NFL Best And Worst: Josh Allen Puts On A Show; The Rams Hit A New Low

Josh Allen did what?! The Bears are back?! And have the Rams and Chargers finally hit rock bottom?! As I do every Monday night, I’m here to break down the best and worst from the week’s NFL action. Coming out of Week 6, let’s focus on plays, team developments and offenses: Josh Allen gives us constant reminders that he’s equal parts Superman and magician. Late in the third quarter of the Bills’ victory over the Raiders, Buffalo faced a third-and-long in the red zone. Allen dropped back, stepped up in the pocket, rolled to his left, juked a defender who tried to sack him from behind and, with four Raiders closing in on him, flipped (!) a 12-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Keon Coleman. Just an unbelievable play. The touchdown pass was the 258th of Allen’s career, tying him with Hall of Famer Jim Kelly for the franchise record. And there are many more to come for the 30-year-old Allen. There’s nothing I can say about him that hasn’t already been said. On the shortlist of best quarterbacks on earth, Allen has shown time and time again that he can put the Bills on his shoulders. The former league MVP can kill a defense through the air or on the ground. He can overwhelm you with his rare strength and power as a quarterback or with the kind of creativity we saw Sunday against the Raiders. But this question persists: Does Allen finally have enough help around him to reach a Super Bowl? As the 5-1 Bills enter their bye week, they face concerns about their defense and receiver production. Buffalo ranks second-worst in total defense and 28th in points allowed, while none of its pass-catchers are averaging more than tight end Dalton Kincaid’s 52.5 receiving yards per game. Wideout DJ Moore, who’s missed two games due to injury, hasn’t been the WR1 that the Bills had hoped for when they gave up a second-round pick for him in March. The Bills are in great shape as the AFC’s No. 2 seed, but I’m not buying that they’re any more equipped to get over the Super Bowl hump. On a fourth-and-8 in plus territory trailing 15-9 to the Cardinals late in the fourth quarter, Rams coach Sean McVay called a screen pass for running back Kyren Williams. It didn’t work. Matthew Stafford’s pass was a bit behind Williams, who wouldn’t have had room to do much of anything even if he caught the pass because it was poorly blocked. But it was a baffling play call in the first place. In a got-to-have-it, fourth-and-long situation, why was the best choice to throw to a running back sitting behind the line of scrimmage? Yes, it was tough sledding in the pass game for the Rams, who had just one reception longer than 16 yards. But it seemed like a no-brainer scenario to trust your MVP quarterback to find something downfield. In many ways, McVay’s play call there has been a microcosm of the Rams’ disappointing 2-4 season. Despite having all the coaching and personnel talent in the world, they’ve regressed just enough in multiple areas. McVay hasn’t been as sharp as usual. Stafford hasn’t been as sharp. The run game hasn’t been as sharp. Wide receiver Davante Adams will be out six-to-10 weeks with a hamstring injury. Special teams issues have lingered from last season. Star edge rusher Myles Garrett’s absence has hurt, but the defense’s lack of finish in the pass rush has been alarming as well. The Rams rank sixth in pressure rate, but tied for 27th in sacks. Their season isn’t over. But no team has a higher sense of urgency right now relative to preseason expectations. Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, who missed the past three weeks with a hamstring injury, didn’t miss a beat in his return for Week 6. He completed 83.3% of his passes for 305 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions in Sunday’s win over the Falcons. After winning back-to-back games in the immediate aftermath of Williams’ injury, Chicago clearly started to miss him in a 31-7 whooping by the Packers in Week 5, a game in which backup quarterbacks Tyson Bagent and Case Keenum combined for four turnovers. So Williams’ return was a welcome sight for the Bears. Don’t sleep on Kyler Gordon being back in the lineup as well. The standout nickel corner began the year on the physically unable to perform list, and there were questions about his future with the team. But he made his season debut Sunday and had one of the best pass-rushing performances by a defensive back of all time: three sacks, three tackles for loss and two forced fumbles. The talk entering the season with the Bears was that they had a juggernaut offense. Truth is, they’re much more than that. Their defense relative to the rest of the league has actually been better than their offense (Chicago ranks sixth in points allowed, 12th in scoring). Of course, that’s been impacted by Williams’ absence. But if Gordon can stay healthy — he’s missed 19 games dating to the start of last season — he’s a force multiplier for an already solid defense. So Chicago has one of the NFL’s best overall teams. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, who was placed on injured reserve last week due to a blood clot in his leg, has now been ruled out for the rest of the 2026 season after the discovery of multiple blood clots in his lungs. A joint statement between the Eagles and Hurts’ agent, Nicole Lynn, said the quarterback has deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli. He is said to be clinically stable and has no significant functional limitations but won’t be able to participate in any contact activities while on blood thinners for the foreseeable future. “Jalen’s prognosis is very good, and we expect a full recovery,” the statement read, in part. “In the meantime, he will remain active around the team and continue to condition. More importantly, we anticipate that he will have no long-term effects.” There are plenty of unanswered questions regarding the handling of Hurts’ condition, including the process that led to him playing and traveling for Week 5 in London, where he was initially diagnosed with superficial vein thrombosis in his left calf. But for the time being, Hurts’ health is the No. 1 priority. Football takes a back seat. The Texans aren’t getting the nod here just because they scored 34 points. It’s because they scored 34 points on the Jaguars’ defense, one of the very best in the league. Quarterback C.J. Stroud completed 70.6% of his passes for 312 yards and three touchdowns against one interception vs. Jacksonville. Six different Houston receivers had receptions of at least 10 yards, including two who had catches over 40 yards (Nico Collins, Jaylin Noel). Even the Texans’ inconsistent run game found success. Houston went over 100 rushing yards for just the second time this season — and did so against the Jaguars’ No. 1-rated run defense. The Texans had season-highs in points (34) and total yards (426) against the Jags, averaging 7.2 yards per play. If the Texans were better than 2-4, Stroud would probably be in the MVP conversation. Not leading it — Allen and Brock Purdy are a step above everyone else right now — but definitely a dark-horse candidate. He’s been that good. If Stroud can keep it up and Houston’s defense gets back to the level it played at last season, when it ranked first in yards allowed and second in opponent scoring, the Texans will have one of the scariest teams in the NFL. Even where things stand right now, with Houston riding a two-game winning streak after an 0-4 start, the Texans are a team to watch later this season. If you thought it couldn’t get any worse for the Chargers, they scored a season-low six points in Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs. They only had 259 net yards of offense, their second-worst mark this season, and quarterback Justin Herbert’s nightmare season continued. He threw his league-high eighth interception, having thrown at least one pick in each of the Chargers’ six games this season. We already knew L.A.’s offense was broken under new OC Mike McDaniel. What we’re learning is that it may not be repairable. Herbert is a shell of himself, operating an offense that doesn’t fit him while having to play Superman with the team’s injury concerns on the offensive line and at wide receiver. Six games is a large enough sample size in the NFL for patience to wear out. The Chargers can’t come out of their bye week without having made a significant change on offense. Both McDaniel’s and Jim Harbaugh’s job security should be in question. The Chargers are just the second team in NFL history to start 0-6 after winning 11 or more games in the previous season, according to NFL on FOX Research. Just one other NFL team is winless, the 0-5 Dolphins, who entered the season with nowhere near the expectations that the Chargers did. L.A. could be barreling toward a fire sale ahead of the Nov. 10 trade deadline and a rebuild this offseason.