NFL: Teams In Panic Mode After Week 8 (2021)
The NFL had a decent amount of divisional matchups in week 8. Who walked away with wins, and who should be more worried about the rest of their season?
Tennessee Titans
Despite the win in overtime, the Titans need to be worried. They lost the NFL’s leading runningback with half the season to go. Their offense typically runs right through Derrick Henry and now it’ll be Ryan Tannehill’s time to shine. Give all the speeches you want about a “team game” and “next man up” but Henry is a weapon like no other and their offense will dramatically shift.
Arizona Cardinals
The Green Bay Packers are no slouch, but the Cardinals seem to be slowing down after a hot start. Injuries or poor play happen in the NFL, but they’re not coming with the energy they did early in the season. Who on the team made the adjustments that slowed them down? Did opponents finally figure out their play style or was there a driving force behind the changes? If not, do they need to rethink their current strategy and make changes? There’s a lot of unanswered questions to figure out. It’s a poor time to hit a mid-season slump while the rest of the contenders surge.
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Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals went from heroes beating the Ravens last week, to zeroes this week losing to the Jets. They didn’t just lose to the Jets, they did so against a backup quarterback Mike White. Now, it may be that the Jets have a diamond in the rough situation here, but a 4-year veteran backup with a rookie head coach and a team that hasn’t put up 30+ points in an entire season of football isn’t a good look. The Bengals’ defense has struggled at times but Cincy’s offense is surging. No one is taking the Jets seriously as contenders and the Bengals might have played themselves out of those talks as well.
Detroit Lions
There was a time where you believed the Lions just had a series of bad luck. A few of their games came down to last-second FGs and the team looked like a team with a rookie head coach who was turning things around. Then came the game against a bad Eagles team. The Lions will need a tall drink to forget this one losing 44-6. The true nature of the Lions came out as the Eagles didn’t do anything fancy. Jalen Hurts barely threw for 100 yards but rushed for 71. Their ground game wasn’t much better as the two-headed running back situation barely rushed over 100 yards, though each scored a pair of TDs. It’s time for Detroit to go back to the drawing board after this one.
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Cleveland Browns
OBJ distraction aside, the Browns are struggling. They’ve lost 3 of their last 4 games. In 4 of their last 5, they’ve failed to put up more than 20 points. Blame injuries if you want, but maybe OBJ is on to something. A good quarterback with plenty of weapons should be able to find ways to elevate his team. Baker has struggled to take his game to the next level this year after success last year. Is he the answer in Cleveland?
Week 9 of the NFL season is the halfway point. Who will be the true kings of panic?
Rick ODonnell aka Caveman Rick has many years covering the Miami Dolphins, Sports, and all sorts of movies and television.
