ARLINGTON, TX – OCTOBER 30: Dallas Cowboys Wide Receiver Terrance Williams (83) leaps on Tight End Jason Witten (82) after Witten catches the game winning touchdown pass during the NFL game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys on October 30, 2016, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. Dallas defeats Philadelphia 29-23 in overtime. (Photo by Andrew Dieb/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

It was the best of football, it was the worst of football: Week 8 of the 2016 NFL season started with the most miserable game of the year, and ended with one of the best.

Somehow, it seems like every Thursday Night Football features the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans, and this one was no different. The Titans, who had been averaging less than 21 points a game, rolled up a 27-0 lead on the miserable Jaguars. Though Garbage Time King Blake Bortles made the 36-22 final score look (almost) respectable, the Jags fired offensive coordinator Greg Olson in the aftermath.

One of the most interesting matchups of the weekend actually came in the early-morning London slot. Washington and Cincinnati made for a test of two talented teams that have been wildly inconsistent this year. We hoped to come away with a clear sense of one team being better than the other. Instead — as practically everyone on Twitter pointed out — we got a fit-for-Britain 27-27 tie.

The Bills made New England Patriots work for it, at least. The game was 14-10 in the second quarter. But Rob Gronkowski scored a #nice touchdown, his 69th:

After that, the kicker for each team took turns hitting an upright on a field goal attempt — but Dan Carpenter’s bounced out and Stephen Gostkowski’s went in, and instead of going into halftime 21-13, it was 24-10. The game went about as everyone expected after that.

The Carolina Panthers, sitting at 1-5 after the bye, were facing a true must-win game against the Arizona Cardinals. Fortunately, their much-abused defense finally delivered a stifling performance. The Cardinals defense could be forgiven for faltering after last week’s war of attrition with Seattle — but they’re sitting at 3-4-1, asking questions about quarterback Carson Palmer for which there may not a happy answer.

The New York Jets needed some good old-fashioned Fitzmagic to beat the Cleveland Browns, which is almost as bad news for the Jets as the Browns. The Houston Texans were able to slow Matthew Stafford and the Lions enough for their meager offense’s 20 points to do the trick.

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Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith left the game twice after taking repeated shots to the head (don’t ask me how that’s possible in this day and age), but the rest of the Chiefs was better than the rest of the Colts for Nick Foles to outduel Andrew Luck, 30-14.

In a result few predicted, the New Orleans Saints successfully defended the Superdome against the incoming Seattle Seahawks. Like the Cardinals, the Seahawks looked beat-up and gassed after their Week 7 marathon; only some great goal-line stands prevented the Saints from winning by a lot more.

The jewel of the early block was our second overtime game of the day: Oakland at Tampa Bay, where Raiders tackle Donald Penn scored a touchdown on his old team, the Raiders set the single-game NFL record for penalties levied against them and Derek Carr set the franchise single-game record for passing yardage before sealing the deal with the legendary Two-Buc Chuck:

About Ty Schalter

Ty Schalter is thrilled to be part of The Comeback. A member of the Pro Football Writers of America, Ty also works as an NFL columnist for Bleacher Report and VICE Sports, and regular host for Sirius XM’s Bleacher Report Radio. In another life, he was an IT cubicle drone with a pretentious Detroit Lions blog.