NFL Week 8 winners and losers: Matthew Stafford deserves MVP consideration
We have all hammered the ‘parity in the NFL’ nail on the head for weeks, but it seems the league just keeps lobbing up softballs. In two straight weeks football fans have had to sit through a tie — both times involving kickers not doing their jobs. But it goes beyond the ties, as there were three games that needed overtime to decide a winner on Sunday and all but one of them provided a convincing winner. The Cowboys beating the Eagles was rather definitive, whereas the Raiders lucked out beating the Bucs following a tie in London between the Bengals and Redskins.
Needless to say, there’s a difference between parity in the NFL and just plain awful football. Sadly, it appears we might be seeing the latter contributing directly to the former as the quality of the NFL hasn’t been this bad since the late 90s.
Before we start looking ahead to Week 9, let’s live outside of the box score a little, since that’s where the real battles are won and lost anyways.
Loser: Mike Zimmer
Two weeks ago, the narrative was that Mike Zimmer is a lock to be Coach of the Year. Two straight losses and Zimmer is paying the price for having a one dimensional team. The defense is one of the best in football, but for the second straight week we saw what happens when a terrible offense can’t offer the run support needed.
Zimmer’s defense will take the Vikings to the playoffs, but a devastating loss to the Bears has tainted the Super Bowl contending gleam Minnesota had not two weeks prior.
Winner: Kansas City Chiefs
Sure, Andy Reid almost got Alex Smith killed on an inexplicable play call, but all is actually really bright in Kansas City. The team has established themselves as the only real threat in the AFC to the New England Patriots, something that not many people seem to be paying attention to.
While the Raiders continue to luck into wins and the Broncos somehow survive without a quarterback, the Chiefs has honed their skills to become the second best team from a quality standpoint in the NFL. The Chiefs could legitimately beat anyone from the NFC, as Minnesota and Dallas seem t be all bark and minimal bite. Atlanta is dangerous but beatable with the Chiefs defense. Justin Houston is coming back from injury, making their defense even scarier with the prospect of facing Tom Brady in the playoffs looking like an inevitability.
Loser: Matthew Stafford
The Lions are 4-4 and a half game behind both New York and Green Bay for the Wild Card in the NFC. Matthew Stafford is leading Detroit to victory without a star running back and without Calvin Johnson. Yet somehow he’s not at all in the legitimate conversation for MVP this year, despite cooking a gourmet meal with the fixings from a Lunchable.
Tom Brady and Matt Ryan are better quarterbacks, but the fact we’re comparing Stafford to those two in the same sentence is proof that he is an MVP candidate. Some people are starting to come around, but the conversation needs to shift harder than it has.
