Overreactions, Exaggerations & Just The Plain Out Truth – Week 5
Oct 13, 2021, 2:44 PM | Updated: 2:44 pm
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
It’s the end of the fifth week in the NFL, which means we have some teams that will begin to get off days soon.
Some teams have just about used all their luck and probably should begin planning for next year’s moves while some teams look to be the real deal and can make a case to why they will be involved deep into January.
With a fourth of the season in the books…
Overreactions
Buffalo Bills best team in the AFC: It may only be a slight overreaction but the Buffalo Bills are the best team in the AFC until proven otherwise. I’m sure there are a few Los Angeles Chargers fans and maybe a few Cleveland Browns fans who may differ but the Buffalo Bills look to be the best team in the conference and arguably in the NFL(I hear you Arizona Cardinal fans).
Minus the first week, where Buffalo seemed to go through the motions and sleep walk into a bad loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Bills have pretty much been lights out. Yes two of their games were against the Texans and Dolphins but they blanked both of them to a combined score of 75-0.
They have scored 35 points or more in four straight games and now they just dismantled the Kansas City Chiefs at home in front of a national audience. That’s what we call a statement!
Detroit Lions and Dan Campbell: By now I would imagine that if you are reading this you probably have seen Dan Campbell’s post game press conference where he shows a ton of emotion after another tough loss(if not here you go).
That’s a man, a coach, a person who is totally invested in his team and you know what if you’ve had the pleasure to see any Lions game this year, the team seems to be right along with him. In fact the Lions are the only team in NFL history to have lost two games in the same season by the opposing team kicking a 50-yard plus field goal at the end of regulation to win.
On top of that to make matters worse one of those game winning kicks was Justin Tuckers NFL record setting 66 yard boot. This team isn’t that good, hence the 0-5 record but they aren’t the worst, the football Gods just haven’t been on their side.
I think Dan Campbell has something brewing in Detroit, there seems to be a different feeling surrounding that team and it seems to be positive.
Kyle Shanahan’s play calling: Shanahan comes from a family of great play callers, it’s in his blood, he grew up probably reading play charts of some of the most famous and intelligent coaches to ever walk this planet due to his father’s involvement on numerous staffs around the league.
He has also been lauded for his play calling as a coordinator and as a Head Coach but this year it doesn’t seem to be coming together.
This past week with Trey Lance getting his first start ever and the tools he posses, I thought for sure we would see some creative plays, some plays we would of never seen before, instead we got the bare minimum, basic operations and a whole lot of vanilla.
It’s been a common theme over the season so far, no real trick plays, nothing we haven’t seen from the team before and no real jaw dropping schemes., all of the things we have come to know Shanahan for. I mean when I say vanilla, I’m talking Vanilla Bean and a double scoop.
Exaggerations
Dak Prescott MVP Case: Week five is in the books and the Dallas Cowboys are 4 and 1 overall, 3-0 at home and own a two game lead in the division. Their Quarterback Dak Presscott ranks second in completion percentage, has thrown for the third most touchdowns with 13, has the third best Qb rating, plus he just assisted his team to a game where they gained 26 first downs. This is the same Dallas Cowboys team who didn’t win their fourth game until week 14 last year, well actually it’s not the same team because Prescott is healthy, playing and excelling. This is a completely different team when Dak is running the show and if that isn’t what a MVP is all about then I’m not sure what it. He makes all the difference and it shows. If it isn’t Dak it may be, see below…
Washington Football Team: I don’t know about you but I am officially tired of calling the WFT, the Washington Football Team. Can we please get a name, PLEASE.
Justin Herbert is the best Quarterback AFC West Division: Herbert’s Los Angeles Chargers lead the AFC West Division with a record of 4-1 and he has the team absolutely rolling on offense.
After another 300 yard passing game(389 yards to be exact) and a combined 5 touchdowns Sunday in a pure shootout against the Cleveland Browns, Herbert continues to show that he has all the tools most thought he did when they believed he would be the first overall pick after his Junior year in college.
With Sunday’s performance, he recorded his 11th career game with 300-plus passing yards, in his first two seasons, which is the most by any player in the Super Bowl era for a player in their first two years in the league. He broke a tie with Dan Marino and fellow AFC West QB Patrick Mahomes.
Though he has been good this year and pretty steady throughout his career, Teddy Bridgewater is not in the top 10 tier of QB’s in the league.
With Derek Carr(you can argue all you want about Carr’s hot start but he’s been in the league too long now for anyone to say he will ever be a top 5 guy) seemingly falling back into his regular character over the last two weeks, I don’t think anyone would argue they are currently better then the Oregon product(here’s looking at you Raider fan), which leaves Mahomes left.
I’m not going to sit around and say just because Mahomes and the Chiefs are struggling as a team means Mahomes personally hasn’t been good this year but I’m also not going to say that some of the Chiefs struggles aren’t necessarily despite Mahomes either.
I already spoke about the whooping the Chiefs took from the hands of the Bills Sunday evening, you can believe the State Farm insurance supporter played a part in that.
I’ll keep it simple, as of right now five weeks through the season, Herbert is a top five MVP candidate, his team played in the best game of the season so far, which they won and he is in the top 10 in just about every statistic that counts for a QB except interceptions and turnovers, while on the other hand Mahomes sits third in the league in interceptions with 6 and is tied for third with Jared Goff and Sam Darnold for most turnovers by a QB(Only trailing two rookies, Trevor Lawrence & Zak Wilson).
Fantasy Football Contestants: The bye weeks are upon us, this is where the rubber meets the road, where pretenders turn into contenders, its your time.
The Truth
Bye Weeks: They are here… first up, the Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints, New York Jets and the San Francisco 49ers
Teams Missing the playoffs: It’s only week six and you can chalk these teams up as not making the post season this year… New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, New York Giants
Injuries: See last week’s edition on this topic…
You can add Russell Wilson, Juju Smith-Schuster, Daniel Jones, and Saquon Barkley among others to the list of players that got injured this past week. This is becoming a recurring theme and something I just can’t seem to shake.
Injuries are abound in the NFL and just like the last few years in all major sports, there seems to be more and more serious injuries every year. This week was no different and it’s sadly becoming a theme of every NFL season. Players are getting hurt and injured in record numbers.
According to the NFLFastR(play by play data) last season, the 2020-2021 season saw a spike of 14% of reported injures with more than over 800 in game injuries, which is the highest number of injuries ever recorded in the NFL. Prior to last year’s peek numbers the most injury prone season was 2015 with 786 injuries.
There was a 30% increase in concussions reported last season since the 2014-2015 season and threw the first four weeks of this season according to ScienceDirect.Com, there have been over 500 reported injuries throughout the NFL. Again, with the understanding that athletes get hurt, I can’t recall a time in my life where so many players are coming up hurt.
Don’t believe me? Just take a look at this list of this weeks injuries alone…
