Week 5 will unfortunately be remembered for a very serious injury that marred the entire slate of games. There were plenty of other performances to be remembered for the usual reasons, though. There was a shockingly terrible showing from the reigning NFC champions, and some units that have been dominant that suddenly weren’t on Sunday.
Here are five big disappointments from NFL Week 5.
It’s not often that Mahomes barely completes 50 percent of his passes, but that’s what happened against the Raiders on Sunday. Mahomes threw for 340 yards, but only two touchdowns, and he was outplayed by Derek Carr. Sunday marked Mahomes’ lowest completion percentage of the season, as well as his first interception. He also took three sacks, easily the most he’s taken all season. It’s likely just a bad week, but it’s one Mahomes won’t want to remember.
San Francisco 49ers
What was that? The Niners rode an elite defense to the NFC championship last year. On Sunday, they gave up 43 points to a Miami Dolphins team that was expected to be one of the league’s worst squads. Miami posted 436 yards as the defense was dismantled by Ryan Fitzpatrick. The offense was worse — Jimmy Garoppolo was benched at halftime, supposedly to be protected. It didn’t matter who the quarterback was, as this was an embarrassing performance in every aspect. It’s hard to fathom how a team that was so good so recently could be that bad.
Cincinnati Bengals’ offensive line
Joe Burrow got quite used to having solid protection at LSU last year. If he hadn’t already received a wakeup call, he has now. The Baltimore Ravens sacked Burrow seven times on Sunday, leaving him largely to fend for himself. Part of the sack total was on Burrow — he held on to the ball too long at times. But he had little help from a porous offensive line. The rookie quarterback is going to end up beaten into the ground by season’s end if things don’t improve fast.
The Colts came into Sunday having allowed 11 points or less in each of their last three games. That ended abruptly when they got steamrolled by the Browns. Cleveland posted 385 total yards and 22 first downs, looking nothing like the offenses the Colts had held in check for the past several weeks. This is something of a wake-up call, and it will be intriguing to see if Indy can recover and put this one behind them.
Sadly, Prescott’s Week 5 was disappointing for reasons beyond his control. His season-ending broken ankle is gutwrenching, and one of the uglier on-field injuries we’ve seen in sports recently. There are the practical concerns. Prescott will go into free agency on the back of this — but the real sadness comes from what it means for the game. Prescott is one of the league’s brightest young quarterbacks and a lot of fun to watch. His presence will be missed for the rest of the season, as the reaction around the league showed us.
