What a Week 8 of the 2024 NFL season! The Jets are 2-6, the Commanders won on a Hail Mary, Tua Tagovailoa got cheered on a slide and the Lions scored 52 points without moving the football. Halfway through the season and everyone's still having a blast except for the Chiefs, who are super boring and also 7-0.
Every Tuesday, I'll spin the previous week of NFL football forward, looking at what the biggest storylines mean and what comes next. We'll take a first look at the consequences of "Monday Night Football," break down a major trend or two and highlight some key individual players and plays. There will be film. There will be stats (a whole section of them). And there will be fun. Let's jump in.
Jump to a section:
The Big Thing: Toughest teams to figure out
Second Take: Richardson wasn't that bad
All-Film team: Midseason callouts
Mailbag: Answering questions from ... you
Next Ben Stats: Wild Week 8 stats
Monday Night Mr. Unlimited
The Big Thing: The toughest teams to figure out
Every week, this column will kick off with one wide look at a key game, player or trend from the previous slate of NFL action. What does it mean for the rest of the season?
Last week, I was pretty confident I could identify the league's "good" teams. (Spoiler alert: I cannot.) What I do know for sure is that there are a few teams that are still enigmas to me even after eight weeks of football. There are teams that could win any game and I wouldn't be too surprised. But there also are teams that can lose in embarrassing fashion in any game (looking at you, Seahawks) and I wouldn't be surprised, either. Here are four such teams and why they confound me so.
Seattle Seahawks: Can this defense be just good enough?
When Seattle's defense is bad, it looks like the worst in football. The Bills ran the football on the Seahawks without breaking a sweat Sunday. Posting 0.14 expected points added (EPA) per rush with a 50% success rate is gnarly stuff on the ground. In your home stadium and with the rain falling, you'd like to take advantage of the Bills' miscues, but even with an interception in the slick weather, the Seahawks allowed 3.1 points per drive. It was 7-3, then suddenly it was 31-10.