Week 5 was a disaster for the NFC East. The division failed to notch a single win -- a watermark of failure made even more indelible by the fact two of those teams, the New York Giants and Washington Commanders, played each other.
The Dallas Cowboys started the week with a primetime loss as a 9.5-point home favorite against an undrafted rookie quarterback. The Philadelphia Eagles went to London, took the lead with eight seconds to play after a thrilling rally, then lost anyway. The Giants and Commanders played a game that could only be replicated by two eight-year-olds playing Madden for the first time.
It was the kind of week that highlights the hope in failure, so long as it's shared failure. Everyone in the NFC East has a fatal flaw. The two
weakest teams, Washington and New York, managed to pick up a half-game each in the divisional race. The Eagles led one of the AFC's hottest teams the bulk of the day in the United Kingdom. Dallas jolted George Pickens back to life in the absence of an injured CeeDee Lamb.
But, in a much more meaningful way, it was terrible football. Which non-win was the worst? Let's talk about it.
3. Philadelphia Eagles 17, Jacksonville Jaguars 19
The defense held up. The offense remained staler than week-old bread. This is the duality of the Philadelphia Eagles.
There were silver linings poking through the grey cloud that is Nick Sirianni's offense. Jalen Carter was a kaiju let loose upon a small unsuspecting town known as the Jaguars' offensive line, notching two sacks, two forced fumbles and three tackles for loss... in the first half alone. Jacksonville had first-and-goal from the Philadelphia one-yard line on two different drives that ended in zero points. These are all good things, even if Liam Coen's game plan was equal parts ineffective and inexplicable.
Then there's the offense. There are caveats. Saquon Barkley and DeVonta Smith both missed Week 5 due to injury. Tank Bigsby's trip to injured reserve left Will Shipley as the team's top running back, and then *he* got hurt (albeit after six rushing yards on five carries). But we've seen Philadelphia and first year offensive coordinator Sean Mannion ignore a hot Barkley before, not even giving him the duties of a decoy in an offense that willfully eschewed play-action snaps before being forced to when no one could run the ball.
An offensive line without Landon Dickerson (injury) or Lane Johnson (retirement) continued to struggle. Shipley and Dameon Pierce combined for 20 rushing yards on 14 carries. 28 percent of the team's total passing offense and seven of its 17 points stemmed from a single completion (to Darius Cooper, who is a gem lurking at the bottom of this landfill).
DARIUS COOPER 62 YARDS!!! pic.twitter.com/TTJayV78mF
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 11, 2026
Jalen Hurts was restricted to a quick-hit passing attack and completed only four passes over the middle, only half of which traveled more than six yards downfield. Makai Lemon, who was supposed to unclog the offense with his run-after-catch skills and replace some of the yardage A.J. Brown left behind (but not his role; they play very different games), had five catches for only 43 yards (both are, unfortunately, career highs). Hurts was pressured on nearly 55 percent of his dropbacks, but was still in position to win after leading a 32-yard field goal drive to take a 17-16 lead with eight seconds to play.
And then...
oh my god... they're gonna have a shot
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) 2026-10-11T17:13:58.748Z
One 57-yard field goal later, the Eagles lost to a team so invested in shooting itself in the foot it'll have to buy smaller shoes before returning home.
2. Dallas Cowboys 16, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24
Joey Porter Jr.'s arrival in the starting lineup can't come soon enough. The rising young cornerback didn't play in Week 4 after being dealt from the Pittsburgh Steelers. He missed his intended Week 5 debut due to illness. But he may not have been the difference between winning and losing on a day the Cowboys' offense got dinked-and-dunked to death.Dallas gave up 189 yards to a passing offense whose average throw only traveled 4.1 yards downfield across 25 attempts.
That makes it a little bit easier to understand how they completely and utterly forgot Tez Johnson was on the field for the easiest 64 yards of his career.
🚨 TEZMANIA IN PRIMETIME 🚨
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) October 9, 2026
📺: #TBvsDAL on Prime Video pic.twitter.com/Ipwiqa8L73
This was not the only time the Cowboys failed to get close to a Tampa wide receiver on a big gain.
Emeka Egbuka with the jet sweep TD 🙌
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) October 9, 2026
📺: #TBvsDAL on Prime Video pic.twitter.com/jHmcgYt3DM
On a day where Dallas knew Tampa Bay would have to lean on its rushing offense to create space for a low-risk passing game, Christian Parker's unit seemed entirely baffled. The tackling was a disaster class. Linemen and linebackers alike were left flailing, particularly whenever Bucky Irving had the ball.
This play looks great from every angle 🔥
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) October 11, 2026
🔜#PITvsTB Oct. 18 @ 1 p.m. ET on CBS pic.twitter.com/CLBMsYPrKl
Normally, Dak Prescott could paper over this with his offense. But while Pickens had a huge day (nine catches, 130 yards), he and Ryan Flournoy provided about 70 percent of the team's passing offense after CeeDee Lamb left the game due to injury after five ineffective targets. When Dallas turned to tight end Jake Ferguson with the game on the line, well...
ALEX ANZALONE PICKS IT OFF!@TBvsDAL on Prime Video
— NFL (@NFL) October 9, 2026
Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/DDN666VaJz
Even worse, the Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears to improve to 3-2 and push their first round pick -- the last piece of the Micah Parsons trade -- a bit further from the top of the 2027 NFL Draft. The best thing you can say about the Cowboys' Week 5 is that Pickens looked good. The second-best? That the NFC East remains a mess. In large part because...
1. New York Giants 27, Washington Commanders 27
If you air a replay of this game too close to a bird's nest, the mother will instinctually abandon the eggs. The Commanders rushed Jayden Daniels back into the lineup after a dislocated elbow just so he could prove he had no idea what to do with time running down late in overtime. But we'll get to that.
First we got Jameis Winston needing 54 passes to throw for 326 yards, roughly two-thirds of which came as result of a bad Washington defense's inability to stop either Malik Nabers or Isaiah Likely. Winston played a solid game, peppering the short and intermediate range, taking entirely too many deep shots on a rainy afternoon (and missing almost all of them). Daniels was similarly efficient in fewer reps but also harangued by the Giants' pass rush, who got to him five times, including twice on third down.
This would have all led to an acceptable, if broadly uninteresting game if not for overtime. Rookie kicker Dominic Zvada powered through the worst day of his budding career. His miss from 46 yards capped off the first drive of the extra frame, giving him three on the afternoon (from 50 and 57 yards, so it's at least reasonable). New York set him up for redemption with a 67-yard drive minutes later only for Cam Skattebo, whose only objective was to protect the ball, to fumble away a game-winning possession.
Cam Skattebo fumbles as the Giants were going in to win the game pic.twitter.com/LCBh3GoM59
— Talkin’ Giants (@TalkinGiants) October 11, 2026
Jayden Daniels refused to be outdone. He drove 51 yards in four plays after getting the ball back without a timeout. A first down run for Rachaad White seemed to lay Washington's plans bare. The Commanders would either spike the ball or run a quick play to center a game-winning 42-yard field goal before spiking the ball as the clock wound down. Instead, Dan Quinn's team ran a full-on play, Daniels got swallowed up before he could throw a clock-stopping incompletion and we were treated to the dumbest finish of 2026 to date.
dumbest football team in the league
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) 2026-10-11T20:47:23.148Z
...
Thus, on a day where neither the Giants nor the Commanders lost, they teamed up for the grossest defeat in the NFC East. Suddenly, the South no longer looks like the NFC's goth stepchild. The Giants, Eagles, Commanders and Cowboys are all capable of truly stupid football. We were blessed enough to see it all in a four-day span in Week 5.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Ranking the NFC East's saddest losses (well, non-wins) of Week 5
