What to know from NFL Week 8: It’s so over for the Jets, and the Eagles are so back

As Sunday’s early wave of NFL games raced to a frenetic conclusion, Week 8 provided a kaleidoscopic bounty of football. In a matter of minutes, the Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers booted walk-off field goals; Jameis Winston heaved a go-ahead touchdown bomb for the Cleveland Browns; the Houston Texans fended off Anthony Richardson and the Indianapolis Colts, and the death rattle of the New York Jets’ season sounded. Here is what to know from Week 8.

It’s over for the Jets

The Jets can fire any coach they want or trade for any FOA - that’s Friend Of Aaron - still available. They are a bad football team at their core, and there is no conceivable way to change that. The Jets’ season - along with their grand Aaron Rodgers experiment - crossed the point of no return with a 25-22 loss at the woeful New England Patriots, who lost starting quarterback Drake Maye to an injury a week after their own head coach called them soft.

The Jets dropped to 2-6 with victories over only the Patriots and Tennessee Titans, who own the AFC’s worst point differential. Rodgers is a shell of his former self, an adequate starting quarterback with flashes of excellence, but nothing more. He’s certainly not good enough to lift an overrated defense, which yielded two go-ahead scoring drives to Patriots quarterback Jacoby Brissett in the fourth quarter.

The Jets believed the acquisition of Rodgers would serve as a magic wand capable of fixing all their organizational ills. They are still the same broken franchise, and this offseason they will be starting over again with nothing to show for two years of letting Rodgers set the direction of their team except a 14th consecutive year without a playoff appearance.

The Eagles are getting it together

Even as the Eagles built a winning record, the only thing they led the league in was angst. Each week, no matter the result, became a referendum on Coach Nick Sirianni. Their defense was inconsistent, and their offense was stagnant. Their record belied the gulf between them and top NFC contenders.

After Sunday, the gap is closing. The Eagles improved to 5-2 with their best performance of the season, a 37-17 thumping of the Cincinnati Bengals in which they scored the final 20 points. Jalen Hurts played like the version of himself that led the Eagles to the Super Bowl two years ago, completing 16 of 20 attempts for 236 yards and a touchdown while rushing for three touchdowns, two of them on the Tush Push.

With receivers DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown both healthy and Saquon Barkley dominating, the Eagles are establishing an offensive identity: They control games through running the ball, and they can hurt teams with explosive downfield passing at any time. Their defense, too, is improving - rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean’s rapid progress has been a boon to a previously shaky secondary.

Coming off their collapse last year, the Eagles needed to reset themselves. They couldn’t quite shake their malaise, even as they won. Sunday’s victory might have finally done it.

The Ravens need to fix their pass defense

The Baltimore Ravens have lost twice this season as a favorite of eight or more points, and it’s easy to understand how such a loaded roster headed by MVP Lamar Jackson could be so vulnerable. Their pass defense has been among the worst in the league, and it was the primary culprit in their 29-24 loss to the Browns.

Jameis Winston replaced the injured Deshaun Watson as Cleveland’s starting quarterback and passed for 334 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. The Ravens have yielded the most passing yards in the NFL: 2,331, an average of more than 290 a game. They usually play from ahead and have a strong run defense, but the passing yardage is not only from volume. The Ravens have allowed opposing quarterbacks the fourth-highest passer rating of any NFL defense while yielding 8.1 yards per attempt, tied for worst in the NFL.

The Ravens played without top cornerback Marlon Humphrey on Sunday, but the confusion and miscommunication that afflicted their secondary were not new. First-year defensive coordinator Zachary Orr is running the same system Mike Macdonald used last year, but his players have not displayed the same understanding. The Browns scored on Cedric Tillman’s 22-yard touchdown catch after multiple Ravens, including cornerback Jalyn Armour-Davis, the closest defender to Tillman, were milling around at the snap, unsure where to line up.

When it mattered most, the Ravens’ pass coverage cost them again. Protecting a 24-23 lead at their own 40 with less than 90 seconds left, Baltimore yielded a first down on Winston’s third-and-seven strike to Elijah Moore. Two plays later, on second and 15, Winston heaved a 38-yard bomb to Tillman, who had sprinted past veteran safety Eddie Jackson.

The Ravens tried to shuffle their secondary, benching veteran safety Marcus Williams and giving Ar’Darius Washington more snaps. Their pass defense may require further personnel shake-up, a better meshing with Orr or just simply better performance. If they don’t change something, it will prevent a team good enough to win the Super Bowl from fulfilling its promise.

Malik Willis saved the day (again)

The Green Bay Packers remained just a half-game behind the Lions in the brutal NFC North even after they lost starting quarterback Jordan Love to an injury early in the third quarter. Coach Matt LaFleur called backup Malik Willis “pretty damn impressive.” There’s no better way to say it.

Having already won two starts as Love rehabbed an unrelated knee injury suffered in Week 1, Willis relieved Love and led the Packers to a 30-27 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Willis had been considered a lost cause with the Tennessee Titans, who drafted him in the third round two years ago. But he’s been a crucial part of one of the NFC’s best teams.

Willis only threw five passes, but he completed four of them and hit Jayden Reed with a perfect long shot down the left sideline for 51 yards, the cornerstone of a drive that set up Brandon McManus’s chip-shot, game-winning field goal. Willis also ran for 23 yards and threw a touchdown pass.

It’s unclear how much longer the Packers will have to rely on Willis. After Love completed a checkdown pass on which he appeared to absorb minimal contact, he dropped to the ground and rolled onto his back before leaving the game. The Packers labeled the ailment a groin injury.

The Lions are a buzzsaw

The loss of pass rusher extraordinaire Aidan Hutchinson to a broken leg may surface as a decisive factor in January or against elite competition. In the first two weeks without Hutchinson, the Detroit Lions have obliterated weaker opponents and continued to validate their status as a - if not the - favorite to win the NFC.

Jared Goff, who been playing like an MVP candidate, passed for only 85 yards Sunday. The Lions’ available methods of crushing opponents are so varied and vast that they still beat the Tennessee Titans, 52-14. They forced four turnovers, scored on Kalif Raymond’s 90-yard punt return, ran for 6.8 yards a carry and bullied the Titans into oblivion.

Every Lions opponent that has played the week after it faced Detroit this season has lost. It could be a coincidence. More likely, it’s a sign of the toll it takes on a team to play the Lions.

The NFC West is upside down

The San Francisco 49ers have won their division two consecutive seasons. When they take the field Sunday night, they will be in last place. Victories by the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday and the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday left the Niners tied with the Rams at 3-4 for third place in one of the strangest divisions in the league.

The Cardinals are in the mix after their second consecutive victory, a 28-27 comeback over the Miami Dolphins in Tua Tagovailoa’s return, bumped them to 4-4. The Cardinals are an impossible team to figure out, but Kyler Murray’s improvisation makes them consistently dangerous. With the return of receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp, the Rams upset the Vikings and transformed from a potential deadline seller to a threat to steal the division.

By the end of Sunday night, it’s possible every NFC West team will have four losses. Both the Rams and Cardinals will own a tiebreaker over the 49ers. It’s a complete toss-up.