NFL Weekly Recap: Week 5

Jay Gruden becomes the first coach casualty of the season; Greg Zuerlein delivers a gift to Seattle; Patrick Mahomes bleeds like the rest of us;

Game of the Week: Zuerlein blows game-winning kick, Seahawks edge Rams 30-29

In a hard-fought, back-and-forth game the Rams had battled all night in hostile territory against their division foes. In the end, a chance for a 44-yard game-winning field goal by Greg Zuerlein with just seconds remaining pushed right from the moment it left his foot – both electrifying and stunning the Seattle crowd. Zuerlein is no stranger to pressured kicks, as he sent the Rams to the Super Bowl last January with an unforgettable 57-yarder in overtime. In this game, he missed twice – once at the end of both halves in a one-point loss.

The Rams should feel pretty good about their performance. In one of the toughest places to play, they were a few feet away from earning a massive victory against what many are calling a Super Bowl contender. But a loss is a loss, and the Rams surely aren’t looking for victories of the moral kind. That’s a loss that stings – lingers around your team like the stench of the equipment bag after the game. That’s a game that the Rams pull out last season. This is still a very good, dangerous team, but it feels like the magic may have moved on to another Lucky Lou this year.

Once again, it was the Russell Wilson show for the Seahawks, and for all of America to fawn over. Wilson is in the midst of a career year, and on Thursday, he put on an epic performance that his team needed every bit of to win. The All-Pro QB finished 17-of-23 for 268 yards, and four touchdowns with a 151.8 passer rating. Basically, Wilson was as perfect as you can be without being perfect.

The shining moment was a touchdown in the first quarter in which Wilson scrambled, as he does, away from pressure to his left. While on the run, Wilson threw across his body with a quick flick of the wrist. The throw came out like a laser-guided missile to the corner of the endzone, and dropped precisely into Tyler Lockett’s breadbasket for a toe-tapping touchdown. It was a special play that encapsulated just how good the Wilson-to-Lockett connection has been. Here’s a ridiculous stat: over the last 20 games, Wilson has a perfect passer rating (158.3) when throwing to Lockett. Not too shabby…

Runner-Up Game of the Week: Ravens knock out Rudolph, win 26-23 in overtime.

Adam Vinatieri has long held the title of GOAT when it comes to clutch-kicking. It will be tough to challenge that, as the man has multiple Conference Title and Super-Bowl-winning-kicks to his name. However, if there’s one kicker that can legitimately enter his resume into the discussion when all is said and done, it would be the Ravens’ Justin Tucker. As Tucker’s kick went up to win the game in overtime for Baltimore, it zigged-and-zagged from right-to-left, then back to the right at the last moment just inside the post. The legendary kicker had calculated the wind accurately enough to hit a difficult 48-yarder for his team, who gave him a proper mobbing afterward.

Tucker not only won the game, but tied it at 23-all with 10 seconds left in regulation! Lamar Jackson had his worst game so far this season as he was picked off three times by the Steelers defense, which deserves a lot of credit for keeping the team in it. In the third quarter, Steelers QB Mason Rudolph was knocked unconscious on a vicious hit by Earl Thomas. The safety claims he did not mean for his helmet to contact Rudolph’s chin; in any case, it was a scary incident.

The Steelers third-string QB, Devlin Hodges, played well in his limited first action. The undrafted free agent went 7-of-9 for 68 yards, added 20 yards on the ground, and contributed to two Steelers scoring drives. On Pittsburgh’s overtime possession, receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster fumbled in is his own territory, leading to Tuckers game-winning kick. It’s not the first time the young stud has lost a game by fumbling away possession near the end.

Biggest Upset: Colts bludgeon Chiefs, Mahomes takes a beating in 19-13 loss

By today’s standards, some modern fans would consider this game to have been a bit of a bore. For fans of old school and smash-mouth football, however, this game was an absolute gem. The performance of the Colts’ offensive line in this game allured to shades of the “Hogs”, the famous unit of the Washington Redskins that dominated the trenches of the ’80s and early ’90s. It’s a relic of a strategy in this day and age, as the Colts featured a run-pass ratio of 45:29. Furthermore, it takes special combination of talent on the offensive line – which the Colts have – to successfully execute.

When executed properly, it can be an incredibly satisfying way to win a football game. By the middle of the fourth quarter, the Chiefs defensive line looked ready to say “uncle”, after being mauled over and over again by the Colts G Quenton Nelson and LT Anthony Castonzo. The two combine for over 13 feet and 630 pounds of human, every bit of which the Chiefs defense felt throughout the course of this game. It was a beautiful thing to watch, one team shoving the ball down the throat of the other. Despite the Chiefs knowing exactly what was coming each time, the lanes opened up for Marlon Mack, who carried the ball 29 times for 132 yards.

Patrick Mahomes couldn’t escape the punishment either. Twice Mahomes injured his ankle, once by friendly fire from his left tackle stepping directly on it after being forced back on a bull-rush. The gunslinger had a vintage, high-light-reel touchdown early in the first quarter, but that would be all the scoring he would do. Mahomes finished with “only” 321 yards and the one score. The ankle clearly affected his accuracy in the second half, and the Chiefs couldn’t get anything going without Mahomes’ playmaking.

What We Learned…

I. It took six years for the Redskins to figure out that Jay Gruden wasn’t the guy. During the week of preparation against the Patriots, a video surfaced of Gruden (allegedly) smoking a joint (marijuana is on the NFL’s banned substance list) while cavorting with a young woman who was not his wife. Not only was Gruden not saying the right things to the press, like, he would keep coaching the Redskins if the key “still works on Monday” – but now he was caught in an off-the-field scandal. While, by most reports, he was going to be fired anyway after dropping to 0-6, the video was the bar of gold that broke the camel’s back.

Is Jay Gruden a “good” head coach for an NFL team at the moment? No. He is much better suited in an offensive coordinator role, where he had success with Cincinnati before being lured to Washington. But if we’re to be honest, ultimately the problem in Washington isn’t Gruden. Nor was it Mike Shanahan, or Jim Zorn, or Joe Gibbs. The problem has been and will continue to be the culture of ineptitude and control set by owner and Redskins superfan Daniel Snyder. Here’s the thing: when you’re letting mediocre coaches like Jay Gruden stick around for six years, while letting other brilliant-minded coaches like Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay walk, you have a problem. When you’re firing actual, proven, intelligent football-people like Scot McCloughan in favor of hiring a mouth-piece like Bruce Allen to “manage” your team, you have a serious problem.

No matter how many times Snyder pretends that he is stepping back from football operations, it’s clear that he’s been involved in every major franchise decision from Day One. Interim head coach Bill Calahan is a good, respected man among his peers and has been for a long time – he doesn’t deserve the stress he’s about to face in Washington.