Eric Williams
NFL Reporter
The 1972 Miami Dolphins still stand alone.
Week 5 brought us the end of undefeated teams this season as both the Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots, respectively, on Sunday. But the possibility of a winless team remains as the New York Jets are still without a victory after getting drubbed at home by the Dallas Cowboys.
Elsewhere, Rico Dowdle’s 206-yard performance in a Carolina Panthers’ win over the Miami Dolphins topped a list of five running backs that broke the 100-yard rushing barrier this week.
Two teams scored in the 40s, with the Houston Texans smacking the Baltimore Ravens 44-10 and the Indianapolis Colts gangster slapping the Las Vegas Raiders, 40-6. There have been 14 40-point performances by teams this season, already the most through five weeks of a season since 1970.
Now, let’s take a closer look at who’s hot and who’s cold from Week 5.
WHO’S HOT
Denver earned a signature win over the defending Super Bowl champs in the City of Brotherly Love with a comeback, 21-17 victory over Philadelphia. And the Broncos were led by one of the best defenses in the league, shutting down Philadelphia’s vaunted running game.
Bonitto was at the heart of Denver’s defensive effort, totaling 2.5 sacks, three quarterback hits and four combined tackles in the victory. The Broncos held the Eagles to 45 yards rushing. They sacked Jalen Hurts six times.
Bonitto leads the league in pressures (31) and sacks (7) through five games. Bonitto even trolled Eagles fans after a sack with a “Fly Eagles Fly” celebration.
Making his first career start in place of benched Joe Flacco, Garbiel made good decisions, didn’t turn the ball over and gave the Browns — led by a strong defense — a chance to win against a dangerous Brian Flores-led defense in the Minnesota Vikings.
Gabriel finished 19 of 33 for 190 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He was sacked twice, posting a 94.3 passer rating. The Browns did struggle on third down (3 of 15) and only had two passing plays over 20 yards, but Gabriel had a solid debut for the Browns across the pond.
Stefon Diggs, WR, New England Patriots
Playing in Buffalo for the first time since being shipped to the Houston Texans in the 2024 offseason, the 31-year-old Diggs turned back the clock with an impressive performance, finishing with 10 receptions for 146 yards on 12 targets.
It’s the second straight 100-yard receiving performance by Diggs, who became the first Patriots receiver with consecutive 100-yard receiving performances since Julian Edelman in 2019. With the win, the Patriots improved to 3-2 this season under first-year head coach Mike Vrabel and look like they can compete for a postseason spot in the AFC East.
Rico Dowdle, RB, Carolina Panthers
Dowdle finished with a career-high 206 rushing yards and a touchdown as the Panthers stormed back from 17 points down to earn a home victory over the Miami Dolphins. Dowdle’s 206-yard performance is tied with Jonathan Stewart for the second-most in franchise history, trailing only DeAngelo Williams (210 rushing yards vs. New Orleans Saints in 2012).
Dowdle, starting for an injured Chuba Hubbard, only had 83 yards entering Sunday’s contest. Bryce Young overcame two turnovers early to lead his team back late, finishing with 198 passing yards and two scores, as the Panthers improved to 2-3 this season. Next up for Dowdle? His former team, the Dallas Cowboys.
Leading New Orleans and first-year head coach Kellen Moore to the team’s first win of the season, Rattler also earned his first victory as a pro quarterback after an 0-10 start. Rattler completed 20 of 30 passes for 225 passing yards, with a touchdown and no interceptions. Rattler also ran for 21 yards.
Per Next Gen Stats, Rattler was pressured on 54.8% of his drop-backs, but did not take a sack. He completed 10 of his 16 pass attempts under pressure for 163 yards and a touchdown, including an 87-yard touchdown pass to Rashid Shaheed.
The Jaguars are 4-1 for the first time since 2007, and head coach Liam Coen’s ability to get the most out of Lawrence has been one of the main reasons for Jacksonville’s success. The Jaguars also have been fortunate.
What better example of Jacksonville’s strong luck than its final offensive play in its win over the Kansas City Chiefs, when Lawrence tripped over one of his offensive linemen while dropping back near Kansas City’s goal line, stumbled again while getting up, but had the presence of mind to scramble to his left for the winning score.
The effort by Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones was not the best on this one.
WHO’S COLD
Allen finished with two turnovers in a loss to the Patriots. After not turning the ball over through the first three games, Allen has three turnovers over the last two games. Allen lamented the sloppy play by his team after the game, which finished with 11 accepted penalties for 90 yards.
“We just played sloppy,” Allen said. “Not going to win a football game turning the ball over three times in our red zone. Gave them one in their red zone. We shouldn’t have been in it with three turnovers. … That’s just a piss poor performance.”
The Bills hit the road to face the Atlanta Falcons before the team’s bye week.
The flailing Philadelphia offense should turn around and hand the ball to the team’s best player. Last season’s leading rusher and the reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year, Barkley is 22nd in rushing so far this season with 267 yards on 83 carries. Barkley is averaging 53.4 yards rushing per game and 3.2 yards per carry, down from 96.5 and 5.3 through Week 5 a year ago.
Saquon Barkley hasn’t been as effective this year as he was year. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)
In Philadelphia’s first loss of the season against the Broncos, Barkley finished with 30 rushing yards on six carries. He also had three receptions for 58 yards and a score. While much of the attention on Philadelphia’s offense has centered around A.J. Brown’s lack of touches, the Eagles must re-emphasize Barkley and the running game.
Joe Burrow’s replacement, Browning, hasn’t worked. He has eight interceptions and is 0-3 since taking over as the team’s starter. The Bengals have lost those games by an average of 25 points a contest.
Luckily for the Bengals, some change is coming to the quarterback room. The team acquired Joe Flacco in a trade with the Browns on Tuesday, and he’ll reportedly become the team’s new starting quarterback. The trade was much-needed because if Bengals head coach Zac Taylor wants to maintain the confidence of the players in the locker room, he had to consider scheme or personnel changes that give Cincinnati a realistic chance to win.
Hall of Famer Barry Sanders should come out of retirement, serving as a consultant for teams to show ball carriers how to hand the ball to the referee after they score a touchdown. For a second straight week, someone on offense failed to hold onto the football until they crossed the goal line for a score.
This time, Emari Demarcado flipped the ball at the half-yard line on a long run that would have given the Cardinals a 27-6 lead and put the game away early in the fourth quarter. Instead, the play resulted in a touchback, giving the ball back to Tennessee and opening the door to a wild, unbelievable comeback victory for the Tennessee Titans – Cam Ward’s first win as a pro.
Adoni Mitchell did the same thing last week and played in six offensive plays the following week in the Colts’ win over the Raiders.
Arizona also bizarrely fumbled an interception that Tyler Lockett recovered for a Tennessee touchdown and had a snap clank off Kyler Murray’s face mask that the Titans recovered for another turnover. Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon was not pleased with Demarcado, but apologized for his sideline actions on Monday.
Aaron Glenn, HC, New York Jets
Led by a defensive head coach, the Jets have zero takeaways through five games, the first team in NFL history to do that since 1933. Glenn should be given some grace after taking over a dumpster fire of a situation left behind by the previous regime.
Still, there’s been little progress to point to in the first five weeks, and the Jets are the only winless team in the league. Glenn became the first coach in Jets history to start 0-5 in Year 1. The Jets are allowing 31.7 points per game, on pace to set a franchise record for most points allowed in a season.
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on X at @eric_d_williams.
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