Week Five of the 2011 NFL season saw the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions retain their 100% starts, both recording sit up and take notice wins in impressive style.
Reigning Superbowl champions Green Bay had one of the results of the weekend with thir big 25-14 win away at the Falcons, who are (were?) genuine Superbowl contenders according to the pre season pundits. Having fell 14-0 behind early, Green Bay suddenly woke up and racked up 25 unanswered points while holding Atlanta’ high octane offense to only 156 yards passing. Rodgers on the other hand racked up another 396 yards to add to his tally which stands at 1721 already despite playing some tough defenses in the Saints and Bears. He looks well on course for a 5000 yard plus season.
Divisional rival Detroit continued to impress with a big win against the Bears to move to 5-0 for the first time since 1956. This was a hard fought NFC North encounter and the Lions have shown they are for real with this win and Calvin Johnson now leads the league with nine receiving touchdowns in their opening 5 games – the best post war record. They have 2 more tough home games against the 49ers and Falcons and a trip to Denver before the bye week and it would not be a big surprise to see them at 8-0.
Other big results included San Fransisco’s demolition of Tampa and good wins for Buffalo and Seattle, as the season continues to throw up surprises.
In the AFC The Colts will probably acknowledge that their playoff streak is now over as they fell to 0-5 while New England continue to quietly get the job done – this time beating divisional rivals the Jets. Their defense showed a lot of improvement in this one only giving up 255 yards which is ominous for the rest of the AFC. The Patriots were our pre season AFC Champions tip and after watching them in this one we are becoming increasingly confident.
The Results in Full
SUNDAY OCTOBER 9th
Pittsburgh 38, Tennessee 17
Seattle 36, NY Giants 25
Cincinnati 30, Jacksonville 20
New Orleans 30, Carolina 27
Oakland 25, Houston 20
Buffalo 31, Philadelphia 24
Kansas City 28, Indianapolis 24
Minnesota 34, Arizona 10
San Francisco 48, Tampa Bay 3
New England 30, NY Jets 21
San Diego 29, Denver 24
Green Bay 25, Atlanta 14
MONDAY OCTOBER 10th
Detroit 24, Chicago 13
Our predictions ended up at 7-6 leaving us at 47-30 on the season.