Irish coming out party in Pittsburgh
The 32 things we learned from Week 5 of the 2020 NFL season:
1. Best story of Week 5: Washington QB Alex Smith. He played football Sunday for the first time in 693 days – the amount of time that had passed since the horrific broken leg he suffered Nov. 18, 2018, an injury that nearly cost Smith his life due to the post-surgical infections and subsequent operations he endured.
2. Worst story of Week 5: Cowboys QB Dak Prescott. The compound ankle fracture he suffered Sunday didn’t initially appear quite as bad as Smith’s injury two years ago. Since starting in the league in 2016, Prescott – he entered Sunday on pace to shatter the league’s single-season record for passing yards – had never missed a game.
3. Second-worst story of Week 5: COVID-19. The past week has been a stark reminder that COVID-19 can’t be taken for granted as it increasingly impacts the league’s teams and schedule, including the removal of Broncos-Patriots from the Week 5 schedule.
4. Player of Week 5? Raise your hand if you predicted it would be rookie Steelers WR Chase Claypool (good, no hands). The second-rounder from Notre Dame – he ran a 4.4-second 40-yard dash at the scouting combine despite his 6-foot-4, 229-pound frame (Claypool is listed at 238 now) – had a breakout performance against the Eagles with 116 yards from scrimmage and four TDs, the first Pittsburgh player to find the end zone four times in a game since ... Roy Jefferson in 1968.
5. Through Sunday’s games, home teams were 38-36-1 this season.
6. After beating the Colts, the Browns are 4-1 for the first time since 1994 ... when Bill Belichick was their coach.
7. The Seahawks improved to 5-0 for the first time in franchise history Sunday night, becoming the first 5-0 team of 2020. Buffalo could join them Tuesday.
8. The Steelers are 4-0 for the first time since 1979 (and also pulled it off in 1978). They won the Super Bowl in both those years.
9. The Bears are 4-1 for the first time since 2012. They missed the playoffs that year.
10. Tom Brady was 5-0 against Chicago while he was in New England. He’s now 0-1 in a Tampa Bay uniform.
11. RB David Montgomery scored the Bears’ first rushing TD of 2020, making them the final team to score on the ground. Next? Chicago is seeking its first points in the third quarter, the only team still shut out in that period this season.
12. Looks as though the Raiders have hit on the right formula as it pertains to competing with the reigning champion Chiefs: load up on your own weapons rather than try to contain Kansas City defensively. Las Vegas, with its array of offensive talents, outgained K.C. 490413 in Sunday’s 40-32 upset. Two recent first-round picks – RB Josh Jacobs (2019) and WR Henry Ruggs (2020), both from Alabama – combined for 203 yards and three TDs at Arrowhead.
13. Maybe Kansas City’s unexpected setback shouldn’t come as a total shock given the calendar now reads October. QB Patrick Mahomes is 10-0 with 32 TD passes and zero INTs in September but 6-4 (22 TDs, 8 INTs) in October.
14. The Chiefs’ league-best 13-game winning streak, including playoffs, was snapped.
15. The 101-yard kickoff return for a TD by the Colts’ Isaiah Rodgers is the longest play in the league this season.
16. The Panthers are somehow undefeated (3-0) without All-Pro RB Christian McCaffrey. Remarkable, if unheralded, start by rookie coach Matt Rhule and Co.
17. The Falcons are 0-5 for the first time since 1997. Dan Quinn and GM Thomas Dimitroff got plenty of rope while trying to make this work ... but cutting the cord now is merciful.
18. Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald, a near surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer, is on pace for 394 receiving yards this season. His lowest output in his first 16 seasons was 734 yards in 2018.
19. Bucs WR Mike Evans, Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill and Vikings RB Dalvin Cook have scored touchdowns in every game this season.
20. Pittsburgh > Philadelphia.
21. The Rams went 4-0 against the NFC East this year. We’d recommend relocating to Raleigh ... because “Raleigh Rams” sounds good, and they could run this division for the next decade.
22. The 49ers are 0-3 at home this season but 2-0 in New York (technically New Jersey). Like the Rams ... go east, young men.
23. “Downstate New York’s” two teams, the Jets and Giants are a combined 0-10 for the first time. Maybe they should move to the West Coast.
24. Looking forward to Tuesday night football and watching your team, Bills fans. Assuming the game is actually played, Buffalo-Tennessee will be the only Week 5 contest featuring two unbeaten squads.
25. Dolphins K Jason Sanders 19, San Francisco 17.
26. Miami scored as many as 43 points for only the third time in the last quarter century, and the team’s first such occurrence since 2015.
27. Congratulations to Texans interim boss Romeo Crennel. At 73, he surpassed Hall of Famer George Halas as the oldest coach in league history. Houston, which fired coach/GM Bill O’Brien last week, responded Sunday with its first win of the season, a 30-14 drubbing of Jacksonville.
28. Washington gained 108 yards (2.1 per play) Sunday, the ninth fewest for one team in the past decade.
29. Bengals QB Joe Burrow (183 passing yards, INT) looked like a rookie for the first time this season in Cincinnati’s 27-3 loss at Baltimore. Burrow was thoroughly upstaged by Ravens rookie LB Patrick Queen, his former LSU teammate, who finished with a game-high nine tackles, a 53-yard score off a fumble return and a sack of Burrow.
30. The Ravens have rushed for at least 100 yards in 28 consecutive regular-season games. Only three teams since the 1970 merger have had a longer run.
31. All-galaxy Rams DL Aaron Donald notched the second four-sack game of his career Sunday ... a pretty rude way to welcome Smith back to the gridiron. Quadruple-team that guy, Washington?
32. If the season ended today – it doesn’t – the Raiders and Panthers would become the first-ever No. 7 seeds in the new 14-team playoff bracket.