It’s already week 3. The season is already flying by. Is this the week someone finally beats the Eagles? Is this the week the Chiefs finally win a game? Which fan base has more fans at the Broncos @ Chargers game? How bad is Carson Wentz? Find out all that and more in this week’s Five for Friday!

Battle of the back up Quarterbacks: Bengals @ Vikings

Shockingly to no one, Joe Burrow is hurt…again. The offensive line is not good. So in steps Jake Browning. It’s not his first rodeo as he went 4-3 as a starter back in 2023. Of course the defense was a little more competitive back then and surely the offensive line wasn’t worse. But despite throwing 3 interceptions last week, he still led a comeback victory. The Bengals are 2-0 but it’s been a very shaky 2-0. Meanwhile the Vikings have a great team with a great coach. But they have a glaring issue at the Quarterback position. JJ McCarthy has played one really good quarter and 7 terrible quarters in 2 games. Now he is hurt I guess. But it is hard to think that a back up quarterback will be a step down. Enter Carson Wentz to prove me wrong. Wentz hasn’t been great since like 2018. He hasn’t been good since 2020 and he hasn’t started a meaningful game since 2021. But here he is. Playing for a great team and a great coach. I trust Jake Browning more than I trust Wentz. But I trust the rest of the Vikings way more than I do the rest of the Bengals. Plus the Vikings are at home.

Vikings 24 Bengals 20

Rematch of the last hard game the Eagles played: Rams @ Eagles

The Eagles squeaked by the Chiefs last week so we could call that a hard game, I guess. But they were in control most of the game thanks to a Travis Kelce drop. The Eagles sailed through the playoffs last year except for the game against the Rams. The Rams were able to match their physicality and are able to grind out games themselves. Matt Stafford is an experienced quarterback who can read defenses and make smart decisions. The Rams are a couple of bad plays from making the NFC championship. The Eagles on the other hand haven’t looked great through 2 weeks but have found ways to win and certainly have the talent to go 3-0. The other story here is the tush push that fell under heavy scrutiny when Tom Brady pointed out multiple false starts and illegal alignments on the play. If the GOAT says it, people listen. I think they will get a couple of penalties on that play this week. Both these teams are going to be in the hunt in the end but give me the Rams in an upset on the road.

Rams 27 Eagles 24

Battle of the preseason AFC West Champs: Broncos @ Chargers

All the talking heads were picking one of these two teams to win the AFC West. Right now they are all gloating saying the Chiefs are done. While I am not so sure about that, their bad start has certainly made things more interesting. The Chargers beat the Chiefs and then dominated a bad Raiders team. The Broncos beat a bad Titans team with a rookie quarterback starting for the first time and then lost to a Colts team no one saw coming because of an odd and silly penalty on a 60 yard field goal. While we can debate whether it should have been called or not, we should also be asking why the heck you are using the center for leverage on a 60 yard field goal to begin with. The great news for the Broncos is that this will basically be a home game for them. The Chargers may be good but they still don’t have any fans and Broncos fans tend to travel well. Bo Nix played better last week but still made a few crucial errors. Meanwhile Justin Herbert has been playing at an MVP level. I’m sure he will choke when it matters but week 3 isn’t that time. Give me the Chargers to pull off the sweep of AFC West opponents to start the season. Also, who made this schedule? I’ve never seen one team play all of their divisional opponents in a row to start a season.

Chargers 20 Broncos 12

Curtain Closing On Broadway?: Chiefs @ Giants

The Chiefs are 0-2 and have lost 3 in a row dating back to the Super Bowl. They haven’t looked especially great on either side of the ball. The Suspension to Rice and injury to Worthy have not helped things. But regardless, we cannot run the ball at all, Kelce keeps dropping touchdowns and Pat can’t hit wide open guys running deep. The defense performed better last week but that may have had more to do with the Eagles refusal to throw the ball down the field. We will find out if we fixed the secondary this week because we know Russ will chuck it down there. It would also be nice if the Chiefs could get pressure without blitzing everyone and if our quarterback wasn’t our leading rusher. There are lots of people that are calling it the end of the dynasty and that the Chiefs are done. Losing to the Giants would sure make that seem true. The Giants will be ready and excited to play at home for the first time hoping to throw the knock out punch. I started to even doubt myself. I thought maybe this is the curtain call on my beloved Chiefs. But then I thought of something last night, and I fell fast asleep. And that thought was this. The Giants suck. They didn’t score a td against the Commanders and lost to the Cowboys who aren’t good either. Also, Broadway is in New York and the Giants are in New Jersey.

Chiefs 31 Giants 17

Dirty D vs Bloody B: Lions @ Ravens

These are two pretty terrible towns. I mean there are some nice areas around both places and the stadium isn’t actually in Baltimore but these are some dangerous cities. They are also some dangerous offenses as both of these teams can put up some points. This one will be outside where Jared Goff is historically not as good. It’s hard to get a read on the Lions in general as they blew out the Bears who are terrible but couldn’t do anything against the Packers who are good. The Ravens beat themselves against the Bills and then took care of the Browns at home. If the Lions can keep it close, I like their chances because the Ravens can find a way to lose. But that pesky Lamar Jackson is hard to stop. This should be a fun, back and forth shoot out. I think the Lions are good but not great so give me the Ravens by a td.

Ravens 38 Lions 31