NFL Week 6: Step aside, quarterbacks
It wasn't a banner day for quarterbacks, so let's give it up for lesser-known players who stepped up in Week 6. Plus, why is Mike McCarthy the way that he is?
Even with three more overtime games in Week 6, Sunday was kind of a dud. The highly anticipated duel between MVP candidates Justin Herbert and Lamar Jackson was anticlimactic, at best. After each quarterback threw for four touchdowns and more than 395 yards last week, they combined for just 362 yards, two touchdowns, and three picks in an easy Baltimore win.
Later, any hope of the Browns handing the Cardinals their first loss of the season ended early in the second quarter, when Cleveland’s first three possessions all concluded in turnovers (on downs, a Baker Mayfield fumble, a Mayfield interception) and then the injuries started piling up again.
Cowboys-Patriots was at least a nail-biter, but it was hard to overlook how badly Mike McCarthy managed the game (and how Dak Prescott had to save his bacon). The Seahawks and Steelers then finished the night with the final overtime matchup. Was it weird? Of course. Was it good football? It was not.
Other than a few notable exceptions — such as Prescott — it was a relatively ho-hum day for quarterbacks. Perhaps, in our QB-obsessed world, that’s partly why Sunday felt so off. But the upshot is it gave players who aren’t household names a chance to shine. I picked eight of them to highlight, and I only had one rule: no quarterbacks allowed.
8 non-QBs who stole the show in Week 6
Matthew Wright, K, Jaguars
The Jaguars didn’t just enter Week 6 without a win. They also hadn’t made any field goal attempts, with Josh Lambo and Matthew Wright combining to go 0-for-4 through the first five games of the season. That changed Sunday in London, and right when the Jaguars needed those points most.
After making his first attempt early in the game to end the skid, Wright was put into two high-pressure situations in the fourth quarter. With less than four minutes remaining, Wright pulled Jacksonville into a 20-20 tie when his career-long 54-yarder took a wonky (and ironic considering his name) turn to the left and through the uprights. A few minutes later, following an ill-advised Dolphins timeout, Wright hit a 53-yard field goal as time expired to give the Jags their first win in more than a year:
Not bad for a guy who was a software engineer just a month ago.
Khalil Herbert, RB, Bears
The Bears had a date with their biggest rival Sunday when they hosted Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. They were also without three of their top running backs — David Montgomery is on IR, Tarik Cohen is on the PUP, and Damien Williams was placed on the Covid list this weekend. To give the Bears a fighting chance, Khalil Herbert needed to step up to help his quarterback, fellow rookie Justin Fields.
Until Sunday, Herbert had only 21 carries for 82 yards, the bulk of which came last week. He surpassed that total against the Packers, toting the rock 19 times for 97 yards and his first career touchdown.
Although his performance wasn’t enough to get Chicago the win, Herbert did rush for more yards than anyone else has against Green Bay this season — and in his first ever start.
Jonathan Taylor, RB, Colts
Last week, Jonathan Taylor had a huge game for the Colts … as a receiver. He caught three passes for a career-high 116 yards and a touchdown in a loss to the Ravens. Taylor’s ground game hasn’t been as reliable this season, however. After rushing for 1,169 yards on 5.0 ypc as a rookie, his numbers had been down through Week 5 (327 rushing yards, 4.5 ypc).
Then Week 6 — and a meeting with the hapless Texans defense — came along to give Taylor and the Colts a boost. Taylor ran the ball 14 times for a season-high 145 yards and two touchdowns. More impressively, he put up a whopping 10. 4 yards per carry, aided by the longest run in franchise history:
Even if it was against an inferior opponent, the Colts needed a balanced game like this. And with several winnable contests coming up, they’re hoping they can carry this momentum into the second half of the season. That’ll be easier to do if Taylor keeps running like he did Sunday.
Donovan Peoples-Jones, WR, Browns
The Browns laid a big egg this week, but maybe we finally got the DPJ breakout we’ve been waiting for? The second-year receiver enjoyed the best game of his career, with four catches for 101 yards and two scores (the first Browns player with two receiving TDs in a game in over a year). Most notably, he secured the Hail Mary touchdown right before halftime:
DPJ was a bright spot for the Browns (maybe their only one) Sunday, and considering how banged up they are, they’ll need him to continue to produce.
K.J. Osborn, WR, Vikings
Adam Thielen was Kirk Cousins’ go-to target for most of the afternoon, but the Vikings quarterback turned to K.J. Osborn in the game’s most pivotal moments. The 24-year-old, who scored his first career touchdown in Week 2, was targeted twice in overtime: first on third-and-3 (he hauled in a 13-yard pass) and then again for the game winner:
Osborn also caught two of Cousins’ four passes on Minnesota’s drive before overtime that ended on a missed field goal. The Vikings shouldn’t have needed overtime to beat the Panthers, but at least it gave Osborn his star-making turn. His final line: six catches for 78 yards and the touchdown that brought the Vikings to 3-3.
Taylor Rapp, S, Rams
In 29 career games, Taylor Rapp had snagged three interceptions. In his 30th career game alone, he snagged two more. The Rams were a heavy road favorite over the Giants for a reason; they’re the (much) better, more talented, healthier team. But it had seemed like Daniel Jones had put his turnover issues behind him. Before this weekend, Jones had thrown just one pick and lost one fumble this season.
Against the Rams, Jones turned the ball over four times, including Rapp’s two INTs, both of which led to LA touchdowns.
The Rams likely would’ve won the game regardless, but Rapp gave Matthew Stafford and Co. a short field to work with twice, which made their job easier — and Jones’ that much harder.
Maxx Crosby, Edge, Raiders
Maxx Crosby is one of the unsung heroes of this NFL season. He, somewhat quietly, entered Week 6 with the most QB pressures in the league with 31. He added to that total with 12 more against the Broncos, including three sacks:
That ended Crosby’s three-game stretch without a sack, but his effort, on and off the field, also helped the Raiders get back in the win column after dropping two in a row. More importantly, the Raiders needed to prove that they were still focused on football and not distracted by Jon Gruden’s resignation.
Something tells me that with more games like that, Crosby won’t be able to fly under the radar anymore.
Randy Gregory, DE, Cowboys
In Week 6, Randy Gregory doubled his season sack total from two to four — and both sacks came at key moments in a close game.
Early in the second quarter, the Cowboys were desperate for momentum after the Patriots scored on their first two drives and Dallas had turned the ball over (on downs, via interception) twice. Gregory answered the call with a strip sack that eventually led to a Greg Zuerlein field goal:
He then set the tone for the defense in the second half when he walloped Mac Jones again on third down, forcing the Patriots to punt on their opening possession.
In addition to those sacks, Gregory finished the day with three tackles, two QB hits, and a tackle for loss. After his past suspensions, Gregory is a full-time starter for the first time in his career and has done his part to shoulder the load while DeMarcus Lawrence is out with a foot injury. Once Lawrence returns, opponents will have their hands full with the Dallas defense. When’s the last time we could say that? — SH
Christian’s shit list
All the things I hated in Week 6.
1. Joe Judge, working diligently to break Daniel Jones before he’s fired
Jones left Week 5’s blowout loss to the Cowboys with a head injury. He did not leave Week 6’s loss to the Rams, which feels equally troubling.
Judge treated his young quarterback like a worn-down veteran reliever, keeping him in for the entirety of a 38-11 loss to perform mop-up duty in what’s already become another lost season in New York. Jones dropped back to pass 55 times for a net gain of 201 yards. He turned the ball over four times before the fourth quarter even began, leading to 21 Rams points. He was sacked four times and hit seven more behind an offensive line with the stability of a bag of superballs dumped onto a parking lot from a tremendous height. He was backed by a running game that averaged just 3.3 yards per carry.
There were plenty of opportunities to hand the reins over to Mike Glennon for another stint closing out a hopeless game. Instead, Judge left his starter in the pocket to play pinata one week after suffering a concussion. Jones is a flawed quarterback, but he’s shown he can be a competent player with the right gameplan.
Unfortunately for him, the Giants have no interest in figuring out what that is. On the bright side, he could be a free agent as soon as 2023.
2. The Kansas City Chiefs, capable of looking broken even in an 18-point win
The Washington Football Team has vacated any and all momentum from last year’s NFC East title. Granted, that came with a 7-10 record, but it still seemed like the kind of foundation capable of sustaining a playoff streak, even if it was only for two years.
Then Ryan Fitzpatrick got injured, a championship-caliber defense fluttered in upon itself like a fitted sheet escaping the corner of a mattress, and the Jon Gruden emails proved that yes, this organization is just as toxic as we assumed. Washington boasts the league’s 31st-ranked scoring defense … and still led the Chiefs, with their all-world offense, 13-10 at halftime.
In weeks past, the problem had been Kansas City’s defense. On Sunday it was the offense, torpedoed briefly by a brain-farting Patrick Mahomes.
Things got so bad Spotrac, everyone’s favorite in-depth contract information website, felt compelled to point out how much of Mahomes’ $500 million contract the Chiefs were still obligated to pay. Things were dicey!
Of course, the universe corrected itself and Mahomes threw for 397 yards and two touchdowns in a blowout. Still, Kansas City is prone to defensive meltdowns and has now committed multiple turnovers in four of its last five games. Fortunately for the Chiefs, they’re still alive in the AFC West race because
They still have Mahomes, regardless of how much he costs and
...
3. The Chargers flaking apart like a stale pastry shell
Los Angeles came into Week 6 averaging 411 yards of offense per game. Justin Herbert had thrown for 11 touchdowns without an interception in his last three games.
The Ravens took this all into account and decided they did not give a shit.
Baltimore held the Chargers to 208 total yards in Sunday’s 33-6 blowout. Herbert needed 39 passes to throw for just 195 yards. His running backs combined for 14 yards on 10 carries. He went from looking like an MVP to recording a total expected points added number of -13.3 — roughly twice as bad as Mitchell Trubisky was in his NVP award-winning turn in last year’s playoff run.
What makes things worse is that LA wasn’t beaten by a monster Lamar Jackson passing performance like the Broncos and Colts before it. Jackson had a relatively low-key day as the Chargers gave up rushing touchdowns to Devonta Freeman, Latavius Murray, and Le’Veon Bell. In 2021.
The Chargers’ defense could be a problem, as a thin group is vulnerable to mobile quarterbacks capable of spreading the ball out to multiple targets. Unfortunately for them, that describes pretty much the entire upper crust of AFC contenders.
4. Mike McCarthy, who has turned “getting bailed out by star players” into his entire identity
McCarthy has twice opted to settle for 50+ yard field goals late in games when the numbers suggest he should have been more aggressive. He’s twice been bailed out; by kicker Greg Zuerlein in Week 2 and now by Trevon Diggs and Dak Prescott in Week 6.
Diggs’ pick-six of Mac Jones turned a 21-20 deficit into a 26-21 lead with just about two minutes to play in Foxborough. Then the Patriots scored one play later thanks to some of the worst safety coverage in the world:
McCarthy was bailed out once more by Prescott, who put on a show with the game on the line. He led back-to-back scoring drives that turned a Patriot lead in the final minute to a Cowboy victory. This is great news for the head coach and bad news for Dallas, as it will only build a resume powered by singular performances that get trumped time and time again in the postseason. It was a common thread in Green Bay’s good-not-great seasons. Now it’s begun to nest in Texas.
5. Poor, poor UW-Platteville
Platteville is a nice enough college town. Good bars. Cheap drinks. Occasionally they have a decent football team. Sometimes they even send a guy to the pros — shoutout to Pioneer legend and Jacksonville tight end Dan Arnold. There was originally a joke in here about Platteville being Wisconsin’s Jacksonville, but that’s really more of a Wausau thing ...
(/high fives the two readers who know a little bit about the Badger State, grins smugly to self)
Anyway, Platteville’s a proud member of the WIAC, one of Division III’s most powerful conferences. Sometimes they fight their way to the upper tier of Wisconsin football. And sometimes their quarterback forgets the basic functions of the position and the difference between taking a knee and spiking the ball, costing them an upset win against a top 15 rival:
And the game would have been tied at this point had the Pioneers not committed a false start after scoring a touchdown on the drive before this and then biffing the extra point from five extra yards back! The pain!
I love Division III football with all my being and am only sad I had to see this on Twitter instead of in person. — CD
Week 6 results, in five words or fewer
Jaguars 23, Dolphins 20
Ravens 34, Chargers 6
Chiefs 31, Washington 13
Rams 38, Giants 11
Bengals 34, Lions 11
Colts 31, Texans 3
Packers 24, Bears 14
Vikings 34, Panthers 28 (OT)
Cardinals 37, Browns 14
Get your s*** together, Browns
Raiders 34, Broncos 24
Cowboys 35, Patriots 29 (OT)
Cowboys win despite themselves
Steelers 23, Seahawks 20 (OT)