Sunday’s Week 8 NFL action offered us a little bit of everything. The Cleveland Browns took a rare lead into halftime in London against the Vikings before absolutely blowing it in the second half. Later in the morning, the Buffalo Bills blew out the Oakland Raiders at home, leading to the team’s best seven-game start in over two decades.
But that wasn’t the extent of it. Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson engaged in a quarterback duel of historic proportions in a game that saw the former pull off a tremendous comeback. Then in D.C., Jay Gruden’s game plan came back to bite his Washington Redskins in the back end.
These are among the top takeaways from Sunday’s Week 8 NFL action.
The Bills are legit in the AFC East
These aren’t your parents’ Buffalo Bills. For the first time since 1999, we can logically conclude that Buffalo is a real threat in the AFC East. It comes following a blowout 34-14 win over the suddenly hapless Oakland Raiders. And it was a thing of beauty for a Bills team that now sits at 5-2 on the season.
Tyrod Taylor was methodical through the air, completing 20-of-27 passes with a touchdown and zero picks. LeSean McCoy dominated on the ground, going for 151 yards on 27 rushes. Meanwhile, Buffalo’s defense held the Raiders to seven points after a game-opening touchdown-scoring drive.
Prior to Sunday’s win the Bills weren’t blowing people away. They were doing just enough to win games. That changed big time against a team many expected to compete for the conference crown at the start of the season. And now, they’re off to their best seven-game start since Marv Levy was the head coach back in 1996. Yes folks, this team is legit under first-year head coach Sean McDermott.
Russell Wilson is a witch
Russell Wilson is almost superhuman. What he did for the Seahawks on Sunday was nothing short of astonishing. Here’s a guy that put up 452 passing yards and four scores in a game that saw his running backs combine for five yards on 16 rush attempts. Five yards, guys. Wilson was also hit seven times throughout the game and pressured on a consistent basis.
Despite this, Wilson led an absolutely heroic comeback. Down by four points with less than two minutes left, Wilson led the Seahawks on a three-play, 80-yard touchdown-scoring drive for the win. Those three plays? Passes of 48, 19 and 18 yards. Remember, he did all of this with his running backs going for five yards on the ground and his defense yielding 509 total yards of offense.
This might not be enough for Seattle to contend for a Super Bowl. As mentioned above, there’s issues on the ground. Seattle’s offensive line is so bad that recent reports suggest the team might be looking to move Jimmy Graham for a left tackle. By the way, Graham caught Wilson’s winning touchdown Sunday. Even though these issues have been prevalent throughout the season, Wilson’s heroics on Sunday are something we will be talking about for years to come.
So is Deshaun Watson
Sure he threw three interceptions, including a pick-six in the first half and a game-ending interception to close things out. But Watson continues to prove himself to be among the most-impressive rookie quarterbacks in the history of the game.
On Sunday against the Legion of Boom, Watson threw touchdowns of 72, 59 and 20 yards. All said, he eclipsed the 460 total yard plateau in the narrow and frustrating loss.
Leading up to Week 8, there was a lot of buzz about what Watson has been able to accomplish since taking over as Houston’s starter midway through the opener. By virtue of throwing that early touchdown to Will Fuller, he made some history. And despite the loss, Watson has now gained nearly 1,350 total yards with 19 total touchdowns over the past five games. That’s some absurd stuff right there.
Factory of Sadness takes its act to London
Things were looking up for the Cleveland Browns early in their game against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. The team took a 13-12 halftime lead in London, ultimately leading to this absurd touchdown celebration from the players (watch here).
It was all downhill from there. Even without its starting backfield of Sam Bradford and Dalvin Cook, Minnesota scored 21 of the game’s final 24 points. Backup Case Keenum led the squad to two consecutive touchdown scoring drives of 75-plus yards. Meanwhile, Cleveland lost a fumble and missed a field goal on successive possessions to open the second half.
Now at 0-8 on the season, Hue Jackson and Co. are on the verge of making all the wrong kinds of history. And for his part, Jackson is now 1-23 as the Browns’ head coach. One really now has to start wondering how long Hue is for the job. Sure the brass in Cleveland knew this would be a long-term rebuild. But it needs to start showing up in some way on the scoreboard. Throughout Jackson’s first 24 games as Cleveland’s head coach that has not happened.
Saints defense remains NFL’s biggest surprise
Following a 20-12 win over Chicago on Sunday, New Orleans finds itself at 5-2 on the season and in the midst of a five-game winning streak. Unlike the success this team had in the past under Sean Payton, it’s the defense that’s stepped up big time.
The Bears put up north of 300 total yards on Sunday, but the Saints played tremendous defense when it counted the most. Of the six times Chicago entered New Orleans’ side of the field, it scored a grand total of 12 points. Talk about playing bend, but don’t break, defense.
New Orleans has now given up 17 points or less in four of its past five games. The only exception there being a 52-38 win over Detroit back in Week 6. Even then, the Saints’ defense scored an absurd three touchdowns in that win.
If this unit continues to play like it has over the past month-plus moving forward, there’s no reason to believe New Orleans can’t win the NFC South. It’s the most balanced attack we’ve seen from a Payton-led Saints team since their 2009 Super Bowl campaign.
These aren’t last year’s Oakland Raiders
Oakland is now one late-game miracle against the Kansas City Chiefs from being 2-6 on the season. It’s been a disaster of epic proportions for Jack Del Rio’s squad. And it has this team on the verge of being completely irrelevant in the AFC heading into the second half of the season.
The Raiders’ latest meltdown came in the form of an offense that just couldn’t hold on to the ball. Oakland fumbled four times, losing two in the process. All said, the team turned the ball over four times in the game. It led directly to 10 points for the Bills. Another turnover on downs late in the game gave Buffalo a short field to put the game away with a touchdown.
There’s a whole heck of a lot wrong with this Raiders team, and it seems impossible that Del Rio will be able to fix it midseason. This will likely lead to one of the most disappointing seasons in the modern history of the Raiders’ franchise. It also comes one year after Oakland earned 12 wins and a surprise playoff berth.
“Pooh butt,” indeed.
49ers not even playing for pride
Earlier in the season, San Francisco prided itself on being able to remain competitive while boasting a talent-striken roster. The team started 0-6 with five of its defeats coming by a combined 13 points. Then, last week, the 49ers laid a complete egg en route to a 40-10 home loss to Dallas.
This lack of competitiveness came back in a big way Sunday against an NFL-best Eagles team on the road. San Francisco was shut out in the first half, finding itself down 17-0 when the teams headed to the locker room. That was aided by a C.J. Beathard pick-six into the hands of Eagles cornerback Jalen Mills.
By the time the fourth quarter got going, Kyle Shanahan’s team found itself down 27-7. That’s when the first-year head coach decided to kick a field goal. Like clockwork, it was blocked. That ended any hope of a comeback. San Francisco ultimately fell by the score of 33-10 after kicking a field goal in garbage time.
There’s a lot wrong with how this team has performed over the past two weeks. It’s just not playing competitive football. Now, it seems the coaching staff isn’t playing to win. The team’s two field goal attempts in the final stanza is a prime example of this. At 0-8 on the season, any culture change Shanahan and fellow first-year general manager John Lynch had hoped to bring to Santa Clara just isn’t existent right now.
What in the world is Jay Gruden doing?
Someone might want to test the head coach’s short-term memory, because what we saw Sunday was absolutely not acceptable. Running back Chris Thompson had put up over 400 total yards with an average of north of six yards per touch over the past four games.
In Sunday’s loss to Dallas, the youngster saw four rush attempts for 18 yards. Sure he had 76 yards on eight receptions. That’s not the point here. How in the world did Robert Kelley put up more rush attempts than Thompson? Heck, why did Kirk Cousins toss the rock 39 times in a close game that was being played in a downpour in the nation’s capital?
None of this adds up. None of this makes sense. And it led to a miserable 33-19 home loss to drop the Redskins to 3-4 on the season. Gruden himself is fully to blame here.
Another brutal performance from Winston
One thing is becoming readily apparent here. As long as Winston continues to struggle with consistency, his Buccaneers have no shot of contending for a playoff spot. We saw it a whole lot last season. When Winston is playing good football, Tampa Bay wins. When he struggles with turnovers, the team loses a lot more than it wins.
Once again, this was the case Sunday afternoon at home against what had been a struggling Carolina Panthers squad. Tampa scored a grand total of three points with Winston turning the ball over three times. Two of those turnovers came in plus territory with the other leading directly to a Panthers touchdown.
Now at 2-5 on the season, Tampa Bay is pretty much toast. And in reality, a lot of the blame has to go in the direction of a quarterback that simply hasn’t progressed at the level most expected. Winston is definitely to blame for this most-recent loss.
Mistake-filled Chargers return
Winners of three consecutive games, the Los Angeles Chargers had an opportunity to make a statement Sunday against the defending champs. Instead, it was the home-standing New England Patriots who took advantage of a mistake-killed Chargers squad.
It started early in the second quarter with Los Angeles up 7-0. Following this tremendous Melvin Gordon touchdown run, Los Angeles’ defense decided it made no real sense to cover Rob Gronkowski in the end zone. The end result was a two-yard touchdown from Brady to his favorite target, tying the game up at seven. Then, later in the second quarter, Travis Benjamin muffed a punt. And instead of just sitting on the ball, he ran backwards. It resulted in a safety and a short field for a Patriots squad that would ultimately put up a field goal to go up 12-7.
We’re not close to done here. With his Chargers down eight late in the fourth quarter, Philip Rivers drove down to the Patriots 23-yard line with pass after pass. Then, on second down with just 14 seconds left, a Rivers pass was intercepted by Patriots corner Jonathan Jones in the end zone to end the game. This concluded a game in which mistakes were prevalent for Anthony Lynn’s squad.
It’s hard to win on the road in the NFL. It’s almost impossible to beat Tom Brady at Gillette Stadium. Committing key mistakes at important times only add to that. This is what we saw from Los Angeles in a big way on Sunday.
Cowboys get it
We focused a bit on Jay Gruden’s failure before. It was a downright disgusting coaching performance from the Redskins’ head man. On the other side of the spectrum, Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett knew exactly what he was doing here.
Dealing with horrible weather conditions at FedEx Field in D.C, Dallas handed the ball off to All Pro running back Ezekiel Elliott to the tune of 33 times. Elliott gained 150 yards and scored two touchdowns in the process. For his part, fellow youngster Dak Prescott completed 14-of-22 passes in a mistake-free performance. It’s this type of performance that lends credence to the idea that Dallas’ offense should run through Elliott.
Following the 33-19 win, Dallas now finds itself at 4-3 on the season. The team might be 2.5 games behind Philadelphia in the NFC East, but it’s righted the ship and is clearly in the NFC wildcard race. That’s big after Dallas lost three of its first five games.
Cincinnati’s latest win means nothing
It’s a question fans in Cincinnati have been asking for some time now. It started during a five-year stretch in which Cincinnati lost each of the five playoff games in which it appeared in. Surely Lewis’ success in the regular season during that span bought him some time. But since then, it’s been an unmitigated disaster for the Bengals.
Despite earning their third win of the season at home against a hapless Colts squad on Sunday, any narrative surrounding Lewis has not changed. It took a late-game pick-six from Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett (watch here) for Cincinnati to pull this game out.
More so than the performance of the players on the field, this game was close primarily to an inexcusable game plan. Boasting one of the worst pass-protecting offensive lines in the game, Lewis and Co. figured it made sense to go with a ton of five-wide sets.
This left the struggling Andy Dalton out in the cold more often than not. As a result, Dalton was able to complete just 17-of-29 passes. He was also sacked three times by a Colts defense that headed into Week 8 having recorded just 13 sacks in seven games.
Sure it was a nice win, but this team is going nowhere fast this season. Why not cut your losses and move on from Lewis right now? It’s now clear that his coaching is having an adverse impact on the team’s success. How will that translate in games against actual good teams moving forward on the season?
Vikings continue to defy expectations
There’s no reason in this blue world why the Minnesota Vikings are 6-2 halfway through their season. The team lost star rookie running back Dalvin Cook back in Week 4. Since then, it is 4-0. Mike Zimmer’s squad has also seen starting quarterback Sam Bradford play a grand total of less than two quarters of football since Week 2. The Vikes are 5-1 since then.
While Minnesota’s latest win wasn’t super sexy and came against a hapless Browns squad, the team is still finding ways to win. On Sunday in London, it came in the form of Case Keenum leading two consecutive long touchdown-scoring drives in the second half to take control of the game. Those two drives saw him complete 7-of-8 passes for 77 yards.
It’s unlikely a Keenum-led offense will help this team contend for a conference title. But with Bradford’s status up in the air and Teddy Bridgewater potentially set to return some time soon, there could be a solution under center here over the short term. And with one of the best defenses in the NFL, that could lead to contention in the NFC moving forward.
Matthew Stafford’s valiant effort comes up short
The king of fourth quarter comebacks was attempting to add to his resume on Sunday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Down five with just under five minutes remaining, Stafford led his Lions in a nine-play, 77-yard drive that culminated in an incomplete pass to Eric Ebron to pretty much end things.
It was a bitter disappointment for a Lions team that entered Week 8 having lost three of its past four games. But it had nothing to do with Stafford’s performance. NFL’s richest man completed 27-of-45 passes for 423 yards without an interception.
Unfortunately, Stafford failed to get his team in the end zone in the 20-15 loss. Instead, Matt Prater kicked five field goals. It obviously didn’t help that Detroit’s running backs gained a grand total of 60 yards on 21 attempts in the loss. Now at 3-4 on the season, one has to wonder if Stafford’s magic from last year is a thing of the past. If so, Detroit will be watching January football from home.