Schrock's Week 5 takeaways: Don't crown Russ, Seahawks yet
Josh Schrock looks at five big things from Week 5 action in the NFL.
A wild and wacky Week 5 of the NFL season gave us what we think is a clearer picture of the playoff contenders as we approach Halloween.
The 49ers, Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles, Atlanta Falcons, and Houston Texans entered the season as teams expected to vie for playoff spots.
Those teams left Week 5 at a combined 6-19-1 and just about all of their seasons are DOA. The Eagles have a faint heartbeat because they play in a relegation division and the 49ers could get healthy and turn on the jets.
Meanwhile, the Raiders, Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns and Carolina Panthers continue to surprise, all finding themselves in the thick of the playoff picture through five weeks.
With Week 5 almost in the books, let's take a look at what we think we learned on Sunday.
Russell Wilson is cooking. Man, oh man, he is cooking.
The MVP race has turned into a two-person drag race with everyone staring at Wilson and Aaron Rodgers' taillights.
But for all of Wilson's heroics, the Seahawks aren't the unstoppable behemoth their 5-0 record might portray them to be.
The Seahawks need Wilson to do every single thing he can to win them games. Pete Carroll's defense has been that bad early on.
Through five games the Seahawks rank last in yards allowed per game (471.1), last in passing yards allowed per game (370.4), 20th in points allowed per game (27), 28th in yards per play allowed (6.2) and last in first downs allowed per game (32).
Of the five quarterbacks the Seahawks have played, only Kirk Cousins (249) managed to throw for less than 300 yards. Dak Prescott (472) and Matt Ryan (450) each eclipsed the 400-yard mark, while Cam Newton came up 3 yards short.
The point is that the Seahawks have beaten zero teams with a winning a record and their defense gets spanked up and down the field each weekend.
Russ has to cook or else they can't win. The NFC West remains wiiiiiiiiiiide open.
The Raiders' season was circling the drain after a Week 4 loss to the Buffalo Bills. At 2-2 and with the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers on deck, the Raiders were in danger of watching their season fall apart.
Derek Carr said he was tired of losing. That was met with eye-rolls and angry tweets from the passionate contingent of Raiders fans who don't believe he's the guy.
Carr had never won in Kansas City. Ever. He had, in fact, been awful just about every time he stepped on the field at Arrowhead Stadium.
After an early interception, it looked like much of the same. The Raiders were down 14-3 and it looked like a rout was imminent.
But Carr responded. He hit Nelson Agholor for a 59-yard score and then found Henry Ruggs for a 72-yard strike. The Raiders aired it out all over the Chiefs and a defense that had been gashed like a ditzy teenager in a mid-80s horror movie during the previous eight weeks stood tall against Patrick Mahomes. Well, tall enough to earn a 40-32 win.
With an extra playoff spot in the cards this season and the AFC having a relatively down season, the Raiders are 3-2 and right in the thick of things. They'll use their bye week to get healthy to prepare for a stretch run that could have Jon Gruden back in the playoffs.
Yes, they are for real (at least for now).
After getting walloped by the Baltimore Ravens to open the season, the Browns have ripped off four wins in a row to move to 4-1 for the first time since 1994 when Bill Belichick was the head coach and Nick Saban was the defensive coordinator.
It's hard to knock a 4-1 record. We know the Browns have talent and pairing that with a head coach with a pulse has helped them be more disciplined and win football games.
But if these Brows are expected to be for real, Baker Mayfield has to play better. The 2018 No. 1 overall pick hasn't been bad to start the season, but he hasn't exactly played like a guy who should be on 10 different commercials either.
He's thrown for 976 yards, nine touchdowns and four interceptions while only completing 61 percent of his passes. The Browns have relied on their rushing attack early on, but with Nick Chubb out and Kareem Hunt hobbled, Mayfield has to live up to the hype.
He was OK Sunday in a win over the Indianapolis Colts. He threw for 247 yards -- the most he's accounted for in a game this season -- two touchdowns and two interceptions. Solid but unspectacular.
The Browns can be good and be a threat in the playoffs. But Mayfield has to be much better than he's shown through five games.
The Bears are 4-1. How did that happen? Well, they've outscored their opponents by five total points, got the benefit of playing the Falcons and Lions and took advantage of Tom Brady's senior moment on Thursday Night. (I kid.)
Coach Matt Nagy saw daylight in Week 3 and yanked Mitchell Trubisky and tossed him into Lake Michigan in favor of Nick Foles. That was a good decision. At this point, Nagy and everyone else know Trubisky isn't the franchise starter Ryan Pace thought he was. (God knows why.)
Foles lit up the Falcons and has since been not very good in a loss to the Colts and a win over the Bucs. The Bears' offensive line was good through three weeks but has been abused over the last two games.
Their rushing attack has been almost non-existent which belies their overall offensive ineptitude. They rank 27th in rushing yards per game (95.4), 27th in yards per game (323.2) and 26th in points per game (21).
Those numbers have them grouped with the likes of the Jets, Giants, Football Team, Broncos, Bengals and Eagles. Those teams have a combined record of 4-23-1.
So no, I'm not buying the Bears.
It's easy to make fun of Florida Man Tom Brady, but the Bucs' loss to the Bears wasn't entirely on him.
Yes, Brady made a brain fart at the end of the game. But through five games he's been exactly what we expected from the 43-year-old. He's had moments of brilliance -- five touchdown passes vs. the Chargers -- and those that aren't so flattering, like forgetting the downs.
But Brady went to the Bucs to avoid the situation he found himself in last season with the Patriots. He wanted to throw to Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and O.J. Howard.
Five weeks in, Howard is out for the season and Godwin has only played in two games due to injuries. The Bucs have been undisciplined and now Brady is throwing to a shell of Rob Gronkowski, Jaydon Mickens, Tanner Hudson and Ke'Shawn Vaughn.
That's not what he signed up for, and he needs his weapons back in order to make the most of his decision to move to Tompa Bay.
