NFL Tales of the Week – 2022 NFL season Week 5 Edition 

By: Tyrone Montgomery Jr

The NFC East

Have you ever seen a child depicted in a movie getting bullied? Everyone they encounter picks on them and causes the child stress and worries in their youth. Years go by, and the child finally grows up and matures. Now, at that moment, they seek a bit of revenge and decide they want to do the bullying. Last season, the NFC East was labeled as the worst division in football. Many people considered it to be historically bad. Things have changed for the best for this division, even the Washington Commanders. The NFC East leads all divisions with a combined 14 total wins throughout week 5. What’s worth noting is the Eagles remain the only unbeaten team in the entire league. The Dallas Cowboys have won all of their games with a backup QB. The Giants have had maybe the most injuries in the entire league already. And the Washington Commanders who have a new talented QB trying to learn the system still paired with the worst offensive line in the league. How did this division become so good overnight? Let’s start at the bottom with the Commanders. Washington had had a shuffle of QBs over the years. Carson Wentz is now under center and quite frankly, he is the best one of them all. He has experience along with talent. He is a QB who played well with the Colts last season. His TD-INT ratio was exceptional there. And he has a super bowl ring. He actually should have won MVP that season too. The Giants are also playing well. They are feeding Saquan Barkley well this year now that he is healthy. He looks healthy too. Not only is he running the ball well, but he is catching out of the backfield too. He leads the entire league in all scrimmage yards right now. The Dallas Cowboys are second in this division. What’s crazy is they could have given up mentally once Dak went down. Maybe Mike McCarthy is the right man for this job. What’s interesting is this team has been banged up as well and yet, they’re just one game out of first place in this division. They’re getting healthy at the right time for a showdown against the Eagles. And now we are here with them. We all doubted Jalen Hurts. Some people thought it was the wrong decision to move forward with him from Carson Wentz. Now, Jalen Hurts is in the Top 5 in the MVP discussion. This division is scary for the league and all of these teams are blossoming. Could a team in the NFC East possibly represent the NFC in the Super Bowl?

The Vikings: Contenders or Pretenders?

We as a society, live in a very competitive world. This is all across the country. The entire world we live in from The United States to France, Mexico, and even China are great examples of competitiveness. Companies like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, and Sony make millions of dollars each day. The competition is fully enforced. Yet, once one of them makes a discount on a particular product, the other one does as well. Sometimes, when a store closes due to a holiday, there’s always a store that remains open. You can take Walmart for example. Over the years, they would NEVER close. Even on holidays, they remained open. Other grocery stores may have decided to close. However, Walmart stayed open. They took advantage of their circumstances. One team in the NFL that is taking full advantage of its circumstances is the Minnesota Vikings. Green Bay is normally the team that controlled the NFC North. Aaron Rodgers didn’t win MVP the last 2 years for no reason. DeVante Adams was a huge reason behind that. Now that he’s gone, the Packers look mediocre at best. Chicago still can’t figure the thing out. Justin Fields has shown some talent, but he’s only as good as the team around him. The team around him isn’t good at all. The Detroit Lions almost pulled off a major upset in Week 1 vs. the Eagles. Scoring is no problem in Detroit. The problem is their defense. While the Lions have put together quite a bit of talent, they still have some growing pains to get through. That leaves us with the Minnesota Vikings who are 4-1. While they are just a game above the Packers, this feels like their division to win. Kirk Cousins has always been the type of QB who quietly wins football games. Justin Jefferson has shown he is a top 5 WR in the league and soon may become the best WR if he isn’t already. The running game has always been spectacular with Dalvin Cook leading the way. The offense is no problem for this team either. If this team can commit to the defensive side of the football, the Vikings could be very fortunate and find themselves with a 1st Round Bye Week in the playoffs and find themselves in the Super Bowl. It is all about opportunities and taking advantage of them. This is their year to do so. Watch out for the Vikings as they are true contenders.