Week 5 of the NFL season may have been the wildest one yet, and the story coming out of the weekend is unquestionably all of the blown leads across the league. Six different teams lost after holding double-digit advantages in Week 5, but the teams coming from behind deserve some credit as well.
Some of those teams that came back to win will crack this list, but not all of them fit into the biggest winners of Week 5. Who made the cut?
Drake Maye has his signature moment
It took until Week 5 of his second season for Drake Maye to get his first start in primetime, and he did not disappoint. The North Carolina product has been on a breakout track all season, but he has been buried in the early slate on most Sundays.
Maye's stats don't jump off the page from this game: 22-for-30 with 273 yards and no touchdowns or interceptions, but he made a number of plays outside the pocket that showcase his ceiling while also operating efficiently from the pocket all night.
After getting the Patriots out to a 20-10 lead, Josh Allen did what Josh Allen does and led the Bills back to tie the game. That left Maye with just over two minutes to go in a tied game, and he took advantage. He started the drive off with an incredible dump-off to Stefon Diggs while fighting off a Bills defender to move the chains.
Drake Maye what a play!
NEvsBUF on NBC
Stream on @NFLPlus + Peacock pic.twitter.com/X8fN1vpbqG— NFL (@NFL) October 6, 2025
Later in the drive, he stood in the pocket and fired a hole shot to Kayshon Boutte to beat the Bills' Cover 2, gaining 19 yards and getting the Pats into field goal range.
One play that won't show up in the stat sheet is Maye's last one. The Patriots called a sprintout to his right to get a first down and drain the rest of the clock, but the Buffalo defense snuffed it out. Instead of sailing the ball out of bounds and leaving Allen with nearly a minute to go down and get a field goal of his own, Maye stayed inbounds and battled back to the line of scrimmage. New England kicked a field goal, and the Bills didn't have time to match.
The small group of sick people that watched enough Patriots football in 2024 already saw it, but now Maye has had his coming out party in front of a national audience. Just five years after Tom Brady left town, the Patriots have their next franchise quarterback.
The 4-1 Jaguars prove their mettle
For years, the Jacksonville Jaguars have built a reputation for being a team that just finds a way to lose games. The Jags always seem like they are better than their record is, but mistakes at the end of games continue to haunt them time and time again.
That hasn't been the case in the first season with Liam Coen as head coach. Jacksonville overcame a number of miscues in a win over the Texans in Week 3 before coming up with some timely turnovers to beat the 49ers in Week 4. But surely they couldn't overcome a 14-0 deficit against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, right?
Wrong. The Jags battled back once again, aided by a massive pick-six from Devin Lloyd that ignited his Defensive Player of the Year case. After the Chiefs took a late lead, Trevor Lawrence delivered a pair of strikes to Brian Thomas Jr. and Dyami Brown to get the Jags down to the goal line.
Then, Lawrence put the Jags ahead with a play that exemplifies what this season has been for them. He stumbled after getting stepped on by his right guard, went to the ground, got up and escaped the pocket to run in for the game-winning score to get the Jaguars to 4-1.
LAWRENCE STUMBLES.
LAWRENCE SCORES.@JAGUARS LEAD!KCvsJAX on ESPN/ABC
Stream on @NFLPlus and ESPN App pic.twitter.com/1cLzGVmHaJ— NFL (@NFL) October 7, 2025
That's what this Jaguars season has been. It's not always pretty, but Coen's squad keeps finding ways to win. Now, the Jags are firmly in control of a playoff spot early in the year.
Kyle Shanahan's misfits keep winning
Any other team dealing with what the San Francisco 49ers are dealing with would be done for. The 49ers are down most of their top players due to injury, including George Kittle, Brock Purdy and Jauan Jennings. Mac Jones is standing in at quarterback with a bad knee, but that isn't stopping Kyle Shanahan and company.
Shanahan spent the entire first half on Thursday night carving up a very good Rams defense, and the 49ers were able to hang on and get a 26-23 win in overtime against their division rival to get to 4-1 on the season and 3-0 against the NFC West.
Fred Warner is arguably playing the best football of his career, and he was a big part of a final fourth-down stop in overtime that ended the game. However, this win is a testament to Shanahan and the incredibly high floor that he gives his offenses no matter who is on the field.
San Francisco should be getting healthier soon with the exception of Nick Bosa, who is out for the season with a knee injury. However, when the offense gets back to full strength, watch out for the Niners in a wide open NFC.
Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield put on a firework show in Bucs-Seahawks
Buccaneers-Seahawks was one of the games of the week coming into Week 5, and it was certainly the best matchup of an otherwise-ugly day slate on Sunday. The two delivered one of the most thrilling games of the season so far, eventually won by the Buccaneers 38-35 thanks to a bizarre late interception and a Chase McLaughlin field goal at the horn.
Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold were dealing like they were back in college. Mayfield finished 29-for-33 with 379 yards and two touchdowns, while Darnold completed 28-of-34 passes for 341 yards and four touchdowns. Only nine passes in this game hit the ground (Darnold had the one interception), and 10 total touchdowns were scored. That's all you need to know.
On top of that, Buccaneers rookie Emeka Egbuka continues to emerge as one of the top young wideouts in the NFL. He reeled in seven passes for 163 yards and a score in this game, while his Ohio State counterpart Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught eight balls for 132 yards and a touchdown on the other side.
Both of these teams should get better as they get healthier; the Bucs were missing Mike Evans, Bucky Irving and a pair of starting corners while Seattle was down Devon Witherspoon and Julian Love before losing most of its secondary in this game. Therefore, they both should only be getting better as the year goes on.
After Sunday's classic, I'm sure everyone would be up for a rematch when January rolls around.
