Week 8’s Sunday slate brought the Hail Mary of the year so far in Washington, not to mention upset after upset: the Cleveland Browns upending the Baltimore Ravens behind backup QB Jameis Winston, and another backup, Jacoby Brissett, outdueling Aaron Rodgers late in the New England Patriots’ win over the New York Jets.
.@JBrissett12 threading it to @KayshonBoutte1 🎯
📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/oAgSg7YsTS
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) October 27, 2024
We also saw the Philadelphia Eagles continue their big-time bounceback and plenty of backup QB heroics. The Athletic NFL writers Jeff Howe, Ted Nguyen and Dan Pompei share their thoughts on all of these storylines and more.
A lot to consider in that Commanders win — the Hail Mary (of course), the lost fumble by an offensive lineman on a Bears fourth-quarter possession, the lack of a touchdown before the final play of the game. Is this Washington Commanders team very good, very fortunate, or both?
Nguyen: Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s play-calling was atrocious down the stretch. From the fumble on a handoff to an offensive lineman, to the quarterback draw on a later third down. The Bears were fortunate to be in position to win, and then they squandered it.
This is a very good Commanders team and the defense seems to be getting better. Jayden Daniels was severely affected by his rib injury — he couldn’t run as much option with that injury, but he did enough offensively to put them in position to win. This was a gutsy performance that should all but lock in the Offensive Rookie of the Year award.
The questions I have regarding the Commanders is whether offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury can keep the offense humming; his offenses in Arizona sputtered out later in the season. I think it has to do with teams catching up with their no-huddle signals. Also, can this defense continue to show improvement? It has only given up more than 15 points once in the last five games.
Pompei: No one expects that the Commanders will be in the Super Bowl, but the whole of their team is greater than the sum of their parts, and they have a knack for doing what they need to do to win. That’s a credit to Dan Quinn and his coaching staff, and it’s a credit to Daniels, the instant star of 2024.
The Commanders already have six wins — 10 might get them into the playoffs. If Daniels gets fully healthy (he clearly wasn’t on Sunday), stays that way and keeps playing the way he has, this should be a playoff team. And hardly anyone thought the Commanders could be a playoff team.
Howe: Never apologize for a win. Yes, the Commanders needed to catch a lot of breaks to beat the Bears, but good for them for competing in those situations to earn those breaks. A Hail Mary can be fluky, but the Commanders did everything right to be in position to execute. An offensive lineman shouldn’t be taking a handoff at the goal line, but the Commanders were heady enough to attack the ball. And Caleb Williams has been playing pretty well of late, but Quinn’s defense made him struggle for much of that game. Most outcomes can be traced back to a few plays. While these plays were more dramatic than most, I still credit the Commanders for earning that win.
Are the Eagles back?
Howe: It sure looks that way. The Eagles looked out of sorts even as they were winning, and it was tough to assess their progress in prior victories against the Browns and New York Giants. But this thorough beatdown of the Cincinnati Bengals, who looked like they were ready to make a surge, was impressive. The Eagles are healthier at receiver, have a terrific ground game and they’re improving on defense. With their experience, they’re well-equipped to potentially outlast the Commanders for the division title.
Nguyen: Getting two new coordinators takes some getting used to, but the Eagles look more comfortable both offensively and defensively. On offense, they sort-of ditched the traditional QB option game and are running Saquon Barkley more on straight runs, which makes a lot of sense. When they do run Jalen Hurts, they’re having him go downhill right away. He just doesn’t look like he has a lot of burst from a standstill position, which makes it tough on him on zone reads. I like the adjustments they have made.
Defensively, Vic Fangio’s system is hard to learn but the Eagles now look like they’re playing a lot faster. They’re starting to defend the run really well. In the last two weeks, they’ve only given up a combined 144 rushing yards. When the Eagles can defend the run and get teams into passing situations, that’s when Fangio can get into his more exotic coverages and pressures.
Pompei: The Eagles have outscored their last two opponents by a combined 45 points, and the Bengals aren’t a punching bag. Since the third week of the season, opponents are averaging just 12.8 points per game against Fangio’s defense. Barkley has been one of the most consistent runners in the league, as well as one of the most dynamic. A tough defense and a strong running game almost always wins. The Eagles look like the best team in the NFC East, and could be one of the best teams in the NFL before long.
Are there any larger lessons to be drawn from the Ravens’ suffering come-from-ahead upset losses to the Las Vegas Raiders earlier in the season and now the Browns on Sunday?
Nguyen: The Ravens always seem to have one game a year in which they cannot catch anything; though Jameis Winston mostly played a strong game for Cleveland, he also threw three point-blank interceptions that were dropped. On the final Browns drive, on which they scored the go-ahead touchdown, Winston threw one right to Kyle Hamilton, who ran for a couple of steps before the ball fell out of his hands.
On offense, they dropped at least four or five passes, including a deep pass to Rashod Bateman late in the game. Overall, the Ravens’ secondary has been a weakness and they were beat-up coming into the game. It’s going to be an issue throughout the season.
Pompei: Maybe the Ravens handle adversity better than they handle prosperity. Certainly, they are a better team than the Browns. And the Raiders. But they didn’t play their best football against either. Baltimore has a solid defense, but the Ravens gave up big plays late to a backup quarterback. The feeling here is this was a blip (the kind of which virtually every NFL team has over the course of a season, save for the 1972 Dolphins). The Ravens should learn and grow from it. They remain one of the NFL’s finest.
Howe: This has been an issue for the Ravens for a couple years, although this was one of the smaller leads that they’ve blown. They have some issues on the back end of the defense, and they surrendered scores on three of their last four series on Sunday. Lamar Jackson can only do so much. I don’t know if they get a little too comfortable with late leads, but it’s not going to be an issue that just magically disappears — it’s been hanging over their heads for way too long.
Considering their offseason spending, are the Tennessee Titans the season’s most disappointing team?
Pompei: The Titans are a disappointment, but everybody knew they were going to need above-average quarterback play to realize their potential, especially after allowing Derrick Henry to walk. They haven’t had the kind of quarterback play they needed in a single game this season, whether the player under center has been Mason Rudolph or Will Levis. Titans players are still trying to adjust to a new coaching staff, and the coaching staff is still looking for players who fit what they want to do. This week, it couldn’t have helped the team’s mindset to see two big name players traded.
Howe: The disappointment has been Will Levis’ lack of development, putting the Titans in position to have to draft another quarterback. But no, they’re not the league’s biggest disappointment. That would be the Jets, who have lost five in a row, including all three games since firing Robert Saleh. Aaron Rodgers hasn’t been healthy. The marquee acquisitions haven’t been able to carry him. And a defense that was supposed to be a strength just allowed Jacoby Brissett to drive down the field for a game-winning score.
Nguyen: Before this week, the Titans were playing like an elite defense but their offense was letting them down. This week, it seems the players knew where the season was headed with the Titans selling off pieces (trading away linebacker Ernest Jones and receiver Deandre Hopkins) and just gave up. Some of the touchdowns that they gave up against the Lions were just inexcusable.
I don’t think the Titans are a huge disappointment; I know they loaded up in the offseason but they were loading up to see what they have in Levis by providing him with strong surroundings. I always saw it as a bet (and my expectations weren’t very high). It seems they’ve made their evaluations and they are cutting their losses quick. Now, they’ll be counting their losses.
Which was your favorite game-winning drive by a backup QB: New England’s Jacoby Brissett to beat the Jets, Cleveland’s Jameis Winston to upset the Ravens, or Green Bay’s Malik Willis setting up the game-winning kick against the Jaguars?
Howe: Winston’s game-winning drive — and perhaps his overall performance — provided affirmation the Browns should have made a QB switch a while ago. It’s the first time they’ve scored more than 18 points this season. But my favorite would be Willis’s performance. He threw an absolute beauty to Jayden Reed on a 51-yarder to help set up the winning kick.
Willis has been written off so many times, from the fall in the draft to his time in Tennessee, and as he was forced to replace Jordan Love earlier this season. Willis’s ability to shrug it off and find success with the Packers has been one of the better stories in the league this season. This was just the latest example.
REEEEEEEEED!#GBvsJAX pic.twitter.com/oGewT53OaM
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) October 27, 2024
Pompei: Willis’s play has been a revelation this season. He clearly has a knack that the Titans must not have recognized. This was different than his victories over the Indianapolis Colts and Titans because he came off the bench in this one — not an easy thing to do. His pass to Reed could be a portent of good things to come. But Winston’s comeback was the most impressive, partly because he finished a 69-yard drive with a 38-yard touchdown, overcoming a false start in the process. He looked like a veteran who has been there before — which, of course, he is.
Nguyen: Willis was very good after taking over for Love at halftime, but the Packers’ production was a testament to Matt LaFleur’s playcalling. He was getting guys wide-open for Willis and they gashed the Jaguars with the run game. Reed was wide open on that 51-yard pass on a leak play because of design.
As mentioned above, Winston got lucky with a few dropped interceptions. Brissett was most impressive to me because he stood in the pocket and made tough throws. On his 34-yard pass to Kayshon Boutte on third-and-10, he remained calm with a free blitzer running at him full-speed and delivered a strong pass downfield in the middle of the field against what looked like inverted cover 2.
(Top photo: Greg Fiume / Getty Images)
