Before Sunday’s slate of games got going, there was some serious drama in London as the Jacksonville Jaguars made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
That should have clued us in to the fact that NFL Week 8 was going to get weird.
The league’s most dominant defense was smashed to bits. Adrian Peterson outplayed Saquon Barkley. And a former No. 1 overall pick hit a new low.
These were the biggest winners and losers from NFL Week 8.
Winner: Deshaun Watson rising
There’s a lot of warranted gushing about what Patrick Mahomes is doing in his second season. But let’s not forget about Houston’s second-year passer, who is back with a vengeance after an ACL took him out as a rookie.
Watson and the Texans improved to 5-3 with a blowout win over Miami on Thursday night. He was nearly perfect, completing 16-of-20 passes for 239 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions.
This brings his seasonal total up to 2,176 yards and 15 touchdowns through the air, and he’s heating up as his offensive line and running game rounds into shape.
Loser: Jameis Winston probably lost his job
Despite missing the first three games of the 2018 season to suspension, Winston exits Week 8 with 10 interceptions, good for second-worst total in the league. He threw four of them on Sunday against Cincinnati, including a truly nauseating pick-six, before being benched for Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Even more damning as it concerns Winston’s potential job security (or lack thereof) is the fact that once Fitzpatrick entered the game, suddenly the Bucs were alive on offense. After the pick-six, Cincinnati was up 34-16. Fitzpatrick tied the game up with three scoring drives in the final 17 minutes of the game before the Bengals won it on a field goal as time expired.
Winston cannot keep his job after this, and he’s teetering dangerously toward the bust label.
Winner: Cam Newton shreds league’s best defense
Heading into Week 8, Baltimore’s defense was playing better than any other the league had to offer. It ranked third in yards allowed and first in points allowed, leading many to speculate that Sunday wasn’t going to be a banner day for Cam Newton.
That couldn’t have been further from the truth. Playing like a legitimate MVP candidate, Super Cam showed up in a big way. Executing Norv Turner’s offense to perfection, he utterly shredded the Ravens, both on the ground and through the air.
Newton completed 20-of-29 passes for 219 yards and no interceptions — though, it’s true teammate Christian McCaffrey bailed him out in a big way in the end zone. He rushed for 52 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. More importantly, the Panthers crushed the Ravens at home, 36-21, to improve to 5-2 on the season.
Loser: Big Blue blues continue
To nobody’s surprise, the New York Giants are still completely broken on offense. Despite big games from Odell Beckham Jr. and Saquon Barkley, who combined for 247 yards, Big Blue managed just 13 total points — well below their already pathetic average of 19.6 per game.
Eli Manning was wrecked in the pocket as New York’s abysmal offensive line resembled a wet paper bag against Washington’s vaunted defensive front. He was sacked seven times and hit 10 times. He also threw two bad interceptions.
New York’s defense also is partly to blame for the outcome Sunday, as it collapsed down the stretch when it needed to step up the most. The Giants head into the second half of the season with a single win, and that feels like it happened ages ago.
By: Jesse Reed, Sportsnaut
