NFL Week 8 Results 2017: 5 Takeaways From Sunday's Schedule

Even though only two-thirds of the league played on the eighth NFL Sunday of the 2017 season, there were plenty of important results on the schedule. Six contests were decided by one possession, and every division leader was victorious.

What did we learn from all of Sunday’s games? Here are five takeaways from Week 8:

The Raiders and Buccaneers are out of their division races

No team received more Super Bowl bets in the preseason than Oakland. Tampa Bay was expected by many to take a step forward and become one of the NFC’s best teams. Halfway through the season, it’s already clear that neither team is going to win their division.

A year after winning 12 games in 2016, the Raiders look like the worst team in the AFC West. They sit in last place with a 3-5 record, following their 34-14 road loss to the Buffalo Bills. Oakland isn’t close to being the offensive juggernaut that they were expected to be. The team’s defense hasn’t been any better, ranking 28th in yards allowed per play.

As disappointing as Derek Carr has been, Jameis Winston is right there with him. The former No.1 overall pick is still nothing more than an average quarterback, posting a 49.2 passer rating in Sunday’s 17-3 home loss to the Carolina Panthers. Tampa Bay’s defense hasn’t given him much support, and it’s resulted in a four-game losing streak that has the Bucs at 2-5 and two games out of third place in the NFC South.

New England’s defense is no longer a problem

Remember when the Patriots had the worst defense in the league? The unit has completely turned things around, helping New England win four straight games and keeping them in the hunt for the top seed in the AFC.

It was New England’s defense, not their offense, that provided the impetus for the team’s 21-13 win over the Los Angeles Chargers. The team’s defense hasn’t simply improved: it’s now playing like one of the NFL’s best units. New England hasn’t given up more than 17 points in a game since Week 4.

Give Bill Belichick enough time and he’ll find a way to fix one of the Patriots’ glaring weaknesses. Just look at last year when the defense went from having major question marks to allowing the fewest points of any team over the course of the season. Now that New England’s defense is playing well, the Patriots should be considered the Super Bowl favorites.

Deshaun Watson keeps getting better

Teams like the Cleveland Browns and New York Jets have to be lamenting the fact that they passed up on taking Watson in the 2017 NFL Draft. Not only has he proved to be the NFL’s best rookie quarterback, but Watson is already looking like one of the league’s top signal callers, period.

Watson might have had his most impressive performance of the season in Week 8, despite throwing three interceptions in a loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He threw for 402 yards, four touchdowns and a 106.9 passer rating against the Legion of Boom. Boasting one of the NFL’s best pass defenses, Seattle had no answers for Watson, who now has the league’s fifth-highest passer rating. Scoring 38 points Sunday, the Houston Texans have put up at least 33 points in five straight games.

Watson is looking like a Pro Bowl quarterback while Mitchell Trubisky, who was the first quarterback drafted, hasn’t completed 15 passes in any of his four starts. Considering the Texans have gone 9-7 in three straight years without a franchise quarterback, Houston could be good for a very long time.

The Seahawks are as good as always

Questions about whether or not Seattle’s offense might prevent them from making the playoffs almost seem ridiculous now. The Seahawks have rebounded from a slow start to play like the team that was expected to be among the NFC’s best.

Seattle seems to do the same thing every year. They started 2014 with a 3-3 record and dropped four of their first six games in 2015. The Seahawks won just four of their first seven games in 2016. The team won at least one playoff game in all of those seasons, and they are likely headed that way this year after turning a 1-2 start into a 5-2 record.

Because they can defend the pass—Sunday notwithstanding—and Russell Wilson is one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks, Seattle might have the best chance to represent the conference in the Super Bowl.

The NFC East has the NFL’s best quarterbacks

There has been plenty of bad quarterback play in 2017, but that hasn’t been the case in the NFC East. Carson Wentz, Dak Prescott and Kirk Cousins all have terrific numbers at the midway point of the season.

The three quarterbacks all rank in the top-nine in passer rating. The Washington Redskins are under .500 after Sunday’s 33-19 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, but little blame goes to Cousins, who has the league’s third-best passer rating. Prescott has 17 total touchdowns, quarterbacking an offense that’s scored at least 30 points in four straight games. Wentz has helped give the Philadelphia Eagles the NFL’s best record, and he’s the MVP favorite after a 33-10 victory over the San Francisco 49ers.

The New York Giants had a bye in Week 8, and they could be in trouble over the next few years. The team needs to find Eli Manning’s replacement as they potentially deal with three Pro Bowl-caliber quarterbacks over the next few years.