It is clearly not an overreaction to say that National Tight Ends Day is a real thing. Not after watching Kyle Pitts, Cade Otton and all these other guys go off Sunday. It might just be some goofy thing made up by George Kittle and Travis Kelce, but it sure looks like the tight ends themselves take it seriously. And maybe, just maybe, a few of their playcallers are happy to go along with the ride.
The Eagles, however, didn't have their starting tight end Sunday, as Dallas Goedert had to miss this year's festivities due to a hamstring injury. But that didn't stop them from putting up their highest single-game point total of the season in a 37-17 comeback victory over the Bengals in Cincinnati. It was the Eagles' third win in a row, tying them temporarily with the Commanders for first place in the NFC East.
It also earned the Eagles the right to open our NFL Week 8 overreactions -- where we judge a few potential takeaways as legitimate or irrational.
Jump to:
Eagles offense is breaking out?
Richardson should be benched?
Bills will coast to AFC East title?
Surprise NFC West winner?
Cousins signing paying off?
The Eagles' offense is going to be just fine
Thanks in part to Joe Burrow and the Bengals bleeding more than 10 minutes off the clock on their opening touchdown drive, the Eagles once again didn't score in the first quarter. They haven't scored in the first quarter all season. And while that is certainly a source of consternation for them, it helps when you can score 37 points in the final three quarters.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts rushed for three touchdowns and threw for another one -- a picture-perfect 45-yard rainbow to DeVonta Smith that broke a third-quarter tie and put the Eagles ahead for good. Saquon Barkley had 108 rushing yards, too. Philly dug out of an early hole and sent the Cincy fans home early by dominating the game's second half. And a hyperefficient Hurts finished 16-of-20 passing on the day.
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION
Please note that the Eagles did all of this without two starting offensive linemen; Jordan Mailata and Mekhi Becton both missed the game with injuries. They also did it on the road against a desperate team and without scoring a touchdown until the final minute of the first half. But there is a track record here, people. When your offense has A.J. Brown, Smith, Barkley and Hurts, you're going to figure out a way to score points eventually.
Hurts has a new offensive coordinator for the second season in a row and a new center for the first time since he entered the NFL. Inconsistency on offense in the early going shouldn't have been a surprise. But the Eagles felt good about the way they ran the offense through Barkley last week against the Giants, and with the Bengals locked in on stopping Barkley on Sunday, Hurts found other ways to get it done. Kellen Moore is a good offensive coordinator who knows how to adapt his system to his players' skill sets, and we saw just that.
The bigger story Sunday may have been the Eagles' defense and the way it clamped down on Burrow & Co. in the second half. For all of the hand-wringing, this Eagles team is 5-2 and in a pretty good spot the rest of the way.
Anthony Richardson won't be the Colts' starting quarterback in 2025
Everybody said Richardson would need time to develop in the NFL, and losing almost all of his rookie season to a shoulder injury obviously didn't help matters. But he looks rough, man.
Richardson was 2-of-15 passing in the first half of Sunday's loss to Houston. According to ESPN Research, that's the worst first-half completion percentage by a player with at least 15 attempts since Steve Beuerlein went 2-of-17 for the Cowboys in the first half of a game against the Eagles in 1991 -- 11 years before Richardson was even born.
Richardson finished the game 10-of-32 for 175 yards, a touchdown pass and an incomprehensible interception late in the first half. He also ran for 45 yards on six carries, and the Colts had a legitimate chance to win this game and tie the Texans for first place in the division in the fourth quarter. But overall, Richardson has looked overwhelmed more often than not. He ranked 27th in QBR among qualifying quarterbacks entering Sunday's game. And per ESPN Research, his 44.4% completion rate this season is fifth worst for a player through six games in a season since 2000.
Jalen Pitre jumps in front of an Anthony Richardson throw to set up the Texans in the red zone.
Verdict: OVERREACTION
Oh, I hear the cries for Joe Flacco, the pointing to the legitimate claim that the Colts have a team that can contend for the playoffs and the concerns that the young quarterback is doing more harm than good. But this is how it was going to be when the Colts made Richardson the fourth overall pick in 2023 and his rookie season ended after four games. He was always going to have to take his lumps, and the lump-taking was delayed as a result of the injury.
Given where he was picked in the draft, this has to work. Otherwise, the Colts are going to endure a long rebuild and a trip through the dreaded quarterback wilderness. I believe Indy will give Richardson every chance to develop and improve, and the Colts believe he has the skills and the makeup to get there. I would be surprised to see them give up on him so soon.
The Bills are going to coast to their fifth straight AFC East title
Buffalo waxed the Seahawks 31-10 in Seattle on Sunday and now sit at 6-2, comfortably ahead of everyone else in the division. It was the Bills' fourth win by 20-plus points this season. Per ESPN Research, they had never had four 20-plus-point victories within their first eight games in franchise history.
The Dolphins, despite Tua Tagovailoa's return from concussion protocol, lost a home game to the never-say-die Cardinals on Sunday. The Jets, in complete free fall, lost their fifth game in a row -- to the Patriots of all teams. That Patriots win was just their second of the season, so New England doesn't look like a factor, either.
So it seems the idea of the AFC East as a loaded division primed for a turnover in Buffalo's "rebuilding" year post-Stefon Diggs may have been just a tiny bit off.
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION
Who's making a run here? The Dolphins, who were a complete wreck without Tagovailoa and couldn't take advantage of his return to beat a defensively challenged Arizona team that had to travel across the country and play in the early window? The Jets, who have already fired their coach, changed offensive playcallers and traded for Aaron Rodgers' favorite receiver and still couldn't manage to beat one of the worst teams in the NFL? The Patriots, who are that team?
No way. This thing is a wrap. Not only does Buffalo still have the division's best quarterback and coach, it also has the experience of knowing how to win. The Bills will get only better as Josh Allen brings along his young receivers and Amari Cooper gets more ingrained in the offense. Rumors of the Bills' demise were greatly exaggerated but not nearly as exaggerated as the prospects of the other teams in their division.
The Rams and Cardinals are both legitimate threats to win the NFC West
Unlike the AFC East, the NFC West had some pretty clear consensus before this season began in terms of who we expected to win it. The defending conference champion 49ers were the obvious favorites, with Seattle breaking in a new coach, the Rams embarking on life without Aaron Donald and the Cardinals looking like a roster that needed a fair bit more work. But the Niners still haven't had Christian McCaffrey on the field as he battles an Achilles injury, and their overall health issues run much deeper than that.
San Francisco was 3-4 heading into Sunday night's game against the Cowboys. But the Cardinals kicked another game-winning, last-second field goal to improve to 4-4, the Rams opened the week with a Thursday night victory over the Vikings to improve to 3-4, and the Seahawks fell to 4-4 with their loss to Buffalo. This division is wide, wide open.
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION
Eight days ago, the Rams were coming out of their bye week at 1-4. And even after they beat the Raiders in Week 7 to improve to 2-4, there was talk this past week that the Rams could be willing to trade star wideout Cooper Kupp. Things feel a lot different around them right now, and don't forget they have that wild head-to-head comeback victory over the 49ers from Week 3 in their back pockets.
Chad Ryland comes up clutch once again to walk the game off for the Cardinals vs. the Dolphins.
I don't know how the Cardinals are doing it, either. But Kyler Murray is playing with a great deal of confidence, coach Jonathan Gannon is doing a nice job, and the team is 2-0 in the division with wins already against the Rams and 49ers.
Seattle has looked like the clear best team in the division for stretches but has been streaky, and it really hasn't beaten a quality opponent other than Atlanta. The Niners, if they get it together, should probably still be considered the favorites due to their track record. But their health issues are brutal, Brandon Aiyuk (knee) is out for the season, and their defense looks leaky even when it is healthy. And if San Francisco doesn't get it together, there is no reason to rule out any of the other teams in this division, no matter what you thought of them two months (or even two weeks) ago.
Bonus: This week's underreaction
This is the part where we flip the script and throw out something people are underreacting to right now -- something that's not getting the attention we think it should.
The Falcons' signing of Kirk Cousins has lived up to expectations
The Falcons hung 31 points on the three-time defending NFC South-champion Buccaneers on Sunday, three weeks after hanging 36 on them. Cousins became the fourth player in NFL history with 750 passing yards and eight TD passes against a single opponent in a season (joining Joe Montana, Dan Marino and Y.A. Tittle), per ESPN Research.
Atlanta is now 5-3, a game in front of Tampa Bay in the division and with the head-to-head tiebreaker clinched. It has not been consistently perfect, of course. Sunday's win came just one week after a puzzling loss to Seattle, or else Atlanta would be one of the hottest teams in the NFL. But Cousins is piling up passing yards and the Falcons are winning games. It feels like a long time since we were wondering in Week 1 whether he was really healthy and how soon we'd see Michael Penix Jr.
From a revenue-allocation standpoint, it still does not make sense that the Falcons signed Cousins to a huge contract and drafted Penix eighth overall in the same offseason. There will be no way for them to get maximum value out of both Cousins' contract and Penix's rookie deal, and they'll have tough decisions to make in a year or two as a result. But fundamentally, the intention of the Cousins signing was to make the Falcons contenders this season. And right now, he's delivering.