By Louis Addeo-Weiss
Patrick Mahomes, the undoubted answer to the question of “who is the best quarterback in football?”, was ousted by, Jacoby Brissett?
Rodgers wasn’t the most valuable Aaron on the field in Dallas?
Kyler Murray has a win as a starting quarterback?
The simple answer is yes. Week five of the NFL season presented us with these outcomes, while also further raising questions and affirming the notion that this sport manifests itself on a week-by-week basis.
For Kansas City, it was the Colts strict enforcement of eating up the play clock that proved fatal in handing the Chiefs their first loss of the season. According to NFL.com’s game notes, Indianapolis held possession of the ball for 37:15, more than half of the allotted 60 minutes of regulation.
And while Mahomes outperformed Brissett in the passing game, 321 passing yards to Brissett’s 151, the strength of the Colts’ run game, powered by third-year halfback Marlon Mack, who carried 29 times for 132 yards. The Colt’s one touchdown was scored by way of Brissett, who scrambled at the one yard line in the first quarter, with the rest of the team’s points coming by way of field goals courtesy of elder-statesman Adam Vinateri.
Factor in the fact that Kansas City was charged with 11 fumbles and managed a mere 36 yards on the ground, and the Chiefs would fall 19-13, handing the Chiefs their first loss of the season.
After losing a heartbreaker in week 4’s Lambeau Field showdown against the Philadelphia Eagles, Aaron Rodgers and co. helped re-establish a facet of their game they had been lacking for the past couple of seasons, that being the run game.
After finishing 22nd in total rushing yards in 2018, the Green Bay Packers and first year head-coach Matt LeFleur’s success was dependent on a bevy of factors: the health of franchise QB Aaron Rodgers, the continued development of third-year running back Aaron Jones, and finding ways to further implement Jimmy Graham into the offense.
In last Sunday’s matchup against the Dallas Cowboys, the team with the highest total yardage (2,264 yards) in the NFL, Green Bay helped to temporarily answer some of these looming concerns, with the aforementioned Jones finding the endzone 4 times, a career best for him, as well as being the team’s leading receiver, catching 7 passes for 75 yards. The strength of Jones’ effort, which ended in 182 total yards of offense, helped offset an Aaron Rodgers who failed to throw for a touchdown pass for the first time this year, and the first occurrence since week 17 of the 2018 season.
For Graham, Rodgers connected with him on all three targets, totalling 41 yards, a number, while not overwhelming great, shows progress in the working relationship between Graham and his quarterback.
And then there’s Kyler Murray, whom many have failed to put their finger on just exactly what to make of the 2019 NFL Draft’s number one overall pick.
While traditional metrics such as completion percentage, appear to have Murray as fitting in just fine with a respectable 62.7% mark, other numbers such as total sacks reveal a young player, relatively small given his respective position, who has failed thus far in being able to read opposing defenses. This can be seen by way of the 21 sacks against Murray through his first five games, second only to another former Heisman winner, Titans QB Marcus Mariota, who has taken the fall 22 times this year.
Murray and the Cardinals will be up against a 1-4 Atlanta Falcons team, who have been swimming in murky waters with their poor play and the looming status of head coach/defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.
And on the subject of the Falcons, a review of week 5 would be incomplete without mentioning the hapless Falcons.
While Matt Ryan managed to throw for 300-plus yards again, he’s done so in every game this season and dating back to week 17, yet, it is the defense, who has averaged 378.2 yards per game (23rd in the league), that has them where they are.
Despite Ryan and a strong performance from former Alabama receiver and Coconut Creek-native Calvin Ridley (88 yds, 1 TD), the defense proved a disaster, as the team wound losing 53-32 to the Houston Texans.
For Atlanta, their defensive woes manifested themselves in the lack of establishing the pass rush, as they failed to sack Houston’s Deshaun Watson, a QB who drew a league-leading 62 sacks last year, while also already being brought down 18 times this season.
Simply put, their defensive prowess is effectively non-existent, and if Quinn wishes to keep calling the plays on defense, the team is going to need to look to stop a dual-threat in Murray on Sunday.
