Week 6 NFL Observations

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Published on October 18, 2010

Kevin Kolb had 11.2 YPA Sunday against the Falcons after lighting up the 49ers a week earlier. Of course, it would be totally unfair for Michael Vick to lose his job simply due to injury.

Steve Spagnuolo's defense in St. Louis can bring the heat. After sacking Philip Rivers seven times Sunday, they're tied for sixth in the league with 17. Given what Spagnuolo was able to do with the 2007-08 Giants, I expect this to continue, with James Hall, Chris Long and Fred Robbins all capable of getting to the quarterback

Apparently Mike Tolbert's not going away as the goal-line vulture. Ryan Mathews looked good again and will one day have a big game when the Chargers aren't playing from behind, but Tolbert will severely cut into his TD total.

Ndamukong Suh already has 4.5 sacks, a 12-sack pace from the defensive tackle position.

Ahmad Bradshaw has good speed, excellent quickness and outstanding vision. His ability to stop on a dime, change direction and find the best running lane were impressive Sunday. Like Mathews, he'll lose goal-line touches all season, though.

Without Randy Moss to draw attention to opposing defenses on the outside, and other quality possession options in New England like Aaron Hernandez and Deion Branch, I'm extremely bearish on Wes Welker going forward, especially when you consider he won't likely be 100 percent healthy until next year. In fact, in a 12-team 2-WR non-PPR, he's droppable.

Tom Brady's merits a downgrade without Moss, but only a slight one. Brady was still a 24-28 TD guy before Moss arrived, and that was when the Pats had Corey Dillon and a top-notch defense.

As much as I complain about Calvin Johnson's underuse in Detroit, it's worth noting he's got 55 targets, tying him for 7th in the league with three other players. That's a pace for 146 on the season - which while not ideal hardly constitutes neglect.

What crime does Wade Phillip have to commit to lose his job?

As a Steve Smith owner, I'm glad John Fox named Matt Moore the starter again, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense now that he let the rookie destroy any hope the team had of making the playoffs. At this point, he might as well have let Clausen mop up.

I didn't watch a lot of the Pittsburgh-Cleveland game, but Colt McCoy got 8.5 YPA on 33 attempts, despite losing his top two receivers to James Harrison's helmet-to-helmet hits? Why is Jake Delhomme even on the roster at this point? And why the hell did Ben Roethlisberger throw that last touchdown to Heath Miller? You're supposed to run out the clock there, not take away the Browns cover! That's a rare backdoor cover from the favorite.

(I got a similar gut-punch when Jason Hanson made a 50-yard FG to cover against the G-Men, too). And then the stupid Jets, favored by three, and hoping just for a game-tying FG to send the game into OT, got a shady PI call for the easy TD and four-point win. (It was arguably PI, but the pass had little chance of being completed anyway, and so it was a really cheap way to lose).

When the going gets tough, Dallas folds.

I think there might be a correlation between the Saints throwing the ball downfield to their big, fast receiver (Robert Meachem), and being efficient on offense.

Chris Ivory's emergence means Pierre Thomas will not have serious value this year even if he gets healthy in the next couple weeks.

Ryan Torain had a lot of good holes to run through and ran with some power, but otherwise was not overly impressive. Fred Davis is worth a look with Chris Cooley out, though any tight end will do these days.

Has Austin Collie replaced Dallas Clark as Peyton Manning's No. 2 read? Has he replaced Reggie Wayne as his first look in the red zone?

There's less difference between Jason Campbell and JaMarcus Russell than there is between Campbell and Bruce Gradkowski. Put simply, Campbell has no chance to quarterback a winning team because he's robotic and doesn't play instinctually.

Greg Jennings should be a top-15, if not top-10, receiver the rest of the way.