NFL Week Five has come to a close, and we have plenty of storylines to cover as we wrap up the fifth weekend of NFL football. Divisional woes, QB questions, and team regressions headline the news from NFL Week Five. Here are some (potential) overreactions to the fifth slate.
One of the funniest stats that I have ever seen came out of the NFC East this weekend: None of the teams in that division won in a week where two of them played each other. The chaos of the East has been well documented in recent years, as repeat champs have been few and far between.
It started on Thursday night, when the Cowboys looked for an easy victory at home against a 0-4 Buccaneers team without their starting QB. That didn’t quite go to plan, as Dallas was thrashed on national TV by rookie Jalon Daniels and Bucky Irving. A loss that led to a viral video where an AT&T Stadium employee called Dak Prescott “embarrassing”.
On Sunday morning, the Eagles blew a lead late to the Jaguars in London. That game featured a brawl on the opening kickoff, only 22 rushing yards from a Saquon Barkley-less Eagles offense, and a game-winning field goal off the leg of Cam Little.
Then, in a game where the Giants and Commanders played each other in Landover, we saw the first tie game of the 2026 season. Both offenses played pretty well, but the Giants fumbled the ball away in overtime, looking like it would lead to an easy Commanders field goal. A gaffe from Jayden Daniels led to the game clock expiring, and the game ended in a tie. Both teams seemed frustrated and dumbfounded by the game overall.
The first three weeks of the season were lackluster, to say the least, for a Patriots team coming off an AFC Championship. They looked particularly bad on offense, especially against Seattle and Jacksonville, with a lot of the blame being placed on QB Drake Maye. He threw six interceptions those first three weeks, after throwing only eight all of last year.
Thankfully for patriots fans, he has seemed to wake up from his slumber these last two weeks, having impressive showings in wins over the Bills and Raiders. After the six interceptions in three weeks, he has thrown just one in two. His overall performance has jumped too, as he is throwing for more yards and touchdowns now compared to earlier. Seven of his eight passing touchdowns came against the Raiders and Bills, and his best performance of the season, by far, came in their 45-17 rout over Las Vegas.
The Raiders and Browns were certainly the two most surprising teams, at least record-wise, in the first few weeks of the season. The Raiders started undefeated at 3-0, and even their first loss to Kansas City came in a very close 30-27 game. Kirk Cousins looked like he was back to his prime, and the defense was playing pretty well. That was blown up Sunday, as they were smacked around from the jump by a resurgent Patriots team. Cousins was benched later in the game in favor of rookie Fernando Mendoza, who the Raiders were undoubtedly trying to get reps in an already-lost game. Some of this could be attributed to the combined records of the Raiders’ first three opponents being 1-14.
The Browns’ trajectory has been a little different, but their early success has certainly been surprising, as unsustainable as it may look. They started with an early blowout loss to Jacksonville, before ripping off three straight wins in which much-maligned QB Deshaun Watson looked good on the field. Then, on Sunday, they lost to a Jets team that has looked bad, in a game where Cleveland couldn’t get anything going on offense. They will have a very challenging game next week when they face Baltimore.
Los Angeles lost in a thriller to Buffalo on Monday Night Football. That loss dropped the Rams, a team that had a lot of people questioning if they would lose a single game, down to 2-3 on the season. This team has a lot of questions about what is going wrong and how they can fix it. It needs to start on the defensive side of the ball. In their losses, they are averaging almost 30 points allowed. That is not going to consistently get the job done, even if you have a high-powered offense like the Rams clearly do.
While there is an asterisk, as they are missing Myles Garrett, there is enough star power on that defense to have better performances. That defensive struggle was highlighted Monday, when the Rams were constantly playing from behind. To their credit, they were able to counterpunch almost every time the Bills scored, but that puts a lot of stress on an offense, especially on Matthew Stafford, who was forced to throw the ball 54 times.
For a few seasons, really since Matt Ryan left, the Falcons have desperately missed stability at the quarterback position. This season has not been much different, but really only because of the injuries to Michael Penix Jr. When Penix has been on the field, he has looked like the answer, as he led the Falcons to 35- and 45-point outbursts in his two full starts against Green Bay and New Orleans. His absence was definitely felt when he had to exit the game Sunday night against Baltimore with a rib injury, as backup Tua Tagovailoa came in and almost immediately threw a game-sealing interception. Now, the Falcons will have to wait and see if their clear #1 QB can get and stay consistently healthy, something that Penix has not been able to do throughout his entire football career.
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