The Week 9 Plays That Stood Out, From Ben Johnson’s Scheme To Joe Burrow’s Big TD Toss

Welcome to The Plays that Stood Out, where we take a deep dive into the moments that shaped the past week of NFL games and try to figure out what they could mean for the teams and players going forward. This week, we start in Chicago, where Ben Johnson put on a masterclass on calling plays in the clutch to beat the Buccaneers. Truth be told, Sunday night wasn’t Ben Johnson’s best as a play-caller. Sure, Caleb Williams’ interceptions deserve most of the blame for derailing the Bears’ early success, but even that initial scoring barrage was largely driven by the quarterback’s out-of-structure playmaking on third down, not Johnson’s play-calling. Chicago’s 42% offensive success rate, well below the team’s season-long average, reflected that. In this league, though, it’s about how you finish, and Johnson made his best call of the night when the Bears needed it most, getting tight end Colston Loveland wide open on the 38-yard reception that set up the game-winning field goal. That play had everyone asking the same question: How in the hell do you let Loveland get that open? Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles was asked in his postgame presser. “We busted,” said Bowles. “Shouldn’t happen.” Keen insight, coach, but it doesn’t really explain how it happened. Without knowing the exact call, it’s difficult to say which Buccaneers defender was responsible for the busted coverage, but I’m not inclined to dole out blame anyway. Instead, I’ll credit Johnson with a shrewd play call that crossed Tampa Bay’s wires and caused the bust. Johnson called a run play on the previous snap, which served two purposes: The Bucs had blitzed on every play of the drive and were getting off the ball in a hurry. Throwing a run at them helped slow down the rush. It also gave the players with dual responsibilities, against the run and pass, something to think about before they dropped into coverage. I believe Johnson viewed that run as a little jab that set up the haymaker that followed. Chicago came out in a bunch formation with three receivers to the right and Loveland immediately motioned to the left, followed by tight end Sam Roush, flipping the strength of the formation and forcing the Bucs to adjust coverage on the fly. You can see how much communication the pre-snap shift required from the defense. As they worked that out, the ball was snapped. Williams faked a handoff, causing further confusion—especially for linebacker Josiah Trotter, who looks completely lost and ends up covering no one. I don’t blame him. Johnson’s play-call threw a lot at the rookie in a two-second span. He was already left scrambling at the snap, then he had to mind his run responsibility before finally dropping into coverage. Even if he had covered Loveland, it would have been difficult to keep up with the Bears tight end. Either way you look at it, the big gain was the result of a fantastic play-call by Johnson, who made things as difficult as possible for the Buccaneers defense in the biggest moment of the game. We typically attribute crunch-time performance to the quarterback, who gets credit in the form of “fourth-quarter comeback” and “game-winning drive” stats, but a play-caller who can still consider all of the details, as Johnson did on Sunday night, in those moments can play a vital role as well. “We really haven’t been in that situation [this season], where in the fourth quarter, with little time left, needing to get a field goal [or] touchdown,” Johnson said after the game. “Yet I feel like we are prepped for that and we’re ready for it. “I know as a play caller, I certainly felt great. It was as calm as I felt on calling plays that last drive as I was all game long. I think we thrive in those situations.” Now, I’m imagining Johnson doing the “Ice in my veins” emote on the sideline after calling the play to Loveland. All jokes aside, Johnson really seems built for those moments as a play-caller. We saw that throughout the 2025 season, when the Bears offense always seemed to come through in the clutch. I’m not sure how many play-callers would have thought to mix in a run in a two-minute situation, or take the time to set up the Loveland play with multiple shifts as the clock was ticking. Johnson earned the right to pat himself on the back. CeeDee Lamb Whenever a receiver has a day like CeeDee Lamb did on Sunday—10 catches for 195 yards and a score—our first instinct is to blame the defensive coordinator for not doubling him, but Colts DC Lou Anarumo did try. It just didn’t work out. The two biggest non-Lamb receptions of the day came on players where the star wideout was doubled. On an early third down, the Colts put cornerback Charvarius Ward and linebacker CJ Allen on him, which left the middle wide open for Jonathan Mingo. Indy threw another double team at him on the biggest play of the game, Ryan Flournoy beating Sauce Gardner deep for a 46-yard reception that set up Dallas’ go-ahead touchdown. Even when Lamb wasn’t catching passes, he was still tormenting the Colts. Two lessons here: you can’t always blame the defensive coordinator for a great player having a big day, and don’t trade two first-round picks for a cornerback who can’t hang with a star receiver—let alone Ryan Flournoy—in man coverage. While I’m willing to give Anarumo and the Colts some grace for their defensive game plan, I will not be extending that same grace to Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, who decided it would be a good idea to play a bunch of single-high safety coverage against Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins. Five plays in, we saw why that was the wrong approach. On the first third down of the game, Ulbrich asked cornerback A.J. Terrell to play press-man against Chase with no direct safety help, and it went exactly as you’d expect, with Burrow hitting his star receiver in stride for a 47-yard touchdown. Somehow, that warning shot didn’t convince Ulbrich to alter his plan. Atlanta played only five snaps of two-high coverage in the game. It was tied for the fewest dropbacks Burrow has logged against two-high safeties in a single game, with the other coming in Week 12 of the 2021 season, his second year in the league. Burrow finished 19-of-24 for 223 yards and three touchdowns against Atlanta’s single-high coverage. Ulbrich left his corners on an island against the best receiving duo in the NFL in what was arguably the most naive defensive game plan of the season. It looks like Patrick Mahomes escaped this scary play without suffering major damage to his elbow. That left Chiefs fans very concerned about their quarterback, but he didn’t miss a single snap and Andy Reid called 17 pass plays in the second half, suggesting he had little worry about the status of Mahomes’ elbow. The numbers on those passes are a bit concerning, though. His average depth of target plummeted to just 2.3 yards per attempt, and his average completion traveled just 1.3 yards in the air, per Next Gen Stats. Mahomes also missed a few short throws he’d ordinarily make with ease. It doesn’t look like Mahomes will miss any time—Reid says he’s “day to day” with elbow soreness—but for a team already struggling to create big plays in the passing game, this could be an issue if it affects his deep ball. Also, it seems a bit silly that Reid had no problem dialing up 17 passes for Mahomes with a bad elbow that needed additional testing after the game, but seems deathly afraid to call a quarterback sneak for him based on one freak play that happened seven years ago. We finally got to see Myles Garrett play alongside Aaron Donald on Sunday with the reigning Defensive Player of the Year returning for his first game since Week 1. The superstar pass rusher did not disappoint, racking up three sacks and nine total pressures. Garrett’s average “get off” time, which measures how long it takes a pass rusher to cross the line of scrimmage after the snap, was 0.68 seconds, the second fastest of any player in Week 9, per Next Gen Stats. So he seems to be fully over the knee injury that kept him out for the last two months. Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula did a commendable job using Garrett and Donald in tandem. Shula used them together on a couple of twists, but my favorite tactic he used was lining Garrett up over the center in a five-man front, creating one-on-one matchups for the entire defensive line. Lining Garrett up over the center makes it hard to throw double teams at either Garrett or Donald without wasting a running back in protection, which makes things easier for the defenders in coverage. The Rams have some pass-game issues they need to figure out, but this defense could take off in the second half of the season and be everything we envisioned after the Garrett trade and Donald’s return. With Puka Nacua headed to IR with a knee sprain and turf toe, the defense will have to play at an elite level if this team is going to make the playoffs.