After 5 weeks of NFL football we are starting to find out which teams are legit contenders, and which teams are disappointing and shocked us with their bad performances.

The Giants attempted a fourth quarter comeback against the chargers, but they fell in the final minutes with a score of 27-22. That is not the only thing that fell for the Giants as their wide receiver core took a massive hit, with 4 players being injured in the game. Odell Beckham Jr., a top 3 receiver is out with a broken ankle, and will not return for the season. With that injury went the hopes of all Giant fans as they fell to 0-5 and lost their best player. Also, Brandon Marshall, the number two receiver for the Giants had season ending surgery after the game. With the Giants already struggling offense taking these huge hits, it looks like they will end up last in the NFC East and might have a worse record than the Browns when it is all said and done.

After a controversial week in the media, Cam Newton leads the Panthers to back to back wins against the Patriots and then last week against the high powered Lions. After a dismal season a year ago, and the Panthers suffering from Super Bowl 50 hangover, Cam Newton has looked like he has returned to his MVP caliber form. Cam threw for 3 TDs in the tightly contested win with the score of 27-24. The Panthers first round pick, Christian McCaffrey, has also started to gain traction in the NFL with his first NFL touchdown on shovel pass from Cam. Although the Panthers defense is not what it was 3 years ago, it seems that the offense, even without star tight end Greg Olsen, will carry the team into the playoffs.

The rookie QB Mitchell Trubisky had his first NFL start for the Bears when he faced the divisional rival Vikings in primetime Monday Night Football. Trubisky went 12/25 for 128 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, and 1 Fumble. He had an okay first game, but he tested the pro bowl safety Harrison Smith in the final minutes of the game, who picked him off and set up the Vikings for the game winning field goal. The Vikings did win the game by 20-17. This game was a tale of two halves and two quarterbacks for the Vikings. Sam Bradford came back for the Vikings after being out with a leg injury since game one, and he had an awful performance. He accumulated 36 yards in the first half. But, once the backup Case Keenum came into the game, he had a passer rating of 110.3 (to Bradford’s 53.6) and played well enough to win the game. I would give Trubisky a C+ in his first start against a top 3 defense and the limitations he had at the wide receiver position.  

America’s Game of the Week did not disappoint with a thrilling last second win by Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers over the Dallas Cowboys with a score of 35-31. This game was the rematch from last years playoff game where Aaron Rodgers made an incredible throw to Jared Cook to set up the game winning field goal in “Jerry World” (Cowboys home stadium). This game was also in Dallas and the Cowboys were ready to extract their revenge. The Cowboys had the ball on offense after a Green Bay touchdown and needed to score a touchdown to take the lead. They did that, but they did not manage the clock well and gave Rodgers and the Packer’s offense 1:24 to make a game winning drive. Rodgers does so and on the goal line, he ran the same play twice, which was a high point throw to Davante Adams. The first time he executed the play, the cornerback got the better of Adams, but the second time was money as Rodgers gave the Packers the go ahead touchdown with 11 seconds left in the game. Another thrilling win for the Packers and this was by far the most interested and exciting game of the week. The Dallas Cowboys are in trouble because the Eagles are doing so well, so the Boys may not even make the postseason this year.     

Week 6 predictions! Nate won the predictions last edition and the series is evened out at 1-1!