Late night for the Sunday games on this week five rollercoaster. Not a great week for the picks. Only managed a 7-6 record so far with Kansas City the pick for tonight. That still leaves me with a respectable 47-30 record for the season.

Usually I have this column to hold my predictions accountable, where I missed or where I hit on something for the weekend. But I’m going to switch it up just a little, because there are three teams that I think really had a miss this week and it needs to be said.

Cincinnati managed to get Baltimore out of their run dominant offense and play a shootout high octane offensive game. They couldn’t ask for a better opportunity to win a crucial in division game. And with Pittsburgh losing to Dallas, they could have gotten themselves right back into the playoff/division race. Big Miss.

The Jets outplayed the Vikings in the final three quarters of that game. Minnesota was turning the ball over, and they couldn’t find any success in the run game after Jones left the game with an injury. Instead of being tied for the division lead after Buffalo lost in Houston, the Jets are nursing a losing record and there are talks in the New York media that a coaching change might be needed. Bigger Miss.

Seattle had a New York Giants team missing their top running back and wide receiver visiting. After a strong performance against Detroit last week, Seattle followed it up with a complete dud on Sunday. Now they face the 49ers (who also lost) on a short week and could find themselves on a three game losing streak that would take them from potential division winner down to a team that doesn’t make the playoffs. Biggest Miss.

Anyway, here’s where I hit and miss on week five.

Hit
Jacksonville getting their first win. They haven’t been playing as badly as their record has shown. The offense finally got unstuck, and Tank Bigsby ran wild. This offense has more juice when Bigsby is on the field and Lawrence finally looked like a quarterback who could push the ball down the field.

Miss
Josh Allen. MVP candidates do not have 9/30 passing days. This was a game that the Bills could have won fairly easily if the passing game was average.

Hit
Kirk Cousins accuracy. I had said that the thing holding back the Falcons offense was Kirk Cousins. On Thursday, we finally got to see the potential of this offense when Cousins is accurate and leading his receivers into yards after the catch. If they can figure out their running game, this will be a dangerous offense the rest of the way.

Miss
Blowouts. I was pretty sure this was going to be a week that had a lot of blowouts. But instead we had an amazing number of games that were decided in the final two minutes.

Double Miss
Raiders. Let’s just move on.

No, you’re right, we need to get into this and I need to take my lumps.

Trade requests? QB controversy? Don’t know who your starting running back is? Injuries? Head coach making headlines for his comments in the media and his time as a college coach? And most importantly, an offensive coordinator proving that the issues with his offense in Chicago have followed him and weren’t about a limited Justin Fields. This is the kind of dysfunction that Pierce and Telesco were supposed to get rid of, not amplify. This is a team with potential, but no real direction to greatness.

Ok, let’s hope for a better record on week six!