Week 5 left the NFC East in a strange place: nobody got the result they wanted, and every head coach walked away with some level of headache. The Cowboys stumbled on Thursday night, the Eagles crumbled in London, and the Giants and Commanders played a tie that felt like a missed opportunity from Washington’s side and a rescue job from New York’s.
For Dan Quinn, the damage came without an actual loss on the schedule. Washington had control of the game for most of the afternoon, building a 14-point lead before the Giants stormed back to force overtime. Then the Commanders had the game in front of them again in the extra period, only to botch the final play and let the clock run out before they could even try for the winning field goal.
“Leaving tonight with a tie feels like a loss,” Quinn said after the game. “The right call is to clock it early and don't put ourselves in that spot, and that's my responsibility and nobody else's,”
That outcome only adds to the pressure around Quinn. Washington is now 1-3-1 in the division and sitting in last place, so letting that one slip away makes the result sting even more. A win over New York would have mattered a lot in that race, and instead the Commanders are left sorting through a tie that landed like a defeat.
Nick Sirianni’s Sunday was uglier. In London, the Eagles took a one-point lead with eight seconds left, then watched the Jaguars rip off a kickoff return that set up the winning Jacksonville field goal. It was the kind of ending that can turn a routine postgame into a full-blown reckoning.
“One of the craziest endings of the year. https://t.co/Wm9hwOjk1U”
Sirianni put the blame on himself and said the kicking team should have sent the ball out of the endzone.
"I didn't make the right decision, and I lost us that game. And that's what I said to our guys," he said.
"I [didn't] make the decision that I should make at the end of that game, and I cost us that one. And I put that fully on me."
The late-game collapse was the loudest part of the story, but it wasn’t the only issue hanging over Philadelphia. The offense still didn’t do enough, and that has already been a source of frustration. Sirianni probably isn’t headed for a midseason firing, but he does need a turnaround to quiet the noise that keeps building around the Eagles.
Dallas at least got to watch the rest of the division make a mess of Sunday and take some of the attention off its own Thursday-night loss. Brian Schottenheimer’s team fell at home on a short week to the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers and undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels, dropping to 2-3.
Schottenheimer entered the year hoping Christian Parker would help repair a defense that was broken in 2025, but the unit still hasn’t looked much better. That has left Dallas in the familiar position of asking its offense to cover for the defense’s mistakes.
Even so, Schottenheimer’s job security doesn’t appear to be in the same danger as some of his division peers. Jerry Jones last fired a head coach midseason in 2010, and every Cowboys head coach since 2000 has lasted at least three seasons.
That doesn’t mean everything is comfortable in Dallas. Schottenheimer still needs to make the playoffs to ease any concerns, but compared with the heat surrounding Quinn and Sirianni, his seat is not as hot. And with nobody in the division winning on Sunday, the Cowboys probably took the best emotional break of the bunch.
John Harbaugh’s situation is the calmest of all four. The Giants are in first place in his first season, and their fan base has plenty to feel good about simply because the team is competing at a high level.
The tie with Washington fit that broader picture. New York rallied from two touchdowns down to get to overtime, then leaned on its defense late to stay alive. The Giants left some points on the field in the extra period, but they still dug out a result on the road against a division rival.
Harbaugh has had a few decisions in these first weeks that he probably wants back, but Sunday still ended in a way that left Giants fans relieved more than disappointed. They didn’t win, but they also didn’t lose, and in this kind of week, that counted for something.
In Other News...
Nick Saban Sends Strong Message As Pressure Builds On Jalen Hurts
Jalen Hurts heads into a Week 5 road test in Jacksonville with the Eagles short on the kinds of help a quarterback usually leans on. DaVonta Smith and Saquon Barkley are out, and Hurts has also been navigating a battered offensive line, leaving Philadelphia to ask its quarterback to keep the offense moving through another stretch of uncertainty.
Amid the pressure, former coach Nick Saban offered a reminder of why Hurts has long drawn praise for more than just his play. Saban highlighted Hurts character and resilience, framing the quarterback as someone who has already lived through adversity and responded the right way, a message that lands differently with the Eagles facing another game where the margin for error feels thin. [Read more 🡒]
Eagles Head Into London Severely Shorthanded Before Jaguars Kickoff
The Eagles are heading into their London matchup against the Jaguars with a much thinner margin for error than usual, and the Week 5 inactive list made that clear. Philadelphia has already had to shuffle around its offense because of injuries, and now the depth chart is going to be tested again with backups such as Will Shipley at running back and Jake Majors at center expected to shoulder larger roles.
Jonathan Greenard is among the players unavailable, leaving him out because of an ankle injury and sidelined for a third game this season. He is joined on the inactive list by Saquon Barkley, DeVonta Smith and Hollywood Brown, a collection of absences that leaves the Eagles piecing together a game plan with far less firepower than they would normally expect in a matchup that already comes with the added challenge of travel. [Read more 🡒]
Eagles Head To London With A Problem They Can't Keep Hiding
The Eagles arrive in London with more than a cross-Atlantic trip on their hands. A matchup with the Jaguars now comes against a backdrop of roster strain, with Philadelphia trying to steady itself after a week that has thinned out key parts of the offense and put added pressure on a group that usually sets the tone for everything else.
Philadelphias line already had little margin for error, and the timing of the latest changes only makes the challenge sharper overseas. With Jacksonville carrying a 3-1 record and a strong statistical profile, the betting market is leaning toward the Jaguars, and the specific matchups up front could go a long way toward determining whether the Eagles can keep this from turning into a much bigger early-season problem. [Read more 🡒]