NFL Week 8: Recapping the best and worst of the weekend

Calvin Johnson's historic Sunday

If you have a moment today, take some time to say a prayer for the Dallas Cowboys' defense, which was dismantled by Detroit wide receiver Calvin Johnson in one of the most dominant single performances you'll ever see.

Over the course of Detroit's come-from-behind 31-30 win, Johnson piled up 329 yards and a touchdown on 14 catches, the second-highest receiving total in NFL history. Johnson was just seven yards shy of Flipper Anderson's NFL-best mark of 336, set in 1989 for the Los Angeles Rams against the New Orleans Saints. Almost all game, the Cowboys threw a single defender at Johnson — the hopelessly overmatched Brandon Carr — and all day Johnson torched Carr and any other Dallas defender within 10 yards of him. His highlights were an 87-yard catch-and-run from Matt Stafford in the first quarter from Detroit's 10-yard-line all the way to the Dallas 2-yard-line, and a 54-yard jump ball he caught through two defenders late in the fourth quarter.

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Johnson's presence was especially felt in the game's final drive, when he hauled in catches of 17 and 22 yards to help set up the Lions' game-winning score. That last catch brought him within a yard of the end zone; according to ESPN stats, Johnson was tackled four times inside Dallas's 5-yard-line, the only disappointment on an otherwise brilliant afternoon.

Just how dominant was Johnson's day? Let's have some fun with numbers:

• Johnson is just the fifth player in NFL history to record more than 300 yards receiving in a single game, joining Anderson, Stephone Paige (309, Kansas City, 1985), Jim Benton (303, Cleveland, 1945), and Cloyce Box (302, Detroit, 1950).
• It's the fifth time in his regular-season career and the third time in the last calendar year that Johnson has eclipsed the 200-yard mark in a game. That makes him only the second receiver since 1963 to post five or more 200-yard games in his career. The other player to accomplish that feat: Lance Allworth of the San Diego Chargers, who did it five times between 1963 and 1967. Of active players, only Houston's Andre Johnson, Atlanta's Roddy White, Indianapolis's Reggie Wayne, and San Francisco's Anquan Boldin have multiple 200-plus-yard games, all four having done it twice.
• Johnson's previous career high in yards was 244 in a 45-41 Lions loss to Green Bay in January 2011. Since the NFL-AFL merger in 1963, no player has ever posted both a 200-plus-yard game and a 300-plus-yard game in a career.
• Johnson's 329 yards on Sunday alone would rank him 70th in the NFL, out of roughly 360 players, for individual receiving yards on the season.

It was a banner afternoon for Johnson, but it was an even better day for the Lions. With that come-from-behind win over Dallas, Detroit now sits at 5-3, half a game behind Green Bay for first place in the NFC North. And while the Lions will be hard-pressed to knock off the Packers in the division, they're very much in the playoff picture, currently jockeying for a wild-card spot with San Francisco, Carolina, and Arizona. Detroit will get a golden opportunity to create some space in the division when they travel to Chicago to face the injury-ravaged Bears, followed by games against 2-5 Pittsburgh and 0-7 Tampa Bay. That three-game stretch leads into a critical Thursday night game against Green Bay at home that could decide the NFC North.

Of course, this is a Detroit team that sat at 4-4 through eight weeks last season, only to lose its final eight games, and was at 6-2 after Week 8 in 2011 but went 4-4 down the stretch. It's unlikely that head coach Jim Schwarz, already on the hot seat after 2012's disaster, can survive another late-season slide.

Are the Jets contenders or pretenders?

The Jets must lead the league in confusing the utter hell out of NFL analysts and columnists. Depending on the week, New York is either a team with a world-beating defense with a dangerous-if-wild rookie quarterback, or a sieve-like squad featuring a signal caller who gives Jets fans flashbacks to Mark Sanchez's worst moments. In Week 8 against Cincinnati, the Jets were the latter, getting blown up by the Bengals to the tune of 49 points as Geno Smith threw two pick-sixes.

The loss drops New York to 4-4 on the season, just a week after an impressive win over Tom Brady and the Patriots that seemed to give the Jets hope in the AFC East race and signal them as a legitimate wild-card contender. But Sunday's effort seriously calls into question whether the Jets can hang in the race all season.

We've touched on Smith's wild nature — his two interceptions upped his season turnover total to a staggering 17 in eight games. But his bigger problem is a combination of a poor offensive line and a pocket awareness that's limited at best. Smith took three sacks against Cincinnati's ferocious front seven Sunday, and he's been brought down 28 times on the season. Only Miami's Ryan Tannehill has been sacked more often. It doesn't help that the Jets' run game is completely hit-or-miss, and that Smith's receiving corps is Jeremy Kerley and little else.

But then there's the defense. While Rex Ryan's front seven is still one of the league's best — Muhammad Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson have terrorized offensive lines all season and made the Jets almost impossible to run on — the secondary has been a disaster. Antonio Cromartie, who stepped up so brilliantly for the injured Darrelle Revis last season, has been completely unable to replicate his 2012 effort. First-round rookie Dee Milliner has been a bust so far; former first-rounder Kyle Wilson has largely been relegated to nickel package work. That collection of struggling talent leads to days like Sunday, when the Jets gave up five touchdowns and 325 yards through the air to Andy Dalton. If New York is struggling to contain Dalton, things are going to get even worse against the league's top passers.

The Jets are still in a decent spot in the AFC, with the Bills and the Dolphins showing little to nothing in the division. But with either Denver or Kansas City practically locked into one of the AFC's two wild-card spots, the Jets need to find some consistency soon. A Week 9 tilt with 6-1 New Orleans probably won't be the place they discover it.

The Dolphins are fried fish (even though they're mammals)

Following the flashiest offseason in recent memory, Miami barreled its way to a 3-0 start, including a hard-fought win over Indianapolis, seemingly announcing its presence as a playoff contender and legit challenger to New England's AFC East throne. But after Week 8's dispiriting 27-17 loss to the Patriots, Miami's fourth straight defeat, Dolphins fans must be wondering where that 3-0 team disappeared to.

It wasn't just the loss to New England, in which the Patriots practically ran the ball down Miami's throat. It was also the Dolphins blowing a 17-3 halftime lead, one built on an efficient offense and a defense that flummoxed Brady for two quarters. But out of the half, the Patriots' defense applied nearly nonstop pressure on Ryan Tannehill, and New England's offense went to the ground to churn out yards and control the clock en route to 24 unanswered points.

Miami's biggest problem has been a turnstile of an offensive line that has given up a league-worst 32 sacks in seven games, including six to New England. That's given Tannehill, a passer who already struggles with pocket presence, almost no time to read the defense and make accurate throws. It hasn't helped that the Dolphins' biggest offseason pickup, wide receiver Mike Wallace, apparently exchanged his hands for steel mitts sometime before the season, or that Miami's run game has been an uninspiring timeshare between sophomore Lamar Miller and the plodding Daniel Thomas.

At 3-4, Miami's season is nowhere near over, especially with only the schizophrenic Jets and Patriots ahead of them in the AFC East. But time is running out to fix what's ailing the Dolphins. And the schedule doesn't get much easier from here on out: Miami gets just three days to regroup before a Thursday-night showdown with Cincinnati, and still has San Diego, Carolina, New England, and two critical games with the Jets on the docket, with no bye week left to provide a breather.

The march to perfection

We look at the teams still sporting a perfect season, one way or the other, and assess their chances at finishing the season undefeated or winless. After Week 8, three teams boast zeroes in the win-loss column: The Chiefs, the Jaguars, and the Buccaneers.

KANSAS CITY

Record: 8-0

Week 8 Result: 23-17 win over Cleveland

Week 9 Opponent: Buffalo

Reasons to be optimistic: Kansas City once again played error-free football, committing no turnovers against a stout Cleveland defense. With only eight giveaways on the season, the Chiefs have been the fourth-best team in the league at avoiding turnovers. Alex Smith, as is his wont, was efficient, if not proficient (24 of 36, 225 yards, two touchdowns). Jamaal Charles continued his dark-horse MVP candidacy with 120 all-purpose yards (74 on the ground, 46 through the air) on just 23 touches. And the Chiefs' defense held the Browns to a mere 13 first downs and only 57 yards on the ground as Kansas City's front seven continues to stake its claim as the best in the league.

Reasons to be wary: Cleveland quarterback Jason Campbell — now on his fourth NFL team and pressed into service only because Brandon Weeden has been unfathomably bad — managed to put up 293 yards and two scores on the Chiefs in what can best be described as a lackluster performance by the secondary. Worse, the NFL's best team at collecting sacks got to Campbell just once on the day, while Kansas City's offensive line gave up six sacks of its own. At 24 sacks allowed, the Chiefs are eighth-worst in the league in protecting the passer.

The prediction: Once again, the Chiefs will face a team with a mediocre quarterback and a defense that excels at getting to the quarterback. But the Bills should boast a stronger run game than the Browns, especially if C.J. Spiller is healthy, and will have a raucous home crowd behind them in what's sure to be a cold game in northern New York. That said, Kansas City still boasts the edge on defense, and should be able to do just enough to get to 9-0.

JACKSONVILLE

Record: 0-8

Week 8 Result: 42-10 loss to San Francisco

Week 9 Opponent: Bye

Reasons to be optimistic: Well, the Jaguars can't beat a bye week.

Reasons to be wary: Then again, they can't lose to the bye week, even though they've done an admirable job of getting pasted by every team so far this season. In Week 8, it was the 49ers' turn to dole out some punishment, piling up 42 points (28 in the first half) and 398 yards of offense in a blowout. It's the eighth straight game this season the Jaguars have lost by 10 or more points; the closest margin of defeat all season for Jacksonville was a 19-9 loss to Oakland in Week 2. Since then, the Jaguars have been outscored 221 to 75.

With a point differential of 182 points through eight games, the Jaguars are on pace to be outscored by 356 points on the season. That would destroy the NFL record for negative point differential, set by Tampa Bay in 1976 at 287. The last team to go 0-16, the 2008 Lions, were outscored by 249 points. Suffice to say, there are plenty of reasons to believe this team has what it takes to stay winless.

The prediction: The Jaguars not winning is a lock for Week 9. Take that one to the bank.

TAMPA BAY

Record: 0-7

Week 8 Result: 31-13 loss to Carolina

Week 9 Opponent: Seattle

Reasons to be optimistic: Aside from the fact that there were multiple stories this week featuring topics like "Former Bucs say playing for Greg Schiano is like being stuck in communist Cuba" and "Tampa-area radio stations are spending thousands of dollars to put up 'Fire Schiano' billboards all over central Florida"? Well, Tampa's putrid defense gave up 34 points and completions at will to Cam Newton and the Panthers. Then there are the potentially season-ending injuries to lead running back Doug Martin and wide receiver Mike Williams, which ensure that Tampa's equally awful offense will struggle to crack 20 points a game for the rest of the year.

Reasons to be wary: Mike Glennon has been surprisingly good for a fourth-round rookie thrown into a Dumpster fire of an offense; on Thursday, he managed 275 yards and no turnovers against Carolina's better-than-average defense. Granted, it took him 51 attempts to get there, but still, it's better than anyone expected. No Martin or Williams is going to make Glennon's life a tough one, but he's not awful. So the Buccaneers have that going for them.

The prediction: If you think Tampa's offense has any real chance against the Seahawks' defense, in Seattle no less, then you are certifiably insane: 0-8 is a near certainty. The Bucs should just consider themselves lucky if they can get through the week without someone comparing their team to a prison camp.