Week 8 seemed to be the Week of the Underdog with six underdogs winning outright and others covering the spread in dramatic fashion.

Here is a brief overview of the most notable performance from Sunday's action:

Overachieving Team: New Orleans Saints

There were supposed to be a lot of changes in New Orleans this year. With Drew Brees moving on to the broadcast booth, it seemed like the Saints would be in for at least a bit of a transition. But whether it's Taysom Hill, or Jameis Winston, or Trevor Siemian under center, the good times just keep rolling.

The Saints were already 4.5-point underdogs at home against the Buccaneers on Sunday and the deck seemed to be stacked against them even more once Winston went out with a knee injury. The Bucs offense even averaged over two yards per play more than the Saints, but three turnovers proved to be the equalizer.

New Orleans led for almost the entire game, building a 16-point lead, then scoring 10 straight points to end the game after weathering a Tom Brady-led comeback.

With the win on Sunday, the Saints have now started 5-2 or better for each of the last five seasons. The future of this season probably revolves around the status of Winston's knee or at least Hill's concussion, but for now, Sean Payton has the team rolling like always and is probably working his way into the Coach of the Year conversation.

Underachieving Team: Cincinnati Bengals

Entering Sunday, NFL teams favored by more than 7.5 points were 25-0 straight up. The Bengals became the first team to fall on the other side of that ledger after their 34-31 loss at the hands of Mike White and the New York Jets.

Even though the Jets had the game tied at 17 midway through the third quarter, the Bengals didn't seem to be in trouble. This was the team that just dismantled the Ravens in a 41-17 drubbing that propelled Joe Burrow from a fun comeback story to MVP hopeful.

And Burrow did what we expected, leading a pair of touchdown drives to open up an 11-point lead with just 7:36 remaining in regulation. But just as soon as the Bengals took their foot off the gas, the metaphorical car fell off a cliff.

The Jets drove 75 yards for a touchdown, but failed the two-point try, cutting the lead to five. However, the big mistake came on the next play from scrimmage when Burrow was pressured and threw his fifth interception in the last four games. A quick score followed and the Jets never looked back. White threw for 405 yards and three touchdowns before catching the two-point conversion that capped the scoring.

While the Bengals' comeback attempt was thwarted by some questionable officiating, the Bengals' offensive line struggled all afternoon, allowing three sacks and five tackles for loss.

Overachieving Player: Eagles QB Jalen Hurts

Philadelphia spent the past week talking about flowers and a Gardner (Minshew, that is), but Jalen Hurts and company quieted the naysayers with a 44-6 laugher over the winless Detroit Lions. However, Jalen Hurts's arm didn't play much more than a complementary role in the victory.

In fact, the Eagles became just the third team since 2000 to score at least 44 points despite attempting 16 or fewer passes. Pretty impressive for a team that ran the ball at the fifth-lowest clip in the NFL through seven weeks.

However, the way Nick Sirianni deployed his passing game was rather impressive. Through Week 7, it was obvious Hurts was most comfortable throwing to the right side of the field, more specifically, intermediate routes to the right side of the field.

Entering Sunday, Hurts completed 15 of his 21 throws to that spot on the field for 262 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions. And against Detroit, five of his nine completions came on, you guessed it, intermediate throws to his right.

Get this: Hurts was 5-5 for 82 yards throwing to his favorite zone and just 1-5 for 12 yards on every other pass thrown beyond the line of scrimmage.

It's going to be hard for the Eagles to hide Hurts's deficiencies against a defense that doesn't belong to the Detroit Lions, but it was good to see Sirianni design the game plan around his players' strengths for the first time all year.

Underachieving Player: Vikings QB Kirk Cousins

As last week wore on and the health of Dak Prescott's calf deteriorated, the Vikings evolved from a trendy pick to an overwhelming favorite. Surely, Minnesota couldn't lose at home to Cooper Rush.

But “Daytime” Kirk Cousins struggled to move the ball against the Cowboys, averaging just 4.8 yards per pass attempt in the underwhelming loss. Now, a lot of the blame can be assigned to the Vikings coaching staff as well.

Cousins completed five of his seven pass attempts that traveled further than 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Those five completions compiled 124 yards and his lone touchdown. However, the Vikings continued to dial up short passes that were suffocated by the Dallas defense. Those 28 attempts averaged just over two yards per play.

Add in some poor clock management in the closing minutes of the game and it certainly wasn't a great night for Mike Zimmer's crew. However, Cousins is now an astounding 13-30 in games that start after 1:00 PM.

Death, taxes, and Kirk Cousins coming up small in primetime games.

Bad Beat: Los Angeles Rams -16.5

The Rams entered their game against Houston as the biggest favorites of Week 8, laying 16.5 points against the hapless Texans. Through three quarters, Los Angeles backers had to feel good as the Rams marched up and down the field at will, building a 38-point cushion before sending most of their starting units to the bench.

But things got weird in the fourth quarter. Playing with the energy that is normally reserved for the final preseason game, the Rams didn't pick up a single first down on their three possession and netted just 11 yards of offense.

Meanwhile, the Texans transformed into the Greatest Show on Turf, scoring 22 points and earning 246 yards of offense in the process. Houston even decided to go for two after their final touchdown just to make sure it achieved the backdoor cover.

This was the second-straight week that Los Angeles was unable to cover a spread over 16 points.