32 things we learned in NFL Week 6: NFC North dominance escalates
The 32 things we learned from Week 6 of the 2024 NFL season:
0. Home wins by the Dallas Cowboys in calendar year 2024, going back to their blowout loss to the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round of the 2023 playoffs. Sunday, it was the Detroit Lions, the last team to lose at AT&T Stadium on Dec. 30 – and under dubious circumstances (more on that later) – that teed off on America’s Team in a 47-9 triumph, Dallas' worst home loss since Jerry Jones bought the franchise in 1989. The Cowboys are now 0-4 in “Jerry World” since January, losing by a collective 82 points and trailing by at least 22 at some point in each of those defeats. (And, incidentally, Sunday was Jones' 82nd birthday.)
0. The number of interim head coaches who have guided a team to the Super Bowl. Good luck to Jeff Ulbrich and the New York Jets, who face the Buffalo Bills in their first game Monday night without pink-slipped scapegoat Robert Saleh.
1. The number of victorious rookie quarterbacks Sunday even though a season-high five started. That would be the Chicago Bears’ Caleb Williams, the top pick of the 2024 draft, who threw a career-high four touchdown passes in a 35-16 rout of the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.
2. Williams became the first quarterback drafted No. 1 overall ever to win four of his first six NFL starts.
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3. The Bears have won a league-high nine straight at “home” … given they technically hosted Sunday’s game at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
3a. Williams’ four TD passes were a record in that building.
4. Elsewhere, New Orleans Saints rookie QB Spencer Rattler and New England Patriots rookie QB Drake Maye took the L in their maiden starts.
5. Rattler took on fellow former Oklahoma Sooner Baker Mayfield in a contest that devolved into a good old Big 12 shootout, Mayfield’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers prevailing 51-27 in a game that featured nearly 900 yards of total offense.
6. The Bucs’ 594 yards were the most ever in one game for a franchise now in its 49th season. They became the fifth NFL team to pass for at least 300 yards and rush for 275 in the same game.
7. A good chunk of the production came from Tampa Bay’s virtually unknown third-string RB Sean Tucker, who piled up 255 all-purpose yards while finding the end zone twice.
7a. Another good chunk came via Buccaneers WR Chris Godwin, the NFL's leader in yards after catch, per Next Gen Stats.
8. Rattler joined Ian Book as the only rookie quarterbacks to start for New Orleans in the 21st century. Neither won.
9. Do your stats lie? Per NFL Media, Maye became the first quarterback since at least 1950 to throw for a minimum of three TDs while leading his team in rushing in his first NFL start. He ran for 38 yards and his scoring throws were largely inconsequential in a 41-21 loss to the Houston Texans. Nevertheless, maybe a bit of renewed optimism for the tortured folk of Foxborough given what they've seen in recent weeks (and years).
9a. How much do your stats lie? San Francisco 49ers DE Nick Bosa had an NFL-high 14 pressures in Thursday night’s 36-24 defeat of the Seattle Seahawks. A quick glance at the box score reveals Bosa had zero sacks, hardly indicative of his effect on a given game.
10. The number of times Lions OT Dan Skipper reported as eligible against the Cowboys, including on both half-ending kneel-downs. You'll recall tackle-eligible plays were a, well, problem in Detroit's Week 17 loss in North Texas last season.
11. One beneficiary of Maye’s home debut was Texans DE Will Anderson Jr., the reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year bagging the No. 3 pick of 2024 a career-best three times.
12. Back to this year's rookies, Denver Broncos QB Bo Nix and the Washington Commanders’ Jayden Daniels both saw their winning streaks, three and four, respectively, ended Sunday.
13. Daniels accounted for a respectable 291 yards and two TDs (both passing), but Washington scored its fewest points (23) since Week 2 while losing to the surging team up the Beltway, the Baltimore Ravens.
14. Overall, the 12 combined TD passes Sunday were the most by a set of rookie quarterbacks in a week in the Super Bowl era (since 1966), the 1987 strike season notwithstanding.
15. Baltimore RB Derrick Henry rushed for 132 yards and two scores, taking over the league rushing lead with 704 yards – he’s now on pace for 1,995 over 17 games.
16. The Ravens became the second team in the past 18 seasons to rush for 1,200 yards collectively through six games, joining the 2019 Ravens ... who lost to Henry's Tennessee Titans in the playoffs.
17. The Ravens also became the second team since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to rush for at least 150 yards and a TD in its first six games, joining the 1971 Oakland Raiders.
18. As for Henry? He’s the first player since Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson in 2005 to run for a touchdown in his team’s first six games. LT wound up with a league-record 31 TDs overall that year – plus a record 28 on the ground – and was named the league’s MVP. Just sayin’.
18a. Henry now ranks fourth all-time after registering his 20th game with at least 100 yards and two touchdowns rushing. He trails three HOFers: Jim Brown (25 games), Tomlinson (25) and Emmitt Smith (21).
19. It took six games for Packers S Xavier McKinney to fail to swipe an interception for his new club.
20. Didn’t matter as Green Bay decked the Arizona Cardinals 34-13. And even though McKinney didn’t contribute one, the Pack have multiple takeaways in every game this season – their total now at a league-high 20.
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21. Is there any doubt the NFC North has emerged as the league’s best division? It’s the only one with all of its teams above .500 and – if the season ended today – three would advance to the playoffs.
22. Per OptaSTATS, its 17-5 (.773) record marks the first time in league history a division had at least a .750 winning percentage through Week 6 or later of a given season.
23. Since divisional realignment in 2002, the NFC North is the first to feature all of its members with at least four wins through Week 6.
23a. Though the undefeated Minnesota Vikings were on bye, the rest of the division cleaned up Sunday, the Bears, Lions and Packers winning by an average of 26 points. Things should get nicely heated once intra-divisional play ramps up given only the Pack and Vikes have met thus far.
24. And how good has Lions QB Jared Goff been? Sunday, he became only the second signal-caller, along with Drew Brees, to record a passer rating in excess of 150.0 in consecutive starts.
25. Sadly, the NFC North will lose some significant luster in the aftermath of the broken tibia suffered by Detroit DE Aidan Hutchinson, who boosted his league-leading sack total to 7½ on the play that will almost undoubtedly end his 2024 season … and perhaps drastically alter his team’s Super Bowl hopes.
26. The more you can do … and look no further than Bears TE Cole Kmet. He caught a pair of TDs in Chicago’s win and deftly shifted into long-snapping duties after Scott Daly injured a knee. “Definitely not a position I envisioned playing in the NFL – ever,” said Kmet, who only had to snap on five PATs and one field-goal try but no punts. “My biggest worry going into the game.”
27. Sacked five more times in Sunday’s 20-16 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson has now gone down a league-high 31 times.
28. Watson is on pace to be sacked 88 times, which would shatter the single-season league record (76 of David Carr).
29. And while Cleveland kept the score close, it must be noted Watson did little to move an offense that generated just 244 yards – though, amazingly, that’s the team’s second-highest total of the season.
30. The Browns’ only touchdown Sunday came via a blocked field goal by superstar Myles Garrett and subsequently returned 50 yards to pay dirt.
31. It’s starting to look like the Atlanta Falcons have an all-weather offense. Following QB Kirk Cousins' team-record 509-yard, four-TD passing outburst indoors in Week 5, they rushed for 198 yards outside in Charlotte during Sunday’s 38-20 dispatch of the Carolina Panthers.
32. Uniform note of the week: Desperate to return to the Super Bowl, the Jets will wear throwbacks Monday that honor the only team in franchise history to play on Super Sunday, Joe Namath’s legendary 1968 J-E-T-S. Maybe Aaron Rodgers should’ve accepted the offer to borrow Namath’s retired No. 12 jersey.
32a. Second uniform note of the week: There’s certainly a faction of enthusiasts – J.J. Watt among them – who believe the throwbacks the Seahawks broke out Thursday are the league’s best. But that didn’t help them avert a three-game skid … perhaps because the 49ers were wearing their nifty retros, most famously associated with their last championship run in 1994.
32b. Third uniform note of the week: Maybe Maye didn't win, but he can proudly memorialize his first NFL start. Visually anyway.
32c. Fourth uniform note of the week: Did you know the Panthers rolled with a first-time combination prominently featuring their "Process Blue"?
***Follow USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter, @ByNateDavis.