The NFL hadn’t experienced a week of inept offenses like it did this past weekend in nearly a decade.
With superstar quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen unable to generate even 20 points in their games, top defenses for Cleveland and the Jets shutting down high-powered attacks from San Francisco and Philadelphia, and young QBs struggling across the league, the NFL had its lowest-scoring week since 2014.
Teams across the league scored an average of just 18.4 points in Week 6 for the lowest-scoring week in the NFL since Week 15 of the 2014 season when teams averaged 18.2 points.
Only two teams — Miami and Jacksonville — scored at least 27 points for the fewest in any week since the 1995 season. The 23 teams held to 20 points or fewer were the most in any week ever in the NFL.
Mahomes and the Chiefs scored only 19 points in a win over Denver for his second victory this season without scoring 20 points. Mahomes won only three starts without Kansas City scoring at least 20 points in his first five seasons as a starter.
The Bills beat the Giants 14-9 to tie for their fewest points in a win since Allen’s rookie season in 2018.
Eight other teams won last week without scoring more than 21 points, including the Browns in a 19-17 win over the 49ers and Jets in a 20-14 victory over the Eagles. The 10 winning teams that scored 21 points or fewer were tied for the most in any week. That last happened in Week 13 of the 1993 season.
Poor passing production was the biggest culprit as teams across the league combined for a passer rating of 78.6 — the lowest in any week since Week 14 of the 2016 season (77.5).
SURPRISING LEADERS
The 1972 Dolphins got to celebrate the end of the undefeated teams a little earlier than usual this season.
San Francisco lost to Cleveland and backup quarterback P.J. Walker and Philadelphia fell to the New York Jets and backup QB Zach Wilson, marking the first time since 2017 that every team lost at least once in the first six weeks.
According to the NFL, it was the first time since QB starts began being tracked in 1950 that two teams 5-0 or better lost to backup quarterbacks in the same week.
The losses by the Eagles and Niners put them in a tie with Kansas City, Miami and Detroit for the best record in the NFL at 5-1.
This is the first time since Week 11 of the 1993 season that the Lions have at least a share of the best record in the NFL this late in the season. They were one of five teams tied at 7-2 that season before finishing 10-6.
MARVELOUS MIAMI
