NFL Week 5 Roundup

Week 5 ended up as a negative for Florida’s NFL teams. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the only team that didn’t lose, and that was because the team had a bye week.

In Miami, the Dolphins lost a heartbreaker to the Baltimore Ravens 26-23. On the Dolphins’ final drive, quarterback Ryan Tannehill tried to will his team to a comeback like he had against Indianapolis and Atlanta.

Miami had the ball late, deep in their own territory, down three and tried to mount a comeback.   Tannehill did complete a long pass but after a sack, the fifth sack allowed by Miami’s offensive line, and an incomplete pass on third down, rookie kicker and former Gator Caleb Sturgis was called on for a 57-yard field goal, one yard more than the longest kick he ever made at UF. The kick was wide left and it was his first miss of the season.  He did kick three other field goals in the game.

“We knew that they had a good pass rush,” Tannehill said about the Ravens. “Especially once we got behind 10, in the fourth quarter there we knew they were going to be teeing off and pinning their ears back and just coming for us.”

Tannehill finished 21-for-40 with one touchdown; his 307 yards were 12 short of tying his high for the season. The Dolphins have a bye next week before taking on AFC East opponent Buffalo in Week 7.

Jacksonville remained winless as the Jaguars fell to the St. Louis Rams 34-20. Jaguars quarterback Blaine Gabbert threw for 181 yards, a touchdown (his first of the season) and two interceptions before leaving the game in the third quarter. He would not return. Chad Henne threw for 89 yards and a touchdown while filling in for the rest of the game.

Jacksonville held an early lead in the first quarter. On the Jaguars’ seventh offensive play, Gabbert hooked up with wide receiver Justin Blackmon for a 67-yard touchdown. Blackmon was playing in his first game of the season after a four-game substance abuse policy suspension. The play was the Jaguars’ longest play of the season so far.

St. Louis would score a touchdown off an 82-yard interception return by Rams safety Matt Giordano with 3:08 left in the first quarter to tie the game, but Josh Scobee would kick a 48-yard field goal to put Jacksonville up 10-7. The quarter would be the only one that ended with the Jags in the lead.

The Rams would score 17 points in the second quarter, the third game in a row that the Jaguars allowed a team to do so.

“Things haven’t gone the way we wanted to the first couple weeks of the season,” Gabbert said. “It’s just something we’ve got to fight through.”

Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley said that the players need to improve on decision making, even the younger ones who might otherwise be slightly excused on a more successful team.

“It comes back to good decision making,” he said. “We’re what? Five games into it now? Some of those bad decisions have got to be taken out of our game.”

Maurice Jones-Drew topped 10,000 rushing and receiving yards for his career during the game, joining Gator alumnus Fred Taylor and Jimmy Smith as the only Jaguars to accomplish the feat.

The Jaguars will travel to Denver to take on Peyton Manning and the Broncos’ high-scoring offense next week. The Broncos scored 51 points in a close win against Dallas on Sunday– the same amount of points Jacksonville has scored all season.

Tampa made the news as Sunday’s games came to a close. Former Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman signed with the Minnesota Vikings, as reported by his agent Erik Burkhardt on Twitter at 11:31 p.m.

The signing is expected to help the Vikings as they sort out the issues regarding injured starting quarterback Christian Ponder.