It was an unnerving sight: an NFL head coach disappearing into the blue medical tent on the sideline during a game, then walking to the locker room with the training staff.
A few hours later, Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh explained that in the first half of his team’s game in Denver Sunday the upper chambers of his heart were beating as fast as 350 times a minute. An “atrial flutter,” he called it. Harbaugh explained that he had a similar episode during a “Monday Night Football” game with the 49ers back in 2012. Turns out, his team won that game, too.
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“2-0 with arrhythmias,” Harbaugh said.
After getting checked out by the team’s medical staff and missing a few drives, Harbaugh was cleared to return. He was back on the sideline before halftime, just in time to watch his team’s most impressive performance of the season, a 23-16 victory over the Broncos that snapped Denver’s three-game win streak.
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NFL Week 6 takeaways: Is it panic season for the Dallas Cowboys? Another Lamar Jackson MVP season?
Across the country, his brother’s team, the Baltimore Ravens, won its fourth straight as Derrick Henry continued his stellar second act, pushing his league-leading totals to 704 rushing yards and nine touchdowns in a 30-23 win over Jayden Daniels and the surging Washington Commanders. All’s forgiven after the Ravens’ 0-2 start: they’re now 4-2 and tied with Pittsburgh atop the AFC North.
That’s because the Steelers routed the Raiders 32-13 in Las Vegas to bounce back from a gutting last-second loss to the Cowboys last week. In the first game this season in which Russell Wilson has been available — he didn’t play — Justin Fields finished with only 145 passing yards. But he ran for two touchdowns, and the formula, flawed as it might seem, is working: powered by one of the best defenses in football, Pittsburgh has found its way to 4-2 despite scoring more than 20 points just once.
The best division in football — which was the AFC North not all that long ago — is now unquestionably the NFC North. For the first time since the 2002 realignment, all four teams in a single division have at least four wins six weeks into the season. The Bears and Packers are 4-2, and the Lions are 4-1, trailing the 5-0 Vikings, who were on a bye.
But Detroit’s convincing victory in Dallas came at a tremendous cost: star pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson broke his tibia late in the game and had to be carted off the field. The team later said he stayed in Dallas for immediate surgery, and it’s expected to be a season-ending injury. That’s a devastating loss for a Super Bowl contender. Hutchinson is one of the best in the game.
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In Tennessee, the Colts avoided an 0-3 start in the division by rallying for a 20-17 victory over the Titans in Joe Flacco’s second straight start. Michael Pittman Jr. grabbed the game-winning touchdown. So much for injured reserve.
In New England, the Texans downed the Patriots 41-21 in Drake Maye’s first career start. Despite two interceptions, the rookie impressed: Maye finished with 243 passing yards and three touchdowns, one more than the Patriots had in their previous five games.
In Philadelphia, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni left the field with a win and some taunts for the home crowd. Philly is now 3-2. The Browns are a mess.
In New Orleans, the Buccaneers and Saints exchanged runs of 17-0, 20-0 and 27-0. The final tally? A 51-27 victory for a Bucs team that was displaced this week by Hurricane Milton and, according to coach Todd Bowles, “played with heavy hearts.” Tampa Bay is now 4-2 and tied with Atlanta — which downed lowly Carolina 38-20 — for first in the NFC South. And the Saints, after that sizzling 2-0 start that caught the league’s attention, have dropped four straight.
In the late game, the Bengals survived a scare from the Giants and the embarrassment that would’ve come with a 1-5 start. Instead, it was a 17-7 win for Cincinnati, which overcame a fourth-quarter fumble from Chase Brown that would’ve given the Giants one last chance — that is, if they’d been able to recover the ball before it tumbled out of bounds. Brown responded one play later with a 30-yard touchdown that sealed it for the Bengals, who are now 2-4.
Here’s what we learned across Week 6 in the NFL:
The Bears have their QB
After what seems like a decade of waiting, it looks like the Bears have their guy.
Consider Caleb Williams’ stats over his last four games: 93 of 133 for 1,042 yards, nine touchdowns, three interceptions and a passer rating of 109.5. The Bears have won three straight and are 4-2, fully in contention in the early NFC playoff picture.
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“I’ve been seeing it well,” Williams said after the Bears’ 35-16 win over the Jaguars in London. “Once the ball is snapped, you’ve gotta have that post-snap read, know what you have to do and be confident about it.”
He’s been plenty more confident of late. That’s the biggest improvement Williams has made since early September; in the beginning, like most rookie quarterbacks, Williams’ play was marred by errant throws, missed reads and indecision in the pocket. But he’s been sharper with each passing start, and Sunday’s performance was his best yet: after the Bears’ first two drives netted a total of seven yards, five of Chicago’s next six possessions went for touchdowns.
Williams finished with four touchdowns, two to tight end (and fill-in long snapper) Cole Kmet and two to wideout Keenan Allen. That means Williams has thrown for nine touchdowns in his first six starts, matching the total the Bears’ last two first-round picks at quarterback (Justin Fields and Mitch Trubisky) amassed across their entire first season. And Williams has 11 starts to go.
He is now the first rookie quarterback selected No. 1 to win four of his first six starts in the common draft era. And for the first time since 2006, the Bears have won back-to-back games by 19 or more points. That also happened to be the last time the franchise reached the Super Bowl.
Knock the Bears’ schedule all you want — they’ve faced just two playoff teams from 2023 across the first six weeks of the season — but this is looking like a more complete team by the week. Matt Eberflus’ defense has yielded 20 points or more just once this season, and Williams is spreading the ball around, connecting with eight receivers on Sunday.
The top pick looks like the real deal, and things are looking up in the Windy City.
Rookie QBs settling in
It’s not just Williams. First-year quarterbacks across the league are flashing the potential that made them prized draft picks last spring.
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Five started and threw at least a touchdown Sunday. Daniels threw two for the Commanders, who remain atop the NFC East; Bo Nix had two in Denver’s loss; Maye threw three and New Orleans’ Spencer Rattler, who like Maye was making his NFL starting debut, threw one in the Saints’ loss to Tampa Bay.
All told, that’s 12 touchdown passes from rookie quarterbacks, the most in a single week in the entire Super Bowl era, excluding the strike-shortened 1987 season.
‘A shocker’ for the Cowboys
Entering the season, Dallas had ripped off 16 straight regular-season wins at AT&T Stadium.
The Cowboys have lost three straight since, all in embarrassing fashion. They were routed 44-19 by the Saints in Week 2, fell 28-25 to the Ravens in Week 4 in a game that was never really close, and on Sunday were dismantled by the Lions 47-9, the franchise’s worst loss since 2010 and worst at home going all the way back to 1988.
That was a year before Jerry Jones bought the team.
“This was a shocker,” a solemn Jones told reporters afterward.
The defense is hurting — the Cowboys have been without DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons the last few weeks — but even then, this team bears no resemblance to a legitimate NFC contender. Including January’s playoff defeat to the Packers, the Cowboys have trailed by 15 or more at halftime of four straight home games. Dak Prescott has yet to throw for more than two touchdowns in a game this season, and he tossed two picks Sunday before being pulled for Cooper Rush with the game well out of hand.
The reality is this: Dallas is one game-winning drive in Pittsburgh away from being a disastrous 2-4.
Most telling is how poorly the Cowboys have played against the best teams on their schedule. They weren’t even competitive in their three losses, and it won’t get any easier: after an upcoming bye comes a trip to San Francisco to face a 49ers team that’s beaten them three straight times, including twice in the playoffs. San Francisco rolled Dallas 42-10 last year at home. The silver lining for the Cowboys, odd as it sounds, is that this game is also at Levi’s Stadium.
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Browns sticking with Watson
In Cleveland, one question keeps hovering over the franchise amid an awful start to the season: how much longer can it keep Deshaun Watson in the lineup?
A playoff team a year ago thanks to a punishing defense and a late-season surge from Joe Flacco, the Browns are 1-5 after a 20-16 loss to the Eagles. Watson managed just 168 passing yards, on par with what he’s done most of the season. He’s currently piloting the 32nd-ranked offense in the league and the only unit in football that hasn’t amassed 300 yards or 20 points in a game. Cleveland is 4 of 25 on 3rd down in its last two games. Watson’s thrown five touchdowns in six starts.
It’s bad. And it seems like it’s only getting worse. But, asked after the loss if he’s sticking with Watson as his starter over veteran Jameis Winston, coach Kevin Stefanski’s answer was simple.
“Yes.”
Is it because he has no other choice?
To be fair, Stefanski hasn’t been much better. And the Browns aren’t helping Watson very much — the offensive line committed some costly penalties late in Sunday’s loss. The defense hasn’t matched last year’s performance, although Myles Garrett blocked a field goal attempt Sunday that led to a touchdown return.
Still, with each passing week, it becomes more and more obvious that so much of this team’s offensive issues are tied to the quarterback’s inconsistent play. And because of the unprecedented $230 fully guaranteed contract the Browns handed Watson in 2022, this franchise could be buried in this mess for the next few years. If nothing changes, and the Browns keep losing, it’s not a stretch to say the trade and corresponding contract could go down as the worst deal in modern NFL history.
Pederson under fire as Jags’ skid continues
On the wrong side of the Bears’ rout in London was one of the most disappointing teams in the league.
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Six weeks into the season, the Jaguars are 1-5. Coach Doug Pederson is answering questions about his job security, and one player, safety Andre Cisco, told a Jacksonville TV station that he felt there was “a lot of quit” in Sunday’s loss.
This is not two months after owner Shad Khan said in a team documentary that this “was the best team assembled by the Jacksonville Jaguars ever.” His hope then was a deep playoff run. Many considered it a possibility, with a young offensive core, a star quarterback, playmakers on defense and a head coach with a Super Bowl pedigree.
Now Khan’s team is once again in the running for the first pick in April’s draft. The backslide has been stunning, and Sunday was the latest exhibition: too many penalties, too many dropped throws in the end zone, too many turnovers, too many busted coverages on defense.
Pederson was asked Sunday if he felt like he still had the support of the owner. “I do,” Pederson said. “I was just with him, and I do.”
The Jaguars will stay in London for what figures to be a long week ahead of next Sunday’s game against the Patriots, one Pederson acknowledged was essentially a must-win.
(Photo of Caleb Williams: Harry Murphy / Getty Images)
