Eight notable NFL Week 6 winners and losers

The NFL action in Week 6 treated the nation to some amazing battles, including first wins, overtime thrillers, terrible personal performances and some major upsets.

With that said, here are some of the notable NFL winners and losers resulting form the action-packed schedule.

Winner: Saints ruin Falcons perfect win streak, veteran tight end goes off

Jimmy Graham who? New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees connected beautifully with veteran tight end Ben Watson, who totaled 10 catches for 127 yards and one touchdown in an exciting Thursday Night Football matchup against the Atlanta Falcons.

It was just like watching Brees in action with Graham from seasons past. Watson was a absolute beast on field. He and the rest of the Saints completely dominated the Falcons in every way, 31-21.

This was the first loss of the season for Atlanta, and an upset surely wasn’t expected by a Saints team that had been performing terribly under par all season. The Saints offense was fabulous and put up a total of 393 yards.

The Falcons performed wonderfully on the ground posting a total of 150 yards and one touchdown, but Matt Ryan struggled against a suddenly productive Saints defense. Ryan was sacked five times and the team turned over the ball on three fumbles.

One of the best highlights of the evening was when Saints linebacker Michael Mauti blocked a punt by Matt Bosher and returned it for a touchdown.

All game long the Falcons tried to play catchup after falling behind 14-0 in the first quarter. Unfortunately, they never got close and the Saints were the aggressors for the entire game.

Loser: Those who dropped Matthew Stafford to the waiver wire

Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions played their hearts out and claimed precious win No. 1 in a nail-biting overtime contest against the Chicago Bears, 37-34

Fantasy football owners who kicked the quarterback to the waiver wire after his putrid Week 5 performance regretted that move big time. Stafford, who has been spotted on waivers throughout the nation, put together the comeback performance of the season, posting 405 passing yards, four touchdowns and just one interception.

Depending on your fantasy scoring system, Stafford scored a minimum of 30 fantasy points in Week 6.

The Lions put up a competitive performance, and the Stafford we all knew and loved from 2014 completed some amazing long passes to Calvin Johnson, who also had a breakthrough day with 166 yards and one touchdown.

It took until the Lions third overtime possession for Stafford to advance the offense to the Bears’ 27-yard line to set up Matt Prater for that game-winning field goal. In the eyes of the Lions and their fans, Stafford redeemed himself. He will be the hottest waiver wire quarterback pickup for Week 7.

Winner: A revived Miami Dolphins finally looking like a professional team

Lost in the abyss under the leadership of Joe Philbin, the Dolphins came out of the bye week with some fire under new interim head coach Dan Campbell, who finally helped the Miami Dolphins to find their identity.

The Tennessee Titans were the victims of some spectacular offensive and defensive plays by a revived Dolphins. Wide receiver Jarvis Landry found the end zone for second time since the start of the season, making this awesome run-in touchdown evading defenders along the way.

 

In addition to Landry’s score, the Dolphins finally showcased Lamar Miller in the ground game, and he lit it up by posting 113 yards and scoring his first rushing touchdown of the season. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill was efficient, completing 22-of-29 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns. The two interceptions are a bit concerning, but he’s looking sharper now than he was before the break.

As for the Dolphins defense, it was fine-tuned as well, registering five sacks and two interceptions, including a 30-yard pick-six off of Marcus Mariota by safety Reshad Jones.

A revived Dolphins team more than got the job, done leaving nothing but destruction behind in Tennessee, 38-10.

Loser: Michael Vick’s disastrous performance

The Steelers came out victorious 25-13, but how awful was Michael Vick’s performance?

Since when does any quarterback manage only six passing yards well into the third quarter of a game when he has Antonio Brown as a receiver? That baffling stat is absolutely preposterous. From a mistaken injury that ended up being dirt in Vick’s eye to overall poor performance, the quarterback finally exited the game with a strained hamstring.

It took third-stringer backup Landry Jones to connect with wide receiver Martavis Bryant for Pittsburgh to finally score its first touchdown of the game.

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Last week the Steelers barely won against the San Diego Chargers with a last-second Le’Veon Bell touchdown. And in Week 6, the team posted a win largely due to the efficiency of the defense, which did an incredible job of handing the business to Carson Palmer and crew.

The Steelers can only hope that Ben Roethlisberger returns in Week 7, because their offense with Vick under center is nowhere near the same as it is with Big Ben.

Winner: Peyton Manning intercepted in overtime, yet Broncos still win

The Denver Broncos narrowly won in a thrilling victory over the Cleveland Browns, 26-23, even after Manning threw his third interception of the game into the hands of linebacker Barkevious Mingo in overtime.

Manning played some of the sloppiest football we’ve ever seen, yet the Broncos rose to the occasion, posting win No. 6 to remain undefeated. The aging quarterback isn’t looking good these days, illustrated by the three interceptions tossed today, compared to just one touchdown.

Along with Manning’s stinky performance, Demaryius Thomas dropped a couple of easy passses and Emmanuel Sanders weirdly interfered with the field goal unit as time expired in regulation, which resulted in the game entering into overtime.

Given the consistently poor offensive output we’ve seen by the Broncos of late, it’s truly incredible they are still winning games. Thankfully, a stout Broncos defense continues to step up to save the day each and every week. Although, at the end of the day, it’s all about the win no matter how ugly it looks.

Loser: Rex Ryan’s Bills are losing traction in AFC east

The Buffalo Bills slipped to 3-3 after losing to an undefeated Cincinnati Bengals in Week 6.

Worse still, the New York Jets just posted their fourth win, surpassing the Bills, who are quickly losing traction in the AFC East. To add insult to injury, the Bills also lost wide receiver Sammy Watkins to an ankle injury, and the receiver was spotted using a crutch after the game.

The offense has suffered many blows. LeSean McCoy returned to action Sunday but still isn’t fully healthy, backup running back Karlos Williams has been out and starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor is battling an MCL injury.

As for the Bills defense, it is not nearly as daunting as we thought it would be entering the season. In Sunday’s game, the Buffalo’s defense failed to pick off or sack Andy Dalton — something defensive end Mario Williams is not happy about. Furthermore the Bengals running backs averaged for a combined 4.4 yards per carry and ran in a score against a haggard-looking defense.

With the Bills struggling to gain momentum, the team will be hard-pressed to post more wins than losses as the season drags along. Therefore, it might not be too long before the 2-4 Miami Dolphins, mentioned above, surpass them in ranking.

Winner: Cam Newton finally gets his revenge on the Seattle Seahawks

Since Cam Newton has been the quarterback for the Carolina Panthers, he has yet to find a way to beat the Seattle Seahawks and has lost four times to them since 2012.

Until Sunday.

In what many would consider an upset, Newton made personal history and helped engineer a come-from-behind victory over the Seahawks at CenturyLink Field, 27-23. Not only was this a victory for Newton, but the win also broke a five-game losing streak against the Seahawks that dated back to 2010.

Newton’s performance was magical. He seemed to pull rabbits out of his hat on a routine basis with his group of lower-tier receivers. The quarterback doesn’t have the luxury of having receivers such as Julio Jones or A.J. Green at his disposal, therefore Newton’s creativity at making successful passes to anyone’s guess of receiver is simply amazing to watch.

Newton and team did a superb job not caving to pressure in the last moments of the game. Instead, they rallied, and the quarterback delivered a beautiful 26-yard touchdown pass into the hands of his trusty tight end, Greg Olsen.

As a result, this left a mere 29 seconds on the clock for the Seahawks to attempt to score a touchdown, which simply wasn’t enough time to for Russell Wilson and company to change the outcome of the game.

Loser: Joe Flacco’s “really really dumb throw” helps Ravens post loss No. 5

The 1-5 Baltimore Ravens are looking quite shabby and just posted loss No. 5, which is largely attributed to the fact that quarterback Joe Flacco threw two lame picks against the San Francisco 49ers.

Flacco completed just 33-of-53 passing attempts for 343 yards and two touchdowns, compared to Colin Kaepernick who posted 340 yards from only 16 completed passes. Clearly, Flacco was far less productive overall than his 49ers counterpart. The two interceptions certainly didn’t help things for Flacco and the Ravens.

Flacco was first intercepted in the second quarter by linebacker Michael Wilhoite on a pass attempted for Kamar Aiken. At this point the Ravens trailed 13-3. Flacco’s next blunder came in the third quarter when he was picked off again by cornerback Kenneth Acker, who gained 45 yards on the play.

As it stands, a very “un-elite” looking Flacco has eight touchdowns with six interceptions. Sadly, the Ravens are losing each week by narrow margins, and Flacco’s costly picks in five of his six games are definitely effecting the outcome of the games in an adverse manner.