Top 10 takeaways from Sunday’s Week 6 NFL action

Week 6 of the NFL season offered us the most excitement we have seen all fall. From a close game coming down to a bad call in Seattle to the Dallas Cowboys going into Green Bay and handling the Packers, a whole heck of a lot happened in the NFC.

Meanwhile, over in the AFC contenders separated themselves from pretenders a great deal. Tom Brady continued his dominating performance since returning from suspension in a blowout win over the Cincinnati Bengals.

On the other hand, both the Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers put up horrendous performances against inferior squads. For Pittsburgh, it may have included the loss of its franchise quarterback for an extended period.

These are among the top-10 takeaways from Sunday’s Week 6 NFL action.

1. Carolina Panthers’ season is already over

Did Josh Norman really make that much of a difference? If you ask fans in Carolina, the answer to this question is surely a resounding yes.

Carolina’s defense was absolutely embarrassed for a second time in three weeks on Sunday against the Saints in New Orleans. The stats tell us this story, as does the tape itself (watch here).

Overall, Drew Brees completed 34-of-49 passes for 465 yards and four touchdowns in a last-second 41-38 win over the Panthers. That drops the defending NFC South champs to 1-5 on the season and pretty much completely out of the playoff race.

Since the merger back in 1970, only two teams have earned a playoff spot after losing five of their first six games. And for the Panthers, this is magnified even more. Their only win to date came against a cellar-dwelling San Francisco 49ers squad.

Outside of what has been an atrocious defensive display, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong on Sunday. That lends some credence to the idea that Carolina’s most-recent loss was pretty much on the defense itself.

Though, we must note that reigning NFL MVP Cam Newton didn’t exactly do himself any favors here. Down 21-0 early in the second quarter, Newton put up his only interception of the game. It came in the end zone with the Panthers looking to get back in the game.

You simply can’t waste good drives like that with your defense displaying absolutely nothing on the other side. With a game coming up against the Arizona Cardinals following their Week 7 bye, the Panthers need to fix this in short order. Even then, it simply might be too late.

Now at 1-5 on the season, Carolina is back to the drawing board.

2. Tom Brady continues stellar post-suspension play

Should we really be surprised here? It took Brady all but one possession (if that) to shake off the rust stemming from his four-game suspension. That took place in a win over the Cleveland Browns last week. All said, Brady completed 28-of-40 passes for over 400 yards and three touchdowns in his season debut.

Now taking on a much better Cincinnati Bengals team on Sunday, Brady showed that he’s at that level of domination we’ve seen throughout the vast majority of his career.

The future Hall of Fame quarterback embarrassed the Bengals to the tune of 376 yards and three touchdowns on 29-of-35 passing in an 35-17 win. Yes folks, that equates to a perfect quarterback rating on the day.

Needless to say, Brady has put the entire NFL on notice with his performance through two games. And as a team, the Patriots look like the class of the league.

It surely doesn’t look like the NFL-sanctioned four-game suspension had much of an impact on what we’re seeing in New England.

3. Odell Beckham Jr. is back

It took a hip injury. It took another run in with the kicker’s net. It took five weeks of frustration. But OBJ finally blew up against the Baltimore Ravens in a game the New York Giants desperately needed to win.

The third-year receiver caught eight of the 10 passes thrown his way with two touchdowns, both of which were of the big-play variety.

The first score came with New York trailing by three points late in the third quarter. It went for 75 yards and came on a play the Ravens’ defense seemed to be completely lost (watch here).

Then, with New York down 23-20 and just over one minute remaining, OBJ slipped more questionable Ravens coverage for a 66-yard game-winning score (watch here).

Not only did Beckham Jr. need this for himself, the Giants needed to come away with a win on Sunday after losing its previous three games. It’s in this that the team relied on their enigmatic receiver to do his thing. OBJ didn’t disappoint after initially starting the game with a thud.

4. Dallas Cowboys as legit Super Bowl contenders

No Tony Romo. No Dez Bryant. No problem. The Cowboys just continue to roll opponents like we haven’t seen since Troy Aikman was in his heyday late last century. It’s doing so with a rookie quarterback breaking records and a fellow first-year running back dazzling onlookers.

The Cowboys’ latest victim became the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on Sunday. And in reality, it wasn’t even that close.

Dak Prescott may have thrown an interception and turned the ball over twice but he dominated Aaron Rodgers in yet another decisive victory in the Cowboys’ favor.

Prescott led Dallas to a 17-6 halftime lead with two touchdown passes before intermission. He added a third in the second half en route to knocking off Rodgers and the Packers by the score of 30-16.

Meanwhile, Ezekiel Elliott continued his dominating rookie season, putting up 175 yards on 30 touches. He’s now on pace for well over 2,000 total yards and has to be considered a legitimate MVP candidate.

Now winners of five consecutive, it looks like the other parts of this Cowboys team is coming together. It forced four turnovers and held the Packers to just one touchdown.

It’s in this that we might have to start talking about the Cowboys as potential Super Bowl contenders. It’s not premature. It’s simply the reality we’re seeing today. Average teams don’t go into Green Bay and manhandle the Packers. It simply doesn’t happen. Sunday represented a Cowboys team that grew up.

The good feelings that were brought on by some solid early-season success has now been replaced by expectations. Potential Super Bowl expectations. How Prescott, Elliott and the rest of the young Cowboys handle this will be telling. But for now, all is great in Big D.

5. Raiders blow huge opportunity, put up a dud at home

At 4-1 on the season and riding a three-game winning streak, the Oakland Raiders had a golden opportunity to prove their worth among the AFC’s best. They also had an opportunity to take sole possession of first place in the AFC West after the Denver Broncos’ loss on Thursday night.

But much like we have seen from the Raiders over the past 15 years, they failed to capitalize. Instead, Oakland laid a complete egg at home against the division rival Kansas City Chiefs.

After putting up a seven-play, 46-yard touchdown scoring drive to open the game, Oakland scored a grand total of three points the rest of the way. The team turned it over two times in soggy conditions while allowing the Chiefs to put up over 400 total yards of offense.

When the clock struck zero late Sunday afternoon, the Raiders were on the losing end of a 26-10 final score. What went wrong here? We can’t really point a finger on it.

But we can point out the second half of the initial stanza when looking at how things may have gotten away from the Raiders. A Derek Carr interception would eventually lead to Kansas City putting up its first points of the game — a Spencer Ware two-yard touchdown run.

Then on the Raiders next possession, the always reliable Sebastian Janikowski missed a 52-year field goal, setting Kansas City up at its own 42. The Chiefs would respond by scoring their second touchdown in a row to take a six-point lead.

It’s these types of performances that have in the past set into motion extensive losing streaks for the Raiders. At 4-2 on the year, there shouldn’t be any panic here. But that doesn’t make Sunday’s performance any less unnerving.

6. Officials could impact NFC Playoff race

First off, let’s be clear here. The Atlanta Falcons had a golden opportunity to go into Seattle and take care of the Seahawks. They dominated for most of the second half, putting up three unanswered third quarter touchdowns.

If it wasn’t for a meltdown by the Falcons, this likely wouldn’t have been a game. Good teams close out their opponents. Atlanta simply didn’t do that on Sunday.

Still, the officiating in this game was absolutely slanted in Seattle’s favor, something we have seen when Pete Carroll and Co. have played at home over the years.

It all came to a head with Atlanta facing a 4th-and-10 down by two with just over a minute remaining. Matt Ryan threw up what seemed to be a prayer to Julio Jones. If the pass had connected, it would have put Atlanta in position for a game-winning field goal.

There’s really no other explanation needed here. The officials blew this call plain and simple. Even the former head of officiating agrees.

It really could end up impacting the NFC Playoff race and who has home-field or a first-round bye in the playoffs. Atlanta entered Sunday with a 4-1 record. Meanwhile, Seattle stood at 3-1 after a Week 5 bye.

This shouldn’t happen. The officials need to make the call on a blatant pass interference penalty — a penalty that likely would have impacted the outcome of the game.

Atlanta shouldn’t have put itself in that position, but it’s not debatable that having to play both the officials and the Seahawks on the road is not a winning formula.

7. The inconsistency of Big Ben’s Steelers

You can’t be as inconsistent as the Pittsburgh Steelers and expect to be taken seriously in today’s NFL. Fresh off two tantalizing performances that saw them put up nearly 900 total yards and 74 points, the Steelers were stymied by a bad Miami Dolphins team on Sunday.

We will preface this with some harsh reality first. Ben Roethlisberger was not 100 percent in the second half of the game. He hurt his knee and is out for an undetermined amount of time.

Assuming Big Ben is able to return at some point this season, there are still some major issues with consistency here. Pittsburgh’s offense put up just 15 first downs, converted 3-of-11 third-down opportunities and turned the ball over twice. That’s just not winning football.

Defensively, the Steelers let a previously dormant Dolphins offense run through them. Jay Ajayi, who was actually a healthy scratch for Week 1, tallied an absurd 204 rushing yards and two touchdowns in the 30-15 Miami win.

This is just the latest example of Pittsburgh laying a complete egg away from home. And the sample size is getting too big to ignore. It’s not one game. Instead, it appears to be the start of a pattern.

Over the course of the Steelers’ past two road games, they have been outscored by an average of 32-9. During that very same span, Mike Tomlin’s squad has yielded 900 total yards of offense while recording 548 yards themselves.

Despite a 4-2 record on the season, this has to concern fans of the Steel Curtain. You need to be competitive on the road, especially against inferior competition. That simply hasn’t happened here recently.

And with Big Ben likely sidelined for a substantial period of time, this inconsistency needs to be fixed. If not, the Steelers will find themselves in even more trouble moving forward.

8. Redskins clip the Eagles with dominating performance on offense

We can talk about Carson Wentz’s struggles. And they were real. The rookie quarterback completed just 11-of-22 passes for 179 yards without a touchdown. That’s to be expected. First-year signal callers will have their learning curves. Philadelphia had to see this coming at some point.

Instead, the utter domination of Washington’s offense is the biggest takeaway from this NFC East battle. Washington put up 493 total yards and 26 first downs in the 27-20 win.

For the first time all year, the team wasn’t relying too much on Kirk Cousins and the passing game. Including a game-clinching 57-yard run to allow the Redskins to take to victory formation, second-year running back Matt Jones put up 135 yards and a score on 16 attempts.

Meanwhile, Cousins overcame an early-game pick six (watch here) to put up yet another stellar outing. He helped Washington convert 7-of-13 third-down opportunities en route to the team holding on to the ball 10 minutes longer than Philadelphia. That was a huge key, especially with the Redskins’ defense showing itself to be shaky through the first five weeks.

By virtue of this win, Washington moves to 4-2 on the season. That’s a far cry from its 0-2 start, at which point it looked like last year’s division title was a fluke.

9. Embarrassing defensive display from the 49ers

This has become routine more than anything else. With all eyes on Colin Kaepernick making his first start of the season, some had reason to believe San Francisco would be able to break its four-game losing streak.

While Kaepernick did his job in the first half to keep the 49ers alive, it was the team’s defense that failed to show up again. And again. And again. It was yet another putrid performance from what is a talented, but inexperienced unit.

Play after play, the 49ers’ defense was manhandled by what is quickly becoming a much better Buffalo Bills offense.

When all was said and done at Orchard Park on Sunday afternoon, the Bills put up 491 total yards, 29 first downs and 45 points.

A continuing theme throughout the season, San Francisco’s run defense simply failed to do anything of substance. LeSean McCoy went for 140 yards and three scores on 19 attempts. Meanwhile, both Tyrod Taylor and Mike Gillislee each put up 60-plus yards en route to leading the Bills to an absurd 312 yards on the ground.

Now, over the course of San Francisco’s five-game losing streak, opposing teams have put up 981 total rushing yards for an average of nearly 200 per outing. That’s bad. That’s historically bad.

10. Devastating injuries

With news that Ben Roethlisberger suffered a torn meniscus on Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers are left reeling. Can the team realistically expect to contend in an increasingly competitive conference with Big Ben sidelined for a substantial period of time?

More to to the point, it’s just the latest in a long line of injuries the Super Bowl-winning quarterback has suffered. At 34 years old and with a ton of tread on his hires, we really have to start wondering if this is the beginning of the end for the future Hall of Fame signal caller.

Speaking of the beginning of the end, we stay in the AFC North and focus on what has to be considered a tremendous blow for the Baltimore Ravens. After putting up four sacks in his first five games following a lengthy rehab from a torn Achilles he suffered last season, linebacker Terrell Suggs is likely done for the year with torn biceps.

Like Big Ben, the six-time Pro Bowler is up there in age. And much like his division rival, Suggs has dealt with a multitude of injuries in the past. We really have to wonder if this is the end of the road for the former first-round pick.

These two injuries just add to what has been a horrible year in this regard around the NFL. From Adrian Peterson’s injury in Minnesota to all the issues the San Diego Chargers have dealt with, injuries themselves have defined the first half of the season.