Welcome to Glass Slipper! Let’s see if the Yankees have any fight left in them; please enjoy the show.

- Jacob Rhee

Here are my 10 biggest takeaways from Week 8 of the NFL season.

1. A man with class.

I don’t always love his playcalling decisions, but I was kind of blown away by how Kevin O’Connell handled that missed face mask call in the postgame presser. I don’t know if I can name a coach in professional sports that would’ve been so calm and mature, minutes after getting jobbed like that. I’m starting to understand why his Minnesota rosters tend to overachieve.

2. Let me have this.

I think the Ravens have a great chance to lift the Lombardi Trophy in 103 days, so I need to enjoy their rare losses until then. Watching Lamar Jackson spike his helmet after a game against Jameis Winston was objectively hilarious.

3. Allow me to repeat myself.

I said it after Week 3, and I’ll say it again. Malik Willis deserves a chance to be a full-time starter in this league.

What a luxury for Matt LaFleur. Green Bay got Willis for a seventh-round pick, by the way. That’s proving to be nothing short of a heist.

4. Unfathomable.

It’s 2021, and Aaron Rodgers is securing his second consecutive MVP. Davante Adams is the best wide receiver on the planet, Garrett Wilson is lighting up the Big Ten, and Breece Hall is about to show up on Heisman ballots. Imagine telling a football fan in that moment that all of those guys would play together in three years. Then, inform them that the superteam sucks. It would seem impossible, and yet it’s true.

5. The Baker Mayfield problem.

Baker’s fiery style is the source of both his success and his mistakes. He’ll rip five good throws in a row, and you can literally start to sense his confidence bubbling out of control. You know an interception is coming, where he inevitably tries to fit a ball into some impossible window.

Mayfield’s personality has made him somewhat of a social media darling, but this man does not deserve that $100 million deal. He’s had two good years out of six.

6. A wasted campaign.

Joe Burrow is older than you think. Including 2024, he probably has five more seasons at the absolute peak of his powers. The Bengals are taking one of those years and hurling it into the sun right now.

Cincinnati tried to replenish a championship-level secondary through the draft, and it’s completely backfired. Michigan man DJ Turner is fast, and that’s about it. Fellow Wolverine Dax Hill tore his ACL, and he’s bad at football anyway. Cam Taylor-Britt is supposedly the CB1, but he likes talking more than covering. Joe deserves better.

7. “Whoa, he has trouble with the snap!”

I will always laugh when a Jim Harbaugh punt operation makes a mistake. Always. Until the end of time. You know why.

8. Rookie magic.

First of all, let’s give a shoutout to Caleb Williams. He completed 10 of 24 passes with zero touchdowns, but that was his most impressive performance as a pro. Getting clamped for 43 minutes and having the will to come alive down the stretch is such an encouraging sign to me. Bo Nix has earned some attention, too. 28 of 37 for 284 yards and 4 total touchdowns, with no turnovers. Sean Payton really believes in him, and maybe that feeling is justified.

This is all about Jayden Daniels, though. The guy is the best rookie QB of my lifetime, and he’s a legitimate factor in the MVP race. That Hail Mary was obviously more luck than anything, but there’s just something special about Jayden. DC sports fans have been tortured for a long time; a hero has arrived.

9. The Cowboys are broken.

The issues in Dallas stretch far beyond the hole at running back or the injuries on defense. To be quite frank, these dudes just don’t play hard. It feels like that infamous loss to the Packers destroyed the spirit in the building.

Jerry Jones better have a plan to fix this thing in the offseason. If he doesn’t, we’ll watch the Cowboys sink into full irrelevancy in 2025.

10. Time to peek ahead.

There are so many good matchups in Week 9. Two days from now, we’ll see if CJ Stroud can deliver a knockout blow to the Jets. Dallas heads to Atlanta and Miami is in Orchard Park, with both of the road squads essentially in must-win situations.

Perhaps the best game occurs in Lambeau. The Lions and Packers will battle for the top spot in the NFL’s best division. Here we go.

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