NFL snap judgements, week eight: Not even Aaron Rodgers can stop the Rams and Patrick Mahomes moves into gold jacket company

It was all about the NFC this week, as two favourites put their Super Bowl credentials on prominent display, and two outsiders showed why it's far too early to start crowning champions.

The LA Rams and New Orleans Saints will both be major factors and January, that we know, but the Carolina Panthers and even the Seattle Seahawks could be primed to make a deep run - and it's still too early to count out the Eagles.

In the AFC, and the Patrick Mahomes Show continues to dominate the schedule. Yet more records tumbled this weekend, and the young firebrand now finds himself in truly elite company. If he doesn't slow down he's in danger of walking the race for league MVP, in just his first season as a starter.

With the Patriots and Bills left to play on Monday night (and come on, we all know how that's going to end), here's what we learned in NFLweek eight - as we draw close to halfway in the season.

The Rams are a championship-calibre team, but showed their first sign of weakness

The Packers started the game doing everything right. Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams were pounding the ball effectively on the ground and the defense was bottling up Todd Gurley, opening the night by forcing four straight punts. At 10-0 down, the Rams found themselves trailing by double digits for the first time this season. They rallied, but up just 29-27, with time left on the clock in the fourth quarter and no option but to punt the ball back into Aaron Rodgers, it looked as if the writing might be on the wall for their unbeaten season.

That's when LA proved they are championship material. Green Bay never got the chance to put the ball back in Rodgers' hands. Instead, the Rams forced a fumble on Ty Montgomery's kick return - one coach Mike McCarthy said he was never supposed to attempt - and Todd Gurley showed ultimate composure on the resulting downs, opting to run down the clock and ice the game instead of score an easy touchdown. 8-0.

That's the sign of a great team - stopping the opponent's greatest strength before it's even got out the gates and coming up big in those clutch moments. On Sunday night the Rams looked beatable for the first time this season, and a team like the Saints could certainly come to LA and win, but they also showed they have the desire and sense to hoist the Lombardi in February should they make it to Atlanta.

The Saints are definitely good enough to challenge them

No late hoodoo for the Saints this time. They looked comfortably the better team in a 30-20 victory over the Vikings in Minnesota, and that's without Drew Brees even playing very well.

The Saints essentially went dink and dunk, Brees finishing the game with just 120 yards passing, one score and his first interception of the season. Their longest completion of the game actually came from back-up QB Taysom Hill, who found Michael Thomas on a 44-yard bomb. But the Saints played smart, and for once it was the defense which really secured the win.

First PJ Williams forced Adam Thielen to fumble. The ball was recovered by Marshon Lattimore and turning into the points which gave the Saints a 17-13 lead. In the third quarter Williams came up big again, picking off a Kirk Cousins pass which Stefon Diggs really should have caught and taking it 45 yards to the house. That was basically that.

We're used to the Saints' explosive offense blowing the doors off and making up for a troublesome D. While Sunday night's win wasn't quite as fun as usual, it might be more encouraging for New Orleans. This is a near-complete team who can beat you in a multitude of ways. 

The Panthers are a real player in the NFC

The big question ahead of the Ravens' visit to Carolina was how Cam Newton would deal with the best defense in the NFL. The answer? Extremely impressively. The Panthers put up 36 points - outdoing the 34 Cincinnati managed in week two - and totally controlled the game after the Ravens scored a touchdown on their opening drive.

Newton went 21/29 for 219 yards and two touchdowns through the air, and picked up another 52 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Christian McCaffrey had one rushing and one receiving touchdown and rookie receiver DJ Moore had his best game in a Panthers shirt. He led the team with 90 yards receiving and added 39 yards on the ground with some well-orchestrated jet sweeps.

This was the Panthers' most complete performance of the season, and a statement win which forces people to take them serious as a real contender in the NFC. The defense had three takeaways and a number of big stops as they outdid their Baltimore counterparts. Next up is Tampa Bay at home, and a great chance to move to 6-2 on the season.

And the Seahawks are a sneaky wildcard shout

Seahawks fans fully expected this season to be a disaster. And yet. Seattle put in a complete performance on the road on Detroit, coming away with a 28-14 win and a whole bunch of confidence, both inside and outside their building.

Russell Wilson again flourished with a reduced workload, completing 14 of 17 passes for 248 yards and three touchdowns to three different receivers. The running game continued to be a real strength - Chris Carson rushed for more than 100 yards and a score - and the defense recorded two sacks and a pick, frequently limiting Matthew Stafford to long shots down the field. I'm convinced these Seahawks are capable of doing some business in the playoffs, and that's not something I would have said four weeks ago.

On the other side, Stafford and Marvin Jones found their chemistry. Stafford found Jones on two beautiful, flighted touchdown passes, but Seattle stifled Kerryon Johnson, which ultimately proved key. The impressive rookie running back managed just 22 yards on the ground after his record 158-yard game last week.

Patrick Mahomes is almost impossibly good

There have been four instances of an NFL quarterback throwing 25+ touchdowns over their first eight games of the season: Tom Brady in 2007, Peyton Manning in 2013, Peyton Manning in 2004 and... Patrick Mahomes in 2018. In each of those three seasons Brady and Manning won the league MVP award, and both are first-ballot Hall of Famers.

To put it simply, Mahomes is emulating some of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game in the primes of their careers... in his first season as a starter. The Chiefs gunslinger threw for four touchdowns for the fifth time in eight games in a 303-yard performance, driving his team to a 30-23 divisional win over the Broncos, who gave Kansas City another really good game.

Mahomes now has eight career wins, three of which have come against Denver. They must be sick at the sight of him already. Oh well, only another couple of decades of playing him twice a season to come...

The Steelers don't really need Le'Veon Bell

It seems a ridiculous thing to say - how could Pittsburgh not need maybe the best running back in the league? But that's how well James Conner is playing right now. Against the Browns he became the first player in Steelers history to record two or more rushing touchdowns in three straight games, and he now has more than 400 scrimmage yards in two games against Cleveland this season.

Conner finished with 212 total yards and two scores, and Ben Roethlisberger connected with Antonio Brown for two more as Pittsburgh made sure there would be no repeat of week one's overtime farce.

In truth the 33-18 scoreline flattered the Browns a little. Six of those points came from a Seth DeValve touchdown in garbage time, and with that everyone's lingering hopes of an unlikely Browns run into January can be well and truly put to bed.

The Eagles should still be favourites in the NFC East

No one in Philadelphia is happy with being 4-4, but on Sunday they overcame the London Effect and a couple of early Jags takeaways to snap Jacksonville's three-game winning streak here on our shores. That leaves them just a game and a half back in the Washington Redskins, who were workmanlike in putting away the woeful New York Giants.

While Washington are sitting pretty at 5-2 it's worrying how much their offense relies on 33-year-old Adrian Peterson. Peterson had a whopping 26 carries for 149 yards, and if it weren't for his 64-yard roll-back-the-years type touchdown run the Redskins could have found themselves in a far closer game than the Giants ever deserved. Meanwhile Alex Smith threw for just 178 yards, and no receiver went over 50.

The Eagles look a pale imitation of last season's Super Bowl champions, but in Carson Wentz and that front seven they have too much quality not to sort things out in the second half of the season. I fully believe they'll be retaining their NFC East crown come December.

The Jaguars are too flawed to make a playoff run

Sticking with that game in London briefly, and the Jaguars showed once again that their problems extend beyond just Blake Bortles. Bortles was Jacksonville's run game at Wembley - he rushed for 47 yards to Carlos Hyde and TJ Yeldon's combined 18 - and the defense failed time and time again to stop Wentz on third down.

A Telvin Smith fumble recovery and a Jalen Ramsey interception in the end zone flattered to deceive in the first quarter - we're no longer residing in Sacksonville, and this Jags defense isn't a patch on that young, hungry unit which almost made it to a Super Bowl last season.

The Texans look far more complete in the AFC South through week eight, and you can even make the argument that the Colts have more to offer. Something needs to change in Jacksonville, and they have about a week to make it happen.

Jameis Winston could be done in Tampa Bay

Jameis Winston's off-field behaviour makes it very hard to route for him. His on-field play isn't doing much for his case either. Winston threw four interceptions - most of them inexcusable - before being benched for Ryan Fitzpatrick against the Bengals, and you have to wonder whether that might be that for him in Tampa. Right now the problems certainly seem to outweigh the positives.

Fitzpatrick turned on the Fitzmagic and very nearly snatched the unlikeliest of wins for the Bucs. Down by 18 at one point, Fitzpatrick threw a touchdown pass to OJ Howard late in the fourth quarter, then made the two-point conversion to tie the game at 34-34 with just over a minute left.

In the end it wasn't quite enough. Andy Dalton got the Bengals into field goal range and Randy Bullock knocked it between the uprights at time expired, moving Cincinnati to 5-3 on the season and keeping them in the AFC North hunt.

Elsewhere in the NFL

• The Colts still have a shot in the AFC South. They traded blows with the Raiders before eventually running away 42-28 winners, and moved to 3-5, two games back from the Texans. Marlon Mack starred again for Indy, rushing for 132 yards and two scores, while Andrew Luck had another very nice game (239 yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions). The Colts are still relevant. Watch this space.

• The Bears defense looked far less formidable without the injured Khalil Mack, but Chicago still easily had enough to down the limp New York Jets. Jordan Howard punished New York on the ground and Tarik Cohen had yet another of those runs that make him look like he's being controlled with a joystick - this time a 70-yard touchdown reception from Mitchell Trubisky. Sam Darnold and the Jets struggled to move the ball, and it's now safe to say they won't be a factor in the AFC playoff race.

• A battle between two 1-6 teams looked like... exactly that as the Cardinals edged past the 49ers in Arizona. Josh Rosen led a game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter to ensure Byron Leftwich's tenure as offensive coordinator started with a win. Arizona move to a heady 2-6, with both those wins coming against San Francisco.