Who's Elite and Who's Not?

Happy Monday! The NFL’s Week 8 is almost in the books and we had ourselves another electric weekend. Big upsets, sloppy games, a battle at Metlife, and more!

We’ve got surprises and confusion midway through the season. We think we know who’s elite but something funky happens every week it seems. The Broncos gave us the biggest upset(the Chiefs are still elite), the Vikings were dealt a huge blow, and the Giants still stink. Yes, we’ll spare New England fans the pain today.

We’ll recap each game and we’ve got Monday Night Football and a World Series game tonight.

And yes… we’re well over our 5-minute time limit today, so pick and choose what you read if needed. AND DON’T FORGET TO SHARE THIS WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

Sunday Recap

New England Patriots _^(2-6) 17 | Miami Dolphins _^(6-2) 31

👀 Tua Tagovailoa (30-45, 324 YDS, 3 TDs, 1 INT) had another great day yesterday. He Found Tyreek Hill 8 times for 112 yards and a TD. Jaylen Waddle also caught 7 passes for 121 yards and 2 TDs. Raheem Mostert also scored a rushing touchdown and that gave him a league-leading 9 TDs on the ground for the season.

👎️ Mac Jones (19/29, 161 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT) didn’t have a terrible day on the stat line but 161 yards in the air isn’t going to get the job done against a high-scoring offense. The Patriots also rushed 77, which isn’t super helpful.

🐬 Jalen Ramsey had an INT in his first game as Dolphin.

New York Jets _^(4-3) 13 | New York Giants _^(2-6) 10 

⏰ The Jets and Giants gave us 60 minutes of ugly, ugly football and then gave us some more. The Jets would win on a field goal in OT. It’s too bad you don’t get a point for making it to OT like they do in the NHL because the Giants would happily accept.

^_MVP The punters were the MVPs in this game. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a drive summary as good as this game provided. Fumble, Field Goal, Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt, Touchdown, Missed FG, Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt, Fumble, Punt, Punt, Punt. That’s just the first half.

❤️‍🩹 Tyrod Taylor left the game with a rib injury so the Giants are now on QB3.

🤣 The Giants finished the game with -9 passing yards.

💩 Zach Wilson still stinks.

👍️ Aaron Rodgers’ rehab seems like it’s coming along and he’s moving around pretty good and the Jets are in a good position at this point of the season.

Jacksonville Jaguars _^(6-2) 20 | Pittsburgh Steelers _^(4-3) 10

👀 The Jags have won 5 straight and were a physical team on Sunday in sloppy conditions in the Pittsburgh

📈 Trevor Lawrence completed 24 of his 32 throws for 292 and 1 TD. He also had 1 INT.

📉 Kenny Pickett went down to an injury and the Steelers brought in Mitch Trubisky and ole Mitchell David Trubisky hasn’t changed a bit. He completed just over 50% of his throws and threw 2 interceptions. He did throw a TD though!

Atlanta Falcons _^(4-4) 23 | Tennessee Titans _^(3-4) 28

💪 The jacked Will Levis started in his first NFL game yesterday and that boy showed up. Levis was 19-29 for 238 yards and 4 tuddies! That’s a helluva debut.

👉️ DeAndre Hopkins caught 4 passes for 128 yards and 3 touchdowns. #efficient

Houston Texans _^(3-4) 13 | Carolina Panthers _^(1-6) 15

👀This was a battle of rookie QBs and although C.J. Stroud has been the better rookie so far, Bryce Young and the Panthers got the best of the Texans yesterday.

⌛️ Bryce Young led the Panthers up the field 86 yards on the last drive of the game. It was enough to set Eddy Pineiro up for a 23-yard game-winning field goal.

LA Rams ^_(3-5) 20 | Dallas Cowboys ^_(5-2) 43

📈 The Cowboys aren’t built for come-from-behind wins so they made sure they got off to a hot start yesterday. Dallas would score a TD on the opening drive and DaRon Bland would take an INT to the house at the end of the 1st quarter to give the Cowboys a 17-3 lead. The Dallas defense would get a safety at the beginning of the 2nd and the offense would give the Cowboys a 33-9 lead at the half.

👉️ Rayne Dakota Prescott would connect with Cowboys receivers on 25 of his 31 pass attempts. Dak would also throw 4 TDs and 1 INT. CeeDee Lamb would catch 12 passes for 158 yards and 2 TDs.

👎️ Matt Stafford had a rough day as the Rams struggled to move the ball. Stafford was 13/22 for 162 yards. He threw 1 TD and 1 INT.

…..Let’s pick up the pace for the rest of the games

Minnesota Vikings _^(4-4) 24 | Green Bay Packers _^(2-5) 10

❤️‍🩹 Kirk Cousins had to leave the game in the 4th quarter after tearing his calcaneal tendon. He threw 2 touchdowns before leaving. The Vikings were just starting to roll after opening the season with 3 straight losses. Jaren Hall is the current backup for the Vikings. He played his college ball at BYU.

New Orleans Saints _^(4-4) 38 | Indianapolis Colts _^(3-5) 27

🏃 The New Orleans Saints had the ground and pound going yesterday. They ran the ball 36 times for 161 yards and had 3 TDs. That opened up some things for Derek Carr. Carr completed 19 of 27 passes for 310 yards and 2 TDS.

👀 Jonathan Taylor had an efficient day on the ground. He carried the ball 12 times for the Colts for 95 yards. That’s 8 yards a carry. Gardner Minshew threw 2 touchdowns and 1 INT. He was 23/41 for 213 yards. Minshew is keeping the Colts in games but the defense can’t keep teams from scoring.

Philadelphia Eagles _^(7-1) 38 | Washington Commanders _^(3-5) 31

🥇The Eagles have the best record in the NFL after escaping a close call with the Commanders. The Eagles had to score 21 in the 4th quarter to win. The Eagles trailed most of the game until they took the lead with 7:17 to go in the 4th.

📈 Jalen Hurts was 29/38 for 319 yards and threw 4 TDs for the Eagles

📈 Sam Howell was 39/52 for 397 yards, 4 TDs, and 1 INT. Not a bad at the office for Howell either.

Cleveland Browns _^(4-3) 20 | Seattle Seahawks _^(5-2) 24

❓️ The Seahawks are 5-2? They’re having a sneaky good year and they just snuck a win out on Sunday. Geno Smith threw a late-quarter TD pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba to get the W. The two connected on a 9-yard pass with 38 seconds left on the clock.

➕ The Browns had quite the day on the ground with 155 rushing yards and would’ve been in a good position to win if PJ Walker hadn’t thrown 2 picks.

Baltimore Ravens _^(6-2) 31 | Arizona Cardinals _^(1-7) 24

📈 I think the Ravens are a really good team and Lamar Jackson is having a great year. He didn’t have to do too much yesterday as the Ravens got the job done on the ground. The Ravens rushing attack had 130 yards and 3 TDs on the ground. Lamar did throw a TD in the air and completed 18 of 27 throws for 157 yards.

➕ The Cardinals might be 1-7 but they have been playing some tough football and haven’t just mailed the season in…yet

Kansas City Chiefs _^(6-2) 9 | Denver Broncos _^(3-5) 24

👀 Russell Wilson outplayed Patrick Mahomes yesterday as the Broncos upset the Chiefs in a major way.

😷 There are talks that Mahomes may have had the flu and did not have himself a Jordan-esque flu game. Mahomes was 24/38 for 241 yards and was picked off twice.

🙄 Russell Wilson didn’t actually “outplay” Mahomes and Russ has a very odd stat line. He completed 12 passes for 114 yards on 19 attempts. He threw 3 TDs, so every 4th throw was a TD basically. He finished with a QBR of 45.3.

Cincinnati Bengals _^(4-3) 31 | San Francisco 49ers _^(5-3) 17

📈 The Bengals had a rough start to the season but the offense is looking a smooth operation now that we’re 2 months into the season. Joe Burrow was 28/32 for 283 yards and 3 TDs. That’s an 87.5 completion percentage.

🏃 The Bengals also ran for 134 yards and Joe Mixon had the majority of those yards. Mixon had 87 rushing yards on 16 carries and he a tuddy.

📉 The Niners have lost 3 in a row now and Brocky Purdy is becoming more of a problem lately. He threw 2 INTs on consecutive throws yesterday and he now has 5 interceptions in his last 3 games.

Chicago Bears _^(2-6) 13 | LA Chargers _^(3-4) 30

👎️ Bears QB Tyson Bagent got schooled by the Chargers defense on Sunday night. Bagent completed 25 of 37 throws but threw two interceptions.

📈 Justin Herbert completed 31 of 40 throws for 298 yards and 3 TDs.

Monday Night Football

The Las Vegas Raiders are leaving the fun in Vegas and are taking a business trip to the Motor City to face the Detroit Lions.

📺️ Gametime is 8:15 pm ET and will be on ESPN.

💰️ Detroit is giving 7.5 points and the O/U is 46.5. I’m thinking Detroit can pull off a big win but this game will go under. I also got my butt kicked on every betting app possible this weekend, so maybe don’t do what I do 🤡 

World Series Game 3

We had a travel day on Sunday and now we’re in Phoenix for Game 3.

📺️ The first pitch will be at 8:03 pm ET and the game will be on FOX. You gotta love it when leagues want to compete with Monday Night Football.

⚾️ Max Scherzer is throwing for the Rangers and Brandon Pfaadt is taking the mound for the Diamondbacks.

💰️ Depending on where you look, you can find pretty even odds on both teams at -110. The O/U is 9.

📊The series is currently tied and whoever wins this will take a 2-1 lead in the series. Historically, teams who get the 2-1 lead in any series that is best of seven games ended up winning the series 70% of the time. In other words, this could be a turning point for the winning team.

That’s a long read today so thanks for sticking with it. You deserve a ⭐️ !

Enjoy the games tonight and we’ll catch up with you tomorrow.

-The Daily Breakroom