Week 6 of the USFFL featured multiple intra-division matchups, and multiple upset surprises. As of Week 6, there are zero undefeated teams in the league. Starting things off, Scott Kaplan and the G-Men upset the previously undefeated Patriots by a score of 38-16 in New England. New York was 1-4 going into the game. The only other undefeated team, the Ravens were defeated by Jeff Wendlandt’s Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals are now 3-3, while the Ravens are 5-1. While both undefeated teams took a loss this week, both teams still sit a the top of their Divisions, with a 2 1/2 game lead for the Patriots and a 2 game lead for the Ravens. Pete Quaglierini’s Tennessee Titans and Tim Ervin’s Kansas City Chiefs both took care of business to remain at the top of their Divisions.

In the NFC, Harlan McLain’s Dallas Cowboys defeated Jets 26-17 to remain a game ahead of the Eagles in the East. Vince Trivelpiece and the Minnesota Vikings hosted the Eagles and came away with the win, to close within a half game of the Chicago Bears (Bye Week). Anthony Tangorra and the surprising Atlanta Faclons flew to the desert and defeated the Cardinals 29-13 to maintain their lead in the NFC South. In the West, Rich Peer and San Francisco knocked off the Rams, and Tom Veltry and the Browns defeated the Seahawks to vault the 49ers into sole possession of first place in the West.

Congrats to all of the winning coaches, and nice job getting all the games in by Sunday morning!

Game of the Week

Cincinnati at Baltimore

The Bengals were hoping that somehow this could be a proverbial trap game for the Ravens as they had Seattle next up. Cincinnati’s plan was to use up as much clock on offense as they could and keep Lamar Jackson on the bench. The start of the game didn’t quite go as planned. The Bengals received the opening kickoff and promptly had a 3 and out. Lamar and the Ravens went to work and drove into Cincy’s red zone. The defense stiffened enough to hold the home team to a FG. Andy Dalton and Joe Mixon then put Cincinnati’s plan into action. They chewed up clock and got close enough for Randy Bullock to tie the game 3-3 with a 45 yard FG. Lamar and Co. got frustrated as their next 3 drives resulted in punts after 3, 4 and 5 plays respectively. The Bengals in the mean time dinked and dunked with an occasional pass down field and put up another longer FG of 47 yards, a 12 yard TD run for Mixon and a 24 yard TD romp by Tyler Eifert. The BENGALS led 20-3 to the surprise of everyone. Baltimore didn’t roll over and die as their focus sharpened. Jackson led the Ravens on a quick strike 75 yard drive to make it 20-10. It appeared that the Bengals would go into the locker room with a 10 point lead. Brandon Wilson had a 31 yard KO return and Cincinnati had ideas of getting another score with less than 2 minutes to go. They moved the ball in pretty close and Alex Erickson took a pass in the flat and broke free for a 17 yard TD to push the score to 27-10 at the half. The Ravens went into the locker room with a chorus of boos.

Baltimore came out flat in the 2nd half and went 3 and out on their opening drive. Cincinnati put together a drive and moved close enough for Bullock to extend the leat to 30-10. The Ravens offense could not get anything going. Their next 3 drives ended up in a punt and back to back turnovers on downs. In the mean time Cincinnati added another FG to take a 33-10 lead. The home town faithful headed for home as it became clear a surprising upset was going to happen. Lamar Jackson put together a good drive leading to a TD when he found Boykin in the endzone. The drive was a 16 play 80 yard drive and used up a ton of time. They successfully got the 2 point conversion to make it 33-18. There was less than 3 minutes to go and the Bengals were able to keep the ball and the Ravens off of the scoreboard. Final Bengals 33 Ravens 18. Good game Jon. A whole lot had to go my way in order to win this one and it did. The revenge match could be ugly for the men in stripes.

Top Performers

Quarterbacks

Dak Prescott led all Quarterbacks with 380 yards passing on 30 of 45 attempts. Where would this column be without a Patrick Mahomes shout-out? Mahomes was 27 of 44 for 355 yards and 3 TDs. The league should note that 3 TD was a huge variance from Mahomes’ USFFL league-leading average of 5 passing TDs per game through the first 5 weeks of USFFL action.

Receivers

Austin Hooper led all receivers with 13 receptions for 163 yards and a TD. Vernon Davis pulled in two TD’s from QB Case Keenum in Washington’s win over Miami. Sammy Watkins also pulled in 2 TD receptions for The Chiefs.

Running Backs

Christian McCaffrey led all rushers with 182 yards and 3 TDs in Carolina’s win over the Buccaneers. LeVeon Bell had 166 yards in the Jet’s loss to Dallas.

Odds and Ends

Randy Bullock scored 15 points for the Bengals. Jabrill Peppers pulled in two interceptions for the Giants, and Cameron Jordan had three sacks for the Saints.

Another exciting week of USFFL Football is in the books. After five weeks of play we are starting to see some teams pull away from the competition in their division, whereas other divisions are all knotted up at the top. The AFC boasts the only two remaining undefeated teams: Denis Ljung’s Patriots are 5-0 and leading the East by 2.5 games, while Jon Shoemaker’s Ravens are 3 games up in the North. Pete Quaglierini has the Titans up by a game in the South, and David Kukafka’s Broncos are tied with Tim Ervin’s Chiefs in the West. Turning to the NFC, Harlan McLain’s Cobwoys and Bruce Mogg’s Eagles are tied at 4-1 in the East. Mike Martin’s Bears have a 1 game lead in the North. Anthony Tangorra’s Falcons are tied with Mike Niemczura’s Buccaneers in the South, and finally, Dennis Crowley and his Seahawks sit a game up in the crowded NFC West.

We also had a number of close games and last second wins in week 5. Jon Shoemaker held on to his unblemished record by holding off a late surge by Pete Shibley’s Steelers 16-14. Tom Veltry’s Browns got into the W column by holding off the previously undefeated Rich Peer’s 49’ers voracious last minute comeback. In an exciting end to the game, the 49’ers recovered an onside kick and drove into field goal range with 0:01 left on the clock. SF’s kicker had an 80% chance of making the tying field goal but missed wide left to end the game. Tim Hay’s Cardinals came from behind to defeat Jeff Wendlandt’s Bengals, but you can read about that in our Game of the Week.

Game of the Week

A great game that went down to the wire. The Bengals and Joe Mixon completely dominated the first half, holding the ball for over twenty minutes and holding the Cardinals to negative rushing yards. Trailing 13-0 at the half, The Cards received the second half kickoff determined to run the ball. Mixing in the running of Kenyan Drake and David Johnson, Kyler Murray led the Cards to the end-zone making the score 13-7. After a three and out, the Bengals punted but got the ball right back on a muff from Pharaoh Cooper. On the first play from about midfield, Dalton made his only mistake and found the hands of a Cardinal defender instead of his intended receiver. Murray quickly led the Cards down the field but the Bengal defense held inside their ten. The field goal cut the Bengal lead to 13-10. Dalton immediately went to work, slicing and dicing the Cardinal defense on a drive culminating in a Bengal touchdown. Trailing 20-10, Murray again led the Cards down the field but once again the drive stalled inside the ten and they had to settle for a field goal which cut the Bengal lead to 20-13. Unable to get anywhere, the Bengals were forced to punt about midway through the fourth quarter, setting up a dramatic finish. Murray showed his grit by leading the Cards on one final drive. Using up most of the clock, the Cardinals again found themselves inside the ten. This time they wouldn’t be denied as Murray tossed a scoring pass with less than a minute to go. On the road and not looking forward to an overtime coin flip, the Cards went for two and got it with 45 seconds on the clock, giving them a 21-20 lead. The Bengals had one last shot to get in to field goal range but their drive stalled at midfield, allowing the Cardinals to escape with a 21-20 victory.

League Leaders

Quarterbacks

Philip Rivers completed 32 of 50 for 464 yards and 4 touchdowns in an exciting game versus the Broncos. Patrick Mahomes continued his total dominance over the rest of the league passing for 5 TDs in win over the Colts.

Receivers

Mike Williams pulled in 8 receptions for 250 yards and 3 TDs. Jared Cook matched him almost step for step with 8 receptions for 188 yards and 3 TD’s of his own.

Running Backs

Chris Carson was unstoppable, scoring 3 rushing TD’s and racking up over 212 yards against the porous Rams rushing defense. Christian McCaffrey carried for 174 yards. Nick Chubb, Philip Lindsey, David Montgomery, Raheem Mostert, Devonta Freeman, and Mark Ingram each carried for over 100 yards.

Odds and Ends

Denver’s kicker Brandon McManus scored 14 points in Denver’s win, and 10 different players had one interception for the week.

We are twenty-five percent of the way through the twentieth season of the USFFL. to date, the league has run like clockwork. All games have been finished before the Sunday deadline, and only a minimal number of coaches have had to ask for substitutions. This week’s column will be dedicated to reviewing the league at the one-quarter mark.

Teams in the AFC have largely met expectations at this point in the season. In the AFC East, Coach Denis Ljung has the Patriots out to a 1.5 game lead in the Division over Donnie Hasting’s NY Jets. Jon Shoemaker’s Ravens are undefeated, and hold a commanding two-game lead in the AFC North. The AFC West is knotted up with three teams at 3 wins with one loss. And in the AFC South, the Texans, Colts and Titans are tied with two wins a piece.

The standings in the NFC at this point carry a few surprises. As an early candidate for Coach of the Year, Mike Niemczura has the Buccaneers out to a 3-1 record with a 1 game lead in the NFC South. In the NFC East Harlan McLain and the Dallas Cowboys (4-0) edge out Bruce Mogg and the Eagles (3-1). In the North, Mike Martin has the Bears out in front by a game. And in the NFC West San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle are knotted at 3-1 with the Cardinals one game behind the pack.

Individual Performances

And they said Lamar Jackson was only a running QB – well he’s proving the naysayers wrong. Jackson carries a league leading QBR of 129.8 into the second quarter of the season. “Don’t Call Me Pat” Mahomes has an unbelievable 20 touchdown throws through the first 4 games.

As would be expected, the KC receivers are leading the league in TD receptions – Travis Kelce has 8 TD’s. Tyreek Hill leads all receivers with 449 receiving yards.

Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry are running away from the pack through the first quarter. Henry has an amazing 717 yards through 4 games, while Barkley is nipping at his heels with 702. The next closest rusher is over 200 yards behind these two leaders. Barkley is also touting 7 TD carries, and an 8.4 yards per carry average.

New Orleans Cameron Jordan is leading the league with 5 sacks, and New England’s Duron Harmon has 3 picks.

Game of the Week

Washington Redskins 24 vs. New York Giants 21

The Redskins were in New York facing the Giants on Sunday. In a game where the lead changed three times and was tied twice, the Skins came out on top. Even the losers get lucky some time! Dwayne Haskins went a respectable 22 for 35 for 198 yards and a touchdown. For the second week in a row the Redskins faced a quarterback who struggled. Daniel Jones had a rough afternoon going 16 for 32 with two interceptions and no touchdowns. Meanwhile the Giants had a great day on the ground and Saquon Barkley ran for 210 yards on 24 carries and had three TDs.
Game Recap

First Quarter

The Redskins won the toss and let the Giants receive. Jones looked good on the opening drive that ended with a six-yard carry by Barkley for a TD. The ensuing kickoff went for a touchback and Haskins took the Redskins on a 5-minute drive until he found Vernon Davis in the flat who scampered for the TD. Dustin Hopkins missed the extra point and the quarter ended with the score Giants 7 – Redskins 6.

Second Quarter

The second quarter started with the Giants’ ball on their own 30-yard line. After a couple of nice runs and an incomplete pass, Barkley broke loose for a 31-yard scamper to put the Giants up 14 to 6. The Redskins were stopped cold after a sack by Dalvin Tomlinson and Tress Way had his first nice punt of the day with a 52 yarder. The Giants were back on their own 13-yard line and the Redskins held them to a three and out. The quarter ended with a late touchdown by the Redskins with 37 seconds left. They converted for 2 points when Haskins found Davis again in the end zone. The half ended in a 14-14 tie.

Third Quarter

The Redskins received the kickoff and proceeded to go on a drive that ate 6:38 of the clock and was capped by a run over the right tackle for a twelve-yard score. This time Dustin Hopkins made the extra point and the Redskins took a 21 – 14 point lead. The quarter ended with the 1st and goal for the Giants on the Washington 4-yard line.

Fourth Quarter

Barkley punched the ball in from the 4 for his third TD of the day to start the quarter. It’s the Giants 21 – Redskins 21. Neither team could get a drive going during the quarter and it was a battle of field possession that was punctuated with two long punts by the Washington punter, Tress Way, of 63 and 79 yards! With 52 seconds remaining in the game it looked like the game was headed for overtime when Jones tried to find Barkley in the flat. The ball was batted and intercepted by the Redskins right end, Jonathan Allen! It was Redskin ball with 45 seconds left on the Giants 23-yard line. The Redskins ran a couple of plays and with 15 seconds left in the game, Dustin Hopkins kicked the game winning field goal. Redskins 24 – Giants 21.
Scott was a great sport and just had rotten luck. I’m not sure how he didn’t throw his computer out the window. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in Vegas with him that day. Oh well, the Redskins won’t be writing many of these reports and may not write two in a row for a long time to come.