Week 5 NFL Open Thread: Morning Games

The San Francisco 49ers get underway today in the 1:25pm time slot, which means we get a morning slot of games to get us going. This week features four teams on bye, with the Lions, Cowboys, Raiders and Bucs getting the week off. This particular bye week has left us with a fairly balanced schedule. The AM slate features six games, while the PM slate features five games, including the 49ers.

The morning slate has a few sneezers, but two particularly intriguing games. The Steelers host the Eagles and the Redskins host the Falcons. Robert Griffin III has gotten his NFL career off to a solid start, but he faces his biggest challenge to date in the undefeated Falcons. Atlanta's defense isn't spectacular, but the team as a whole is doing some good things. The Redskins sit at 2-2 inan NFC East race that is fairly wide open. They can make a serious statement in this game.

The Steelers are coming off their early bye week and will look to rebound from their tough loss to the Raiders two weeks ago. They've had some time to stew on that, while the Eagles are coming off a big late win against the Giants. The Eagles lead the NFC East with a 3-1 record, but I think that is a really wide open division.

We'll be back at noon PT with the inactives, followed by the first game thread at 1:15pm PT.