{"id":212917,"date":"2025-10-14T14:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/212917\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T14:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:36:09","slug":"nfl-week-6-five-things-we-liked-and-didnt-like-including-chiefs-new-look-offense-justin-fields-regressing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/212917\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Week 6: Five things we liked and didn’t like, including Chiefs’ new-look offense, Justin Fields regressing"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s hard to believe, but the NFL<\/a> season is already roughly one third of the way done. We’ve seen plenty of unexpected developments, but one somehow continuing to fly under the radar is the success of the Indianapolis Colts<\/a>. Maybe it’s because they don’t play in the biggest market. Maybe it’s because they don’t have the biggest stars — certainly not at quarterback. Maybe it’s because the teams they’ve beaten aren’t exactly a murderer’s row.<\/p>\n

But at some point, the on-field matter has to matter, too, right? Indianapolis is 5-1 and has scored the most points in the NFL. They have beaten every team they’ve lined up against — that’s all you can do, right? — with one exception: the Rams<\/a>. In that game, Adonai Mitchell<\/a> infamously dropped the ball before going into the end zone<\/a>, and the defense only had 10 men on the field (and one fell down) on Matthew Stafford’s<\/a> game-winning pass to Tutu Atwell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, Indianapolis has three wins by 20 or more points. This weekend, they earned their second one-possession win of the year, with Daniel Jones<\/a> leading a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown drives. The second included an on-the-money 22-yard pass to Alec Pierce<\/a> to jumpstart the drive — as he was getting clobbered by a defensive lineman, no less. The defense, down several cornerbacks, including their top one who got injured in warmups<\/a>, bent but did not break. Indianapolis emerged with a 31-27 victory<\/a> over the Cardinals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Colts will experience an uptick in schedule difficulty, starting with the Chargers<\/a> this weekend. But for now, we’re liking just about everything they’re doing and the feeling — resilience, opportunism, intelligence — that they’re doing it with.<\/p>\n

Here’s what else we liked in Week 6.<\/p>\n

Five things we liked in Week 6Baker Mayfield<\/a>, Buccaneers<\/a> are awesome<\/p>\n

Mayfield rocks. Last week, I wrote about why he should be the MVP<\/a>. This week, he’s earning the top billing in this section, and for good reason. Let’s watch two plays and one celebration:<\/p>\n

How could you not want to watch this team? The Buccaneers were without their top two veteran wide receivers — Mike Evans<\/a> and Chris Godwin<\/a> — and lost excellent rookie wide receiver Emeka Egbuka<\/a> to a hamstring injury during the game. They’re down two offensive linemen for the season. Mayfield leads the NFL in expected points added per dropback when not blitzed. He’s also leading the NFL in expected points per dropback when pressured. What can’t this guy do?<\/p>\n

Mayfield leads the NFL with eight touchdowns on passes at least 20 yards downfield. That’s double the closest player; Bo Nix<\/a> has four. Sunday, Mayfield’s two such touchdowns went to seventh-round rookie Tez Johnson<\/a> and undrafted second-year player Kameron Johnson<\/a>. He has been fun, but he’s also been really, really good.<\/p>\n

The Buccaneers’ offensive line also put together its best performance of the season, according to PFF. Jamel Dean<\/a> and Kindle Vildor<\/a> both picked off Mac Jones<\/a>, and the ageless Lavonte David<\/a> had a huge strip sack of him. I praised the Colts in the lead in, but the Buccaneers have been even more impressive.<\/p>\n

Chiefs<\/a>‘ offense adds new facet<\/p>\n

The Chiefs have been one of the heaviest shotgun offenses in the NFL under Andy Reid. It’s a staple of his offenses, especially under Patrick Mahomes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sunday night, though, Kansas City was under center for a season-high 34% of plays — its previous season high was 22% — and posted a season-high 10 running back rushes for 44 yards. Overall, the Chiefs had a 56% rushing success rate under center, their second-best all year. And this came against a normally stout Lions<\/a> rush defense.<\/p>\n

No, it wasn’t anything super special. But throughout a season, teams need to grow and adapt, and the Chiefs showed that in their best win of the year.<\/p>\n

Rico Dowdle’s<\/a> revenge game<\/p>\n

Geno Smith<\/a> provided<\/a> one of the more memorable postgame quotes of recent memory when his Seahawks<\/a> beat Russell Wilson’s<\/a> Broncos<\/a> to open the 2022 season: “They wrote me off. I ain’t write back, though.”<\/p>\n

I may be partial to Dowdle’s<\/a>, though. The former Cowboys<\/a> running back exploded for 234 yards in Week 5 against the Dolphins<\/a> and then warned the Cowboys: “They gotta buckle up.”<\/p>\n

Then Dowdle had 239 yards — most ever by a player against his former team — and said, matter of factly, “They weren’t buckled up.”<\/p>\n

He’s exactly right. He and his teammates absolutely mauled Dallas. Dowdle had 89 rushing yards before he was contacted, the highest number in a game this season and 94 yards after first contact. Only two players — Jonathan Taylor<\/a> and Saquon Barkley<\/a> — have reached both numbers in a game in the past two years.<\/p>\n

Dowdle was an undrafted free agent. He signed a one-year deal this offseason to be Chuba Hubbard’s<\/a> backup. He’s now the only former undrafted player to have 200 scrimmage yards or more in consecutive games, and he has Dave Canales thinking about making him the starter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They indeed weren’t buckled up. Dowdle very much has been, and the Panthers<\/a> are winners of two straight.<\/p>\n

Falcons<\/a>‘ legit defense<\/p>\n

Perhaps you could try to reason that the Falcons’ league-low 244 yards allowed per game was in part thanks to an easy schedule. After Tampa Bay, the Falcons had faced J.J. McCarthy<\/a>, Bryce Young<\/a> and Marcus Mariota<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You cannot claim that anymore.<\/p>\n

In a 24-14 win over the Bills<\/a> on Monday night, Atlanta limited Josh Allen<\/a> to 180 yards passing, picked him off twice and sacked him four times. Buffalo’s 291 yards of offense were 65 fewer than its previous low this season, its -0.10 expected points added per play its worst since Week 4 of last year against the Ravens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Bills rushed Allen excellently and covered even better. A play extender extraordinaire, Allen produced a paltry -0.14 expected points added per play outside the pocket, also his worst since last year’s Ravens game. Last year’s Ravens, it should be noted, were one of the NFL’s best defenses.<\/p>\n

The Falcons are staking a similar claim. They pressured Allen on early 46% of his dropbacks, using clever blitzes and different looks. They are seventh in pressure rate this season; last year, they were 30th. Kaden Elliss<\/a> is one of the most underrated players in football, and Jeff Ulbrich is looking like an early coordinator of the year.<\/p>\n

Drake Maye<\/a> highlights<\/p>\n

Sit back and enjoy.<\/p>\n

Maye is becoming a star.<\/p>\n

Drake Maye<\/p>\n

2025<\/p>\n

2024<\/p>\n

Yards per attempt<\/p>\n

8.5<<<\/p>\n

6.7<<<\/p>\n

Completion percentage<\/p>\n

73.2%<<<\/p>\n

66.6%<\/p>\n

Throw expected points added<\/p>\n

0.32<<<\/p>\n

0.10<\/p>\n

Turnover-worthy throw rate<\/p>\n

1.7%<<<\/p>\n

4.4%<<<\/p>\n

>> Top seven in NFL<\/p>\n

>> Bottom 10 in NFL<\/p>\n

Look at what happens when you upgrade a young quarterback’s pass catchers and offensive line!<\/p>\n

Five things we didn’t like in Week 6Justin Fields<\/a>, Jets<\/a>‘ passing game is untenable<\/p>\n

Sunday, I was at M&T Bank Stadium to cover Rams-Ravens, and I got there super early to focus on Jets-Broncos in England.<\/p>\n

I wish I had slept in.<\/p>\n

Fields finished with 45 passing yards and took nine sacks for 55 yards lost. Hence, the Jets finished with -10 net passing yards. That’s the fewest by a team since the Ryan Leaf-led Chargers in 1998, when Leaf went 1 for 15 for 4 yards in a Week 3 loss to the Chiefs.<\/p>\n

You might see nine sacks and figure that it’s bad offensive line play. It wasn’t. The Broncos’ fastest sack of Fields came 4.9 seconds after the snap. For reference, the average this year is less than 3.6 seconds.<\/p>\n

This has been Fields’ biggest fault as a pro: his inability to operate on time. There are open guys. There are rush lanes to escape. Fields just did not — and too often does not — throw with anticipation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Monday, coach Aaron Glenn admitted Fields took a step back<\/a>. Really, the Jets offense set football back more than two decades.<\/p>\n

Titans<\/a> debacle yet another example of bad franchise organization<\/p>\n

In some wholly unsurprising news, the Titans fired<\/a> Brian Callahan, ending a disastrous<\/a> 4-19 spell in which he failed to provide a solid infrastructure for either of his young, highly drafted quarterbacks: Former second rounder Will Levis<\/a> last year and No. 1 overall pick Cameron Ward<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n

Though there’s always some level of shock when an in-season firing happens, both Ward and the team’s best player, Jeffery Simmons<\/a>, called out<\/a> the team’s practice habits, disagreeing with Callahan’s thought that it was a good week. It becomes a slippery slope from there, and now Mike McCoy is the interim coach.<\/p>\n

Callahan is the third straight coach to be fired during the rookie season of a No. 1 overall pick. The Panthers fired Frank Reich during Bryce Young<\/a>‘s doomed rookie season, and the Bears<\/a> fired Matt Eberflus during Caleb Williams<\/a>‘ doomed rookie season.<\/p>\n

A common denominator? There was no alignment from the coach, general manager and quarterback. In Carolina, Reich and Young were new, but general managers Scott Fitterer was a holdover. In Chicago, Eberflus and Williams were new, but general manager Ryan Poles was a holdover.<\/p>\n

In Tennessee, Ward and general manager Mike Borgonzi were new, but Callahan was a holdover. Now, Ward will enter his second season with a coach (and maybe a general manager) who didn’t select him. Tennessee will have to absolutely nail its hire(s) or risk another year of disconnect throughout the organization.<\/p>\n

Browns<\/a>‘ case of the drops<\/p>\n

I’ll forgive you if you haven’t watched much Browns football this year. The offense is a mess. Dillon Gabriel<\/a> went 29 for 52 Sunday against the Steelers<\/a>, averaging 4.3 yards per attempt.<\/p>\n

But what those numbers don’t show you is five drops. Jerry Jeudy<\/a> had two, once inexplicably jumping for a ball right at him. David Njoku<\/a> had two. Harold Fannin Jr<\/a>. dropped one of Gabriel’s best passes all day. I watched them all so you don’t have to.<\/p>\n

The Browns lead the league in drops. They had the second-most drops in 2024 and led the league in drops in 2023. Sigh.<\/p>\n

Tua Tagovailoa<\/a> calls out … everyone?<\/p>\n

Tagovailoa called out<\/a>\u00a0team leadership for what appears to be very bad team culture. A former Dolphins wide receiver called out<\/a> Tagovailoa for hypocrisy. Tagovailoa’s comments were a “misguided representation”<\/a> of the organization, Mike McDaniel said.<\/p>\n

Everyone might be right. It might not matter. Things look worse and worse in Miami, even after a game it played relatively well in.<\/p>\n

Commanders<\/a>‘ defensive woes return<\/p>\n

The 3-3 Commanders have now alternated wins and losses this year, and they have seemingly alternated spots in this column as a result.<\/p>\n

Monday night, though, was probably where we’re landing on this team on defense: When a pass rush that has some solid pieces can dominate, the unit as a whole is in decent shape. When it can’t, things fall apart.<\/p>\n

Washington’s front dominated the Wilson-led Giants<\/a> in Week 1 and had a good outing against a injury-ravaged Chargers offensive line in Week 5. But the defense has been shredded by the Packers<\/a>, Falcons and Bears and even struggled in a loss to the lowly Raiders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over the past five weeks, Washington is 28th in yards per play allowed. It has allowed an NFL-high four completions of more than 50 yards, including a brutal 55-yard touchdown to D’Andre Swift<\/a>\u00a0on third down Monday night.<\/p>\n

The tasks only get tougher: the Cowboys in Week 7, followed by the Chiefs, Seahawks and Lions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s hard to believe, but the NFL season is already roughly one third of the way done. We’ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[1276,64,63,6576,130729,130728,130727,1257,130723,1238,19980,5374,91567,28666,130725,5368,130726,1240,1233,1231,1235,593,126453,6584,130724,92282,85,1247,1253,5379,1272],"class_list":["post-212917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baker-mayfield","tag-baker-mayfield-mvp","tag-baker-mayfield-stats","tag-bucs-vs-49ers","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-chiefs-lions","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-david-njoku","tag-drake-maye","tag-harold-fannin-jr","tag-jerry-jeudy","tag-jets-qb","tag-justin-fields","tag-justin-fields-stats","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-new-york-jets","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-week-6","tag-patrick-mahomes","tag-patrick-mahomes-stats","tag-rico-dowdle","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-tua-tagovailoa","tag-washington-commanders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}