NFL Week 8 Recap: Hail Mary to the Commanders

Soooo... let's talk about that Hail Mary, eh?!

You know, the Washington Commanders are something special this year. On paper, they were supposed to be in the midst of a rebuild. The NFC East was supposed to be the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles battling for the top spot, while the Commanders would be rebuilding and the New York Giants would be glad that they're not the New York Jets. Yet a funny thing happened after they lost their season opener. They won four straight. They were beaten by the Ravens, but they bounced back big time against the lowly Panthers. Even so, it looked Jayden Daniels would be out for this week, but he suited up for this week's battle against the Chicago Bears.

It was close and low scoring, and it was another game where Washington was not finding the end zone. Late in the fourth, the Bears scored and got the two pointer to go up by three. 15-12 was the score, but Washington still had time. It was down to five seconds, and while Daniels did manage a positive play that shaved over three seconds, they still had a long way to go. They were not in field goal range. This was Hail Mary territory. As the final two ticks ran off, Daniels went to his right, then to his left, and then heaved the long pass. It bounced off the huddle of players, and actually handed in the hands of Noah Brown! Touchdown! Hail Mary completed! Commanders win 18-15!!

And now, let's get to the real goat of this game.

This man is Tyrique Stevenson, who is part of the Bears' secondary. Right before the Hail Mary attempt, Stevenson decided to taunt Commanders fans and later joined that aforementioned huddle. I had said before that the ball was tipped to Brown in the end zone. Care to take a guess at who tipped it? That's right. Stevenson. He had to eat crow and apologize for the trash talk. Holy moley. The Commanders improved to 6-2 with this win. They have six wins and it's not even November yet. I don't think anyone had this team winning six games all year!

It is high time for Aaron Rodgers to admit that his plan is not working. He got Robert Saleh fired, he lobbied to get Davante Adams with him, just like he lobbied to get several other ex-Packer teammates with him, and look at the result. The Jets are now 0-3 since firing Saleh after they lost 25-22 to, of all teams, the New England Patriots, and they stand at 2-6--same record as the Patriots. Here's the frightening part just in time for Halloween. The Jets record after 8 games with Zach Wilson last year? 4-4. Not only that, they were just a hair behind the playoff line. But remember, this was the year that the Jets were supposed to be playoff and Super Bowl bound. That's why the Jets received a lot of national TV spots this year. What a mess.

The week began with the Los Angeles Rams picking up a huge win over the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday Night Football, and as a result, the Rams improved to 3-4 and pushed the San Francisco 49ers to last place via tiebreaker. Regarding the rest of the division, the Arizona Cardinals faced a Miami Dolphins team who had Tua back in action, and Zona won via a last second field goal. After that, the Seattle Seahawks were blasted by the Buffalo Bills, and on Sunday Night Football, the Niners eked out a win over the Dallas Cowboys. As a result of this, the Cardinals and Niners improved to 4-4, and the Seahawks dropped to 4-4. And who is in first place after all this mess? The Cardinals. They have a win over the Niners, and they're 2-0 in division play. Niners are the second place team via tiebreaker over the Hawks, and the Rams went from 1-3 to being a half game out of the division lead.

And next week, it's Rams @ Seahawks for (possibly) the NFC West lead.

As for the NFC North, I already mentioned that the Vikings and Bears lost, but what about the Lions and Packers. The Lions blasted the Titans and put up 52 points in three quarters, all in spite of Jared Goff only throwing for 85 yards. As for the Packers, our game against the Jacksonville Jaguars was closer than many expected, and it actually saw Jordan Love leave the game and Malik Willis fill in. Despite this, Willis led the way in the second half, throwing a long bomb that placed us deep in field goal range, allowing Brandon McManus to win it for the second straight week. Packers won 30-27, and as a result, the Lions and Packers are one-two in the North, while the Vikings dropped to third place two weeks after being 5-0.

Next week: Lions @ Packers for first place in the North. As for Love, it's an apparent groin injury, but no further damage, thank goodness. We'll see if he can go on Sunday.

Week 8 saw all 32 teams in action, and regarding the rest of the early window, the Houston Texans rebounded from last week and edged the Indianapolis Colts, the Eagles and Falcons got big wins, but the biggest story from that window is the Cleveland Browns shockingly upsetting the Baltimore Ravens in Cleveland's first game after DeShaun Watson's season ending injury. For the Ravens, this was a shocking blow indeed, and put them in danger of losing first place in the AFC North.

The rest of the late window saw the Broncos and Chargers pick up big wins over sputting NFC South teams (Panthers and Saints, respectively), while the Chiefs improved to 7-0 and barely survived the Raiders. Seriously, this year's Chiefs have to be the worst 7-0 team I've ever seen. As for Monday Night Football, the Pittsburgh Steelers picked up a very thrilling win over the lowly New York Giants, and as a result, Pittsburgh improved to 6-2 and leads the AFC North all by themselves, joining the Bills and Texans in the 6-2 cluster behind the unbeaten Chiefs. This should be very interesting in the AFC, especially since the Chiefs face two of those three teams later in the season.

Week 9 will place the season in the halfway mark, and will begin with a scary sight on Halloween: the New York Jets on national TV. The Jets will host the Houston Texans on Thursday Night Football. On Sunday Night Football, the Minnesota Vikings will host the Indianapolis Colts, and on Monday Night Football, the Kansas City Chiefs will host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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