What we learned in NFL Week 8: Feeding Tyreek Hill and AJ Brown; Jets in playoff chase?

Once 5-0 and seemingly absolutely unbeatable, the San Francisco 49ers have suddenly lost three in a row.

Once 1-3, Joe Burrow and the Bengals look glum and disjointed, suddenly they look like… Joe Burrow and the Bengals.

“I don’t use that word unbelievable anymore,” Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor said after the triple-touchdown day in a convincing 31-17 win in San Francisco.

“Because that’s what you expect.”

Not just in September, apparently.

The Green Bay Packers still couldn’t find a way to score in the first half – nine points sum in their last five games – and have now lost four in a row.

“Personally, it’s very tough right now,” Jordan Love said. “I need to find consistency in my game.”

The Minnesota Vikings, winners of three straight titles with Sunday’s win over Love and the Packers, fear they may lose Kirk Cousins ​​for the season.

For the first time since Peyton Manning was the quarterback — in 2015 — the Denver Broncos beat the Chiefs, snapping Kansas City’s 16-game streak in the series.

On a sloppy Sunday across the NFL that featured the likes of Brett Rypien, Tommy DeVito, Taylor Heinicke, Mitch Trubisky and Tyson Baigent at quarterback for their team — spoiler: no wins left — it was Burrow’s Bay Area statement that resonated most.

Calf injury? date.

terrier? Back to the MVP model.

Bengals? Contenders again.

Burrow finished with just four incompletions against the once-vaunted 49ers defense, a unit that has allowed 852 combined yards in its last two losses, to the Vikings and Bengals. Burrow carved up San Francisco territory for most of the afternoon, then when the 49ers went man down, he found his favorite target, Ja’Marr Chase, in the end zone for a crucial third-quarter touchdown. It was the old Boro side and Bengal’s traditional players – brutally efficient, always armed with an answer – that undoubtedly puts them back in the conversation in the AFC.

As for the 49ers, Brock Purdy threw two interceptions in the second half and has now lost three in a row after winning the first 10 regular season games of his career. His teammates were rooting for him afterward.

“He’s the reason we have a chance to win games,” linebacker Fred Warner said of Purdy, saying the defense was to blame for the team’s recent slide. Next: A very welcome goodbye.

Here’s what else stood out from Week 8:

Give them the ball, and see what happens

All this talk about how offenses have struggled this season, about how scoring has declined, about how quarterbacks — with rare exception — haven’t been as prolific as recent years.

While a lot of that is true, this is also true: The best wide receivers in the league haven’t slowed down.

Not Sunday. Not for most of this season. In Miami, Tyreek Hill has already surpassed 1,000 rushing yards in just eight games, becoming the first player in NFL history to do so. The Dolphins completed the season sweep over the Patriots, winning 31-17 in Miami.

Hill has been unstoppable for most of his career, including his first six seasons in Kansas City. But by his own admission, he never looked this good.

“I’m light years ahead of where I was back then,” Hill said Sunday when asked about his Chiefs days.

He will face his former team for the first time next week in Germany.

In Washington, Philadelphia’s AJ Brown became the first player in league history to gain 125 receiving yards in six straight games. The Eagles (league-best 7-1) completed the season sweep of the Leaders with a 38-31 win.

And in Dallas, CeeDee Lamb went off for nine catches, 122 yards and two touchdowns — all before halftime. “Give me the ball and see what happens,” Lamb said recently. On Sunday, the Rams found out what that looks like. The sheep was deadly. The cowboys kept feeding him. Before the Rams even fluttered, the score was 33-3.

The Cowboys (5-2) finished 43-20, their fourth win by 20 or more points this season.

On a Sunday that saw an astonishing number of backup QBs take the field, the league’s true receivers reminded everyone of their value.

Sometimes, there simply is no answer for them.

Did the Giants just find their quarterback?

It’s always too early, too impulsive, to make any bold statement after one match.

But once Will Levis’ Tennessee career began, it’s hard not to think the Giants might have found their next quarterback.

For a 2-4 team stumbling in a no-man’s land this season — new general manager Ran Carthon had to tell Derrick Henry they weren’t trading him before Tuesday’s deadline, despite inquiries from other teams — the Giants needed to see Something from Levis or second-year QB Malik Willis, who struggled mightily last season as a starter.

Simply put, with Ryan Tannehill out, they needed either Levis or Willis to grab the starting job.

On Sunday, Levis did.

The second-round pick, who famously fell short in last spring’s draft, made his NFL debut against the Falcons, and all he did was throw for more touchdowns (four) than Tannehill, the Giants’ veteran shortstop, had all season (two). Levis strutted with a monster arm, hitting DeAndre Hopkins for three scores, including one for 47 yards and another for 61 yards.

“He plays the game like he’s been here before,” Hopkins said of the rookie quarterback.

Thanks to Levis and Hopkins, the Giants moved to 3-4 with a 28-23 win over Atlanta. Levis shares snaps with Willis, but Willis never attempts a pass, and is only used in rushing situations. And thanks to Levis’ sterling debut — he finished 19-for-29 for 238 yards, four TDs and a 130.5 passer rating — there’s no doubt which QBs the Giants will turn to moving forward.

If the Leafs continue on this path, and Anthony Richardson returns to the form he showed earlier this season in Indianapolis, the AFC South is in for a lot of fun in the coming years. All four teams, including Jacksonville (Trevor Lawrence) and Houston (C.J. Stroud), look like they have capable franchise quarterbacks for years to come.

Hope in Carolina.

Fleeting as it may be, it’s a thing.

This franchise needed it.

After six straight losses to open the year, questions about their decision at the top of last spring’s draft and a sudden shift in offensive play — with coach Frank Reich passing duties to his offensive coordinator, Thomas Brown — the Panthers needed something to go right. Anything actual.

Enough I did on Sunday.

In a game featuring the top three picks from the most recent draft — the first time that has ever happened in NFL history — Bryce Young picked up his first win as an NFL starter, helping the Panthers to a 15-13 win over Stroud Will Anderson Jr. and the Texans. It avoided Carolina’s 0-7 start, which would have been the franchise’s worst start dating back to 1998.

Young drove a 15-play, 58-yard drive over the final 6:17 of the game to set up Eddie Pineiro’s 22-yard field goal that won the game. Thus, every team in the NFL will have at least one win this season.

“Go out and try to win the game, what else are you hoping for?” Young said later.

The Panthers remain thin on talent, especially at the offensive skill positions, but no team wants to enter November without a victory.

Are the Jets really in the early Asian playoff race? (Yes)

“They don’t ask you how, they ask you how many,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said after that game, aptly summing up New York’s offensive battle that his team somehow pulled off in overtime.

Saleh Saleh. Forget the details. Toss the score square. When your star quarterback, who also happens to be a Hall of Famer, misses four snaps in a season, you make no apologies for the wins that follow.

Four in the first seven, including three in a row?

It doesn’t matter how you get it. It doesn’t matter what you look like. It doesn’t matter if the game only has four third-rate conversions (in 34 attempts) and 24 balls.

Now, the Jets remain a flawed team, and Zach Wilson is a flawed quarterback, but there’s something to be said for a group that continues to rack up ugly wins despite staggeringly long stretches of offensive ineptitude. (Breece Hall’s 50-yard catch-and-run in the first quarter Sunday was the Jets’ first first-quarter touchdown of the season.)

After losing three straight games after Aaron Rodgers went down, the Jets (4-3) have won three straight and are — surprise — in the AFC playoffs as the calendar flips to November.

Honestly, who had planes above .500 anytime after Halloween?

“I don’t even know what happened,” cornerback Soos Gardner said after the win, admitting he thought the game was lost. But Giants kicker Graham Gano missed two field goals, including a 35-yarder with 28 seconds left that would have sealed the win. A 29-yard completion from Wilson was enough to put the Jets in field goal range.

It’s also impressive that the Giants almost won a punting game by 9 total yards. After Tyrod Taylor exited the game in the first half, DeVito, a New Jersey native, took his place but ended up attempting just seven passes, finishing with 1 yard.

Jaguar cars are heated

The Jaguars have quietly become one of the hottest teams in football. While Jacksonville certainly entered the season with high expectations after last season’s playoff run, it faltered early this year, falling to 1-2 after a humiliating 37-17 Week 3 loss at home to the Texans.

Then the Jags went to London for two weeks and found something.

Results since: Five straight wins, leaving them at 6-2 heading into the bye week with an exciting game upon their return, at home versus the 49ers. On Sunday, the Jags snapped the Steelers’ winning streak, beating Pittsburgh 20-10 behind 292 yards from Lawrence and 149 all-purpose yards from Travis Etienne, whose 56-yard touchdown run in the third quarter was the longest of the game of the day for either side.

Dating back to late last season, the Jags have won 11 of their last 13 regular season games.

Ramsey comes back, and the Dolphins keep rolling

Ninety-four days after Jalen Ramsey suffered a meniscus injury — it was the second day of training camp, and initial reports suggested he might miss until December — the six-time Pro Bowl cornerback made his Dolphins debut two days before Halloween.

He made his presence felt immediately, catching Patriots quarterback Mac Jones on an interception just before halftime that Ramsey returned 49 yards. That led to a field goal in the Dolphins’ win, their sixth in seven attempts against their division rival.

“I was completely disappointed,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel joked after the game. “He told me he was going to come back and pick six, not a specific field goal.”

“The hype is real when it comes to a guy like Jalen Ramsey,” Miami QB Tua Tagovailoa said.

With the win, the Dolphins completed the season sweep over the Patriots and improved to 6-2, their best start to a season since 2001.

(Top image by AJ Brown: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)