2020 NFL Week Five Recap: Dak, Four Up, Four Down, Top Game Week 5

2020 NFL Week Five Recap: Dak, Four Up Four Down, Top Game Week 6

Week 5 of the 2020 NFL Season had some surprising twists and turns. Some teams are starting to feel great about themselves, while others are searching for answers after head coach firings, losing, and injuries. I present the weekly NFL Power Rankings, Four Up, Four Down. If we are honest, we really only care about the best and worst NFL teams each week… right?

Big Storyline of 2020 NFL Week 5: Dak Prescott’s Injury

Dak Prescott was putting up a great statistical season through the first four weeks of the NFL season. Then, the unthinkable happened. Dak Prescott suffered a compound fracture in his ankle, and will miss the rest of the season.

Prescott’s contract situation has become the main storyline about his injury. He was playing this season on the franchise tag. Apparently Jerry Jones only likes commitments from his quarterback if they are five years or longer in length. Prescott was only willing sign a four-year contract. Jones decided he only wanted to be tied to him for one more year. Prescott is in the upper half of quarterbacks in the league, but it is so difficult to properly judge him as a quarterback due to who he plays for. The Dallas Cowboys at least have the media’s support, as they bring in the ratings. Thus, Prescott, one of the most down to earth humans in the NFL, has been made into this polarizing figure due to his owner and the team he plays for.

Four Up: Teams after 2020 NFL Week 5: Tennessee Titans Lead the Way

1. Tennessee Titans

Pivoting away from the most covered NFL team, small market teams tend to not get respect, even when they are arguably the best team in the league. The best team after Week 5 of the 2020 NFL Season is the Tennessee Titans. Do not expect to see this statement in many other places, but the Titans put together a complete performance in their 42-16 demolition of the Buffalo Bills. They did this with very limited practice reps due to the COVID-19 outbreak within the team. The Titans won their first three games by a combined six points. However, after Tuesday’s win, they proved they can show up in any circumstance.

2. Green Bay Packers

The Packers got a much-needed bye week in Week 5 of the 2020 NFL Season. It gave star wide receiver Davante Adams a chance to recover from a hamstring injury. Green Bay has a tough game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 6, but expect them to come off the bye and make yet another statement against a Buccaneers team that has not been able to put together a full 60 minutes yet.

3. Seattle Seahawks

For the purpose of this article, Russell Wilson could be regarded to as a top three team in the league. He carried the Seahawks to yet another victory, even though the Seahawks’ offense looked flat for the majority of the night. Minnesota kept Wilson off the field most of the night, but he engineered another comeback drive to lead Seattle to the 27-26 victory. The Seahawks still have major holes on defense, but Wilson is the early frontrunner for MVP.

4. Kansas City Chiefs

I know the Chiefs lost to the Las Vegas Raiders this past Sunday 40-32. However, they are still the defending Super Bowl Champions. Their defense had a bad game against Las Vegas, and will have to improve against the Buffalo Bills in Week 6. Patrick Mahomes tends to have minor struggles against divisional opponents, but he had an off day by his standards. Look for him and the Chiefs to bounce back against the Bills.

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Four Down: Worst Teams In the League After 2020 NFL Week 5

29. Washington Football Team

The Washington Football Team has not put up a true fight against any team since their comeback victory in Week 1 against the Eagles. Dwayne Haskins was benched, and Kyle Allen only has so much of a ceiling. Alex Smith saw his first game action in almost two years since his gruesome leg injury, a welcome sight for Washington fans. With that being said, Smith is the best option for this team moving forward. It is head-scratching why they would go with Kyle Allen instead. Sure, Ron Rivera is more familiar with you, but Smith can get this team back in serious contention for the weak NFC East.

30. New York Giants

The New York Giants had 47 points through their first four games. They scored 34 points against the porous Dallas Cowboys defense in 2020 NFL Week 5. Daniel Jones did not do anything special, but bad teams find ways to lose games. If Cameron Fleming gets set on the Giants’ fake field goal touchdown that got called back, Joe Judge would have had his first win in the NFL as a head coach. However, this team plays hard for Judge, as they have had competitive games with the 4-1 Los Angeles Rams and the Cowboys this past week.

31. Atlanta Falcons

The 28-3 debacle in Super Bowl 51 ultimately set the stage for what would happen four seasons later, as Dan Quinn could not coach his team out of bad habits. It ultimately cost him his job. His defenses were awful, and the offense never looked quite the same once Kyle Shanahan left for San Francisco. Matt Ryan’s future with the team is in question now also, with Arthur Blank being noncommittal to saying Ryan is the team’s quarterback of the future. This Falcons team has talent. It will be up to the next head coach to break this team out of all of the bad habits they have learned the past few seasons.

32. New York Jets

The Jets are awful, a laughingstock, and Adam Gase is somehow still the coach of this team. It is hard to see what the Jets were thinking by hiring him. He produced mediocre-at-best results during his tenure as the Miami Dolphins’ head coach. Sam Darnold, who did not play in the team’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals in 2020 NFL Week 5, looks like a lost cause as far as being the Jets’ long-term starter. This is a result of bad coaching. Some quarterbacks, such as Patrick Mahomes, luck out with the type of coach they get to start off their career. It is looking more like Darnold got the short end of the stick in this respect.

Best Game of 2020 NFL Week 5: Los Angeles Chargers @ New Orleans Saints

Justin Herbert is the real deal. He was the main reason the Chargers even had a chance to win against the Saints on Monday night. Herbert put his team in a position to win the game, but Mike Badgley missed a field goal as time expired. The Saints would win in overtime, 30-27. Drew Brees was able to lead his team back as questions still linger about the long-term prospects of his career. With all the twists and turns of this game, it was probably the best the 2020 NFL Season has had to offer thus far.  

Do you agree with our ratings? Tweet us @unafraidshow with your thoughts.

Jaguars possible blackout: Move to LA?

As a NFL player one of the worst feelings is when you have a big game and the stadium is not full or when the other team has more fans than you. When I played for the Jaguars this was a frequent occurrence. Once the Pittsburgh Steelers came to town for Monday Night Football (MNF) and there were so many ‘Terrible Towels’ waving that it looked like we were in Pittsburgh. Even when we were winning and went to the playoffs (2005, 2007) there was still frequent blackout talk. Los Angeles is in the process of building a stadium to bring a NFL team to the city. The naming rights to the stadium have already been solidified by State Farm. There probably won’t be any expansion from 32 teams due to the current divisional format, so someone has to move. Guess what Jacksonville, it’s looking more and more like you every day!

It’s Friday, and if the team does not buy roughly 3000 tickets there will be a local blackout on MNF. A local blackout on Monday Night? That would be embarrassing. The Jaguars fans say they do not want the team to move but don’t support the franchise. Wayne Weaver has always been vocal about his desire to keep the Jags in Jacksonville. I wonder how much longer he can withstand the pressure of the big city calling with its big dollars. If the Jaguars do move to LA I wonder what the new nickname will be? Cougars? Blaze? Ligers (Napolean Dynamite would be happy)? Spiders? Sabers? Or maybe this will be the first team with a full corporate takeover, the Los Angeles State Farms?

Week 7: The Blowouts

I decided to watch a Fantasy Football show on ESPN for a few minutes while the pre-game shows were on and I have come to this conclusion, they are clueless. I should come out with my own Fantasy predictions, I couldn’t possibly be more wrong than them. After the games were over and all the statistics collected, so many of the players they predicted to have bad games had excellent games, and those who they said would show up big were Fantasy sleepers. There were 13 games this past weekend, 8 of them were decided by 16pts or more. The schedule gave us a lot of lop sided games this weekend. Hey, it happens, but we have to look at the positives. It could be summer time between the end of NBA till football starts, a.k.a. purgatory.
Week 7 Recap:
Jets v. Raiders- Mark Sanchez won easily with another sub 150 yd performance. Rex Ryan must have read my week 6 review, K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple Sanchez). Ryan kept the plan basic and held his young QBs hand so he could not make a mistake. He even let him bring a sack lunch to work with a hot dog in it. Tough defense and running the football wins games, especially against the Raiders. Remember, the Ravens won a Superbowl with NO offense and Trent Dilfer at QB.
On a side note, in a post game interview JaMarcus Russell said, “I really don’t think it’s me personally…I really don’t think it’s me, do you?” ROFLMBO, is he serious? The team is bad but really…”I really don’t think it’s me”? (I’m almost in tears laughing)

Saints v. Dolphins- The Dolphins jumped out the gate like stallions while riding the back of Ricky Williams (Pause). Everyone who thought New Orleans Saints were front runners were silenced. This week they were the comeback kids after trailing for the first time all season. The Saints looked like “sinners” in the first half down 24-3. Everything that could go wrong for the Saints did, until :05 left in the 2nd quarter when the Dolphins called timeout and let Drew Brees talk Sean Payton into going for it instead of kicking the field goal. The score was 24-10 at the half and I was watching the game thinking, “Hmmm, the Dolphins better hope the “sinners” come back out for the second half because if the Saints show up it’s gonna be trouble, trouble.”
And as I predicted, trouble showed up…. Who dat say dey gon’ beat dem Saints??

Bills v. Panthers- Did T.O. play? Buffalo has not been impressive this year and their offense has been awful, but you know who is worse on offense, The Panthers. They have to be one of the top 2 most disappointing teams of the season (Tennessee Titans). There are a lot of teams less talented, that you don’t expect much from, but the Panthers have a dynamic backfield (D. Williams, J. Stewart go ducks) and WR Steve Smith, and they have defensive end Julius Peppers. FYI Bills DB Jarius Byrd had 2 interceptions in the game and is second in the league with 5 (Go Ducks!).
Chargers v. Chiefs- Nickname of the week goes to Vincent “Up Top” Jackson. He is not going to lead the league in catches but he leads the league in deep ball catches. Deep balls require so much athleticism, concentration, and a great pair of hands. If the route is not over 20 yds he wants no part of it. Oh yea, the Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 37-7
Falcons v. Cowboys- Atlanta had a big win last week against the Chicago Bears, but this week didn’t quite go so well. The Falcons are hurting at corner back right now and Romo took advantage of it. Miles Austin made this week look like a carbon copy of last week. He broke tackles and made big catches to get to his second consecutive week over 170 yds with 2 TDs. The Cowboys grounded the Falcons air attack and hogtied Michael Turner. This game was more about the Falcons not playing very good defense than the Cowboys playing great offense.

The Titans did not lose this week. They didn’t play either.

Bengals v. Bears- There was so much commotion due to the launch of the OchoCinco News Network and iPhone application the Bengals were wondering whether they would cancel the game or not. They decided not only to play, but play EXCELLENT and blew out the Chicago Bears. Everybody played well, Carson Palmer 5 TDs, OchoCinco 10 receptions 2 TDs, Cedric Benson 189 yds rushing TD. Which leads me to ask where was the Bears D?
In other news, the Colts played Steven Jackson. We didn’t have to watch this game to know what happened. Manning continued his assault on the NFL record book and ascension to Greatness. Unless the Rams can manage to beat the Detroit Lions this week, chances are high they will finish the season “Defeated” (0-16), and tie the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the longest losing streak of all-time (26). Stephen Jackson could lead the league in rushing on a 0-16 team. How incredible would that be?
Packers v. Browns. Green Bay is quietly playing some really good football. I’m not gonna be the one to let the cat out of the bag and ruin their season. If they beat the Vikings this week the cat will be out of the bag.
In what could turn out to be a rematch of the Superbowl, the Steelers played the Vikings.
*Note to all NFL Players, in case you didn’t know, Adrian Peterson is a Grown Man. If you are going to attempt to tackle him bring everything you got, or you will be left looking “Gay” (Before you start trippin on me, he ran over William Gay).

Back to the game. Roethlisberger…smerger…erger was very accurate and impressive. He showed great touch and fit many passes in small windows. Both Defenses looked impressive, especially the Steelers who scored twice on defense. Neither running game really got too far off the ground but you just have to love the way Peterson plays the game. The game was very physical and very closely contested, the way football should be.
Monday Night: The game looked like a horror film “Attack of the Quarterback” starring Jason Campbell and Donovan McNabb. Campbell was sacked 6 times, and hit countless others. McNabb was sacked 3 times and hit many more. Jason Campbell limped around the field and I felt sorry for him. He has come under much criticism in the past few weeks, but how can anyone deliver the ball effectively when they are getting hit that much?

The Eagles offense didn’t impress much, but Desean Jackson and the Eagles Defense shined. Jackson is a threat to go to the house every time he touches the ball. Punt Returns, Wildcat, Receiving, Reverses, if he can get his hands on the ball, he might just get to the endzone. The Eagles defense was very opportunistic, bringing pressure and forcing turnovers. Where was this last week against the Raiders?
What did we learn this week? If it looks like a blowout on paper, it will be. Please don’t try and use this logic next week. It is for sure to backfire on you in a bad way. I have some games Highlighted for week 8. St Louis @ Detroit, someone has to win, right? Favre vs the Cheese Heads at Lambeau Field. The “Uniforms” vs the Ravenous offense. And the NY Football Giants vs the Eagles.
Please keep Leon Washington in your prayers. He suffered a really bad compound fracture. I’m praying he has a speedy recovery & rehab!! Keep ya head up Bro!!!