The answers to the clues below will have something in common.

1. Talk aimlessly
2. Shift responsibility to someone else
3. Show off in a pretentious way
4. Pass its peak, slangily - as a TV series
5. Bet at the racetrack
6. Environmental effort for certain ocean dwellers
7. Perform the most critical and dangerous part of a task
8. Phrase preceding "Nevermore"
9. Likely result of betrayal in the Mafia

Answers:

1. Shoot the bull
2. Pass the buck
3. Put on the dog
4. Jump the shark*
5. Play the ponies
6. Save the whales
7. Bell the cat
8. "Quoth the raven"
9. Swim with the fishes

Credit:
1-4: Joy C. Frank

*Note from JA: "Jumping the shark" is a relatively new idiomatic phrase used to describe a moment when something that was once popular but has grown less so makes an attempt at publicity which only serves to highlight its irrelevance. This is especially applicable to weekly television shows or other entertainment outlets. The term's origin is based on a scene from the show "Happy Days" in which The Fonz jumps over a shark on water skis.