Sunday’s games were all but typical
Cincinnati overcame a 17-point deficit to beat Seattle in overtime, and Aaron Rodgers had two interceptions at Lambeau.
Typical Cincinnati Bengals. Just when they’ve hit their stride, they do a face plant at home against Seattle, making their unblemished record look like a mirage.
But wait … the Bengals overcame a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter Sunday and wound up winning in overtime, 27-24.
“We imploded in the third quarter, but we righted ourselves and started putting one play on top of another and kept going,” said Coach Marvin Lewis, whose 5-0 Bengals are among the six remaining undefeated teams.
Cincinnati’s winning field goal came on a ricochet off the upright. Far more often than not, that would have bounced the wrong way for the hard-luck Bengals, but something about this season feels different. This team is one victory shy of matching the best start in club history; the Bengals started 6-0 in 1975 and 1988.
Typical Cleveland Browns. They’re on the road, where they’ve lost five in a row, and facing Baltimore, a club that has beaten them in 13 of their previous 14 meetings. Naturally, the Browns fall behind by 12.
Hold on… the Browns won in overtime too? Journeyman Josh McCown made Cleveland history by throwing for 300 yards in three consecutive games, and Sunday led his team to a dramatic 33-30 victory.
“You have wins that define things for you — that can define a season or be a turning point — and we hope that was this for us,” Browns Coach Mike Pettine said.
Typical Aaron Rodgers. Surely, the Green Bay star was on fire against St. Louis. He’s the gold standard of NFL quarterbacks, after all, and hadn’t been picked off at Lambeau Field since 2012.
All good things must end. The Packers came away with a 24-10 win over the Rams, but it was a rough day for Rodgers, who was intercepted twice and lost a fumble.
That ended Rodgers’ NFLrecord streaks of 587 pass attempts and 49 touchdown passes at home without an interception.
“It was a lot of fun,” Rodgers said of his nearly three-year game of keep-away. “Have to start a new one. I figured I might as well break the streak with a couple interceptions today.”
And finally, typical Detroit Lions. Six days after nearly pulling off a big upset at Seattle, they played host to Arizona… and completely collapsed on their way to a 42-17 defeat. The Lions are the league’s last winless team for an NFL-record eighth time.
Some things never change.
Rich get richer
All the undefeated teams stayed undefeated, with Cincinnati, Green Bay, Denver and Atlanta improving to 5-0; New England improving to 4-0; and 4-0 Carolina getting the week off.
At this point last season, there were no undefeated teams. In fact, nobody got to 4-0.
This crop of four 5-0 teams falls one shy of the NFL record, set in 2009.
Of the remaining unbeaten teams, five play on the road in Week 6, with the only home game being San Diego at Green Bay.
The road games are Atlanta at New Orleans, Cincinnati at Buffalo, Denver at Cleveland, Carolina at Seattle and New England at Indianapolis.
A terrible twist
Not only did Kansas City fall to Chicago, 18-17, but the Chiefs suffered a far bigger loss. Star running back Jamaal Charles crumpled to the turf in the third quarter when his right knee gave out. The preliminary diagnosis was a torn anterior cruciate ligament, which would end his season.
Charles is scheduled to undergo an MRI exam on Monday.
Cards sharp
Although Arizona isn’t one of the unbeaten teams, the Cardinals are as hot as anyone at the moment. With Seattle and St. Louis losing Sunday, Arizona opened a two-game lead in the NFC West.
Carson Palmer is accurate and poised and is surrounded by a stable of playmakers — among them Larry Fitzgerald, John Brown, rookie David Johnson and the emerging Darren Fells, a tight end who didn’t play college football but was a basketball player at UC Irvine.
Arizona’s defense is clicking too. No need to remind Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford. He was benched in the third quarter and replaced by Dan Orlovsky.
More of the same
Yet again, the Atlanta Falcons erased a fourth-quarter deficit to emerge victorious. They beat Washington in overtime, 25-19, when Robert Alford returned an interception 59 yards for a touchdown.
“I trusted my instincts and the film study…” Alford said. “I just jumped it, and it was there for me to make a play on. I looked back to see who was around me, and once there was nobody around me, it was off to the end zone.”
The Falcons made league history by winning their first three games by coming from behind in the fourth quarter of each. They followed that with a blowout of Houston. But it was back to their nail-biting ways Sunday, as they were down by four points with less than three minutes remaining in regulation.
Atlanta is the first team in league history to start 5-0 with four of those wins coming when trailing at some point in the fourth quarter.
Charles in charge
In an interview with the NFL Network’s Andrew Siciliano last week, Oakland cornerback Charles Woodson lamented the fact that, despite all his career interceptions, he had never picked off a Peyton Manning pass.
Woodson, 39, made up for that Sunday, plucking two Manning passes in a 16-10 loss to Denver.
In one of the more obscure statistical asides of the season, Woodson is the only player in league history with two interceptions in a game at 39 or older. He has 64 career interceptions, tied with Ed Reed for sixth on the all-time list.
Ours go to 11
With a 38-31 victory over Jacksonville, Tampa Bay snapped an 11-game home losing streak.
Meanwhile, Dallas’ Brandon Weeden lost his 11th consecutive start, dating to his Cleveland days. The Cowboys barely put up a fight at home in a 30-6 loss to New England.
Have we met?
All four of Baltimore’s losses have come from former Ravens assistant coaches who are now head coaches elsewhere. That’s Denver’s Gary Kubiak, Oakland’s Jack Del Rio, Cincinnati’s Lewis and Cleveland’s Pettine.