Week 5 didn’t just hand out ugly football - it exposed a few teams that suddenly look a lot shakier than they did a week ago. Some clubs survived the chaos. Others got hit with a reality check.
The Dallas Cowboys are at the top of that list after Thursday night’s mess at Jerry World. They opened fast, with Dak driving the offense downfield and Javonte Williams finishing it off with a touchdown plunge for a 7-0 lead.
After that, though, the night tilted hard in Tampa Bay’s favor. The Cowboys’ defense got shredded by a Buccaneers team that came in winless and was playing an undrafted rookie quarterback, and the Bucs ended up holding the ball for almost twice as long as Dallas did.
On top of that, four separate Dallas penalties handed Tampa first downs and kept drives alive.
That kind of sloppiness leaves questions everywhere, especially about the head coach. The defense looked bad, the discipline looked worse, and the whole operation felt off.
Joey Porter should help provide a shot in the arm, and the NFC East is still open enough for Dak and company to regroup, but they need to get themselves straightened out quickly. Next up is a trip to Lambeau Field to face the Packers on Sunday Night.
The Bears also walked out of Week 5 with reason to worry, even if the level of alarm is not quite as high. This was the first time all season that Ben Johnson seemed to miss on too many of the big decisions when Chicago got blown out in Lambeau Field.
The defense remains a real issue, but normally the Bears can cover that up by controlling the line of scrimmage on offense and leaning on the run game. That script fell apart once Tyson Bagent turned the ball over early.
Johnson went to Case Keenum in the second half, but by then the game was already gone.
Caleb Williams should be back either next week or the week after, which means the offense ought to get back to scoring sooner rather than later. Still, the defense is going to be a season-long headache, especially against teams that can run it effectively.
That’s why the Bears don’t look fully built for a deep postseason push just yet. For now, they get to find out more against Bijan Robinson and the Falcons next week before anyone raises the panic level.
Then there’s Las Vegas, which went from one of the better early stories in the league to getting flattened in Foxboro. The Raiders had spent the first four weeks looking like a team with some real juice: Klint Kubiak as the new head coach, the top pick in the draft, Kirk Cousins leading the league in TD passes, and a defense built around Maxx Crossby. Three straight wins and a tight game against the Chiefs had plenty of people wondering whether this could actually be a playoff team.
Sunday answered that pretty loudly. The Patriots beat the brakes off the Raiders and showed problems both through the air and on the ground.
Drake Maye carved them up for 374 passing yards, while Rhomondre Stephenson powered a rushing effort that went for 165 yards and 2 scores. Las Vegas didn’t help itself on offense either, with the run game stuck in 1st gear and limping along at 2.1 yards per carry.
The next test doesn’t look any kinder. The Raiders head home to face Josh Allen and the Bills, and this is a team that still feels like it’s finding its way.
They’ve already matched their win total from 2025, so the progress is real. But Week 5 showed they are not a finished product yet.
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