Best And Worst Of NFL Week FIve

We are five weeks into the National Football League season and already we have some interesting storylines taking shape. Six teams, Atlanta, Green Bay, Denver, Carolina, New England, and Cincinnati have yet to taste defeat. New England and Green Bay seem like they have the best chances to ride out this undefeated string a little while longer. The Bengals look a little human, as they got a bit lucky against Seattle./ Pittsburgh showed a little bit of guts in their win over the Chargers. While you do have teams like that, still dominating teams, you also have teams that are kind of on the ugly side. Look at the Detroit Lions. They're 0-5 and Matthew Stafford ended up spending time sitting on the bench, which isn't a good thing for Detroit. Week five had plenty of excitement, from high scoring games, to blown leads, to three overtime thrillers. So with that being said, lets take a look at some of the best, and worst, of week five in the NFL

Best:
Josh McCown, Quarterback Cleveland Browns
I can't believe I'm saying this either, but it happened in week five. He finally got a win this season as the starting QB for the Browns, helping lead them to a 33-30 overtime win over the Ravens. McCown finished the day going 36 for 51 with 457 yards (the most by any QB in the NFL this week) and a pair of touchdowns. Sure he was sacked four times, but he was still able to help lead the Browns. McCown was the driving force behind the Cleveland victory, having a pretty fantastic day under center. For all the grief that has been thrown on McCown this year, he made up for it a little this week. Will it last? Who knows. But for one week at least, McCown made amens and looks like he can be the leader that Cleveland has been looking for.

Worst:
Matthew Stafford, Quarterback Detroit Lions (and Lions as a whole)
It really hasn't been a very good year for either Stafford, or the Lions as a whole. Detroit has seemed to be just two steps behind everybody this year, and its almost kind of sad to watch, considering how built this team was. I mean with how good a defense the Lions had a year ago, you would think that they would be just as good. Not the case, as they gave up 35 points in the first eight Cardinals possessions. To make matters worse, Stafford played like crap, again. Stafford went 22 of 32 for 188 yards and a touchdown. But he threw three interceptions. To make matters worse, he was benched in the third quarter and replaced by Dan Orlovsky, who was under center in 2008 when Detroit had their 0-16 season. Yes things really have gotten that bad for the Lions this year.

Best:
Doug Martin, Running Back Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Welcome back Doug Martin. After coming off a decent week in week four against Carolina, Martin had another big game this week against Jacksonville. Martin ran for 123 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 24 carries. He also had a receiving touchdown, to go along with three catches for 35 yards. Here's a guy who had trouble getting going last year, and got off to a bit of a slow start this season (as did the rest of the Bucs). But Martin has seemed to have a bit of a return to form in the last two weeks, showing that he still has the same jump he did in 2012 (when he finished the year with 1,454 rushing yards and 457 receiving yards). He's still got it.

Worst:
Julio Jones, Wide Receiver Atlanta Falcons
Going into this ballgame, there were questions as to whether or not he would play, as he's been dealing with a hamstring injury as of late. Well he played for the Falcons and wasn't quite as effective in Atlanta's win over Washington. He was held without a catch the entire first half, had 2 catches for 29 yards in the 4th quarter and finished the day with 5 grabs for 67 yards. Its by far his worst performance this season. The guy has been one of the most dominating receivers in the entire league this year, but the way he's looked the last two weeks, especially this one, he hasn't seemed to earn the title of best in the game this year.

Best:
Fletcher Cox, Defensive End Philadelphia Eagles
Philly pulled off a pretty impressive win Sunday against the Saints, dominating them to the tune of a 39-17 victory. A big reason for this domination by Philly was Fletcher Cox the Eagles defensive end. Cox had himself a day. He as on Drew Brees all day long, finishing with six tackles, three sacks, he had two forced fumbles and recovered one of them. Cox had been in the Saits backfield almost as much as Brees. It was a battle for New Orleans and keeping Fletcher Cox off their players was almost impossible for the Saints offensive line.

Worst:
Seattle Seahawks Defense
Here we go again with another top defense making this list. There's a difference here between them and the Lions. Detroit seems like its going to be a year long thing, while Seattle seems to have been bitten by the bug this week. Think about this. Seattle hasn't allowed a touchdown since week two. They shut out the Bears and allowed only a defensive touchdown to Detroit last week. Boy did that change fast against Cincy. The Bendals marched down the field on an 86 yard drive, which was capped off by a Tyler Eifert 14 yard TD catch. To make that a little bit worse, it was a returning Kam Chanceler who was covering Eifert when he scored. Come on Kam I thought you were supposed to be one of the best in the business. Well I guess everybody has an off week now and then.

Best:
Julian Edelman, Wide Receiver New England Patriots
I don't know what it is, but the Patriots always seem to find a way to get players into the lineup who can do what's needed in this offense. Edelman has now become to this Patriots offense what Wes Welker used to be. A small Wideout who came out of nowhere and made an impact on this football team. He had a pretty good game Sunday, snagging four passes for 120 yards and a touchdown in the Patriots 30-6 win over Dallas. They just keep finding a way to win and this guy a big part of it.

Worst:
Ameer Abdullah, Running Back Detroit Lions
This kid may have a future in this game, but it sure didn't look like it on Sunday. During their blowout loss to Arizona, he had a paltry 17 yards on six carries. That's bad enough. To make matters worse, he fumbled the football twice during this ballgame. Detroit is at 0-5 and their offense doesn't seem to have a clue as to how to get it back on track. This guy losing two footballs on fumbles isn't helping the case one bit.

Best:
Thomas Rawls, Running Back Running Back Seattle Seahawks
When you think about the offense of the Seattle Seahawks, one of the first things that comes to mind is the running game. Usually the name Marshawn Lynch pops up whenever this comes up in conversation. But this week, that wasn't the case. Thomas Rawls had a breakout game filling in for Lynch, who wasn't playing. Rawls just lead the NFL this week in rushing,  with 23 carries for 169 yards and a touchdown. Those 169 yards were tops in the entire league this week. Even though the end result wasn't the way the Seahawks wanted, blowing that 17 point lead late in the ballgame, still this guy had a monster week. There's no timetable yet on when Marshawn will return to the field, but while he's out Rawls is more than capable of filling in and carrying the football.

Worst:
Houston Texans Defense
They have looked pretty bad this season. It seems as if a lot of top defenses from last season have made this list this week. Look at Houston, who fell 27-20 against Indy this week. They still have JJ Watt, the best defensive player in the league, as well as Jadeveon Clowney. But there's noting else really to build on behind those two guys. They made Matt Hasselbeck look like a young gun again out there and even revived Andre Johnson for a game at least. Houston is a complete mess and Ryan Mallet’s sideline pouting was a perfect fit for what’s going on there.