32 things we learned in NFL Week 8: Record numbers on National TEs Day
The 32 things we learned from Week 8 of the 2024 NFL season:
0.Still the number of wins the New York Jets have since acquiring WR Davante Adams (2 games). Said another way, still the number of wins the New York Jets have since firing head coach Robert Saleh (3 games). Said yet another way, almost certainly the number of moves this sad-sack team has left to make in order to salvage its 2-6 season.
0.Still the number of points scored in the first quarter this season by the Philadelphia Eagles … though they only missed by 50 seconds Sunday in Cincinnati, notching a field goal on their opening drive. But hard to accomplish much out of the chute when the Bengals eat up more than 10 minutes to start the game.
0. The number of teams on bye – the first time since Week 4.
1. Number of “national holidays” devoted to a sport’s positional group. But “National Tight Ends Day” now falls on the fourth Sunday of every October. Unofficially begun in 2018, due to former San Francisco 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo’s appreciation of All-Pro TE George Kittle, it has also spawned the annual “Tight End University” held every offseason in Nashville under the sort-of-watchful eyes of Kittle, the Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce and retired former Pro Bowler Greg Olsen.
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1a. Tight ends caught 16 TD passes league-wide during Sunday’s games, taking full advantage of their showcase.
1b. Kelce snagged one of those, marking his first score of the season in a 27-20 defeat of the Las Vegas Raiders.
1c. Kittle got the last one Sunday evening in the Niners’ 30-24 escape against the Dallas Cowboys. It capped a, ahem, ‘historic’ celebration for tight ends everywhere.
2. The number of tight ends – the Atlanta Falcons’ Kyle Pitts and Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Cade Otton – with a pair of TD grabs in a single game, the Falcons’ 31-26 thriller to sweep the decimated Bucs and assume sole possession of first place in the NFC South.
3. The number of rushing TDs by Eagles QB Jalen Hurts in Sunday’s 37-17 victory. Including postseason – specifically Super Bowl 57 – Hurts now has four such games to his credit.
3a. However Hurts’ trio of rushing TD trifectas is a regular-season record.
4. The Tennessee Titans had significantly more first downs (23-17), plays (71-47), yards (416-225) and time of possession (35:37) than the Detroit Lions … yet still got beaten 52-14, the NFC leaders scoring all of their points in the first three quarters thanks to four takeaways and a punt return for a TD. Pretty well sums up why the Lions (6-1) are arguably the NFL’s best team while the Titans (1-6) might just be the worst.
4a. Per NFL Media, the Lions are the first team in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) to score at least 50 points while failing to pass for 100 yards.
4b. Lions QB Jared Goff only passed for 85 yards in Sunday’s win, though did throw for three TDs. But after connecting on 12 of his 15 throws against Tennessee, Goff has hit on 83.0% of his passes over the past five games – the most accurate stretch in league history, overtaking Hall of Famer Peyton Manning’s best five-game span (80.2% in 2008).
5. The number of consecutive games that Detroit WR Amon-Ra St. Brown has with a touchdown reception, currently the league’s longest streak in that department. He’s the first Lion to have such a heater since Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson in 2011.
6. The first time the Lions have that many wins through seven weeks in the Super Bowl era, a duration in which they are the only team to exist throughout yet never reach Super Sunday.
7. The number of consecutive seasons – i.e., each one of his career – that Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson has rushed for at least 500 yards. Cam Newton is the only other quarterback in league history to reach that plateau seven times overall.
8. Number of games with a touchdown – i.e., all of them – that RB Derrick Henry has scored with the Ravens. He became the first player in league history to reach the end zone in each of his first eight games with a team.
9. The number of consecutive games, going back to last season’s playoffs, that Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen had played without throwing an interception. That streak ended Sunday in Seattle, but his 300 consecutive passes without being picked off are a team record. And the Bills still smoked the Seahawks 31-10.
10. The number of consecutive games Los Angeles RB Kyren Williams has scored a touchdown – thanks to his 5-yard scoring grab in Thursday’s 30-20 defeat of the Minnesota Vikings.
11. By simply suiting up Sunday despite a painful rib injury, Washington Commanders rookie wunderkind QB Jayden Daniels further endeared himself to the D.C. fan base. By facing fellow Chicago Bears frosh Caleb Williams, already a local hero in the District going back to his high school days, their matchup marked the sixth meeting of rookie quarterbacks taken first (Williams) and second (Daniels) overall in the preceding draft. But that only set the stage of what might be long remembered as a legendary game …
12.79. The number of seconds Daniels held the ball before launching his 52-yard Hail Mary to beat the Bears 18-15. Since Next Gen Stats came into existence in 2016, Daniels’ TD miracle was the first that took more than 10 seconds to launch.
12b. With Daniels snatching victory from the, uh, taunts of defeat, the No. 2 picks are now 4-2 against the No. 1 picks in those matchups.
13. The number of consecutive wins for the Chiefs, dating to last season, following Sunday’s W in Vegas. They remain the league’s only unbeaten squad in 2024.
14. The Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, who sat out the 2023 regular-season finale, joined future fellow Hall of Famers Tom Brady and Manning as the only quarterbacks with at least three 12-game winning streaks (playoffs included) in their storied careers.
15. Kansas City becomes the seventh reigning Super Bowl champions to follow up a Lombardi Trophy with a 7-0 start.
16. The Chiefs are now 6-0 at Allegiant Stadium, including their overtime win in Super Bowl 58. The last time they lost to the Raiders on the road was in Oakland in 2017.
17. Per OptaSTATS, when including postseason, the Chiefs are the first team ever to win eight straight on the road with none of the victories by more than 10 points.
18. Mahomes also became the fastest man ever to reach 30,000 career passing yards, needing just 103 games to clear the benchmark – six fewer than Matthew Stafford.
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19. Bo Nix became the first Denver Broncos rookie quarterback to win five games following a 28-14 defeat of the Carolina Panthers. Take that, John Elway … and/or Tim Tebow … and/or Paxton Lynch.
20. A point threshold the Cleveland Browns hadn’t reached all season prior to Sunday. But behind new starting QB Jameis Winston, they shocked the Ravens 29-24.
21. Winston passed for 334 yards and three TDs in his first start with Cleveland – and first for anyone in more than two years. The man he replaced, controversial QB Deshaun Watson, has never thrown for as many as 300 yards in 19 starts for the Browns and has passed for three TDs for them just once. Winston’s game-winning 38-yard shot to Cedric Tillman with a minute to go probably won’t get its just due given Daniels’ heroics later in the day.
22. The number of incompletion (on 32 throws) by Indianapolis Colts QB Anthony Richardson in Sunday’s 23-20 loss to the Houston Texans, who completed a season sweep of Indy. Richardson’s league worst accuracy dropped further, his completion rate on the season now at 44.4%.
22a. The Colts offense clearly operates at a much higher level with veteran backup Joe Flacco, who has completed nearly 66% of his passes this season – the question is whether HC Shane Steichen has the stomach to sit the struggling Richardson for any period of time.
22.03. Miles per hour reached by Detroit’s Jahmyr Gibbs on his 70-yard TD run Sunday, the top speed reached by a running back this season, per Next Gen Stats.
23. Texans RB Joe Mixon has rushed for at least 100 yards in four of his five games with Houston – only falling short in Week 2, when he suffered an ankle injury that forced him to miss three weeks.
24. The Green Bay Packers are now 2-0 with recently signed K Brandon McManus, who has drilled game-winning field goals at the final gun in both victories – including Sunday’s 30-27 triumph over the Jacksonville Jaguars, his former employer.
25. Pack backup QB Malik Willis, who’s quickly becoming one of the league’s better relievers, was a big reason for the win after stepping in for injured starter Jordan Love (groin). Green Bay is 3-0 in games this season in which Willis throws multiple passes – including Sunday’s TD strike to TE Tucker Kraft.
25a. The Packers may need Willis, who’s already started twice this season, for another extended period – HC Matt LaFleur saying he harbored a “high level of concern” over Love’s latest injury.
26. Kraft caught Willis’ only TD pass Sunday, though the Jags apparently tried to make October National Tight Ends Month – surrendering four TD receptions to those manning the position over the past four games.
27. Number of points scored by the Miami Dolphins in QB Tua Tagovailoa’s return Sunday. The Fins began the day averaging a league-worst 11.7 points.
28. Still, insufficient for Miami to beat the surging Arizona Cardinals, who now own a share of first place in the eminently winnable NFC West.
29. The Cards’ Trey McBride didn’t find the end zone, like so many of his fellow tight ends Sunday, but he did have nine catches for 124 yards – his most productive day of the season to date.
30. RB Dalvin Cook made his Dallas debut, rushing six times for 12 yards. He’s averaged 3.1 yards per carry since leaving the Vikings in 2023. Cook, a four-time Pro Bowler, averaged 4.7 yards per carry in six seasons with Minnesota.
31. If the season ended today – it doesn’t – the AFC West would qualify for three playoff berths, the Broncos (5-3) and Los Angeles Chargers (4-3) joining the Chiefs.
31a. If the season ended today – it doesn’t – the Panthers (1-7) would ‘earn’ the No. 1 pick for the second straight year. They had to hand it over to the Bears, who picked Caleb Williams earlier this year, after trading for the No. 1 pick of the 2023 draft … which was apparently regrettably used on still-struggling QB Bryce Young.
32. Uniform note of the week: The Bucs’ creamsicle throwback might look glorious … but a little less so when they continue to be attached to defeats, as they were Sunday against the division rival Falcons.
32a. Second uniform note of the week: The Bengals went white tiger for the first in more than a year but also didn’t find the desired result in the win column. Cincinnati is 0-2 in monochrome this season, losing its opener to New England while going all orange for the first time in team history.
32b. Third uniform note of the week: The Commanders broke out their all-black kit for the first time this season – if only it was their primary uniform, given the look and special effects speak for themselves.
(This story has been updated to include new information.)
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Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter, @ByNateDavis.
