NFL: Five Week 8 Thoughts

 I have to say, I am battling with 2 loves at this point. With basketball starting, I found myself watching more of that than football on football Sunday which felt dirty and wrong. Usually the Steelers play Sunday which would get me into the football mood for the rest of the games, but with them playing Monday I ended up catching only little glimpses of games for no reason other than just wanting to watch basketball. Sorry if these thoughts are disingenuous everyone. 

Hail Mary 

It's so rare in the NFL that a game ends in a successful Hail Mary. There's just such a low probability especially when every single person in the building knows what's about to go down. Yesterday the Commanders moved to 6-2 on the season in a game ending on a Jayden Daniels 60 yard Hail Mary touchdown in what can only be described as a classic Bears loss. Not much to break down on that one, just a cool play. Daniels got a full 10 seconds to run around in the back field before absolutely launching a moon shot into the crowd standing in the endzone. The ball bounced off the pile of people and landed right in Noah Brown's hands standing in the end zone. 

The Commanders are now 6-2 sitting atop the NFC East, just like everyone predicted. They have a QB who I've been saying all season is electric and needs eyeballs on the screen whenever he plays and now they're getting huge clutch moments. My entire life the team in Washington has been mid to bad with zero sign of organizational stability. Jayden Daniels is changing everything for them and slowly turning me into a closet Commanders fan when the Steelers aren't playing. For the Bears, brutal loss for a team that's playing pretty good football lately. The Bears have a case for the best defense in the NFL, the only problem is so does the rest of their division. Sitting at 4-3 the Bears are still somehow last place in the NFC North. I'm sure fans in Chicago are loving the Jayden Daniels experience. 

 Lol Ravens

This "column" has become my weekly talk shit about my team's division rivals post, but only when they lose. Yes the Ravens lost to another division rival in the Browns, but honestly after the bad man Deshaun Watson went down in Cleveland it's kind of hard to hate them. The Browns must have read my article last week because they listened to my pleas to start Jameis Winston, and oh boy did it work! After Derrick Henry ran for the go ahead touchdown with a little over 2 minutes remaining to make the score 24-23, the onus was on famous Jameis to run a 2 minute drill. Winston threw a clear interception that was just dropped by the Ravens defender before 1 play later launching a beautiful deep ball that went for a 38 yard touchdown to Cedrick Tillman. The full Winston experience.  

I am holding back on the Ravens here. Part of this is because the Steelers are playing tonight and I definitely don't need to upset the football gods by talking shit, but another part is this is just how divisional matchups go. The Ravens and Browns know each other well, to the point where close games should be expected. The Browns also looked instantly better with an actual NFL level QB at the helm vs the shit show they had been running out there all season. Still though, the formula to beat the Ravens seems to be: don't get behind early. The Browns entered the 4th quarter with a lead, which negates Derrick Henry's ability to close the game by just pounding the ball over and over again. It's easier said than done of course, but it's nice to know the Ravens aren't unstoppable. 

Lol Bengals

Look, honestly I didn't even see a second of this game I am just blindly talking shit, but it's my blog and I am allowed to do so. Damn the Bengals defense stinks. The Bengals showed some signs of turning their season around after a 1-4 start, winning 2 straight and staring down .500. Luckily, their defense is still a tire fire which leads to losses like this one to the Eagles. Joe Burrow is having a tremendous season, nearly 250ypg, 15 TDs to only 3 interceptions, completing over 70% of his passes, this is an MVP level season from one of the best players in football when healthy. If I wasn't a Steelers fan I'd honestly say it's a shame that his talents are being wasted on one of the worst defenses in the league, since I am though I am just here to laugh. 

49ers Get a Much Needed Win

I've said before on here, what a season from hell so far for the San Francisco 49ers. With star RB Christian McAffrey not playing a single snap, and then essentially every other weapon on that talented offense facing injury or illness issues, the 49ers have had to scratch and claw for everything. The season is showing signs of hope now with a massive 30-24 victory against Dallas on Sunday Night Football. The 49ers got this one the good old fashioned way, a strong running game paired with a defense that made plays when they mattered most.  Nice as well to see Deebo Samuel back from a scary battle with pneumonia which kept him out last week. Christian McAfree is back practicing with the bye coming up next week, it looks like he might be in line to return for week 10 adding another uber talented option to the banged up 49ers offense. After looking pretty rough through 8 weeks, the 49ers come out of it at 4-4, only a game out of the division with weapons loading. They may not have started the way they wanted coming off a Superbowl appearance but if all goes well, things could be looking scary in the Bay Area very soon. 

Stat Double Take

The Lions are awesome, and I probably should talk about them more here. This is Lions related but not as much about the Lions as it should be. On Sunday, Detroit scored a whopping 52 points against the Tennessee Titans, but QB Jared Goff threw for just 85 yards. The Lions defense forced 4 turnovers and their punt returner took one to the house to add to the lopsided score, but still 52 points and just 85 yards from the QB is some amazing stuff. The Lions were outgained in yardage by the Titans 416-225 in a game they won by 38 points. Nothing really to say here other than I thought that was interesting and a big reason I love football. You can outplay the other team all game between the 20 yard lines, but when it comes down to it, the winning team is the one who can execute and turn opportunities into points. 

That's that, sorry for the lazy one this week, like I said I felt bad about myself not watching a lot of football this weekend. I thought about pumping out some basketball columns but figured there's lots of week left and lots of time for the Raptors to get another win to get me in the mood again! Steelers Giants tonight, go Steelers!