The Jets got their long-awaited first win under coach Aaron Glenn, with Justin Fields stepping up amid a barrage of criticism.
The best team in football? Maybe that title belongs to the Colts, though the Chiefs also have a strong claim amid their resurgence.
Between having six teams on bye and National Tight Ends Day taking the spotlight, NFL Week 8 featured plenty of quirks. ]
The 32 things we learned from Week 8 of the 2025 NFL season:
0. Congratulations to the 2017 Cleveland Browns (0-16), 2008 Detroit Lions (0-16) and 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-14), who can all crack open a case of Natural Light and celebrate after the New York Jets became the final team to notch a win this season while exiting a path that was carrying them toward the first 0-17 record in NFL history.
1. The NYJ and rookie head coach Aaron Glenn staged quite a comeback to beat the Cincinnati Bengals 39-38 for win No. 1, overcoming a 15-point deficit entering the fourth quarter while scoring 23 in the final period − in what miraculously turned out to be the best game of an otherwise unremarkable Sunday slate. The Jets’ breakthrough also came on a day when they were without injured stars Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner and facing a Cincinnati team that hadn’t played in 10 days after beating the Pittsburgh Steelers.
2. And what a nice dose of redemption for Jets QB Justin Fields, who outdueled veteran (and former Jet) Joe Flacco to get his first win in green and while just days after being shredded by owner Woody Johnson amid the team’s sorry start. Fields took the high road in the aftermath of Johnson’s verbal vomit and remained there while basking in Sunday’s victory.
3. The number of teams (Jets, Eagles, Bills) that rushed for at least 245 yards Sunday – a benchmark no club had hit this season prior to Week 8.
4. For the Bengals, what could be an unforgiveable loss came on a day when the complexion of the AFC North might have begun changing. With a chance to get back to .500 as QB1 Joe Burrow’s return from a toe injury theoretically gets closer, Cincy instead dropped to 3-5. Their next three games are against teams with winning records (Bears, Steelers, Patriots) before they face the Baltimore Ravens in what could be a crucial matchup on Thanksgiving night.
4a. Still the number of quarterbacks to ever beat all 32 of the league’s teams … after Pittsburgh’s Aaron Rodgers failed to defeat his original club, the Green Bay Packers, on Sunday night – a victory that would have allowed him to join a list that includes Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Brett Favre and Peyton Manning.
5. The number of sacks collected by Cleveland Browns DE Myles Garrett, a career high for the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year, in Sunday’s loss to the New England Patriots. Aside from trading Flacco to the Bengals, the Browns don’t figure to have much of an influence on the AFC North moving forward. But shoutout to Garrett, who had the 20th game with at least five individual sacks in league annals while pushing his career total to 112½, surpassing late, great Hall of Famer Reggie White for the most by a player yet to reach his 30th birthday.
5a. As in fifth place, where Ravens RB Derrick Henry is now alone with 112 career TD runs – he scored twice in Sunday’s win over Chicago – breaking his tie with legendary Hall of Famer Walter “Sweetness” Payton, who had 110.
6. It’s rough out here, y’all – “bye-mageddon” giving six teams (Cardinals, Lions, Jaguars, Raiders, Rams, Seahawks) the week off and throwing fantasy football leagues into utter chaos. Hopefully you didn’t stream a defense like the Bengals based on a matchup … like I did, a gambit that provided me negative points.
7. Back to those Ravens − the only team from the AFC North that won in Week 8, incidentally. Despite an additional layer of drama surrounding QB1 Lamar Jackson’s injured hamstring, Baltimore broke back into the win column Sunday – a revived defense and new temporary QB Tyler “Snoop” Huntley ending the Bears’ winning streak at four games. The big question now is whether the Ravens take a chance by playing Jackson, a South Florida native, this Thursday night at Miami or basically give him another two weeks to get healthy.
8. The reigning MVP, Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen, posted the 46th game of his eight-year career in which he both passed and ran at least one TD – an NFL record. Allen established the mark in Charlotte, formerly the home of former league MVP Cam Newton, with whom he’d been tied.
9. Yet Allen was a bit incidental Sunday, when the Bills got right – ending a two-game slide – by putting a 40-9 beatdown on the Bryce Young-less Carolina Panthers, who had won three straight. Buffalo RB James Cook powered the Bills with the first 200-yard rushing game (216) of his career.
10. Cook and his brother Dalvin are the only siblings in league history with 200-yard rushing games.
11. However Allen could be passing league MVP honors and Buffalo could be passing the AFC East throne to Drake Maye and the first-place New England Patriots, respectively. Maye had another big day as the Pats won 32-13, extending his somewhat arbitrary accomplishment by becoming the fifth quarterback in NFL history to post at least seven straight games with at least 200 passing yards and a passer rating of at least 100.0.
12. All the more impressive given Garrett relentlessly bedeviled Maye, who suffered a career-high six sacks overall.
13. The number of consecutive home games, postseason included, in which the Philadelphia Eagles have beaten the New York Giants – the longest active run by one divisional opponent over another.
14. Eagles RB Saquon Barkley hadn’t had a 20-yard run all season before bolting on a 65-yard TD run on Sunday’s second play from scrimmage.
15. Without a 100-yard day all season entering Sunday, Barkley finished with 150 against the Giants despite exiting early with a groin injury he didn’t deem serious. Fortunately for him, the Eagles don’t play again until Week 10.
16. And fortunately for the Eagles, they acquired RB2 Tank Bigsby earlier this season, and he rushed for 104 yards in relief of Barkley – making them the first Philly teammates in 12 years to crack the rushing century mark in the same game.
17. Are the Indianapolis Colts the best team in football? Their league-best 7-1 record suggests as much after they pummeled the Tennessee Titans 38-14 to remain atop the AFC. Indy has scored at least 29 points in all but one game this season and has yet to allow 29. Still, you’d like to see them beat a strong team − and the Colts caught the Chargers at less than full strength and needed a special teams penalty to beat Denver in Week 2.
18. For my money, the Kansas City Chiefs – despite their pedestrian 4-3 record at the moment – are basically back to being whole and back to being the team to beat … assuming they vanquish an undermanned Washington Commanders crew on Monday night.
19. Is Colts RB Jonathan Taylor the best player in football? It might be a more compelling question. He began Sunday with the most rushing yards (697) and touchdowns (11) in the league … before running over Tennessee for 153 yards (on just 12 carries) and three more scores (1 a receiving TD). At this rate, and without an obvious MVP QB to date, Taylor should remain squarely at the center of that discussion.
20. The number of consecutive passes Packers QB Jordan Love completed at one point Sunday night in an epic performance against Rodgers, his mentor in Green Bay. Now 5-1-1, the Pack remain perched in the NFC’s top spot.
21. How could the NFL put the Cardinals on their bye for National Tight Ends Day and schedule Travis Kelce’s Chiefs for a Monday nighter? Malpractice. The Dallas Cowboys apparently didn’t get the memo, either, TE Jake Ferguson, grandson of former Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez, targeted just once (unsuccessfully) in their decisive 44-24 loss to the Denver Broncos.
22. At least San Francisco 49ers TE George Kittle, who basically invented a “holiday” that falls on the fourth Sunday of October, scored a TD – as did teammate Jake Tonges. Nothing much else went right for the still Brock Purdy-less Niners, who were walloped by the Houston Texans and fell out of a three-way tie for first place in the NFC West with the idle Seahawks and Rams.
23. But the tight end of the day wound up being the Packers’ Tucker Kraft, who racked up seven catches for 143 yards and two TDs − a major component of Love’s memorable performance.
24. If NFL hot seats are somehow contagious, then Raheem Morris is in trouble. His Atlanta Falcons were blown out – and at home – 34-10 by embattled counterpart Mike McDaniel and the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.
25. Atlanta, which signaled it was in go-for-broke mode in the relatively weak NFC South by trading back into the first round for a pair of defenders during last spring’s draft, is now 3-4 after dropping three of its last five, Sunday’s loss to the drowning Fins by far the worst of those setbacks.
26. Morris was largely undone by Miami QB Tua Tagovailoa, who woke up Sunday with a swollen eye … and then naturally threw a season-high four TD passes against an Atlanta pass defense that began Sunday as the league’s stingiest.
27. The Los Angeles Chargers looked awesome while dismantling the Minnesota Vikings 37-10 on Thursday night – meaning totally awesome in their monochromatic all-navy ‘Super Chargers’ alternates, which serve as a nod to Hall of Famers Junior Seau’s and LaDainian Tomlinson’s days with the team. The NFL’s main X account even featured them over the weekend.
28. Prior to this season, the Bolts were 0-6 in their previous navy alternates, which featured dark pants, jerseys and lightning bolts on a white helmet.
29. From a fashion standpoint, the Chargers kicked off a wild weekend, despite the relative lack of participants. The best-looking game on Sunday – and we’re not talking about the quality of the football – was the Broncos-Cowboys matchup, Denver rocking its Orange Crush era throwbacks.
30. The Eagles checked a lot of boxes, their tight end (Dallas Goedert) having a two-touchdown day … while wearing the team’s resplendent (and lucky) Kelly Green throwbacks.
31. As for the Steelers and Packers? Hard pass.
32. It was nice for Jets fans to rejoice in a rare win Sunday. But their loss was far more poignant. Former All-Pro C Nick Mangold was the heartbeat of the team the last time it was relevant, basically during his career − which spanned from 2006 to ’16. I spoke with Nick personally and on the phone a few times back when the NYJ were Super Bowl contenders in 2009 and ’10. Couldn’t have been nicer, more affable or accommodating. The smile was perpetual and, usually, so was the backwards baseball cap. To lose him to kidney disease at age 41, a wife and four kids mourning him, is heartbreaking. RIP.