A potential Super Bowl preview, a big NFC West showdown and hello to the byes: 5 things to know about NFL Week 5

By Andy Scholes, CNN

(CNN) — We’ve got five winless teams, Mr. Irrelevant as the MVP, a Detroit Lions defense putting up historically bad numbers and a potential Super Bowl preview on Monday night. Oh, and fantasy managers, enjoy your full rosters while you can – bye weeks have officially arrived.

Here are five things to know heading into Week 5.

Super Bowl preview?

A popular Super Bowl pick for Valentine’s Day at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, is the Buffalo Bills vs. the hometown Los Angeles Rams. On Monday night, we get a preview of exactly what that matchup could look like.

The two teams arrive riding very different emotions.

The Rams were down 20-10 in Philadelphia with 7:32 remaining in the fourth quarter, and the Eagles had the ball at the 2-yard line. Next Gen Stats had the Rams’ win probability at roughly 3%.

Not only did the Eagles fail to score, Matthew Stafford then engineered two touchdown drives to stun Philly, 24-20.

It was Stafford’s 40th fourth-quarter comeback, joining Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger as the only quarterbacks to reach that number.

The turnaround was stunning. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts had been 41-0 when leading by 10 points in the final five minutes of a game. That’s the kind of lead you’re simply not supposed to lose.

But it also showed the veteran presence and calm this Rams team possesses. Instead of heading home with a shocking 1-3 record, Los Angeles is 2-2 and suddenly feeling pretty good about itself.

The Bills are coming off the opposite experience.

Their streak of 22 straight wins when leading at halftime came to an end against the New England Patriots. Drake Maye finally looked like the quarterback who finished runner-up to Stafford for MVP last season, throwing three touchdown passes, including the game-winner with less than two minutes remaining.

Josh Allen, meanwhile, had his worst game of the season. Now, he faces a Rams defense that just held the Eagles to 93 passing yards – Philadelphia’s lowest total in 23 years.

Oddsmakers apparently aren’t expecting another defensive struggle. The over/under for Monday night is 54.5, the highest total of the weekend.

49ers-Seahawks: NFC West showdown

Nobody has gotten off to a better start this season than the San Francisco 49ers.

Despite once again dealing with a mountain of injuries, Kyle Shanahan keeps finding ways to win. And if the MVP trophy were handed out after four weeks, Brock Purdy would have a pretty good case to take it home.

The former Mr. Irrelevant leads the NFL with 11 touchdown passes and has thrown just one interception.

Maybe even more impressive: Purdy has received elite protection. He hasn’t been sacked once through four games. The 49ers are the first team in 20 years to make it through the first month of a season without allowing a sack.

That streak will be tested this weekend.

San Francisco heads to Seattle to face the defending-champion Seahawks, who bounced back from a bad loss to the Washington Commanders with a win over the Chargers.

Whenever the Seahawks, 49ers and Rams play one another, the stakes feel enormous. This season, that’s especially true. Every one of these NFC West matchups could go a long way toward deciding not only who wins the division, but who ultimately earns that coveted No. 1 seed in the NFC.

How bad is this Lions defense?

Lions fans have seen some really bad defenses over the years.

This year’s version is making a run at the title of worst of the bunch.

At this point, whenever Detroit is playing, just expect a shootout. The Lions are allowing 31.8 points per game. Only two teams in the last 40 years have allowed more than 32 points per game over an entire season.

Those teams?

The 2020 Lions and the 2008 Lions.

So, yeah, Detroit has some history here.

The frustrating part is that the offense has been really good. The Lions rank fourth in the NFL in points per game, and Jared Goff has thrown nine touchdown passes without an interception.

Goff is the first quarterback to throw for at least 1,200 yards with zero turnovers through four games and somehow not have a winning record.

The Lions visit the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, and Dan Campbell made his expectations pretty clear: “We won’t accept mediocrity on either side of the ball.”

Based on what we’ve seen from this defense through four weeks, that might be easier said than done.

The 0-4 Club

We have FIVE 0-4 teams this season.

For Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans fans, maybe that isn’t the biggest surprise in the world. But the 0-4 starts have rocked the worlds of Houston Texans, Los Angeles Chargers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans.

And history says they should all be very worried.

An 0-4 start is basically a death sentence for a team’s playoff hopes. Only one team has ever rallied from an 0-4 start to make the playoffs: the 1992 then-named San Diego Chargers, who won 11 of their final 12 games.

The Texans’ start might be the most shocking of them all.

Houston entered the season as a trendy Super Bowl pick. The big question was whether CJ Stroud could play well enough to support what was expected to be one of the NFL’s best defenses.

Instead, the opposite has happened.

Stroud has actually played pretty well. It’s the defense that keeps letting Houston down. For the third time in four games, the Texans’ defense needed just one stop to win the game – and couldn’t get it.

Here’s the stat that really sums up how bizarre their start has been: The Texans are the first team in NFL history to start 0-4 without throwing a single interception over the first four weeks.

The good news? We can’t have five 0-5 teams: Houston visits Tennessee on Sunday, so somebody has to win.

Unless they tie, which, considering how these seasons are going, would easily be the funniest possible outcome.

The bye weeks are here

Bye weeks have officially arrived. Boooooooooooooooo.

Fortunately, Week 5 is one of the “baby-bye” weeks, with only the Kansas City Chiefs and Carolina Panthers off.

There are three baby-bye weeks this season: Weeks 5, 9 and 14.

But enjoy those while you can, fantasy managers. The Bye-pocalypse is coming with six teams being off in Week 11. Consider yourself warned.

Full Week 5 schedule

Thursday

Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Dallas Cowboys, 8:15 p.m. ET

Sunday

Philadelphia Eagles @ Jacksonville Jaguars (in London, UK), 9:30 a.m. ET

New York Giants @ Washington Commanders, 1 p.m. ET

Cleveland Browns @ New York Jets, 1 p.m. ET

Indianapolis Colts @ Pittsburgh Steelers, 1 p.m. ET

Houston Texans @ Tennessee Titans, 1 p.m. ET

Minnesota Vikings @ New Orleans Saints, 1 p.m. ET

Las Vegas Raiders @ New England Patriots, 1 p.m. ET

Cincinnati Bengals @ Miami Dolphins, 1 p.m. ET

Chicago Bears @ Green Bay Packers, 1 p.m. ET

Denver Broncos @ Los Angeles Chargers, 4:05 p.m. ET

Detroit Lions @ Arizona Cardinals, 4:25 p.m. ET

San Francisco 49ers @ Seattle Seahawks, 4:25 p.m. ET

Baltimore Ravens @ Atlanta Falcons, 8:20 p.m. ET

Monday

Buffalo Bills @ Los Angeles Rams, 8:15 p.m. ET

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