Albert Breer of SI.com on the changes to the schedule:

And at this point, the schedule grid feels like a Jenga tower one pulled piece away from collapsing, particularly now that six teams are through their bye weeks, be they scheduled or forced by the virus. Here’s the fallout from Bills–Titans and Patriots–Broncos getting moved out of their scheduled slots.

• Bills at Titans is now on Tuesday (10/13).

• Broncos at Patriots was moved to Week 6 (10/18).

• Chiefs at Bills, previously slated for TNF, was moved to MNF (10/19).

• Jets at Dolphins was moved to Week 6 (10/18).

• Jets at Chargers was moved to Week 11 (11/22).

• Jags at Chargers was moved to Week 7 (10/25).

• Chargers at Broncos was moved to Week 8 (11/1).

• Chargers at Dolphins was moved to Week 10 (11/15).

• Dolphins at Broncos was moved to Week 11 (11/22).

No new positive tests – Tennessee and New England look good to play their postponed games.

There are still more days of testing to come, but as of Monday morning it appears that both teams are on track to play their next games.

The Week 5 game between the Patriots and Broncos, which had already been postponed due to last week’s positive tests, was (re-)rescheduled for Week 6. It will be played at 1 p.m. ET on Oct. 18. The testing in the next several days will be vital, because if more positive tests pop up on the Patriots, that game could be in jeopardy of being moved for the third time. However, with one day of negative tests under their belts, the Patriots are currently on track to play that game.

Despite the Titans reportedly receiving their 24th positive COVID-19 result on Sunday, they are also on track to play their next game. They’re scheduled to play the Bills at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Oct. 13, a game that had to be rescheduled due to the Titans’ initial outbreak. The Titans haven’t played since Sept. 27, but reportedly practiced on Sunday.

NFC NORTH

CHICAGO

A positive test on the Bears practice squad.  Hopefully, it is contained.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

The Bears held a lighter practice than initially planned on Monday because they are short on bodies.

Head coach Matt Nagy told reporters that the team told their practice squad players to remain at home rather than coming into the team’s facility. Practice squad offensive lineman Badara Traore was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list Saturday after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Nagy said the plan is for those players to be back in the building on Wednesday.

Traore is the first player the Bears have put on the list since the summer and there have been no other positive tests in the organization since Saturday.

Players are wearing electronic bracelets to monitor contacts with others in the facility, which likely helped the Bears figure out who was close to Traore. Those bracelets aren’t perfect and we saw the Saints retest several players who weren’t shown to be close to fullback Michael Burton after his false positive in Detroit in Week Four.

MINNESOTA

What a thorny decision for Coach Mike Zimmer.  Jeff Kerr of CBSSports.com:

The Minnesota Vikings decided to be aggressive in an attempt to upset the Seattle Seahawks Sunday night, but they may have been too belligerent at their own expense. Leading the Seattle Seahawks 26-21 and facing a fourth-and-1 at the Seattle 6-yard line with two minutes to play, head coach Mike Zimmer called an iso run play with Alexander Mattison — and he was stopped short of the first down. That gave Russell Wilson and the Seahawks 1:57 to score a touchdown to win the game, which Wilson did by orchestrating a 13 play, 94-yard drive to give the Seahawks a thrilling 27-26 victory over the Vikings. Minnesota decided to pass on the field goal and an 8-point lead with under two minutes left, a decision Zimmer does not regret.

“We didn’t come here for this. Let’s go win it,” Zimmer said on the decision to go for it on fourth down. “I was trying to win it. It was about a half yard. If we get it, we win the game.”

Zimmer’s aggressiveness ended up costing the Vikings, as a 24-yard field goal would have put Minnesota up 29-21 with about 90 seconds to play. Wilson and the Seahawks offense would have needed a touchdown and a two-point conversion just to force overtime. The Seahawks converted two fourth-down conversions just to extend the game, a fourth-and-10 pass to D.K. Metcalf for 39 yards and a fourth-and-goal pass to Metcalf that gave Seattle the win.

“He’s good,” Zimmer said. “He used his legs to get two fourth downs. He’s a good player.”

Minnesota finished with 449 yards (201 on the ground) but couldn’t get the yard it needed to seal the victory. A win would have put the Vikings at 2-3, but now the team stares down a 1-4 start — only finishing with a winning record once in the seven other times the team experienced such a start.

The Vikings’ playoff hopes are all but diminished, but Zimmer holds true to his aggression — especially since Mattison may have missed the open seam on the right side of the block C.J. Ham provided that would have given Minnesota an easy first down.

“We were just trying to win the game there,” Zimmer said. “(Alexander) is a good back. Good backs you don’t question too much. You just let them do what they do.

“We came here to win. We just didn’t get it done.”

The DB has almost always believed that if you need a yard to WIN THE GAME, it behooves you to get it boldly and smartly.

Here, Zimmer was basically factoring in a Wilson TD drive if he kicks the field goal (or gets stopped).  So the question is – do you have a better chance of getting the 4^th down conversion or do you have a better chance of stopping the 2-point conversion (but that is only a tie).

NFC EAST

DALLAS

Albert Breer of SI.com on the injury to QB DAK PRESCOTT:

There was nothing out of the ordinary about the situation or the play call—the Cowboys were driving, in first-and-10 at the Giants’ 27-yard line, and the call was a simple quarterback draw. Prescott took the shotgun snap, dropped three steps, paused, then tucked and ran through an opening up the middle of the defense.

In the open field, he shook defensive back Ryan Lewis, cutting inside, then out, and broke to his left towards the sideline. On his way there, veteran DB Logan Ryan grabbed him from the side and got a fistful of jersey to yank the quarterback to the ground. But as Ryan pulled him down, Prescott’s foot got stuck in the turf, his ankle bent back the wrong way and that was really that.

“I’ve seen Dak run that play 100 times,” Gallup said. “And he didn’t get back up on this one. I was the closest one to him. I didn’t want to see it. Didn’t want to think about it or anything like that. It’s tough to see the leader that he is go down like that. Just prayers and, you know, hope to God. That’s all I can say about that.”

There were lots of people out there who didn’t want to see an injury we’ll all likely see too much in the days to come. And the impact coming is obvious, both for now and for the future.

The present, to be sure, gets murkier for Dallas as a result. The Cowboys have never been more reliant on Prescott over his half-decade in town than they are now. The defense has been a mess. The offensive line’s been nicked up all year, and just got news that franchise cornerstone Tyron Smith isn’t coming back this year. The team’s constructed now to win with its receivers.

Bottom line: Prescott had to play well for Dallas to win and, for the most part, he had been. He and the offense faced double-digit deficits the last four weeks in a row, and fought their way back into all those games, winning two of them. The offense’s sudden explosiveness helped mitigated the defense’s growing pains, and the quarterback’s legs helped to cover up issues with protection resulting from the offensive line’s problems.

So that’s now. As for what’s ahead, the Cowboys can, and probably will, tag him again next year. Thing is, it’ll cost $37.69 million to do it, in a year in which the cap could fall all the way down to $175 million. And while that might be a nice way to hold his rights and see how his injury is coming along before waving in the Brink’s trunk, it’s important to remember that not doing a deal at that point will almost certainly mean unfettered free agency for Prescott in 2022. That’s because it’d cost the team $54.27 million to tag him at that point.

That means, come the spring, the Cowboys either have to pay Dak or hand him a ticket to free agency in 2022, and they’ll likely need to make that call before he’s ready to practice. Which makes it a thorny situation for everyone.

Peter King is among those saddened:

The leg is not meant to bend how Dak Prescott’s bent near the ankle in the second half of the Giants-Cowboys game. It was a Theismann-like bend and break, the kind that destroys limbs. It was such an emotional moment. So many players from both teams looking crushed. The former Cowboys coach, Jason Garrett, semi-hugging the current Cowboys coach, Mike McCarthy. One of the best quarterbacks in football would be in surgery within three hours of this moment, and would have questions haunting him about his return to football.

But the faces of the coaches and players on the field. Their concern, their emotion, mirrored what we saw Sunday night, when one of the tallest buildings in Dallas had the number “4” highlighted in the night in bright lights. Prescott was in a contentious contract dispute with the Cowboys, but he never allowed it to be bitter from his end, and it resulted in him turning down every offer and taking the franchise tag this year, $31 million. Huge money, of course. But not Mahomes or Prescott or Rodgers long-term money. And the sentiment everywhere Sunday night was how much people loved this fourth-round pick who rose to the occasion when Tony Romo got hurt and was lost a few months after Prescott was drafted. Pretty great, for the 135th pick in the draft in 2016. Afterward, the Giant who tackled Prescott—clean hit—when he got hurt, Logan Ryan, spoke for fans everywhere.

“I feel terrible,” Ryan said. “It was a routine football play . . . You’ve got a guy, and I am in a similar position, he is scratching and clawing at one year on his deal to try and get rewarded, try to do the right thing, try to show up to work, try to lead his team, try to get a lucrative contract. He had to come out and prove it this year, so for him to get this type of injury . . . That’s why I feel like Dak. I hope he gets $500 million when he comes back. He deserves it. He is a hell of a quarterback.”

Personal note: A couple of years ago, I was at Yankee Stadium. Prescott was in New York and, in a small group, he just sat and watched the game. I went by to say hello, and he told me to come over to sit with him. For an hour we talked about who knows what. But I remember that night, behind enemy lines in the land of the hated Giants, he signed everything. He posed with everyone. He was so happy to be there, in the big ballyard in the South Bronx. Just a guy realizing how lucky he was in life, having a great night. That’s why so many people like him. Just a guy who realizes how lucky he is. And they’ll be praying for his return to the game in 2021, whatever the contract and wherever he plays.

Charles Robinson of YahooSports.com:

That is the ray of light penetrating Sunday’s dark cloud for the Cowboys and their franchise quarterback. It’s something positive for a franchise that has lost an unquestionably important player and a player who has lost an unquestionably important season. Neither wanted to be in this situation, but 2020 has been cruel that way. This year has repeatedly taught us that resiliency is our greatest and most underrated natural resource.

Prescott has that trait as a person and a football player, and we’re about to find out that it’s just as important as arm strength, vision or longevity. If you don’t believe that, you missed the Washington Football Team’s Alex Smith taking his first regular-season snap since 2018 on Sunday. Smith defied so many who believed his career ended after one of the worst leg injuries in NFL history.

That Smith came back after years of physical therapy on the same day as Prescott’s grim injury reminds us of the cyclical and brutal nature of the sport. It also reminds us that while no football players are built to suffer injuries like theirs, some are definitely constructed to overcome them. And in the process, they become the rejuvenating end points of journeys that had bottomed into some very low moments.

Dak Prescott’s strength in face of tragedy

As one member of Prescott’s inner circle texted on Sunday night, his fractured ankle is “just part of the epic story.”

You might roll your eyes at that sentiment and think it’s another trite cliche about a football player. But if you’ve been around Prescott these past few years and saw the photo Tad posted of him smiling from his hospital bed, you know it’s attainable. Tad guaranteed that Dak would be back stronger than ever and promised to continue helping him fight.

It served as a reminder of the strength Prescott has shown us before in a litany of ways — as a son who lost his mother to cancer; as a sibling who lost his brother to suicide; as a community leader who found a voice off the field; and as a football player who spent the better part of the last decade fighting into a position many thought he could achieve.

This is part of what has made Prescott so special inside the Cowboys organization and the NFL at large. His personality and charisma have made him unquestionably likable among his teammates and other football peers. Fans respond to him. Coaches love him. Even other stars have gravitated toward him as he has climbed into the upper echelon of the league’s quarterbacks.

If there was any doubt, the wave of social media emotion pointed toward Prescott should have ended it. There was also the snapshot of the Cowboys’ ownership box, where team vice president Stephen Jones could be seen consoling his sister, Charlotte, while team owner Jerry Jones stood by with his arms crossed in likely disbelief.

Down on the field, former Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett made his way over from the opposing sideline and patted the back of his Dallas replacement, Mike McCarthy, as the two men looked on in grief. In the ensuing moments, a CBS television shot panned across stunned Dallas players who all congregated around Prescott when he was placed onto a cart and taken out of a season for the first time in his professional football career.

As the cart motored away, you could see Prescott crying before he raised a fist to the Dallas crowd — a scene that undoubtedly conjured a lump into the throat of many football fans. It was one of the unforgiving moments that tend to make even the nastiest of rival fans feel some pangs of sympathy, if only because they understand what it means when good teammates catch bad breaks.

Eventually, that cart snaked through the bowels of AT&T Stadium and Prescott was whisked away to the hospital. The game went on as NFL games always do, even in midst of the worst injuries. The Cowboys eventually won with backup Andy Dalton at the helm, delivering a bittersweet result and reminding everyone that this whole show now moves on.

Jerry Jones: ‘No doubt that he will return to the position of leadership’

As Jerry Jones put it in a late Sunday night statement, “I know this young man very well. I know the personal hardship and strife that he has faced, dealt with and overcome in his young life. And I know of no one who is more prepared, from the perspective of mental and emotional toughness and determination, than Dak Prescott to respond and recover from this challenge that has been put in front of him. He is an inspiration to everyone he touches. He has all of our love and support. And we have no doubt that he will return to the position of leadership and purpose that he brings to our team.”

Those were important words of support from Jones. Soon enough, questions will be raised about what happens now with Prescott, not just with his injury timeline, but also the contract negotiation that has tied his relationship to Dallas to a year-by-year franchise tag schedule.

This from Adam Schefter:

@AdamSchefter

Cowboys’ QB Dak Prescott is now out of surgery for a compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle, and the surgery that went “very well”, per a source. Cowboys Head Team Orthopedist Dan Cooper brought in noted foot and ankle doctor, Gene Curry, to do the repair tonight.

This from Jane Slater:

@SlaterNFL

“He’s good. Been in high spirits all night and morning. Minor setback for a major comeback,” per source close to Dak Prescott. Prescott has been told the recovery window is 4-6 months. Surgery was successful, heads home today

@SlaterNFL

Talking to players who have spoken with Dak Prescott one had this to say “bummed, but he knows he will come back stronger … knows this is a good time for him to get everything within himself sorted and cleaned up.. time to heal himself.  Physically, mentally and spiritually”

John Machota:

@jonmachota

Tony Romo on CBS broadcast: “(Dak Prescott’s) a great kid. I know a lot of people love him in the organization. I’ve been around him. He’s a great leader for that team. He’s one of the good ones in the league…Our hearts and prayers are with you buddy.”

John Breech of CBSSports.com says that we have proof that the smart guys think QB DAK PRESCOTT is worth 6 points over ANDY DALTON:

For the first time since their regular season finale in 2015, the Dallas Cowboys will be going into a game without Dak Prescott as their starting quarterback. The Cowboys lost Prescott for the season on Sunday after he suffered a right ankle compound fracture during the team’s 37-34 win over the Giants.

With Prescott out, oddsmakers have responded by making a major change to the point spread in the Cowboys’ Week 6 game against the Cardinals. In the early odds for Week 6, the Cowboys opened as a three-point home underdog to the Cards. In the look-ahead line that was released last week before Prescott was injured, the Cowboys were a three-point favorite, which tells you all you need to know about how oddsmakers feel about his loss. As soon as Prescott went down, the point spread made a six-point swing toward Arizona.

We usually don’t relay threats of violence, but this from Paige Spiranac:

@PaigeSpiranac

I swear if Skip Bayless says anything about Dak crying I’ll punch him

WASHINGTON

Peter King defends Ron Rivera for benching his struggling Black QB from the attacks of the cancel mob:

I think I’m not a fan of the pigpile on Washington coach Ron Rivera for starting Kyle Allen on Sunday against the Rams and moving Dwayne Haskins to number three on the QB depth chart. With Washington a half-game out of first place after four weeks in a horrid division, life changed with this team, and the quarterback plan changed. No longer was this year as much about the development of Haskins as it was about winning games. With an advantageous stretch of six games—Rams on their third East Coast trip in four weeks, at the Giants, Dallas at home, Giants at home, at Detroit, Cincinnati at home—Rivera and his team had to be thinking, “Why not us? Why can’t we win this craptastic division?” Allen’s upside is not as high as Haskins’, but he’s a guy who played in this offense all last season in Carolina, and Rivera and offensive coordinator Scott Turner know Allen knows it better than Haskins. Rivera is right to do what gives the team the best chance to win now. It’s likely Haskins will get more chances later this season, but that can’t be the big concern right now.

NFC SOUTH

ATLANTA

Albert Breer of SI.com on the fall of the Falcons braintrust:

The writing’s been on the wall for a few weeks on Falcons coach Dan Quinn—a good man who did a good job on balance, but got himself into a mess he couldn’t get out of fast enough this year.

The first thing that hurt him was history. He never lived down Super Bowl LI, and that stinks, but it’s the reality of all this. When his Falcons blew 20–0, 29–10 and 39–24 leads to Dallas, and 16–3 and 26–10 leads to Chicago, it was way too easy to point back to 28–3. And sometimes, in cases like that, it can get in a team’s head, and perception can become reality.

The other piece of history to look at is that the team’s 0–5 start wasn’t isolated. Last year, Atlanta came out of the gate 1–7, and Quinn got a stay of execution after the team rallied to 7–9 with a 6–2 finish. Which brings us to the second thing.

That would be that Quinn was very clearly put on notice—that decision not to drop the hammer by owner Arthur Blank was explicitly made in hopes that the positive momentum from 2019, when the players clearly fought for a coach they loved, would carry over into 2020. Five weeks in, even if some sort of miracle scenario could’ve been possible from here, it was crystal clear that Blank’s hope for carryover from November and December wasn’t fulfilled.

That GM Thomas Dimitroff went down with Quinn is mildly surprising in its timing, even if Dimitroff wasn’t going survive a second coach firing on his watch (after Mike Smith in 2014). But it does allow for Blank to get going on working toward remaking his football operation, which has a ton of questions going forward, given the financial commitments to players like Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Deion Jones and Grady Jarrett.

So for now, team president Rich McKay will oversee football ops, and a new head coach will be picked for the rest of the year. I know Raheem Morris was a strong consideration on Sunday night, with Dirk Koetter and Jeff Ulbrich also in the mix. And from there, the coach and GM searches here would seem to be pretty wide open, probably more so than in Houston

Even though Atlanta’s defense has been weak, it’s Raheem Morris who will try to fire up the team the rest of the season.  Frank Schwab of YahooSports.com:

Given how the Atlanta Falcons like to start slow and finish seasons strong, this is a pretty good opportunity for Raheem Morris.

Morris will be the Falcons’ interim coach, the team announced. He will replace Dan Quinn, who was fired on Sunday after his team lost its fifth in a row to start the season.

Morris has been with the Falcons for six seasons, and this is is first with the official title of defensive coordinator. He spent three seasons as Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach, and it has been a long time getting another shot to lead a team.

Morris was once a fast-rising star in coaching. He was named Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach when he was 32 years old.

Morris had spent a few years as a college assistant, but had mostly been a Bucs defensive backs coach when he got the head-coaching job in 2009. He went 3-13 his first year but then 10-6 his second season with young quarterback Josh Freeman having a career season.

In Morris’ third season the Buccaneers went 4-12 and he was fired. At that point Morris had to practically start over. He was hired as Washington’s secondary coach and spent three seasons on that job. He went to the Falcons, and he was an assistant head coach coaching receivers and coordinating the passing game when Quinn reshuffled his staff last season with the Falcons sitting at 1-7. Quinn but Morris in charge of the defense and he led an impressive turnaround. The team went 6-2 in the second half, the defense improved rapidly and Morris was named defensive coordinator the 2020 season.

After a rough 0-5 start, Quinn was fired and Morris gets a shot to be a head coach again, even if it’s on an interim basis.

CAROLINA

Peter King is among those noticing that Panthers WR ROBBY ANDERSON is having a career year in his new environment:

Robby Anderson, wide receiver, Carolina. Every week, the Jets’ decision to let Anderson walk in free-agency looks even worse. Anderson, on average the 26th-highest-paid receiver in football after signing a hugely reasonable contract (two years, $20 million) in Carolina, has had these five Sundays so far for the Panthers: six catches for 114 yards; nine for 109; five for 55; eight for 99; eight for 112 Sunday at Atlanta—including a lovely one-hander down the left sideline in suffocating man coverage. Carolina’s on a three-game win streak, and Anderson—on pace for a 115-catch, 1,565-yard season—is a huge reason why. Miss him, Jets?

Anderson averaged 53 catches for 789 yards (roughly half the above output) per 16 games while he was on the Jets.

NEW ORLEANS

WR MICHAEL THOMAS will again be on the sidelines tonight, but it’s not because of his ankle.

The New Orleans Saints will again not have one of their best offensive players when they take the field in primetime on Monday night to take on the Los Angeles Chargers. On Sunday afternoon, the Saints officially ruled out wide receiver Michael Thomas for Week 5, which will make it four straight games Thomas has missed due to injury. Interestingly enough, Thomas being ruled out this week reportedly had nothing to do with his injury. According to Katherine Terrell of The Athletic, Thomas will not be playing because of a team disciplinary issue.

NFC WEST

SAN FRANCISCO

The 49ers season needed a savior – and instead it got QB JIMMY GAROPPOLO.  Peter King:

Jimmy Garoppolo, quarterback, San Francisco. With a quarterback line like a classic Ryan Leaf line—7 of 17 passing for 77 yards, no TDs, two interceptions, 15.7 rating—Garoppolo, the jillionaire passer, got yanked at halftime for C.J. Beathard (1-9 as a starter) in a humiliating 43-17 San Francisco loss. The 49ers may very well not be who we thought they were, and Garoppolo is proving definitively that the football world was right to have significant questions about his ability during a shaky playoff run last season.

LOS ANGELES RAMS

Sean McVay’s Rams know how to go East:

West Coast teams have been trying to solve the problem of winning early games on the East Coast for years. Bill Walsh used to fly on Fridays for such games with the 49ers (to be fair, even if it was a late-afternoon game, the Niners would fly East on Fridays), and owner Eddie DeBartolo stocked the plane with a couple of top chefs and a 4-star menu. Anything to give the team an edge.

The Rams haven’t made a big deal of the early games. Since Sean McVay took over as Rams coach in 2017, Los Angeles has played eight of the dreaded 10 a.m. bodyclock games on the East Coast, including Sunday’s game in Washington. The Rams are 7-1 under McVay in the early Eastern games . . . the only loss coming in the controversial 35-32 Week 3 defeat to Buffalo in September. Average margin of victory in the seven wins: 19.0 points.

• They fly on a state-of-the-art widebody jet, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, operated by American Airlines. These jumbo planes, scheduled for long-haul international flights mostly, suddenly became available because of the severe downturn in people flying worldwide due to COVID. American has 44 Dreamliners. So the Rams procured one of the 787-9 models for their trips this year, with 285 seats. Players, by seniority, sit in the 30 flatbed first-class and 21 premium-economy seats. The 23 coaches scatter in the 36 main-cabin extra seats. The few remaining players (mostly the 16 on the practice squad) and 47 staff members on the trip scatter, socially distant, in the 198 coach seats. The flights are fast on the speedy plane; Saturday’s to Dulles Airport in Virginia was 4 hours exactly. With fewer people per team approved for travel this year because of COVID restrictions (the Rams have cut about 65 people, down to about 135 to 139 per trip), there’s more room on the spacious plane, and more space between passengers. So much goes into COVID protection, but it doesn’t hurt that people are able to space out on a comfy plane for four hours.

• They don’t go in a day early, as many teams do flying over three time zones. The Rams’ director of sports science, Tyler Williams, told coach Sean McVay it’s better for players to sleep in their own beds on Friday night and have as regular a night of sleep as possible than it is to go to a strange hotel and try to get two normal nights of sleep. On the other end, after flying home, the Rams land by about 8:30 p.m. PT Sunday, so they can be in their own beds by 10 p.m. or so, allowing them to get back in their sleep habit Sunday night.

• One benefit about getting the Philly, Buffalo and Washington roadies out of the way by Oct. 11: Other than a possible cold or rainy or cold/rainy game in Seattle Dec. 27, the Rams won’t have a cold-weather game in 2020.

Traveling parties were up to 200 people before Covid?  135 is paired down?  In the DB’s day, 100 was a lot.

AFC WEST

DENVER

The Broncos, who have not had a positive Covid test, are having their schedule jerked around, but Coach Vic Fangio is acting like an adult reports Peter King.

Denver coach Vic Fangio doesn’t have a Twitter account, and doesn’t read Twitter. So on his way to work, he didn’t know what Schefter had reported. But even though the New England situation wreaked havoc with his team’s schedule—they were supposed to play Sunday, and on Friday the game got moved to Monday and he sent his players home for the day, and if it would get moved again, well, Fangio was sanguine about it. His daughter Cassie was a major reason. “My daughter works as a nurse at a military hospital in San Antonio,” Fangio said. “She’s in the military and she came down with COVID because she’s a nurse at a hospital. She’s high-risk. She was real fatigued for three, four days, lost her sense of taste and smell. I’m just thankful that she has fully recovered from that. So, you know, that’s why I don’t get worked up about this stuff.

“Plus, this virus has caused a lot of heartache and pain for our country in the amount of sicknesses, in the amount of deaths, what it’s done to our economy, and what’s it’s done to people’s livelihoods, people’s businesses. If we have a game postponed and be inconvenienced that way, it’s miniscule compared to the bigger issue.”

Fangio’s in the office at 6:30 MT, and 15 minutes later, the league calls. Game’s off. Stay tuned. Likely moved to next week. Fangio does three things: cancels the Broncos’ 7:30 a.m. special teams meeting, calls for a full-squad and organization team meeting in the middle of the team’s practice field outside for 8:15 a.m. MT, and tries to figure out what he’ll tell the team—including about how Denver’s bye week has disappeared.

10:15 a.m. (8:15 a.m. MT), Englewood, Colo.

On a pristine Colorado morning, the Rocky Mountains glistening to the west, Fangio gathers about 125 players, coaches and staff on the field, socially distanced. Fangio tells them the game is off, when the game was likely to be played, how this ruins the bye week and now players would be off Sunday, Monday and Tuesday but have to test each day and be back for a game week Wednesday. He said baseball was getting through it while playing, and basketball and hockey too, and football would make it.

“In a weird way,” Fangio told the group, “I’m really happy it’s happening for our team. It identifies the whiners—who are the whiners. Who can’t handle adversity? Who gets hijacked by inconveniences? We don’t want those guys. We want people who deal with this without the whining, who take this inconvenience as an opportunity to get better.”

The place cleared out. Even the coach left to take a free day.

“I’ll be back Monday and Tuesday,” Fangio said.

LAS VEGAS

Albert Breer of SI.com on the Raiders after their big win:

You have to give the Raiders credit. Coming off their opener in Carolina—and the Panthers are better than we thought—Jon Gruden’s crew faced a daunting four-game stretch ahead of its bye. And they found a way to split, beating the Saints and Chiefs, while losing to the Bills and Patriots. Winning in Kansas City, too, was a heck of a capper. There was a point in the day where I thought Derek Carr might get benched. His pick to Bashaud Breeland was hideous and set the Chiefs up to take a commanding a 14–3 lead. The Raiders seemed to lack purpose and Patrick Mahomes looked like, well, Patrick Mahomes. And that’s why what we saw from there was even more impressive. On the road, against the champs, somehow, the Raiders put their foot in the ground and came from behind. In the process, they. …

• Dealt Mahomes his first loss to the Raiders.

• Got Carr his first win at Arrowhead.

• Got a Raider QB to 300 yards at Arrowhead for the first time since 2002.

So, all in all, it was a really good Sunday for Vegas. And after the game, you could hear how Jon Gruden felt good for Carr, a quarterback he’s openly considered replacing in the past. “I’m just happy Derek got a big win when it didn’t look good early,” Gruden said. “I give Derek a lot of credit; he’s been through a lot here as a Raider. This was certainly a big win for him, and hopefully, we got a lot more big wins to come.” For now, it’s a good way to head into a week off, with the knowledge that what’s coming on the other side (Tom Brady and the Bucs) won’t be easy either.

LOS ANGELES CHARGERS

Although their new schedule is vastly different from the old one, John Breech of CBSSports.com sees the Chargers as okay with all the changes:

Los Angeles Chargers

The Chargers probably aren’t too upset with all the scheduling changes and that’s because they now have a Week 6 bye. The reason that’s a big deal is because the Chargers are playing a Monday night road game against the Saints in Week 5. Instead of flying home from New Orleans and being forced to play on short rest in Week 6, the Chargers now get a bye. Under the old schedule, the Chargers had a Week 10 bye with a game in Week 6 (vs. Jets), but now they’ll be able to take it easy after their game in New Orleans. 

AFC NORTH

BALTIMORE

When the Bengals met the Ravens Sunday, the best LSU rookie on the field belonged to Baltimore.  Peter King”

Patrick Queen, linebacker, Baltimore. The rookie from LSU tormented the rookie from LSU (Bengals QB Joe Burrow) most of the day, with six tackles, a sack, two fumbles recovered and a fourth-quarter fumble returned for a 53-yard TD to clinch a 27-0 rout of the division rivals. The game was a wow for Baltimore’s first-round pick, and a sign to Burrow of how far his team has to go to catch one of football’s premier teams.

CINCINNATI

QB JOE BURROW says he had a hand in his seven times sacked Sunday.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow endured a rough day in Sunday’s 27-3 loss to the Ravens, taking seven sacks along the way. He knows that can’t keep happening.

Burrow put the blame primarily on himself, saying he needs to feel the pass rush and get rid of the ball more quickly than he has so far this season.

“I didn’t play very well, and we as an offense didn’t play very well,” Burrow said, via the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I can get the ball out of my hands faster, and I wasn’t very accurate today, which was disappointing to me. I thought we had a great week of practice and it just didn’t carry over.”

Burrow has been sacked an NFL-high 22 times this season, putting him on pace for 70 this season — if he lasts a full season getting hit that much. Burrow said after the game that the Bengals can adjust.

“We know how to handle pressure from a defense,” Burrow said. “We’ve handled it the last three or four weeks. We just didn’t handle it well today.”

The Bengals won’t be contenders this year, but they hope Burrow has them in contention for years to come. To do that, he’ll have to get rid of the ball faster.

PITTSBURGH

A star was born in Pittsburgh on Sunday and Peter King helps you get to know WR CHASE CLAYPOOL:

Incredible day for rookie wideout Chase Claypool of the Steelers in the 38-29 whipping of the Eagles: one touchdown rushing, three receiving. He’s the first Pittsburgh rookie since pre-dynasty days (1968) to score four touchdowns in a game. Five things you need to know about Claypool:

1. He’s from Vancouver, and he’s the first Canadian to score four TDs in an NFL game.

2. He grew up “idolizing” the Canadian Football League. “Even though I watched the NFL growing up,” he told me post-game, “the CFL was more attainable and more realistic. You see the Canadian guys in the CFL, but you don’t hear much about the Canadian guys going to the NFL and doing well.”

3. Oregon recruited him at outside linebacker, Michigan recruited him as a tight end. Notre Dame wanted him as a wide receiver. He wasn’t serious about football, really serious, till 7-on-7 competition in the summer before his senior year.

4. Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly called him one of the most competitive people he’s been around.

5. His older sister Ashley committed suicide when he was 13. They were close. Before every game, he goes to an end zone alone and says a prayer for her. “I try to make her proud,” Claypool said.

At 6-4 and 238, Claypool looks neither. He looks a couple inches shorter and maybe 10 pounds lighter. When the Steelers got him with 49th pick in the second round last April, wiseguys said it was a great pick. Sunday, you could see why. He fights for 50-50 balls like they’re 100-0 his. His hands seem excellent. He seems like a humble guy. In short, the Steelers got a great pick here.

“Stay humble! Stay humble!” Mike Tomlin told him afterward.

“Ben told me to enjoy it,” he said. “He said, ‘Don’t let it live in the present; let it live in the past. Then attack next week.’ “

Beware Browns. Cleveland at Pittsburgh on Sunday.

AFC SOUTH

INDIANAPOLIS

QB PHILIP RIVERS did not play winning football on Sunday, but he is defended by Coach Frank Reich.  Kevin Patra of NFL.com:

Philip Rivers played his worst game in an Indianapolis Colts jersey during Sunday’s 32-23 loss to the Cleveland Browns.

Rivers tossed a costly pick-six, struggled with pressure, took a massive safety on a throwaway in the end zone and threw another interception that essentially squelched any comeback attempt.

“The interception for a touchdown killed us,” said Rivers said. “The other one, I wish had back as well. … Obviously, the safety hurt as well. Give a good team, especially that offense, nine [points], and then our D really bowed up in the second half and played well enough to win. Offensively, we didn’t do enough to win.”

Rivers finished 21-of-33 passing for 243 yards and the two picks for a 60.5 passer rating. It was the first time in Indy he hadn’t thrown a TD pass in a game.

Despite the struggles, coach Frank Reich defended his veteran QB.

“You lose a game like this, and we all share in it,” Reich said. “Everyone shares in it.”

It’s true that no loss is 100 percent on one player. The Colts’ heretofore stifling defense allowed Cleveland to score on its first four possessions to take a double-digit lead. The O-line uncharacteristically gave up pressure. Nyheim Hines fair-caught a punt inside the 5-yard-line setting up the safety that made it a two-score game early in the fourth quarter after Indy fought back into the contest.

“Philip is playing really good football. That is the least of my worries,” Reich said in defending his QB. “Philip is playing good football. You are going to have mistakes when you get in situations like that. I know we would want the interception back, but the safety, is on me.

“You take that away and you get that one mistake, in my mind, that was the big factor. That mistake was not the big factor, the safety, but the one big mistake with Philip was the interception. That is it.”

No one expects Reich to blast his QB. Not after the veteran was imported specifically to upgrade the position. Sunday’s game, however, underscored the limitations of the 38-year-old.

Through the first four weeks, Rivers mostly played the good point guard, distributing the ball where it needed to go and moving the ball between the 20s. The lack of big plays and the red-zone struggles, however, underscored that the 17th-year-pro doesn’t have the liveliest arm.

Rivers showed Sunday that, like his past few seasons in L.A., when he’s pressured, prayer heaves turn into INTs. Per Next Gen Stats, Rivers was pressured on 10 of 34 dropbacks (29.4 percent). In Weeks 1-4, he was pressured on only 18.5 percent of dropbacks (6th-lowest in NFL). Against better pass rushes, the Colts will need to build a wall around Rivers or we’re likely to see similar results to Sunday.

We saw the positives in the first four weeks to having an aging veteran who can get into the right play and manage an offense while leaning on a stout D. In Week 5, the negative showed up, and it cost the Colts.

JACKSONVILLE

History by the Jaguars:

@NFLonCBS

YIKES.

The Jags are the first team in NFL history to lose 3 straight games* to previously winless teams

Week 3: 0-2 Dolphins

Week 4: 0-3 Bengals

Week 5: 0-4 Texans

*excludes season openers

This week’s opponent, the Lions, have one win.

AFC EAST

BUFFALO

John Breech of CBSSports.com sees the Bills as beneficiaries from all the schedule changes:

Buffalo Bills

Not only are the Bills a winner here, but you could argue that they were actually the biggest benefactor when it comes to the revamped schedule. For one, they now get to play the Titans on a Tuesday. The advantage there is two-fold: Not only do they get two extra days of rest compared to a normal week, but they also get to play a Titans team that will only have had one full practice before this game is played. The Titans haven’t held a full-team practice since a walk-through on Sept. 26 and they likely won’t get to hold their next practice until Oct. 12, just one day before the game.

It was a wild Week 5 Sunday, and John Breech, Ryan Wilson and host Will Brinson break everything down on the Pick Six Podcast; listen below and be sure to subscribe for daily NFL goodness.

The Bills also get an advantage in Week 6 because they get to play the Chiefs on a Monday. Sure, having a Monday game the week after playing in a Tuesday game doesn’t sound like an advantage, but it is for Buffalo. If the schedule had never changed, the Bills would have had to play the Chiefs on a Thursday and would have only gotten three full days of rest between their Week 5 game and Week 6 game. Now that the schedule has been revamped, the Bills will get FIVE full days of rest between the Titans game and the Chiefs game. Of course, the downside here is that the Bills will lose out on rest heading into Week 7, but they play the Jets that week, so it’s probably not going to be an issue.

MIAMI

Cameron Wolfe on Miami’s big win at San Francisco that puts them on the fringes of the playoff picture:

After Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick threw his third touchdown in a 43-17 blowout win against the Super Bowl LIV runner-up San Francisco 49ers, rookie Tua Tagovailoa jumped into his arms in celebration. It was a perfect picture of what the Dolphins love about their quarterback room, and a near-perfect game from Fitzpatrick should quiet talk about Tua Time while also showing the rookie a perfect glimpse of how to lead a team.

This was clearly the most complete performance by the Dolphins in the coach Brian Flores era. They stomped and paraded over the 49ers on their home field, and Dolphins fans should be pumped about their play at this stage of the franchise’s rebuild.

Fitzpatrick reached 3,000 career completions on Sunday, becoming the 27th player in league history to do so. There aren’t many quarterbacks who have had a career like Fitzpatrick has in 16 seasons. Also, the Dolphins’ defense forced three turnovers, had five sacks and held the 49ers to 259 total yards.

Flores doesn’t have to indicate that Fitzpatrick will remain the Dolphins’ starter this week because the quarterback’s play did. So while everybody might be looking ahead to 2021, the Dolphins’ performance Sunday screamed they’re still playing for 2020.

The Dolphins (2-3) face the New York Jets at home next thanks to a remade schedule, and there is a good chance for them to get back to .500 headed into their Week 7 bye week.

QB breakdown: Fitzpatrick became the second Dolphins player to total 350 passing yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions. The first? Dan Marino four times. Yes, Fitzpatrick is now in that category. This was also Fitzpatrick’s 12th game with 300-plus yards and three-plus touchdowns in his career, more than Pro Football Hall of Fame QB John Elway. Fitzpatrick finished 22-of-28 for 350 yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 154.5 passer rating. Perfect is 158.3, and Fitzpatrick was nearly that Sunday.

Buy/sell on a breakout performance: Welcome to the 2020 season, Preston Williams. I’m buying the wide receiver’s breakout game — four catches, 106 yards and a touchdown. Expectations were high of Williams coming off his impressive injury-shortened rookie season, but his 2020 season started slow as he tried to regain explosiveness following a November ACL tear. When Williams is playing well, the Dolphins’ offense is next level. Get ready for more of DeVante Parker, Williams and Mike Gesicki making plays the rest of the season.

Promising trend: Cornerback Byron Jones returned Sunday, and with it so did the Dolphins’ strong passing defense. The Dolphins held the 49ers to 128 passing yards and nabbed two interceptions (Xavien Howard, Bobby McCain). They also forced a benching of 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo at halftime. This cornerback group had potential to be one of the NFL’s best, and after an injury-plagued and rocky opening month, Sunday’s game shows they can still be that. The Dolphins’ pass rush got involved too with its best performance of the day — all of which adds to a promising trend for the Dolphins’ defense.

Punching first and never stopping. The Dolphins’ 30 first-half points were their most since October 2015, and they did it by playing complementary football. Two first-half interceptions of Garoppolo combined with Fitzpatrick having one of the best halves of his career (15-of-20, 251 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, 150 passer rating) gave us a glimpse of what this Dolphins team can be when hitting on all cylinders.

NEW ENGLAND

Albert Breer of SI.com hears the Patriots have been exemplary in their attempts to quell their outbreak of positive Covid tests (have they had a single symptom?):

The Patriots, meanwhile, got news of their fourth positive test in nine days very late on Saturday night, and informed players and coaches not to come in Sunday. This was after they’d spent their first day back in the facility, really, outside the facility. Meetings were held on practice fields, as was a walkthrough and a practice, and players didn’t even shower onsite (instead driving home to do that). The Patriots’ compliance, as we said in Thursday’s GamePlan column, has been very strong.

• Along those lines, I’m told New England coach Bill Belichick has come off as engaged and informed on the NFL’s COVID-19 calls. Which isn’t all that surprising—when Belichick sees something as important (we’ve seen it on rules issues), he won’t hesitate to find a way to get educated and involved.

THIS AND THAT

POSTSEASON WINS

Never have three sports had postseason action so close together as in 2020 with so many games between August and what will be the end of October.  Here are the number of postseason wins by market so far:

Los Angeles                 28   (Lakers 16, Dodgers 7, Kings 5)

Tampa Bay                  24   (Lightning 18, Rays 6)

Denver                         18   (Nuggets 9, Avalanche 9)

Miami                           17   (Heat 14, Panthers 1, Marlins 2)

New York                     17   (Islanders 13, Yankees 4)

Boston                          15  (Celtics 10, Bruins 5)

Dallas                           15   (Stars)

Of the other cities still active in baseball Houston is at 10, Atlanta 5.

With the Dodgers, LA can get to 36 from 6 possible teams.

With the Rays, Tampa Bay can get to 31 from 2 teams.