Can the Broncos push the Chiefs? It it over for the tush push? Our experts’ Week 8 takeaways

By Ted Nguyen, Dan Pompei and Michael Silver

Each Sunday, three of The Athletic’s NFL writers react to the biggest news, plays and performances from the day’s games.

Wait, the tush push caused a controversy? Yup. Drake Maye and the Patriots piled up points in an impressive win? Also yup. The Falcons’ offense looked out of sorts, the Saints struggled to get in the end zone and the Cowboys failed to keep their opponent out of it? Check, check and check.

But everything wasn’t comfortable and familiar in Week 8. The Jets won.

NFL writers Ted Nguyen, Dan Pompei and Michael Silver share their thoughts on a week in which several heavyweights regained their footing, while at least one bottom dweller finally rose up.

The Broncos have now scored 77 points over their last five quarters and are 6-2. Can they challenge the Chiefs’ run of nine straight AFC West titles?

Silver: With that defense … yes, they can. And, as the 77-points-in-five-quarters stat illustrates, Sean Payton’s offense is starting to pick it up, too. After manhandling the Cowboys Sunday by a 44-24 score, the Broncos have a one-game lead on the Chargers (5-3), who defeated them in L.A. last month. And they’re a game-and-a-half ahead of the revitalized Chiefs (4-3), who host the Commanders Monday night. Denver has two games remaining against K.C. and hosts the Chargers on the final weekend of the regular season. There’s a lot still to be decided, but it’s tough to imagine the Broncos not being in the mix come January.

It is completely understandable that a team quarterbacked by Patrick Mahomes and coached by Andy Reid would be considered the prohibitive favorite to win its division (and more); this is what always seems to happen. Yet the Broncos, quietly, are becoming a force. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, whose job was seemingly in jeopardy after Denver gave up 70 points (!!!) to the Dolphins a little more than two years ago, has authored one of the great comeback stories in recent memory. His unit is a force. And Payton has helped second-year quarterback Bo Nix become a productive player and commendable leader at a very early stage. These Broncos are legit.

Pompei: The Broncos are a balanced team that can win games in different ways — arguably the most balanced in the division. They showed it Sunday against the Cowboys as Nix threw four touchdown passes, they rushed for 179 yards and the defense came up with two interceptions against a quarterback who had been in the MVP conversation. It’s difficult to envision the Broncos falling out of contention for the AFC West title. But the Chiefs still are the Chiefs, and they are trending up. The Chargers also will have a say in the division. The AFC West almost certainly will be decided over the last two weeks of the season, when the Broncos play the Chiefs and Chargers.

Nguyen: I still have questions about Nix and how much he can develop. It’s extremely difficult to compete with this version of the Chiefs without a top-10 quarterback, even with an elite defense. Nix was struggling until the final quarter against the Giants last week, and even within that quarter I didn’t think he was particularly impressive as a passer, as the Giants allowed him to dink and dunk and run against soft coverage. He played a much cleaner game against the Cowboys and took advantage of their weak secondary, which was even weaker because of injuries. It also helped that the Broncos dominated on the ground, averaging more than six yards per carry. Nix did throw some beauties downfield. I’m not trying to minimize what he’s done, but if the question is whether the Broncos can challenge the Chiefs, so far, I haven’t seen enough from Nix to believe that. With two games against the Chiefs ahead of them, Nix will have opportunities to shut me up.

Against a strong Browns defense, the Patriots piled up 32 points and 422 yards while winning their fifth straight. What’s their ceiling this season?

Pompei: Beating the 2-6 Browns isn’t cause for a parade, but the Patriots have been wonderful, one of the feel-good stories of the season, and a tribute to sound coaching, player development and a young quarterback who has played like a veteran. Their schedule is friendly (only two of their remaining opponents are above .500), and a playoff berth seems reasonable. They surely can keep it going if they stay healthy, but they could be more vulnerable to injuries than most teams because their depth is questionable. Either way, the future is bright for this team.

Nguyen: The most encouraging part about the win was that they found ways to run on a Browns defense that hasn’t given up more than 109 rushing yards all season and had yielded only two 100-yard games in seven weeks. The Patriots ran for 177 yards. Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniel finally got rookie TreVeyon Henderson involved on perimeter runs. Quarterback Drake Maye also contributed with his legs, running for 50 yards. The offense has shown it can produce in different ways and can adjust to different defenses. Maye is still learning McDaniels’ offense, but he’s already producing like a top-10 quarterback. The Patriots’ ceiling, though, will depend on how much their defense progresses. They spent a lot of money on that side of the ball, but they’ve dealt with injury issues. They have an elite defensive tackle and corner duo. Can they trot out a consistent playoff-caliber defense to complement the offense?

Silver: Their ceiling is the playoffs — and, given Mike Vrabel’s track record, a chance to win a game or two in the postseason. The Patriots’ schedule is suitably soft, and thus far they’ve only suffered a pair of 7-point defeats (one, remarkably, to the Raiders in Week 1; another to the Steelers). Only two of their remaining nine games are against teams that appear reasonably formidable: the Buccaneers and the Bills (whom the Patriots have already beaten, on the road). I’m not saying Vrabel’s team will definitely continue to win games against lesser opponents, or that it’s all that great in Year 1, but the Patriots will keep competing —and, presumably, keep improving as the season goes on.

Should the recent officiating issues convince NFL owners to ban the tush push once and for all?

Silver: I mean … it’s tough to make a case for not banning it. Missing the obvious false starts is one thing; on Sunday, officials somehow allowed the Eagles to convert a fourth-down play even after the Giants’ Kayvon Thibodeaux ripped the football from Jalen Hurts’ hands. Hurts wasn’t down, and no whistle had sounded. Yet the officials allowed the conversion to stand, citing the fact that the quarterback’s forward progress had been stopped. Conversely, officials tend to allow the Eagles’ offense to keep pushing forward in such contexts, long after one might expect a play to be whistled dead. I understand the optics of banning a play that can’t be stopped, a play relied on by a team that won the most recent Super Bowl and has a chance to compete for another. That said, I believe we have reached an inflection point. The Brotherly Shove will likely be shoved out of the rulebook after the 2025 season.

Nguyen: The Eagles shouldn’t get punished for the league’s inability to properly officiate the play. Would officials miss false starts or improperly call forward progress if the Eagles just ran normal QB sneaks? Some offensive tackles get a jump on their pass sets because they know the snap count, and that’s hard to officiate, too. I don’t see how changing the formation would make officials better at officiating it. The Eagles would likely still be the best QB sneak team in the league regardless of the formation.

Pompei: It was one thing when defenses couldn’t handle the tush push. It’s another thing now that officials can’t handle it either. In the offseason, two more votes from owners would have killed it. As of Sunday, it’s officially on life support. The Eagles have probably gotten away with at least three false starts on tush pushes this season. Nobody wants to see a critical game — especially a postseason game — decided on a questionable tush push call. The problem with the tush push is it’s become a weekly topic of conversation, and not in a good way. It’s time for it to go.

Are Aaron Glenn’s Jets turning the corner after a dramatic comeback win against the Bengals? Is owner Woody Johnson actually a master motivator?

Silver: Trash your quarterback publicly, only to watch him respond by putting up 39 points and engineering a stirring fourth-quarter comeback from a 15-point deficit, on the road? Yes, Woody, you’re an accidental genius, or something like that. In a game that will likely improve Justin Fields’ flagging Madden rating, the Jets showed some serious heart and gave Aaron Glenn his first victory as a head coach. To Johnson’s credit, he apparently (according to him) gives Glenn regular hugs and tells his rookie coach, “I believe in you.” Basically, it’s the opposite of how the owner treats Fields, who likely would have been benched had backup Tyrod Taylor not been hobbled by a knee injury. You can’t make this stuff up, but hey, Jets fans are used to it. They — along with the players and coaches, and especially Fields — deserve to enjoy this moment. Whether this is the start of something good remains to be seen, but at least it’s something.

Pompei: The game ball for this one should go to Glenn, not Johnson. What Woody said had been said a million times by sports talkers, social media posters and fans in every section of MetLife Stadium. Words don’t win games. Coaches, quarterbacks and running backs do, and it was an amazing comeback victory for the Jets without two of their best, cornerback Sauce Gardner and receiver Garrett Wilson. It is possible that Glenn’s messages and methods finally are beginning to resonate with his team. It’s also possible the Jets will be a better second-half team than they have been in the first, but they need to clean it up defensively.

Nguyen: It was a great game for Fields and the Jets offense, but Glenn, who is a defensive coach, has to make his presence felt on that side of the ball. We know Fields is explosive, but he can be great in one game and put up a stinker in the next. They also strangely came back from a two-score deficit by running the ball rather than throwing it. They rushed for 181 yards in the second half. The Jets’ defense was shredded again today, giving up 398 yards and nearly eight yards per rush. They get credit for stiffening up toward the end, but they were terrible for most of the game. This isn’t the type of offense that you want in shootouts every week. A win like this could create some positive momentum, but it came after a strange week, with Glenn seemingly ready to bench Fields only for Taylor to not be able to go. A win is a win, but I’m not sure how much this one tells us about Glenn or his team.

The Ravens finally looked like themselves in a win over the Bears and could get Lamar Jackson back as soon as Thursday night. Do they still have hope to save their season?

Nguyen: Yes. The Steelers dropping a game against the Bengals on Thursday night of Week 7 was huge, and then the Ravens went and got a win with Tyler Huntley starting at quarterback. The rest of their schedule is favorable and Jackson should be back. They seem to have figured out some things on defense during the bye week. I loved the trade for safety Alohi Gilman. He’s a smart DB who can play deep and allow Baltimore to move Kyle Hamilton closer to the line of scrimmage. The run defense looked a lot better against a Bears team that has been running wild over the past couple of weeks. If Baltimore’s defense can at least play at an average level, the offense with Jackson can still be elite. With two games against the Steelers left, the Ravens control their own destiny. We’ll see how serious they are this Thursday against a potentially explosive Miami offense.

Pompei: ​​The Ravens are playing better on defense, which is where it’s always started for them. And they have the potential to play better still on that side of the ball. They have a solid roster and are well coached. It will be a surprise if they don’t continue the turnaround. They can and should go on a tear against five consecutive opponents with sub-.500 records. Then they will have a chance to prove themselves at the end of the regular season with games against the Steelers, Bengals, Patriots, Packers and Steelers. If Jackson and Derrick Henry play like they did a year ago, the Ravens will be in the playoff picture.

Silver: Because they’re the Ravens, my answer is: Absolutely. This franchise and head coach have a track record of playing meaningful games in December and January, and with a transcendent player like Jackson, there’s a lot of internal belief that they can make a run and elevate when it matters. Losing Sunday (with Huntley at QB) would have put Baltimore in a tenuous position. Now — beginning Thursday night in Miami — the Ravens can envision a viable path to AFC North contention. They finish the season against the Steelers in Pittsburgh. By then, we might be watching a pair of playoff teams vying for a division title.

Is Kirk Cousins done? Should his performance on Sunday end the talk of him being a veteran option at the trade deadline?

Pompei: Cousins’ performance against a Dolphins defense that has been one of the worst in the NFL will give pause to teams considering a trade for him. There is a trend here, which should not be surprising given Cousins is 37. But it’s not likely that he lost all his abilities since playing well for the Vikings in 2023 before tearing his Achilles. More opportunities for Cousins probably would equate to an elevated performance, but opportunities are unlikely to present themselves in Atlanta, assuming Michael Penix Jr. is ready to play next week against the Patriots.

Silver: Weirdly — and this clashes with the opinions of many NFL coaches and talent evaluators — I’m going to say no. Granted, the Falcons’ offense was completely flaccid against the Dolphins, and Cousins looked nothing like the quarterback who was playing at a productive level for the 2023 Vikings. Yet, as a rebuttal, I’d offer two words: Joe Flacco. At 40, he looked completely cooked while playing for the Browns early in the season. Then he got traded to the Bengals and completely revived their offense, which had been brutal with Jake Browning running the show. So yes, if you’re the Vikings, and you don’t believe J.J. McCarthy or Carson Wentz can get you to the playoffs, you’re still thinking about a potential Cousins reunion.

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