The Hangover: Week 8

By Adam Cancryn

It's Week 8, when fans of a select few teams start coming to grips with the fact that their franchise is just not that good. But when will those teams hit rock bottom? For the Redskins, a look back at the last 15 years shows it usually occurs some time in September or December.

• First, a little back patting: After observing last week that the Broncos had adjusted their offensive strategy to resemble a college game plan, FOX's Jay Glazer confirmed just as much this week on Twitter. 

"Broncos have switched offense for Tebow, installing more of a college style -- they have put in stuff from different college offenses and even asked for players' input in devising new attack for Tebow."

• Miami's Matt Moore took the Giants' defense apart for about half the game, in what had to have created flashbacks to 2009 for New York fans. Not only was he zipping passes to wide open receivers, he finished the first half as the Dolphins' leading rusher. 
• The main issue, it seemed, was the Giants' inability to stay in their rushing lanes. Too often the defensive line overran the pocket, leaving Moore with a clear path to run or throw. He took advantage, starting 6/6 for 58 yards before throwing his first incompletion at 12:51 of the second quarter.
• Also hurting the Giants was that classically Coughlin lack of discipline, which resulted in a blatant pass interference penalty and an unnecessary roughness call that set up Miami's first drive score.
• Luckily for New York, they shook off all of that in the second half. Eli Manning was as accurate as he's been this season, and the defensive line took more of a containment approach rather than full-on pass rushing. It paid off, yielding five sacks.
• Loved the electric blue uniforms for Carolina. Almost as much as St. Louis' throwbacks. 

• At this point, how do you even evaluate Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco? He started off the game v. the lowly Cardinals looking just as bad as he did last week, and gave away 14 points off turnovers. Then he comes out of the locker room and promptly leads Baltimore all the way back, finishing 31/51 for 336 yards and setting up three Ray Rice touchdowns. 
• Baltimore has given Flacco just enough rope to hang himself with their shift toward a pass-first offense, and he nearly did so against two consecutive inferior opponents. You had to wonder at some point in the second quarter if backup Tyrod Taylor might see some snaps. That's all forgotten now that the Ravens are 5-2 and keeping pace with the Steelers and Bengals, rather than sitting in third place in the division. Such is the make or break culture of the NFL.
• Crazy, beautifully dysfunctional fumble return for the Jaguars.
• A couple of special teams notes: New York kicker Lawrence Tynes set a team record by making his 134th straight extra point attempt, and Indianapolis punter Pat McAfee had a punt blocked for the first time in 172 attempts.
• Interesting wrinkle the Vikings threw into their offense in the first quarter, putting receiver Percy Harvin in the backfield for a 10-yard touchdown run. 
• During a promotional spot, CBS called the LSU-Alabama game the GAME OF THE CENTURY. Stop. Just stop. 
• Maybe some of that World Series magic rubbed off on the Rams. With the Cardinals and their championship trophy looking on, St. Louis suffocated the Saints' offense while A.J. Feeley directed the offense to 31 points.
• Steven Jackson's 159 yards were his most since the last game of the 2008 season, and his first 100-yard rushing game since December of last year.
• Reggie Bush also put up 100 yards on the ground, just the second time in his career. Coincidentally, both have come against the Giants.
• On the other end of the spectrum, Brandon Jacobs has become a slower Ron Dayne. After moaning about his lack of playing time all week, the Giants backup fumbled his first carry and then promptly dropped a screen pass. The times he held onto the ball, he looked tentative and undecided in the backfield.
• His counterpart, Ahmad Bradshaw, got just 13 rushes on what was a passing-dominated day. But his statistics to this point in his career line up well with those of Tiki Barber.
• Bradshaw: 640 carries for 2998 yards and 22 TDs, a 4.7 average
• Barber: 629 carries for 2806 yards and 15 TDs, a 4.5 average
• There are obviously team factors that make a difference in their respective offensive outputs, but New York would certainly be happy with another eight years of Barber-like production.
• Carolina is now 2-6, with a point differential of -20. By comparison, the Vikings are at 27, Jags are at -65 and Broncos are at -67. All have similar records. The Falcons, who are 4-3 and above Carolina in the standings, have a -5 point differential. All that is to say, the Panthers are very close to being a respectable squad.
• With his last-second touchdown to Lance Moore, Drew Brees kept alive his streak of 34 straight regular season games with at least one passing touchdown.
• The Steelers gave the Patriots a bit of their own medicine this week, seeking out tight end Heath Miller early and often. He finished with seven catches for 85 yards in the win.
• Both Stephen Tulloch and Tony Scheffler made fun of Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow by "Tebowing" after a sack and touchdown, respectively:

• Your obligatory depressing Redskins stats: They had more punts than first downs in the first half, and Washington's 23-0 loss to the Bills was the first time a team coached by Mike Shanahan has been shut out.
• Pittsburgh has become even more of a pass happy team than the Ravens, throwing it 50 times v. the Pats.
• Suck For Luck, iteration eight:
• Colts- Three of last week's top four Suck for Luck candidates played well this week, and one even won. Indianapolis was not a part of this group.
• Dolphins- A valiant try against the Giants, but Matt Moore turned into a pumpkin two quarters too soon.
• Broncos- NEW CONTENDER. Tebow is another terrible game away from John Fox getting on the PA system, looking at the crowd and yelling, "SEE, I told you!" and then cutting the Messiah right then and there. Let's skip any elaboration on Tebow's shortcomings and refer you to the story headlined "Opponent: Tebow experiment is embarrassing."
• Cardinals- Hanging in there after allowing the Ravens to come back from 21 down in the second half.

• Antonio Brown's terrible touchdown dance:

• Good bounce back wins for both the Bills and the Lions. Both got their offensive rhythm going early and sent a message to the rest of the league by utterly crushing their opponents.
• There is no one at the wide receiver position that compares to Detroit's Calvin Johnson.
• New England's decision to go with an onside kick late v. the Steelers showed a complete lack of confidence in their defense. Not that they've done anything to deserve much confidence, but it has been a long time since you've seen that much uncertainty from the Patriots.
• The line of distinction has been drawn in the NFC East. On top: Eagles and Giants. On the bottom: Redskins and Cowboys. And it's not even close.
• At 6-1, the 49ers are well on their way to the playoffs. Per ProFootballTalk, as of 2002 realignment, no team has blown more than a 3 1/2-game lead in their division after week seven.