Week 5 in the NFL has been very strange so far. I guess you can officially say it’s spooky season.
Somehow the house of horrors the Rams provided for themselves with self-inflected wounds vs. the 49ers was topped three days later by a different NFC West team.
The Cardinals found the most improbable of ways to blow a game to the formerly winless Titans. It was an ugly game, but also filled with drama. Who would have thought that Cardinals-Titans and Panthers-Dolphins would be two of the most entertaining games of the week?
But no game topped Sunday’s shootout between Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield. The Jets and Browns definitely didn’t see that coming from these two quarterbacks a few years ago. Oh, and throw in the Panthers, who at one point had Darnold and Mayfield on the roster at the same time.
Here’s what else we learned during a spooky Sunday in the NFL.
Cowboys deserve more credit for overcoming tough circumstances
What transpired in the battle between first-year head coaches really had me doubting the grades I handed out last week for Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer and Jets coach Aaron Glenn.
Initially, I thought a C grade for Schottenheimer was justified because the offense played great while the defense was the opposite in the first month of the season. But I should have paid more attention to how hard the injury-depleted Cowboys played for Schottenheimer in the 40–40 tie against the Packers.
Maybe I unintentionally credited the extra motivation in Week 4 to owner Jerry Jones, who badly wanted to beat Micah Parsons and the Packers. But that wasn’t extra motivation. That was preparation. That was the Cowboys making it work with what they have and avoiding excuses.
Schottenheimer and defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus got a raw deal when Jones suddenly traded Parsons to Green Bay a few weeks before the season opener in Philadelphia. Still, the Cowboys pushed the Eagles until the final minutes. Schottenheimer leaned on his offensive strengths while Eberflus and his defensive unit played catch up on how to adjust without Parsons.
On Sunday, it all came together for both sides, as the Cowboys crushed the Jets, 37–22. And don’t let the final score deceive you because this one was over when Dallas jumped to a 30–6 advantage in the third quarter.
Eberflus’s defense bullied a Jets offensive line that played well in the first quarter of the season. Yes, the Jets are winless, but teams have had trouble stopping the run against Justin Fields and Breece Hall.
And yet Fields failed to make an impact with his arm and his legs against a Cowboys defense that has been heavily criticized. Now it’s time to praise this unit because the pass rush and run defense finally came alive. Fields only had seven carries for 26 yards and was sacked five times.
Schottenheimer’s banged-up offensive line pushed around the Jets’ defensive front and provided stellar protection for Dak Prescott (18-of-29 for 237 yards, 4 TDs). Without CeeDee Lamb the past few games, Schottenheimer has unlocked tight end Jake Ferguson (seven catches, 49 yards, 2 TDs) and quickly incorporated George Pickens (two catches, 57 yards, TD) into the offense. Former Broncos running back Javonte Williams (16 carries, 135 yards, TD) is in the midst of a breakout season under Schottenheimer. Ryan Flournoy, a 2024 sixth-round pick, had six receptions for a game-high 114 yards.
So, yes, Schottenheimer deserved a better grade for the first report card of the season, but at least now pundits like myself have realized how well these Cowboys (2-2-1) have played despite the tough circumstances.
As for the Jets (0–5), giving Glenn a D- might have been too kind. This defense didn’t lose Sauce Gardner nor Quinnen Williams to a trade before the season. This unit has talent and Glenn’s background is on the defensive side, but none of that has helped this disastrous defense through five games this season.
Raiders should consider moving Geno Smith’s contract
It took the Seahawks a while to realize it, but they eventually knew they weren’t going to escape mediocrity with Geno Smith as the starting quarterback. Maybe that will be the same case with Darnold, but they needed to try something different to break out of the cycle of being a fringe wild-card team.
The Raiders (1–4) probably haven’t realized yet that they’re back in the cycle. And don’t expect them to notice after the embarrassing 40–6 blowout loss against the Colts because they’re not even close to being an average team. Still, the point stands that Smith’s ceiling isn’t high enough for teams to hitch their seasons on his right arm.
In the Raiders' case, the wounds from trying to find a quarterback through the draft after Rich Gannon’s stint 21 years ago might still linger in the mind of Raiders majority owner Mark Davis. Having to deal with another first-round rookie quarterback to possibly relive the JaMarcus Russell situation might be too intimidating for this franchise. I know that happened 18 years ago, but look at this organization’s track record. The second they saw any kind of positivity from Derek Carr, the Raiders held on to him for nine years despite his inconsistent performances. When the Raiders finally cut ties with Carr, they settled for middling quarterbacks like Gardner Minshew II and Jimmy Garoppolo.
Smith is a better option than Minshew and Garoppolo, but he’s certainly not playing like it with a league-high nine interceptions. Some might argue that he hasn’t had his best weapon because Brock Bowers hasn’t been the same since his Week 1 knee injury. But even if Bowers never got hurt, this might only be a fringe wild-card team and that’s being generous after a dreadful four-game losing streak.
The Raiders won’t do it because coach Pete Carroll and minority owner Tom Brady won’t allow it. But Davis should tell them to consider moving Smith’s contract and punting on the season. (Smith recently signed a two-year contract extension worth up to $85.5 million.)
It’s time for this organization to draft a quarterback in the first round for the first time since taking Russell No. 1 in 2007.
Seahawks’ overrated defense exposed by Baker Mayfield
I hate to go Regina George here, but the analytics community needs to stop trying to make the Seahawks’ defense a thing. It’s not going to happen!
Coach Mike Macdonald’s unit has been overrated for quite some time now and got exposed by Mayfield (29-of-33 for 379 yards, 2 TDs) and rookie star wide receiver Emeka Egbuka (seven catches, 163 yards, TD) during the wild 38–35 victory for the Buccaneers.
Maybe “fetch” can happen later for this talented Seahawks defense, but they’re not a dominant unit now and quite frankly might not have enough star players to become a top-five unit.
I will give Macdonald credit, though, for allowing Darnold to go for it on fourth-and-2 with 3:25 left in regulation and admitting with that decision that it wasn’t his defense’s day vs. Mayfield, Egbuka and the rest of the Bucs’ offense. Oftentimes, head coaches with defensive backgrounds get too conservative on offense and are too prideful to realize their defense has become a liability.
Ironically, it was Darnold’s late interception that allowed the Buccaneers to prevail on a walk-off field goal. But Darnold (28-of-34 for 341 yards, 4 TDs, INT) and Jaxon Smith-Njigba (eight catches, 132 yards, TD) kept Seattle in the game until the killer turnover. There are positives to take from Macdonald and offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak allowing Darnold to let it rip after a safe approach in the first month of the season. This offense can hang with the best scoring teams.
But this defense needs to be better than what it delivered on Sunday. It’s a well-coached unit that often baits quarterbacks into mistakes. But Macdonald’s group allowed Brock Purdy to steal the game in Week 1 and nearly blew it against the Cardinals in Week 4. And it caught a break when Steelers rookie running back Kaleb Johnson decided to let the ball roll into the end zone after touching it on a kickoff in Week 2.
I get that the defensive numbers look pretty going all the way back to last year. But this isn’t 2024. Advanced stats aren’t everything in football.
Titans can use Cardinals’ self-inflected wounds as springboard
Tennessee really needed that one, winning in Arizona 22–21. Cam Ward & Co. made the most out of the Cardinals finding the worst ways to shoot themselves in the foot, as the Titans recorded their first win of the season and snapped .
Sometimes you just have to state the obvious and not look beyond what happened during a bizarre second half in the desert. I don’t know where the one-win Titans go from here because they were lucky to get that one and Ward struggled for three quarters before producing the game-winning drive.
Who the hell knows whether coach Brian Callahan saved his job thanks to the Cardinals finding the wildest ways to let the Titans steal the game. And please save the think pieces about this being the turning point for where Ward becomes the savior in Tennessee.
There’s still a long way to go for the Titans (1–4) to dig out of this pit as an organization, but the Cardinals might have helped them find the bottom. There’s a strong possibility that there’s nowhere else to go now but up. There’s finally some light shining down on the Titans. Now it’s on them to make the most of the ball bouncing their way, using this victory as a springboard for more positivity.
As for the Cardinals (2–3), they’re probably thinking it can’t get any worse than what happened Sunday. Running back Emari Demercado fumbled before crossing into the end zone for a touchback and the Cardinals’ defense turned an interception into a touchdown for the Titans. Oh, and the Arizona offense just sat on the ball on the final drive and had no issue kicking the ball back to Tennessee with 1:53 left in regulation.
It can definitely get worse for Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon. He can just ask Callahan about that.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Four Things We Learned in NFL Week 5: Cowboys Deserve More Credit Than We’ve Given.
