huge game in his return. And all of a sudden every NFC North team is sitting .500 or better.

The video wasn’t always pretty with Williams — he still has nervous energy in the pocket and perhaps looks to improvise too quickly. But the stat sheet smells like a rose. He threw for 280 yards and three touchdowns in Week 9, he scrambled for 53 more yards and he caught a short touchdown pass on a gadget play. Yeah, the Cincinnati defense stinks. But it doesn’t hand out 37-point fantasy games at the airport.

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Head coach and play-caller Ben Johnson wasn’t afraid to lean on his rookies. Fantasy darling Kyle Monangai smashed in his emergency start, ripping 176 yards on 26 carries against the leaky Bengals (he also had 3-22-0 through the air). D’Andre Swift has been fine all year, but Monangai has earned a share of the work moving forward. And with Cole Kmet leaving with a concussion, Loveland (6-118-2) capitalized on his most significant playing time of the year.

Again, we have to mention the defense — the Bengals have allowed 12 tight end touchdowns this year, a constant giveaway. But it’s not surprising when rookies take a leap around the middle of the season, as they start to get more comfortable. Loveland is just 23% rostered in Yahoo, and might be a good target for TE-needy managers next week (Tucker Kraft, sadly, is probably lost for the year).

The only key Chicago player not invited to the party was Rome Odunze (three targets, no catches). Meanwhile, DJ Moore had 4-72-0 receiving, a touchdown pass and a touchdown run. Olamide Zaccheaus also joined the mix, a 6-58-1 line on eight surprising targets. I suspected a month ago that Odunze was ready to ascend to alpha status in Chicago, but he’s been mostly quiet for a month. His last touchdown came in Week 4.

Williams against Jaxson Dart should be a fun Week 10 matchup. Get your popcorn and your calculators ready.

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As for the other side, meet the new Bengals — same as the old Bengals. Joe Flacco (470 yards, four touchdowns, two picks) is jump-starting a carnival every week, and it’s been enough to keep Ja’Marr Chase (6-111-0) and Tee Higgins (7-121-2) rolling along. But perhaps the biggest winner with the Flacco appointment is RB Chase Brown, who had eight catches and 112 total yards in the Sunday loss. He was a wrong answer for fantasy in September, but Brown is back to set-and-forget status moving forward.

The Bengals defense can’t stop a nosebleed, which is why every Cincinnati total usually lands in the 50s. Cincinnati takes a bye in Week 10, then heads to Pittsburgh. If you’re sizing up the fantasy playoffs, the Bengals host Baltimore in Week 15, travel to Miami in Week 16 and host Arizona in Week 17.

Other sophomore QB shine

If you had sophomore QBs top of mind, you probably watched Atlanta at New England closely. Michael Penix Jr. had one of his cleaner games (three touchdown passes, just one sack, zero turnovers), while Drake Maye took two sacks and turned the ball over twice. Then again, Maye made 8.9 YPA on his attempts, while Penix was limited to 6.0 YPA. And the Patriots registered the 24-23 win despite Penix having the better fantasy day.

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The key for Penix is focusing on his two primary playmakers, Drake London (9-118-3) and Bijan Robinson (8-50-0). They drew a whopping 24 of Penix’s 34 in-play targets. Only seven Atlanta players registered a yard from scrimmage in this game, as narrow a tree as you’ll see in modern football. New England has suffocated the running game all year, so it’s not surprising that Atlanta’s scoring was all on short touchdowns from Penix to London. Look for those big bodies in space.

Maye lost Kayshon Boutte (hamstring) in the first half, but no matter. DeMario Douglas (4-100-1) hauled in a 58-yard touchdown and Stefon Diggs (3-38-1) also scored. TreVeyon Henderson was solid, not spectacular, in his first featured game. He collected 18 touches and made 87 yards with them, though Terrell Jennings (11-35-1) shared the work and stole the rushing touchdown. Maye might have to chase the game more often than usual next week, when Tampa Bay comes to Foxboro.

Since we’re essentially auditing the 2024 QB class, let’s take a peak at J.J. McCarthy and Bo Nix, too.

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McCarthy’s return for Minnesota was carefully handled by Kevin O’Connell, throwing just 25 passes against 29 runs in an upset win at Detroit. McCarthy managed a meager 5.7 YPA for his attempts, but he did toss scores to Justin Jefferson (6-47-1) and T.J. Hockenson (2-11-1) and he added a touchdown run himself. There are no parades when an offense posts just 258 yards from scrimmage, but you don’t apologize for NFL wins either, especially on the road. The passing volume will likely have to increase against Baltimore next week. Here’s a look at some of McCarthy’s better throws.

We expected the Denver passing game to struggle against the nasty Houston defense, and that’s exactly what happened — Nix managed a paltry 4.7 YPA and had a passer rating under 70. But a timely 25-yard run from Nix in the fourth quarter helped Denver bail out the game, and at least Nix’s two touchdown passes went to fantasy-relevant options (RJ Harvey, Courtland Sutton). Harvey has now scored five touchdowns in three weeks, and while J.K. Dobbins (16 touches) isn’t going away, note that the 5-51-1 log was Harvey’s biggest pass-catching day of the year. Denver should move the ball easily against the Raiders next week.

Other Week 9 Booms

— Let’s hear it for Carolina head coach Dave Canales, who at least steered us in the right direction this week. He made it pretty clear that Rico Dowdle was now the man in the backfield, and that’s what happened on the field. Dowdle was terrific (25-130-2) against a good Green Bay defense, the signature player in Carolina’s surprising upset. Meanwhile, Chuba Hubbard collected just five carries for 17 yards. I think everyone saw this coming, but it’s always nice to have proof of concept. Dowdle is securely in the RB1 luxury suite now.

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—Maybe boom is too strong a word for Jameson Williams, but at least he was heard from. He had a pretty tap-dance 40-yard touchdown at the end of the loss to Minnesota, the cap on a 4-66-1 afternoon. He was drafted as a proactive WR2 in most leagues this year, but probably lives more as a variable WR3. As we continue to navigate bye-week season, Williams will be a start-sit dilemma for managers the next few weeks.

— Jaylen Warren also carries that lukewarm feel to his Week 9 log — the Colts kept him under two yards per rush, but he finally got some goal-line luck, punching in two touchdowns. Warren’s two short catches went for negative yardage. The Steelers had no problem letting Warren be the bell cow, as Kenneth Gainwell had just three attempts (for a net of minus-one yard). The quirky Steelers play at the Chargers next Sunday night — I’m sure their fan base has already secured travel plans.

Other Week 9 Busts

— Nobody expected Daniel Jones to play a spotless season, but it was surprising to see him turn into a turnover machine against a slumping Pittsburgh defense. Jones threw three interceptions and lost two more fumbles — he was sacked five times in all — as the Steelers upset the Colts. Indianapolis trailed for most of the day, which allowed Jones (342 yards, two total touchdowns) and the passing game to score well on volume. Deep threat Alec Pierce rang up another 115 yards, and Michael Pittman Jr. did his thing underneath (9-115-0); they combined for 25 targets. For once, Jonathan Taylor didn’t single-handedly flip fantasy’s results. He managed just 57 yards on 16 touches.

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— Fantasy managers were hoping Tyrone Tracy Jr. would at least be the head of the New York RB committee, if not something approaching a bell cow. Instead, the work was roughly 50-50 between Tracy and Devin Singletary, and Singletary took all the red-zone work. To be fair, Singletary was also more efficient, so he forced the arrangement. The future is unwritten, but we have to take Tracy down from a proactive RB2 to a speculative RB3/Flex in the interim.

— The four main options all took a slice of the Chargers passing game, but they were not big pieces. Ladd McConkey had seven targets, while Oronde Gadsden II, Keenan Allen and Quentin Johnston settled for five each. Johnston had a touchdown (4-53-1), saving his day, and the Gadsden 5-68-0 line is playable for a fantasy tight end. Perhaps the passing volume will bounce up next week, when the Chargers host a Pittsburgh secondary that’s been exploited most of the year. It’s also possible the Chargers might need to throw more, as they try to offset the loss of star OT Joe Alt.

— Alt’s injury wasn’t the only cruel shot from Week 9; Kraft, as we discussed earlier, is lost for the year. It’s possible the Packers will look to trade for an impact tight end, or perhaps they’ll look to make due with holdover Luke Musgrave. Either way, be forewarned — the offense has been far less efficient this year when Kraft hasn’t been on the field.