Seahawks' terrible Week 5 defense allows Baker Mayfield to have an NFL first
Many NFL fans will wake up this morning and look at what Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense did to the Seattle Seahawks defense in Week 5 and lose respect for Seattle. The story is quite different.
And that is not meant in any way to take away from what Mayfield accomplished at Lumen Field. He was terrific, just as he has been mostly good since he joined the Bucs in 2023. But he also did something no quarterback in NFL history had done in Week 5.
The quarterback completed 29 of his 33 passes for 379 yards and two touchdowns. He was the first QB to ever throw for 375-plus yards and have fewer than five incompletions. While Seattle's defense should be embarrassed by that fact, Mayfield was great nonetheless.
Baker Mayfield was magnificent against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 5
Still, the hope is that the Seahawks defense will revert to its high-quality performances beginning as soon as Week 6. The players Mayfield was facing in Week 5 were a ghost of what Seattle's defense actually looks like.
Safety Julian Love missed the game with a hamstring injury, and so did cornerback Devon Witherspoon with a knee injury. Those two absences alone would have affected what Seattle can do. But during the game, things got much worse. Veteran edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence was also out.
Edge rusher Derick Hall, who is having a very good season, hurt an oblique muscle and had to be taken out of the game. The same happened to cornerback Riq Woolen, who suffered a concussion. While Woolen has been bad this year, he's still better than his replacement, Nehemiah Pritchett.
Baker Mayfield is the first QB ever to have 375+ Pass Yards and fewer than 5 incompletions in a regular season game pic.twitter.com/tLwhLuVJQz
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) October 5, 2025
In other words, by early in the second half, the Seattle Seahawks were missing three starters in their secondary and two of their top four edge rushers. Baker Mayfield took advantage of the opportunity presented to him, but he was far from facing Seattle's best.
The question in the next couple of games is how healthy Seattle will be. Woolen missing Week 6 might be a safe assumption, as concussions are no joke and players need time to recover. Love, Witherspoon, and Lawrence are not guaranteed to return. Neither is Hall.
The Seattle Seahawks have a bye week in Week 8, but the 3-2 next faces an improved Jacksonville Jaguars team and then a Houston Texans squad that appears to have found its footing after a rough start to the season. If key defensive players don't return soon, Seattle could find itself 3-4.
Packers Got Done Dirty by Refs in Week 5 Without Even Playing
The Green Bay Packers enjoyed their bye in Week 5 and that assumes they were in a place where the referees couldn’t hurt them. But even as they took in all of the action from home, they still found a way to stew over a case where they had been done wrong by the officials.
The play came during the Tennessee Titans’ matchup with the Arizona Cardinals as center Lloyd Cushenberry III lined up for a snap. Before the play, Cushenberry moved the ball slightly forward and tipped it at an angle so it would be easier to snap, allowing the play to go off without a hitch and everyone to move on with their afternoon.
But what appeared to be a simple play was a penalty during the Packers' Week 4 tie with the Dallas Cowboys and may raise even more questions when the Packers return to play on Sunday.
Packers Fans Have a Right to Be Frustrated After Elgton Jenkins False Start vs. Cowboys
The Packers' version of this play came as Green Bay was driving to the goal line in the third quarter of a Week 4 game against the Cowboys. Center Elgton Jenkins tipped the ball forward before the play but was called for a false start, backing the Packers up for a 1st-and-goal from the five-yard line.
The penalty didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things as Josh Jacobs scored on a one-yard touchdown run three plays later. But the biggest thing is consistency, as Cushenberry did the exact same thing Jenkins did without drawing a flag. Going up against “America’s Team” certainly didn’t do anything to quiet the conspiracy theory, and complaining about calls is as much of a tradition as Miller Lite at a Lambeau Field tailgate.
Then again, the Packers haven’t done themselves any favors in the penalty department. Entering the final game of the Week 5 slate on Monday night, the Packers are tied for the second-most penalties per game (8.8) this season, trailing only the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have averaged 9.5 flags per game. Penalties were also an issue in the Week 3 loss to the Cleveland Browns, where the Packers were flagged a whopping 14 times for 75 yards.
With Green Bay having its own issues, it would be nice if the officials cleaned up their game as well. But instances like Sunday will continue to draw the attention of Packers fans until it’s ironed out.
