Week 5 of the NFL is over — let’s take a look at what we learned
It’s been a nice start to the season for the Dallas Cowboys as they sit at 4-1 after beating the Houston Texans 20-17 in overtime on Sunday.
Lets ignore the fact head coach Jason Garrett decided to kick a 49-yard field goal on third down instead of running another play behind the best offensive line in the NFL during OT. I actually want to use this space to give Garrett some credit.
In five games this season running back DeMarco Murray has lost five fumbles. Murray still has over 20 carries in each game and leads the NFL in rushing with 670 yards.
Dallas has two solid backs behind Murray in Joseph Randle and Lance Dunbar, but neither have the special skills the Boys’ top runner possess when he’s healthy.
Over the course of his first three seasons with the New England Patriots running back Stevan Ridley has ended up in Bill Belichick’s doghouse for turnover problems. He fumbled eight times and lost six across 46 games. Despite clearly being the Pats most talented back Ridley would continually get benched for the issue.
Turnovers are really bad in football games, really, really bad. They are often the difference in wins and losses.
Not playing your most talented players is also really bad. Kudos to Jason Garrett for looking past Murray’s fumbling and not hurting the Cowboys chances to win even more than the fumbling.
Poor Cardinals
I feel bad for the Arizona Cardinals. They’re were a pretty good football team on both sides of the ball that had a legit chance to make the playoffs.
The injury gods don’t seem to feel like seeing if the Cards can pull it off.
They lost Darnell Dockett during training camp. Starting quarterback Carson Palmer hasn’t played since Week One with some weird nerve injury. Defensive end Calais Campbell is out for a week to three weeks after suffering a knee injury this past Sunday against the Broncos. In that same game outside linebacker Matt Shaughnessy sustained an injury and is out until at least Week 14. Backup quarterback Drew Stanton got popped in the head and has a concussion.
Stanton or Palmer may or may not be ready for the their Week Six matchup hosting the Washington Redskins. Rookie quarterback Logan Thomas, a fourth-round pick out of Virginia Tech selected to be a project, will be the starter if one of the other two can’t go.
This is a complete mess, one that if they come out of positively puts Arians right at the front for Coach of the Year honors.
It’s unfortunate, the Cardinals were loaded with talent on both sides of the ball. The Seattle Seahawks still look like they’re the best team in the NFL, but the San Francisco 49ers are embroiled with controversy, Colin Kaepernick hasn’t developed as some including myself expected and they’re dealing with injuries of their own. There’s a vulnerability with the Niners that hasn’t existed in the recent past.
Going for Arizona is the upcoming schedule. The next two games are winnable at home for the Skins and at the Raiders the following week. That’s two weeks to get healthy for the Week Eight game versus the Philadelphia Eagles at University of Phoenix Stadium.
Trouble In Philly?
I hate to do this because I really trust Chip Kelly as a coach, but if I were to pick one of the seven one-loss teams as the most likely to miss the playoffs, it would be the Philadelphia Eagles.
The majority of the breaks seem to be going in the Eagles favor across these first five weeks — they have seven special teams and defensive touchdowns. If they didn’t have three of those against the 49ers Week Four they might have lost by 30 instead of five.
Philly has a litany of issues on both sides of the ball. The offensive line is a mess, Nick Foles isn’t playing great and the red zone has been a problem. Defensively they still aren’t good in coverage.
Can they improve on those two units to be able to grab wins once the defensive and special teams touchdowns don’t come?
Hopeful Browns
It’s been a wild season for the Cleveland Browns. They’re 2-2 with the average margin outcome in the games being two points.
They completed a ridiculous comeback win on Sunday over the Tennessee Titans, while in Week One against the Steelers they fell just short. The win at home versus the Saints was a wild back and forth contest and if it wasn’t for field goal kicking they probably beat the Ravens.
Cleveland is hard to get a read on — they run the ball well and Brian Hoyer has shown to be a capable quarterback, but the performance on the defensive side has been disappointing.
The upcoming schedule is littered with winnable games. The next four are vs. the Steelers, at the Jacksonville Jaguars, vs. the Oakland Raiders and vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If they can come out of this stretch 5-3 the Browns will put themselves in position to make a run at their first playoff berth since 2002.
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