Jayden Daniels pulls off Maryland Miracle; Dak Prescott continues cold streak
The midpoint of the season usually provides clarity on the direction teams are headed.
But that’s not exactly the case in the NFC West, where three of the four teams sit at 4-4 through the first eight weeks of the regular season, and the Rams are just a half-game back at 3-4. On Sunday night, the 49ers kept their Super Bowl aspirations alive by holding off the Cowboys to get back to .500, putting San Francisco into a tie with the Cardinals and Seahawks atop the division.
While the NFC West is cluttered, other teams separated themselves atop their divisions. The Buffalo Bills hold a 3.5-game advantage in the AFC East and looked like a Super Bowl contender in a dominant road win over Seattle.
And the Kansas City Chiefs just keep winning, moving to 7-0 with a victory over the Las Vegas Raiders and now hold a 2.5-game advantage in the AFC West over the second-place Denver Broncos (5-3).
Of course, Week 8 gave us the Maryland Miracle as rookie Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels defeated fellow rookie quarterback Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears on a Hail Mary on the last play of the game. The Commanders are the surprising leaders of the NFC East at midseason.
Let’s take a closer look at who’s hot and who’s cold in Week 8.
WHO’S HOT
Jameis Winston, QB, Browns
In his first game starting in place of an injured Deshaun Watson, Winston provided the city of Cleveland hope. The FSU product finished with a Week 8-high 334 yards passing and three touchdowns, with no interceptions in a comeback win over the AFC North-leading Baltimore Ravens.
Supported by defensive end Myles Garrett and a dominant defense, the Browns finally looked like the playoff contender most NFL observers expected — if they got competent quarterback play.
Sitting at 2-6 and led by Winston’s unwavering belief, the Browns will see if they can keep it going next week at home against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Marvin Harrison Jr., WR, Cardinals
A disappointment statistically through the first half of the season, the rookie out of Ohio State is finally heating up, developing better chemistry with quarterback Kyler Murray.
On Sunday against the Dolphins, Harrison finished with six catches for 111 receiving yards and a score on seven targets. It’s only his second 100-yard receiving effort this season and his first since Week 2. Harrison’s effort helped the Cardinals record back-to-back wins for the first time since the 2021 season.
Jayden Daniels, QB, Commanders
Playing with an injured rib against one of the best defenses in the league, Daniels delivered in the clutch with a 52-yard Hail Mary to Noah Brown for the game winner. Daniels finished 21-of-38 for 326 yards, with a touchdown and no interceptions. He also ran for 52 yards.
According to FOX Sports research, Daniels threw the second-longest game-winning touchdown as time expired by a rookie quarterback in the Super Bowl era. Only Tim Couch’s 56-yard heave for a score to Kevin Johnston on Halloween in 1999 was longer.
George Kittle, TE, 49ers
It’s no surprise that Kittle had one of his best performances of the season on National Tight Ends Day. In a game San Francisco needed after a tough loss to Kansas City last week, Kittle led the 49ers with six catches for 128 yards and a touchdown on seven targets.
According to FOX Sports research, tight ends finished with 177 catches on the day, setting an NFL record for receptions by tight ends in a single day.
Kyle Pitts, TE, Falcons
Add another play-making tight end with a big day for his team in Pitts. He finished with four receptions for 91 yards and two touchdowns on five targets in Atlanta’s big win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The victory helped the Falcons move into first place in the NFC South at 5-3. Atlanta has a 4-0 record in the division.
WHO’S COLD
Anthony Richardson, QB, Colts
In Richardson’s second NFL season, the bloom is off the rose as he continued his inconsistent ways in a 23-20 loss to the Houston Texans. He finished a miserable 10-of-32 passing for 175 yards, with a touchdown and an interception for a 48.3 passer rating.
Even more troubling, Richardson asked out of the game after a scramble — something rarely seen from a healthy NFL quarterback. He said he was tired and needed a break. With a capable backup sitting on the sideline in Joe Flacco, can head coach Shane Steichen keep Richardson as his starter and risk losing the locker room?
Dak Prescott, QB, Cowboys
The highest-paid player in the league continues to give the ball to the other team. In yet another loss to San Francisco, Prescott threw two more interceptions, becoming the first Dallas quarterback with multiple interceptions in three straight games since Troy Aikman in 1992.
Prescott now has eight picks this season for the Cowboys, who sit at 3-4 on the season and do not look anywhere close to a playoff team.
Derick Hall, LB, Seahawks
Late in the first half, Hall drilled Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen late, negating an illegal shift penalty on Buffalo’s Khalil Shakir. The result of Hall’s boneheaded penalty was a first down for Buffalo on Seattle’s 12-yard line.
Two plays later, Allen found tight end Dalton Kincaid for a 14-3 lead and the rout was on. The play led to a confrontation between Hall and fellow defensive lineman Jarran Reed on the sideline after the touchdown, as Seattle appeared to be unraveling heading into halftime.
Hall and Reed later resolved their issues, but Hall’s late hit was emblematic of a sloppy performance overall for the Seahawks. Seattle finished with 11 accepted penalties for 82 yards and could not score a touchdown on successive drives that reached Buffalo’s 2- and 1-yard line.
Matt Eberflus, HC, Bears
Eberflus had a terrible day at the office. Late in a tightly contested game, he greenlighted a play call by offensive coordinator Shane Waldron that had offensive lineman Doug Kramer carrying the ball from the 1-yard line, doing his best Refrigerator Perry impersonation.
Running back D’Andre Swift rushed for 129 yards against the Commanders. Either he or short-yardage back Roschon Johnson were clearly the better option, as Kramer fumbled and Washington recovered, stopping the Bears from taking the lead.
However, the Bears forced Washington to punt. Caleb Williams and the Chicago offense got the ball back, marched down the field and this time gave it to Johnson for the go-ahead score with 27 seconds left.
But even worse than the decision to hand the ball off to Kramer, Eberflus, a former defensive coordinator, did not put his players in position to stop a successful Hail Mary by Daniels. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak, sending the Bears back to Chicago with a 4-3 record and in last place in the NFC North.
Tyrique Stevenson, CB, Bears
Stevenson was the defensive back seen waving goodbye to Washington fans during the final play of the game. He then ran over to the scrum and instead of knocking the ball down, tipped it back to Brown, who hauled it in for the winning touchdown.
Stevenson owned up to the costly error afterward, apologizing for his actions.
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter at @eric_d_williams.
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