The NFL Roundup Week 6 - What We Learned

​Written by John Edward Betancourt

Butch Dill/Associated Press

It was a fascinating weekend of football to say the least. We saw teams that have settled into a routine, either good ones or bad ones continue on their path. We saw teams with something to prove either keep doubt alive or silence it, but most importantly, this was a weekend filled to the brim with incredible football moments that taught us plenty about our favorite teams, and here is what we learned from Week 6 in the NFL.

Stick a fork in the Carolina Panthers, they are done.
There are teams that we outright expect every year to simply dominate when they take the field. Be it their powerhouse offense, or stout defense, something about that squad screams elite...and sometimes, those teams simply fall from grace and their season ends up becoming a total disaster. That, in a nutshell, sums up 2016 for the Carolina Panthers, a team that plenty of people expected to be ultra competitive considering how well they played last year. But after playing loose on defense Sunday, they fell to New Orleans Saints in heartbreaking fashion, giving them a 1-5 record on the season well...that's it ladies and gents, the season is basically over for the Panthers. The chances of them suddenly putting together a ten game win streak or winning enough games to make the playoffs are slim to none. Not with their inconsistent offensive and defensive play and it's a shame...they are a talented team, but bravado and bluster was the focus this year over football fundamentals and we wish the Carolina Panthers luck in 2017. 

The Denver Broncos need to get back to basics. 
To say that the Thursday Night game was a disaster for the Denver Broncos would be an understatement. This was an outright embarrassment for the defending Super Bowl Champions, since they absolutely melted down in San Diego. The defense couldn't stop anything the Chargers threw their way and the offense was actually less efficient than it was under Peyton Manning at his absolute worst. Part of the problem falls to the fact that Gary Kubiak was home resting and the team was unable to install anything more than a vanilla gameplan, but some glaring issues remain. For starters, the Broncos D is woefully ineffective against the run and that's a big part of their defensive game plan. Stop the run, force the pass, Von Miller and the secondary do the reset. Second to that, the offensive line can't block and Trevor Siemian is suddenly regressing after his injury. If the Broncos want to right the ship and quickly, they need to find a way to get the most out of that O Line, get Siemian comfortable again and shore up the defensive line...otherwise, the losses will continue to mount and the season will slip away for Denver...

Any way you slice it, the Chicago Bears are an awful football team.
Some teams can truly blame the injury bug on a bad season when starter after starter make their way onto the Injured Reserve list, and while the Chicago Bears are banged up at plenty of positions, a majority of those wounded players took the field against the Jaguars on Sunday...and lost to Jacksonville. Which begets the question...what the heck is wrong with the Bears? Well, the answer is simple, they're a bad football team. It doesn't matter if Jay Cutler is under center, or the team's usual QB of the week, they never get the job done and the defense is filled with sub par play and players and really, the blame for their 1-5 record at this point...falls to Head Coach John Fox. There are fundamentals this team misses week in and week out, and well...I hate to say it, but if this continues, don't be shocked if the Bears once again jettison their head coach at some point this season.

The answer to the quarterback controversy brewing in Dallas is easy, start Prescott over Romo.
The unspoken rule in the NFL when it comes to injury is simple, a player shouldn't lose their starting job because of an injury. Of course, this is a rule that isn't always adhered to, since injury is how Tom Brady started his legacy in this league, and quite frankly, it's a rule that the Cowboys would be foolish to follow as Tony Romo prepares to return from his back injury, for several reasons. For one, Tony Romo continues to find himself banged up every time he takes the field making this is a great time for him to sit down and heal up properly since the team isn't in dire of need his services at the moment thanks to reason number two...Dak Prescott is absolutely phenomenal. He has been the de facto leader of this offense ever since he took over for Romo and well, if it ain't broke don't fix it. Let Romo heal, let Dak do his thing and then these two QB's can square off next year in the offseason to decide who the 2017 starter will be. 

The Washington Redskins have been quite the pleasant surprise.
Earlier we talked about the Panthers, a team that fit a particular mold for 2016, specifically that we expected them to be an elite team but instead they turned out to be quite a disappointment. Well, on the other side of the spectrum, there are teams that we outright expect to be mediocre, or an outright failure every year that manage to surprise and impress us...and the Washington Redskins fall into that category because while they showed flashes of brilliance last year and even found their way to the playoffs for the first time in ages, we didn't see anything from this franchise in the offseason that indicated they were reloading or improving and in the end, the joke is on us. The Redskins are scary good this year, they find ways to win and are executing plays on both sides of the ball. It really is quite the pleasant surprise to see them in this situation and perhaps at long last, Washington can be taken seriously as a team again.

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