Partner Content | NFL Week 6 takeaways: Bills come up big against Chiefs, Mahomes

It wasn’t always pretty, but the Philadelphia Eagles preserved the NFL’s lone unbeaten record with a wire-to-wire victory over the rival Dallas Cowboys.

The Buffalo Bills held firm on defence when they needed it most, and the Green Packers aren’t hitting the panic button yet — but maybe they should be. In Indianapolis, Matt Ryan moved up a historic leaderboard while handling an extensive workload, while Ken Walker impressed in his first NFL start.

Check out our NFL Week 6 takeaways from Sunday’s action.

NFL Week 6 takeaways

As bye weeks began around the NFL, it looked like some teams unintentionally gave their offensive units a week off.

Exactly half of the 24 teams scored 20 points or fewer, with only three games surpassing the 45-point plateau. The Bills/Chiefs matchup may not have lived up to our high-scoring hopes, but it was delightfully close — neither team ever led by more than a touchdown.

Home teams went 7-5 in straight-up fashion on Sunday, improving to 48-42 overall this season (neutral site games excluded).

Before we break down Week 6’s action, here’s a quick look at the lines for some key Week 7 games.

Early Week 7 lines

Odds as of 10:01 a.m. ET on 10/17/2022.

NFL Week 6 takeaways: Stock up

Bills’ clutch-time D: This time, with the ball in Patrick Mahomes’ hands and the game on the line, Buffalo’s defence had the last word.

Many remember how things went when the Bills faced the Chiefs in last year’s AFC divisional round. Mahomes moved his team into field goal range in just 13 seconds for a game-tying kick, and then he threw a touchdown pass on the only possession of overtime.

On Sunday, Mahomes had 1:04 and two timeouts to drive his squad 75 yards for a winning score. Such an outcome didn’t feel inevitable, per se, but it’s the type of situation Mahomes thrives in.

Well, not this time.

The win gave Buffalo (5-1) an inside track on the AFC’s top seed, thus improving its chances of a home playoff date against Kansas City. That’s when the real revenge opportunity would present itself.

Baby Jets: The Jets’ youth movement is making waves in 2022, as New York picked up its third road win in as many tries on Sunday.

From Breece Hall to Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner, New York boasts five players taken in Rounds 1 and 2 of the past two drafts who now feature prominently on the team. Hall (116 rush yards, TD) led the offence at Lambeau Field, while Gardner had some key pass breakups on the defensive side.

Gardner is just one piece of a defence that’s made huge year-over-year gains. The Jets entered the week as the 10th-ranked total defence (320.2 yards allowed/game) after finishing dead last in that category a season ago (397.6 yards).

New York (4-2) didn’t get its fourth win until Week 16 last year. Some of its young players endured that brutal campaign as rookies, and all of them are working hard to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Gardner is having some fun along the way, too.

G-Men: Sticking with New York, our hats are off to the Giants, who improbably rose from pretender to contender status with their home win over the Baltimore Ravens.

The Giants had built a 4-1 record by beating teams who’ve combined for a .391 win percentage. One of those victories came against the Packers, mind you, but it’s difficult to tell if that’s even impressive (more on Green Bay later).

Beating MVP contender Lamar Jackson and the Ravens was an important step in legitimizing what New York is doing this season.

The Giants produced a pair of unanswered touchdowns in the final 6:01 on Sunday to steal a 24-20 win, scoring the clincher immediately after a Marcus Peters interception was overturned for pass interference.

Our one gripe with the Giants remains their lack of tests on the road. New York’s one-point win over Tennessee in Week 1 was its only true road game, given that the Packers matchup took place in London.

To truly be willing to drink the Giants’ Kool-Aid, we’d first like to see how their two upcoming road matchups (at Jacksonville, at Seattle) go.

Stock down

Cooper Rush: How much credit should Rush receive for the Cowboys’ four-game winning streak under his guidance?

It’s impossible to say for sure, but after Sunday night’s performance, it’s time to remove the rose-coloured glasses. Rush completed 18 of 38 passes for 181 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions.

He’d been interception-free during the win streak, but with only four passing touchdowns and zero games above 250 passing yards. He excelled as a game manager, but the Eagles forced him to strive to be more than that. And he couldn’t.

Dak Prescott threw on the field before Sunday’s game and could be ready to return next week. If so, Rush will return to a life of wearing headsets and holding clipboards without controversy.

Punchless Packers: With each passing week, the difficulties displayed by the Packers become more and more worrisome.

Aside from a Week 2 home win over the struggling Chicago Bears, Green Bay hasn’t looked anything like a team coming off a trio of 13-win seasons with a two-time-reigning MVP in tow. The word “dominant” doesn’t belong anywhere near the state of Wisconsin.

In Sunday’s 27-10 loss to the Jets, Green Bay went scoreless in its first seven possessions — with just 97 yards in that span. The Jets went 1-for-11 on third down and were held to 99 passing yards. Still, they came out with a comfortable win.

Special teams miscues helped sink the Packers, but their offence needs to be much better. Posting consecutive weeks of fewer than five yards per play is wholly unacceptable.

Without saying it in so many words, Aaron Rodgers wants everyone to R-E-L-A-X. But it’s getting harder to buy in.

Robbie Anderson’s temper: Well, this is awkward.

Amid a game in which he didn’t have a catch, Anderson took part in a heated exchange with his coaching staff and was asked to take an early trip to the locker room.

The 29-year-old was already on the trade block, and now a divorce with Carolina feels all but certain.

Anderson said after the game that he was “confused and upset” about being ousted. He was spotted earlier in the game sitting by himself between offensive possessions, as opposed to participating in a between-series meeting.

Because Anderson isn’t a reliable player on the prop market anyway, this situation shouldn’t make a huge difference to bettors. But in the first game since Carolina fired coach Matt Rhule, this was a terrible look for the Panthers.

Upset of the week

Steelers over Buccaneers: With only 270 total yards, zero traction in the running game and an injury to newly-minted starter Kenny Pickett, the Steelers somehow pulled this one off.

And yes, these are the same Steelers who trailed for all but 64 seconds last week and entered Sunday on a four-game losing skid.

Credit Pittsburgh’s defence, which held Tampa Bay to one touchdown on four red zone trips. The Steelers have now gone five consecutive weeks with 20 or fewer points scored, but this time the defence picked up the slack.

One question that resurfaced in this game: Who should start at QB for Pittsburgh moving forward?

Pickett exited to be evaluated for a concussion, and Mitch Trubisky looked surprisingly dynamic in his place (9-for-12, 144 yards, touchdown). Maybe the Steelers stick with their first-round rookie, but Trubisky made as strong of a case for himself as he possibly could have.

NFL Week 6 takeaways: Prop watch

Joe Burrow (300 passing yards, 4 TDs): For as adept as Burrow’s passing performance was in Week 6, this 19-yard touchdown scramble might’ve been his biggest highlight:

Since enduring a season-ending knee injury as a rookie, Burrow and his mobility have been questioned frequently. He’s not a world-class sprinter or anything, but it’s important for Burrow to look comfortable in the pocket and be able to dash when needed.

In doing so on Sunday, he looked like the version of himself that rose to stardom as a Heisman winner at LSU.

It’s fitting that Burrow’s big offensive day came in Louisiana — at the very site of his national championship win in 2019. And his favourite target on that day, Ja’Marr Chase, is also his favourite target now.

Burrow and Chase hooked up for seven catches, 132 yards and two touchdowns in the win over the Saints.

Ken Walker (21 carries, 110 scrimmage yards, 1 TD): Seattle’s offence has been among the best in the league so far, and Geno Smith deserves a lot of credit for that.

But Smith scuffled for much of Sunday’s matchup against Arizona, and the Seahawks needed to look elsewhere for production

Enter, Walker.

The rookie tailback enjoyed 23 touches in his first NFL start. He gobbled up 21 of the team’s 30 carries, which is a great sign for his anticipated workload moving forward.

Walker only had 19 catches across 32 games as a collegian, so we’re not holding our breath for huge dual-threat numbers from him. But he did have a pair of catches for 13 yards on Sunday, so maybe there’s some potential for the second-round selection.

Matt Ryan (389 passing yards, 3 TDs): On the day Ryan passed Dan Marino for seventh on the all-time passing yards list, he also helped the Colts pass the Jaguars in the AFC South standings.

Frank Reich handed the keys over to Ryan, who attempted 58 passes — more than he’s thrown in any game since 2013 (61 attempts in Week 8 vs. Arizona).

Quantity doesn’t always give way to quality, but Ryan brought the goods in this rematch against a Jags squad that shut him out in Week 2. In the final seconds, Ryan found rookie Alec Pierce for the go-ahead score.

The Colts have had one of the NFL’s worst offences so far, but Sunday was an impressive display of overcoming the absences of Jonathan Taylor and Nyheim Hines. And, believe it or not, Ryan now has three game-winning drives in his first six starts with Indy.

We suffered some bad beats on our prop picks this week, as the game script hurt Raheem Mostert’s opportunity in the fourth quarter and Marquise Brown suffered an ankle injury. Still, two of our three TD picks found their way to pay dirt.

NFL Week 6 takeaways: Think tank

Second-quarter Eagles: NBA fans know all about the third-quarter Warriors, but we’re here to introduce you to football’s version in Philly. The Eagles outscored the Cowboys, 20-3, in the second quarter on Sunday night, furthering their NFL-best pace in that frame.

Through six games, the Eagles have outscored their opponents 112-27 in the second quarter. That equates to 18.7 points per game in the second quarter alone for Philly.

If you’re not mind-blown by that number, consider this: Nine NFL teams currently average fewer than 18.7 points average per game.

Coincidental timing is probably a major factor here, but it’s still worth paying attention to. And hey, maybe the Eagles really are the best at making on-the-fly adjustments during games. After all, they’re the only unbeaten team left.

: Trailing by nine points inside the final seven minutes on Sunday, Cleveland gave itself a chance by executing an onside kick to perfection.

Well, near-perfection.

Browns cornerback A.J. Green touched the ball while his foot was on the out-of-bounds paint, causing the Browns to get an illegal touching penalty instead of a clean recovery. And just like that, Cleveland’s comeback hopes were dashed.

The play was a reminder of how easily an onside kick can go wrong — even when it’s done exactly right. NFL teams have attempted 18 onside kicks this season, and only one has been successful (Jets vs. Browns in New York’s Week 2 win).

A 1-for-18 (5.6%) success rate is far below last year’s 9-for-56 (16.1%) mark. It also runs counterintuitive to the NFL’s new rule that came into effect prior to the 2021 season. Per the rule change, receiving teams have to space out their players a bit more, thus allowing kicking teams a greater chance to recover.

Obviously, that hasn’t rung true this season. But it could mean that some statistical regression is coming, giving underdogs a bit more of a fighting chance.

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