6 Things I Learned From Week 8 of the NFL Season

Don't Sleep on the Cardinals

The Cardinals now have a two-game cushion in what was once considered the best division in football, beating the Eagles in Arizona on Sunday. They're doing it with backup quarterbacks, injured cornerbacks - it doesn't matter. Bruce Arians has his squad rolling.

Carson Palmer was good, not great, against Philadelphia, but made a timely throw to his little wideout, John Brown, towards the end of regulation. The in-game inconsistency will occur for Palmer under Bruce Arians' vertical attack, but in the end, the passing game is usually fine. Palmer finished yesterday with a Passing NEP of 9.51, outproducing his opponent, Nick Foles, by about 8 expected points. There's your difference in the game right there.

One worrisome area for the Cardinals moving forward has to be their pass defense. Not only because Patrick Peterson suffered a concussion yesterday, but because the unit ranked 20th against the pass entering the week. Opportunistic plays and a solid rush defense has helped make the entire defensive unit a top-10 one though.

We should fully expect the Cardinals to continue their strong play, especially as we watch their divisional rivals, Seattle, play relatively mediocre football.