NFL Week 6 preview: Five things to watch out for
By Andy Scholes and Ben Morse, CNN
(CNN) — In Week 5 we saw the longest day ever in NFL history.
The Jets and Vikings got things started at 9:30 a.m. ET from London and the Cowboys and Steelers – because of a storm delay – did not finish until about 1 a.m. ET Monday morning.
Congrats to you if you watched football for more than 15 hours!
You will get the chance for another marathon day this Sunday as we have another London game with the Bears and Jaguars kicking off Sunday’s action from Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Here are the 5 things to know for Week 6.
The 49ers and the dreaded Super Bowl Hangover
With the loss to the Cardinals on Sunday, the 49ers surprisingly dropped to 2-3 on the season.
Many are now wondering if they will suffer from the dreaded Super Bowl hangover with teams that have lost the big game historically struggling to go one step further in the following season.
It’s only been done three times, with the most recent being Tom Brady and the Patriots when they lost to the Eagles in 2017 but bounced back to beat the Rams the following year.
The team that lost the Super Bowl has also only made it back to lose again five times in league history. The Buffalo Bills did it three times during their infamous run of losing four straight Super Bowls.
All of this is not great news for the 49ers. They play at the Seahawks on Thursday night and it’s virtually a must-win game for San Francisco.
The Niners are 0-2 so far this season in NFC West division games. And after the Seahawks, the 49ers have a Super Bowl rematch with the Chiefs and then a rivalry game against the Cowboys.
But head coach Kyle Shanahan sees the game against the Seahawks as a galvanizing moment for his team.
“Losing our last two divisional games, having one this week is huge, playing against Seattle is always huge,” Shanahan told reporters on Tuesday.
“And then always in the NFL, it’s tough to get ready for a Thursday night game, but I think everyone enjoys them because it’s very rare that you get to sit back and kind of enjoy that for three days and watch the rest of the league. They’re a lot more fun when you win. When you get to sit back and be pissed off for three days, it’s not nearly as much fun.”
‘Battle of the Beltway’
No teams’ stadiums are closer to each other than the Ravens and Commanders with Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium and Washington’s Northwest Stadium just 32 miles apart.
Local bragging rights will certainly be on the line this Sunday in the “Battle of the Beltway.”
Coming into Sunday, the Commanders are the surprise of the NFL behind rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and new head Coach Dan Quinn.
They are 4-1 and lead the NFC East division. Daniels is the first quarterback ever to have more than 1,000 passing yards and 250 rushing yards in his first five games.
Can he keep that going against a Ravens defense that gave up 38 points to Joe Burrow and the Bengals last week in Baltimore’s dramatic overtime victory?
It would certainly be fun if Daniels and Lamar Jackson get into a shootout. Jackson was incredible throwing for 348 yards and four touchdowns in Baltimore’s 41-38 win over Cincinnati, the team’s third win in a row. The Ravens are 4-3 all-time against the Commanders.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh showed his respect for Washington’s season so far, calling them a “very, very good team that is playing at a very high level, maybe the highest level in the league right now.”
The Maye era begins
After having Tom Brady as a starter for 19 years, it has not been easy for the Patriots to find a new quarterback.
They’ve had Cam Newton, Brian Hoyer, Mac Jones, Bailey Zappe and Jacoby Brissett since 2020 as the franchise searches for its next starting QB.
The team hopes that third overall pick Drake Maye will eventually stop the quarterback carousel, with Maye beginning the season on the bench behind Brissett.
But now, the 22-year-old is expected to take over for Brissett on Sunday against the Texans and make his first start.
First overall pick Caleb Williams, second pick Jayden Daniels and 12th pick Bo Nix have all found success early on in their rookie seasons as their teams have winning records five weeks into the season.
Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo says he has been watching the other first-year quarterbacks to analyze their progress and how Maye might fare.
“I watch those guys on film. I would say each situation is unique, and so is our situation,” Mayo told reporters on Monday. “Those guys, it was a little bumpy at first, Jayden Daniels aside, but those guys are playing at a high level.
“It’s natural for fans and for the media to say: ‘Well, we have a good quarterback waiting in the wings as well.’ At the same time, our mentality is: how do we develop him? How do we get the guys on the field around him to develop and move forward from there?”
But it won’t be easy for Maye. The Patriots offensive line has struggled blocking this season and the Texans have a very good pass rush.
Will the Cowboys ever win a home game?
The Lions head to Arlington, Texas on Sunday to take on the Cowboys. Detroit is fresh off a bye while the Cowboys are coming off a thrilling last-second win over the Steelers.
Dallas is now 3-2 on the season but 0-2 at home. The Cowboys have just been bad at AT&T Stadium in their last three games dating back to the blowout loss to the Packers in last season’s playoffs.
The last time Dallas won at home was actually against the Lions on December 30 last year but that game ended controversially. Detroit got the winning two-point conversion, but it was negated by an ineligible receiver penalty. The Lions claim they reported as eligible correctly but to no avail.
However, Lions quarterback Jared Goff says the ending of last season’s game isn’t still playing on their minds.
“It’s a different team and no, I think we all know what happened there at the end and it was unfortunate the way it worked, but yeah, we’ll be ready this week,” Goff told reporters.
The Cowboys will likely still be without many of their key defensive players including star linebacker Micah Parsons.
But Detroit head coach Dan Campbell believes that while the loss of Parsons will be big for Dallas, the Cowboys have enough weapons to worry his team.
“It impacts them. But I would say you have to have an answer for Parsons,” Campbell told reporters. “You have to have an answer for him, but if he’s not there, he really hasn’t been there the last two weeks and they’re playing pretty dang good.
“So, it takes that threat out of there but yet what I’m telling you is just turn on the tape. Watch the tape, look at the stats. I mean, they’re playing good ball. You better be ready is the point. We have to be ready.”
The Jets making changes
No NFL team has ever fired their coach mid-season and made the playoffs.
That’s what the Jets are now up against as they became the first team to fire a head coach this season after letting go of Robert Saleh.
After the loss to the Vikings in London, the team is off to a disappointing 2-3 start. The team’s owner Woody Johnson said it was his decision to fire Saleh, the first time in his 25 years of owning the team that he’s made a mid-season coaching change.
“This was not an easy decision, but we are not where we should be given our expectations, and I believe now is the best time for us to move in a different direction,” Johnson said in a statement.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich has been named the Jets’ interim head coach.
Saleh was a defensive-minded coach but that’s not been the problem with the Jets thus far – it’s the offense that has struggled mightily. Despite having Aaron Rogers back, the Jets are in the bottom 10 in the league in nearly every offensive category.
New York will have an extra day to prepare this week as they will be taking on the Bills on Monday Night Football. The Jets have the longest postseason drought in the league, missing the playoffs in the past 13 seasons.
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