It takes one good game to revive a season. Week 5 in the NFL showcased at least five. There were shootouts and wars of attrition. There were stunning comebacks, upsets and cliff-hangers in overtime. Length of the field, game-winning drives. Grand situations for the champions and ordeals for the chumps; the aspiring stars and perennial disappointments each alternated in the spotlight. Kickers, operating under extreme pressure were, on several occasions, asked to level scores or clinch results at the death knell. The clock is always counting. Forty-year-old Matt Hasselbeck knows it.

Filling in for the injured Andrew Luck, Hasselbeck led the Colts to an improbable victory over Houston on Thursday night. He was cool in the crisis, stage managing the fightback like an old pro. Not fazed by the pressure of taking over a team in the crosshairs of the media, he worked at a breakneck pace. It established a rhythm the offensive line could keep pace with. Houston’s pass rushers didn’t touch him. Not that they’d want to. Earlier in the week he had been hospitalised with a bacterial infection. Equally experienced heads in Andre Johnson (34), with six catches for 77 yards, Frank Gore (32) who ran for 98 yards on 22 carries and Adam Vinatieri (42), who slotted the game-winner, also came to the party. It was these veterans, their career watersheds logged long ago, who seized the day and by doing so, rescued the immediate future of head coach Chuck Pagano. “He was getting IVs and fighting a virus,” he said of Hasselbeck. “It’s the grittiest performance I’ve seen in a long, long time.”

This was mere appetiser, however. On Sunday the feast of action commenced with the most anticipated match-up of the week in Cin City. The 4-0 Bengals were hosting last year’s Super Bowl bridesmaid Seattle. The game did not disappoint. They traded early touchdowns, both the direct consequence of blown coverage by respective and respected secondaries. Confidence high and rising, Andy Dalton burned the Hawks for a prodigious 72-yard connection with A.J. Green which was swiftly erased on a soft holding penalty. Seattle dodged its first bullet. They soon would return fire.

Meanwhile Lovie Smith was looking for his first victory at home. Despite a slow start, Tampa and Jacksonville put up 31 points between them in the second quarter. They also oscillated back and forth between red zones. It had the feel of a College game only with tackling. Prior to this showdown pro-football in Florida had been floundering. It helped Miami was on the bye. Doug Martin, Bucs running back, bulldozed his way straight up the field like he had his sights set on the front row at a packed outdoor rock concert. Six plays after a pass from Jaguars QB Blake Bortles was picked off, Martin bashed into the end zone, Jacksonville defenders grappling at the ether. The mistake by Bortles, so it turned out, proved to be something of a catalyst and from this moment onwards he played as if he had a chip on his shoulder. He ran. He passed. He pump faked. He was on his way to 300-plus yards and four TDs.

Up the highway in Atlanta, the Redskins were taking on the undefeated Falcons, and against the odds, holding their own. Kirk Cousins, par for the course, had thrown himself an interception. But so too had the unflappable Matt Ryan. Today it was all up for grabs.

Buffalo arrived ready for a shootout with Tennessee. From the outset the Titans were determined, more surprisingly, to reduce the game to a turf war. A bold tactic perhaps given that this was fast becoming the hallmark of Rex Ryan’s team. With mounting injuries and their dynamite rushers sidelined, the Bills were looking vulnerable to the strategy. Soon they were in a hole that would take a half to climb out of.

Josh McCown, given the vote of confidence in Cleveland as starter ahead of Johnny Manziel, was on his way to creating history by becoming the first player for the Browns to record three consecutive 300-yard games. No play on the day was perhaps bigger than when he found Gary Barnidge against the goal line cradling the football between his legs. Call it class with a capital A. That put the Browns 22-21 ahead of its short-priced favoured division rival the Ravens.

Over in Missouri, KC were coasting early against Chicago. But not unlike Jim Carrey in The Cable Guy, the Bears weren’t going anywhere. Would a 17-3 lead be enough at the half? This was not a day to bet on it.

The only foregone conclusion was in Wisconsin where Green Bay, as it was expected, were fast making a mockery of St Louis. Only, against the tidal surge, Aaron Rodgers had been picked off twice. This was an event in itself. Haley’s Comet is less scarce.

So how did Jarryd Hayne fit into all of this? With the 49ers on the road in New Jersey to take on the Giants, Jim Tomsula’s team were rank outsiders. He knows the Giants have given up more points than any other team in fourth quarters. The game plan in theory would be simple. Manufacture early points and stay in touch. Even so, plans are tough to execute when your quarterback is in the worst form of his career. For a majority of fans, they’d seen enough. Failure is foreign for a fan base accustomed to success. Now they were calling for the introduction of the backup quarterback. Blaine Gabbert wasn’t yet a household name in his own household. Plan B had been supplanted by the panic button. For the moment, as the negative speculation encircled the group, Colin Kaepernick was standing in the shadows of the gallows.

hass Matt Hasselbeck led the Colts to an improbable victory over Houston. (Photo by Getty Images)

So often, given the shifting fortunes in the NFL, one team’s terror is another team’s triumph. Desperate to turnaround a streak of three abysmal losses, the 49ers would foist on this game their best overall performance of the season. It would also be their most devastating defeat. Opportunities were plenty. The chance to stake an unlikely lead seemed to go begging after Carlos Hyde bullocked his way for 23 yards in the third quarter. Injured players were piling up on the sidelines for New York. The tree, as they say, was ripe for the picking. Kaepernick, on a play action pass, sailed the football deep – within the ten – and any other receiver aside from Vance McDonald might have laid out for it. Content to let the ball bounce only a few inches from his feet, the tight end was fast compiling a list of reminders as to why he was not going to be the man for the moment. With two field goals to show for their efforts and 9:23 left on the clock, Hayne accepted a handoff around the 12 yard line. Diligent to protect the ball in both hands, he punched through to the three. McDonald provided the key block. Some guys play better when not responsible for the object the game is named after. Hayne ran again for no loss and no gain. “They gave him the playbook and apparently it was a bit of a mystery to him,” laughed NBC’s Cris Collinsworth. The table had been set. Hyde re-joined the team in the backfield. But he wouldn’t be required. Kaepernick rolled right and hit Anquan Boldin in the corner, capping off an 88-yard drive. The game was tied 13-13.

Last week was, well, so last week. It was time for a commercial break. The strains of INXS helped take us there.

An Australian theme was developing. Brad Wing, punter for the Giants, a star at Louisiana State, has been a revelation in his first season with New York. Fast proving to be the most accurate punter in the NFL, Wing utilises a drop punt from Australian rules as a lethal weapon to pin opponents deep inside their zones. Hang time soon would be a performance indicator of the past. Wing hadn’t given up a touchback for the season and he wasn’t about to. For a guy with little playing time, Hayne was already being planned for by opposition punters who had been instructed to push him away from the middle of the field to negate his advantage in the open. Wing, true to the tactic, booted the ball to the 18. Hayne, making a difficult over-the-shoulder catch, was seemingly unfazed by a septuagenarian linesman who had decided to lose his cap, which cartwheeled up the sideline in Hayne’s periphery at the exact moment he was about to accept the ball. With his right leg arched for balance like he was about to cutback a surfboard, Hayne exploded into the general disarray of special teams and made a fool of the first hapless rusher with a right step, evoking a young Brett Mullins. More late-arriving Giants were soon beat, a blue indistinct blur like the sky background from a Hanna Barbara cartoon. “A nice run back out to the 34”, observed Al Michaels.

When Hyde scored on a two-yard run with 1:45 remaining in the game, the 49ers looked like they were going to be the team to cause the biggest boilover in a week of unlikely victories. But sadly for Tomsula it wasn’t to be. Odell Beckham Jr had left the field with a hamstring issue, leaving Eli Manning with one viable weapon left to target. That was Shane Vereen. San Francisco refused to double-team the fullback. Tactical negligence doesn’t help protect a lead. Manning, tied with Phil Simms for most wins in Giants history, took control of the game by each measure with meticulous acuity. New York marched down the field. Each down brought with it a sense of routine inevitability. Larry Donnell made a terrific catch with 21 seconds remaining. New York had stolen away an improbable victory. San Francisco had left the door open as if begging to be robbed. It punctuated an incredible day in the NFL. Winners and losers, beggars and thieves, united and divided in the roles they would have us believe they inhabit.

Punter Brad Wing, a punter for the Giants, has been a revelation in his first season with New York. (Photo by Getty Images)

THE WEEKLY TOP TEN

10. Bend it like Beckham. Or was that snap it? After receiving a shovel pass from Manning who was being besieged in a tackle Beckham zig zagged all the way into the end zone. It was the play of the day. Then he broke into a celebratory dance of which he later limped away from. He’ll tell people he injured the hamstring stretching for the goal line. People won’t believe him.

9. Andy Reid’s Chiefs keeps finding new ways to embrace calamity. This time, however, he couldn’t blame it on his star running back. By the time Jay Cutler had realised two touchdowns in what felt like as many minutes Jamaal Charles had already tore his ACL and Kansas City’s season like his knee was in tatters.

8. Washington had tied the game with a field goal and then mounted the first attack of OT when Kirk Cousins ignored the open Derek Carrier in the slot and put the ball on Robert Alford’s chest for the win. Alford plays for Atlanta. The 59 yard pick-6 ensured the Falcons remain undefeated at 5-0.

7. Also undefeated but surviving almost entirely on defense the 5-0 Broncos are causing havoc on one side of the ball with Von Miller, Malik Jackson, Danny Trevathan and Chris Harris Jr fast earning a fearsome reputation. Call them the four horsemen of the apocalypse. To date the Denver D has 22 sacks, 14 turnovers and 3 touchdowns, none more crucial than Harris Jr’s pick-6 against Oakland in the fourth quarter.

6. San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers admitted to using a silent snap count on the weekend to contend with the crowd noise Steelers fans were making. The game was in San Diego. Just another reason to have this organisation relocated to Los Angeles.

5. The Browns had lost 13 of their last 14 games against Baltimore. Last week they lost a nail-biter on a field goal. It was time for a reversal of fortunes. When McCown linked up with Barnidge for 19 in OT it put Travis Coons within range and the kicker came through on the 32 yarder to give Cleveland the win 33-30.

4. The last time Aaron Rodgers threw an INT was December 2nd, 2012. Incidentally, Mark Sanchez was benched that same day.

3. Carson Palmer is completing passes at 78.6%. In this stat he leads the league. His Cardinals are 4-1 and remain the only team in the NFC West with a winning record. The last time his future looked this bright Pittsburgh destroyed his knee in a playoff game. Guess who Arizona is playing this week?

2. With one play to go and only four seconds on the clock Pittsburgh’s head coach greenlit the wildcat and with star running Le’Veon Bell taking the direct snap, the Steelers basically willed home the last gasp win. Somewhere, somehow, earlier in the game 18 seconds went missing on the clock like it was Australian prime minister off the coast of Portsea.

1. Trailing 24-21 the Bengals were scrambling to get down the field and into a field goal position in order to tie the game late in the 4th. At the 50 Andy Dalton lobbed the ball precariously into double coverage against one of the better secondaries going around. His tight end Tyler Eifert, with Seattle’s Kam Chancellor wearing him like a glove, lunged to make a spectacular one handed catch. Of all his receptions this season you can be certain that it won’t be bettered.