*EARLY SUNDAY GAME THIS WEEK*
We interrupt this week’s episode of Coaches Behaving Badly to bring you an NFL update!
This week was the highest scoring week in the pool to date, with an average of over 15 points per participant. To get there, we had a lot of drama: Minnesota, New England, and Baltimore all had a number of confidence picks and all won their games late (or in OT, in Baltimore’s case). In the case of the Ravens, they trailed 22-3 late in the third, and needed at TD and a two point conversion with under a minute left to send the game into overtime, where they scored another TD to win 31-25. This game was by far Lamar Jackson’s best as a passer, as he went 37 for 43 for 442 yards and 4 TDs. The big knock on Jackson in previous seasons has been his ability to throw the ball with consistency but he appears to have made significant progress on that front this year, while much of his production is still tied to his ability as a runner, Baltimore was a team that was not able to come back late in games if they needed quick points through the air. Being able to pass makes Baltimore a more threatening team against top competition, as the better teams will find ways to slow down the running attack.
One of those teams is the Buffalo Bills, who stymied the Kansas City Chiefs in the Sunday night game – in the first half, Josh Allen completed just 7 of 14 passes, but those 7 completions went for 210 yards! The Bills looked like a team that has the total package in this game but more tellingly, the Chiefs looked like a broken down team, even Patrick Mahomes had a rough game, as he threw two picks and lost a fumble. The defense was the bigger story, as referenced above, the pass defense was atrocious again in this game, as they appeared to forget that Josh Allen has a rocket launcher for an arm and the Bills continually beat the Chiefs on deep passing plays. The defense may be upgraded to “fatal flaw” if this cannot be corrected.
In other news, the Seattle Seahawks will be without QB Russell Wilson for “at least six weeks” after undergoing surgery to repair his broken right middle finger, though there is some optimism that he may be back in less time. A significant injury for a team that was already struggling, with the worst defense in the league through five weeks and will now be forced to turn to Geno Smith to turn things around.
In the pool, we have two people who tied for the largest single week all season, as Will and Steve scored 18 points apiece in Week 5. Will’s big week had a big impact on the standings, as he launched himself into second place, now with 72 total points. Steve went from near the bottom to the middle of the pack with his big week, now he’s sitting in 25th place.
In the overall standings, we have some changes at the top. Our new leader is Jerome with 73 points, one point up on Will. Paul rounds out the top three at 71 points, while Sam, Keville, Donna P, Salvo, and Gary are all in a tie for fourth at 69.
| Name | Total |
| Jerome | 73 |
| Will | 72 |
| Paul | 71 |
| Sam | 69 |
| Keville | 69 |
| Donna P | 69 |
| Salvo | 69 |
| Gary | 69 |
| Jason G | 67 |
| Alessandro | 67 |
| Neil | 66 |
| Adam | 66 |
| Joe L | 66 |
| Justin | 66 |
| Molly | 65 |
| Lourdes | 65 |
| Farhan | 64 |
| Denzil | 63 |
| Jason H | 63 |
| Darryl | 63 |
| Baldip | 63 |
| Marcus | 62 |
| Darren | 62 |
| Team Bracken | 62 |
| Steve | 61 |
| CSA Red Bulls | 61 |
| Tom | 61 |
| Joe S | 61 |
| Courtney | 61 |
| Donna K | 61 |
| Ronda | 61 |
| Jay P | 60 |
| Marcel & Aiden | 59 |
| Terry | 59 |
| David | 58 |
| Nigel | 58 |
| Predictor | 58 |
| Matt | 58 |
| Quinn | 58 |
| Jason R | 57 |
| Des | 56 |
| Mark | 55 |
| Dwayne | 44 |
| Ruby | 19 |
| Average | 62.744 |