The NFL took a real hit yesterday. No Minnesota Vikings. This was their bye week. Week 5 is usually way too early for a bye. The Vikings have been at this football business a little longer than most of the other teams this year. They took part in the Hall of Fame game. In that sense maybe the bye doesn't feel as early for the players and coaches as it does for those of us that view the games on our asses. There was a lot of football action yesterday even if the Vikings weren't a part of it.
The early games provided three overtime games. That's always exciting. Two of the three involved undefeated teams.
The Cincinnati Bengals entered their week 5 game against the Seattle Seahawks at 4-0. The Seahawks were 2-2 thanks to last week's generous group of officials. Despite the disparity in records I'm guessing that most expected the Seahawks to win. For most of the game it looked like the game would play out that way. About half way through the third quarter Seahawks running back Thomas Rawls scored on a 69-yard run. Two minutes later Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner returned a fumble 23 yards for another touchdown. In those two minutes the Seahawks lead moved from 10-7 to 24-7. That was the score entering the fourth quarter.
The Bengals scored the 17 points that they needed to force overtime on the arm and legs of quarterback Andy Dalton. In overtime, Mike Nugent bounced a 42-yard field goal off the upright and through to keep the Bengals undefeated
Bengals tight end Tyler Eifert was the real difference in the game. He's been a beast all year. He's probably the closest tight end in the league to Rob Gronkowski right now. Eifert had 8 catches for 90 yards and two touchdowns. His diving 25-yard catch to set up the game-tying field goal was the play of the game. The Seahawks might have the best secondary in the league but they had no answer for Eifert.
The Atlanta Falcons also entered week 5 at 4-0. They were forced to play a portion of overtime by the feisty Washington Redskins. The Redskins actually held the lead for most of the game. The Falcons gained their first lead in the fourth quarter. They held that lead for just over a minute. A Falcons touchdown with 24 seconds to play seemed to clinch a 19-16 win. It didn't. Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins got his team in field goal position in less than 24 seconds. Dustin Hopkins hit the game-tying 52-yard kick as time expired. Cousins wasn't so hot in overtime. He tossed a ridiculous sideline pass right into the waiting hands of Falcons corner Robert Alford. Alford returned the gift 59 yards for the game-winning score. Cousins Matthew Hasselbecked overtime.
The other overtime game involved two sputtering AFC North foes. The Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens. The Browns outlasted the Ravens in an overtime scorcher 33-30.
Browns quarterback Josh McCown was on fire. He threw a lot of passes. He completed 36 of 51 passes for 457 yards and two touchdowns. Wow! He also ran for a score. Wow! The calls for Johnny Manziel might take a week off.
The Chicago Bears are on a two-game winning streak. They edged the Kansas City Chiefs 18-17 with two late touchdowns. This game changed greatly when Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles went down with a potentially season-ending knee injury. This is horrible news for a team struggling to get something to go their way.
The Buffalo Bills edged the Tennessee Titans in a 14-13 thriller. Bills head coach Rex Ryan claimed that his defense would handle Titans rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota. I guess that they did but the Bills offense only did barely enough.
For most of the St. Louis-Green Bay game it felt like the Packers were on the verge of blowing the game wide open. They never really did despite winning by two scores 24-10. Part of the reason that the Packers couldn't pull away were surprising mistakes by quarterback Aaron Rodgers. He hadn't thrown an interception at home since Vikings safety Harrison Smith stole one in 2012. An incredible three years of error-free football for Rodgers. He threw two interceptions yesterday. One of them looked like it was trapped. Rams corner Trumaine Johnson received a decent amount of assistance from the turf in corralling the football. It still goes in the books as an interception.
In the third quarter Johnny Hekker was back to punt from near midfield after a stalled Rams drive. Instead of punting Hekker was throwing. The best thing about this bit of trickery was that the punter actually went through his progressions. His first read was covered and he went to his next one. A punter! It was remarkable to see. Hekker was a high school quarterback and it showed. Hekker completed a 20-yard throw to Cody Davis for a first down. Unfortunately, for the Rams, it lead to no points. A missed field goal gave the ball back to the Packers.
The Rams missed three field goals in the second half. One was from 63 yards but Greg Zuerlein had the distance. He just didn't have the accuracy. The Rams also had a pass intercepted in the end zone in the second half. They had the opportunity to score 16 points in a game that was decided by 14.
The bright spot for the Rams was the play of rookie running back Todd Gurley III. The rookie broke out last week against the Arizona Cardinals. He was even better yesterday. 30 carries for 159 yards. He had a 55-yard run during which he wasn't touched until he was about 50 yards down field. He's a keeper.
Hey! Chip Kelly's offense finally showed up for a game. The Philadelphia Eagles gained over 500 yards against the New Orleans Saints. The Eagles won their second game 39-17. The Saints have a tendency to make offenses feel pretty good about themselves.
The New England Patriots-Dallas Cowboys game was probably considered a headliner before the season started. That changed when the Cowboys lost Tony Romo and Dez Bryant for a chunk of the season. The Patriots didn't look great but they really didn't have to look great to take care of the Cowboys. The Patriots moved to 4-0 after their 30-6 win in Dallas.
The Patriots are averaging just over 37 points/game. The Cowboys kept them just over a touchdown below that. Nice work.
The San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants played an entertaining game to close out the day. The 49ers tied the game at 20-20 early in the fourth quarter. The lead changed three times after that. The Giants were the last team to score. 30-27 Giants.
The Giants have been making a habit of keeping things exciting at the end of games. Their fans and their coach might not survive the season if they continue that pattern.
This was a tough loss for the 49ers. They haven't done much right since their week one win. They got things rolling in the second half last night but they couldn't preserve that late lead.
Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. had a nice game. Seven catches for 121 yards and a touchdown. His touchdown celebration at the end of the third quarter might have resulted in a strained hamstring. Nice. He returned for the last few plays of the Giants final drive. He looked more like a decoy but he had the 49ers attention.
There are still six undefeated teams. Three in each conference.
New England
Denver
Cincinnati
Green Bay
Atlanta
Carlolina-idle yesterday
It was a fine day of NFL football even though the Vikings weren't a part of it.
San Diego hosts the Pittsburgh Steelers tonight.
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