Aren't the first few days of the week without football a real drag? I guess the NFL has us right where it wants us, because I spend most of Tuesday and Wednesday wishing for Adam Sandler's remote control from Click to fast-forward to that sweet gridiron action.
If you're like me, football season isn't just a time of year, it's a state of being. On any given day, you can find me scrolling social media for the latest news, scouring the fantasy football waiver wire for that difference-making pickup and replaying the previous week's results in my head to better predict what's to come next.
I'm a guy who loves trivia because of the satisfying feeling of getting an answer right. That same logic applies to the way I think about the NFL. Learn some lessons from the previous games, apply it to future matchups, and sometimes you look like a genius. Then again, sometimes you pick the Jets to win two weeks in a row. I won't be making that mistake again.
Of course, the NFL isn't some solvable puzzle that always behaves by a strict set of rules. That Titans-Cardinals game on Sunday felt like incontrovertible proof that the NFL is and always will be something too beautiful and stupid and messy for us mere mortals to ever fully grasp. Emari Demercado dropping the ball at the goal line, the Titans scoring a touchdown on a play in which the Cardinals intercepted them — if the Marvel Cinematic Universe was that unpredictable, then Dr. Strange never would have been able to foresee the one path to defeat Thanos.
As always, I'm not about to let the futility of this endeavor stand in my way. Here are four bold predictions for Week 6 that could actually come true.
Spencer Rattler gets his second straight win as the Saints shock the Patriots
At this point, the Spencer Rattler hype train is more like one of those kids cars that you need to move with your feet like you're Fred Flintstone, but I think it's going to gain some more passengers on Sunday. Rattler and his Saints are coming off their first win of the season, and the first win in Rattler's pro career, as they handled the mistake-prone Giants at home.
Now they get a Patriots team that has had their ears filled with Nick Saban's hated rat poison all week after upsetting the Bills in Buffalo on Sunday night. Drake Maye did a better Josh Allen impersonation than Josh Allen in that game, kind of like when Eddie Murphy ripped off a pitch-perfect Stevie Wonder in front of the man himself back in the day on Saturday Night Live. New England's defense held Allen and especially James Cook in check, and Stefon Diggs turned back the clock with a monster game.
The Saints are 1-4 and therefore don't get much respect, but they've actually been pretty competent under new head coach Kellen Moore, certainly not the dumpster fire that many people expected them to be. They hung with the Bills two weeks ago in Buffalo and put up a fight against both the Cardinals and Niners to open the season. They got trounced by the Seahawks in Week 3, but the Seahawks are pretty good and that's a tough place to play. Every team is entitled to an off week.
Mike Vrabel will do everything he can to fight it, but this matchup has letdown game written all over it for the Pats. Rattler has been very solid all year, completing over two-thirds of his passes while throwing only one interception. The Saints' defense is ranked 9th against the pass and 20th against the run, but New England's struggles in the run game this year mean they won't be able to take advantage of it. Saints fans will have some life after finally getting a win, and they'll help push the team to another one.
Baker Mayfield puts himself atop the MVP conversation with another big day
How can you not love Baker Mayfield? This guy is a former No. 1 overall pick, but the way he's been passed over and discarded during his career makes his feel like a true underdog story. He finally found his home in Tampa just over two years ago, and he's led the Bucs to back-to-back playoff appearances. This year, he's taken his game to a whole new level.
Baker has become the guy you don't dare bet against, because if he has the ball at the end of the game, he always seems to find a way to win. That title was usually reserved for Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, but there's no denying that Baker has been better than both of them through five weeks.
The Bucs have been severely banged up, mostly on the offensive side of the ball, but with Baker taking the snaps, it hasn't really mattered. He's making every throw, scrambling for tough yards when he has to, and finding ways to win. Last week he outdueled fellow Class of 2018 QB Sam Darnold by hanging 38 points on the Seahawks, and he did it about 3,000 miles from home in front of the 12th Man at Lumen Field. Mike Macdonald's defense hadn't allowed more than 20 points to a team all year, but it was powerless to stop Baker.
Baker's MVP odds have been creeping up as he's repeatedly come through in the clutch, but this feels like the week that he plants his flag as the MVP favorite in the same way that he once planted the Oklahoma flag at the 50-yard line of the Horseshoe after beating Ohio State.
The Bucs host the 49ers this week, and though San Fran pulled off a monumental win by beating the Rams, and they'll have the benefit of having some extra rest since that game was on Thursday night, I don't think it will matter when Baker is running around and doing his thing.
Bills fans reach for the panic button after the Falcons beat them on Monday night
We have two Monday Night Football games this week, and they're both good ones. The first one features the Bills traveling to Atlanta to play yet another primetime game after losing at home to the Patriots on Sunday night. Buffalo was the last undefeated to go down, but I think they'll get a double dose of heartbreak when the Falcons hand them another L.
Most people will assume this will be a walkover for the Bills, but I don't see it. The Falcons are coming off a bye, while the Bills just suffered a tough loss to a division rival. Advantage Falcons. They're also playing at home, where they beat the Commanders last week and narrowly lost to the Bucs in Week 1 as Baker again worked his magic.
The fact that the Panthers blew the Falcons' doors off 30-0 has made people write Atlanta off, but that was one game, on the road. This isn't a bad team, and the Bills aren't the Super Bowl shoo-ins that they once appeared to be. Josh Allen has elevated an otherwise average team into looking like more than it is, and the Patriots were able to expose that on Sunday. The Falcons have better skill position talent, a rest advantage, and home field. That'll be enough to win a high-scoring game.
Caleb Williams gets revenge on Jayden Daniels for last year's Hail Mary
The final three months of last season were like a waking nightmare for Bears fans, and it can all be traced back to their Week 8 loss to the Commanders. The Bears entered that game 4-2 and full of optimism, but after losing on a last-second Hail Mary, the season spiraled out of control. That was the first game in what would become a 10-game losing streak, one that wasn't snapped until the final day of the season.
A lot has changed for the Bears since then. Matt Eberflus, who drew criticism for allowing the Commanders to pick up easy yards to get in Hail Mary range on the penultimate play, and for not calling a timeout in the final sequence, is gone to Dallas, where his defense is getting punked on a weekly basis by every team not named the Jets.
In his place is Ben Johnson, and he's already beginning to turn things around. The Bears have won two straight to get to 2-2, and like last year, they're coming off a bye as they head to Washington.
Jayden Daniels' Hail Mary connection with Noah Brown completely erased the fact that Caleb Williams led the Bears down the field to take a late lead in that game, marking a major step in his development. Instead it was the guy taken just after him in the 2024 draft who stole the show on his way to winning Offensive Rookie of the Year and leading his team to the NFC Championship Game.
Everyone seemed ready to close the book on the 2024 rookie quarterback hierarchy, but there's a lot of race to be run. Williams has allayed preseason doubts about his fit with Johnson by looking like a star in the making. He's thrown five touchdowns and just one pick in the last two weeks, and he authored a game-winning drive against the Raiders two weeks ago. This time the Bears didn't blow it ,as Josh Blackwell blocked Vegas' game-winning field goal attempt.
This is just the second of what should be many memorable games between Williams and Daniels, and I think Williams will get some revenge, as will Tyrique Stevenson, who was the goat last year for his premature celebration before the Hail Mary. Stevenson played an outstanding games against the Raiders and got himself a pick, and he may get another one on Monday night.
Daniels wore a knee brace last week in his first game back since spraining it in Week 2, and though he played well enough to win, he wasn't asked to be his typical dynamic self as the Chargers imploded after taking an early 10-0 lead. Terry McLaurin is questionable to make his own return from injury, but the fact that he hasn't practiced yet this week likely means he won't be 100 percent either if he plays. Eithe way, the Bears' suspect run defense will need to contain Jacory Croskey-Merritt after his breakout last week.
The Commanders are still a good team even when banged up, but the Bears have the momentum and the motivation to get this win.