#NFL Week 8
Welcome to the Week in Review, currently not beefing with Kanye "Ye" West (that we know of)...
[TNF] Baltimore Ravens vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Narrative:
The Ravens look to break their season long pattern and start their first win streak of the season. The Bucs are just looking for something - ANYTHING - to go right.
The Outcome:
The Ravens have their first win-streak of the season and TB12 has lost three straight for the first time in 20 years(!). The Ravens used the ground game to overwhelm the Bucs, who's struggles with the ground game have been well established.
Put it this way: Justice Hill was fifth on the Ravens with 28 yards. He would've been the Bucs' leading rusher. Gus Edwards (11-65) and Keyon Drake (7-62) outrushed the entire Bucs team (15-44)
And thanks to the news that Brady and his wife of 12 years have divorced (and my theory that he unretired because of the divorce, not the other way around), I can't even revel in the shadenfraude anymore. (Curse my empathic nature!)
Ravens 27, Bucs 22
[London] Denver Broncos vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
The Narrative:
It's the Jags' yearly trip to Jolly Old England. It's also Travis Etienne's first game there (he sat out all of last year on IR) and first as undisputed RB1. He's facing a Broncos defense who is rather weak vs. the run, but returns Mr. Ciara at QB. How much that will help remains to be seen.
The Outcome:
UPDATE: Good news; The Jags got Lawrence a true WR1.
Bad news: For 2023, trading picks for suspended Falcons WR Calvin Ridley. Everyone seems to be betting that a chance of scenery will get Ridley's head right. I'm just hoping Ridley doesn't turn into the next Josh Morgan.
Carolina Panthers vs. Atlanta Falcons
The Narrative:
It's a battle for the division lead between two teams that would probably cellar dwellers in at least five of the other seven divions. If the Panthers win, they will lead the NFC South at 3-5, thanks to tie breakers.
The Outcome:
It looked like a miracle comeback or the Panthers (or the Falcons doing Falcon things again) as PJ Walker hit DJ Moore on a 62-yard answered prayer, with 12 seconds left. Tie game, pending the extra point....Then Moore ripped off his helmet in celebration. Which resulted in a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Which resulted in the PAT try coming from 45 out. Which CAR kicker Eddy Piñeiro missed.
On to OT. Where, after a Marcus Mariotta INT, Piñeiro lined up for a 32-yard FG. Which he missed. The Falcons took posession and drove down for the winning 41-yard kick.
Methinks the Panthers will be looking for a new kicker, come Tuesday.
The loss wasted career days from Walker (371, 1 and 1) and Moore (6-152-1) and a career ressurecting day from D'Onta Foreman (26-118-3)
Falcons 37, Panthers 34 (OT)
Chicago Bears vs. Dallas Cowboys
The Narrative:
Dak Prescott looks to shake the rust off against a decent Bears defense, and he'll have to do so without Zeke Elliot (out with a knee injury). Which makes this game a test case for the "Give Tony Pollard The Ball" crowd.
The Bear want to show that taking down the Pats wasn't a fluke and they can be for real.
The Outcome:
It says something about how shit your season has been that you can get beat by twenty and still draw praise for your play.. Granted, most of that praise was for the rush game (43-240, 2 TDs as a team¹). Fields threw 2 TDs and played mistake-free (if not exactly exciting) football,As for the Cowboys, they put on their best offensive performance of the season, vs. arguably the second-best defense they've played (behind Philly). Pollard, in his first real game with a starter's workload, shined (14-131-3). Dak threw 2 TDs and ran for a third. The seventh TD was scored by Micah "Defensive MVP: Book It" Parson on a 36-yard fumble return.
Oddly, this game bodes well for both teams.
UPDATE DEUX: The Bears giveth (getting Claypool) and taketh away (trading Roquan Smith to Baltimore). An odd combination of gving your young QB a chance, yet clearly tanking.
- I thought Johnathan Hankins was supposed to put a stop to that kind of stat line.
- Maybe giving KaVontae Turpin some reps might help there.
Miami Dolphins vs. Detroit Lions
The Narrative:
Tua Tangyvanilla seems to be fully recovered from his brain scrambling of a few weeks ago and looks to be picking up where he left off.
At this point, the only questions for Detroit are draft position and Dan Campbell's job security.
The Outcome:
For what it's worth, their offense returned to form, the returns of Amon-Ra St. Brown and D'Andre Swift no doubt helping. They still lost, of course, but they looked competative doing it.
And Aiden Hutchinson, the #2 pick in the 2022 draft, should not disappear like that in games.
UPDATE: The Lions' committment to playing on Hard Mode steps up, as they trade their leader in receiving yards, TE T.J. Hockenson to the Vikings (who lost their own TE1, Irv Smith)
Dolphons 31, Lions 27
Arizona Cardinals vs. Minnesota Vikings
The Narrative:
Two teams fighting for respect and to shed the label of "frauds"
The Outcome:
I'm not sure which is going to bite the Vikes harder in the end: Their tendency to wilt in the bright lights of prime time or their tendency for slow starts and need to beast out in the second half to win?Here, it helped that they were playing a team in the Cardinals who are even worse with slow starts. If the Redbirds thought the return of Nuk Hopkins would save their season, they're wrong so far. Hopkins is doing his thing (12-159-1), but second half stops and a reliable run game seem to be in short supply with AZ. There's still plenty of time to right the ship, but Murray to Hopkins can't save Kliff Kingsbury's job on it's own.
Las Vegas Raiders vs. New Orleans Saints
The Narrative:
For the Raiders, it's Josh McDaniel trying to stave off the coaching reaper (again).
For the Saints, it's just trying to keep their heads above water until they get some injured players back.
The Outcome:
Yeah, this is one to keep off the resume, Coach McDaniel.Meanwhile, Rapey McCrablegs has to be wondering what it'll take to get his job back, as Andy Dalton has been riding a streak of Just Good Enough.
I think it'll take at least 8-9¹ to save McDaniel's job.
Saints 24, Raiders 0
- That STILL feels wrong to say.
New England Patriots vs. New York Jets
The Narrative:
Whichever young, currently-struggling QB actually steps up (Mac Jones or Zach Wilson) wins.
The Outcome:
Kids, remember Gil Byrd? He was a good, not great corner with the Chargers in the 80s and early 90s. Ten-year vet, 2x Pro Bowler. His true claim to fame? He had John Elway's number. It didnt' matter what the Chargers and Broncos respective records were or when in the season it was. If Byrd and Elway were on the field at the same time, whoever Byrd had was getting shut down. Byrd was going to make at least two highlight worthy plays, INT or pass breakups. Elway could not get over on Byrd, win or lose.This is what the Pats are to the Jets. No matter where both teams are in the standings, the Jets are coming up short. It certainly didn't help that Zach Wilson seems to be folding under the pressure of being the Jets' savior at QB¹ (3 INTs and several more bad passes). Nor that the run game seems to have vanished with Breece Hall (his replacement, James Robinson, was 5-17, long of 7)
The difference seems to be Mac Jones (24/35 for 194, 1 and 1) actually got run support (16-71 from Rhamondre Stevenson).
Sorry, still on Team Zappe here.
Patriots 22, Jets 17
- Like so many others have before him.
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The Narrative:
The question isn't "Will the Eagles go 7-0"; it's "How bad will they beat the Steelers getting to 7-0?"
That and "Will Kenny Pickett show any sort of progress?"
The Outcome:
To the former: "22 points and it clearly could've been worse."To the latter: "LOL no." (25/38 for 191, 1 INT, six sacks)
And now they added a degree of difficulty, trading away his only reliable WR in Chase Claypool.
Are they trying to break Kenny Pickett? Because this is how you break a young QB.
The Steelers will have to go 7-2 down the stretch to preserve Coach Omar Epps' streak of never having a losing season. (remember; Odd number of games. No more .500)
Eagles 35, Steelers 13
Tennessee Titans vs. Houston Texans
The Narrative:
All eyes will be on Malik Willis in his first start. I know plenty of people hope he balls out so the Titans can finally stop treading water with Ryan Tannehill.
The Outcome:
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Those are "played the fourth quarter in pre-season numbers", not "Lets see what the kid can do."
Or more bluntly, those were "We don't trust the kid yet" numbers.
I suppose when you've got Derrick Henry to lean on (32-219, 2td) and the Texans as an opponent you can get away with ten passing attempts.
FYI: The Texans were in talks with Dallas to deal Brandon Cooks, but the deal fell apart for as yet unknown reasons.
Titans 17, Texans 10
Washington Commanders vs. Indianapolis Colts
The Narrative:
All eyes will be on Sam Ehlinger in his first start. Plenty of Colts fans will be hoping he balls out because going back to the QB well will probably kill some of them.
Meanwhile, fellow Young Gun Taylor Heinicke will try and prove that the Deadnames gave up on him too quickly.
The Outcome:
Ehlinger was "Mehlinger", nothing spercial but nothing disastrous. (17/23 for 201) Those are the kind of numbers you put up when you've given up on the season and just want to see what the young guys have.Or you completely underestimated your opponent and by the time you realized it, it was too late.
San Francisco 49ers vs. Los Angeles Rams
The Narrative:
All eyes are on Run CMC in Stage 2 of his West Coast Adventure, now that he's had game action and a proper week of practice under his belt.
The Rams are just trying to stop the bleeding. Maybe find some semblence of a run game in the process.
The Outcome:
Speaking of having one's number, the Niners continue their regular season domination of the defending champs. McCaffery became the 11th player in NFL history and the first since 2005 to run for, catch and throw a TD in the same game. The Rams' running woes were writ large yet again (21-56 as a team).
They keep trying to blame the Rams' lack of ground game on the RB corps, but it seems to me that the real difference between last year's corps (which was enough for a SB run) and now is the line, not the back. LT Andrew Whitworth is now on Amazon's pregame show. LG David Edwards has been on IR since Week 4. C Brian Allen is just coming off a seven-week stretch on the injured list. RG Austin Corbett is currently the center for Carolina. And I'll bet money no one reading this has ever heard the naem "Rob Havenstein" (the RT) before now. That's a lot to ignore and just say "We need better backs." Which isn't to say they don't, but both can be true.
Allen Robinson (5-54) seems to finally be catching on but it might be too little too late.
Niners 31, Rams 14
New York Giants vs. Seattle Seahawks
The Narrative:
The Geno Smith Redemption Tour invites the team that arguably did him dirtiest¹, in the Giants. Meanwhile, the most dissed and dismissed 6-win team in the league looks to show they're real with a big road win.
The Outcome:
The talk of the game turned out to be Tyler Lockett, who caught the go-ahead 33-yd pass from Smith, making up for two major gaffes earlier; Getting stripped on their own 3-yard line in the second quarter (leading directly to a Saquon Barkley TD) and dropping what would've been an easy TD catch in the third (a near-identical play to the game winner), a 14-pt swing.
Geno (23-34, 212, 2 TDs) clearly outplayed Daniel Jones² (17-31 for 176) and current OROY fave Kenneth Walker matched Barkley (18-51-1 to 20-53-1)
Seahawks 27, Giants 13
- Which was worse: Getting benched for Nathan Peterman for no real reason (other than the coaches liked teh other guy better) or getting benched because How Dare You Disrepect Eli Manning like that?
- Who is creeping slowly into the Kirk Cousins Zone: Too good to give up on, not good enough to feel comfortable relying on.
[SNF] Green Bay Packers vs. Buffalo Bills
The Narrative:
The number one team in the league brings the league's biggest source of shadenfraude (especially with Brady's personal issues)
The Outcome:
Calling it right now: The Packers will hit nine losses some time in the next five weeks. When they do, it's Fuck Aaron Rogers¹ Time and they are going with Jordan Love for the rest of the season, come what may.But until then:
Bills 27, Packers 17
- 19-30, 203 YDS, 2 TD, 1 INT
[MNF] Cincinnati Bengals vs. Cleveland Browns
The Narrative:
As always with this rivalry, this could be a barnburner or a clusterfuck.
The Outcome:
Clusterfuck, Advantage Browns.Emblematic of how big of a fiasco this was, my biggest takeaway was that the Browns suddenly remembered they had TWO Pro Bowl RBs on their roster and used Kareem Hunt to the biggest extent this year. You'll not convince me this wasn't a demo for prospective trade partners and they chain Hunt to the bench again like nothing happened.
Browns 32, Bengals 13
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