NFL Week 6 Recap: Not So Purdy

Entering the sixth week of the NFL season, two unbeaten teams remained, and they were the last teams standing in the NFC last year: the defending conference champion Philadelphia Eagles, and last year's NFC runners-up, the San Francisco 49ers. To the surprise of no one, both teams stood standing as the remaining teams unbeaten in a not-so-deep NFC. As we all know, when there's one left, that's when the 1972 Miami Dolphins mentions come in. The 1972 Dolphins stand tall as the NFL's only perfect team; the originators of "run the table." Few teams have come relatively close. As we all know, the 2007 New England Patriots almost did it, but lost Super Bowl XLII late in the fourth quarter. So how would the 49ers and Eagles fare in Week 6? Let's find out.

First off, the Niners were in Cleveland facing off against a Browns team who was starting their back-up quarterback. Yet despite this, the game was actually close throughout; the Niners scored first, but couldn't really break out, and late in the game, the Browns took the lead on a field goal. Brock Purdy led the team to a potential game-winning drive, but the field goal went wide right. Final score: Browns 19, 49ers 17. Yikes. Originally, I reacted to this loss with shock, but after a few minutes, I was laughing my ass off. Here's why.

The man who is thinking about challenging AEW wrestler Hook for the title of "handsome devil" is Jimmy Garoppolo, currently the QB for the Las Vegas Raiders, but he was the Niners QB for a good bit. Under "Jimmy G," the team went to Super Bowl LIV, and spent many years tormenting Packers fans like myself with his knack for besting the GOAT himself, Aaron Rodgers. Yet for some reason, the Niners decided to get rid of Jimmy G and first go with Trey Lance, whose first start saw him lose to the Bears (which should be grounds for being thrown out of the NFL), and now they have Purdy. I said the Niners would miss Jimmy G. As usual, I was right. How did Purdy perform in Cleveland? 125 passing yards, a TD, and an interception. You know who doesn't throw interceptions? Jimmy G. You know who would have easily blown out the Browns? Also Jimmy G. Niners, you should have kept Jimmy G. Now you're stuck with a bum at QB.

With that loss, the Eagles are the team on "72 Dolphins" watch, and they were playing against the New York Jets. So they'll be unbeaten for another week, right? Yeah, about that. This game was also too close for comfort, and it saw the Jets capitalize on some rare mistakes made by Jalen Hurts. Hurts threw three interceptions, with the third one actually icing the game for the Jets. The Jets, sans Aaron Rodgers, won 20-14. And with that, the 1972 Dolphins can pop the champagne corks for one more year. Amazing. No unbeatens left after six weeks. That's pretty quick.

Speaking of the Dolphins, they were at home facing the winless Carolina Panthers. Amazing. You would think going winless would be equally as impossible as being perfect, but there have been three winless seasons in history: the 1976 Buccaneers, the 2008 Lions, and the 2017 Browns. The Panthers looked like they would on the verge of getting off the schnide, as they were up 14-0 early, but Miami realized they had an offense, and they just stomped Carolina to the ground. A 42-21 win for the Dolphins. The Panthers are 0-6. I still can't believe this. Based on the moves they made, I had Carolina winning the NFC South. Now they are winless with the season at the one-third mark. Just shocking.

The week began with the Kansas City Chiefs winning 19-8 over the Denver Broncos, and two nights later, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift made cameo appearances on the season premiere of SNL. The Sunday action began with another London game, this time it was the Baltimore Ravens facing off against the Tennessee Titans, which saw the Ravens win 24-16 to move into sole possession of first place in the AFC North. A vast majority of those points were scored by the Ravens' kicker, Justin Tucker. I've said this before: Justin Tucker is the GOAT of kickers. He and Lamar are the two players carring this team. How valuable was Tucker this week? Let's go to the fantasy numbers.

I don't recall if I've mentioned fantasy scoring for kickers before, but it goes like this. In a lot of leagues, it's 1 point for extra points, 3 points for FGs under 40 yards, 4 points for FGs in the 40s, and 5 points for FGs longer than 50 yards. Scoring like that is why Tucker is in the highest demand, because he's known for nailing the long ones like it's nothing, and that includes his NFL record 66 yarder that he nailed two seasons ago. Regarding his six field goals, five of them were under 40 yards, and one was in the 40s. That's 19 fantasy points, the highest fantasy score for a kicker this week--just one point ahead of KC's Harrison Butker.

Speaking of fantasy, I made sure to get Josh Allen this year, but there's one thing I forgot: there are times where we don't know which Josh Allen we'll get. Now it's not as bad as some "Jekyll and Hyde" players. For every one shaky start he has, he'll have about four or five great ones, so he's still a big get for fantasy owners. Sunday Night Football against the New York Giants was one of his shaky starts, but he bounced back in the fourth quarter, because that's what he does. Thanks to Tyler Bass missing his second field goal of the game, the G-Men actually had a chance at a game winning touchdown. They received an untimed down due to DPI on the Bills, but the pass play failed, though it can be said that DPI should have been called again. Nevertheless, the Bills escaped, 14-9.

The Jacksonville Jaguars defeated the Indianapolis Colts, 37-20, to hold on to first place in a very interesting AFC South this season. However, they also have competition from the Houston Texans, who defeated the New Orleans Saints, 20-13. Houston has been playing so well this season, they are 3-3 after six weeks, meaning that they are one win away from surpassing last year's win total (3.5). I'm happy that Houston's good again; I still remember when the Texans regularly won the AFC South and would be the first game of Wild Card Weekend. Can Houston win the division this year? Well, there's still 12 weeks left this season, but they do have a shot.

The very, very, very for real Detroit Lions improved to 5-1 with their 20-6 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Lions are definitely legit, but I'm hopeful that the Packers will still move past them in the NFC North. Speaking of the North, the Vikings defeated the Bears in the NFC North's 3rd place game, and the Raiders survived the New England Patriots, though the aforementioned Jimmy G ended up injured during the game. The Rams, Commanders, and Bengals made it to .500 with their wins, and Monday Night Football saw the Dallas Cowboys edge the Los Angeles Chargers, 20-17, in a thriller.

And that's that. We are one-third through the 2023 NFL season. The heart of the season begins with Thursday Night Football between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the New Orleans Saints, while the Miami Dolphins and the Philadelphia Eagles take center stage on Sunday Night Football. The Monday Night Football finale will feature the Minnesota Vikings at home against the San Francisco 49ers. The following six teams have byes: the Carolina Panthers, the Dallas Cowboys, the Tennessee Titans, the New York Jets, the Cincinnati Bengals, and the Houston Texans.

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