32 things we learned in NFL Week 5: Streaks end, extend in explosive slate of games

Posted by Admin October 7, 2024 NFL

The 32 things we learned from Week 5 of the 2024 NFL season:

0: Number of winless teams following the Jacksonville Jaguars’ – dare we say it – thrilling 37-34 defeat of the undermanned Indianapolis Colts.

1: Number of wins Jags QB Trevor Lawrence has had over his past 10 starts, Sunday’s victory snapping his personal nine-game skid – which followed the team’s 8-3 start to the 2023 campaign. Nice way for Lawrence to celebrate his 25th birthday.

2: Number of plays covering at least 45 yards Sunday by Colts WR Alec Pierce, who finished with 134 receiving yards and a TD – on three hookups with backup QB Joe Flacco.

3: Sacks by Jacksonville DE Travon Walker, establishing a career high, in Sunday’s win. The No. 1 pick of the 2022 draft continues to show steady improvement and is projecting toward what would be personal-best 17 sacks in 2024.

4(-0): The Minnesota Vikings’ record in games played in London, where they beat the New York Jets 23-17 on Sunday, giving them the best mark in International Series regular-season games in league history.

5(-0): The Vikes’ surprising mark, the league’s best. The reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs can match it by beating the New Orleans Saints on Monday night.

6: The number of times Jets QB Aaron Rodgers has thrown three interceptions in a game – which included the trio of picks, including a pick-six and one on his final throw, he served up in Sunday’s loss to Minnesota.

6(0,000+): The number of regular-season career passing yards – 60,148 to be exact – compiled by Rodgers, the ninth NFL quarterback to reach that plateau.

7: Don’t look now, but – in this moment – Rodgers might be the second-best quarterback in the greater New York market after Daniel Jones (257 yards, 2 TDs passing) helped engineer an upset of the Seahawks in Seattle despite the absence of Giants wunderkind WR Malik Nabers (concussion).

7a: Jones only has one turnover in his past four games, and his Giants (2-3) pulled even with the Jets despite vastly different expectations around the respective teams.

7b: Incidentally, since 1990, teams starting a season 2-3 have about a 77.5% chance of missing the playoffs, though the expanded postseason field might provide a larger margin of error.

8: Number of consecutive regular-season games that Los Angeles Rams RB Kyren Williams has scored a touchdown, currently the longest streak in the league.

9: Number of completions (on 30 attempts) for Bills QB Josh Allen in Sunday’s 23-20 loss to the Houston Texans and former Buffalo WR1 Stefon Diggs. Allen was 0-for-3 on the Bills’ regrettable final possession, which remained anchored to their 3-yard line and necessitated a punt – one that helped set up Houston’s game-winning 59-yard field goal on the game’s final play. Allen didn’t complete more than two passes to any of his teammates – leading receiver Khalil Shakir was out with an ankle injury – and his 30% completion rate was the lowest of his seven-year career.

9a: Number of combined TD passes between the Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackson and Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow in the game of the day Sunday – Baltimore’s 41-38 overtime triumph in Cincinnati.

10: Number of catches by Bengals WR Ja’Marr Chase, who scored touchdowns covering 41 and 70 yards. His 193 receiving yards are a league high for a game to this point of the season.

11: However Cincinnati P Ryan Rehkow’s blown hold on a field-goal attempt in overtime likely cost the Bengals their much-needed second victory. A real shame after his five punts averaged nearly 51 yards, four winding up inside of Baltimore’s 20-yard line.

12: Baltimore has rushed for at least 100 yards in 38 consecutive games, the third-longest streak in league history behind the 1974-77 Pittsburgh Steelers and 2018-21 Ravens, both managing to do it 43 times in a row.

12a: Baltimore’s Jackson and Derrick Henry have 935 combined rushing yards, most ever by a quarterback-running back combo through five games in league history.

12b: As for Henry, he can just about punch his ticket to Canton. Sunday, he became just the fifth player in league annals with at least 10,000 rushing yards and 100 TDs in his first 125 NFL games. Three of the other four are all in the Hall of Fame: Jim Brown, Emmitt Smith and LaDainian Tomlinson – and Adrian Peterson is likely to follow.

13: Steelers pass rusher extraordinaire T.J. Watt, the only man with three official NFL sack titles, notched his 100th career sack Sunday night in just his 109th career game. Only Hall of Famer Reggie White hit that century benchmark in fewer games (96).

14: Washington Commanders rookie QB Jayden Daniels came back to earth a bit, completing a pedestrian 14 of 25 throws in Sunday’s win over the Cleveland Browns after connecting on at least 70% of his passes in his first four NFL starts (and better than 85% in the previous two). Still, Daniels’ league-leading 77.1% mark on the season is second only to Drew Brees in 2018 (77.9%) in terms of the most accurate start to a season through five games.

15: Winners of four in a row, the first-place Commanders, per NFL Media, are the first team since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to average 30 points through five games while starting a rookie quarterback.

16: Daniels joins Joe Ferguson (1973 Bills) and Dak Prescott (2016 Cowboys) as the only rookie QBs since the merger to go 4-1 at the start of a season.

17: Speaking of rookie QBs, the Chicago Bears’ Caleb Williams has improved on his passer rating in every game since Week 2 – culminating with a season-best 126.2 in Sunday’s 36-10 rout of the Carolina Panthers.

18: The Bears – the Bears! – have now won eight in a row at Soldier Field, currently the longest home heater in the league.

19: With Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos also cruising past the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, the three rookie quarterbacks currently starting in the league have gone a collective 6-0 over the past two weeks and are 8-1 since Week 3.

19a: Makes you wonder how much longer the New England Patriots are going to keep rookie Drake Maye out of the lineup after they lost at home to the decimated Miami Dolphins on Sunday.

All the players and the plays: Sign up for USA TODAY’s 4th and Monday newsletter for NFL news.

20.92: The top speed (in miles per hour, per Next Gen Stats) of Broncos CB Patrick Surtain II on Sunday, making him the first defender of 2024 to break 20 mph on pick-six – which covered 100 yards in his case.

21.27: The top speed in mph, per NGS, of the Arizona Cardinals’ Kyler Murray on his 50-yard TD run Sunday, the fastest posted by a quarterback in the NGS era (since 2016).

22.15: The top speed in mph, per NGS, of Jags rookie WR Brian Thomas Jr. on his 85-yard TD reception in Sunday’s win. Nobody’s run faster this season or for the Jags in the last eight years.

23: Can we just slot Green Bay Packers S Xavier McKinney into an All-Pro opening already? He picked off a pass and recovered a fumble in Sunday’s win over the Los Angeles Rams. McKinney has generated at least one takeaway in all five games this season, six overall. His INT streak now stands at six consecutive games, including his final one with the Giants in 2023.

24: It appears San Francisco 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk’s personal preseason is over after he broke out for eight catches and 147 yards Sunday – nearly doubling his yardage output (167) through four games and following his lengthy offseason holdout. Still, wasn’t enough to get the Niners a win.

25: That’s partially because Chad Ryland hit three field goals, including the game-winning 35-yarder with 97 seconds left, for the victorious Cardinals. Both Arizona and San Francisco were without their regular kickers – the Cardinals’ Matt Prater inactive (knee), while the 49ers’ Jake Moody was hurt Sunday while making a tackle.

25a: The Cards might’ve also enjoyed something of a road-field advantage, temperatures in the 49ers’ Silicon Valley home pushing close to 100 degrees.

26: Sacks suffered by Browns QB Deshaun Watson, most in the league, after being taken down seven times by the Commanders on Sunday. Watson has been bagged 18 times in the past three games, including a career-worst eight in Week 3.

27: The Bills-Texans game was the only one in Week 5 pairing teams with winning records.

28: That’s partially due to this parity reality: 19 of the league’s 32 teams are within one game of .500.

29: Seahawks S Rayshawn Jenkins returned a fumble 102 yards for a TD against the Giants. Along with Surtain’s pick-six, this was the first week in the league’s century-plus history to feature two defensive touchdowns covering at least 100 yards.

30: Former league MVP Matt Ryan went into the Atlanta Falcons Ring of Honor on Thursday night, only to watch QB Kirk Cousins break his single-game team record by passing for 509 yards in a 36-30 OT victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

30a: Cousins became the first player in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) to throw for 250 yards before and after halftime of the same game.

31: Elsewhere, former NFL pass rushers Jared Allen and Osi Umenyiora became the first inductees into NFL London Ring of Honour. Doesn’t seem like the highest bar, but cool nonetheless.

32: Lots of uniform notes this week – starting with the Falcons, who should clearly revert to their oh-so-sweet original threads, in which they are 2-0 this season (and 1-2 otherwise).

32a: The Bengals have worn four varieties of tiger-striped pants in their five games … but are 0-2 in their new orange ones. Could be a sign, fellas.

32b: The Broncos honored their first Super Bowl squad – the 1977 Orange Crush – and our eyes by successfully throwing it back Sunday. Again, wouldn’t mind a permanent switch in this case.

32c: The Texans victoriously debuted one of their two new alternates in 2024 on Sunday. Kinda meh, but also appreciated by Houstonians who have been waiting more than two decades for a little variety (and wait for the other ones to hit the field) …

32d: And we’ll end where we started, with the Jaguars – who are apparently now old enough to officially go retro, and their result also speaks for itself.

***

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter, @ByNateDavis.