It was not exactly the most competitive week in NFL history with a whole lot of double digit winning margins across the board.
One of the few close finishes came from Cincinnati where the New York Jets finally got their first win of the season, knocking off the Bengals in a 39-38 thriller.
Philadelphia took control of the NFC East as they won and everyone else lost to open up a three game lead, while it was a similar story for Tampa Bay in the NFC South who now sit two ahead of the chasing pack.
Find our full NFL Week 8 recap below.
1 – Should We Start to Worry About Minnesota?
It turns out even Kevin O’Connell can only do so much for his struggling offence and the Vikings are on the verge of blowing their 2025 season.
They can tell us JJ McCarthy isn’t fully recovered from his high ankle sprain but he was cleared and O’Connell chose to leave him on the sideline for this week’s game against the Chargers.
In his place they started a clearly injured Carson Wentz who got battered all game and has now been ruled out for the season.
Let’s not pretend like Wentz was going to go on a 2017 Nick Foles run and lead the Vikings to the Super Bowl, but he came in and held down the fort for longer than he was probably expecting to.
But now it’s all on McCarthy to come in and show why he was a first round pick, all while having to face the questions over whether or not he is in fact injury prone.
He missed his entire rookie year with a torn meniscus and watched as Sam Darnold lit it up for the Vikings, before taking longer than expected to recover from this latest knock.
Best case scenario he comes in and shows he can work in this system all while staying healthy, but that is no sure thing and the panic meter in Minnesota would be approaching the red area right now.
2 – The Eagle Awakens
It’s fair to say that Saquon Barkley’s 2025 season got off to a slow start, not producing at anywhere close to his 2024 levels.
Some sort of drop off was inevitable, after all he had a monster workload last year and running back is a position where things can fall off quickly.
In his first seven games he was averaging 52.7 rushing yards per game and had scored just four total touchdowns, not exactly setting the world alight.
But for the first time this season, Barkley looked like his dominant self as the Eagles took care of business against the Giants, setting the tone with this big run.
He only needed 14 carries to go for 150 yards and added another four catches for 24 yards and two total touchdowns on the afternoon.
There was a collective gasp at the end of the third quarter as Barkley exited the game with a groin injury but it sounds like that was more precautionary than anything given the home side’s comfortable lead.
He’s got a bye week to rest up before a massive month ahead starting with a trip to Green Bay to take on the Packers.
3 – Free Myles Garrett
Let’s be clear right from the outset, Myles Garrett is not getting traded away by the Cleveland Browns, but he’s one of those players who deserves better than his current situation.
The guy showed this week he is a big fish in a small pond and a true difference maker for the Browns.
He sacked Drake Maye five times, forcing a fumble on one of them… and it wasn’t enough because the rest of the Browns are rubbish and they lost by 20.
The frustration for Garrett as his historic day was all for nought was there for everyone to see.
His performance gave him a couple of pieces of history, including breaking his own Browns franchise record for sacks in a game and put him ahead of the great Reggie White for career sacks before turning 30.
Which makes you wonder what would happen if a title contending team decided to trade a Micah Parsons level package (and then something) for the Browns star to put them over the top?
After all, in February he decided he wanted out of Cleveland only to change his mind when the team gave him a four-year, US$160m extension with over 75% of it guaranteed.
That deal is what makes it impossible to move him, because it would accelerate all of that dead money onto the Browns books and ruin their cap almost as much as the Deshaun Watson deal did.
Granted, the Browns are that broken that they are years off being competitive and nobody would blame Garrett if his patience was to run out.
4 – Box Office Broncos
For the first time in a decade, the Denver Broncos look like a proper contender after making it five wins in a row.
On the back of last week’s massive comeback against the Giants, they continued their offensive explosion beating the Cowboys 44-24 in a game that wasn’t competitive for the entire second half.
Denver had their way with the Dallas defence, with Bo Nix throwing four touchdowns and the combination of J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey going for over 150 yards and two more scores on the ground.
Defensively they contained a Dallas offence was averaging over 30 points per game, limiting Dak Prescott to 188 yards and two interceptions.
In his third season in charge of the Broncos, Sean Payton has built a complete team and is getting the best out of them through their first eight games.
At 6-2 they are a game clear at the top of the AFC West and have a pair of divisional games following next week’s trip to Houston.
It won’t be easy though with injuries setting in, most notably for reigning defensive player of the year Patrick Surtain set to miss at least the Texans game with a pec strain.
With the Chargers and Chiefs lurking behind them though, they can’t afford to let up.
5 – Taylor Time
If Saquon Barkley could only garner minimal MVP traction for his historic season last year, it’s tough to see any running back breaking through.
But Jonathan Taylor is the most valuable player for the best team in the league right now.
What more can he do for the 7-1 Colts right now to prove he is that guy?
The final score of today’s Colts-Titans game was reflective of the mismatch between a really good and a really bad team, but early in the third quarter it was hanging in the balance.
That was until Indy’s #28 decided to blow the contest wide open by walking the tightrope.
LaDanian Tomlinson’s 2005 season saw him score 28 rushing touchdowns and 31 all up and with the way Taylor is just tearing up defences right now, he might just hunt that record down.
And if he does that in the process of helping the Colts secure the AFC’s top seed, you’re going to be hard pressed to make a case against him being the league MVP.