Ten biggest winners and losers from NFL Week 6

There are always surprises waiting in store for NFL fans on a weekly basis, but it’s safe to say NFL Week 6 provided some extra fireworks.

Some teams made it through their games with smiles all around, like the New England Patriots after Tom Brady’s first game at Gillette Stadium. Other teams exited their Week 6 games feeling no joy whatsoever, like the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Every game produced winners and losers. These are the ones that stuck out most in our minds.

Winner: LeSean McCoy gets revenge against Chip Kelly

Chip Kelly and the San Francisco 49ers were humiliated by the Buffalo Bills, losing 45-16.

Though San Francisco hung with Buffalo early, LeSean McCoy and the Bills ran over, around and through the 49ers’ defense to the tune of 312 yards and four touchdowns.

Three of those touchdowns came by way of McCoy, who finally got revenge against a former coach that traded him away before the 2015 season.

McCoy ended up with 140 yards and three rushing touchdowns, despite suffering what appeared at first to be a potentially serious knee injury midway through the action.

After McCoy softened up San Francisco’s defense with huge run after huge run, quarterback Tyrod Taylor got things going through the air with two touchdowns.

It was complete annihilation.

As a side note, Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick showed some good things early in the game but was obviously rusty. He finished with 187 yards on 13-of-29 passing with a touchdown and no interceptions, adding another 66 yards on the ground on eight carries.

Loser: Steelers fall apart in Miami, lose Roethlisberger

Let’s first give credit to the Miami Dolphins, who overcame a two-game losing streak in spectacular fashion against a red-hot Pittsburgh Steelers team.

In particular, running back Jay Ajayi deserves praise for his performance. He finished with 207 total yards and two touchdowns to lead the 30-15 victory march for the Dolphins.

For that, Ajayi is one of this week’s fantasy stars and a true winner.

But this game was more about how bad the Steelers played, both offensively and defensively.

Aside from a sweet 60-yard dash on a reverse by receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey (watch here), Pittsburgh was impotent offensively.

The Steelers managed just 237 total yards of offense not counting that scoring play. And it wasn’t until the fourth quarter when the game was out of reach that Ben Roethlisberger (who was playing hurt) finally connected with Cobi Hamilton for his only passing touchdown.

Antonio Brown caught just four passes for 39 yards. Running back Le’Veon Bell was the team’s top receiver with five catches for 59 yards. It was a far cry from the aerial show put on by Roethlisberger and Co. the past two weeks.

Things could really go sideways offensively going forward. Roethilsberger will reportedly have surgery on his knee to repair a torn meniscus and has no timetable to return.

On the other side of the ball Pittsburgh’s defense was just a sieve Sunday.

Besides allowing Ajayi to have a career game, the Steelers managed to get just two hits all game on quarterback Ryan Tannehill and failed to sack him once. It’s worth noting Tannehill was sacked six times and hit a total of eight times last week against the Tennessee Titans and had been taken to the turf 17 times before Sunday — the second-highest total in the NFL.

Mike Tomlin won’t be pleased about any aspect of his team’s performance in Week 6, especially with New England coming to Heinz Field next weekend.

Winner: Tom Brady joins exclusive club, Gronk goes wild

Just like we saw last weekend in Cleveland, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots were unstoppable at home against the reeling Cincinnati Bengals. The final scoreboard read 35-17 in favor of the Pats, but the game felt even more lopsided than that.

Brady was brilliant. He finished with 376 yards on 29-of-35 passing with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He also joined an exclusive club, becoming just the fourth quarterback in NFL history to complete 5,000 passes.

Not surprisingly, Rob Gronkowski was his favorite target on Sunday. Hauling in more yardage than any game in his remarkable career, he caught seven passes for 162 yards and caught his first touchdown of the season.

Since Brady has returned to the lineup for the Patriots, he’s been better perhaps than anyone could have expected.

Now with a 5-1 record heading into showdown with the Steelers, it sure looks like Brady and the Pats are primed for a run at another Super Bowl run.

On the flip side, the Bengals are in a deep hole at 2-4, having lost four out of their last five games. Could Marvin Lewis finally be back on the hot seat?

It’s about time he was.

Loser: Denver offense rudderless in team’s second straight loss

First, let’s acknowledge the fact that road teams on Thursday night games are at a significant disadvantage. That certainly played into the poor showing of the Denver Broncos’ offense this week.

Another thing that certainly contributed to the offense’s struggles was the absence of head coach and offensive orchestrator Gary Kubiak. He was not with the team as he recovered from a complex migraine.

With those caveats out of the way, what we saw Thursday night in San Diego was just a dismal display of offense.

In particular, second-year quarterback Trevor Siemian looked like a fish out of water. He actually averaged less per passing play than the Broncos did on the ground. And that’s kind of the big issue.

Without Kubiak’s influence, the offense lost its way.

Siemian ended up throwing the ball 50 times for just 230 yards. Meanwhile, Devontae Booker and C.J. Anderson toted the ball just 15 times for 83 yards.

The game was far from a blowout, so asking a struggling quarterback to carry the offense made no sense at all. In particular, the fact that Booker carried the ball just five times, despite tremendous success, was a head-scratching move.

Before the season began, we wondered if the offense would be a liability for the Broncos. Through four games, Siemian appeared to be a passable option.

After Thursday night’s performance, it’s clear this is a situation worth monitoring for the next few weeks. At least the Broncos will get Kubiak back on Monday as they prepare for their Monday night game against the Houston Texans.

Winner: Odell Beckham Jr. sparks Big Blue revival 

As the first half unfolded for the New York Giants at MetLife Sunday, it sure looked like the Baltimore Ravens would run away with the game. Baltimore jumped out to an early 10-0 lead, largely because Odell Beckham Jr. coughed up a fumble early that set up the Ravens for the opening score of the contest (watch here).

Then OBJ was injured, and he left the game for a while to get his hip worked on.

The Giants managed to score before halftime, cutting it to a three-point lead.

Then in the third quarter, down by three, the game turned around in a huge way when Beckham Jr. torched Baltimore’s secondary on a 75-yard touchdown (watch here). This scored marked the first lead of the game for the Giants.

Then as an encore, he scored another long touchdown in the fourth quarter after the Ravens went up by three points again. Cutting through the Ravens’ secondary, he went 66 yards to seal the win for Big Blue. He also got himself engaged to a kicking net.

New York entered Sunday on a three-game losing skid. A lot of the team’s woes stemmed from an offense that was ineffective, which was partly due to OBJ being in a major funk. With that in mind, it’s not surprising whatsoever that it took a breakout game from the talented receiver to get the Giants back in the winner’s column.

Loser: Carson Wentz and the Eagles hit a brick wall

For the first time in his young NFL career, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz was stymied. The Washington Redskins put on a tremendous defensive show at home against their NFC East rival, keeping the Eagles from scoring a single offensive touchdown.

In fact, if not for a pick-six by Malcolm Jenkins and a blazing kickoff return for a touchdown by Wendell Smallwood (watch here and here), the Eagles would have been scoreless in this one.

Wentz managed just 179 yards on 11-of-22 passing. He was sacked five times, and it’s a credit to him that he didn’t turn the ball over against Washington’s swarming defense.

The Eagles finished with 12 first downs, converted just 4-of-12 third downs and totaled 239 yards. It was a one-sided game in which the home team dictated all the action, minus the two splash-play touchdowns.

Based on what we’ve seen from Wentz so far, it seems reasonable to assume he’ll bounce back. But after starting the season 3-0, winning two at home and beating a bad Bears team in Chicago, Philly has dropped its last two on the road.

Winner: Dak Prescott outplays Aaron Rodgers at Lambeau Field

The Dallas Cowboys cannot possibly bench rookie Dak Prescott for Tony Romo, regardless of the veteran’s health coming off the bye.

The fourth-round draft pick out of Mississippi State went into Lambeau Field and out-gunned one of the best gunslingers in the league while improving his team’s record to 5-1 this season.

In his most prodigious game of the season, Prescott threw three touchdowns and 247 yards, completing 18-of-27 attempts. He also set a new NFL record, passing Tom Brady for most attempts to start one’s career without an interception.

Unfortunately, as they all do, this streak ended when Prescott threw a pick to safety Morgan Burnett.

Helping his cause, running back Ezekiel Elliott led a rushing attack that ended up gaining more yards against the Packers than all four previous Packers opponents combined. Finishing with 157 yards on the ground (and 174 total), Elliott has now rushed for at least 134 yards in each of his last four games.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wouldn’t say one way or another if Prescott would retain the starting job with another big game and a win in Week 6. But he didn’t rule it out. Instead, he pointed out how it’s not a simple matter (more on that here).

Jones is right. While you never want to see a starter lose a job to injury, it’s just as true that you don’t want to mess with a winning product. And right now, with Prescott at the helm, Dallas has a winning product.

Loser: Panthers just stink

Carolina’s fall from the peak to the desolate valley they now call home is one of the biggest stories of the 2016 NFL season.

One season removed from going 15-1 and coming within striking distance of winning Super Bowl 50, the Carolina Panthers are now 1-5 after being taken out by the New Orleans Saints Sunday.

The final score of 41-38 makes it seem like this was a close game. But it wasn’t even much of a game at all until Cam Newton and the Panthers’ offense woke up with 21 points in the fourth quarter.

Carolina’s pass defense is abysmal. The Panthers aren’t generating much pressure up front, and the secondary has been getting torched. Between this loss to New Orleans and the blowout in Atlanta, this unit has allowed 968 yards and eight touchdowns.

Tossing the rights to Josh Norman away like dirty tissue paper has come back to bite general manager Dave Gettleman in a major way. While Norman’s absence isn’t the only reason for the terrible lapse in performance, letting him walk didn’t help one bit.

Offensively, Carolina is out of sync as well. Newton has been battered like a loose box full of tools in the back of a pickup truck, and he’s not getting much done on the ground outside of the red zone.

Things can change quickly in the NFL. But right now it’s looking like the Panthers are legitimately one of the league’s worst teams.

Winner: Chiefs manhandle Raiders in Oakland

In a game they had to win in order to stay within striking distance in the AFC West, the Kansas City Chiefs came through in a major way, winning 26-10.

Offensively, the Chiefs couldn’t have been much sharper on a rainy day in Oakland.

Alex Smith was on point, missing on just three of his 22 attempts while going for 224 yards. The ground game won the day, however. Spencer Ware went for 131 yards and a touchdown, with Jamaal Charles adding 33 yards and a touchdown for his first score of the season.

Dee Ford got to Raiders quarterback Derek Carr twice for sacks and forced a fumble that was recovered by Tamba Hali. Marcus Peters hauled in an interception as well. The Chiefs won the turnover battle, 2-0, and the time-of-possession battle by nearly 2-to-1.

Amari Cooper had a big game catching 10 passes for 129 yards, but the rest of Oakland’s receiving corps was shut down most of the game.

Now at 3-2, the Chiefs are just a half game behind the Denver Broncos and Raiders for first place in the AFC West. More importantly, they are 2-0 in the division, having beaten the San Diego Chargers earlier this year.

It’s going to be fascinating to watch this division play out.

Loser: Colts D blows huge lead

Houston Texans quarterback Brock Osweiler was just atrocious for most of the game, and the Indianapolis Colts did a fine job keeping him from breaking out of his funk.

Then, up by two touchdowns with just over seven minutes remaining in the game, the Colts’ defense fell apart.

Osweiler finished with 269 yards on 25-of-39 passing with two touchdowns — both scored in the final seven minutes — and an interception. Before the final two drives in the fourth quarter, he had managed just 113 yards passing.

Then the Colts did their best San Diego Chargers impersonation, allowing Osweiler to tally 156 yards on 14-of-17 passing and lead the Houston Texans on a 17-0 scoring run to close out the game in overtime.

The collapse of Indianapolis can be seen in the final touchdown pass from Osweiler to tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz.

Safety Mike Adams just whiffs past the tight end, who ends up strolling into the end zone without being challenged.

Indianapolis had full control of the game. The Colts should have won this one. But an utter collapse by the defense in the final minutes of the game allowed the Texans to steal the win.