RMFL Regs/ Week 5

Vikings won the turnover battle, and the turnover battle won the game. J.J. McCarthy did the damage for Vikings — 6/8, 218 yards, 3 TD. Connor Weigman did the damage for 49ers — 14/20, 252 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT — in a losing effort. 4 in the league in passing yards, at 72 overall. Connor Weigman is not supposed to be doing this. On the ground: Vikings 83, 49ers -1.

Ava Collins: "Baltimore had the better team on the field — more yards, better decision-making — and still lost because Denver's pass rush wouldn't let Lamar Jackson breathe. Nik Bonitto got 2 sacks, and the Ravens couldn't find an answer." Marcus Reyes: "Baltimore threw 37 times against a pass rush that collected 3 sacks; Bo Nix threw 26 times and still turned it over 3 times. Neither team executed well enough to win comfortably, but Denver's ground game (69 yards to Baltimore's 55) and discipline with the ball in their hands—relative to their usual season pattern—separated a 2-3 team from a 4-1 one that should have demolished them."

Broncos handled Ravens 28-21. Lamar Jackson was steady for Ravens — 18/37, 273 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT — in a losing effort. Bo Nix was steady for Broncos — 18/26, 243 yards, 2 TD, 3 INT. Audric Estime's high-water mark for the year. Through the air: Ravens 273, Broncos 243.

38-28, and neither defence wants to watch it back. Dante Moore did the damage for Texans — 14/22, 229 yards, 4 TD, 2 INT — in a losing effort. Tony Pollard ran it for Titans — 14 carries, 199 yards, 2 TD. Tony Pollard's high-water mark for the year. On the ground: Titans 208, Texans 53.

Marcus Reyes: "Jackson threw 5 touchdowns on 22 completions while Chicago's line surrendered 6 sacks—a rout built on one side's efficiency and the other's collapse up front." Talia Morgan: "Baltimore is who we thought they were—Jackson's arm carrying a team that can't run and won't need to, while Chicago abandoned the ground game 77% of the time and paid for it. The gap between 4-0 and 1-3 is exactly this wide."

Baltimore's Lamar Jackson threw 5 touchdown passes and completed 22 of 34 for 358 yards in a 51-28 rout, while Chicago's Caleb Williams managed 17 of 34 for 239 yards with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. The Bears allowed 6 sacks and were outgained 382 to 292 in total yards, a gap that tells you everything about why they're 1-3. Chicago passed on 77 percent of its plays despite gaining just 53 yards on the ground, which suggests the offense abandoned balance when it needed it most. The Ravens defense held, the Ravens passing game exploded, and the Bears had no answer for either.

Sierra Vaughn: "Dallas threw 4 interceptions and could not stop Los Angeles from moving the ball at will—Herbert and Gadsden put up 484 and 196 yards respectively, and that gap in execution separated an 11-point game from a rout." Riley Parker: "Dak Prescott threw 51 points' worth of passes and still couldn't keep Dallas alive—the moment a quarterback decides he can air it out 43 times and live with 4 picks, that's not a shootout, that's surrender." Zoe Bell: "Dallas scored 51 and still lost by 11—that's not a shootout where one team got hot, that's a team that cannot execute when it matters, and Prescott's 4 interceptions didn't happen in a vacuum, they happened because Los Angeles was moving the ball at will while Dallas was scrambling to keep up."

The Chargers beat Dallas 62-51 in a shootout where Justin Herbert's arm and Los Angeles' pass-happy offense simply overwhelmed a Dallas secondary that couldn't match the pace. Herbert went 32 of 45 for 484 yards and 6 touchdowns while Oronde Gadsden caught 14 passes for 196 yards and 2 scores, and the Chargers rolled up 556 total yards to the Cowboys' 388. Dak Prescott threw 4 interceptions on 21 of 43 passing to go with 329 yards and 2 touchdowns, and Dallas' 4 giveaways to Los Angeles' 3 decided a game that never felt competitive once the Bolts got rolling.