It was a Sunday of comebacks across the NFL. Week 5 saw an 18-point lead crumble in Arizona, a 17-point lead vanish in Carolina and a 14-point lead disappear in Philadelphia.
After the dust finally settled, there wasn’t an unbeaten left.
Both the Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles — the league’s only undefeated teams heading into Week 5 — were upset at home Sunday. The Bills dropped an AFC East battle with the New England Patriots, who rode an excellent night from Drake Maye (273 passing yards), a revenge game from Stefon Diggs (146 receiving yards on 10 catches) and a 52-yard game-winning kick from rookie Andres Borregales to victory.
New England’s 23-20 win was quite a statement from Mike Vrabel’s team. This isn’t the Patriots of the past few years. This team can play — and beat — the best in the league.
Meanwhile, the Eagles were upset at home, 21-17, by the Denver Broncos. A 14-point second-half lead ended with the Eagles’ first loss of 2025 and just their second in their last 22 contests. Broncos quarterback Bo Nix led two fourth-quarter scoring drives, completing nine of 10 throws for 127 yards and a touchdown in the final quarter, in an impressive road win for Denver.
Somehow, Saquon Barkley still hasn’t had a 100-yard rushing game five games into the season. The 2024 rushing champ finished with just 30 on six carries Sunday (he did have a receiving score), and his struggles speak to the struggles of the Eagles’ offense: Philly didn’t score a single point on its final five drives.
The New York Jets are the only winless team after five weeks because the Tennessee Titans, down 21-6 to the Arizona Cardinals in the fourth quarter, scored the game’s final 16 points — including a wild, ricocheted fumble they recovered in the end zone — to earn the first win of the Cam Ward era.
“That’s exactly what we needed,” Titans coach Brian Callahan told his players in the locker room. “We had to show that we could fight for four quarters.”
The New Orleans Saints also earned their first win of the year with a 26-14 victory over the New York Giants. It was not only Kellen Moore’s first win as head coach but also the first NFL victory for starter Spencer Rattler, who’d opened his career 0-10. Five turnovers doomed rookie Jaxson Dart and the Giants, who are now 1-4.
In Carolina, the Panthers staged a fourth-quarter comeback to hold off the Miami Dolphins, 27-24. Mike McDaniel’s team, once up 17-0 in this one, is now 1-4 with its only win coming over the Jets. Panthers running back Rico Dowdle erupted for 206 rushing yards, the most from any player in a game so far this season.
In London, Carson Wentz led the Vikings to a fourth-quarter comeback over the Cleveland Browns by leaning on All-Pro wideout Justin Jefferson, who had 123 yards, and Jordan Addison, who caught the game-winning touchdown with 25 seconds left. In his NFL debut, Browns rookie Dillon Gabriel finished with 190 yards and two touchdowns. Cleveland fell to 1-4.
The biggest surprise at this point of the season is the league’s most disappointing team. The Baltimore Ravens were embarrassed at home, 44-10, by the Houston Texans. Combine a staggering injury report — which includes star quarterback Lamar Jackson and six other starters — with the worst defense in football, and it adds up to a 1-4 record, tied for the worst five-game start in franchise history.
At the other end of the AFC, the Indianapolis Colts are now 4-1 after routing the Las Vegas Raiders 40-6. That’s Indy’s third win by 21 points or more this season. The Daniel Jones revival lives on.
In Seattle, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers further stamped themselves as the league’s best fourth-quarter team, winning for the fourth time in five weeks with a last-minute score. In a game that featured four lead changes and three ties in the second half alone, the Bucs bettered the Seahawks 38-35 in a possible NFC playoff preview behind 379 yards and two touchdowns from Baker Mayfield.
The Washington Commanders welcomed starting quarterback Jayden Daniels back with a big win on the road, 27-10, over the Los Angeles Chargers. It was Washington’s defense that made the difference in this one, responding to a 10-0 first-half hole by shutting out Justin Herbert and the Chargers the rest of the way. Both teams are now 3-2.
The Dallas Cowboys, fresh off a wild 40-40 tie with the Green Bay Packers, got another stellar performance from quarterback Dak Prescott in a 37-22 triumph over the lowly Jets. In his last eight quarters, Prescott has put up MVP-type numbers: 49 completions for 556 passing yards, seven touchdowns and no interceptions. Meanwhile, Aaron Glenn is now the first Jets coach in franchise history to open his tenure 0-5.
In Cincinnati, the Bengals’ slump continued with a third straight loss, this one a 37-24 defeat by the Detroit Lions. Detroit dominated this one from the start, racing to a 28-3 third-quarter lead, and Dan Campbell’s team has now won four in a row after a disappointing Week 1 loss to the Packers. Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery each scored a touchdown in this one, the 14th time that’s happened since the two became teammates. Together, they tied Dallas’ Emmitt Smith and Daryl Johnston for the most games in which each member of a running back tandem scored a touchdown.
The Bengals, meanwhile, might have another quarterback problem: Joe Burrow’s replacement, Jake Browning, threw three interceptions in the loss. That’s eight picks in four starts for Browning, who’s struggled since replacing Burrow three weeks into the season.
Here’s what we learned across Week 5 in the NFL:
More last-second magic for Bucs
Let’s start with the uniforms. It doesn’t get much better than the throwbacks the Buccaneers and Seahawks wore Sunday in Seattle.
The game was every bit as good. At one point, the Buccaneers scored touchdowns on four of five possessions, and the Seahawks piled up five straight touchdown drives. Six would have won it, but Sam Darnold threw a costly interception on Seattle’s final drive that led to Chase McLaughlin’s 39-yard game-winning field goal for Tampa Bay.
Both quarterbacks — selected two spots apart at the top of the 2018 NFL Draft — were electric. Mayfield finished 29-for-33 for 379 yards and two touchdowns in the win. Darnold finished 29-for-34 for 341 yards, four touchdowns and the interception in the loss. It marked the first time in league history opposing quarterbacks each recorded at least 325 passing yards and completed over 80 percent of their throws.
The story coming out of this one remains the Buccaneers’ late-game heroics. There’s a saying in the NFL: Most games are decided by two or three plays. Tampa Bay simply keeps making them.
The Bucs, now 4-1, are the first team in NFL history to have each of their first four wins come on a game-winning score in the final minute of regulation. That’s four wins — over the Falcons, Texans, Jets and now Seahawks — by eight combined points.
And the Bucs might have found their next star at receiver: First-round pick Emeka Egbuka is the first rookie in league history with 25 or more catches, at least 400 receiving yards and five or more touchdowns through the first five games of his career.
“He’s kind of one of one,” Mayfield said of his young receiver.
Ravens ‘a complete disappointment’
There was no mincing words after this one.
“A complete disappointment,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh called Sunday’s 34-point loss to the Texans. The defeat was tied for the worst home loss in franchise history.
It has been a staggering slide for Harbaugh’s team, one of the league’s most consistent winners — Baltimore has piled up 25 regular-season victories, won two AFC North titles and reached one AFC Championship Game over the past two seasons. The Ravens entered 2025 as legitimate Super Bowl contenders and led the Bills in Buffalo 40-25 in the fourth quarter of a Week 1 showdown. The collapse that ensued that night foreshadowed a season that’s falling apart.
Baltimore is 1-4 for just the second time in Harbaugh’s 18 seasons. The defense is the worst in football, allowing 30 or more points in all four losses. The injury list included seven starters and six Pro Bowlers on Sunday: Jackson, fullback Patrick Ricard, tackle Ronnie Stanley, linebacker Roquan Smith, cornerback Marlon Humphrey, safety Kyle Hamilton and defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike.
With that much talent sidelined, it’s understandable the Ravens wouldn’t look as formidable. But a 34-point loss at home to a mediocre Texans team? That was the shocking part. Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud finished with as many touchdown passes (four) as incompletions. Even when the Ravens have missed key players in years past under Harbaugh, they’ve remained largely competitive. Not Sunday. This one was never close. They were out-coached and outplayed in every conceivable way.
The Ravens host the 3-2 Los Angeles Rams next week before their bye, and there’s no guarantee Jackson returns until after the break.
“We’re going to have to figure out who we are,” Harbaugh said. “We’re going to have more than half the season left (after the bye), and we’re going to have to find ourselves.”
It might be too late.
Best coaching jobs (so far)
In San Francisco, George Kittle has played one game this season. Nick Bosa has been lost for the year. Brock Purdy has missed three straight starts and could miss a few more after aggravating his toe injury last week.
Somehow, Kyle Shanahan’s team is 4-1, and, after a gutsy road win over the Rams on Thursday night, sits atop the NFC West. Now in his ninth year in San Francisco, Shanahan has guided the 49ers to 12 or more wins three times, plus a pair of NFC Championships. But he’s never earned Coach of the Year honors. If the 49ers keep winning with so many key players sidelined, he might be the favorite for the award this season.
In Indianapolis, Shane Steichen has built one of the deepest offenses in the league — turns out the key to unlocking it was the arrival of Jones, who was booted out of New York last year. Indy is off to its best start since 2009, and if not for two gaffes from wideout Adonai Mitchell in last week’s loss to the Rams, the Colts could very well be 5-0. Steichen deserves some early Coach of the Year consideration, as well.
A few others who have impressed so far this season: Todd Bowles in Tampa Bay, Liam Coen in Jacksonville and Campbell in Detroit.
Jets stumble to new low
From the start, Aaron Glenn was intent on remaking the New York Jets, on ridding the franchise of the drama that spoiled the two-year Aaron Rodgers era. And, frankly, the majority of the last 15 years of Jets football.
“Put your seatbelts on and get ready for the ride,” Glenn said last winter as he was introduced as the team’s new head coach, speaking directly to his new players. “We are the freaking New York Jets, and we’re built for this s—.”
It made for a splashy soundbite, infusing optimism into a broken franchise that hasn’t sniffed a playoff berth since 2010, the longest active drought in the NFL.
But soundbites don’t get you very far in this league. Five games into Glenn’s tenure, the Jets are again among the biggest disappointments in football. The defense has regressed into one of the worst units in the league and allowed the Cowboys a 30-0 run in the second and third quarters Sunday. In the first half alone, Jets defenders missed 13 tackles, per NextGen. And through five games, the Jets have failed to force a single takeaway, the first time that’s happened since the statistic started being tracked in 1933.
Quarterback Justin Fields has failed to develop into the offensive spark he was signed to be; the Jets’ starter didn’t climb past 100 passing yards until the fourth quarter Sunday, after the game had been decided. Breece Hall fumbled. Six days after getting worked over by the winless Dolphins, the Jets hit a new low.
For a franchise well-versed in head-coaching disappointments, Glenn is now the first Jets coach in history to begin his tenure 0-5. New York will face the Broncos in London next week before their bye.
“It’s going to take time, fellas,” Glenn told reporters after the loss.
Another coach who’s underwhelmed so far: the Raiders’ Pete Carroll. After a Week 1 win in New England, Las Vegas has now dropped four straight, including a 34-point loss in Indianapolis on Sunday.
(Photo: Soobum Im / Getty Images)
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