49ers might be in trouble, and what we learned in Sunday’s Week 5 slate
FOX Sports’ NFL experts provide the biggest takeaways from every Sunday game in Week 5 and what they mean for each team going forward.
Cardinals: The Cardinals’ offense can really be lethal when they put it all together. Kyler Murray has been off to a hot start this season, and although he didn’t have his best game Sunday, few quarterbacks present the kind of dual-threat ability he brings. James Conner has been terrific out of the backfield as a 29-year-old running back. Receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. and tight end Trey McBride have the potential to be two of the best at their position for years to come. Arizona has issues defensively (which were mitigated Sunday), but the offensive firepower will make the Cardinals an interesting team to watch in a competitive NFC West.
[Read more: Tom Brady’s LFG Player of the Game for Week 5: Cardinals QB Kyler Murray]
49ers: When will the injuries stop for the 49ers? It’s still early, but it feels like they could ruin their season. All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey has already missed the first five games of the year on injured reserve. Stars George Kittle and Deebo Samuel have missed a game apiece. Fred Warner missed the second half of the Patriots game (though he played Sunday). And now San Francisco may be without kicker Jake Moody moving forward. The 2-3 49ers have the division-rival Seahawks (on the road), Chiefs and Cowboys up next, so it’s not an easy stretch ahead by any means. This can get out of control fast for a Niners team that isn’t looking like one of the most imposing squads in the NFC. —Ben Arthur
[Read more: Tom Brady LFG Player of the Game Kyler Murray embodies Cardinals’ swagger]
Cowboys: The Cowboys snuck out of Pittsburgh Sunday night with a win in a homecoming for head coach Mike McCarthy, but Dak Prescott must curb his turnovers. The QB threw two interceptions and lost a fumble on a sack, and two of those turnovers occurred with Dallas in the red zone. Prescott now has four interceptions through five games, which has affected his ability to operate the offense efficiently in critical situations. Dallas also had a Brandon Aubrey field goal blocked. The Cowboys have a narrow path to victory each week, and for them to win consistently, that path must include Prescott taking better care of the football.
Steelers: Led by talented edge rusher T.J. Watt, the Steelers have proven their ability to compete and win games with a marginal offense led by a quarterback discarded by another franchise. Watt finished with 1.5 sacks and four quarterback pressures against the Cowboys, becoming the second fastest to reach 100 sacks in NFL history. (Watt did it in his 109th game, while Hall of Famer Reggie White did it in 96 games.) Pittsburgh is holding opponents to 14.6 points a game, so if the Steelers get competent quarterback play from Justin Fields, they will continue to win games in the regular season. But does that mean head coach Mike Tomlin can win his first playoff game since the 2016 season? As it stands now, while the Steelers have one of the best defenses in the NFL, Pittsburgh’s offense isn’t ready for prime time. — Eric D. Williams
Packers: No Christian Watson. No Romeo Doubs. No problem. One of the deepest offensive units had to dip into its reserves in Los Angeles against the Rams and save for a Will Levis-like prayer to avoid a safety, Jordan Love once again distributed the ball well. Head coach Matt LaFleur loves using multiple tight end sets but up until this point, we hadn’t seen a whole lot of action from Luke Musgrave or Tucker Kraft. That changed Sunday, when Love found Kraft for not one but two touchdowns. The first came on a 66-yard catch-and-run that the Rams defense was clearly not ready for. It wasn’t quite the bounceback game we thought we would get from Love after last week’s divisional loss to Minnesota. The defense, instead, had to be the one to hold the Packers’ five-point lead, but Love did enough on offense to win. The Packers play every bit the complementary football they had hoped to play this year as they enter a pretty brutal part of their schedule with the Cardinals, Texans and Lions on deck in the next month.
Rams: The Rams had a chance for yet another Matthew Stafford game-winning drive but fell just short. That’s been happening a lot these days given all the injuries they’ve suffered. The fact that Los Angeles is in their last few at all is a testament to Stafford and how quickly he gets the ball out. The bad news is the Rams are on a two-game skid but the good news is they’ve been close and can perhaps hope for better results once guys like Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua return to the lineup. Running back Kyren Williams continues to be a bright spot in the absence of the team’s top wide receivers. Williams rushed for over 100 yards on Sunday for the first time this season. Los Angeles’ young defensive front is also creating problems for opponents. There are plenty of encouraging takeaways from these games but the record is the record and the Rams are now 1-4 on the season. It’ll be quite the hole to climb out of, regardless if they get healthy sooner rather than later. — Carmen Vitali
Giants: If you had Tyrone Tracy as the first NFL rookie to rush for 100 yards in a game this season, congrats. The fifth-round pick Purdue did just that Sunday, helping the Giants to a key road win by rushing for 129 yards on 18 carries. Unexpected? He’d rushed for an unremarkable 29 yards on 12 carries in his first four NFL games. But with Devin Singletary out with a groin injury, he stepped up in a big way. Tracy’s consistent ground game kept Seattle’s offense off the field — the Giants had a 2-to-1 edge in time of possession entering the fourth quarter and converted seven third downs against a Seattle defense that had been a top-five unit on third downs. Singletary will be the starter when he’s healthy again, but Tracy could be a late-round gem with more games like Sunday.
Seahawks: A blocked field goal in the final minute derailed a potential rally for Seattle, but for the Seahawks offense, it was too little and way too late as they lost their second straight game. Seattle’s offense didn’t get a touchdown until there was 2:09 left in the game — their first eight drives netted only two field goals, which gave the Giants just enough to pull out a close win. The on-again, off-again run game was nonexistent, and Geno Smith has exactly one touchdown pass in each game this year. Seattle has scored in the 20s in all five games, but if their defense isn’t playing well, their offense isn’t good enough to take games over. —Greg Auman
Raiders: Is there a less inspiring NFL quarterback switch than swapping out Gardner Minshew for Aidan O’Connell? That’s the state of the Raiders, who made a mid-game swap Sunday and saw little change in a losing effort. Minshew threw an interception that Pat Surtain returned 100 yards for a touchdown, and the offense stopped there. They have five touchdown passes in five games, and you can’t win many games with so little offensive impact. You can say they were missing running back Zamir White, but he’s averaging 3.1 yards per carry. Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy can turn to O’Connell moving forward, but AOC had 12 touchdown passes in 11 games as a rookie. And there’s a good chance the offense will lose receiver Davante Adams in the coming days, so things are only getting worse.
Broncos: Is Denver’s defense elite enough to make the Broncos a playoff contender? Down 10-0 early to the Raiders on Sunday, they flipped a switch and took over the game — Pat Surtain’s 100-yard interception return was the catalyst and the first of two picks for him and three overall for the Broncos. Las Vegas had 202 yards on its first three drives before the pick-six, and then Denver shut the Raiders down — on the next seven drives, no points, two first downs and 42 total yards. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph’s unit held the Bucs and Jets to seven and nine points in their last two victories, and the defense is a big part of why the Broncos have won three in a row. —Greg Auman
Jets: If the Jets offense has an identity, it’s certainly not a good one. There is very little they’re doing well right now. Sure, it can’t be easy for offensive coordinator Nathanial Hackett with a struggling offensive line and a quarterback who suddenly looks very old, but his playcalling and scheme are becoming a huge problem. There’s no creativity in it, and he can’t find a way to get two of his most dynamic weapons — WR Garrett Wilson and RB Breece Hall — open in space. Everything is screens and short passes that the defense sees coming. And when they try to do something else, Aaron Rodgers ends up as a sitting duck because the blocking has been terrible.
The Jets had 254 total yards against the Vikings— the fourth time in five games they have had fewer than 270. As good as their defense is, they can’t win that way. Rodgers would never allow Robert Saleh to demote his hand-picked OC, but the Jets sure do need a new vision on offense before it’s too late.
Vikings: Sam Darnold won again and has been generally terrific this season. But one thing to watch going forward: He was holding the ball way too long on Sunday against the Jets. Granted, it was against a very tough Jets secondary, but the result was that Darnold took a beating in this game. He was sacked four times, took way too many hits, and even briefly left the game in the first quarter when he was hit in the ribs. He seemed shaky, passing for only 179 yards and throwing a fourth-quarter interception, and he didn’t lead the Vikings offense to a single touchdown. Really, the performance was an echo of his failed tenure with the Jets. And with receivers like Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, that shouldn’t happen. They can both get open and can both make contested catches. Darnold just has to get rid of the ball faster. — Ralph Vacchiano
Panthers:Chuba Hubbard was not the skill player I bet on breaking out in the Panthers offense — but he’s that guy. Receiver Diontae Johnson has yet to live up to his price tag and quarterback Bryce Young and receiver Xavier Legette and Jonathan Mingo have all yet to live up to their draft status. With coach David Canales showing up to spruce up Carolina’s passing atack, I thought one or many of those guys would emerge. But instead, it has been Hubbard finding space on the ground. He finished with 13 carries for 97 yards and a touchdown and could be in the mix to land in the top 10 in rushing yards this week — and at the end of the season.
Hubbard is set to be a free agent in 2025, but don’t be surprised if he ends up sticking around. He’s a match for the Panthers, and they’re a match for him. He could be earning RB1 snaps in Carolina for the foreseeable future.
Bears:Caleb Williams finally put together a complete game. That’s a massive step for a rookie. There’s no need to put an asterisk next to it. I get that he beat up on the Panthers, the NFL’s worst defense. That’s obviously important context. But last week, Williams missed a handful of wide-open touchdown opportunities. He looked way too inconsistent. He lacked touch. He seemed hurried.
All those issues evaporated against the Panthers. Williams need only look to the other sideline at Bryce Young to know that some quarterbacks never have games like this one. Williams was 20-of-29 for 304 yards and two touchdowns. He rushed for 34 more yards. It had me thinking: OK, that is a No. 1 overall pick. It’s a massive achievement for Williams — and one worth noting. The next level of his development will be putting together games like this one against more formidable defenses. —Henry McKenna
Browns: So what exactly does Deshaun Watson have to do to get benched? The Browns are 1-4, their lone win against an until-just-now-winless Jaguars team, and they’ve yet to score more than 18 points in any of their first five games. Watson was especially uninspired in Sunday’s loss to the Commanders. He didn’t get to 100 passing yards until the end of the third quarter. Obviously, Cleveland has a huge sunken cost in Watson’s fully guaranteed $230 million contract, but why not give backup Jameis Winston a shot? The Browns are averaging fewer than five yards per pass with Watson, with a bottom-five offense that could use any kind of spark. It’s hard to imagine the Browns not finishing last in the AFC North the way things are going.
Commanders: Rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels deserves most of the attention in Washington’s 4-1 start, but what was most encouraging in Sunday’s dominating win over the Browns was the way Washington’s defense played. The Commanders had easily the worst defense in the NFL last year — last in yards and points allowed — and Dan Quinn’s group is showing real progress. Frankie Luvu had 2.5 sacks, Bobby Wagner had 1.5 and a forced fumble on Sunday. Last year, the Commanders had just four games in which they held opponents under 27 points, while every other NFL team had at least eight. And now Washington has done it three times in five weeks. —Greg Auman
Commanders QB Jayden Daniels talks rookie season and making a difference in Washington | FOX NFL Sunday
Dolphins: Nothing about it was pretty, but the Dolphins got a division win even though running back De’Von Achane went down early in the game against the Patriots. Despite the injury and a banged-up offensive line, Miami got the ground game going anyway. It’s hard to be that encouraged about a team that only put up 15 points against a struggling New England team, but the bye week will allow the Dolphins to rest and heal up. On the downside, how viable are they without Tua Tagovailoa? The team hasn’t shown interest in bringing in another quarterback after Tagovailoa’s latest concussion and seems likely to continue to lean on the run game in the meantime. Maybe that can be enough?
Patriots: You have to hand it to the Patriots, they have no quit in them. Even as they committed a penalty on what looked like the last offensive drive and didn’t convert the resulting fourth-and-15 play, New England still managed to get the ball back with 29 seconds. It didn’t ultimately result in anything, but head coach Jerod Mayo has his team fighting despite a lack of talent, and there’s something to be said for that.
There’s no rhythm to the Pats offense, and it’s extraordinarily lackluster with an unreliable offensive line. That’s the reason first-round pick Drake Maye isn’t playing with New England playing the long game with who they think will be their eventual franchise quarterback. I’m not sure that this season is going to amount to anything for the Patriots, but it should lay the groundwork for Maye to take over after some reinforcements are brought in along the offensive line at the very least. — Carmen Vitali
Ravens: NFL teams need to rethink how they value running backs after seeing what Derrick Henry has done for the Ravens. He is one of the best players in the NFL, but because he plays running back — and isn’t much of a pass-catcher — he doesn’t get the credit he deserves. Henry is as dominant as any player at any position. Just look at his game-closing run, when he rambled 51 yards in overtime against Cincinnati in Week 5. If it were Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill or Henry’s teammate Lamar Jackson, we’d be talking about bookmarking it for their MVP campaign. It was clutch and beastly and elite.
Teams will try to rationalize that they can find replacement-level running backs in the draft and that a back like the 30-year-old Henry is on the verge of seeing Father Time take away his rare gifts. But the truth is that Henry is a force, and roughly 28 teams are sitting there wishing they had him. Let’s get back to paying running backs what they deserve!
Bengals: Zac Taylor’s seat must be getting awfully hot. The Cincinnati coach had led his team through a few slow starts in the past. But right now, the Bengals are 1-4, and they are a long shot at getting into the playoffs. It feels like Taylor might have gotten too comfortable falling into the early-season hole. And now, for the first time, it truly feels like they can’t get out. Taylor could try to hold onto his job by firing his defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo. After all, on Sunday, the Bengals offense put up 442 total yards and Joe Burrow looked as good as ever. So there’s an outside shot that Taylor could scapegoat Anarumo and survive the season. But it’s not looking good for Taylor. And frankly, Burrow deserves better at this point in his career. The Bengals need a coach who can help Burrow win a Super Bowl, which feels as far away now as it did when he was a rookie. —Henry McKenna
Bills: Yes, Sean McDermott’s game management was costly on Sunday, but a bigger issue is Buffalo’s lack of a No. 1 receiver. It was clearly too early to say the Bills were doing just fine without Stefon Diggs. I’ll admit it: I thought they had things figured out. Over the past two weeks, however, Buffalo and Josh Allen have struggled to get into a groove in the passing game. Receiver Khalil Shakir has been Allen’s most reliable pass-catcher, but he missed Week 5 with an injury. So the Bills’ passing attack went from bad to worse to open the game. Weirdly, tight end Dalton Kincaid had the worst game of his career with two drops in the first half. The Bills fell into a 17-point hole. That’s when Allen started reaching into his bag of tricks to find someone — anyone — to help him carry the passing attack. There were little sprinkles of Mack Hollins and Keon Coleman. But on the whole, this was a reminder that Buffalo is still working through the challenges of not having a true No. 1 option in its passing offense.
Texans: Let’s stay on that topic, shall we? It’s impossible to overstate the value of Texans receiver Nico Collins. Houston did not score a touchdown after Collins left with a hamstring injury. C.J. Stroud looked as sloppy as he’s looked all season, and the Texans offense opened the door for Allen and company to mount a comeback. There were clearly other factors that inhibited the Texans’ production, but none was as clear as the departure of Collins from the lineup. He is one of the best receivers in the NFL right now, and even with Diggs showing up and taking away targets, Collins is putting up freakish numbers. Had he not gotten injured, it’s easy to imagine he would have put up his fourth 100-yard game in five weeks. Even missing three quarters of this week’s action, he has 32 catches for 567 yards and three touchdowns. —Henry McKenna
Colts: Defense will be the downfall of the Colts, the main reason they won’t be a serious AFC playoff contender this season. They didn’t record a single quarterback hit on a struggling Trevor Lawrence and allowed two receptions of 60-plus yards to an offense that has been terrible this season. It may only get worse for Indianapolis because its defensive line has been decimated due to injury (DeForest Buckner, Tyquan Lewis and Samson Ebukam are on injured reserve; Kwity Paye was inactive Sunday). So the progress we’ve seen the Colts make in run defense after a historically bad start to the year could start unraveling, too. A saving grace for Indy in the short term is that it has Tennessee and Miami next on its schedule, two teams with bad offenses.
Jaguars: The Jaguars have their confidence back. I would dare to say it’s not necessarily because they got their first win of the season on Sunday, but how they did so. All three phases of the ball had massive moments, and we saw a game-winning drive from Trevor Lawrence, who had one of the best games of his career. The defense had its first takeaway of the season. Brian Thomas Jr. registered the second-longest receiving touchdown of the year for any player. Devin Duvernay had a big punt return that set up one of the best touchdown runs you’ll ever see, courtesy of running back Tank Bigsby, who added a 65-yard score in the fourth quarter. The Jaguars have two very winnable games next on their slate, against the Chicago Bears and New England Patriots in London, which is the Jags’ second home. The outlook on Jacksonville’s season changed dramatically Sunday. —Ben Arthur
The following writers contributed to this story:Ben Arthur (@benyarthur); Greg Auman (@gregauman); Henry McKenna (@McKennAnalysis); Ralph Vacchiano (@RalphVacchiano); Carmen Vitali (@CarmieV); Eric D. Williams (@eric_d_williams).
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