NFL Week 8 in review

 Greetings everyone and I hope you all had a great weekend. I, for one, did not if you look at how my NFL teams did in their week 8 matchups. I will save my rant on those games for another post, but for tonight’s post, I’m just gonna delve into the week that was in the NFL.  

Let us begin with the most anticipated return in the NFL thus far this year and that is the return of Drew Brees to the lineup in New Orleans against the Cardinals. Any lessor quarterback would have sat out one more week, get through the bye and come back week 10 for the stretch run to the playoffs. After all, Teddy Bridgewater was undefeated while subbing for Drew and if you want to err on the side of Drew being healthy and fully healed, maybe teddy could have played one more week. but Drew is a gamer and he loves the game and at 40 years old, he shows no signs of slowing down, which is good for the NFL. Anyway, in his return to action after being out what, 6 weeks? he threw for 373 yards and 3 touchdowns to lead the Saints past the Cardinals 31-9. I guess his thumb is good, and a message was sent to the rest of the NFL… The saints are for real and will be a difficult opponent when playoff time comes around. Welcome back, Drew… we missed you. 

Next on my list of games is the Eagles win over Buffalo. This game was not what I expected when I saw it on the schedule. Philly was coming off a beat-down at the hands of the Cowboys and did not look like a team that could go into Orchard Park NY and beat a Buffalo team that had only lost one game to division rival New England. That being said, Philly made the Bills look like a team that wasn’t ready to compete with the big boys with a 31-13 victory on the road, putting them back in the mix in the NFC East. Philly had three rushing touchdowns which is almost unheard of for this team, and I don’t know if this is an awakening of their offense or if they just exposed the Bills defense as not being able to stop the run. The Eagles finished with 218 yards rushing led by Jordan Howard with 96 yards and Miles Sanders with 74 yards, granted Sanders had most of those on one run – a 65-yard touchdown to open the second quarter. Not sure exactly what this means for the Bills, but they face the Redskins this weekend, and if they struggle as they did against the Eagles and the DOLPHINS last week, they may not be as good as we thought… sorry @jongolson…

Finally, on my list this week of the top 3 games I was watching is the Colts-Broncos from Indianapolis. This game was, to put it bluntly, HORRIBLE. Bad QB play, bad defense, bad special teams, and if not for an impossible escape in his own end zone by Jacoby Brissett in the fourth quarter to get the ball to TY Hilton for a first down to keep the last drive going, the Colts would have lost to a team that is clearly not on their level. Adam Vinatieri missed a 45 yard FG and an extra point but was true on a 51 yarder to win the game in the final moments 15-13. the highlight of this was after the game when Joe Flacco decided to criticize the play-calling in the fourth quarter as too conservative. basically saying that the Broncos were playing not to lose so much as playing to win in the fourth. Is it a coincidence that this week Flacco revealed a herniated disk in his back and he will be out next week against the Browns? Who knows but there is definitely some tension in Denver right now as well as a lot of finger-pointing going on. 

After week 8, these are the things I believe…

• The Bengals announced today that they have Benched Andy Dalton and will start Ryan Finley next week.  Today is Andy Dalton’s birthday.  Happy birthday Andy, now go sit your ass on the bench.  Truthfully, this has been a long time coming, the Bengals are in the cellar of the AFC North and they need to look at the future.
• Has anyone else noticed that since losing the Super Bowl, the Falcons defense is just horrible?  Dan Quinn may be looking for a job soon.  Oh and the Falcons released Matt Bryant today after he missed two FG’s Sunday.  A fine way to treat one of the best kickers in the NFL, but he is 44 after all and I suppose the most important part to fix is the placekicker position… right?
• Hey Chicago… see above…  I hear Bryant will work for cheap.  Pinero missed a game-winning 41 yard FG as time expired…  sound familiar?  wow.. not only do you still have the kicking woes that plagued you last year, you still have the most overrated QB in the NFL on your roster… well, except for that guy in Cleveland (more on that tomorrow)
• Man…  the Jets are just… wow…  you let a guy with a porn-star mustache that was riding the bench with no hope of seeing the field at the start of the season throw for 279 yards and 3 touchdowns.  you beat the Cowboys two weeks ago…  was that a fluke or is that the Cowboys playing down to their competition?  Well at least with the bye Dallas couldn’t lose this week.
• Don’t look now, but the best team in the NFL is not in Foxboro, it’s in San Francisco.  The Niners are for real and that defense is insane.  Shanahan has his boys playing world-class football and I don’t see anyone stopping them. 
• I really would have loved to see the Mahomes-Rogers duel in KC Sunday night, but we had to see Matt Moore instead due to Patrick’s dislocated kneecap.  Aaron proved once again he still has it and how about the other Aaron balling for 159 yards RECEIVING and two touchdowns.  Aaron Jones is the Packers running back not a WR, yet he was the leading receiver for the Packers Sunday night.
• Welcome back, Mason Rudolph…  nice to see you finally wake up in the second quarter last night, after the Pittsburgh defense spotted the Dolphins 14 points in the first quarter.  I still don’t think the Steelers are good, and I look forward to seeing them finishing BELOW the Browns this season in the division.  I don’t care if the Browns miss the playoffs… if we finish above Pittsburgh in the standings, its a win.

That’s all for tonight, sports fans…  I have a rant festering in me that I will share tomorrow night… and as an added bonus it will be a twofer…  stay tuned…

Scott “The Sports Nerd”