In today's fantasy-obsessed football world, it's easy to overlook the contributions of one position group: offensive line. Well, NFL Network analyst and former Pro Bowl center Shaun O'Hara is here to fix that. Following each batch of games, O'Hara will revisit the O-line performances of all the teams that played and ultimately select that week's top five units, headlined by a Built Ford Tough Offensive Line of the Week.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The rankings that you see below reflect O'Hara's pecking order for Week 5 and Week 5 alone. This is NOT a running O-line Power Rankings for 2017. This is NOT a projection into the future. The goal of this weekly column is to answer one simple question: Which five offensive lines stood out above the rest in last week's action?
Without further ado, the Week 5 winner is ...
1) Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles stand alone at the top of the NFC East thanks, in part, to the phenomenal pass protection of the offensive line, which set the tone early in Sunday's 34-7 win over the Cardinals. Yep, I have Philadelphia holding down the top spot on this list for the second consecutive week. What can I say? The Eagles' front five once again earned it.
It was a job well done right out of the gate, as the Eagles scored touchdowns on their first three possessions, beginning with a 10-play, 54-yard opening drive that was capped by a Carson Wentz TD pass to Trey Burton. Wentz continued to throttle the Cardinals' secondary, becoming the first quarterback in Eagles history to throw for three touchdowns in the first quarter. Wentz, who looks quite good in his sophomore campaign, finished with 304 yards and four touchdowns through the air on Sunday. The offensive line gave up one sack when left tackle Jason Peters got beat inside late in the play. (It looked like Wentz could've gotten rid of the ball.) Other than that, there were no quarterback hits attributed to the O-line.
Of the Eagles' 419 total offensive yards, 122 came on the ground. LeGarrette Blount led the way with 14 carries for 74 yards. It's not quite the production he had in Week 4, but the bruising back did average 5.3 yards per carry against Arizona.
Philadelphia also overcame losing Lane Johnson at halftime. He played 33 snaps, but Halapoulivaati Vaitai played well in taking the remaining 34 snaps at right tackle. The Eagles are getting solid play at left guard by continuing to rotate Stefen Wisniewski and Chance Warmack at the position. Right guard Brandon Brooks didn't allow a single pressure, keeping his play at a high level for another week.
The 4-1 Eagles are sitting pretty heading into their Thursday night contest in Charlotte, N.C., where they'll face the Panthers' No. 3 overall defense.
The rest of the top five O-lines from Week 5
2) Jacksonville Jaguars: The Jaguars looked quite impressive on the road, riding rookie RB Leonard Fournette (along with an inspired defensive performance) to a 30-9 win over Pittsburgh. Jacksonville had 313 yards of total offense, with a whopping 231 coming on the ground. Fournette, the No. 4 overall pick in April's draft, had a huge day with 181 yards, including one 90-yard touchdown run. There's no better feeling than breaking a long run when you're trying to run out the clock. Fournette averaged 6.5 yards per carry on the day, finishing with a pair of scores.
It's crazy that a team can win when the quarterback completes just eight passes -- EIGHT -- for 95 yards. (Although, it does help when the opposing QB throws five interceptions.) Blake Bortles, who had one pass attempt (zero completions) in the second half, was sacked twice in the win. One sack was attributed to a missed block by the running back. The second occurred when the O-line collapsed on an inside twist game. All in all, the Jags allowed one QB hit and five total pressures.
3) Baltimore Ravens: The Ravens returned to the winner's circle on Sunday, snapping a two-game skid with a 30-17 win over the Raiders to get back above .500 at 3-2. And the offensive line certainly did its job, ranking No. 1 on the week in run blocking and pass blocking, according to Pro Football Focus.
Baltimore rode the ground game for 143 of its 365 total yards. Buck Allen provided 73 hard yards, while Alex Collins chipped in 55 of his own. Joe Flacco didn't have to do too much -- completing 19 of his 26 passes for 222 yards without a touchdown or interception -- but he wasn't sacked the entire game. In fact, the Ravens quarterback was only hit once and pressured just five times. That's pretty remarkable, when you consider who was on the other side: reigning Defensive Player of the Year Khalil Mack.
4) Kansas City Chiefs: In the Sunday night spotlight, the Chiefs came out smoking, scoring points on every first-half possession on the way to a 42-34 win at Houston that wasn't as close as the final score indicates. For the game, Kansas City went 3-for-5 in the red zone and absolutely dominated time of possession (38:17 to 21:43).
K.C. piled up 450 yards of total offense, with 127 on the ground. Rookie sensation Kareem Hunt logged another 100-yard game, while Alex Smith continued to play like an MVP. The 33-year-old QB is really using his legs well to buy time and get out of trouble. That said, he didn't face a whole lot of trouble this week. The Chiefs' O-line was responsible for five total pressures, including two QB hits. PFF had the group as the second-best pass-blocking unit of Week 5.
5) Miami Dolphins: Obviously, this unit is going through a challenging time this week, with its coach having resigned after video emerged of him apparently engaging in illicit activity. But I'm here to assess O-line play -- and on Sunday, this Dolphins group got the job done in a 16-10 win over the Titans.
OK, now I know the Dolphins only accumulated 178 yards of offense on Sunday. And yes, it's crazy you can win a game in 2017 with that kind of production. But Miami did. And by my eyes, the offensive line -- a unit that struggled over the first four weeks of the season -- acquitted itself quite well. Miami's O-line kept Jay Cutler clean -- the QB was sacked once, but it wasn't on the big boys up front. And the Dolphins finally started to open up some holes for Jay Ajayi and Co., with the ground game eclipsing 100 yards for the first time since the season opener.
Look, this offensive line wasn't in contention for the top spot on today's list. But I think it showed enough improvement -- in a win -- to merit mention.
Follow Shaun O'Hara on Twitter @ShaunOHara60.
