NFL Week 8 LIVE: Scores & news (2024)

Week 8 is underway! Check in with The Athletic for all the latest NFL news, game previews, injury updates and analysis.

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Los Angeles Chargers coach Brandon Staley wanted an improved running game in 2023. It was a motivating factor in Staley moving on from former offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and replacing him with Kellen Moore.

Eight weeks into this season, that improvement has not come. In fact, the Chargers rushing attack has actually regressed under Moore.

“We’re just a work in progress in that phase,” Staley said Monday.

The Chargers coasted to a 30-13 win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday night, and there were plenty of positives to take away in all three phases. Justin Herbert played by far his best game since suffering a broken finger on his non-throwing hand in Week 4. The defense had its most complete performance of the season, limiting explosive plays and stopping a Bears rushing attack that entered the game ranked third in expected points added per designed rush, according to TruMedia.

The running game remained stagnant, though. Staley has said repeatedly that he wants to be a dominant line-of-scrimmage team offensively. The Chargers entered halftime with a 24-7 lead. A true line-of-scrimmage offense would have put this game away on the ground. That did not happen Sunday night.

Read more here.

The Giants signed veteran quarterback Matt Barkley to the practice squad Tuesday and added rookie Tommy DeVito to the active roster. The moves come one day after Daniel Jones was cleared for contact from a neck injury.

Jones had missed three games after exiting following a sack in Week 5 but is hoping to play Sunday. They’re also in response to the Giants’ veteran backup Tyrod Taylor leaving Sunday’s loss to the Jets with a ribcage injury in the second quarter and DeVito played the remainder of the day.

The moves make it seem like Taylor won’t be ready for this week’s game. Barkley spent three years in Buffalo with coach Brian Daboll. He was in for a workout two weeks ago but then he wasn’t added to the team until now.

After trading for Chase Young, the 49ers just made an interesting practice squad signing by adding 32-year-old veteran Jesse Davis, who's started 72 career NFL games at every offensive line position except center.

Davis has never graded out as a standout O-lineman, but his versatility might come in handy for a 49ers' line that's currently dealing with injuries to two starters on the left side, tackle Trent Williams (ankle) and guard Aaron Banks (turf toe).

The 49ers had previously enjoyed excellent value out of versatile offensive lineman Daniel Brunskill, who signed with Tennessee in free agency, and they'll now hope that Davis can fortify depth at a vital position currently lacking it.

Back in 2014, Teryl Austin was working as the Detroit Lions’ defensive coordinator. And he had a problem.

The rapid evolution of the tight end position put his team in a bind. When offenses deployed two-tight-end sets, matching personnel became a can’t-win conundrum for the defense.

“Think about New England when they had (Rob Gronkowski) and (Aaron) Hernandez,” Austin said. “If you got into small (personnel groupings) like nickel, they would go big and run on you. When you got into your regular front, now you’re too big. They spread you out and pass on you.”

The solution? A hybrid defense with three safeties on the field at the same time — first it was Glover Quin, James Ihedigbo and Isa Abdul-Quddus, and later Quin, Tavon Wilson and Rafael Bush. Current Pittsburgh Steeler Miles Killebrew also contributed when he joined the team in 2016, especially in passing situations.

The concept wasn’t entirely new. As far back as 1996, the Green Bay Packers began tinkering with the idea of putting a bigger-bodied nickel on the field. As more dynamic pass-catching tight ends dominated the game, this concept became an effective counter.

“Now, if they did condense the sets, you had a big enough body to handle the run game,” Austin said. “If they broke the sets, you had a guy agile enough to cover. It’s just progressed after that into different things.”

When the Steelers promoted Austin from secondary coach to defensive coordinator ahead of the 2022 season, he quickly implemented the so-called “big nickel” with Minkah Fitzpatrick, Terrell Edmunds and Damontae Kazee on the field together. He also expanded the concept to include the dime defense, which features three safeties on the field, two outside cornerbacks and a traditional nickel corner.

Read more here.

The push into the pocket began with a powerful, straight-arm move for Baron Browning and ended with a dance his opponents may have to get used to.

Late in the second quarter of the Broncos’ 24-9 victory against the Chiefs on Sunday, Browning was lined up against veteran left tackle Donovan Smith as the Chiefs faced a first-and-10 at Denver’s 19-yard line. At the snap, Browning, the Broncos’ third-year pass rusher, extended his left arm into the right shoulder of the 6-foot-6, 338-pound Smith and began shoving him back toward quarterback Patrick Mahomes. With the space created by his extended reach, Browning then released from Smith, dipped around him and then brought down his arm like a hammer on the unsuspecting Mahomes.

The Broncos recovered the ensuing fumble, erasing a potential Chiefs touchdown drive. Browning skipped toward midfield, hands waving in front of him. The dance, for which Browning said he had no name, was an understated celebration of the havoc he had created.

“That,” defensive lineman Zach Allen said of the sequence, “was definitely an incredible play.”

Read more here.

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett said Tuesday he will be “playing for sure” against the Tennessee Titans on Thursday night despite a rib injury. Here’s what you need to know:

• Pickett exited the Steelers’ Week 8 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars due to the injury. He and was evaluated at halftime after taking a big hit from Jacksonville’s Adam Gotsis late in the second quarter.
• The Steelers initially said Pickett was probable to return before downgrading him to out. Mitchell Trubisky started the second half in Pickett’s place, going 15-of-27 with one touchdown and two interceptions.
• Pickett has thrown for 1,330 yards with five TDs and four interceptions with a 61.0 completion percentage and an 80.6 passer rating.

Read more here.

Dak Prescott was genuinely surprised. His eyebrows raised when told of Jerry Jones’ postgame comments.

The franchise quarterback was standing at a podium outside of the team’s AT&T Stadium locker room, fielding his final question after the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Los Angeles Rams 43-20 Sunday afternoon. When it was explained to him that Jones didn’t want to comment about the upcoming game against the division rival Philadelphia Eagles, Prescott responded: “I don’t believe what you just said.”

Jones, who is usually not shy about commenting on any topic, responded after the win over the Rams: “Let’s soak this one up. I don’t want to do anything to poke the bear.”

After pausing for a second, Prescott smiled and responded to Jones’ quote by saying: “Pour honey on me. I always say that. If you see me and a bear in a fight, pour honey on me.”

It was interesting to witness the contrast in the two responses, about 30 minutes apart. On one hand, there was a superstitious team owner. On the other, a confident franchise QB coming off a second consecutive strong showing on the field.

Read more here.

It was an all too familiar scene — Kenny Pickett on the turf, writhing in pain.

And if all goes as planned, that same guy will brush off what originally appeared to be a serious injury and get back on the field four days later.

Pickett has been the Pittsburgh Steelers’ starting quarterback for just over a calendar year, and he’s already found himself in some precarious situations when it comes to injuries. That brings up a question, whether it is too early to tell or not: Is Pickett injury-prone, or is he an old-fashioned tough guy?

“Kenny is a competitive guy,” quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan said earlier this month. “He is going to fight until the end.”

But this has clearly become a trend. In 19 career starts, Pickett has been injured and not returned in four of them, including late in the first half of Sunday’s 20-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Read more here.

Some final thoughts on the Cleveland Browns’ loss in Seattle including disappointments outside the ill-fated third-down interception and some guesses on what might be ahead this week.

Read the full story here.

The Buffalo Bills sparked their offense by harkening back to the Jim Kelly era. The Tennessee Titans only asked rookie quarterback Will Levis to do what he does best: chuck it deep. Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo again proves that he’s one of the best game planners in the league, while Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio proves again that he’s one of the worst.

We’ll get into all that and more in the best and worst coaching decisions of Week 8.

Ever since the NFL added a 17th game to the schedule, there’s no true halfway point of the season. But the end of October does provide an annual landmark for the New England Patriots.

By this time of year, Bill Belichick knows what he has in his team, something he’s said going back several years.

He may know what he has, but does he like it? Let’s look at who on the roster has exceeded expectations and who has not through the first eight weeks.

Happy Halloween, NFL fans.

The Power Rankings are getting into the spirit of the season by picking out something scary associated with each team. Some of these are scary for fans of a given team, while others should be scary for the team’s upcoming opponents.

We hope all of them give you insight into where we stand with the NFL season nearly halfway complete.

Read the full list of rankings here.

49ers left guard Aaron Banks suffered a turf toe injury on the second-to-last drive of the team's loss to the Bengals, coach Kyle Shanahan said on Monday. Banks is expected to miss a few weeks.

The 49ers signed veteran interior lineman Jon Feliciano this offseason for a situation like this. He's replaced veteran Daniel Brunskill, who signed with Tennessee in free agency, as the 49ers' top backup on the inside. The team's interior line has struggled mightily over the past two weeks, so the 49ers hope that Feliciano can provide a boost while center Jake Brendel and right guard Spencer Burford come back better after this bye week. Perhaps the expected return of left tackle Trent Williams after the bye can also help the 49ers' offensive line, which has been struggling to open holes in the run game.

In other injury news, 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw is day-to-day with a shoulder sprain.

The Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Chargers entered Sunday night with the same number of wins, but not the same number of star players.

The multipliers. The impact players. The game changers.

The Chargers have Justin Herbert, Keenan Allen, Khalil Mack, Joey Bosa and Derwin James.

The Bears have DJ Moore.

Those differences were magnified on Sunday night when the Chargers’ top players — specifically Herbert — played at a high level and the Bears didn’t make enough key stops on defense or big plays on offense.

Each team circled who to contain, and one team did it better, with the Chargers winning 30-13.

Read more here.

Speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon at Halas Hall following the Bears' 30-13 loss to the Chargers, Bears coach Matt Eberflus confirmed that Justin Fields (dislocated right thumb) will be sidelined for this week's game in New Orleans. It will be Fields' third full missed game since hurting the thumb in an Oct. 15 game against the Vikings. Undrafted rookie QB Tyson Bagent will make his third start. The Bears don't plan on putting Fields on IR and are calling him "week to week."

Cornerback Jaquan Brisker was evaluated and cleared for a concussion by an independent neurologist last week, but was on the injury report all week under "illness" because he didn't feel well. Brisker was then ruled out of the Chargers game Saturday. Eberflus said the team had Brisker re-evaluated and he's now in the concussion protocol. "That's unique," Eberflus said. "Never had that happen before. ... The most important thing is our players' safety and health. And Jaquan did a very good job of communicating with us."

Patrick Mahomes took a moment to remain silent. Sitting on the bench, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback didn’t take off his helmet. His hands — one bloody and the other battered — were interlocked.

During the two-minute warning of Sunday’s game, Mahomes observed how everyone wearing blue and orange — the Denver Broncos and their fans — celebrated, many of the people inside Empower Field dancing, whether on the field or in the stands. Mahomes also heard the song that led to all the unbridled commotion, House of Pain’s classic jam.

Jump around, jump around

Jump up, jump up and get down

The reason the Broncos were so thrilled, so enthusiastic to see the final seconds tick off the scoreboard was they finally — after 16 consecutive losses — managed to beat the Chiefs, 24-9. Having failed to lead his team to a touchdown all day, Mahomes lost to the Broncos for the first time in his career.

Read more here.

The New York Giants entered the season with a solid Plan B at quarterback. If Daniel Jones were to ever miss time, as he has the past three weeks with a neck injury, they could count on reliable veteran backup Tyrod Taylor to manage the offense. But the Giants, it turns out, didn’t have a complete Plan C. Not really.

That became painfully obvious when Taylor exited Sunday’s 13-10 loss to the New York Jets in the second quarter with a rib cage injury, and he was replaced by undrafted rookie Tommy DeVito.

Given the Giants’ offensive struggles this season, combined with the Jets’ excellent defense and the rain Sunday at MetLife Stadium, no one should have expected much of a Giants offense led by a practice squad call-up making his NFL debut.

And yet, somehow, the offense failed to live up to even the lowest of expectations.

Read more here.

A few day-after observations from the Bears’ loss to the Chargers…

• Tyson Bagent’s average time to throw was 2.57 seconds, quicker than last week. Khalil Mack noted that Bagent’s internal clock was moving, and that was part of the reason the Chargers had only two QB hits and one sack.
• Bagent’s “expected points added,” per TruMedia, dropped considerably, from 0.18 per drop back against the Raiders to -0.13. He was also pressured 11 times compared to eight last week.
• Right tackle Darnell Wright gave up only two pressures on 39 pass-blocking snaps, per Pro Football Focus.
• Tight end Cole Kmet went from zero catches in Week 7 — only the third time that had happened in his previous 38 games — to a career-high 10 receptions on 10 targets. He joins Jaguars tight end Evan Engram as the only players this season with a 100-percent catch rate on at least 10 targets.
• The Bears did wind up with six tackles for loss and four run stuffs, but nine of those 10 plays came in the second half.
• Eight games in, defensive tackle Justin Jones leads the Bears with seven QB hits, followed by DeMarcus Walker (five), T.J. Edwards (four) and Yannick Ngakoue (four). As a team, the Bears are 28th int he league with 33 QB hits. For those curious, Washington Commanders edge rushers Chase Young and Montez Sweat have combined for 20 QB hits.

I knew the Cleveland Browns were going to throw.

I didn’t know the result, obviously. And I probably didn’t even get to the worst-case scenario that played out as I sprinted through a quick list of possible outcomes. But ahead of third-and-3 and a chance to put the Seattle Seahawks away, I knew Browns coach Kevin Stefanski was going to call a pass.

The play probably doesn’t need a full setup and explanation, but I’ll give you one anyway.

Read more here.