NFC East makes dubious NFL history with winless Week 5 as Giants hold unlikely division lead

The NFC East just had an all-time week to remember, or if you’re a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants or Washington Commanders, an all-time week to forget.

Dallas lost 24-16 at home to the previously 0-4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers with Jalon Daniels, an undrafted rookie making his second career start, at quarterback. Philadelphia lost 19-17 in regulation against the Jacksonville Jaguars despite kicking a go-ahead field goal with eight seconds left. Last and ugliest, the New York Giants and Washington Commanders tied despite both teams reaching field-goal range in the last two minutes of overtime.

With all four NFC East teams going winless in Week 5, they have now become just the fourth occurrence of an entire division going winless despite having a divisional matchup in the 418 NFL regular-season weeks since the 2002 divisional realignment, per CBS Sports Research. That means the 2026 NFC East did something that has only happened in less than one percent of the 418 weeks of NFL regular season action, 0.96%, to be exact, since 2002.

In the case of the Giants and Commanders, they now own two of the last three ties in the NFL, with these two NFC East teams tying each other in 2022. The Cowboys account for the other tie in this span, a 40-40 home tie against the Green Bay Packers last season. Another unfathomable stat for the Giants is that they are now winless in their last six overtime games, with four losses and two ties. 

Week 5’s events have now created a tightly-contested NFC East division race through five weeks. The Giants are in first place at 3-1-1, but both the Eagles and the Cowboys are right behind them at 2-3. The Commanders are bringing up the rear at 1-3-1.