NFL Musings, Week 5: The Bengals' Big Comeback, Jamaal Charles' Big Injury, the Saints' Historically Bad D

Week 5 provided some key showdowns. Teams on the brink tried to salvage seasons. Two of them with winning records a year ago lost at home as heavy favorites, despite big leads. Two tried to salvage undefeated seasons, after trailing late. Both came back to get to 5-0. Stafford was benched, Manning was picked, but the Broncos still won, and apparently a game happened in Tennessee. Here are this week’s musings.

WE’RE ON TO CINCINNATI AFTER A 5-0 START AND BIG COMEBACK AGAINST THE SEAHAWKS

Midway through the third quarter, things fell apart for the Cincinnati Bengals. Thomas Rawls had a 69-yard touchdown run, and just a few moments later, Michael Bennett hit Rex Burkhead in the backfield, forcing a fumble that was picked up and returned for a touchdown by Bobby Wagner. The teams exchanged punts for the rest of the quarter, and Cincinnati trailed two-time Super Bowl participant Seattle by 17 entering the fourth quarter.

The modern comeback doesn’t have to involve big game-changing plays or huge turnovers. This one was a death by a thousand cuts for Seattle, as Cincinnati controlled the ball over the last 25 minutes of game action. Seattle managed three first downs after Rawls’ long run. For Cincinnati, it began with a good Adam Jones punt return that put the ball in Seattle territory. After a second red zone touchdown pass to Tyler Eifert, (who looks like one of the best young tight ends in the game) Andy Dalton began the vital next drive with a sack. He then hit Mohamed Sanu on a short route out of the slot, burning Kam Chancellor for a 25-yard gain. From there, it was 6 yards here, 7 yards there, down the field.

That’s when Andy Dalton did his Tom Brady impersonation out of an empty set, catching the reeling Seahawks with a gut punch.

Seeing an opening in the middle of the defense, he gesticulated and called out while walking up to the line, and then took the quick snap under center and pushed his way for a touchdown, followed by an emphatic spike.

Overtime went much the same way. Seattle not able to move the ball. Cincinnati slowly choking them off. Seattle falls to 2-3, with now two of the losses coming in overtime games where the Seahawks won the turnover battle and had a late fourth quarter lead. And the Bengals are now 5-0 for the first time since 1988.

It is the first time since the Giants did it against the Eagles in September of 2006 that a team trailing by 17 or more points at the start of the fourth quarter came back to win a game. Before that, it was the famous Monday Night game where Peyton Manning threw three touchdown passes against the defending Super Bowl Champion Buccaneers in 2003. The last massive fourth quarter comeback not involving a Manning? It was the guy broadcasting this game, Troy Aikman, throwing five touchdown passes to come from behind in the 1999 season opener against Washington. Pretty good company.

JOSH MCCOWN SENDS BALTIMORE INTO THE ABYSS

The difference between 1-4 and 2-3 can feel like staring across the Grand Canyon. This week, several teams are facing the cold reality on the shady side of that chasm, while others gained a glimmer of hope in week 5. The San Francisco 49ers had been outclassed for three straight weeks. They came out on Sunday night and played much better offensively, but still came up short thanks to Larry Donnell’s gripping grab over Navorro Bowman. Jacksonville and Tampa Bay are young teams still learning to win, and the Bucs got the second victory. Thursday, we saw Houston come out against the Luckless Colts at home and sink.

Three other games on Sunday featured 1-3 teams squaring off in key turning point showdowns. The home team led by double digits at some point in all three; two of those favored home teams lost in crushing fashion.

The Baltimore Ravens took a 21-9 lead on the Browns halfway through the 3rd quarter. Then, they allowed Josh McCown to put his name in the Browns’ record books, and Gary Barnidge to take the Browns from being the butt of many jokes with a great catch.

THE EAGLES’ OFFENSE COMES TO LIFE AGAINST THE SAINTS’ HISTORICALLY WOEFUL DEFENSE

In Philadelphia, the Eagles finally broke out offensively. Sam Bradford threw two first half red zone interceptions, and it still didn’t matter, because, as the saying goes, the team that showers together stays together. The Saints defense got torched. Philadelphia rolled up 34 first downs, the second highest total by any team this year (New England 35 vs. Jacksonville). It’s more than Philadelphia had in the previous two games combined, and Eagles fans can finally take a deep breath after the offense went a game without disappearing for huge chunks of it.

The Saints, meanwhile, look like a team about on the verge of a seismic shift. In the offseason, I wrote about the Saints pulling band-aids while trying to stand behind Brees’ massive cap number. 2009 is a long way back in the rearview mirror. The current incarnation has won 8 of the last 21 games. The defense is a mess under Rob Ryan. The offense is a shell of itself.

Here’s an eye opening stat to put the Saints’ defense in perspective. Here are the worst adjusted net yards per attempt allowed through the first 5 games in NFL history (data via pro-football-reference.com).

That would be the 0-16 Lions as the only team with a worse start at defending the pass than these Saints.

JAMAAL CHARLES’ INJURY IS THE END OF THE CHIEFS OFFENSE

Jamaal Charles is one of the most dynamic offensive players of the last decade. It’s sad to see his season come to an end early for a second time due to a knee injury. With it, and what happened after he left the game with the Chiefs leading 17-3 and inside the Bears’ 10 yard line, the season is for all intents and purposes over.

Charles has accounted for 38.1% of the Chiefs’ rush attempts and receptions over the last three seasons with Alex Smith at quarterback. After Charles’ injury, Smith threw two incompletions, then the Bears blocked a field goal (what the heck happened to #79 Donald Stephenson on the field goal attempt?)

Alex Smith went 1 for 7 for 5 yards with Charles out, up until the point that Jay Cutler connected with Matt Forte for the lead at 18-17. The Chiefs had come off a stretch where they had lost to the Bengals (still undefeated), the Broncos (still undefeated), and the Packers (still undefeated). While tough, those losses were acceptable. The Bears loss at home, with a 14 point cushion, is not.

Chicago, meanwhile, has salvaged the season since the Jimmy Clausen experience happened. With Cutler in the lineup, they played Green Bay close, were still in the game with Arizona, and beat the Raiders and Chiefs.

MATTHEW STAFFORD BENCHED

Matthew Stafford got benched in the 3rd quarter after 3 interceptions, a fumble, and a large deficit at home against the Arizona Cardinals.

Stafford has yet to really fulfill the hype. A few weeks ago, I called him this generation’s Drew Bledsoe, but for hopeful Lions fans, I hate to break it to you, but going to Dan Orlovsky is not Brady-for-Bledsoe.

Stafford had his career year, statistically, at age 23 when he threw for 41 touchdown passes. Even with Calvin Johnson in his prime, Stafford’s passing numbers were basically average, just high volume. The leap, in actual performance, has yet to happen.

Now, the supporting cast has fallen apart. The offensive line has gone from bad, to decent, to below average to now awful. Stafford’s sacks doubled, from 23 to 45 last year. While he isn’t getting sacked as much this year, it’s because he has no desire to hold it while taking a beating. The Lions can’t run the ball. Detroit is only the 2nd team in the last 65 years to average less than 50 rushing yards per game over the first five games. The other? The 1994 Saints. That would be Saints quarterbacked by Jim Everett, fresh off his appearance with Jim Rome that year.

He won’t be the first quarterback benched in the midst of an awful afternoon of turnovers. But how he handles it from this point forward may determine where Stafford goes from here.

FALCONS PULL IT TOGETHER ON A LETDOWN DAY, COUSINS CONTINUES TO GET UNLUCKY ON TURNOVERS

Atlanta easily could have lost yesterday for the first time. Matt Bryant missed two field goals. They came out flat. Julio Jones was largely contained, and Leonard Hankerson left the game early. Eventually, though, they were able to turn things around and score on Devonta Freeman’s touchdown run.

Get to overtime, and anything can happen. Kirk Cousins did. There will be talk of a slip. It’s hard to tell if that’s sufficient justification on this one. It looks like the receiver slips because the ball is wildly off target and he tries to adjust suddenly. Your mileage may vary. Former receivers are weighing in.

Interceptions can be random. They can be unpredictable. They seem to happen more regularly with Cousins. In fact, since 2012, he has the highest interception rate for any quarterback with at least 400 attempts, moving back ahead of Geno Smith (4.22% vs 4.20%) thanks to the overtime winner.

NO-HUDDLE ATTACK

Green Bay 24, St. Louis 10: Will Fisher run Gurley into the ground? Gurley is such a weapon, and in two weeks he has gone from just off the PUP list to 30 carries, less than a year since his knee injury. Nick Foles got beat up in this one, and threw 4 interceptions.

Tampa Bay 38, Jacksonville 31: This one had all the makings of the game that hardcore fantasy gamers and gamblers would love, and it didn’t disappoint. The two Allen’s in Jacksonville both had 80+ yards and a touchdown.

Denver 16, Oakland 10: Peyton Manning becomes the first quarterback since Dieter Brock for the Rams in 1985 to throw more interceptions than touchdowns in a 5-0 start for his team, after he was picked off twice by Charles Woodson. Denver won again despite no offensive touchdowns.

Buffalo 14, Tennessee 13: Let’s just pretend this one didn’t happen.

[images via USA Today Sports Images, GIFs by Michael Shamburger]