D.S. Williamson
What an NFL Week 6! The AFC West turned into the toughest division as football as San Diego and Kansas City took a step closer to Oakland and Denver. The nightmare season continued for Carolina while Dallas absolutely throttled Green Bay. Keep reading for the Week 6 recap of each NFL game!
Editor’s Note: Check out our NFL Week 6 Picks by Matt Ross and the Week 6 Betting Preview DS Williamson
NFL Betting – Regular Season Week 6 Recap
Denver Broncos 13, San Diego Chargers 21
Even with Trevor Siemian under center, the Broncos had a tough time moving the football. San Diego always plays Denver tough, but this game was strange. The biggest issue for Denver was the rushing attack where they only racked up 84 total yards from 16 carries. Siemian was 30 out of 50 for 234 yards and a TD. If Denver can’t get their rushing game going, they’ll have no shot at the AFC West Division.
San Diego won the game by not forcing anything. The Chargers stuck to the game plan. QB Phillip Rivers only passed for 178 yards. But Rivers didn’t throw a pick while throwing a TD pass. The Bolts stuck to the run producing 99 rushing yards from 29 carries.
Jacksonville 17, Chicago Bears 16
The Jaguars played a bend but don’t break defense to full effect in Week 6. Jacksonville only allowed the Bears to score 16 points even though the Jags gave up 302 passing yards to QB Brandon Hoyer and 92 rushing yards to Chicago’s offense.
Wait a sec…so Jacksonville is the team that had 2 turnovers and only 54 rushing yards and they still won the game? Exactly! As a +2.5 road dog, the Jags did their bettors proud by taking home the straight up win.
San Francisco 49’ers 16, Buffalo Bills 45
San Francisco scored 13 points and looked to be on their way to an upset win over the Bills. But Buffalo made the necessary adjustments at halftime. The Bills outscored San Francisco 28 to 3 in the second half, including scoring 21 points in the 4th quarter. Buffalo ended up beating the 49’ers 45 to 16.
San Francisco did start Colin Kaepernick. He looked much better under center than Blaine Gabbert has this season. But at the end of the 4 quarters, Kaepernicks’ play, like Gabbert’s before him, hasn’t mattered to whether or not San Francisco can win a football game.
Pittsburgh Steelers 15, Miami Dolphins 30
There are a couple of huge things to realize about this game. The first, and most glaring, is that QB Ben Roethlisberger may be out for the season after hurting his knee in the second quarter. That may be a terrible thing for Big Ben and the Steelers. It should be tough to win the Super Bowl without Big Ben even though back-up Landry Jones has some skills.
The man thing that I noticed in this game was how Pitt’s defense, which had played well the last 2 games, was nowhere to be found in this. Pitt’s D was terrible. Pittsburgh’s D has to bounce back for the Steelers to have any shot of beating New England this Sunday.
Los Angeles Rams 28, Detroit Lions 31
The Rams are supposed to have a good defense? Not really. They couldn’t stop Detroit all day even though everybody knows that the Lions aren’t great at rushing the football. The Lions ran the football just enough to keep Detroit’s defense off balance. It was enough for QB Matthew Stafford to throw 4 TD passes. It was enough for WR Golden Tate to catch 8 passes for 165 yards and 2 TDs.
The Rams are still terrible at rushing the football. They only had 76 yards from 22 carries. Todd Gurley didn’t have a great game. Rams’ QB Case Keenum actually did. He threw 3 TD passes to go along with 321 yards. He only threw 1 pick. Keenum is making the Jared Goff pick look sillier and sillier week to week.
Carolina Panthers 38, New Orleans Saints 41
The Saints rushed out to a big lead. But, like New Orleans often does, it blew the lead so that they needed a final minute field goal in order to beat Carolina 41 to 38. New Orleans has now won 2 games in a row. The Saints are only 1 game. That’s right, 1 game, behind Atlanta for the NFC South Division lead.
For Carolina, the loss had to have stung. The Panthers are 1 and 5 straight up this season. I know that Carolina has a lot of talent. But let’s be honest with ourselves, at 1 and 5 the Panthers probably don’t even make the playoffs, much less find a way to win the NFC South.
Cincinnati Bengals 17, New England Patriots 35
The Bengals are having a terrible 2016 so far. Cincinnati has lost 4 out of its last 5 games. It is 2 and 4. With a lot of football left, it’s hard to see Cincinnati having any shot at winning the AFC North, much less even touching a playoffs spot.
For New England, the 35 to 17 victory over Cincinnati was to be expected. Football handicappers had bet the Pats all the way to -8.5 road favorites over the Bengals this past Sunday before the line settled at Pats -7.5.
Cleveland Browns 26, Tennessee Titans 28
The biggest thing that came out of this game was watching Titans’ QB Marcus Mariota tear up another NFL defense. Mariota rushed for 64 yards from 7 carries. He threw for 284 yards. He also threw 3 TDs with only 1 pick. Mariota’s excellent play the last couple of weeks has Tennessee only a game behind Houston for the top spot in the AFC South.
Cleveland scored a TD in garbage time, with 27 second left, in order to beat the Titans against the spread. Tennessee had the game well in hand by then. The Titans are a solid group of players. Mariota appears to be getting better week to week. I think the Titans are for real.
Baltimore Ravens 23, New York Giants 27
I’m not a huge fan of the Baltimore Ravens or the New York Giants after this game. I have to really get on Baltimore’s case, though, after they allowed Odell Beckham Jr. to catch 8 Eli Manning passes for 222 yards and 2 touchdowns. That was ridiculous.
Neither one of these teams showed enough for me to think that they’ll make waves in either the AFC or the NFC. Baltimore could get somewhat better because their coach, John Harbaugh, is one of the best in the business. The Giants just aren’t a very good team.
Kansas City Chiefs 26, Oakland Raiders 10
This was a surprise, right? Not really. The biggest rivalry in the AFC is Chiefs versus Raiders. It’s bigger than Patriots versus Jets. It’s bigger than Pittsburgh versus Cincinnati or Cincinnati versus Cleveland. Chiefs versus Raiders goes all the way back to the AFL when John Madden coached the Raiders and Hank Stram coached the Chiefs.
KC got to play the Raiders after their bye. Give Andy Reid any extra time and he’ll find a way to beat you.
Philadelphia Eagles 20, Washington Redskins 27
The Eagles lost their second game in a row, this time to a division rival, when Washington beat Philadelphia 27 to 20. One obvious thing to notice was how Washington rushed for 230 yards from 33 carries against what had been a tough Philadelphia defense. Washington RB Matt Jones rushed for 135 yards. He scored a TD.
It’s also important to note that Eagles’ rookie QB Carson Wentz only passed for 179 yards. Wentz doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. But he won’t take a lot of risks in Doug Pederson’s system, either. It remains to be seen whether or not that hurts the Eagles moving forward.
Atlanta Falcons 24, Seattle Seahawks 26
The biggest lesson from this game is that the Atlanta Falcons are real. The Falcons spotted the Seahawks a 17 to 3 lead. In the third quarter, Atlanta scored 3 touchdowns. Matt Ryan and Julio Jones went to work. Seattle had no answer for the duo.
Sure, the Seahawks beat Atlanta, but take nothing away from the Falcons. With Carolina at 1 and 5, Atlanta is in the driver’s seat for the NFC South Division. Seattle has a huge game in Week 7 against the rival Arizona Cardinals. I’ve got the feeling that these two could see each other in the playoffs.
Dallas Cowboys 30, Green Bay Packers 16
If anybody doubted whether or not the Cowboys are for real, they shouldn’t doubt that anymore. Dallas destroyed Green Bay as a +4 road dog in Week 6. They did whatever they wanted to on offense against Green Bay’s defense while roughing up Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers. Dallas is the team to beat in the NFC East.
Green Bay is a mess. For some reason, Rodgers doesn’t have it this season. Maybe, he’s distracted. Or, maybe, his skills have simply diminished. Either way, he’s not focused, his passes are sailing on him, and he’s failing to read defenses correctly.
Indianapolis Colts 23, Houston Texans 26
The Colts defense is so bad that an excellent QB like Andrew Luck can’t even save them. That’s how bad the Colts D is. It’s impossible for Indianapolis to beat anybody in the NFL when Luck rushes his team out to a 13 to 3 lead, builds on that lead or at least maintains it, and then the Colts’ defense gives it up.
I feel bad for Luck. But Houston fans shouldn’t get too excited. The Texans are only a game ahead of the Tennessee Titans whose quarterback has started to play like one of the best signal callers in the NFL.
New York Jets 3, Arizona Cardinals 28
The thing to note about this battle is that instead of beating the Jets via the pass, like so many other teams have done this season, Arizona took apart the Jets with the rushing attack. The Cardinals handed the ball off to David Johnson 22 times. He rushed for 111 yards and scored 3 touchdowns. DJ was unbelievable against New York.
The Jets have to consider starting Christian Hackenberg at quarterback. Fitzpatrick was terrible again while Geno Smith wasn’t much better spelling Fitz. Bryce Petty, who has some talent, is out indefinitely. What the Jets should do is cut Fitzpatrick, start Hackenberg and have Smith backup Hackenberg. J-E-T-S isn’t making the playoffs. Get Christian some reps in a real game.
