Every week dozens of players stand out and perform exemplary. Today I am going to be highlighting the top 5 players or units that stood out.
Honorable mention: Justin Fields
Justin Fields ran for 5 first downs on 3rd down, continually punishing the Patriots for not keeping him contained and bailing out the Bears when the plays kept breaking down. He led the Bears in rushing with 14 carriers for 82 yards and a touchdown, as well as throwing for 179 yards and another touchdown. In his best game of the year, he led the Bears to a blowout win over the Patriots 33-14.
Honorable mention: Jamar Chase/ Tyler Boyd
Jamar Chase and Tyler Boyd were both incredible in the Bengals’ 35-17 blowout over the Falcons, with each of them getting chunk plays, Chase had 41 and 32 yard receptions finishing with 8 catches, 130 yards and 2 touchdowns. Boyd had receptions of 20, 24, and 60 yards finishing with 8 catches, 155 yards and 1 touchdown. Either of them have an argument to be on the list, but spoiler alert, their quarterback is on the list and considering neither far outplayed the other one, they both land on honorable mentions.
#5 Kenneth Walker
The rookie running back Kenneth Walker is quickly becoming a bigger and bigger name. A few more weeks like last week and he’ll be considered with some best RBs in the game. Walker helped engineer a 37-23 drubbing of the Los Angeles Chargers, in large part due to his 23 carries for 167 yards and 2 touchdown performance. The Seahawks had a run focused approach against the Chargers, throwing it only 27 times and running it 34 times, often leaning on Walker to move the offense. Walker also had an explosive 74 yard run to seal the game for the Seahawks, going up 37-16 with 7 minutes left.
#4 Josh Jacobs
The Raiders and the Texans were in a close, back and forth battle, before Josh Jacobs decided to show up. At halftime, the score was 10-10 but in the second half the Raiders leaned on Jacobs. He ran for 98 of his 143 yards and scored all 3 touchdowns in the second half. His 15 yard touchdown run with 7 minutes left opened up a commanding lead with the Raiders going up 31-20. With the Texan’s needing to pass after that, the Raiders took advantage with a pick six to seal the game.
#3 Chiefs offense
Okay so I am cheating a little here by just including their entire offense, but they were so dominant that I am doing it anyway. After an interception on the third play on offense by Mahomes you wouldn’t expect it to be a dominant offensive day for the Chiefs. But then the Chiefs got hot and stayed hot for the rest of the game, blowing out the 49ers 44-23. Of the 7 more series Mahomes would play, the Chiefs got touchdowns on 6 of them. The one series the Chiefs didn’t score, they got a missed field goal on third down because they ran out of time before the half. Overall, Patrick Mahomes threw for 423 yards and the Chiefs offense racked up 529 yards. This performance is made even more impressive considering the 49ers had one of the best defenses heading into the weekend, letting up only 13.3 points per game.
#2 Cowboys Defense
The Cowboys and Lions were having a low scoring close game, when in the fourth quarter the Lions had the ball, first and goal on the one yard line, down 10-6. The next play, the Cowboys forced Jamal Williams to fumble on a run up the middle and recovered, to kill the 79 yard drive the Lions were on. After that crushing fumble, the Cowboys defense turned up the heat, forcing an interception and two more fumbles on the next 3 drives. Overall the Cowboys defense had 2 interceptions, 5 sacks, 5 forced fumbles, and 3 fumble recoveries for a dominant 24-6 win. In a game where the Cowboy’s offense couldn’t get much going, the defense came to play.
#1 Joe Borrow
Joe Borrow had himself a game. Right out of the gate he connected with Tyler Boyd for a 60 yard touchdown, and he didn’t slow down after that. The Bengals scored touchdowns on their first 4 drives and blew out the Falcons 35-17. Borrow himself had an insane 345 yards at halftime and in the game, he finished with 501 total yards and 4 total touchdowns. His 345 yards were the 3rd most in a first half since play-by-play data has been tracked in 1991. Only Patrick Mahomes in week 12, 2020 (359 yards) and ironically, Josh Allen in week 5, 2022 (348 yards) two weeks earlier, have more. Borrow finished the game with 481 passing yards and 20 rushing yards, becoming the first quarterback to have 500 total yards this season. For his career, he became the first quarterback to ever have 5 games of 400 or more yards in his first 3 seasons.