Huskers in the NFL Week 5

Through five weeks of the NFL season we have seen a lot from our former Huskers including some game alternating plays and true highlights. However this week was not one of them as most of the Husker alumni struggled or just had quiet games. But I still look at how each player did during the week along with my top performer and notes along the way.

Top Husker Performer

Alex Lewis, New York Jets

It was an overall good day for Alex Lewis, despite the Jets continued struggles on defense. Lewis was strong in both pass and run blocking against the Cardinals. And while Arizona doesn’t have any dominant interior defensive lineman, Lewis only allowed one quarterback pressure and was able to seal off his defender throughout the game to give the Jet running back space to run.

Had a Good Day

Sam Koch, Baltimore

By playing in Sunday’s game Sam Koch has now tied Terrell Suggs with the most games played in Ravens history. Punters don’t get much attention unless they are bad, but this shows how good Koch has been over the course of his career. As for Sunday Koch’s four punts were the most he’s had all year and while he didn’t have any booming kicks or pinning the Bengals inside the one yardline, Koch went out and did his job.

Lavonte David, Tampa Bay

Just like his teammate, Lavonte David had a pretty underwhelming game. I wouldn’t say it was bad but David just really didn’t have a big impact as the Bears did most of their damage on the outside. David finished with five tackles, covered the flats well and even nearly had another interception on the season. However he just lacked that big time play that we are so use to seeing him make.

Andy Janovich, Cleveland

Going against the Colts and their strong run defense was going to be tough for the Browns but Janovich was able to help open up some holes that lead to the Browns finishing over 100 yards on the ground. Four of those yards did come from Janovich as well as he had two carries in this game which was his season high. Throw in a couple of routes and a special teams tackle and it was a pretty typical Janovich game.

Nick Gates, New York Giants

For all the hate that Nick Gates has gotten from Giants fans, he has been getting better following up with a second straight game showing improvement. Gates wasn’t perfect as he did get called for holding that whipped away a touchdown, but over the course of the entire game he was able to hold his own. And when you think about where Gates has come over the first five games you can’t help noticing that Gates has gotten better each game.

Up and Down Game

Ndamukong Suh, Tampa Bay

After a couple of big time games, Thursday night wasn’t Suh’s best game of the season. Finishing with only three tackles and a quarterback hit, Suh was strong against the run but struggled to get a push on Nick Foles going large stretches of the game unnoticed. However late Suh was able to get a hand on a Nick Foles pass that forced an incompletion and ended the Bears drive, but otherwise it was a pretty unnoteworthy game.

Lamar Jackson, New York Jets

It was going to be a tough day for Lamar Jackson, in his first career start, as he was tasked with the duty of covering DeAndre Hopkins throughout the game. For the most part Jackson was able to cover up Hopkins and force Murray to go elsewhere. But on a drive late in the game Murray tested Jackson twice throwing deep balls along the sideline. Jackson was in the right position but on both plays couldn’t go up and deflect the ball giving up a long catch and a touchdown. Sure Jackson gave up some yards and a touchdown to Hopkins, but asked to cover one of the best receivers in the NFL, Jackson more than held up his own.

Had a Rough Day

Nathan Gerry, Philadelphia

Even before the weekend Nate Gerry’s week started off bad as tweets surfaced of him using racist language from back when he was in high school. Language like this is always unacceptable, regardless of what age you are. Gerry issued an apology and will have to face his teammates for forgiveness. On the field it was another rough day for Gerry who continued his struggles. Gerry struggled to get off blocks in the run game and gave up a big touchdown on third down when the Eagles were only down two points.

Ameer Abdullah, Minnesota

Even with Dalvin Cook having some injury issues that caused him to miss some time, Ameer was limited to just one total offensive snap in their game on Monday night. That singular snap was a backwards pass that Abdullah wasn’t able to make and resulted in a fumble recovered by the Seahawks. Ameer did have two returns but what everybody will remember from those is the massive hit that Abdullah took from Seattle defensive lineman Damontre Moore.

No Impact

Cethan Carter, Cincinnati

After two straight games with a catch, the streak was snapped as Carter went catchless in the Bengals big loss to the Ravens. Because the Bengals were down right away they had to throw the ball more and that led to Carter not seeing much playing time as he finished with 13 total snaps on offense.

Luke Gifford, Dallas

Despite the Cowboys struggles Gifford continues to stay on the bench, although I guess he did have one defensive snap. The fact that Gifford hasn’t played has been a surprise to all, including my Cowboys fans who saw Gifford play well at times last year, has been quite confusing.

Inactive or Non Participant

Khalil Davis, Tampa Bay

Brent Qvale, Houston

Maliek Collins, Las Vegas

Carlos Davis, Pittsburgh

Bye Week

Rex Burkhead, New England

Practice Squad or Injured Reserve

Randy Gregory, Dallas

Richie Incognito, Las Vegas - IR

Freedom Akinmoladun, Cincinnati

Darrion Daniels, San Francisco

Chris Jones, Arizona

Stanley Morgan, Cincinnati

Devine Ozigbo, Jacksonville - IR