Rookie QBs feast; famine for Ravens in red zone
The 32 things we learned from Week
5 of the 2018 NFL season.
1. Rookie quarterbacks went 4-0 Sunday. Cleveland’s Baker Mayfield and Arizona’s Josh Rosen notched their first wins as NFL starters, Sam Darnold had his first three-touchdown passing game as a Jet, and Josh Allen posted the only TD in Buffalo’s upset of Tennessee.
2. The Rams improved to 5-0 — the fifth team to score at least 30 points in each of the first five games of a season (three of the other four advanced to the Super Bowl) — by surviving the Seahawks 33-31. L.A. QB Jared Goff had his worst statistical outing of 2018, but his
2-yard sneak on 4th-and-1 from his own
42 with 99 seconds to go put the game on ice. Bold call by coach Sean McVay, especially in a venue as loud as CenturyLink Field.
3. The No. 1 scoring offense has prevailed in six of the past seven matchups against the No. 1 scoring defense, a trend that held Sunday in the unbeaten Chiefs’ 30-14 defeat of the Jaguars.
4. Advantage “all-pro returner” as Kansas City’s Tyreek Hill finished with
61 receiving yards while all-pro Jacksonville corner Jalen Ramsey had a negligible impact in what proved to be a fairly disappointing individual battle.
5. The Eagles, who went 13-3 in 2017, are the first defending champions to begin 2-3 since the 2006 Steelers ... who missed the playoffs. Of the seven previous reigning champs to start 2-3, only the 1996 Cowboys reached the postseason.
6. Receiver records: Minnesota’s Adam Thielen is the first in the Super Bowl era to surpass 100 yards in each of his team’s first five games (he also secured the win at Philadelphia by recovering an onside kick with the clock winding down), while Cleveland’s Jarvis Landry shot past Larry Fitzgerald — with 11 games left — for most receptions (429) in his first five seasons.
7. If we saw 329-pound Vikings DT Linval Joseph with a 64-yard head of steam, we wouldn’t get in his way either.
8. Feast or famine: Steelers RB James Conner has two games this year
with 100 yards and two TDs on the ground. (Le’Veon Bell has never had that kind of performance twice in a season.) Conner rushed for 97 yards and one TD in his other three games combined.
9. Conner also might have a future as a midwife ... just ask teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster.
10. Feast or famine: Steelers OLB T.J. Watt has two games this season with three sacks and none in his other three games. T.J. and brother J.J. share the NFL lead (6 sacks) with Geno Atkins. 11. Deshaun + DeAndre > Dak + Zeke
12. Free football feast: The Browns went into overtime for the third time in 2018, becoming the fourth team to do so in its first five games, and needed their bonus football to beat Baltimore. This is the first NFL season that has featured at least one OT game in each of the first five weeks. 13. Football famine over? Cleveland won on a Sunday for the first time since Dec. 13, 2015. Cleveland beat an AFC North foe (also the Ravens) for the first time since Oct. 11, 2015. Cleveland has
two wins in a season for the first time since 2015. 14. Dress to impress: The Browns are 2-0 in their all-brown Color Rush uniforms. They’re 0-2-1 in any uniform that has “CLEVELAND” or “BROWNS” on it. Shrug.
15. Feast or famine: After scoring 12 TDs in 12 red-zone trips over their first three games, the Ravens are 1-for-8 in their past two (including 0-for-3 in Cleveland).
16. Feast or famine: Isaiah Crowell’s
219 rushing yards were a Jets record. Crowell, who ran for 102 yards in Week 1, has 321 in his first and most recent games with New York but 69 total in the other three. Per Elias, his 14.6 yards per carry Sunday were the most ever by a player with at least 15 attempts.
17. Feast and famine: S Marcus Maye ended the Jets’ 34-16 win against Denver with a 104-yard interception return. He needed 105 for a pick-six.
18. Maye’s theft of Case Keenum means the QB has thrown at least one interception in all five of his starts with the Broncos. His seven interceptions match his 2017 total with Minnesota.
19. You can just about stick a fork in the Falcons, my preseason Super Bowl pick but a team depleted by injuries and
1-4 after the loss to Pittsburgh. Atlanta has overcome a 2-3 start to reach the playoffs four times but has never survived 1-4.
20. The first-place Bengals (4-1) spotted the Dolphins 17 points before reeling off the game’s final 27. What a game for Cincinnati’s defense; it scored two TDs while allowing one.
21. If you really cared, Odell Beckham Jr., you would have let that play develop a little longer to find a way to get your first career completion into the hands of Eli Manning rather than force that 57yard TD to Saquon Barkley.
22. Of course, without that play, Barkley (129 total yards) would not have become the third player of the Super Bowl era — joining Adrian Peterson and Kareem Hunt — to top 100 from scrimmage in his first five games.
23. The Giants scored 31 points Sunday, the first time they’d cracked 30 since the 2015 regular-season finale. Beckham said his recent criticism of
New York’s offense “came out the wrong way.”
24. But the Giants gave up 33 points, including a special teams TD courtesy of an OBJ punt muff and a 63-yard, gameending field goal by Carolina’s Graham Gano — tying Tom Dempsey’s 63-yard shot in 1970 as the longest game-winner in history.
25. We can only hope that Equanimeous St. Brown and Marquez ValdesScantling become the Packers’ starting receivers of the future. Could be a lot of names with a lot of game (pressed into service, they combined for 10 catches, 157 yards and a TD on Sunday).
26. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for Green Bay as K Mason Crosby suffered the worst day of his 12-year career — or an “anomaly in life.” Crosby had never missed three field goals in a game but went 1-for-5 Sunday and botched a PAT. That’s 13 points left on the table in a game Detroit won 31-23.
27. So ... Aaron Rodgers has someone else to be upset with this week.
28. Advice to 49ers TE George Kittle: Don’t show up for work this week. After RB Matt Breida was waylaid Sunday by an ankle issue, it’s only a matter of time until the injury bug again claims San Francisco’s best offensive player ... which is now Kittle.
29. LeSean McCoy’s season-high 85 rushing yards for the Bills vaulted him into the team lead (170). Allen had been the only quarterback who was his team’s No. 1 rusher entering Week 5.
30. Colts QB Andrew Luck is 0-6 against the Patriots. He’s 47-28 (including playoffs) against the rest of the league. Luck has thrown 121 passes over the past two games. Ice up, son ... please.
31. Finally, did you know Luck’s streak of a TD pass in his last 28 games is the longest in the NFL? Me neither.
32. Hey, @BortlesFacts, your guy threw for a career-high 430 yards Sunday and thoroughly intimidated Patrick Mahomes (career-high 2 INTs, careerlow 62.7 passer rating). [Footnote to @BortlesFacts: Your guy had a fumble and career-worst four picks, one of the Mark Sanchez variety as he misfired off the helmet of Jags G A.J. Cann, in an ugly defeat ... but let’s bury the lead.]