Since I started writing these weekly NFL recaps, I never thought I'd start things off by talking about the Cleveland Browns. Even though it's only Week 6 and talk of playoff berths are a long way off, the Browns are a vastly improved team from what they were last year. They gave the Ravens everything they could handle back in Week 3, and on Sunday they beat up the Steelers all day long. They now stand at 3-2, and they don't look like the type of team who will falter down the stretch. Quarterback Brian Hoyer plays better and better with each week, leaving 2014 first-round pick Johnny Manziel to be all but forgotten except for the occasional wildcat play. Hoyer is a free agent after the season, putting the Browns in a strange dilemma of whether they should sign him long term or put their franchise in Manziel's hands.
For the here and now at least, the Browns are a very competitive team. Their next three games - at Jacksonville, vs Oakland, and vs Tampa Bay - are all very winnable. If they are 6-2 at that point, their next match up is a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, a game that could suddenly mean a whole lot more than what anyone had expected at the beginning of the season.
As for the rest of Week 6....
1. Tampa Bay looks like it's already packed it in for the season. Down 38-0 at halftime, the Bucs looked like they forgot they had a football game to play for the second time this season after a miserable game in Atlanta a few weeks ago. Lovie Smith has failed to properly prepare and motivate his players for the bulk of this season so far, and if not for a last-minute miracle in Pittsburgh the Bucs would be 0-6 right now. Tampa lacks playmakers on both sides of the ball, and they look a lot further from being competitive than I had thought prior to the season.
2. Dare I say it, but the Cowboys might be the best team in the NFC right now. Seattle jumped out to a 10-0 lead midway through the first quarter, and most other teams would abandon establishing a running game being down two scores on the road. Not the Cowboys, though. DeMarco Murray rushed for another 146 yards and scored a late touchdown to put Dallas ahead for good. Tony Romo played well for the game, making just the right amount of plays when needed while avoiding crucial mistakes. The Eagles are probably the only other team who comes close to being the top team in the NFC right now along with the Cowboys, given the injuries and losses other teams have taken so far this season.
Now if you'll excuse me for a minute, I think I'm going to be sick after typing all that.
3. If only Jay Cutler could consistently play the way he did on Sunday. Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey each finished with well over 100 yards receiving as the Bears beat up the Falcons in Atlanta. The Jay Cutler who played on Sunday looked like an MVP-candidate. The problem is during the previous two games another Jay Cutler took the field. He is arguably the most inconsistent quarterback in the league, which has to be maddening for Bears fans.
4. Can we jump off the Bengals' bandwagon now? They laid an egg in New England last week, and this week they played to a tie at home against Carolina. Mohammed Sanu and Giovani Bernard had to carry the load since A.J. Green was out from a toe injury, and they did their share in keeping their team in the game. The Bengals' defense couldn't stop Cam Newton from making one efficient throw after another. Once again, the Bengals look destined to be a bridesmaid in the AFC, and not the bride.
5. The Cardinals are being overlooked as one of the better teams in the NFC. Larry Fitzgerald proved he still has it even though he's past his prime, catching 6 passes for 98 yards and a touchdown. The more fascinating stat is that no quarterback in Arizona has thrown an interception through the first 6 games of the season, becoming the first team to do so since the Redskins in 2008. They have quietly taken first place in the NFC West as the Seahawks dropped one against Dallas and the 49ers have largely struggled to this point in the season. Bruce Arians might be the Coach of the Year through the first six weeks.
6. The Goat of the Week Award goes to Kirk Cousins. The Redskins were in a close game through three quarters in Arizona, down only 17-13. The fourth quarter was when the wheels came off, with Cousins throwing not one, not two, but three interceptions in the final 15 minutes. The third pick came with less than 30 seconds to go, with Rashad Johnson running back a pick for a touchdown to seal the victory for the Cardinals. There's now whispers of the Redskins going Colt McCoy at quarterback next week, which seemed inconceivable prior to the start of their four-game losing streak.
7. If the Jaguars don't defeat Miami in Week 8, they have a real shot at going 0-16. The Jaguars have four more games until their bye in Week 11. They are home this Sunday against Cleveland, home again versus Miami after then, then they hit the road in Cincinnati, and then return home versus Dallas. Miami is by far the most winnable game of that bunch, but after their bye they don't have another winnable game on their schedule until Week 16 when they are home against Tennessee. If they lose to Miami, the noose gets tighter and tighter around the players' necks, It becomes more and more difficult to take the field each week, knowing there are fewer and fewer chances to get at least one win on the season. The Jaguars are an extremely young team, but they have to give their ownership and fans some kind of sign they are building something competitive.
8. Ties stink, but there's a great irony to the NFL's current overtime rules. The league office wanted to come up with a better way to play overtime in order to give both teams in a game a decent chance of at least having one possession. In 2012, the owners voted on changing the overtime system to match the system adopted for the playoffs. Overtime no longer is necessarily sudden death, but the great irony is that in the effort to avoid ties and give both teams the ball at least once in overtime, the league has actually increased the number of games ending in ties. Since 2012, there has been at least one game each season that has ended in a tie. Prior to 2012, the last year a game ended in a tie was in 2008; prior to that was in 2002; and before that was a pair of games in 1997. Ties were not as commonplace as they were prior to the league taking steps to avoid them.
I don't know what the answer is. I know it's not to continue playing until somebody scores, regardless of how many quarters a game has to last. Players are beat up and exhausted enough after 4 quarters of play; if they had to play as many as 6 quarters, injuries would pile up and they wouldn't be ready in time for their next game the following weekend (God help a team who might have to play 6 quarters on Sunday and then have to play again Thursday night). There will never be a perfect overtime system, but the one we have now is better than the old one, and it's worlds better than what college football uses.
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