NFL Week 6 & a New Manly Man of the Week

   It's Week 6 in the NFL, and I think it's time we can make some real decisions. I think we can agree that, as weird as it sounds, Detroit and Buffalo are going to be good this year. I'm not ready to predict some sort of bizarro world Lions-Bills Super Bowl, but I think they'll both be legitimately good teams for the rest of the season. The Colts have no shot at being competitive without Peyton Manning. And perhaps most interesting and satisfying for me personally, the Eagles have serious issues that will prevent them from being good.
   And now, this week we have a number of really interesting games to watch. Lions-49ers and Texans-Ravens give us match-ups between division leaders while Eagles-Redskins, Saints-Bucs, Vikings-Bears, and Dolphins-Jets give us 4 big rivalry games. It's a great week for football. Let's get to the games.

Home team in CAPS
LIONS over 49ers - Before the season, who would have thought this would be a big time game? The 5-0 Lions and the 4-1 49ers? What's going on? The Lions are finally putting together all of the big-time pieces they've been gathering by picking at the beginning of the draft for years. But, the job coach Jim Harbaugh is doing in San Francisco is nothing short of amazing. Harbaugh was hired in the middle of the lockout, so he couldn't even meet any of his players let alone practice with them. Once the lockout was lifted he had a couple weeks to install a new offense, fit his new players into their roles, and oh yeah learn their names. And now, the 49ers have a commanding division lead. However, they won't have the firepower to keep up with the Lions this week. Detroit moves to 6-0.

PACKERS over Rams - This will be the most lopsided game of the week. Green Bay is rolling, and St. Louis is not. The Rams haven't won a game yet, and even worse, they've scored just 46 points in 4 games. Scoring 12 points per game isn't going to get many wins. The Packers will score 12 points before the 1st quarter is over.
FALCONS over Panthers - Atlanta has to be disappointed with their seasons so far. They're coming off a Super Bowl run last year, but at 2-3 they're dangerously close to falling out of the playoff picture altogether. Carolina, despite a 1-4 record, can encouraged about their season. Nobody expected Cam Newton to be a good NFL quarterback right away, but he's been very effective. He's in the top 5 in the league in passing yards and has added 5 rushing touchdowns. But more importantly, he's become a leader for a young team and has made them competitive in every game. Their 4 losses are by a combined 18 points. I think they'll keep this one close again, but the Falcons will be too much.

These 2 chose football just because
the helmets hide their faces.

BENGALS over Colts - The Bengals have been surprisingly decent this year. Without Manning, the Colts have been unsurprisingly bad. And, if they lose this game, Indy could be looking at a historically bad start. After this week, they travel to New Orleans and Tennessee before hosting Atlanta. That could be 0-9. Peyton has to be hating this. I'm just upset because if he was playing we'd have Peyton Manning vs. Andy Dalton in the ugliest quarterback battle in NFL history.

Bills over GIANTS - If the Giants were going to do anything important this year, they couldn't lose to the Seahawks at home. Well, that's what they did last week. The biggest problem is that their normally solid rushing attack has fallen to 28th in the league which means Eli Manning has had to make more plays. Not good. The Bills have been playing so well that the NFL has delayed their attempts to deport them to Canada. Which is nice for the people in Buffalo.

STEELERS over Jags - I have no clue what to make of the Steelers at this point. One week Adrian Foster runs all over them. The next week they shutdown Chris Johnson without Casey Hampton, James Harrison, and Aaron Smith. One week Ben's getting sacked 100 times and breaking his foot. The next week they start 2 backups and a guy who hadn't played football in over a year, and they open huge holes and don't let anyone near Ben. I don't know what to think or expect from a week-to-week basis, but I do know that if Blaine Gabbert beats the Steelers in Pittsburgh there's major problems.

REDSKINS over Eagles - I'm not sure how good Washington actually is, but I love this Philly losing thing. Mike Vick is throwing all kinds of interceptions, and Andy Reid is more depressed than when McDonalds discontinued the McRib (no, I'm not above making fat jokes). I also think the Eagles decision to make a career offensive line coach their defensive coordinator may be contributing to their struggles. I mean most teams would want someone with some sort of experience coaching defense to be their defensive coordinator, but to each his own.

RAVENS over Texans - Houston looks like they might finally make the playoffs for the 1st time in franchise history as they look to be in control of the AFC South. Of course, the might have more to do with the absence of Peyton Manning than with the improvement of the Texans but whatever. But now, their best player Andre Johnson is out for weeks, and quarterback Matt Schaub might be out. Not the best time to play the Ravens.

RAIDERS over Browns - Oakland might actually be a decent team this year. They got an emotional comeback win over the Texans last week just days after Al Davis died. I have made many jokes about Davis being ugly and perhaps secretly dead for years, but now that's he's actually dead I guess I need to find a new source of jokes. Well, maybe one more Al Davis joke. Here's a clip of Al before a game last season. Watch this and tell me there's not a chance he hasn't been dead for years not days.

PATS over Cowboys - As much as I hate the Pats, there is no way Tony Romo outduels Tom Brady. Neither team plays much defense, so it's going to come down to who can score more points. That's definitely New England.

Saints over BUCS - I've been a big fan of Tampa Bay, but they just went to San Francisco and lost by almost fifty. Now they have to take on Drew Brees. I don't think they can score enough to keep up with the Saints.

Vikings over BEARS - Well isn't this a terrible game for the Sunday Night national broadcast. Neither team has a winning record. The Bears can't block well enough to give Jay Cutler a chance. Donovan McNabb is so washed up the University of Minnesota wouldn't even want him let alone the Minnesota Vikings. I'm just picking the Vikings because Adrian Peterson is awesome. He's almost as real-life good as Bo Jackson was Tecmo Bowl video-game good. And if you don't know what I'm taking about you didn't play enough Nintendo as a kid. Watch this and see how awesome Tecmo Bo was, and also see how I spent all my time from age 6 to age 10 (ok, maybe age 12).

JETS over Dolphins - Let me be clear, I still don't think the Jets are any good. However, the Dolphins are plenty terrible. They haven't won a game yet, and now their quarterback is out for the year. While Chad Henne might not be a huge loss, the alternatives are Matt Moore and Sage Rosenfels. Oh boy.

Last Week: 9-4
Season: 43-18
Manly Man of the Week
I know I've missed a few weeks (or months) of this, but I'm bringing it back. We need to consistently recognize the men who have proven to be the manliest society has to offer. So without further delay, our Manly Man of the Week this week is Christian Terchanik. Now, many of you know him and wouldn't question his manliness, but he took it to a new level this week. On Tuesday night, the Pens hosted their first home game of the season. Walking into the game, Christian was interviewed by PensTV and dropped a big F-bomb that had to be edited out of the interview. After the game, he called into 93.7FM radio to talk more Pens where he dropped another F-bomb that had to be bleeped on the radio. He's a manly man who had to be censored on multiple forms of media in one night. Christian, they can't censor you just keep on being a manly man.