We’re at the point in the NFL season where there’s enough data to get a good scouting report, but not enough for us to make sweeping judgments on any team’s merit. Outside of a few outliers, the NFL standings are a muddled middle of the unknown.Â
Most of this weekend’s games left me with this question: Who is actually good? Our top examples:Â
1. Cowboys (3-2) 20, Steelers (3-2) 17
This game started late, stretched over two calendar days and was mind-boggling in its confusion. Did you want Dak Prescott takes? He threw horrendous interceptions and the game-winning touchdown. How about the Steelers defense? Pretty good until it really counted. Justin Fields is just fine. Ruling: The records here indicate competence, but I’m not so sure — on both sides — after watching the game.Â
2. Ravens (3-2) 41, Bengals (1-4) 38
Was this game incredible? Yes. Did I come away with a sense of knowing who’s good? Sure didn’t. Both defenses struggled tremendously, though we’ve gathered that from Cincinnati already this year. But Baltimore’s once-feared unit is allowing 25 points per game this year, and looked particularly feckless against Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase yesterday. Ruling: Cincinnati is frustratingly bad, Baltimore is good … but we have reservations. (For what it’s worth: all four Bengals losses are by one score.)
3. Cardinals (2-3) 24, 49ers (2-3) 23
I don’t know what to do with these teams. This is a horrendous loss for the preseason Super Bowl favorite San Francisco, while it feels like found money for Arizona. The Niners miss Christian McCaffrey, but the problems go deeper than that. Ruling: Arizona is perfectly mediocre. San Francisco desperately needs a bye week.Â
4. Giants (2-3) 29, Seahawks (3-2) 20
At a loss here, too. Seattle is coming off a devastating yet extremely fun loss in Detroit in what seemed like a matchup of two of the NFC’s best teams. And then the Seahawks go and lay this dud against Daniel Jones — who didn’t have Malik Nabers to throw to yesterday, either — and New York. Ruling: Take a nap, Seahawks. And we’re not ready to believe in the Giants — yet.Â
5. Texans (4-1) 23, Bills (3-2) 20
This one should comfort us — an expected outcome with expected team records involved — but I’m not so sure. Houston has been skirting by (what I think are) bad teams all year, with a blowout loss to Minnesota lumped in. Buffalo is once again a team that looks like a juggernaut and a pauper on a week-to-week basis. Ruling: Issuing a Stefon Diggs side-eye to both teams, but they can be labeled good for now.
There was plenty more action, including Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels looking like the two best quarterbacks in the NFL. Also, the Broncos might be good — even if they’re squabbling on the sideline.
See our full Week 5 takeaways here.
