User-Endzone: Failures as far as the eye can see

San Francisco 49ers

32:29 victory against the Seattle Seahawks

by TheLuky

Five games, five victories, and that's despite an injury list that feels longer than some other NFL teams' entire rosters.

The San Francisco 49ers remain undefeated after Week 5 and, for me, are currently the team among all still-undefeated teams that leaves the strongest impression. Why? Because under Kyle Shanahan, many things are going right both offensively and defensively, and solutions are constantly found despite numerous absences.

The defense, in particular, deserves special praise here. Against the Seattle Seahawks, they recorded four takeaways and five sacks, with the defense also contributing to the victory with a touchdown of their own. The offense, led by Brock Purdy, also continues to function excellently, even when not everything goes according to plan.

Mike Evans appears to be an important building block. The experienced receiver could be precisely the missing puzzle piece for Purdy that the offense lacked so far. Against Seattle, he delivered another impressive performance with 113 receiving yards and a touchdown. Deebo Samuel, whom they brought back to San Francisco, has also shown in several plays why they wanted to rely on his versatility again. The fact that he is now also injured, unfortunately, fits all too well with the 49ers' injury history.

However, a small negative side note must be included: Dre Greenlaw actually managed to get ejected from the game once again. A completely unnecessary helmet-to-helmet hit against an opponent without a helmet earned him an early trip to the locker room. Despite all the emotion that this divisional duel brings – one should expect a bit more from an experienced player.

This 32:29 victory against the Seahawks was all the more important. After all, it's not just a direct divisional rival, but also the reigning Super Bowl champion. Such victories count double in the fight for the division and playoff seeding, but above all, they are a clear statement to the entire NFC.

The 49ers are 5–0 and, despite all adversities, look like an absolute Super Bowl contender. Only one question remains:

How long do you think San Francisco will remain undefeated, and which of the currently undefeated teams will keep their perfect record the longest?

Chicago Bears

7:31 loss against the Green Bay Packers

by MatB

How quickly things can change: in Week 1, "my" winner of the week, and in Week 5, "my" loser of the week. But it's only one week. Next week, things could look completely different. Although it was a bad time – precisely against their arch-rivals at Lambeau Field, where absolutely nothing went right for the Bears.

The Bears' quarterbacks had absolutely no chance against the Packers' defense. Their performances were abysmal. Starting QB Tyson Bagent finished the day with twelve completions on 21 attempts for 87 yards. A touchdown? None. Two interceptions came out of it. Twice, he was brought back to "reality" by the Packers' defense.

At the start of the fourth quarter, HC Ben Johnson had seen enough and brought in Case Keenum, with modest results. His first two pass attempts were successful for 28 yards; after an incompletion, his fourth attempt was also successful. Like Bagent, he also "managed" an interception. After a fumble in the next drive by Odunze, Keenum probably thought, if he can do it, so can I – in the next drive, he pulled off the feat of a fumble, making it a total of four turnovers by the quarterbacks.

The running game wasn't much better, with 81 total yards, but they scored the Bears' only touchdown that afternoon.

"Whatever the offense can do, we can do for a long time" – that or something similar must have been the Bears' defense's slogan. Jordan Love and the Packers' offense largely looked like a top NFL offense that evening – I think many of you will disagree with me that they are not.

Love achieved a QB rating of 137.5 and two touchdowns. The first for 42 yards to Watson in the first drive, his second touchdown was for 53 yards. To whom? Right, to Watson. He caught six balls for 143 yards by the end of the day. Mathew Golden also had a 100-plus-yard game with 123 yards on six completions.

As if that weren't enough, the Bears also "wanted" to give gifts to the Packers' "running game" that afternoon. Until Week 5, the Packers' run game had – correctly – a grand total of zero touchdowns. That evening, MarShwan "Bulldozer" Lloyd "was allowed" to celebrate two visits to the end zone. Particularly impressive was his first touchdown, where he simply ran over a Bears defender.

But it's not all bad; the Bears are still 3-2, just like the Lions and Packers in the division; "only" the Vikings have five wins – which surely pleases colleague "austrianviking."

Drake Maye (Quarterback, New England Patriots)

45:17 victory against the Las Vegas Raiders (374 Passing Yards, 4 Passing TDs, 25 Rushing Yards, 1 Rushing TD)

by TheLuky

Where was Drake Maye actually during the first three weeks of the season?

After a difficult start to the season, where the young New England Patriots quarterback made a frightening number of mistakes and at times barely resembled his performance from the previous year, he seems to have completely turned the corner since the game against the Buffalo Bills.

Already in the 29:26 victory against the Bills, Maye showed with three touchdown passes that he was a force to be reckoned with again. Against the Las Vegas Raiders, however, he truly stepped it up.

26 of 34 passes for 374 yards, 4 passing touchdowns, another rushing touchdown, and not a single interception. Plus a Passer Rating of 150.9 – a quarterback can hardly play a game much better than that. In the dominant 45:17 victory against the Raiders, Maye delivered one of his best career games, strongly reminiscent of the player who thrilled the entire NFL last season and played his way into the MVP discussion.

Particularly striking was how confident and self-assured he played again. Quick decisions, precise passes, and consistently big plays at the right moment. This is exactly what the Patriots' offense had been missing in the first few weeks. Now, the collaboration with his receivers also seems to be working much better again.

And while Patriots fans can rejoice at the return of their franchise quarterback, I personally had less reason to celebrate this weekend.

I actually managed to play against Drake Maye in ALL THREE of my Fantasy leagues in the very week he decided to perform at an absolute MVP level again. Thanks a lot for that!

But jokes aside: Maye is currently demonstrating impressively that his strong second NFL year was no fluke. Should he confirm these performances in the coming weeks, we will probably have to take the New England Patriots much more seriously again.

The performance of the week definitely goes deservedly to Foxborough!

Malik Willis (QB, Miami Dolphins)

24:31 loss against the Cincinnati Bengals (15/27 for 137 Yards, 1 Touchdown, 1 Rushing Touchdown, 2 Interceptions, 2 Fumbles, 3 Sacks)

by MatB

One Packers quarterback showed a top performance on Sunday. An former Packers quarterback, however, can only claim the opposite. Malik Willis's performance for what is arguably the weakest team, or the team with the most issues in the NFL, was anything but NFL-worthy this afternoon.

Given the aforementioned statistics, one might think he shouldn't appear here, but for me, he hasn't looked "happy" all season, and Week 5 truly "crowned" his consistently negative performances – sorry, dear "DM79" and "patrick__R".

Others would say he just took a long time to get into the game, and in the end, the Dolphins "only" lost by a touchdown difference – but Willis's performance, in my opinion, was not NFL-caliber. The first half, in particular, was a testament to poverty: one completion on seven attempts for 22 yards, plus two interceptions, both caught by Jordan Battle. He also had a fumble, which he was able to recover himself. His quarterback rating in the first half was 0.6. In the fourth quarter, he added another fumble, which he lost himself.

By the start of the fourth quarter, the Dolphins were trailing 10:28. In the final quarter, the Bengals allowed the Dolphins to score two more touchdowns, both by Willis, in addition to the fumble, but it was far too late.

The Dolphins are aiming for many high draft picks in the next draft. They will achieve that, but for me, Willis is being burnt out for it, after some strong performances last season with the Packers.

Jalon Daniels (Quarterback, Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

24:16 victory against the Dallas Cowboys (19/25 for 189 Yards, 1 Touchdown, 7 rushes for 23 Yards, QB Rating 110.3)

by MatB

I had a very hard time with the Rookie of the Week this week. In my opinion, David Bailey of the Jets "should" also have made it here, alongside the aforementioned Jalon Daniels. Why didn't he make it, despite five tackles, three sacks, three tackles for loss, and four QB pressures? Two main arguments: I assume that Bailey will show several more such games this season and...

Jalon Daniels' story simply has a touch of "Hollywood" to it. The undrafted free agent accomplished what the former Heisman Trophy winner and number-1 draft pick couldn't this season: a victory with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Of course, the Dallas Cowboys and especially Bucky Irving also played a part, but Jalon Daniels was there when he was needed and kept drives alive repeatedly. He also secured the early lead with a touchdown pass to Bucky Irving. He didn't have to shine – he probably couldn't have – but managing a game was possible for him that evening.

Particularly noteworthy, as he was an undrafted free agent and won the backup job from Baker Mayfield against veteran Jake Browning during preseason.

With such performances, he will probably hold this job longer.

0 (namely, NFC East wins)

by TheLuky

0 – in words, ZERO. That's how many victories the four NFC East teams managed to secure in Week 5. And that's despite having four chances to do so, with two teams even facing each other in a direct matchup.

Let's start with the Philadelphia Eagles. Those Eagles who now almost weekly manage to give away games in a way that probably makes fans just shake their heads.

Against the Jacksonville Jaguars, they seemed to have just escaped with a 17:16 field goal with eight seconds left. But far from it! A strong kickoff return brought Jacksonville back into field goal range, and a certain Cam Little sank the ball from an incredible 57 yards for a 19:17 final score. By now, one almost has to say: if Cam Little attempts a kick from that distance, it's probably more an extra point (if the long snapper doesn't make a mistake :D) than a field goal.

The Dallas Cowboys also failed to secure at least one victory for their division. Against the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who also had to play with backup quarterback and rookie Jalon Daniels due to injuries, they suffered a 16:24 defeat. But my colleague has already gone into more detail about this game and Daniels.

That leaves the New York Giants and Washington Commanders. One would actually think that in a direct divisional duel, at least one of the two teams must get a win. But both teams somehow prevented that too.

The Giants, among other things, tried everything not to win the game with three missed field goals (Fortunately for Dominic Zvada, the Chicago Bears performed even worse). Washington apparently didn't want to be outdone and went one better in overtime. In a promising field goal position, the Commanders actually managed to let the remaining game time expire without even being able to attempt a kick. That's quite a feat to pull off.

In the end, it was a 27:27 tie, and thus the only logical outcome of this game.

Two losses, one tie, and not a single victory for the entire division.

The NFC East truly gave its all this week to collectively secure the title for the number of the week. Congratulations!

MatB:

Normally, the number of the week is the category where we often struggle. This week, we both had "our" number of the week, both related to the NFC East and the Giants.

Mine would have been 144 – no, not the emergency services number, though he probably could have used it often, but that's not it.

This is about no one other than Jameis Winston. Also a #1 pick, this time from the 2015 NFL Draft – and also a former Heisman Trophy winner. It seems these impressive performances are somehow haunting me this week.

Jameis Winston certainly has a lot of talent. But since his draft, he has been considered a genius and madness, "Jekyll and Hyde," further comparisons are welcome.

The madness prevented him from having a top career in the NFL; talent alone isn't enough.

But what does the number say? It's the turnovers that Jameis Winston "achieved" in his NFL career. In his twelve seasons, that's 144 turnovers – including 116 interceptions and 28 lost fumbles. He committed a total of 62 fumbles. All this in 112 games, of which he started 92 games as quarterback.

That makes 1.28 turnovers per game. I already thought that was a lot, but then I familiarized myself with the associated statistics and saw that Jameis Winston doesn't even appear in the top 25 in this statistic.

So, now I have the question of the week: Which NFL player do you think had the most turnovers, or who is in the top 3 or top 5? I'm curious about your opinions – without looking it up, of course.