Yesterday was National Tight End Day, which is neat.
It was also Massive Blowout Day, which wasn’t neat. Not one bit.
Nine of the 11 games on the NFL docket were decided by 10+ points, and six of those saw a 19+ point margin of victory. Boring, boring, and more boring.
So if you’re doing a NFL Week 8 Winners and Losers column, welp, let’s just say the divide between the goods and the bads is as wide as a 40-9 Buffalo Bills beatdown. (Sorry to bring back those painful memories, Panthers fans. But a journalist has to do what a journalist has to do.)
What better time to break down Week 8’s highest of highs and the lowest of lows? And there were plenty of both.
NFL Week 8 Winners and Losers
WINNER: Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa
If you claim you had 4 Tua touchdowns on your Week 8 bingo card, well, you didn’t have 4 Tua touchdowns on your Week 8 bingo card, so quit claiming.
For reasons that nobody who pays even the slightest attention to the NFL season gets, the staggering Dolphins limped into Atlanta and somehow, some way, destroyed a pretty good Falcons team, 34-10. Tua — who came into the game with 11 tuddies and 10 picks — channeled his inner Drew Brees, completing 20 of 26 passes for 205 yards and that aforementioned quartet of TDs.
The six fantasy managers in the world who had Tua in their starting lineups were thrilled with his QB7 finish, landing him above last season’s MVP, Buffalo’s Josh Allen, and this season’s potential MVP, Indy’s Daniel Jones.
But don’t get too high on Tua, fantasy mavens: Next up for the Dolphins is a Thursday night clash with a Ravens team that, on Sunday, held Bears signal caller Caleb Williams to a 77.2 passer rating.
LOSER: 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey
C-Mac’s MVP march took a major hit on Sunday, as the Swiss Army knife managed just 58 total yards and 6.8 fantasy points (RB27).
He can’t take all the blame, as for reasons that defy logic, Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan’s game plan only gave McCaffrey 11 — 11 — touches, an RB3-esque total.
The chances of this happening again this season and beyond are slim, especially considering this oddball game script led to a 26-15 loss to a meh Houston team. But when it comes to this here winners/losers column, numbers are numbers are numbers.
WINNER: Broncos QB Bo Nix
Nix is getting close to carving himself a permanent spot in the winners slot, because the dude just wins, and does so in a flashy-yet-mature manner.
His Broncos destroyed a Cowboys squad that seemed to be on the upswing, 44-24, thanks in part to his career-high-tying 4 touchdown passes. The fact that his O-line kept him completely clean (no sacks) didn’t hurt his cause.
Fantasy-wise, he landed at QB5, and sits at QB7 for the season, ahead of Indy’s Daniel Jones and Dallas’ Dak Prescott, two field generals whose names have been bandied about in MVP conversations.
That being the case, let’s start bandying Bo.
LOSER: Chicago RB D’Andre Swift
Hopefully you weren’t a dummy like me who thought the Bears’ RB1 would continue his one-game run of running-backy goodness. But if you were, I get it.
In Week 6, he racked up 23.5 fantasy points (RB7) and looked scary in doing so, thus this dummy thought because he was playing the defensively-challenged Ravens, the former Georgia Bulldog would build upon his “streak.”
Unfortunately for Swift (and the Bears), the Ravens’ D got healthy — welcome back LB Roquan Smith and DB Kyle Hamilton — and put the kibosh on Chicago’s offensive attack, holding him to 13.1 fantasy points (RB13), a 7+ point drop from Week 7.
There is some hope, as next week, the Bears face a Cincy D that was gashed by Jets RB Breece Hall to the tune of 30.8 fantasy points. Stay tuned.
WINNER: Bills RB James Cook
The Bills must’ve eaten their Wheaties during the Week 7 bye, as they looked like the Super Bowl favorites they were in the preseason, destroying the previously toasty Carolina Panthers, 40-9, and it wasn’t even that close.
Cook had himself a career game, going for 218 rushing yards and a couple of TDs, giving him a frightening total of 33.6 (RB2). He would’ve been RB1 had Colts video game character Jonathan Taylor stopped being Jonathan Taylor for one freakin' game.
(Side note: In one of my season-long fantasy leagues, Taylor fell to me in the second round. Tee hee hee.)
LOSER: Saints QB Spencer Rattler
Remember a few paragraphs back, when I suggested Bo Nix might become a permanent member of Team Winner? Well, his fellow sophomore QB Spencer Rattler might take up residence in Loserville — after all, dude was benched for Tyler Shough, whose comp in my scouting book is the worst starting quarterback of the 21st Century, one Nathan Peterman.
The 1-7 Saints are arguably the stinkiest team in the league — TBH, it’s beyond me how they beat the Giants in Week 5 — and if you can’t hold on to your starting QB gig in that setting, you aren’t good at football.
It’s not like you had him on your fantasy roster in the first place, but if you did, run — don’t walk, run — to the waiver wire.
WINNER: Packers QB Jordan Love
Quick aside: On Sunday night, heading into the Green Bay-Pittsburgh game, your beloved columnist had a problem. I couldn’t root for the Packers, because a win would hurt the Bears (plus they’re the Packers), and I couldn't root for Aaron Rodgers, because he’s the smarmiest professional athlete in the history of professional athletes.
Anyhoobs, Love made Rodgers’ Steelers look silly, posting 360 yards through the air to go with 3 TDs, earning him 28.3 fantasy points and the coveted Week 8 QB1 spot.
Yes, that probably put an early end to the Bears’ playoff hopes — Chicago is 4-3, behind Green Bay (5-1-1) and the Lions (5-2) in the NFC North — but watching Rodgers get spanked by his replacement in Green Bay softened the blow.
LOSER: Bengals WR Ja’Marr Chase
It’s not that Chase played badly on Sunday — 12 receptions and 91 yards certainly doesn’t suck — but for a guy you probably selected in the top-five of your fantasy draft, well, that certainly does suck.
Oh, and the Bengals lost to the previous winless Jets, which really sucks.
WINNER: Bears WR Rome Odunze
D’Andre Swift was blah on Sunday for the Bears. Rome Odunze wasn’t.
At this point in the season, the University of Washington standout is passing both the eye test and the numbers test, having racked up 473 receiving yards (18th in the league, ahead of Davante Adams, Stefon Diggs, and DK Metcalf) and 15.3 yards per catch (15th in the league, ahead of Justin Jefferson, Tee Higgins, and CeeDee Lamb). And for the year, he’s averaging 11.0 fantasy points (WR10), again ahead of Jefferson and Lamb.
As for the eye test, he looks simply smashing, hard stop.
LOSER: Falcons RB Bijan Robinson
My daughter has this running joke in which every time I tease her about the littlest thing, she snarls, “I’m holding a grudge.”
That, loyal readers, is the deal here.
Robinson is in my two best season-long leagues, and since Atlanta was hosting a theoretically garbage Dolphins D, I figured Bijan would have the game of his life.
Man, did I figure wrong.
For reasons beyond my comprehension, Robinson squeezed out 25 rushing yards on 9 carries (9 carries, WTF), and 23 receiving yards on 3 targets (3 targets, WTF). And his 2.8 fantasy point total (RB40, WTF) killed literally every one of my fantasy lineups, regardless of the format.
So yeah, I’m holding a grudge.
Regardless of whether your PrizePicks picks were good, bad, or ugly, you had a ton of fun making your selections, and will continue to do so as the NFL season progresses.
And if you enjoyed our NFL Week 8 winners and losers, stick with Playbook all season for advice, predictions, takes, goodness, badness, and, you guessed it, ugliness.
