SVP’s One Big Thing: Eagles, Lions make Week 5’s “very good” list

Scott Van Pelt, Host, SportsCenter with SVPOct 9, 2023, 09:50 AM ET
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I want to begin with the Pittsburgh Steelers. At no point in their game with the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday did I think they were going to win. Until the point in the fourth quarter when it appeared possible that they could win the game. At which point I was convinced that somehow, they would. Which they did.

Baltimore now has a couple losses in games it had no business losing. Games are too difficult to win in this league to let them slip.

A week after blowing out the Miami Dolphins, the Buffalo Bills lost more than a game to the Jacksonville Jaguars — injuries on the defensive side are piling up in a costly way.

The ol’ blueprint question came up when Buffalo slowed Miami: Did the Bills provide one? Either Miami’s answer was no, or the Giants just don’t have the people to execute it. I’ll go with the former. The amount of speed the Dolphins put on the field is outrageous.

Two more teams who were on our “very good” list a week ago, who remain there are Detroit and Philadelphia. The Eagles are a relentless meat grinder. They played keep-away from the Los Angeles Rams by going 13-of-18 on third down and moved to 5-0.

Are you prepared to live in a world where the Lions are good? Because they are. They have difference-makers on both sides of the ball, they were down a number of those players Sunday, and it mattered not. They did what good teams do when they play poor teams — leave no doubt and win easily. Three of their next four games are on the road, and the lone home game is “Monday Night Football” on Oct. 30. That should be an absolute scene. I’m counting on you Detroit. The road games with the Los Angeles Chargers and Baltimore Ravens will give us a bit more feedback on Dan Campbell’s team.

The Kansas City Chiefs‘ one loss was to the Lions. The Chiefs typically don’t lose the games they’re supposed to win. Looking way down the road, we get the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes — who has now beaten every team in the NFL with Sunday’s win over the Minnesota Vikings — going at it with the Dolphins and the Eagles.

So we get a couple good-on-good matchups there as we are starting to get some sense of the teams that are separating both at the top and at the bottom of the standings. There are some bad teams at the moment — I didn’t have the New York Giants and New England Patriots pegged to be there — but here we are.