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Week SIX Review

New England had little difficulty moving the ball on Tampa Bay. The Bucs defense tightened up in the fourth quarter, but they were already twenty points down by then. Miami built a huge lead over the visiting Lions thanks, mostly, to Detroit's own mistakes. The Dolphins nearly threw it all away, however, allowing three fourth quarter touchdowns. The Green Bay were, and this is quite a shock, completely outplayed by the Jets. An almost 2 to 1 advantage in yardage wasn't enough for New York as their kicker missed to opportunities while his counterpart got the winning margin on his only attempt. Buffalo weren't about to let a complete lack of offense stand in the way of their second victory as Chicago demonstrated why they have the longest losing streak in BP, coughing up the ball four times. In the superbowl rematch the Bengals got some revenge over the trash talking Panthers. Carolina got some big plays on offense but couldn't match the consistency of Cincinnati. San Francisco found their perfect record under threat in Pittsburgh as an exciting fourth quarter, featuring four touchdowns, led to overtime. In the extra period it was defense that stepped up to win the game, the 49ers sacking the Steelers' QB in the endzone. In St Louis the Browns persistent offense faltered repeatedly in the redzone, the Rams were far more decisive. Jacksonville surprised everyone by taking the Saints to overtime and then kicking the field goal for their first win of the year. Oakland were upset in the desert sun of Arizona, a missed field goal in the fourth quarter sparking a two touchdown burst by the Cards. Philadelphia out defensed the Chiefs, holding the ground based KC offense to just 1.5 yards per carry. Seattle may be starting their second half revival early this year, two fourth quarter touchdowns saw them past the winless Redskins. Denver romped to their second win on the trot, easily beating the lacklustre Cowboys.

Offensive performance of the week goes to Cincinnati, 500 yards is always good against the superbowl champions. Defensive performance of the week goes to Philadelphia for totally dominating the line of scrimmage in KC. Special teams performance of the week goes to Pittsburgh for their kick returns.

Predictions Standings

Darren Birtchnell

ST LOUIS POST-DESPATCH

Martyn Williams

Post Game Press Conference

Cleveland Browns 10 at 27 St Louis Rams

Coach Williams appeared a lot happier than the previous week when joining the post-game press conference. "The overall performance was the best we've had for a few weeks now. Special praise must go to the guys in the trenches, both our lines performed exceptionally throughout. On offence Kurt Warner was hardly pressured all game and you saw the results for yourself, a couple of TD's that will hopefully get some people off his back for at least the next week. I know he threw another pick that was returned for a TD but if that is the only way the opposition can get into our endzone I'm happy. And against a previously dominant run defence we just carried on grinding out the yards no problem. On defence we stopped the Cleveland rush dead in it's tracks, which allowed us to sit back and defend the pass. We gave up more yards than I would like but we forced Couch into two interceptions and a fumble before he was pulled and that was again mainly due to our defensive line. The fact that Warner and Faulk are taking both lines out for dinner later this week shows how much this team is coming together."

Bengals at Panthers – Post Game Press Conference

Darren Birtchnell

Following the victory in Carolina, Coach Birtchnell was in a fiery mood. He was clearly annoyed by some comments Coach Coleman had made recently and this was borne out when the two coaches nearly came to blows at the post game handshake.

When asked about the Panthers' coach he had this to say: "That guy needs to learn some damn respect. He's a one season wonder as far as I'm concerned. Sure, they beat us in the Superbowl – it was one of those games where everything they did worked and everything we did went wrong. I was prepared to give him credit for that, but for him to then come out and start talking [rubbish] about how easy it was to win the superbowl was going too far. Ever since the schedules came out week six has been circled on my calendar, there was no way we were going to lose this game."

Of the game itself he added: "We got off to a bad start but gradually got our offense going in the second quarter, and in the third we were nearly unstoppable. If it wasn't for those two turnovers this would have been a blowout. I was very pleased with our offense, that's our highest yardage total since I've been here. I made a few changes to the offense in the off-season and the guys are now showing what they can do. Long may it continue."

Message Board

Darren Birtchnell to John Coleman – Perhaps it is easier to win the Superbowl than the NFC West, but the hardest thing to do is get back to the big game to defend your title. I'd like to see you do that. And while I think of it, this is my first ever 6-0 start, and if the NFC is so good why did the AFC win the inter-conference games 7-5?

Darren Birtchnell to All – By the time you read this I'll be in Tenerife. I'm leaving my brother in charge next week, he'd better not lose my perfect record!

STATS CORNER

RUSHING OFFENCE

PASSING OFFENCE

RUSHING DEFENCE

PASSING DEFENCE

Week Seven Predictions

RC – Patriots by 14 (Lock); Seahawks by 3; Jaguars by 1 (Shock); Browns by 10; Bengals by 14 (Blowout); Saints by 3; Rams by 7 (Slugfest); Bears by 1; Packers by 10; 49ers by 7; Panthers by 10 (Shootout).

MW – Patriots by 14; Dolphins by 7 (Shock – Seahawks); Jets by 3; Browns by 10; Bengals by 14 (Lock, Slugfest); Raiders by 10; Saints by 7 (Shootout); Bears by 3; Packers by 10; 49ers by 13 (Blowout); Panthers by 10.

DB – Patriots by 17 (Lock, Blowout); Dolphins by 3 (Shootout); Jets by 1; Browns by 7 (Slugfest); Raiders by 10; Saints by 3; Rams by 6; Redskins by 1 (Shock); Packers by 7; 49ers by 7; Panthers by 3.

ST LOUIS POST-DESPATCH - GAME OF THE WEEK

Philadelphia Eagles at St Louis Rams

NFLBP 2000 Season Week 4 - St Louis Rams 41 at 22 Philadelphia Eagles

The most intriguing game takes place in St Louis this week, with the high flying Eagles hoping to snatch a victory against the dominant Rams defence. The Eagles are a different team to last year and look keen to take advantage of the Cardinals loss of form to recover the NFC Eastern Division Title. However there are still question marks over how good they really are, as the only game they have played against a team without a losing record this season resulted in a narrow defeat to the Saints. A victory in St Louis would go a long way toward silencing their doubters. For the Rams this is a must win game leading up to their week 8 trip to the NFC leading 49ers.

This game will be won or lost on the ground as the Eagles league leading run defence goes head to head with the Rams league leading rushing attack. Quite simply no one has managed to stop the Rams tandem of Faulk and Canidate so far this season but if anyone can it's the Eagles. They are averaging less than two yards per attempt against them at present and have recovered 8 fumbles already this season. The Rams have consistently gained yardage on the ground all season but have gained those yards by grinding opponents down rather than breaking for big gains. The Eagles rushing attack has also been no slouch this season and the Rams are still to concede a rushing TD so this is going to be one hell of a bruising encounter. The squeamish out there are advised to watch a different game this Sunday.

On the other side of the coin neither teams pass offence has really hit form yet, especially that of the Rams, and both teams pass defences should be able to contain their opponents, although of the two it is the Eagles who have conceded the more TDs and have fewer interceptions. If the teams neutralise each other and it comes down to special teams the Rams have the edge with much better kicking and punting, and this reporter feels that this could be where the game is decided.