Week 5 brought viewers plenty of surprises, along with a wide array of plays, epic heroics and major disappointments.
From veteran players saving the day to players getting benched, from blowouts to tightly contested overtime victories, these are some of the notable winners and losers from the NFL Week 5 action.
Winner: Old guys rule in big win for Indianapolis Colts
The Thursday Night Football game that featured the Colts and the Houston Texans was highly competitive, despite the fact that Indianapolis started 40-year old backup quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who had just spent the previous days in the E.R. fighting an infection.
The Colts came out on top, 27-20, which was Hasselebeck’s second win in a row for the team. This also made Hasselbeck the first 40-year old quarterback to win back-to-back games since 2010 when Brett Favre accomplished this milestone playing with the Minnesota Vikings.
Additionally, Hasselbeck managed to blow past Hall of Famers Steve Young, Troy Aikman and Kurt Warner in career passing yards, which is an amazing accomplishment.
Speaking of old guys, Hasselbeck’s two touchdown passes were caught by 34-year old All-Pro receiver Andre Johnson, who had been mostly invisible until Thursday night’s breakout performance. He had six catches for 77 yards and the two big scores.
Additionally, 32-year old running back Frank Gore scored a rushing touchdown in Thursday’s game. Gore posted 98 yards at a pace of 4.45 yards per attempt — his best game since joining the Colts.
Lastly, we must not forget about the oldest kicker in the NFL, 42-year old Adam Vinatieri, who went two-for-two in field goals, sailing the football through the uprights for 48-yard and 42-yard field goals.
The Colts were constantly under pressure to score with Houston right on their tail for nearly the entire game. Every score the Colts made was accomplished by players 32 years of age and older — not so shabby for a bunch of “older” dudes.
Loser: Aaron Rodgers ends epic interception-free home streak
It finally happened. Aaron Rodgers threw a pick at home, which is something that has not occurred since December 2, 2012.
After 20 straight games and 586 attempts at Lambeau Field, Rodgers was intercepted by St. Louis Rams linebacker James Laurinaitis on a pass intended for tight end Richard Rodgers. Worse still, Rodgers got picked off again by cornerback Trumaine Johnson on a pass intended for James Jones later in the game.
Prior to this contest, the last time Rodgers was intercepted at home was by Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith – something that Rodgers couldn’t recall. When he was reminded about the pick that resulted from a toss to Randall Cobb who threw it back to Rodgers, who then took a deep shot to Greg Jennings, this was Rodgers response (via ESPN):
“That’s what it was? Shouldn’t have called that play.”
Sunday’s interceptions ended Rodgers’ 16 home game interception-free streak. However, the Packers destroyed the Rams, 24-10, and remain undefeated with a record of 5-0.
Winner: Bengals come from behind to beat Seahawks in amazing overtime win
The Cincinnati Bengals are off to a tremendous start and are now 5-0 for the third time in franchise history. Sunday’s victory was earned in nail-biting fashion as it took overtime to defeat the Seattle Seahawks, 27-24.
It’s hard to believe that the Bengals trailed the Seahawks by a score of 24-7 heading into the fourth quarter. At that point the team did a fantastic job playing catch-up while the Seahawks remained stagnant. Andy Dalton went into overdrive and threw for one touchdown, followed by score on the ground. Kicker Mike Nugent handily tied the game with a 31-yard field goal to send the game into overtime.
After two unsuccessful drives by the Seahawks in overtime that saw Russell Wilson taking yet another sack, the Bengals rose to the occasion, driving down the field to set up Nugent for the 42-yard game-winning field goal.
The Bengals are rolling, but the Seahawks walk away with loss No. 3 and their tails between their legs.
Loser: Those who benched DeMarco Murray in fantasy football
Philadelphia Eagles running back DeMarco Murray, who had been on thin ice with his fantasy owners and probably coach Chip Kelly as well, finally decided to bust out in Week 5.
Because of his horrible track record thus far in the season, however, averaging only 8.1 measly fantasy points per game (standard scoring), many folks benched him. Little did we know that Murray would decide to break out with his best performance of the year.
Last year’s leading rusher piled up 83 yards on the ground with one rushing touchdown and racked up 37 receiving yards. This was all fine and dandy for those who started Murray. However social media is abuzz with tweets such as this from the millions of people who benched the running back:
Besides frustrating his fantasy owners, Murray and the rest of the team dominated the poor New Orleans Saints, tallying a total of 519 yards against their suspect defense. Needless to say, the Eagles ruled and won handily, 39-17.
Winner: Doug Martin helps Tampa Bay Buccaneers break 11-game home losing streak
It’s time to show the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a little love and congratulate them for finally breaking their 11-game home losing streak thanks to Sunday’s barn-burner win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, 38-31.
Largely responsible for Sunday’s victory was running back Doug Martin, who posted two rushing touchdowns along with a receiving score. Martin carried the ball 24 times for a tidy total of 123 yards and added 35 receiving yards. No slouch in the receiving department either was Martin’s fellow running back Charles Sims, who racked up 85 yards on four catches.
Rookie quarterback Jameis Winston passed for 209 yards and a touchdown resulting from 13 completed passes and remained interception-free. This was a refreshing change from the four picks he tossed last week.
The Jaguars put up one heck of a fight, but they turned the ball over twice compared to the Bucs who kept it clean. They should sleep well tonight after putting to rest a terrible home-game losing streak that dated back to December of 2013.
Loser: Kansas City Chiefs take a huge blow with Jamaal Charles injury
Jamaal Charles has been the primary staple to the Kansas City Chiefs offense since 2009, but he exited Sunday’s game versus the Chicago Bears after sustaining a bad knee injury. The injury occurred early in the third quarter when he went down on a non-contact play.
Charles was spotted wincing and grabbing his right knee and had to be assisted off the field.
The worst-case scenario for Charles would be a torn ACL which would end his season. Unfortunately, head coach Andy Reid has indicated the team doctors believe this could very well be the case.
Up until Charles’ injury, he had totaled 58 yards on 12 carries including a sweet 26-yard reception.
Any period of time Charles misses will be detrimental to the 1-4 Chiefs, who are already struggling to gain headway against their AFC west competition.
Winner: Charles Woodson finally has his way with Peyton Manning
Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning Manning and Oakland Raiders safety Charles Woodson have a history that goes back to 1998 when both were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft.
After facing each other numerous times, Woodson, in his career which had consisted of 62 interceptions prior to Sunday’s game, had never intercepted Manning. That was until the two met in Week 5 when Woodson picked off the future Hall of Fame quarterback not once, but twice.
We’ve all witnessed the regression of Manning since late last season, so watching the 39-year old quarterback get intercepted by Woodson on Sunday was not very shocking. Manning finished the day with 266 yards, zero touchdowns and the two interceptions.
Although, we can be sure Woodson is happy to check intercepting Manning off of his bucket list. He made a point earlier in the week to let everyone know how much he wanted to finally get the better of his old rival.
“It would be great, man. He’s eluded me for 18 years,” Woodson said on the NFL Network (h/t ESPN) this week. “It would be great. It would be even better if we could come out with the victory. But it would be great to get my hands on one of Peyton’s balls.”
The Broncos once again, posted a win based mainly on the accomplishments and effectiveness of their crushing defense. Needless to say, the Broncos are 5-0.
Loser: Matthew Stafford gets sent to the bench
Things cannot get much worse for Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions. After throwing his third interception against the Arizona Cardinals, and getting into it with Golden Tate in the huddle, head coach Jim Caldwell benched Stafford for poor performance in favor of backup Dan Orlovsky in the third quarter.
Stafford had played in 99 percent of Detroit’s snaps since 2011.
As for Orlovsky, he hasn’t barely touched a football since he tossed his last pass in 2012 when playing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
At the time Stafford was benched, he had passed for 188 yards one touchdown and three interceptions on 20-of-32 attempts. Obviously inserting Orlovsky — who was in no way shape or form going to change the outcome of the game — was a slap in the face to Stafford.
Given how awfully the whole team has been playing over the first five weeks of the season it would not be surprising at all to see some coaches get the proverbial axe Monday morning after receiving a 42-17 home butt-kicking. But that’s just speculation. All we know is the Lions are just bad.