1. Dak Prescott is going to make it really difficult for Jerry Jones to bench him.
Rookie sensation Dak Prescott finally threw his first interception Sunday, but he still turned in another strong outing in a 30-16 win over the Green Bay Packers. He completed 67 percent of his passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns, posting a 117.4 passer rating while leading Dallas to their fifth straight win. Prescott’s only loss as a starter was a 20-19 defeat at the hands of the New York Giants in Week 1, and the outcome could have been different had Terrance Williams simply gone out-of-bounds. Prescott certainly benefits from an all-world offensive line and a rare talent at running back, but it’s not as if Prescott is winning games by 17-14 scores. He’s posted 100-plus passer ratings in each of the last five games to go with 10 total touchdowns and only one interception. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been adamant in his support for currently-injured quarterback Tony Romo, but can the Cowboys really put Prescott back on the bench with the way he’s been playing?
2. Ezekiel Elliott may put up the best season by a rookie running back in league history.
Imagine that you’re a running back projected to go high in the upcoming NFL draft. The Dallas Cowboys have by far the game’s best offensive line, and you’re lucky enough that they pick you. Such is the case for Ezekiel Elliott. Through six games, Elliott has 703 rushing yards on 5.13 yards per carry, and he’s found the end zone five times. In the win over the No. 1 ranked Green Bay rushing defense, Elliott cruised to 157 yards on 28 carries. He’s on pace for outrageous numbers – nearly 400 touches (397) and 1,875 rushing yards. The rookie record for rushing yards is 1,808 by Eric Dickerson in 1983, but the scary thing about Elliott is that he’s only gotten better each game in the league. After averaging 67 rushing yards in his first two games, he’s topped 130 in each of the last four. The sky is the limit for Elliott, who is still not even 21 ½ years old.
3. Drew Brees did Drew Brees things because what else would you expect?
By now, we should know what to expect from Drew Brees, especially in a home game at the Superdome. He’s a well-oiled machine, incapable of malfunctioning or putting up subpar performances. All Brees did against last year’s NFC champions was put up 465 passing yards and four touchdowns, while leading the New Orleans Saints to a 41-38 win. He set an all-time record with his 15th 400-yard passing game, and he’s now on pace for 480 completions and 5,545 passing yards this year, each of which would be single-season NFL records. That’s not bad, considering Brees is 37 years old and in his 16th season. Without Brees on their side, the 2016 Saints would be an easy 0-5; as it is, the only two games they’ve won were games in which they allowed 34 and 38 points on defense.
4. The regression of Aaron Rodgers is painful to watch.
From 2011 through 2014, Aaron Rodgers had arguably the most efficient four-year run of any QB in league history. He completed 67.0 percent of his passes, averaged a ridiculous 8.5 yards per attempt, posted a 139-to-25 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and put up a 112.6 passer rating. Since then, Rodgers is fairly mediocre. The big plays in the Green Bay offense are gone. The chemistry Rodgers used to show with Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb is non-existent. Rodgers entered the game with the lowest completion percentage (56.1) in the league, and a pretty subpar ranking in ANY/A (17th at 6.01). In tonight’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys, Rodgers turned the ball over twice, missed a wide-open Randall Cobb in the end zone, and led the Packers to just 16 points. The Packers are now two games back in the NFC North race, and there’s no guarantee they even reach the postseason.
5. Since firing their offensive coordinator, the Buffalo Bills run over every team in sight.
The NFL world wrote the Buffalo Bills off after Rex Ryan fired his offensive coordinator after an 0-2 start; it certainly seemed like an odd move considering the Bills had just put up 31 points on the New York Jets. Since then, the Bills – under new coordinator Anthony Lynn – are 4-0 and averaging 31 points and 212 rushing yards per contest. In Sunday’s 45-16 win over the San Francisco 49ers, LeSean McCoy ran for 140 yards and three scores on just 19 carries, and he did so against the coach (Chip Kelly) who traded him away for a linebacker with an ACL history. McCoy is still just 28 years old and carving out will be an interesting Hall of Fame resume for himself; the only players in league history with more rushing yards and a higher career yards-per-carry average than Shady (8,274 and 4.69) are Barry Sanders, Jim Brown, Adrian Peterson, Tiki Barber, and Joe Perry.
6. This was the nail in the coffin for the 2016 Carolina Panthers.
There will be no follow-up in the Super Bowl for the 2016 Carolina Panthers. Sunday’s 41-38 loss to the New Orleans dropped the Panthers to a 1-5 record, this after the club posted a 15-1 mark a year ago. Cam Newton had a solid game (two passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown), as did Jonathan Stewart (two scores). But it was the defense that buried the team, and that’s been the story all year. The once-proud unit gave up 41 points and 523 offensive yards; after doing that once in the first 20 years of the franchise, they’ve now done it twice in the last three weeks. Maybe GM Dave Gettleman shouldn’t have rescinded the franchise tag on Josh Norman.
7. Why can’t the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the bad teams?
The Pittsburgh Steelers have an explosive offense, one capable of putting up 30-40 points consistently against even strong defenses. But if there’s been a significant flaw of the recent Mike Tomlin-led Steelers, it’s been their inability to beat the league’s weakest teams. The 30-15 loss to the Miami Dolphins Sunday was frightening – Ben Roethlisberger posting a 4.1 QBR for the entire game and the defense failed to sack Ryan Tannehill once. Last year’s Steelers team dropped a late-season game to the Ryan Mallett-led Baltimore Ravens (they actually got swept by the 5-11 Ravens). In 2014, Pittsburgh lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team that ended up picking first overall in the next NFL draft. And in 2013, the Steelers lost eight games – only one of those was to a team that finished the season with a winning record. That shouldn’t happen to a veteran coach with Tomlin’s experience and prowess.
Update: Ben Roethlisberger suffered a torn meniscus in the loss and will miss next week’s game against the New England Patriots. Instead of Brady vs. Roethlisberger, get ready for Brady vs… Landry Jones.
8. Rust for Tom Brady? Not a chance.
If you thought Tom Brady would show any signs of rust after missing the season’s first four games, think again. Brady lit up the hapless Cleveland Browns (406 passing yards, three touchdowns) in Week 5, then threw for 376 yards and three touchdowns against the Cincinnati Bengals, while completing an absurd 82.9 percent of his passes. Brady has a 135.5 passer rating for the year, and next week he faces a Pittsburgh Steelers team that entered today ranking 30th in passing yards allowed. At 39 years old, Brady is the oldest starting quarterback in the league, but he’s also the best. Maybe the best ever.
9. After 3-0 starts, the Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles are coming back down to earth.
Most people probably expected the Baltimore Ravens to regress following their 3-0 start; after all, they had one of the worst point differentials (+13) of any 3-0 team in league history. And fittingly, they’ve lost three straight to put their record at an even 3-3. But the Philadelphia Eagles’ fall from glory was more surprising. The Eagles steamrolled over their first three opponents, even beating the high-powered Pittsburgh Steelers by 31 points. Since then, Philadelphia has lost to the Detroit Lions by two and the Washington Redskins by seven, and the defense has been thoroughly exposed. The Eagles allowed three first-half offensive touchdowns in each loss, and couldn’t stop Kirk Cousins or Matt Jones down the stretch against Washington. Losing right tackle Lane Johnson to a 10-game suspension left Carson Went without much time to throw, and it was up to unsustainable defensive/special teams scores for Philly to even stay in Sunday’s contest. The Eagles’ schedule only gets more difficult coming up, with their next two matchups coming against the 5-0 Minnesota Vikings and 5-1 Dallas Cowboys.
10. Odell Beckham, Jr. returned to stardom.
Odell Beckham, Jr. started 2016 in the worst funk of his career, failing to secure a touchdown catch until Week 5, ranking a distant 19th in total receiving yards (359) entering Sunday’s game, and even going on the record as saying he ‘wasn’t having fun anymore’ (link). So a breakout game was likely on the horizon, and OBJ broke out in a big way against the Baltimore Ravens. He grabbed a 75-yard touchdown, then a 66-yard score, and finished with a pretty nifty 8-222-2 statline. All of a sudden, he’s on pace for a career-best 1,549 receiving yards.
11. So did Gronk.
For the first four games of the season, Rob Gronkowski had one catch for 11 yards. Part of that can be attributed to a lingering hamstring injury, while part can be blamed on the fact that he was playing with third-round rookie quarterback, Jacoby Brissett. Since Tom Brady’s return, Gronk has returned to being the Gronk of old, which means he’s the most dominant tight end this game has seen – perhaps ever. In the last two weeks, Gronkowski has caught 12 passes for 271 yards and a touchdown, numbers that extrapolate to a 96/2,168/8 pace over a full season.
12. Matt Ryan remains your favorite to win the 2016 NFL MVP award.
Despite Atlanta’s 26-24 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Matt Ryan is continuing his play as 2016’s finest quarterback. Ryan is almost matchup-proof from a fantasy perspective, as he lit up the Legion of Boom for 335 yards, three touchdowns, and a 102.8 passer rating in Sunday’s game. He did lose a fumble early on and threw a fourth-quarter interception, although the pick was a deflection off of the hands of Julio Jones. He wasn’t helped by a pass interference no-call on fourth down of the final drive of the game, seeing as it would have given Matty Ice great field position to set up a game-winning field goal. For the season, Ryan is completing 68.1 percent of his passes with 15 touchdowns, just three interceptions, and a 117.9 passer rating. His 9.88 yards-per-attempt average is the seventh-best total ever through the first six games of the season. The Falcons are 4-2, despite a defense that is allowing 28 points per game this season.
13. Oakland’s defense will likely cost them a playoff berth.
Derek Carr and Amari Cooper are a dynamic QB-WR tandem, but it’s asking a lot for them to carry a historically awful defense. Through five games, the Oakland Raiders ranked dead-last in the league in yards allowed, and they gave up another 406 yards and 26 points to the Kansas City Chiefs in a loss on Sunday. That puts the Raiders at 4-2, just a half-game up on the Chiefs. Oakland is just the fourth team in league history to allow as many total yards (2,669) in their first six games; those other three teams had combined for three wins. Either Oakland will figure out their defense or they’re going to keep losing a lot of 34-27 games.
14. The breakout season of Terrelle Pryor keeps on keeping on.
Terrelle Pryor’s success has been one of the most fascinating storylines of the 2016 season. The former QB-turned-WR has been a revelation for the Cleveland Browns this year as a multi-positional weapon capable of making plays as a passer, runner, and receiver. Pryor caught nine passes for 75 yards and two touchdowns in Sunday’s 28-26 loss to the Tennessee Titans. He’s legitimately been the No. 1 wide receiver for the Browns this year, and it’s his first year playing the position. On a side note, how about Cody Kessler? The third-round rookie QB for the Browns turned in a stellar performance today (336 passing yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a 105.3 passer rating). Josh McCown is a better quarterback, but he’s not the future for the Browns. Why not start Kessler even when McCown is healthy to see if he has a chance at being this franchise’s long-term signal-caller?
15. Greg Olsen continues his pursuit of the single-season record for receiving yards by a tight end.
Did you know Greg Olsen is threatening to break the single-season record for receiving yards by a tight end? After Sunday’s six-catch, 94-yard performance, Olsen is now at 39 receptions and 610 yards. He’s on pace for 104 catches and 1,627 receiving yards. If he continues his pace, he will fall short of Jason Witten’s single-season record for receptions by a tight end (110 by Jason Witten in 2012) but he will shatter Rob Gronkowski’s record for receiving yards. Gronk had 1,327 yards in 2011; if Olsen continues his pace, he will reach that mark early in the team’s 14th game.
Follow Cody Swartz on Twitter.
