Five talking points from Week Eight

Week Eight is when we feel as though we can pen some teams into the play-off places, as well as write off a few who can begin making preparations for next year.

With so many teams still sitting somewhere in between, there is plenty of hope on offer throughout the league. We’re now looking for the teams that can be considered the best of the rest.

Earlier in the season we witnessed an early contender for game of the year between the Lions and Seahawks. This week though, we might have witnessed even better when the Falcons and Panthers went back and forth and were forced to take the game into overtime. I had thought to include this game as one of my talking points for the week but I would struggle to do justice to some of the amazing plays on offer without this becoming a short novel.

By contrast, we have also seen a few terrible games this year – often involving the Broncos – and Sunday’s London game was another where, despite this time coming away with a win, the less said the better.

With that, here are my five talking points from Week Eight:

1. A.J. Brown flying high as an Eagle

There is little more to dissect from A.J. Brown’s three first-half touchdowns other than this guy is big, strong, fast and good at catching the football.

If Brown was running deep-post or lining up in the slot and making plays after the catch then sure, we could analyse the tactics and nuances of the plays in more detail. The simple fact is that Philadelphia’s off-season acquisition from the Titans lined up outside on each play, ran a go route and outmatched the two Steelers defenders that were attempting to cover him. He made it look so easy.

On his third TD of the day, Brown was flagged for taunting but it was worth the penalty because the Eagles were so far ahead and Brown simply wanted to show the world just how good he is. Coverage on the play came from Pittsburgh’s Ahkeelo Witherspoon and Minkah Fitzpatrick who, in the end, collided with each other in an attempt to cover the wide receiver and when he got into the end zone, Brown pointed them both out in a display of total dominance.

This was the playmakers first game all season over 100 yards and he only needed six catches with which to do it, going for 156 yards total. With the Eagles not having to play another team with a winning record until week 13 when they face the Titans (currently 5-2), Brown should be in for some more big performances.

2. Christian McCaffrey can do it all

It didn’t take long for the former Carolina man to get his feet under the table in San Francisco’s offensive setup. When the 49ers made the move for McCaffrey we knew he would be in good hands with Kyle Shanahan thanks to the unique and diverse ways he utilises his running backs – and CMC is one of the most versatile backs in the league.

In Sunday’s 31-14 win over Sean McVay’s L.A. Rams, who also tried to trade for McCaffrey, Shanahan unleashed his newest weapon with devastating effect. CMC bagged himself three touchdowns for the day with one rushing, one receiving and he opened the scoring with a 34-yard passing touchdown to Brandon Aiyuk.

This makes him the first player to do so since LaDanian Tomlinson in 2005 and rounds out an illustrious list alongside the legendary Walter Payton (1979).

Having traded away Jeff Wilson to the Dolphins, there is no doubt that the 49ers have seen enough from McCaffrey during his short time with the team, to define him as their premier ball carrier. The former All-Pro runner ended his day with 18 touches for 94-yards and eight catches for 55-yards, essentially replacing the injured Deebo Samuel for the day.

The two of them playing together in stride is undoubtedly a worry for defences league wide.

3. Time to take the Seahawks seriously in the NFC?

When wily veteran Pete Carroll announced to the world that Seattle’s quarterback competition for the season would be between Geno Smith and Drew Lock, well, let’s be honest, we all laughed and then in concert wrote the Seahawks off for the year. Who’s laughing now?

Carroll was hounded with questions of trading for a veteran or of drafting a young quarterback for the future, the media continually doubted his ability to re-build this team after trading away Russell Wilson, but the 71-year old drowned out the noise and stood by his convictions. Clearly he had seen something that everyone else had not.

Seattle’s young defence, led by ILB Jordyn Brooks and FS Quandre Diggs, has played above the level that was expected of them, although that wouldn’t be difficult. Despite not ranking well through the first five weeks, the heavily criticised unit has stepped up in the last three games and has complimented the offensive performance, putting the team in strong positions to win.

Against the 6-1 New York Giants, the league’s other surprise package so far this year, Seattle forced three-and-outs on the first three possessions and didn’t allow a first down until the third quarter. The defence was able to sack Daniel Jones five times, only allowed the Giants to accumulate 225-yards of offence and held Saquon Barkley to only 53-yards from 20 carries.

On the other side of the ball Geno Smith did enough to give the team chances to score and threw for 212-yards and two TDs and whilst not being pretty for stretches, so far Smith is doing enough to justify Carroll’s faith in him.

When you’ve been in the league for as long as the Seahawks head coach has (27-years in total), there won’t be much that hasn’t been seen. However, Carroll’s obvious passion for coaching and his ability to get this young group to buy into his ideas could turn into a surprise appearance in January. There is still the other half of the season left to play but with the team sitting at the top of the NFC West, Carroll must surely be in consideration for Coach of the Year nomination.

4. Raiders continue to regress

Talking with some friends on Sunday, I mentioned how I didn’t like the idea of the Raiders travelling to New Orleans and the Superdome to face off against the Saints in what was something of a must-win for both franchises. Many a team has gone missing in that stadium (there’s something of a Bermuda Triangle effect going on) and unfortunately, I was proven right.

After an encouraging win last week against the Texans, the Raiders looked sluggish from the get go and they never picked up, subsequently leading to the team being shut out. It was so bad that the team couldn’t even cross midfield until the two minute warning in the fourth quarter.

There’s no need to really dwell on what happened because when you lose a game 24-0 it’s pretty clear that everything went badly wrong. As such, after the game, head coach Josh McDaniels was called into a meeting with team owner Mark Davies for the second time this year to discuss the teams ineptitude. Surely we’re in one more strike and he’s out territory now?

5. Browns play their best game of the year

Before the beginning of the season, this is the kind of performance that Cleveland fans were hoping to see from their team week in and week out. Sadly the Browns performances have lacked consistency thus far but on Monday Night Football and in an AFC North showdown against the in-from Bengals, things finally came together to give the fans reason to feel hopeful.

The 32-13 victory puts the team at 3-5 overall, keeping their playoff hopes alive and they also have a respectable 2-1 record in division after beating the Steelers in week three.

This felt like the game in which the Browns found the right balance in their attack, running the ball 44 times for 172-yards, whilst only needing to pass the ball 22 times for 278-yards. Nick Chubb was able to run in scores from three and 11-yards whilst quarterback Jacoby Brissett contributed with a three yards TD run and threw a four yard TD pass to Amari Cooper to build a 25-0 lead.

On defence, Myles Garrett – who entered the FirstEnergy stadium dressed up as Vecna from Stranger Things – seemingly put the frighteners up Joe Burrow who appeared to be under pressure all evening and was sacked a total of five times. As such, the Bengals were shut out for three quarters, only putting points on the board in a fourth quarter during which the Browns had definitely shifted down a gear.

Having snapped a four game losing streak, the Browns finally looked like a competent outfit and needed this strong performance as they head into their bye week confident that they can still turn this season around.