NFL Week 5 is in the books! Our week 5 recap lays bare how good Super Bowl 50 participants Denver and Carolina really are. Some teams showed that they are ready to be forces in the league while other teams continued to struggle. Keep reading for a write-up of every Week 5 NFL game!
Editor’s Note: Check out our NFL Week 5 Picks by Matt Ross and the Week 5 Betting Preview DS Williamson
NFL Betting – Regular Season Week 5 Recap
Arizona Cardinals 33, San Francisco 49’ers 21
As to be expected, the Arizona Cardinals easily covered the -3.5 spread as a road favorite versus the San Francisco 49’ers in Thursday night’s NFL game. Arizona was terrific after a 7 to 7 halftime score. The Cardinals made the necessary adjustments to outscore San Francisco 14 to 0 in the 3rd quarter and 12 to 7 in the 4th quarter.
Both teams had their rushing attacks going. Arizona rushed 37 times for 175 yards. 157 of those rushing yards came from David Johnson. San Francisco rushed the ball 36 times for 151 yards. 78 of their rushing yards came from Carlos Hyde. Is this a sign that Arizona has turned it around? We shall see!
New England 33, Cleveland 13
Tom Brady came back with a vengeance. Arguably the greatest quarterback to ever play threw for 406 yards and 3 TD passes. He was amazing. He even got named the AFC Offensive player of the Week. The Patriots also rushed for 98 yards. Cleveland may have lost another QB in Cody Kessler although Cleveland coach Hue Jackson says that Kessler looks to be okay for Sunday’s game versus Tennessee.
Philadelphia 23, Detroit 24
Philadelphia lost its first game of the season in Week 5. The good news for Philly fans is that the Eagles allowed Detroit to score only 3 points in the second half of this game. Philadelphia should be a better team because of that.
Detroit played well on defense. On offense, Matthew Stafford didn’t force any passes. He played well within himself. I think both teams got a lot out of this game.
Chicago 23, Indianapolis 29
The Colts are the first team this season to have exposed Chicago’s secondary. Indianapolis QB Andrew Luck threw for 322 yards and 2 touchdowns. Chicago isn’t very good at stopping the rush. If the secondary has fallen apart, the Bears could be in huge trouble.
Chicago’s offense played better in Week 5 as Brian Hoyer looked great when throwing for 397 yards and 2 TDs without a pick, RB Jordan Howard rushed 16 times for 118 yards. He caught 3 passes for 45 yards and a TD.
Tennessee 30, Miami 17
This game was all about Tennessee’s rushing offense. The Titans rushed for 235 yards. They averaged a ridiculous 5.7 yards per carry against Miami’s defense.
Miami’s offense, for the second straight week, sputtered. If Miami can’t outscore teams, they aren’t going to be close to either winning games or covering spreads. The Dolphins’ defense is that bad.
Washington Redskins 16, Baltimore Ravens 10
In one of the more obvious potential upsets of Week 5, Washington came through with a nice 16 to 10 road win over Baltimore. Washington has now won 3 games in a row after being embarrassed by Pittsburgh in Week 1 and losing to Dallas in Week 2.
QB Kirk Cousins completed over 70% of his passes for the second straight game. Cousins threw only 1 TD to an interception, but he’s proving that Coach Gruden made the right choice by going with Cousins instead of RGIII.
Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh fired offensive coordinator Marc Trestman after the loss. Trestman, who used to be the head coach at Chicago, could never get an offense to play well with a healthy QB in Joe Flacco and talented wide receivers. Harbaugh has every right to make the change. Plus, it worked for Rex Ryan in Buffalo, right?
Houston Texans 13, Minnesota Vikings 31
Rumor has it that the Texans offense is too difficult for QB Brock Osweiler to grasp. I don’t really understand that since the Texans’ offense should be fairly simple. Hand the ball off to Lamar Miller and throw it to Will Fuller and DeAndre Hopkins…easy! Okay, not that easy. Houston lost to the best team in the NFL.
The Minnesota Vikings have a Rich Gannon type QB in Sam Bradford. They have excellent wide receivers, an underrated rushing attack, and the best defense in the NFL. They also have coaches that, in most cases, are more experienced and better managers than any other coaching staff. That’s why the Vikings remain undefeated.
New York Jets 13, Pittsburgh Steelers 31
The Jets are in trouble. The good news is that Ryan Fitzpatrick didn’t throw an interception. He only threw 1 TD but he completed over 65% of his passes. His QB rating going up to over 90 is a huge accomplishment. His QB rating in the Jets’ last game was around 54. But that doesn’t mean the Jets are going anywhere this season. J-E-T-S is 1 and 4 straight up. The defense is horrible. It’s allowing over 300 passing yards per game.
For Pittsburgh, Sammie Coates was a revelation. Big Ben threw for 380 yards and 4 TD passes. Coates had 139 of the 380 yards. He also scored 2 TDs. With Coates now playing opposite the unreal Antonio Brown, and Le’Veon Bell firmly entrenched as the RB, it’s hard to see any team stopping the Steelers from putting up 30 every week.
Atlanta Falcons 23, Denver Broncos 16
Are the Falcons for real? I’m not so sure. Not yet. Yes, the defense was terrific when holding Denver to only 16 points. But the Broncos’ offense started rookie Paxton Lynch. Lynch will improve after throwing an interception and only completing 23 out of 35 passes.
The biggest news in this game was how the Falcons stuck to the run. Atlanta only rushed for 3.8 yards per carry average. The Falcons rushed for 122 yards from 32 carries.
The Falcons took a long look at how Denver beat the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50. They pretty much tried to emulate what the Broncos did to the Panthers. It worked. We’ll see if it works this week at Citi Field when the Falcons battle the Seattle Seahawks. If it does, I’ll say that Atlanta is for real.
Cincinnati Bengals 14, Dallas Cowboys 28
One team that’s definitely for real are the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys offense has come together. It’s all about the rookies in Big D. QB Dak Prescott completes 69% of his passes. He’s completed 70% or more of his passes since Week 1. Prescott has only thrown 4 TD passes. But, he’s rushed for 3 touchdowns and he hasn’t thrown an interception.
Rookie RB Ezekiel Elliott had an 8.9 per carry average versus the Cincinnati Bengal’s defense. Elliott rushed for 134 yards from 15 carries. Elliott has rushed for 272 yards while scoring 2 TDs in Dallas’s last 2 games.
I guess the light bulb didn’t go off for Cincinnati after their 22 to 7 win over Miami in Week 4. The Bengals looked terrible versus the Cowboys. WR A.J. Green caught 4 of 8 targets for 50 yards. WR Brandon LaFell had a much better game but it wasn’t nearly good enough.
Defensively, the Bengals gave up 180 total rushing yards to the Cowboys. That’s just ridiculous. The Bengals won’t win another game this season if they can’t stop the run.
Buffalo Bills 30, Los Angeles Rams 19
The Buffalo Bills have now won 3 games in a row. All 3 wins have been impressive. Beating Arizona 33 to 18 at home as a +5 dog in Week 3 was nice. Then, holding New England to 0 points, even if New England didn’t play with Tom Brady, in a 16 to 0 win in Week 4 was impressive. Even beating the L.A. Rams 30 to 19 is meaningful for Buffalo because they took down the Rams in a road game.
There’s room for improvement. Buffalo only passed for 112 yards versus the Rams’ defense. If the Bills want to win the AFC East Division, the passing game must improve.
For Los Angeles, it was a come back down to earth loss. The Rams have been winning games on guts and terrific coaching. Los Angeles played hard but the better team with guts and terrific coaching won out.
San Diego Chargers 31, Oakland Raiders 34
Oakland’s defense isn’t great. But, man, QB Derek Carr is some player! A week after throwing 3 TD passes to Michael Crabtree, Carr read San Diego’s defense beautifully. He went to WR Amari Cooper after defenses tried to stop his connection to Crabtree. Cooper caught 6 of 12 targets for 138 yards and a TD. Carr threw for 317 yards and 2 TDs.
Neither team could get the rushing attack going. That’s one of the reasons why San Diego lost. Phillip Rivers, as has been the case for most of his career, put the game on his shoulders. He had a decent performance, but he threw 2 interceptions to Carr’s 1 pick.
In a close battle. The Chargers also lost 2 of 5 fumbles. Turnovers will kill you every time.
New York Giants 16, Green Bay Packers 23
I know that Green Bay is 3 and 1 straight up, but I haven’t been impressed this season. I have no clue what’s wrong with QB Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers threw for 259 yards. But he only completed 51.1% of his passes. Not only that, but Rodgers threw 2 picks to go along with 2 TD passes. His QB rating ended up at 65.
Sure, the Packers beat the Giants and covered the spread. But how good, really, is this Green Bay team? Coming off of a bye, Green Bay was expected to play much better versus NYG.
For the Giants, a return to MetLife Stadium in Week 6 should bring some relief after battling Minnesota in Minnesota and Green Bay at Lambeau in their last 2 games.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 17, Carolina Panthers 14
The most impressive stat line in Tampa’s 17 to 14 upset win over the Panthers in Week 5 was Bucs’ QB Jameis Winston’s. Winston was fantastic. He threw for 219 yards and a TD. He didn’t throw a pick. More importantly, there were moments where Winston didn’t force the football.
The Bucs may have found a real star at RB as well. Jacquizz Rodgers rushed for 30 carries. WR Mike Evans finally got it going with 6 catches for 89 yards and a TD.
Carolina has now lost 3 games in a row. Unless Cam Newton gets healthy and the defense starts playing better, the Panthers might continue to lose football games this season.