Week 5 had a little bit of everything. There were nail biters, blowouts, rivalry games, statement games, and everything in between. Let's take a look at some of the top stories from yesterday's action.
* The Chicago Bears keep steamrolling through their early schedule. This time, they absolutely dismantled an overwhelemed Buffalo team 40-7. The Bears' offense is no joke, having up 30+ points against two defenses that were supposed to be good. What is a joke is their upcoming schedule. The Bears travel to Arizona to torment Matt Leinart before returning to the Windy City for back-to-back home games against the 49ers and Dolphins. The Bears should be 8-0 heading into week 10.
*The New York Football Giants responded in a big way coming off their BYE week. NY outplayed the Redskins in every facet of the game imaginable. The defense stymied a Redskins offense that was coming off incredibly productive performances in back-to-back games against the Texans and Jaguars. The offense did whatever it wanted all day. Tiki Barber ran for 123 yards, Eli Manning completed over 66% of his passes with no turnovers, and the never content Plaxico Burress caught a TD. The Redskins are hard to figure out, but it appears that there are still more questions than answers surrounding this football team.
*What a 2nd half performnace by the Philadelphia Eagles defense. After giving up 14 first half points (7 of the 21 first half points came off a defensive score by the Dallas defense), the Eagles defense surrendered a mere FG in the 2nd half, picking off Drew Bledsoe twice in the process and relegating Terrell Owens to spectator status. Speaking of Bledsoe...man is it painful to watch him when an opposing defense vamps up its pass rush and continually blitzes him. Even though he can still throw the ball as anyone from the pocket when given protection, he has to be considered a huge liability because of his lack of mobility and propensity to make critical errors when the game is in the balance.
After a tumultous year in 2005, coach Andy Reid and defensive coordinator Jim Johnson have the Eagles playing as well as they did when they made 4 consecutive NFC title games.