We head into week 6 and the haves and have nots are starting to separate themselves. Here is the best rankings in the nation heading into week 6.
Terrible…just terrible: Titans, Dolphins and Chargers
These teams are a combined 0-15. The Titans got blown out by the 0-4 Texans. The Chargers literally gave the game to the Broncos by going for it on 4th down at their own 40 up 7 points in the 4th quarter. And to top it off they just ran a QB sneak behind one of the worst lines in football. And the Dolphins…the poor Dolphins are yet to have a lead in a game. That’s right…through five weeks the Dolphins are yet to have the lead at any point in any game. The only good news for the Dolphins is they have a bye this week so they can’t lose.
Awfully Bad but occasionally okay: Bucs, Saints, Texans, Cardinals
These teams are awful in some ways but can put together a competitive game every now and then. These teams are pretty much toast if they lose this week.
NFC Least: NFC East
This division didn’t win a game this week and two of them played each other. The Cowboys kicked off the week by losing to an 0-4 team with an undrafted QB starting his second game and were 8.5 point favorites. The Eagles should have beat the Jags but apparently they don’t know how timeouts and the clock work. The Giants should have beat the Commanders but instead the fumbled the ball while in field goal range. And the Commanders don’t know how football works in general I guess. Maybe the worst managed end of the game I have ever seen in my entire life and I’ve seen a lot of football.
Competitive but are gonna lose a lot of games: Colts, Raiders, Browns, and Jets
These teams are scrappy and will be competitive in most games than not. If their opponent comes in sleeping on them look out. But if their opponent takes them seriously, they will beat these teams most of the time.
Playoff Contenders or Pretenders: Bengals, Steelers, Falcons, Panthers
All of these teams could do anything from win their division to miss the playoffs. They all need a little more consistency to move up in the rankings. Well the Falcons are consistent as long as Penix is playing quarterback. And they automatically lose when he doesn’t play. Case in point, it Tua two plays in overtime to lose the game Sunday night.
Give me something to Bolieve in: Broncos
I watch pretty much every Broncos game because I am married to a Broncos fan. I’m not completely unbiased since I am a Chiefs fan but I think I have a pretty good and fair read on this team. Let me tell you what the difference is between last year and this year. Bo Nix. Not the defense although they are slightly worse, they are still great. Not the play caller. Nothing looked different with Payton calling the plays and they actually got statistically worse. It’s Bo Nix. He sucks this year. Last year he played bad usually for 2 to 2 and half quarters and awesome in the other quarter and half. This year he’s just pretty much bad all 4 quarters. He misses open receivers. Is conservative on where he throws it. Bails out of clean pockets and just in general is terrible. He seems like a nice kid so I’m not a hater. He just hasn’t been good. It doesn’t get any easier this week against Seattle. And remember, in my predictions I said they just needed to go 3-3 in these first 6 games. But if Bo looks bad in week 7 vs the Cardinals then they might be in trouble.
Rams? More like Lambs, am I right?: Rams
The super team is 2-3 and really hasn’t looked great for 4 quarters all year. This team typically starts slow so I’m not overly worried about them but they do need to start winning games just to make the playoffs. The schedule gets softer starting this week and hopefully the will suck less on Special Teams which has been an Achilles heel for this team for ever.
NFC Not so bad: NFC North
The Bears won 3 games with 3 different quarterbacks but they are going to need their starter back to be competitive going forward which was shown on Sunday. The Packers came to life this week and should be able to keep it rolling this week against that Dallas D. The Lions are competitive in every game and if their defense shows up just a little bit they will win more than the lose. I don’t think what the Vikings are doing is sustainable. I mean they blitz on like 90% of plays and they can’t score touchdowns. But credit where credit is due, they are 5-0. I just don’t think any of these teams are better than the others at this point.
On the right track: Ravens and Patriots
Both of these teams are trending in the right direction. I think they will keep it rolling this week and beyond. Drake Maye looks like he did last year. And the Ravens should get Lamar back soon but are capable of winning games with Snoop Huntley in his place until then.
Ball security is overrated: Bills
James Cook fumbles a lot and cost me a fantasy football victory. Allen is wreckless with the ball and with his body. But they do what they do and what the Bills can do is run the ball and score lots of points. Maybe their defense will improve, maybe they won’t. But this team has divisional round playoff loss written all over them which is what they do every year. But it’ll be a fun watch along the way.
Going to be a tough out: Jaguars and Seahawks
These aren’t perfect teams. They have flaws and are beatable. But they are tough and scrappy and have a lot of good players. I think both these teams can make deep playoff runs and they would be the last team I would want to face if I was either of the top 2 teams.
Back together again: Chiefs and 49ers
I technically give the edge to the 49ers because they have beaten better teams. But it is more fun to torture 49er fans with the idea of us playing each other in the Super Bowl again as the two best teams. I’ve enjoyed the outcome of both of those match ups. Are we headed towards round 3? It’s too early to tell but it’s looking more and more possible. Before predicting that, I need to see the Chiefs against some tougher competition and I need to see how many guys the 49ers have left when we get to the Playoffs.
