NFL Week 5 Overreactions/Underreactions

We are officially over a quarter of the way through the 2023 NFL season, and teams are starting to separate themselves from the rest of the pack in good and bad ways.

Teams like the San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins are looking like the Super Bowl favorites while the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers are in shambles.

In this article, we’ll break down some over and underreactions from the past week of football that might dictate the rest of the season for teams.

Rob’s Overreaction: Jordan Love is not the answer for the Packers.

The Packers got handed their third loss of the season on Monday Night Football this past week against the Las Vegas Raiders and once again the offense struggled.

Love threw three interceptions and looked as if he was playing with the pressure of replacing Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers on his mind all game.

But, Love shouldn’t be the one to blame for all these struggles as the Packers’ offensive line has struggled in the absence of their All-Pro tackle David Bakhtiari.

On top of that, star running back Aaron Jones has only played in two games this year leading to run game struggles and a reliance on Love and a young receiver core.

Rob’s Underreaction: The Cowboys will still be fine and make a playoff run.

The Dallas Cowboys in some way have become one of the laughing stocks of the NFL as each year they play well in the regular season and underperform in the playoffs.

Well this year, we got the Dallas Cowboys playoff preview in early October as they got blown out by the 49ers 42-10 on Sunday Night Football.

Quarterback Dak Prescott threw three interceptions in the game and is now up to four on the season while only having five passing touchdowns.

Dak said earlier this year, “I won’t have 10 interceptions this year.” It’s only Week 6.

Rob Cardini is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email rvc5706@psu.edu

Will’s Overreaction: Joe Burrow and the Bengals are back.

The Cincinnati Bengals have been quite the disappointment through Week 5 of the season, winning just one game in their first four.

After Joe Burrow signed the highest-paid contract in terms of AAV, the Bengals certainly had different expectations for the season.

After a decisive win in Week 5 for the Bengals over the Arizona Cardinals, it seems as if the Bengals and Burrow are back, especially after throwing for 317 yards and three touchdowns.

This game was a good momentum builder for the Bengals, but they are in no way back to the standards that they set for themselves the past two seasons. With a tough stretch of games coming up for Cincinnati, they need to keep winning down this stretch to be considered “back”.

Will’s Underreaction: The NFC is the Eagles and 49ers to lose

At the beginning of the season, many experts suggested that the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers, the two teams that met in the NFC Championship just last season, are the two teams projected to finish atop the NFC this year.

An ESPN preseason ranking, made up of different ESPN NFL analysts, did not have another NFC team in their rankings until number seven, the Dallas Cowboys.

Through Week 5, there are only two remaining unbeaten teams in the league, the Eagles and 49ers. The next team up would arguably be the Cowboys still, and they just got routed by the 49ers in Week 5.

There have been some questions surrounding the Eagles this season, but they still remain unbeaten, while the 49ers have looked almost unstoppable all season.

I find it very hard to imagine the team that will be representing the NFC in February will not be one of these two teams, in fact, I find it hard to believe that there is a scenario where these two teams don’t play each other in the NFC championship game this season.

William James is a fourth-year print/journalism student. To contact him, email wmj5101@psu.edu.

John’s Overreaction: Justin Fields will be the franchise Quarterback for the Bears

Justin Fields, whom people had extremely high expectations for this season, had a very poor start to the season only completing 57 percent of his passes with a total touchdown to interception ratio of 4:4 in his first three games.

Struggling with his accuracy and making quick reads and adjustments to NFL-level defenses, he has not been able to showcase the caliber of player he is. That is until the past two weeks which have shown more than just glimpses of the player he was at Ohio State.

In the past two games, Justin Fields has been on a tear completing almost 66% of his passes with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 8:1. Obviously the monstrous performances of DJ Moore have benefited Fields greatly, but he’s making reads quicker, being more accurate while still being one of the best dual-threat QBs in football.

Despite the fact the Bears still find themselves at 1-4, Fields has shown he can keep them competitive and put them in the position to push for a playoff spot if other issues on the roster are addressed.

John’s Underreations: The Giants will not make the playoffs

The Giants after coming off an impressive season finishing 9-7-1 with Coach of the Year, Brian Daboll and knocking out the Minnesota Vikings in the Wild Card were expected to have another solid year with a potential playoff push.

They managed to retain the core of their offense by re-signing Saquon Barkley to a one-year deal, paying Daniel Jones $160 million dollars over four years and even adding impressive pieces in the offseason with former Raiders tight end Darren Waller as well as cornerback Deonte Banks and wide receiver Jalin Hyatt from the draft.

Despite all their additions, this season has been a disaster for them so far. The Giants are ranked 31st in the league in points per game (12.4) and 32nd in total yards a game (252.0). Their defense is just as inefficient allowing opposing teams to average 30.6 points a game which is ranked 29th in the NFL.

The Giants have holes at basically every position with Saquon Barkley expected to be out until Week 7 or 8. They have not been competitive and at this rate, they aren’t fighting for a playoff spot but the number one pick.

John Maldonado is a first-year broadcast journalism student. To reach him, please contact jim6132@psu.edu.

Jacob’s Overreaction: The Ravens offense is once again holding their team back.

The Baltimore Ravens suffered a brutal loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday and it was in typical Baltimore fashion as the offense really struggled.

Many are quick to blame Lamar Jackson but this game was absolutely not on him as he threw for 236 passing yards and ran for an additional 45 yards along with an interception. Jackson did not throw a touchdown in this game but his pass-catchers are to blame for that.

The Ravens recorded five dropped passes in the offense's sloppy performance, which is the most in a game this season.

However, the Ravens offense has been productive this year and the Ravens are 3-2 through five weeks of the NFL season.

Jackson has done a great job delivering the ball to his pass-catchers this season and the Ravens should not be too worried about this offense unless the pattern of dropped passes continues going forward.

Jacob’s Underreaction: Zach Wilson has hit a turning point in his career.

The Zach Wilson that the New York Jets drafted may have finally come to life and right at the perfect time.

It has been clear this season that there is a lot of talent on this Jets roster but most people counted out this team when Aaron Rodgers went down, leaving Zach Wilson as the next man up. During the Sunday Night Football game against the Chiefs, Wilson went toe to toe with Patrick Mahomes and the Jets arguably could’ve won that game due to how well Wilson performed.

The Jets headed into Denver hoping that Wilson would continue that level of play from the previous game and he did exactly that. He threw for 199 yards and one interception but when you watch the film, you can see that he has really started to progress. Wilson in his third season, showed a new poise that New York had not seen out of him in his career as their starting quarterback.

It looks like having Aaron Rodgers in his ear and his team showing him that they believe in him is really pushing him forward. For Jets fans, things are trending upwards and maybe the playoffs are still in the mix for this New York team.

Jacob Zacharia is a first-year broadcast journalism student. To contact him, please email jjz5612@psu.edu.