NFL Weekly Recap: Week 5

Six one-score games, a Sunday Night destruction of “America’s Team” and the “Tush Push” or “Brotherly Shove” making headlines again. Let’s recap Week 5 of the NFL season.

Cream of The Crop

The San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia Eagles continued to assert their dominance atop the NFC. The two remain the only unbeaten teams in the league at 5-0.

If the 49ers weren’t already scary enough, quarterback Brock Purdy looked like he took another step in his development. Mr. Irrelevant threw for 252 yards and four touchdowns on Sunday Night.

There were questions coming into the game about Purdy’s ability to deal with pressure and he swiftly put those to rest with an outstanding performance. While under pressure, Purdy went four for seven with 88 yards and two touchdowns.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia came out on top in Los Angeles with a solid defensive performance, holding the Rams (at full strength with Cooper Kupp) to a season-low 14 points.

Hat Trick

For the first time in a decade, three different players caught three touchdowns in a single game during the same week.

Bears’ receiver D.J. Moore (eight receptions, 230 yards and three touchdowns), Bengals’ receiver Ja’Marr Chase (15 receptions, 192 yards and three touchdowns) and 49ers’ tight end George Kittle (three receptions/67 yards, three touchdowns) all hauled in three scores in their team’s victories.

The last time this happened was in Week 9 of 2013 when four different players caught three touchdown passes. The four players are Andre Johnson, T.Y. Hilton, Jerricho Cotchery and Riley Cooper.

Just to put into perspective how long ago that was, here are some starting quarterbacks from that same week: Jake Locker, Christian Ponder, Terelle Pryor Sr. and Jason Campbell. Nick Foles also tied the NFL record for most passing touchdowns in a single game during this week with seven.

How The Mighty Have Fallen

The Saints shut out the Patriots 34-0 in Foxboro Sunday, handing New England their worst loss by point differential since… last week.

Dallas defeated Bill Belichick and his squad 38-3 just seven days before this blowout at the hands of Dennis Allen and a stout New Orleans defense. Belichick’s unit has been outscored 72-3 in these last two games.

“Obviously it was a poor performance today here,” Belichick said in his postgame press conference. “So just plain and simply, we’ve got to find a way to play and coach better than that. So that’s what we are going to do, start all over and get back on a better track than we’re on right now.”

The two losses from New England were the two worst losses by point differential since 1993.

Injury Bug

Unfortunately, this week saw many star players go down with injuries.

Minnesota Vikings’ receiver Justin Jefferson will be sidelined for at least the next four games with a hamstring injury as Minnesota placed him on IR. He will miss games against the Bears, 49ers, Packers and Falcons. Expect to see rookie Jordan Addison see an uptick in targets during Jefferson’s absence.

The Indianapolis Colts’ placed rookie standout quarterback Anthony Richardson on IR as well due to a right shoulder injury.

Richardson's rehab is expected to take four to eight weeks, so he could potentially miss more after the aforementioned games. Gardner Minshew will take over for the Colts until Richardson returns.

Two starting running backs went down in Arizona and Miami. Cardinals’ tailback James Conner (knee) and Dolphins’ leading rusher De’Von Achane (knee) both will miss at least the next four games.

Achane exploded onto the scene these last three weeks. The rookie totaled 518 yards from scrimmage with seven total touchdowns since Week 3 after head coach Mike McDaniel gave Achane a bigger role.

Achane is averaging 12.3 yards per carry, which would be an NFL record among players with a minimum of 35 carries. Raheem Mostert and Jeff Wilson will handle the load for Miami.

As for Arizona, Keontay Ingram and Emari Demercado will begin to see bigger roles.

Rocco Pellegrino is a first-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email rdp5387@psu.edu.