Most of week 5 is in the books and it started back on Thursday night with a game between the Falcons and Bucs. Despite Thursday night football at times getting a bad rap – this game was awesome as Atlanta would win in overtime with a score of 36-30. Kirk Cousins threw for a career high 509 yards and actually broke Matt Ryan’s record for most yards in a single game in Falcons history – on the night he was getting inducted into the Falcons ring of honor. Atlanta had 5 receivers go for over 60 yards including 2 100 yard receivers in Drake London and Darnell Mooney – and the Falcons could have easily checked out of this game and conceded a loss – but they didn’t.
I’m not saying they’re super bowl bound – but this was an incredible offensive showing for Atlanta who desperately needed this. Also Jessie Bates is one of the best players in the league and is worth every penny. This was a game Tampa should have won. And my takeaway for this game for Tampa – was what I’ve for a while – it was just reaffirmed. They’re a good team that can compete with anybody – but – when push to comes shove – I don’t trust Todd Bowles to win a big game. 1st and 10 with the bal on Atlanta’s 28 with 1:44 to play – and you’re outscored 9-0 from that point on and lose the game. I like Tampa, and I want them to succeed – but I think they have a clear ceiling – and that’s losing in the first or second round of the playoffs.
The Minnesota Vikings defeated the New York Jets in a game across the pond with a score of 23-17 and the Vikings are now 5-0. This game was anything but smooth for the Minnesota Vikings and the offense in the second half was atrocious. Sam Darnold did not play well and for anybody waiting on the game Sam Darnold would come back to earth – this was the game. I think it is worth noting – that every player has bad games and I’m not writing Sam Darnold off the rest of the year because of this game – and with how good of a defense the Jets have. This was a perfect time for a bye for Minnesota to get healthy as they play Detroit in week 7. Also shoutout Will Reichard. The Jets are 2-3 and I will say the officiating at times did not do them any favors – but Aaron Rodgers throwing 3 interceptions – with 2 of them being particularly bad was not on the refs. The second interception to Cam Bynum was an awful overthrow and I said last week I don’t trust the Jets coaching staff to win big games – and I still don’t – but I think this was a classic Jets loss. There were so many missed opportunities in this game – and they lost despite Sam Darnold giving them every opportunity to win. The final drive was also why they brought in Aaron Rodgers – to win those types of games – and he threw a bad ball that ended up being an interception. They play the Bills in week 6 – and they need to trade for Davante Adams regardless of cost. They went all in – and the results have not been good. Go get Davante Adams.
The Miami Dolphins beat the Patriots with a score of 15-10 in what was a quarterback matchup of the ages between Tyler Huntley and Jacoby Brissett. De’Von Achane left this game early with a concussion and Jaylen Wright and Raheem Mostert played really well in relief as they each had over 80 yards each, and Miami ran for over 190 on the day. This was the type of game I envisioned for the 2024 Dolphins heading into the year from a run game standpoint and it was good to finally see things click up front. It was also good to see Tyreek and Waddle get the ball more than they have over the past few weeks too – and I thought Miami controlled this game a lot more than a 15-10 score would suggest. Aside from being a bad football team, I think the Patriots are a poorly coached team on top of it. There seems to be this belief that everything will work out in 2025 because they are the Patriots – and that may be the case, but there’s a lot wrong with this team. They had just 98 yards of offense in the first half and they looked a lot better in the second half offensively.
But they had 12 penalties for over 100 yards, they lost the time of possession battle by nearly 10 minutes, and have just 26 points in their last 3 games. There’s no real takeaway for the Patriots as they are who we thought they were entering the year. Although I will say – for how banged up the Patriots offensive line is – they ran for over 150 yards in this game so credit where it is due
I am glad Caleb Williams is no longer a bust after 4 career games as he had the best game of his young career in week 5. The connections to DJ Moore was something Bears fans have been waiting a long time to see and it was good to see the offense finally come to life. I know the naysayers and critics will be the first to point out that it was against Carolina – but if you are a Bears fan watching – none of that matters. This is what you’ve been months for – enjoy it. Bears fans have a tragic past with a lot of quarterbacks and hope – but this was a game the Bears would have lost in the past. And they won by 26 points. Good for Caleb, good for DJ, and good for the organization. As if losing to the Bears wasn’t enough – it’s a double whammy that a former player in DJ Moore had a great game against them, and that the number one overall pick that ended up being Caleb Williams – also had a great game against them. In terms of true takeaways from this game – there’s not a lot to say for Carolina. They have a lot of players out with injury, they’re not a good team to begin with when healthy, and when you combine injuries with a not great team – you’re going to have a team that finishes with less than 5 wins. The truthful hope for the Panthers for the rest of 2024 is to be competitive because we know now – they’re not going to win a lot of games
If you would have said Indy would go into Jacksonville and put up 34 points with 447 yards of offense before the kickoff happened – I would have asked how many points they won by – because Jacksonville offense looked awful through the first 4 games. And for reference – Trevor Lawrence had completed just 53.3% of his passes through the first 4 games. I know Jags players had a lot of drops during this span – but to lose this game and to allow Trevor to complete over 80% of his passes and throw for nearly 400 yards is a firable offense for defensive coordinator Gus Bradley. Joe Flacco played his tail off in this game and he threw for over 350 yards and 3 touchdowns – and the run game certainly wasn’t consistent – but no matter how you slice it – this is a bad loss for Indy. Indy’s next few games are all winnable – and to be 2-3 instead of 3-2 with the chance to have been 5-2 – is – well – bad. If there’s any big takeaway from this game – it’s that Indy is an unserious team with Gus Bradley as their defensive coordinator – and they will be until he’s gone. The Jags had 3 players have the best games of their career today in Tank Bigsby, Brian Thomas, and Travon Walker. And I know I made a video a few weeks ago on the Jags situation – but I don’t actively root for them to fail – and I am thrilled for the success they had in week 5 and hope they can use this as a stepping stone over the next few weeks. They have back to back London games against the Patriots, and Bears – and I hope – this team is 3-4 through 7 games especially with how they started their year.
The Buffalo Bills losing to the Texans the way they did was one of the worst coaching jobs you will ever see. This was a game where Buffalo was down several players including receiver Khalil Shakir and the end of the game management lost them this game. They had 1st and 10 on their own 3 yard line with 30 seconds left – and you may think – surely Buffalo ran the ball to play for overtime as they also had zero timeouts. But nope – they threw 3 straight passes – all of which were incomplete – punted the ball back and Houston ran one play and Ka’imi Fairburn kicked a 59 yard game winner. I don’t know what to say about this game for Buffalo other than what is the thought process. 10 days ago this looked like a completely different team than they do now. And this was one of the most preventable losses – at least in regulation – that you will ever see. Even despite how many players Buffalo was down. Houston is 4-1 and losing Nico Collins midway through this game was tough and you saw how that affected the team after it happened – and there were other players out on the offense as well. Houston plays New England next week and they can very easily improve to 5-1 – and hopefully for their sake – get healthier as the season goes on.
I don’t think anybody would have expected the Washington Commanders to start out 4-1 and to have 3 games with 34 or more points in the first 5 but here we are. Washington has now outscored their last two opponents with a score of 76-27 and truly – what a time to be a Washington Commanders fan. They more than doubled Cleveland’s offensive output as they had over 430 yards to Clevelands’ 212, they ran for over 200 yards as an offense, and Jayden Daniels looked good. I cannot emphasize how much I am looking forward to to the battle of the beltway in week 6 when the Commanders play the Ravens. Washington has looked great so far, but the ravens game next week is going to be must see tv. Cleveland needs to make the change at quarterback. Period. Losing on the road by 21 points is bad, but the body language and the general checking out of players is another. Cleveland scored midway through the 4th quarter to cut the lead from 34-6 to 34-13 and it was a truly bad game. There’s no well yeah but, or anything. Deshaun Watson is terrible, and the team is nowhere to close to where they could be. I know they’ve had injuries, but I truly think this is the worst situation in all of football – strictly due to the $230 million dollar elephant in the room
The Ravens gift you an opportunity in overtime and you have the ball on their 38 with one of the best quarterbacks in the league and you run the ball 3 times assuming a 53 yard field goal is automatic. And I know the hold wasn’t good – but what are we doing? This was one of the best games of Joe Burrows career and it was effectively thrown away. My takeaway for the Bengals from this game – is that they’re done – in the sense of potentially winning a Super Bowl – not because Joe and everyone isn’t good enough – but because of the coaching staff. Whether it was the Commanders loss or this – or even New England back in week 1 – it’s been a combination of not being prepared, or flat out dumb decisions. Can Cincy get to the postseason and make noise? Yes of course. But I have serious concerns for them and it starts with Zac Taylor. This was an MVP performance by both Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson – but it was good to see the Ravens finally on the end of one of these types of games. The 51 yard run by Derrick Henry at the end was worth whatever his contract was alone. The Ravens have ran the ball for over 170 yards in each of the last 3 games and Derrick wasn’t having a good game prior to the final drive – but credit Todd Monken for sticking with the run. If Baltimore proved anything in this game – it’s that they are going to routinely be a very difficult team to beat.
Bo Nix threw for over 200 yards and 2 touchdowns as the Denver Broncos put up 34 points and beat the Raiders by double digits. This was as close to a perfect day for the Broncos as you’re going to have. Your rookie quarterback looked good and there were certainly points left on the board which were not Bo Nix’s fault, and those numbers could have been even higher. For anyone wondering – a big reason why Pat Surtain doesn’t get a lot of interceptions is simply because teams don’t throw at him. There is such a high level of respect for his game that teams would rather throw literally anywhere else and this game proved why. Two interceptions including a 100 yard pick 6. This is now 3 straight wins for the Broncos and two of them were by double digits. The Raiders are 2-3 and have several tough games coming up and this team isn’t good. I don’t think they’re bottom 5 bad – but they’re certainly not a playoff team and mediocrity is one of the worst positions you can be in. The quarterback reared its ugly head yet again and this was why I doubted this team entering the season – with or without Davante Adams. The Raiders future is bleak
The Rams fell to 1-4 with a loss to the Green Bay Packers and I think the Rams are a solid team when healthy – but that’s a big problem for the 2024 Rams. There’s been countless times in the past few games where having either Cooper Kopp or Puka Nacua would do wonders for this team – but they’re not there. And Jordan Whittington played well while he was on the field in this game – but having 33 targets go to Colby Parkinson, Tutu Atwell, and Jordan Whittington is not ideal. If there is any silver lining for the Rams outlook – they have a week 6 bye and they certainly need a week – or several – to get healthy. But when push to come shove – healthy or not – I don’t think this is a super bowl team. And I think you can argue it would be better to rebuild sooner rather than later. Jordan Love threw an absolutely hilarious pick 6 but battled back in a scenario where he easily could have taken himself out of the game mentally. Xavier McKinney and Tucker Kraft were the MVPs of this game and Xavier continues to prove to be one of the best free agent signings from this past year. Green Bay is 3-2 and they have back to back home games against the Cardinals a Texans and a win is a win. 5-2 isn’t unrealistic for them,
Losing a home game in a game you’re favored by a touchdown isn’t good – but it’s even worse when you lose that game and Malik Nabers and Devin Singletary are both out. And this was also in a game where the Seahawks had a 100+ yard defensive touchdown to go up 7-0 in the first quarter. The Giants were the better team. They ran for 175 yards as a team and had the ball for over 37 minutes. They were the bullies and it even showed on the final touchdown when Isiah Simmons knocked over the Seahawks kicker. The Giants ran all over Seattle, they won the battle in ther trenches, they sacked Geno 7 times and the Seahawks ground game was relatively non existent outside of one big Geno run. With the Giants upcoming schedule I thought they could have started out 1-6 or even 1-7 – but this was a huge huge team win for New York and especially for the sake of Brian Daboll. Frustrating doesn’t describe this loss for Seattle because they were manhandled from the beginning. If you’re a Seahawks fan and want to attribute it to the Giants having multiple days more rest or whatever the case may be – this team looked bad and Daniel Jones also picked them apart. Darius Slayton went for over 120 yards in this game and for a team that plays the 49ers Thursday – the season got very real very fast. This was a tough loss for Seattle
After losing by 28 points to the Commanders in week 4 and getting embarrassed in the process – I didn’t think the Cardinals had a chance at winning in San Francisco. Competing is one thing – but winning is another. This team was down 23-10 at half to the big bad 49ers and games like this one are why I was so high on the Cardinals entering the season. They fought and never gave up. The 49ers had a blocked field goal for a touchdown and anytime you have one of those against you – the chances of winning become much much slimmer. The Cardinals beat a hated division rival, and despite MHJ only having two catches on the day – the 4th and 5 was a sign of things to come. The 49ers are now 0-2 in the division and had zero second half points in this game. San Francisco is now 2-3 on the year with their wins coming over the Jets – who have their own problems – and the Patriots – who are not good. Their next 3 games aren’t easy either as they play the Seahawks, Chiefs and Cowboys and I don’t think they’ll fall to 2-6 – but looking at the bigger picture – sure San Francisco can win 10 or 11 games – but they have a lot of problems.
Kyle’s red zone inefficiency is incredibly frustrating and they don’t maximize what they can do. The defense isn’t where it was in 2023, and I still think they’ll make the playoffs – but i don’t think they’re going to go as far some people may think. Their roster is aging and they’re going to have a lot of questions at key positions very soon. And I worry about the 49ers. I hope you enjoyed the recap and if you did please like and subscribe as only about 35% of people watching are subscribed and helps the channel tremendously. Until next time please be safe and have a great day. Love you guys
