2021 NFL Power Rankings, Week 6: Bills own the AFC, Cowboys keep surging

One of the wildest revelations over the first five weeks of the season has been that the Washington Football Team offense, even with Ryan Fitzpatrick sidelined and Taylor Heinicke starting at quarterback, is not the problem. This vaunted defense has been downright bad for much of the year and that showed against the Saints. They were carved up in the secondary and the pressure just wasn’t there. If that’s going to be the case, the offense isn’t at a level where Washington is going to be winning a lot in the 2021 season.

I was fully prepared to have the Vikings move up in the rankings quite a bit after Week 5 as they looked dominant early on against the Lions. Yet, they couldn’t find the end zone as often as they probably should have and, even worse, their late-game decision-making and gameplan was awful.

Minnesota needed a 37-second drive into field goal range and for Greg Joseph to hit the game-winner as time expired to pick up this win. But this team just feels like it has too much talent to be as mediocre as they often are on the field.

We’re knocking the Broncos way, way down in the rankings because this team is starting to look fraudulent. They started the year 3-0 against some of the worst teams in the NFL but, since the level of competition has even modestly improved, they’ve reeled off two straight losses.

Against a Pittsburgh offense that had been hapless recently, the Denver defense had no answers and allowed 27 points. On top of that, Teddy Bridgewater and the offense looked limited to a degree that’s hard to overcome against even decent teams. That’s not a good sign for things to come.

Play on Monday Night Football vs. Ravens – The fact that the Colts won last week doesn’t really make me feel much better about them. Indianapolis hasn’t looked all that inspiring with Carson Wentz leading the offense and the defense is banged up (as is the O-line, one of the team’s biggest strengths). We’ll see how they contend with the Ravens but my gut tells me it’s not going to go that well for them.