Here’s who improved and hurt their playoff chances in week 6.
Winners
Tennessee Titans
Running back Derrick Henry rushed for 212 yards and two touchdowns as the Titans came back to win a thriller in overtime over Deshaun Watson and the Houston Texans. Down seven points late in regulation, Titans QB Ryan Tannehill marched his offense down the field and completed a game-tying touchdown pass to WR A.J. Brown with four seconds left. Henry won the game in overtime by powering himself into the end zone on third and goal against an overmatched Texans defense. This is the third straight season where Henry has rushed for over 200 yards in a game. Tennessee faces their biggest test of the season in week 7 as they host the Pittsburgh Steelers in a stellar matchup of two undefeated teams.
Pittsburgh Steelers
One of the best performances in the NFL by a defensive unit this season propelled the Steelers to a dominant 38-7 win over the Cleveland Browns. Pittsburgh’s defense completely neutralized the entire Browns offense and made them look like the abysmal New York Jets. On offense, rising star WR Chase Claypool continued to impress NFL fans with another excellent performance, but it was the Steelers offensive line that deserves the most props. They controlled the line of scrimmage from start to finish and what’s even more astounding is that they did it without All-Pro guard David DeCastro, who missed the game due to injury. The Steelers will face the Titans next week and look to hand them their first loss in 2020.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
After falling down 10-0 at home to Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, the Bucs scored 38 unanswered points to hand the Packers their first loss of the 2020 season. Tampa’s talented defense woke up and dominated Rodgers and the Green Bay offense in extremely impressive fashion. Tom Brady and the Bucs offense did not turn the ball over and executed very well in the red zone. Although Brady forgot what down it was last week against Chicago, he remembered that he has future Hall of Fame tight end Rob Gronkowski by throwing him his first touchdown pass of the season. Tampa Bay sits at (4-2) and this win over the Packers could come back to benefit them when it comes to playoff tiebreaker seeding at the end of the season.
San Francisco 49ers
After a humiliating blowout loss at home last week to the Miami Dolphins, the 49ers bounced back on Sunday Night Football by defeating the Los Angeles Rams 24-16. 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo responded after a putrid performance last week by throwing for three touchdown passes and zero interceptions against his division rival. The San Francisco defense shut down Rams QB Jared Goff and their high-powered offense by holding them to a season low sixteen points. The niners improved their record to (3-3) and look to get over .500 next week in a huge matchup at New England.
Losers
New England Patriots
The Patriots famous “bend don’t break” defense was on full display last week as they kept the Broncos out of the end zone all game, but kicker Brandon McManus converted on all six of his field goal attempts to lead his team to an 18–12 shocking win in Foxboro. Patriots QB Cam Newton struggled in his first start in two weeks since being diagnosed with COVID-19. Newton’s accuracy was poor and the offense looked lackluster and woefully underperformed. It is rare to see a Bill Belichick coached team lose a game at home to such an inferior opponent, especially when Denver was missing their two best offensive players in RB Melvin Gordon and WR Courtland Sutton.
Cleveland Browns
Coming into Week 6, the Browns had won four straight games and were firing on all cylinders.. but the Pittsburgh Steelers absolutely dismantled Cleveland in every possible way. It was an embarrassing performance for QB Baker Mayfield, as he threw multiple interceptions and could not get the ball to any of his star wide receivers so they could make plays. Mayfield did come into the game with a rib injury suffered in week 5, but he and his team simply did not show up at all. It’s clear that despite being (4-2), no one views the Browns as a serious AFC title contender at the moment.
Buffalo Bills
After starting the season with four straight wins, the Bills have now lost their last two games in concerning fashion. QB Josh Allen has struggled mightily with his passing accuracy these past two games and Bills fans have a right to be alarmed. Another concerning factor is that the Bills two losses this year were to the undefeated Titans and defending Super Bowl Champion Chiefs; arguably the top two contenders for the AFC Championship in 2020. Buffalo has to show up and play better against the cream of the crop competition in the AFC or else it’s clear that they aren’t one of the top tier teams in the AFC.
Minnesota Vikings
Other than the Cowboys, maybe the most baffling loss of Week 6 came when the winless Atlanta Falcons marched into Minnesota and wiped the floor with Mike Zimmer’s Vikings team by a score of 40-23. Kirk Cousins once again played awful and Matt Ryan lit up the Vikings young corners, throwing for 371 yard and four touchdowns. Minnesota never got a chance to establish their vaunted rushing attack because they fell down big from the get-go. This was the first game the Falcons played since firing their longtime head coach Dan Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff. Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer should be on the hot seat because his team is playing putrid football in 2020.
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