Week 8 Thoughts

The game of the week is tonight. Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears.

An NFL Sunday without Vikings football feels lacking. I guess that we all have to make sacrifices.

Twelve games were played yesterday. Including another London game. Another ludicrous 6:30 AM start on the west coast. There's such a relief when these too early games are done. The Washington Redskins-Cincinnati Bengals game was the last of the London games.

The early London game gave the league it's second tie in a week. 27-27 no one.

Despite the lack of one team with more points than the other this game was the best London game in quite some time. The best ever? Who can really say? It was definitely the best of the three games played across the pond this year.

The Bengals offense looked much more efficient, much more versatile with tight end Tyler Eifert in the lineup. They are definitely more dangerous in the red zone with their excellent pass catcher.

The Redskins have a terrific tight end of their own. Jordan Reed. He looked more like a nifty receiver than a lumbering tight end when he turned a short pass into a 23-yard touchdown.

Kirk Cousins sometimes looks like the franchise quarterback that the Redskins hope him to be. His deep throw to DeSean Jackson down the sideline was a beauty. So was his 20-yard pass play with Jamison Crowder on 3rd-and-13 under heavy pressure. That last play made the game-tying field goal possible. He makes those plays then he misses a wide open Crowder in overtime. Cousins is a puzzle.

Missed kicks marred this fine London game. Field goals, including an overtime miss, and an extra point. If any one of those kicks goes through the uprights one of these two teams win the game.

The Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers took their game into overtime as well. This game felt like it took about a day longer than the Redskins-Bengals game. For a while it look liked neither team wanted to win it. The Raiders won it when they gambled on 4th-and-4 with about two minutes to play in overtime. Derek Carr hit Seth Roberts for the first down and a missed tackle turned it into a 41-yard game-winning touchdown.

The Raiders won despite a truly pathetic 23 penalties. Those penalties cost them 200 yards. A 24th penalty should've been called and that missed penalty was a big one. Safety Karl Joseph broke up a late fourth quarter Jameis Winston pass with a helmet-to-helmet blow to the receiver. The Buccaneers were forced to punt rather than continue a drive that might have prevented the need for overtime.

Those 200 lost yards probably would have hurt more if the Raiders offense hadn't piled up 626 yards in nearly five full quarters of football action.

The Raiders may be 6-2. They may have found a way to defeat the Buccaneers but they won't win many more games if they continue to commit penalties with this sort of frequency.

The Carolina Panthers finally looked a little bit like the team that stomped through the 2015 season on their way to the Super Bowl. They also found a way to slow down Arizona Cardinals do-everything back David Johnson. That's something that no team has done. The Panthers did both by jumping out to a 24-0 lead.

The Panthers sure look like a different team when they get running back Jonathan Stewart going. He may have averaged less than four yards per carry but he looked elusive and strong. 25 carries for 95 yards and two short touchdowns. Solid, difference-making work.

David Johnson has been shredding defenses all season. On the ground and through the air. The Panthers held him to 24 yards on ten carries. He did have a nice receiving line of seven for 84 yards.

The New Orleans Saints offense can score. The Saints defense allows teams to score. That's why it's surprising that the defense was a big reason for their 25-20 win over the Seattle Seahawks. It was that oft-struggling defense that kept the surging Seahawks offense out of the end zone at the end.

Anytime you put Bill Belichick and Rex Ryan in the same stadium it's going to be fun.

Ryan's Bills shut out Belichick's Patriots 16-0 a few weeks ago. A game that was played during the misguided exile of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. This game was a little different. 41-25 Patriots and it wasn't that close. Brady was his smooth self. Completing 22 of 33 passes for 315 yards and four touchdowns.

The Bills were up 3-0 early but it was over soon after that.

The Kansas City Chiefs are cruising under the radar at 5-2 after thumping the Indianapolis Colts 30-14. The Chiefs might be the most efficient team in the league. They are doing just about everything right in all phases of the game.

The Chiefs lost quarterback Alex Smith to a concussion. A concussion that could bring more criticism for the league as it took two hits to the head before Smith was finally removed from the game. The critics of the game and the league have to understand that the players have to be held accountable as well. The league has to be in tune with potential head injuries but so do the players.

The Cleveland Browns wouldn't be without a win if they could hold some leads. They held a 20-7 halftime lead over the New York Jets. They lost 31-28.

The Browns are 0-8 on the season. They've lost 11 straight dating to Week 14 last season. They are 3-26 over their last 29 games. Despite that futility it still feels like the Browns are heading in the right direction. A talented, first-year head coach, an intriguing front office strategy, and a ridiculous number of prime draft picks are big reason for that optimism.

Despite their nice 4-3 record entering Week 8 the Houston Texans have been struggling. They were primed to be taken apart by the explosive Detroit Lions. It didn't play out that way. The Texans jumped out to 14-0 lead. A 17-3 third quarter lead. And a 20-13 final. The Texans were in control throughout.

The Texans are 5-0 in Houston and 0-3 on the road. A closer look at the Texans schedule reveals that it's more who they play than where they play. Their home wins have come against the Bears, Chiefs, Titans, Colts, and Lions. The Chiefs are their lone impressive home win. Those five teams have a combined 17 wins. Their road losses have come against the Patriots, Vikings, and Broncos. Those three teams also have a 17 combined wins.

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan sure is fun to watch at the end of games. He's usually pretty good in other parts of the game but has a particular knack for making things interesting late in games. He led the Falcons on a late 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to defeat the Green Bay Packers 33-32.

Aaron Rodgers guided the Packers on an impressive drive before Ryan had his shot. A 13-play, 86-yard drive that took over half of the fourth quarter. The only problem with the long, time-consuming drive was that Ryan was left with nearly four minutes. He only needed about three-and-a-half.

Mohamed Sanu was Ryan's favorite target on the game-winning drive. 5 catches for 50 yards. The final 11 of the yards was the touchdown that tied the game. Matt Bryant's extra point provided the winning margin. Sanu was signed as a free agent in the offseason to provide a nice compliment to all-world Julio Jones. Sanu has been just that. Especially on that final drive.

Despite the loss, this might have been the Packers best game of the season. Even though they were missing several key playmakers the offense looked more crisp than it has in prior games. Injuries have hit the defense as well.  If they can get those missing players healthy and Rodgers and the offense continues to play as it did yesterday the Packers should be fine moving forward.

This was a big win for the Falcons. They had a couple of heart-breakers against the Seahawks and Chargers the last two weeks after a terrific start to the season. They are 5-3 with a nice lead over the 3-4 Buccaneers and Saints in the NFC South.

The Denver Broncos held off the pesky San Diego Chargers 27-19.

The Chargers are more than a pesky ball club. They are one of the best teams in the league despite having a shitty 3-4 record. Most of those four losses have come in mind-numbing fashion at the end of games. That isn't a good thing but the Chargers can compete with any team in the league.

The Broncos lost defensive coordinator Wade Phillips to a sideline collision. He was taken off the field on a stretcher. It looked scary at the time but reports are that he should be fine.

Sunday started with an entertaining overtime game in London. Even if neither team won the game. The day ended with another entertaining overtime game. Fortunately we had a winner in that game. The Dallas Cowboys never gave the Philadelphia Eagles an overtime possession in their 29-23 win over their division rival.

Eagles head coach Doug Pederson might have robbed his team of a chance to win in regulation. He allowed the Cowboys to dictate his team's fate. A sack of quarterback Dak Prescott left the Cowboys with a 2nd and 18 on their own 18-yard line with 33 seconds remaining. Pederson allowed the Cowboys to run those 33 seconds off the clock despite having the timeouts to stop it. The Cowboys were clearly content with overtime. Why did he have to be? There was a chance that his team might not see the ball again. As it played out they didn't see it again. Use those timeouts and maybe your team has a couple of plays from near midfield with about 20 seconds left. Who knows what might happen? That's hindsight but even at the time it seemed like the thing to do.

Vikings-Bears tonight to close Week 8.