Week 8 Game Rewatch Rankings, Review, and Reax

 

Oi.

I had the Game Rewatch Power Rankings all written up and ready to publish last night – later than I originally expected by at least eight hours, but ready – and then my word processer crashed and took the file with it. That is what I get for not having better saving habits. I will learn from this and get better.

You see, it's a week-to-week process.

I was going to make a more elaborate coach speak analogy, but I'm anxious to get to the Rankings.

Oh. I have Game Pass, now! That's why it took me so long to get these out. I didn't expect to have it when I woke up, then a generous reader helped me with the first month's fee. Somehow I didn't anticipate 15 half-hour games to take more than eight hours.

Look – no one has ever accused me of being smart.

Week 8 Game Rewatch Rankings, Reviews, and Reax

#15 Jacksonville Jaguars (1-6) @ Seattle Seahawks (3-5)

This game was torturous. I got to it pretty late in my film-watching day, and I'm not recommending you watch it whatsoever.

I went in to this game mostly thinking about the Jags. I gave Trevor Lawrence a lot of credit for the Dolphins win, and then I didn't see his team play for a week and I talked myself into thinking they could beat this dogshit, boring Seattle Seahawks team. I wrote that they don't have any hope left, and regardless of this win, I still think that.

It was good to see Geno Smith targeting DK and Lockett in rhythm from the pocket. Tyler Lockett, by the way, must read this blog. Because I've been openly questioning whether he's a quality NFL receiver or whether he's an athlete with really good hands all season. He ran some seriously quality routes against the Jaguars defense, looking like the two-punch to DK's one.

I didn't have much to say about the Seahawks in my notes. Mostly what I wrote were things like: Fuckin hate this Jags (horizontal) offense. They have no pace. I don't know whether it's that Joey Lawrence isn't processing the game quickly enough or whether the offensive coordinator is shit balls at this gig, or what it is. But even when they move the ball well, like their opening drive— I was five plays into their initial sequence, and I wrote This is fucking boring.

Trevor took a huge shot on the sidelines during that sequence, though. I thought it was a late hit out of bounds. I wonder whether it impacted his personal performance. If anything, it probably told him that this Seattle defense is everything it has been advertised to be the last decade – if the pieces are a little slower and not quite as strong as they used to be.

The 12s won this one.

And why the Hell— Why the Hell is Carlos Hyde on the field so much? I know that fans were really up in arms about it early in the season – but I hadn't been watching those games. I watched this game, and— Okay, like, there was a 3^rd and 7 in the second half where it looked like the Jaguars offense was finally coming to life. They hand it to Hyde. He stumbles for 4. Then they go for it on 4^th down and it's an easy pass breakup for Seattle, the Jags should be done with the day.

Except they aren't done for the day. The Seattle offense refuses to get first downs in the third and fourth quarters.

But what I'm really upset about is how obvious that four-down drive was. It's like Urban thought the Seahawks would be caught off guard that they were going for four, there. Urban – you don't run on 3^rd and 7 unless you're giving up on the game or trying to get an easier completion for your scattershot quarterback.

The Seahawks had already gotten an easy 4^th down conversion on your defense in the first half.

Maybe it's because his defense was so out of position, he thought that's what 4^th down looks like in the NFL.

I don't know what is going on with that team. All I know is it's bad.

But the Seahawks weren't any better. Geno played like he should be starting somewhere in the League for stretches of the game. He went 13-straight at one point, then he started putting the ball into dangerous windows and ending drives. So I don't know what to take from this game. If you do watch it, maybe you can tell me what I missed.

Oh – and Tayvon Austin isn't an NFL deep threat. Don't try that play again, Trevor – it doesn't work with that player.

#14 Miami Dolphins (1-7) @ Buffalo Bills (5-2)

There is exactly one reason this game isn't in the #15 spot – the Miami defense balled out for three and a half quarters.

Watching this one back a second time, I was all set to tell you not to even give it a bother. This is a pretty conventional Divisional matchup – maybe not between these two teams recently, but then again... may be.

It's difficult to have much to say about defensive contests. There were a few of them this weekend, and all of them but this one were actually pretty good games. Enjoyable, to say the least. If you're not a Buffalo fan, there's nothing here for you to enjoy.

I sat down to rewatch this one with spite in my heart. I made it to the second half tracking every one of Tua's throws, keeping count of every offensive miscommunication, how many time Tua attempted passes you just can't at this level— And then at halftime I stopped. There was no point. The entire offensive operation was so offensive to my eyes and my football sensibilities I just had to stop. The only person I was hurting by taking note of all of this was myself. I'm not going to convince you that Tua isn't the answer – you have eyes. You can watch the games.

So, instead of sharing that data with you, I'll just share the last few notes I did take: *No strength to get the ball to the boundary. *Deep throw to Waddle, Tua leaves his feat. No chance. Waddle with strong-hands catch. *Not strong enough to get to the boundary... to leave his feet and across body. No way he didn't that that INT, there. *Tua reminds me of watching J Manziel.

And he does. The way he moves in the pocket, the way he seems physically intimdated by the bigger players, the way he can't make routine throws look routine. Especially his body language outside the pocket.

I think that the offensive scheme is doing a lot of things right.

They're not getting any production from the runny game when it matters, and the interior of the offensive line gets pushed around by great defensive tackles – but great defensive tackles can control a game in this era to a degree they never have before. And if we're talking about all the havoc that Ed Oliver created (this is about all you're going to get for the Bills this week, sorry; this should have been a loss, if Miami's offense were competent on any level), it has to be noted that Miami's interior defensive linemen, Christian Wilkins, Raekwon Davis, and Zach Sieler all had impacts on the Bills run and pass games; and Brennan Scarlett had his best day as a pro to my eyes. Jaelen Phillips remains a no-show, and Elandon Roberts got picked on more than a few times. Even in the blitz game, Josh Allen overpowered him a few times.

Allen feeds on the physicality of the game. You can't let him beat you with his size or he'll start to really punish you with his legs. And that's how he beat Miami – his legs and Cole Beasley. Yeesh.

But Sanders and Diggs were no-shows on the day, and the running game never got going. You can really talk yourself into believing the dolphins defense is still legitimate, no matter that it's at the bottom of points allowed. That's an artifact of the offense.

An offense that by my count ended four drives in a row (three into and coming out of the half) on “miscommunications.” Procedure penalties ending drives because dudes don't know where to line up. And it's the motherfucking tight end trying to get dudes in place.

This game pissed me off.

But, hey— For fans of the Amoeba Defense, you got another stop generated with it, but the back end of the defense held. That's why Flores doesn't call that formation anymore: he can't trust the back end of his defense to hold in Cover-0 situations, and he can't trust his blitzers to get there. They blitzed Allen all day and got home once. Not great.

Don't watch this game. If you do, I'd love to know how you argue that Tua can salvage his performance in this game. The arm strength isn't here, and he reads his offense backward. It's like he only memorizes the yellow route (in Madden terms) when studying his playbook. He always looks surprised that it's not open and that his first reads are already covered.

I hate watching him play at this point. He either needs to improve or I need to find another team to watch. Because the Deshaun Watson— is for another post.

#13 Los Angeles Rams (7-1) @ Houston Texans (1-7)

I was initially unfair to this game. It go the #15 spot in my first draft. But that's not right. I learned a lot from watching this game, and it deserves for my respect and appreciation for that to be reflected in its blurb.

I watched this game immediately after the Dolphins game. So, let's be real, I was a little burnt out. Deciding to change up my notetaking format, I forged on.

From the first offensive play of the game, this contest reminded me of when I was in fourth grade: the Pop Warner team I played for had too many kids, so it got split into the Good team and the Bad team. I, being new, was on the Bad team. This game looks like our exhibitions against them. We were competitive – we just weren't good enough to compete.

For this game, I decided I wanted to observe how Matthew Stafford and Davis Mills threw the ball, how they worked their eyes on the field, and where they threw the ball.

Coming out of the Dolphins game (and blurb, evidently) I was thinking about how Tua reads the field right to left because he's right-hand dominant. Which means he's likely right-eye dominant. So I wanted to see if my assumptions about the way plays are typically drawn (right-handed) held water with these two quarterbacks. Because if nothing else, this game is a showcase of quarterbacks at either end of the spectrum of greatness when it comes to their surrounding talent.

Instead of talking about this game, I'm going to talk a little about what I learned in terms of these two quarterbacks.

The first thing that jumps out to me when I watch the Houston Texans is that Davis Mills is not a problem. In fact, I like Davis Mills. I'd take him over Tua, I'd take him over Cousins – honestly, if I were building a franchise, I'd take him over Russell Wilsons and Ryan Tannehill, too – just the whole 2012 class, I guess. Hell, over Carson Wentz and maybe Baker Mayfield, too.

If I had a Playstation or a PC capable and a copy of Madden, I could talk myself into building a fantasy team with Mills at quarterback and blue-chip talent at wideout, tight end, and running back. I like his throwing motion. He has good zip on the ball. He's not as good throwing left, as I would expect. He visibly has to power throws across his body, and threw a terrible pick rolling to his left. But to his right, he throws with touch, timing, and accuracy – everything I want from a quarterback.

Matt Stafford, on the other hand, very obviously reads his plays right to left. You can see him fake the safety by looking left to start every play, but his first two reads seem to almost always be the short and intermediate throws to his right. The fourth or fifth read seems to be the deep shot right. Which makes sense. When plays are designed to target his left, they seem to be deep shots and tendency breakers because he looks left so often safeties start to disbelieve it. Which, again, makes sense.

You want your first two throws to be the easiest two throws in your arsenal. Then you want your third one to be when you slide to your left to avoid the pressure. And your fourth and fifth to be deep downfield because you need to wind up for them. This seems totally obvious to me watching the game. I can just see Brady on his five and seven step drops over these decades:

Top of the drops, slide left, release. Top of the drop, release. Top of the drops, slide, look, release. Just like practice.

Stafford plays the game so well from the pocket. McVay gets him rolling out a lot, and he's not good at it. But it keeps the defenses concerned with protecting their edges against him taking off or pitching the option. Which opens up their interior to get gashed with the run play. The Texans are a bad defense. You can really see what an offense whats to do to you when it gets a bad one on its heels.

The Rams were trying to go home by halftime. The Texans missed the field goal on their best drive, going into halftime, and 24-0 is about as close as this game would ever really get.

If you're watching this game to learn something— I think the Rams runners are good. Henderson is obviously better. But every time I write that I don't know what McVay sees in Sony Michel, the next play he breaks a 15 yard rush with burst and lateral quickness, making my observation that he lacks both burst and lateral quickness a patent lie.

The Texans never give up. That's what elevates this game from the #15 spot if I'm telling the honest truth. They never stop calling running plays – they know the game is over. But the coaches and the players treated each down with the respect they deserve. This is how bad teams get better every week until eventually they aren't bad anymore. Watching them made me emotional for a completely different reason than Miami, and I couldn't look away. But I don't give lollipops for Garbage Time play. Houston is bad – real bad. But Houston has no talent.

They do, however, have a quarterback.

Oh, and the Rams' Jefferson— He's too good for them to need the services of DeSean Jackson. I get it.

#12 Philadelphia Eagles (3-5) @ Detroit Lions (0-8)

This game was not as good as I predicted it to be – not by a long shot. Not for Lions fans or literally anyone other than Eagles fans who have watched it or wanted to watch it up to now. I went into it pretty early in my day. After all the games I felt like I just had to watch. Because as far as the bad games go, and I think its location on this list should indicate this, this game has something, if very little, to show us.

I took very few notes.

The Lions were not going to win this game. I noticed that from the first play from scrimmage and Jared Goff's baggy pants. And what was with the look on TJ Hockenson's face after his first catch? He looks like a dude who realizes his quarterback is going to get him killed with throws like that all day. Total defeat in his eyes and the set of his shoulders. Then he drops his next target to set up a punt after a promising drive. Ugly stuff.

Like I said, the Lions weren't taking this one.

I don't know if it's that the whole football world wanted the Eagles to give them a pity fuck, like they're your loser friend whose favorite sex-friend just left him for a better partner and you're just trying to get them a win – or if the give-up I've been predicting is coming finally set in against a vulnerable opponent and it was just too much to stave at bay for one more drive – a drive that could have ended in points and changed the entire shape of this game.

That's what it looked like.

Because the Eagles offense wasn't Great. Although – I seem to remember people clamoring for more Boston Scott in years past. It seems the Eagles have a wealth of quality runners and serious choice anxiety about using them. Hurts is still slow to read the defense and to throw. Still keeps the balls on Option runs when he should toss it and let his back destroy his body to gain an extra yard.

There's a difference in the physicality of Ryan Tannehill's game as I'm going to talk about it much later in this piece and what Jalen Hurts does with his body.

Jalen Hurts sacrifices his body when he doesn't need to. He throws himself at tacklers when his backs could actually run through, around, or past them. But they scored on three consecutive drives going into halftime, taking a 17-0 lead after their defense ended three straight Lions series on Jared Goff sacks that didn't look anywhere close to being pass attempts and another on 4^th down.

Dallas Goedert and Jordan Howard looked better than good in this one. They kept talking about Howard's fresh legs, which— I mean, it's about time he stuck around someplace. He was the next great hope of the Dolphins' backfield a few years ago, and landed himself on the Eagles practice squad after that, but he's still a good back. He's just a downhill runner and needs a blocking scheme willing to get him running downhill – which he did a lot of against the Lions.

Which— I have to stop here and praise the Eagles gameplan. The Eagles appreciated that these teams are evenly matched. That, indeed, they're in the same places in their franchises' new paths. And they coached this team appropriately. The Eagles didn't do anything fancy. They didn't do anything but line up and play traditional football. And if you can't defend against traditional football, you can't defend against anything. 44 points when your opponent isn't throwing it is high school stuff. This is what happens when the Bad Pop Warner team plays the Good teams.

This isn't what's supposed to happen when two very movable objects collide with imminently stoppable force.

But oh my god Jared Goff played as poorly as a quarterback can play. Called out by his coach nationally for throwing it away on 4^th down a few weeks ago, he does it again in this game. I have it in my head he did it twice – but I only wrote it down once. He was down 24 points at the time. No drive to win. No killer instinct. No rallying his troops. No understanding of the game.

It's like they've got a trick-shot with a six-shooter in a high-noon duel. You don't need to be a killer to beat this team – you need to rattle their quarterback. And it doesn't get easier than rattling Jared Goff.

Amon-Ra St. Brown is a dude, though. This Lions teams has pieces to make an immediate jump in Year 2. They just desperately need a competitive quarterback. Not even a quality thrower. Just a dude who will actually compete.

How do you get 12 men on the field twice, Detriot? Hurts wasn't even running tempo the second time.

If you wanted to watch Gardner Minshew this season, this is your shot: He played the whole 4^th quarter.

#11 Washington Football Team (2-6) @ Denver Broncos (4-4)

Congratulations are due to the hopeless Denver Broncos – they have cross the .500 threshold; and not for the last time this season. Before queuing this one up yesterday, I had watched very, very little of either of these teams. Outside of Brandon Perna's very thorough recaps of the games, I haven't felt I needed to. The product on the field is pretty clearly shit even from the great distance between me in Ohio and it in Colorado. And not even like skunky weed shitty where at least it's a good time, either.

Cus this game wasn't a good time.

I feel like I can sum up the Washington Football Team's offensive philosophy in the first two sentences I wrote about this game: WFT playing for 3^rd down. Throws short on 4^th and 1.

What the fuck, Washingon?

Look, I get it. This team is still the equivalent of the contents of a child's pockets and his father's spare parts when it comes to building a functional go-cart; but god damn I hated this performance. I like Taylor Heinicke a lot, actually. More than I thought I would. I left this game feeling like they're wasting him. Like if he had anyone but Terry McLaurin to throw to this team would be fun to watch.

He does take a lot of sacks, though. And he makes a lot of checkdowns. Because he would throw a lot of picks if he didn't. And he is coached by Ron Rivera – a defensive mind. So you know what that should mean: field goals and deep-shot Tds because for whatever reason Defensive HCs can't scheme an offense to win in the redzone.

Which would be fine in this game, actually. The Broncos want you to kick field goals and play defense because they want to score on deep shots and run the ball – and kick field goals and play defense.

This game should have had a soccer score. Like 2 – 5. I'm glad it didn't.

In fact, this game climbs this high because of the uniqueness of the result of these two particular philosophies and their associated rosters competing to be the team that doesn't lose. What a stupid thing I just said, except this game is uniquely boring and bewildering. I stopped watching after Landon Collins' second solo defensive stop.

I guess there's some drama around him? I understood him as a positionless player who needed to be deployed by a creative defensive mind. He's playing positionless, gets a sack and a solo tackle on the boundary, both on 3^rd down, and I'm thinking he looks like the best defender on the field. Not sure I understand. Need to watch more, obviously.

Right as I give up on the game, though, Heinicke completes on 3^rd and long and I want them to win. By the sack/INT sequence, the WFT weren't going to win the game. That was their best punch.

That Vic Fangio tried to give the game back to them and didn't kneel is baffling. I have no answer. I do know that I didn't think the WFT would come back even pretending I didn't know the result. They were done.

Like I wrote, this team needs to just pack it in emotionally – there is no hope, and there is none forthcoming.

I still like Heinicke, though. He's really fun to watch. He and maybe he alone buoys this game this high.

#10 Carolina Panthers (4-4) @ Atlanta Falcons (3-4)

Ameer Abdullah was once the next great hope at running back in Detroit. A series of unfortunate injuries later, and I'd lost track of him. I learned yesterday (and happily) that he's in Charlotte, NC. I don't know how long he's been there, but he played really well for the Panthers. And he needed to. Chuba made the best case a running back can make for riding the bench with the first play of the game: fumbling and turning over possession.

And Royce Freeman, too – he was playing well. The Panthers are another team, it seems, with a wealth of backs and serious choice anxiety about how to deploy them. It seems to me, while I'm talking about the Panthers, and knowing that they ran Christian McCaffrey onto the IR, that what you should want to do if you're an offense and you have multiple backs and you can't find the balance that Dallas has – either because you don't have a clear leader in the clubhouse or for whatever other reason – you should pick one and run him until the tread starts to wear on his tires, bench him, and run the next one up.

I feel like the rotations should be for games, not for series.

Like, I know I should have talked about this in the previous bit, but D'Ernest Johnson in Cleveland was this good early in the season. His number 25 jumped out to me Week 1 as someone to watch; he was too good to keep off the field even in that backfield.

The Falcons do not have that same problem. Cordarrelle Patterson is their feature back and it's really not close.

Kyle Pitts is their only other weapon. Every time I started to think that I like what Atlanta was doing on offense, something bad would happen. Up to and including writing in my nodes that I like their offense and Matty Ice throwing an interception. That just means they can't stretch series of good plays together, but they can link two or three or more up. That's more progress than Miami has shown, which means that the head coaching hire is working.

I don't expect Matty Ice to be here next season, but I hope he is. This team is going to get better in a hurry.

I don't know what's wrong with the Panthers. Their offense has pieces. Is it Darnold? He looked under pressure to me ever single dropback. And why were they calling those runs for him? God damn, he took some seriously vicious shots, including the one that knocked him out of the game.

Quarterbacks need to learn that these defenders are taught to literally murder them. The bounty system might not be in effect, but if you eliminate a team's quarterback, you cripple them. Few are the guys who can come off the bench and play well. It's take Geno three weeks to look right back there.

I don't know whether Sam Darnold is a bad quarterback. I don't know why I can't get a feel for him – maybe it's that his only weapon is DJ Moore – but I do know that he might have ended Robby Anderson's life with his ball placement.

#9 New York Giants (2-6) @ Kansas City Chiefs (4-4)

I wrote a whole piece breaking this down in too-fine detail— It was swallowed up last night. That's fine. I took those notes digitally as a part of this piece. I have learned that lesson too, now.

I was concerned that the Giants might win this game and immediately make me a fool for settling on them as my fifth hopeless team. The score (20 – 17) might suggest that the Giants threatened to do just that.

That isn't the impression I got. This was the Chiefs' game to lose, and while they flirted with the idea, giving the ball to New York on too many turnovers, that's an artifact of the Giants defense being actually good. But we talked about that going into the game. The team Dave Gettleman has built is strong in its front-7 and should be good at grading roads in the run game. That's what showed up against the Chiefs.

The problem is that the chiefs are a better team and have the significantly better team.

I didn't see enough in this one to say that Daniel Jones isn't the answer, but I have seen enough through eight weeks of this season to definitively say that these teams with young quarterbacks have got to teach them how to get down when they're in the second level of the defense. These dudes are not used to getting hit like running backs and wide receives are.

The Chiefs have a problem at wide receiver. I wrote when they acquired Josh Gordon that I didn't think they wre desperate, but if they lose another one, that opinion has to change. Especially if they lose it like they lost this one. Byron Pringle and Mecole Hartman look so good with the ball in their hands – on jet sweeps, screens – but golly jee do they not look great running routes downfield.

Travis Kelce is killing them with the fumbles.

And let's get to what there really is to talk about from this game: Patrick Mahomes and his wildly unusual throws. I wrote earlier this season that I love his off-platform, unorthodox throws. But I can tell that they're starting to be a problem. But I don't think the problem is Mahomes, and I don't think the problem is the throws themselves. I still love them. I love seeing them appear in other guys' games.

They said during the broadcast a few times that it used to was for Mahomes that he would get away with these crazy, low-percentage throws but now he doesn't. Which makes sense. It used to was that defenses would freeze or hold their breaths for just a second toward the end of plays – and Mahomes wouldn't. Now defenses play him to he whistle and maybe a few blasts beyond.

It's his receivers who are freezing, now.

On the Submarine throw to Hill late in the game, when Mahomes is running for his life to his left – you can see in the shot from the broadcast that everyone not named Hill hesitated. No one was sure where the ball was going – but they all knew it was going somewhere. Hill kept running his route – but even he was surprised the ball found its way to him.

A lot of accurate passes this weekend went where they were thrown – to receivers who didn't know they were coming. Think of AJ Green in the endzone in Green Bay. I feel like that's been Miami's offense the last 20 years.

The Chiefs are fine – their receivers, though, are becoming a problem.

But, really, though – is it just me or does Daniel Jones look just like Durpleton from Centaurworld on Netflix?

#8 Pittsburgh Steelers (4-3) @ Cleveland Browns (4-4)

If this game had a subtitle, it would be Good Defense is Boring. Because I thought that about fifteen times during this one.

The game is actually pretty great. Lots of fun. I'm bummed by the way the Browns passing game looks. But really, both of these teams just have very, very good defenses and coaches who know it.

I haven't watched a lot of Pittsburgh this season. Big Ben looked good. Vintage late-period Ben. He seems to surprise himself every play that he is quite literally a statue in the pocket. The mobility is just vanished. But he makes up for it by still having the arm. And Chase Claypool has seriously stepped up in Ju-Ju's absence.

Najee Harris is a man. I don't see a lot of difference in him and Derrick Henry besides experience. Harris might be the more polished version – and the only one we're going to get for the rest of 2021.

And that's really all I have to say about Pittsburgh. The fake field goal was kind of stupid. It was obvious they were going for it on 4^th. Ben almost never plays for FGs. It's one of his flaws as a player that he's always playing for the win and hasn't always played strategic football. I didn't love that Boswell didn't get the penalty call. I hope he's okay.

Pittsburgh's defense is really good.

So is Cleveland's. D'Ernest Johnson is a good football player. And after watching this one, I totally understand why so many Cleveland fans either want OBJ or Baker or both gone at the end of the season.

Baker doesn't look like the answer more often than he doesn't. Like – I clicked away from that game thinking that Case Keenum wins that game at the end. I also think that it doesn't matter who's throwing the ball when your Number One receiver drops touchdowns that hit his hands in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter.

I've been waiting to say anything to effusive about Jarvis Landry. He was money on third down – and he was due for a killer fumble. He put the ball on the ground at the absolute worst moment, and the defense was obviously gutted. They waited until the final drive of the game to give up a big play – and that was enough to seal a loss. I hated it, but this is the NFC North – and it's still the Steelers' to lose until they're not in it anymore.

And we know when that will change.

#7 Cincinnati Bengals (5-3) @ New York Jets (2-5)

I'm not ashamed to admit I was excited to get Game Pass specifically so I could dive directly into this game like Scrooge McDuck a safe full of gold coins.

I have trained myself over the years to immediately forget scores and records so I can repeatedly check what I “know” with what I'm hearing people say when they talk about the games. Also because it's fun to be surprised by the outcome of a game that already happened when you can catch it. I take that mindset into these games – especially the ones I wish I'd watched live. As much as I hate to admit it, I think I'm becoming if not a Bengals fan a Burrow/Chase fan. Maybe I talk myself into getting a Chase jersey someday? And, really, I hate the Jets.

But how do you not want to watch Mike White outduel Joe Burrow?

It is the Jets – I can't put them in the top-5, I just can't. Not with the Patriots also playing an extremely interesting and fun brand of ball. The Jets defense saves their best games for their best opponents. I kind of like that about them. It makes them a coinflip every week, even if they end up with only three or four wins. No one wants to get embarrassed, and the Jets are admirably unwilling to get embarrassed in the most unlikely of circumstances. Which means that next week White throws for 100 yards, 4 pick-sixes and one of the wide receivers is ripped in half, Not Another Teen Movie-style.

God, my references are just the absolute worst.

Even pretending I didn't know that Cincy was going to lose this game, at no point did I feel confident in any of their leads. By the challenge in the first half, the whole offensive operation looked frustrated with how well the Jets were playing. Not a good look. That suggests they expected this one to be easy – which happens to teams young and veteran alike.

This wasn't a trap game, though.

The Jets gave it everything they had, and it wasn't like they made it look effortless. They were down 31-26 with 4:36 left in the game, and I'm seriously wondering how they pull this thing out. A tipped pass for an INT is a good start.

But I don't really want to talk about the Bengals or the way the game itself went. I prepared for that. But what I want to explore is whether Mike White teaches us anything about team construction at the NFL level.

Because that dude did not have a first half that implied the way this game ended. By the missed FG, I'm shaking my head like Same old Jets. Two White interceptions before that, and the Bengals are pounding plenty of Mixon – I don't think the Jets have a chance, coming out of halftime.

How hurt is Burrow, I wonder? He took a pretty big shot in this one.

Teams with backup quarterbacks are meant to play the way the Jets did on Sunday. This game is worth the watch regardless of where I put it on this list for my own reasons (I watched it first, take that for what it is). Largely because it presents the question of whether Mike White played this well or whether his teammates stepped their games up to this degree.

Ideally, if you're a coach, you want all of your players to play to the best of their abilities all the time. But we can all admit that when we have someone on our team who's just so much better than we are we lean on them. I have little doubt that the receivers and runners in New York haven't given the kind of effort they gave for Mike for Zach Wilson – but not because they like Mike better. Because they know Zach is as good as he is and they think they can get away with his greatness carrying them a little bit.

Mike White can't, and his team played their hearts out for him.

And let's give a man his due: he balled the fuck out. His yardage is only a part of the story. He comes out of the second half firing the ball. I loved seeing that. The Jets looked like they had finally unlocked the Shanahan scheme, and that says to me what it should say: everyone was on their Ps and Qs because they're playing a very good team and they have to if they want a Team Win. Which they got.

J-E-T-S, Jets, Jet, Jets making me look like a genius for saying they still have hope. Not only do they have hope in their very young team and new coaching staff, they have Playoff hopes in this weird AFC.

#6 New England Patriots (4-4) @ Los Angeles Chargers (4-3)

I couldn't let this game get any higher than this.

I listened tot his game on the radio and all I remember is the sound of disappointment in Daniel Jeremiah's voice – throughout the contest, not just at the end. And I watched it a second time to see if what I heard is what happened – and still I don't remember anything about this game besides that Mac Jones played better than we give him credit for.

I really like the young men who play quarterback for these teams. Justin Herbert and Mac Jones are very good quarterbacks, and great competitors.

I wrote at different points in my notes that the connection between Jones and his receivers is special. And then I realized something: I have a new metric for how I view quarterbacks within my Eye Test. We talk all the time about whether a quarterback can elevate the play of the guys around him. And that's a true if inaccurate statement. I think it's more accurate to ask whether he makes you believe in his receivers.

When Mac Jones drops back to pass, I don't believe that he's going to make something happen – I believe that he's going to throw the ball to his receivers, and I believe in his receivers to make the catches. I found myself saying I like these Patriots pass catchers throughout this game. I think they have a pretty good team assembled here, and they'll be back to competing at a high level for the Division next season. And Mac is a big part of that.

I think that Harry and Co are still frustrated after most drives, most games, if Cam Newton is still the quarterback. In fact, I think that all but about maybe six or seven quarterbacks in the League would leave this offense looking bad. But Mac throws it just where the ball needs to be so often and so well—

Most of my notes are about the Patriots. They dominated this contest. Herbert and the Chargers didn't play poorly – the Patriots defense just swallowed them up. Well, I said that they didn't play badly – Wideouts Mike Williams and Keenan Allen had bad days. Too many drops for Allen. He's supposed to be the possession receiver who keeps drives alive, but he hasn't been able to catch anything for weeks – basically since I gave Herbert props for starting to find Williams and Ekeler more often.

This one marks the first of the games you've just got to watch. We don't often think of either of these teams as defensive, but they both are, and both defenses balled out.

#5 San Francisco 49ers (3-4) @ Chicago Bears (3-5)

I still don't understand how Chicago lost this one. That has to be the reason it's up here this far. It's the only thing that makes sense. I can't let myself drop it, but on face value it doesn't belong here. Maybe what I'm telling you is that I'm going to end up watching at least one of these games again before the week is out, and it's probably going to be this one.

The Bears have an offense and a good defense. By the start of the second quarter, I'm annoyed that the Bears lose. The 49ers just don't look good. Watching them— I feel like I've been holding my breath, waiting for the offense to looks good, and I'm starting to turn purple. Even by Jimmy G's first rushing touchdown, I'm kind of sideyeing my notebook, asking whether I'm supposed to be impressed with this drive and this score.

Deebo Samuels is an insane athlete. His YAC numbers are crazy. I don't know why people have a problem with Aiyuk – he played well, I thought. But Sanu is still the best receiver in San Francisco. He's aged, now – but he's always open when you need him most.

Fields looks good. And Mooney looks like he's going to be very good. But the difference in this game, and Chicago proves it, is that it is absolutely critical for teams to have three quality downfield pass catchers on the field at the same time.

Jimmy G was bailed out so many times by having dudes to throw it to. As good a job as Bill Lazor is doing with Chicago's weapons, they don't have three downfield receivers. By my count, they have Mooney. No one else is impacting the downfield passing game.

And the Chicago offense makes so many mistakes. It's really kind of maddening.

I see a lot of parallels between the Bears and the Dolphins. The difference, I would say, is that they have a Dude at the quarterback spot. Fields will figure it out – if he can figure out how to slide. If he doesn't learn the game's speed before he ruins his legs, he might not ever.

#4 Tennessee Titans (6-2) @ Indianapolis Colts (3-5)

This was the second game I queued up, and it would be the second game I queued up if I were going to watch a game for pleasure tonight. Which might happen.

I really like these Titans. You know I like Tannehill, and you should know I like defense and a smashmouth running game – but what I like most is that the Titans play every team they're matched up against. And what I mean by that is they don't try to impose their will on a game. They matchup with what you want to do and they beat you at it. It's not always pretty – but it's worked now four more times than it hasn't, and they're alone atop their division.

This is a Divisional matchup which autmoatically props it up on these Rankings. But with the way the Colts played – that is, with the way everyone in Indianapolis Blue not named Carson Wentz – this one could have gone either way.

For the first week this season, I can definitively say I think that Wentz lost this game.

Everything else was working. The running game was kicking ass, the defense was keeping Derrick Henry under check, all Wentz had to do was play a good, conservative day of football – and he just couldn't do it.

I didn't like anything he did out there all day. I know this game was close at the end, and they should have probably won it, but I didn't like anything Wentz did all day.

That's not true.

Carson Wentz underthrows the PI ball better than anyone in the history of the league.

I thought Tannehill had a hell of a day, actually. And I think he's going to make some head turns and get some very faint MVP consideration with Derrick Henry out for the season. The Titans have weapons, folks. But more than that, they have a quarterback who gets his team going more than any other quarterback in the league with the physical nature of his play.

Ryan Tannehill is still an athlete. He may have a weird gait, and he may swing his arms and look like it's everything he has to run like he is, but for as little as it looks like it, he can scoot, now. He had some runs in this game where he looked five years younger and two ACL surgeries healthier than he is. There's a lot of talk about hos this is Henry's team and Tannehill is along for the ride, and I think he's going to prove the world wrong with the rest of this season. I think it's going to be ugly – I might even expect them to lose this weekend when adversity strikes the run game.

But I think this team is good enough to compete – definitely good enough to beat the rest of the teams in the Division again. That's 9 wins right there.

Henry will be missed, however. If you want to see the last great thing he will likely do this season, check this one out: tied at 24, 3:22 left, I'm thinking Henry hasn't done much. Then he takes the Option toss left, 4^th and 1, and gets hit 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Somehow he overpowers two tacklers for the first.

All I'm going to say is that Wentz has to stop throwing the ball left handed.

I love that the defense got the turnover that gave their offense position to move it just far enough forward for the field goal. Glad the Titans won this one. I would have liked to have seen the offense march on their first drive – but the Colts have a better defense than we think.

This one proves that.

#3 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-2) @ New Orleans Saints (5-2)

I'm not even gonna lie: I was enjoying Jameis Winston as the quarterback of the Saints. It was never pretty, exactly, but it was starting to work. Well, if he wasn't going to get it for Jameis, Sean Payton is getting Coach of the Year for Trevor Siemian. Who saw a competently quarterbacked football game coming out of Trevor Siemian at any point in his career after the fiasco in Denver? I certainly didn't.

I also watched exactly zero of his games. So maybe I'm being hyperbolic for likes.

My favorite moment in this game, and a big part of why it's right here at #3 is Troy Aikman confidently saying that the Saints offense were obviously going to struggle here because of Siemian, and then a few plays later they're up 16-7 and look like they might be putting an ass whoopin on the Bucs, they way Brady and Co have played.

Speaking of Brady and Co – three turnovers in three drives, isn't that right? Jesus. I watched this one so late in the day I didn't give myself a play-by-play, just an outline. Also I knew I was going to suggest it highly and wouldn't want to say too much. If you're actually following my recommendations, I want to leave something for you to enjoy and return to the comments to tell me about!

But really this is what the Bruce Arians offense looks like. When it's all working, the quarterback looks like Tom has looked all season. When it's not working, it can look like Jameis Winston looked a few years ago. So Brady had a Winston night. We all have nights like he had, sometimes.

And fuck you if you didn't think it was awesome to see him dancing with his teammates after the heartbreak of knowing his season was over. We might not be able to be friends.

I was talking about Sean Payton and got distracted. Dude, his wide receivers are my favorite in the League. If you tried to make a team out of these dudes in Madden, even when they were hyped to be their very best, you're talking like high 70s. But Kenny Stills and Ty Montgomery were balling. And even Kevin White is finding success. It's incredible.

I'm going to leave this one off by saying two things:

The pick of Brady to seal the victory at the end of this one cannot be the best thing the Saints do the rest of the season; and this one is a war. Two offensive juggernauts slugging it out in a defensive slobberknocker. This is football at its very best.

And even Mike Evans shows up with an effort play!

#2 Dallas Cowboys (5-1) @ Minnesota Vikings (3-4)

Man, this game was so good.

I've spent a lot of words on defensive contests in this piece and how there aren't a lot of words to spend on them. This one, you could tell the story that it was a boring game until the fourth quarter. Because you can take your eyes off this one for long stretches and not miss much.

But that's what makes it kind of great. To me, when I can take my eyes away from two, three, four drives in a row and the score doesn't change, I want to know exactly why. And that's what I got with this one. I'm actually about to queue it up and watch it a second time right now (I watched the Cardinals a second and then third time for good measure last night).

This Cowboys team is legit. Forget Kirk Cousins and his woes on Primetime. He didn't play well. He kept sailing easy throws. but he also kept this game tight enough that the Vikings had a chance late to win it and defend their home from a backup quarterback.

But what a performance that backup quarterback gave.

Just like with Mike White and Trevor Siemian, the performance wasn't perfect. But the team never stopped, never slowed, never bent or even bowed in their faith in him. The offensive gameplan was a complete game, not the overly conservative shell of a gameplan a lot of coaches will cook up for a backup. Dak would have destroyed these Vikings, but Rush was good enough. And that's really all you want from your backup.

Watch this one post-haste.

#1 Green Bay Packers (7-1) @ Arizona Cardinals (7-1)

Impossible to think that Thursday's contest was the best the week had to offer, but I think it was. And I would be lying if I didn't say I was going to watch it again and that's why I'm not going to say much more about it. I wrote up a whole piece about it on Firday. What more do you want from me?

There we go! Turns out I'm glad I revisited this and didn't post it last night. With some sleep between me and Week 8, I realized I had the top-10 all fucked up. Now it's better. @ me if I'm wrong.

You know, it occurs to me, formatting this from scratch (again) that I should have a template for these things set up by now so I can just go in and fill in the blanks. I need to get better at this fast.

Thanks for stopping bye. I'm learning so much from getting to watch these games, it's all getting tangled up in my head - a good problem for me, a bad problem for the productivity of the blog. I'll synthesize this soon and get into a new rhythm. I'll talk at you soon, alright?