Tucker’s Top 5 NFL Matchups: Week 5
Credit: Baltimore Ravens
By Tucker Harlin
I’m giving myself a 3/5 for my performance in Week 4. I swung and missed on both Eagles at Buccaneers and Bills at Ravens, but the other three I chose were mostly entertaining matchups.
Week 5 sees most of its more powerful matchups concentrated in the prime time slots, but there is a pair of very important matchups in the 1 PM slot. Week 5 also features a game in London and the bye weeks of the Titans, Chargers, Eagles, and Lions.
Here is my Top 5, in ascending order:
5. SAINTS (2-2) @ CHIEFS (4-0)- KC -5.5, 8:15 PM ESPN, MONDAY
I was between this game and the Sunday night game between the Cowboys and Steelers, but neither of those teams are as exciting as the Saints and Chiefs.
I’ll be honest, the Chiefs projecting as the best team in this league every year is getting old. Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce are very obviously not as good together this season than last. The offense is banged up in multiple places, but the defense is getting the job done week in and week out.
The Saints had one of the best outputs in the league through two weeks, but painful losses to both the Eagles and Falcons have quickly brought them down to earth.
New Orleans has been stout on the defensive end all season, and based on Patrick Mahomes’ trends through the first month it wouldn’t surprise me if he did it again Monday.
The Chiefs have lived dangerously all season, so a win on a late touchdown would not surprise me in the slightest.
4. RAVENS (2-2) @ BENGALS (1-3)- BAL -2.5, 1 PM CBS, SUNDAY
The Bengals were swept by the AFC North champion Ravens in 2023.
This is the first of two 1 p.m. games on my Top 5 this week.
The Ravens finally straightened out their defense in a 35-10 win over Josh Allen and the Bills on Sunday Night Football. Derrick Henry and the run game carved up Buffalo quite literally as soon as they touched the ball.
With the exception of the opener, the Bengals have been stout all season offensively, averaging over 30 points per game in each of the last three competitions. However, defense is also surrendering over 30 points per game in that stretch.
My gut tells me there will be points aplenty in this one, but I’m not totally sure based on what the Ravens defense did last week.
3. BUCCANEERS (3-1) @ FALCONS (2-2)- ATL -1.5, 8:15 PRIME, THURSDAY
Thursday Night Football generally doesn’t have lofty expectations for great matchups, but it’s looking to go against the narrative in Atlanta tomorrow.
The Bucs and Falcons split last season, the road team victorious each time.
Tampa scored a much needed get right victory in a 33-16 win against the Eagles last weekend. The defense held the Eagles in the neighborhood of 0 yards from scrimmage in the first half while Baker Mayfield aired it out for 334 yards and a pair of pass touchdowns.
Atlanta is on its final leg of a three-game homestand, splitting the first two with a 22-17 loss to the Chiefs on Sunday Night Football and a 26-24 victory over the Saints on a Younghoe Koo field goal at the buzzer.
The Bucs lived in the Eagles backfield last week, and Atlanta hasn’t exactly run the ball well through the first month of the season. This is a matchup to keep your eyes on.
My expectation is for the winner to score somewhere in the lower 20s.
2. JETS (2-2) vs VIKINGS (4-0) (London)- MIN -2.5, 9:30 AM NFL NETWORK
If this game wasn’t in London I’d give it the #1 spot on my list.
This is the first standalone game the Vikings play in all season, and it just so happens to start at 8:30 in the morning.
This team has played every bit as well as the record indicates. The Giants were a pushover in Week 1, but the 49ers, Texans, and Packers will all find themselves in playoff races when the season nears its end.
They’ll be facing a quarterback they know and hate by the name of Aaron Rodgers.
The Jets have to prove last week was a fluke loss due to the elements in the Meadowlands this week. So far, their only wins are over the unimpressive bunches that are the Patriots and Titans. Now, they get the prize of going across the pond to play the best team in the NFC.
London games are always kinky so I can see a scenario in which this goes both ways. On paper, the Vikings look better.
1. BILLS (3-1) @ TEXANS (3-1)- BUF -1, 1 PM CBS
It’s been three years since the Bills and Texans met, the last meeting a 40-0 Bills victory while the Texans were in their darkest depths with David Culley.
#1 on my list is a pivotal matchup between two AFC division leaders in the Stefon Diggs Sweepstakes, both well on their way to playoff berths.
Houston looks as strong as it did last season offensively. Stefon Diggs has played well with C.J. Stroud in his new home, and Nico Collins looks like one of the three best receivers in the league right now. The Texans are fresh off a 24-20 survival against the winless Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Bills took one on the chin last week in Baltimore on Sunday Night Football. Josh Allen is doing alright in life without Diggs seeing he shredded Jacksonville 47-10 two Mondays ago, the Bills just ran into a giant that was asleep and woke up the previous week in Dallas.
This game is just one of two with a -1 line all weekend, the other between the Dolphins and Patriots. 47.5 is the fourth highest total ahead of the weekend, so Vegas expects points in Houston.
