NFL Power Rankings Week 8 Philadelphia Eagles hit No. 1 spot

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NFL Power Rankings, Week 8: Philadelphia Eagles hit No. 1 spot Published: Oct 24, 2017 at 02:51 AM Elliot Harrison What a weekend of football, bookended by and , with many notable happenings in between. A few big items: -- -- -- You can read about the last two in the and blurbs, respectively. Of course, the way those two teams' seasons are going, you'll need to do some serious downward scrolling. Those weren't the only intriguing happenings in Week 7. The mounted an improbable comeback with their backup quarterback. and , forever linked as former teammates, keep winning. got the football 38 more times on another huge day for the league's bell cow. tied an old record. And Mitch Trubisky won a game throwing seven pa ses. Y'all had some thoughts about this ranking exercise ... Eagles are the best team in Football right now and Im a Chiefs fan Phoenix Harrison (@ThaOnlyPhoenix) That's a whole lotta respect for the coming from Kingdom. Must be a Kevin Curtis fan. ( ) Probably a lot more work, but it's gotta be more fun doing the this year, eh? Interesting moves every week! Scott Moore (@jackmojo) Yep, fun blowing up my rankings -- and seeing my word count mushroom -- every week. On that note, much movement in the top 10. Every spot sports a new team. Which sums up the state of NFL parity these days. Trying to make sense of what we've seen thus far, though your take is welcome: is the place. Let the di sension commence! For more in-depth analysis on the updated league pecking order, tune in to NFL Network every Tuesday night at 6 p.m. ET for the "NFL Power Rankings" show. Want to add YOUR voice? Call (888) 553-7436 and leave a me sage with your opinion, and your comments could be played on the air. The lineup below reflects changes from . There's a new No. 1, and it's not a familiar one. When was the last time the were the best team in pro football? Maybe in the first two months of the 2004 campaign, when Andy Reid's squad started the season 7-0 on the way to the franchise's second-ever berth. The 2017 team could be headed in the direction of Super Sunday, especially if plays . The 64-yard bomb to rookie was . Even more difficult? to set up a score before half. would describe on a little wheel route in the end zone. On a 1-10 scale, the difficulty on that to s was a thousand. is . MVP? from the overseas, fueled by a calm , consistent performance from the biggest star on offense (Todd Gurley) and more improvement from Wade Phillips' defense. The latter shut down the , even when provided Arizona with excellent field position late in the third quarter. Meanwhile, Gurley continues to churn out yards and touchdowns -- 920 yards from Cheslor Cuthbert Jersey scrimmage and eight touchdowns in seven games this season. Not bad. Much is made about how much of the ' offense and account for, but was mostly about defense. It helps when Bell carries the football ensuring his defensive teammates can grab a little air. That said, defensive coordinator Keith Butler deserves much credit. After allowing 14 points in the first half, Pittsburgh's defense caged in the ' offense during the second half. That speaks to adjustments made. didn't hurt. Nor did sprinting toward Cincinnati QB with reckle s abandon a few times. Offensive coordinators are going to continue to target . Broadcasters will talk about it during every game, too. On and the safeties were the i sue. The touchdown Mitchell allowed one-on-one to receiver early While Mitchell has allowed much yardage (615, per Next Gen Stats, along with five touchdowns and a pa ser rating of 99.6), it's also because opposing quarterbacks don't want to throw on his fellow corner, . Meanwhile, on the all-important throw to late, Murray to turn around and at least try to locate the ball. It should've never been resting in Cook's paws. There's your quick Kansas City analysis. The ' leading man for the last couple of weeks has been the guy with the backwards baseball hat, and laminated playsheet. Coordinator Matt Patricia has spearheaded a New England defensive renai sance. The Pats gave up 128 points in their first four games of 2017, a staggering clip of 32 per contest. Patricia drowned out all the criticism and made the nece sary tweaks for his unit to allow 14, 17 and seven points in New England's last three games. In fairne s, the Bucs' allergic reaction to field goals and slightly helped those totals, but no one was backing up Patricia when the breaks going his team's way. That was some vintage Dan Quinn/Gus Bradley-era defense from the Now under Kris Richard's direction, the "Legion of Boom" dominated the ' depleted WR corps. New York's running game (?) couldn't get anything going against the Seattle front, either. Unsung hero: DT , who posted seven solo tackles, a sack and a forced fumble. Sung hero: , who threw for 334 yards and three touchdowns, continually doing it by himself when No defense is playing better than the ' right now. Minnesota is allowing 17 points per game. Only the have scored more than 20 points against Mike Zimmer's better side of the ball this season, and that was 's first start when the offense couldn't stay on the field. No opponent has even hit the 350-yard barrier against these guys. The Vikes dominated Baltimore so badly that they made the ' offense look like ... look like ... the ' offense. Baltimore's total yardage: 208. Wow. The keep on winning. didn't go off without a hitch, though, as threw two bad balls to ensure the would stay in the game. While some folks might point to the opposing QB -- , who was making his first career start in place of -- to temper enthusiasm for this New Orleans group, keep in mind how well coordinator Dennis Allen's defense has been playing for weeks now. New Orleans' four-game win streak has been fueled by defensive play, not nece sarily Brees airing it out (although he's had a fine campaign). In case you were wondering, the have only beaten the in Wisconsin two other times -- and only once at Lambeau, in 2006, when Brees, in his first year under center for New Orleans, bested Brett Favre. The other road win? It came back in 1971, at Milwaukee County Stadium. A rookie named Archie Manning and Bart Starr played in that sucker. That was Starr's last year. Picked up to the ' broadcast team toward the end of Buffalo's They really get their money's worth out of Steven Hauschka: to made the Bucs' defense look like ... wait for it ... a Hausch of cards. That was a heckuva effort from Buffalo's full-Hausch backfield, with , and Taylor. receiver proved to be quite the rental ... Hausch ... OK, I'm done. #BillsMafia The drop, but not below the and . Washington actually controlled the engagement for most of the first half Monday night, but the game took a turn on . That's when the secondary got exposed. The second half didn't get better. Then again, remember that the will be getting back soon. Not to mention, their three lo ses all came against top-five teams: the , and again. Jay Gruden's group will be in the postseason chase. The Jags aren't going away. Call a quiet romp, as no one outside of Jacksonville (or Indy, unfortunately) seemed to pay much attention. Maybe enjoying one of the better games of his career doesn't get the networks all hot and bothered. doesn't lather 'em up, either. Yet, both were keys to the win, complementing a secondary that wouldn't give anything most of the afternoon. Yeldon gained more in two carries than running backs gained all day (65). Bortles went 18 of 26 for 330 yards, a touchdown and, most importantly, no picks. That's almost 13 yards per throw. Not sure where that offense came from but my gue s is straight out of last year. For the first time all season, the Dallas offensive line played like, well, the Dallas offensive line. flexed his mobility, while 's screamed 2016, at Pittsburgh. made a play straight out of 2007, justifying every announcer calling him a future Hall of Famer on literally every game broadcast. ( A real beaut of a catch, man.) Then there was , back in the lineup for the , where his presence is palpable. One of my favorite follows ... and stats-ily. The were off last week, unfortunately. Who doesn't want to watch play right now? The dude is on an rampage through the NFL. Sure, Houston's roster might have gotten healthier with the bye week. Unfortunately, the big injuries on this team are of the IR variety. All of which is to say that bye weeks kind of suck sometimes, at least for a streaking offense like this group. Looking ahead: A major NFC West run is on the horizon, as the go to Seattle, face the at home, head out to the Coliseum to face the , then return home again for the . Healthy move up for the , who looked dominant on defense Add a pinch of special teams and a tablespoon of offense, and all of a sudden, the Bolts have won three in a row while evening their divisional record. At 3-4 (and 2-2 in the division), Anthony Lynn's outfit is right back in the AFC West race, especially with the losing in Oakland. If the defense plays like it did versus the -- 252 yards allowed, 18.8 percent conversion rate on third and fourth downs (3 of 16), five sacks -- then who knows? Next up: Juicy. Not the sweat pants, the matchup. Score two tugs on defense, and you le sen the burden on your rookie quarterback. One week after only throwing the football 16 times, offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains didn't let stretch his sea legs, er, Lake Michigan legs Trubisky attempted pa ses. The last quarterback to attempt seven pa ses in a start? Jim McMahon -- in 1984. And McMahon didn't even play the whole game. Sid Luckman threw more than that. Trubisky was the beneficiary of the same brand of defense both McMahon and Luckman enjoyed, however, as Chicago made Carolina look inept on offense all day. Vic Fangio's unit didn't merely score, his guys got to five times and held Carolina to 293 total yards. The might be the most maddening team in the NFL to watch. When they win, their fans are all over this here writer for not putting them higher. But how do you explain the performances Every team drops games we thought they'd win. Lo ses like make sense. But with 10 days rest, was the best Carolina could do? For all of the talent has, and as capable as he is of putting the on his back, these valleys are awfully low. QB attempted seven pa ses and his team won by two scores. The season is going to start slipping away fast if the didn't make a few adjustments in their bye week. The offense can't sleepwalk through the first half of games anymore, or wait until Detroit's down, like, 38-zip to wake the #%$^ up. Much of the problem is the offensive line, which let get certifiably pounded (five sacks against the Saints) Left tackle -- who has been out all season -- is to come off the PUP list. When Decker returns, will be eligible to have a great game whenever he's ready. Like, seriously, it's OK; he can start putting up 100-yard games. Anytime. Anytime he's ready. Like. OK. The season has started already. It's not preseason anymore. Whale of a response by the, uh, on Sunday. Backup QB 's poise was off the charts for an injured especially in coming back on his second series. Or how about coming back to after what would have been the latter's second touchdown reception was called back on a ticky-tack pick call? Cutler Miami's against Baltimore with cracked ribs. If you compare the numbers of Moore and Cutler from 2016 until now, they're not close. In that span, Cutler has 11 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 6.48 yards per attempt and a 78.5 pa ser rating in 11 games. Moore in that span: 10 touchdowns, four picks, 8.42 yards per attempt and a 105.1 pa ser rating in five games. Surprising! (Not.) That's what we heard about the all offseason. With , and in place, what difference would it make to go from Kyle Shanahan to Steve Sarkisian in the offensive coordinator role? Not much. Who needs 12.4 points per game, anyway? That's how many fewer points per game these are scoring under Sarkisian this year. The entire stable of skill players was a nonfactor lost in the fog of making up for Michael Saunders Jersey Or the were just Still, with two other teams in the NFC South falling this past weekend, it's not panic time. Yet. If winning in the NFL is about surviving from week to week, the certainly qualify as winners. One week after couldn't move in over the , the offense couldn't advance a lick -- Tenne see produced a grand total of 269 yards and 12 points in five quarters of football, with 13 carries for 13 yards by and zero catches by . Oof. The ' defense deserves credit, though, for shutting the door on Cleveland's offense twice in overtime. Not much to glean from against the . Well, other than the fact that the actually managed to do than they did in versus the in Week 6. How about getting blanked 21-zip by the Bolts? Shocking. The theory was that Denver overlooked New York. The must have not even heard of the . (That's OK; half of L.A. hasn't, either.) The last time Denver got shut out was way back in 1992. That game was also in L.A. Rookie Tommy Maddox started in place of John Elway. Wonder what the former QB thinks of his current offense from the GM's seat. The are on the (slow) move upward. The only thing that could've made any better is if Oakland had needed another down to score again. I was almost rooting for the touchdown to get called back. That was one of those raved-about games . Loved the uni matchup, too. (Although Raiders- uni matchups are sweet.) While I might be in the minority here, I feel the light-gray-numbers-on-the-white-jersey is the sweetest Oakland uni ever. I was just watching footage of the 1970 AFC Championship Game for I'm working on, and I couldn't get over how incredible The era, for however long it will last, started and then stalled (often) on Sunday. The defense kept the in throughout (with Drew Brees), but Hundley simply could not get the Green Bay machine moving. Rookie running back piling up 131 yards on 17 carries. Twitter was raving about the explosion on Jones' Hundley showed burst of his own on But a severely reined-in game plan, combined with an underwhelming line (12 of 25 for 87 yards) from Hundley, doomed the Pack. **Side note:** Agree with colleague Chris We seling -- has become a nice player at ILB for Mike McCarthy. </content:power-ranking> was on a couple of throws in the second half but the narrow mi ses were enough to thwart the . A slant to in the third quarter was a hair out in front of the star receiver, and led to the padding their lead with a field goal. Then Dalton was slightly off the mark again, on a play that resulted in Cincy stayed with Pittsburgh throughout the first half, yet couldn't get out from under 's leg in the second. That's 11 Boswell field goals in these two teams' last two meetings -- enough to make Cincy fans kick themselves in the head. Just when it looked like deserved some MVP love for the way he's kept the afloat (an exaggeration for sure, but come on), into the belly of Miami corner . It appeared as though McCown was throwing to a spot where he thought was going to be, not seeing McCain slip underneath in clear position to make a play on the ball. That sucker floated out there like for New York to seriously get in the thick of the AFC East race, too. The season, which looked promising when the were a viable 3-3 after rumbled for over 100 yards Starting quarterback will be with a broken arm. Meanwhile, the way the offensive line was manhandled, the wouldn't have been able to run even if they'd had Earl Campbell in the backfield. Now it's up to , who is 6-3 as a starter filling in for Palmer. Sorry, but those Cardinal teams Stanton relief-pitched for were much stronger than this 2017 unit. The group still mi ses . Tampa made it interesting Once again, the defense left much to be desired, specifically with regard to stopping the run ... or, at least, to stop the run. One week after a 50-year-old the plowed for 173 yards at 5.2 yards per carry. Buffalo seemingly tried to do everything it could to give this game away, and almost did after 's Yet, Tampa still couldn't make ends meet, allowing Buffalo to go on two late drives to tie and then win the game. The first march took all of 46 seconds. This is the Tyrod Taylor-led Buffalo attack we're talking about here, not Jim Kelly and Co. Bright spot: 's performance (six catches, 98 yards, two scores) reflected his draft stock -- even on his own fumble, when the 19th overall pick showed the presence of mind to beat out three for the ball. by the offense. The are stuck in neutral, at best, and were left without their turbo when exited When the defense tightens down on the Baltimore offense, simply hasn't been able to loosen things up as he has in years past, when the likes of or even Steve Smith Sr. were catching the football in purple. In 44 dropbacks against the on Sunday, Flacco and the ' air "attack" generated 144 net pa sing yards. That Alcides Escobar Jersey 's awful. In case you were wondering, the ground game slugged its way to 64 yards on 20 carries. as in, So much for the going on a run after upsetting Denver Big Blue was the le ser of the teams clad in that hue at the Big Snoopy on Sunday, as the offense could only muster 177 yards couldn't do much with the cadre of backup wideouts at his disposal, but at least the runners made up for it with 46 rushing yards -- The sad part was that Steve Spagnuolo's defense played well for much of the game, stamping out a "Lord of the Rings"-length that was resuscitated multiple times via penalties. By the second half, though, the unit was simply ga sed. The had the football for 35-plus minutes. The were no match for the of from Jacksonville's ground game was supposed to provide Indy with an opportunity to stay relevant in the AFC South. No dice. the Jags' secondary was a tough matchup for . The can't sustain any consistency or continuity on the ground, no matter how much fans and fantasy owners want to get more time in the huddle. Not sure a healthy would've won this game, either. Even was out there ballin'. Not a game to remember for the current , as rookie quarterback 's first start resulted in at home. Beathard made a few nice plays, including with his legs, though it became clear early on that San Francisco -- particularly Kyle Shanahan's defense -- was overmatched against the . For the however, the day was most memorable. Dwight Clark as the former wide receiver and local legend fights his battle against ALS. You might know that Clark authored in postseason history, a play that launched the ' dynasty. What you might know is what a fantastic player Clark was He led the NFC in receptions in 1981, then paced the NFL in that same category in the strike-shortened 1982 season. An injury late in the 1983 campaign forced him to mi s the playoffs. Had he played, there's a good chance San Francisco would've bested the in the NFC Championship Game (instead of losing, 24-21) and faced off against the in XVIII. Clark finally relinquished his status as Joe Montana's WR1 in 1985. That probably had more than a little to do with a guy Bill Walsh drafted that year: Jerry Rice. Clark was honored by a large gathering of former teammates Sunday, a group he said he wanted to see "one last time." A wonderful, and incredibly touching, sentiment from a man who altered the course of the NFL. So defensive coordinator Gregg Williams stonewalled the vaunted running attack all game long and . Well, the ' did the part. Another mixed-bag showing from rookie quarterback -- mostly bad -- with Nada. While the overtime lo s was gut-wrenching, the season-ending injury to was unfortunate. he suffered Sunday . I've been watching football for three decades and I've studied the NFL's history profusely. I've never seen anything like Thomas' run. The closest thing you can point to would be Brett Favre's 297 straight starts at quarterback, or legend Jim Marshall playing 282 straight games without mi sing any. Marshall, a defensive end, pulled that off while playing in the trenches in the 1960s and '70s. Unbeknownst to many people, Marshall launched his career in 1960 ... in Cleveland. *Follow Elliot Harrison on Twitter . And be sure to tune in to the "NFL Power Rankings Show" on NFL Network every Tuesday night at 6 p.m. ET. * This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be mi sing content or contain faulty links. Please use the Contact Us link in our site footer to report an i sue.
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