Bears suffer meltdown Thursday, plus Tom Brady fined for kicking player and NFL Week 6 picks and best bets

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Welcome to the Friday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!

For the second straight week, "Thursday Night Football" gave us a barnburner, and by that, I mean that if you watched the entire game, it probably made you want to go set a barn on fire so you could watch it burn instead of watching the game. To be fair though, this week's game was way more exciting than last week's.

In Thursday's game, the Commanders beat the Bears 12-7, marking the second straight week where the winning team scored exactly 12 points. Having that happen in consecutive weeks is pretty crazy when you consider that there were only two games during the ENTIRE 2021 season where a team scored 12 points or fewer and still won.

We'll be recapping every detail of Thursday's game in today's newsletter, plus we'll be taking a look at the latest allegation against Deshaun Watson.

As always, here's your weekly reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the Pick Six newsletter. To get your friends to sign up, all you have to do is click here and then share this link with them. Alright, let's get to the rundown.

1. Today's show: Recapping Commanders' win over Bears

It's not often that a 12-7 game ends up being somewhat exciting, but that was the case on Thursday night. The only thing more exciting than the game was the podcast we recorded afterward. Following Washington's win, Will Brinson, Ryan Wilson and I spent nearly 45 minutes rehashing the game and we spent a good chunk of that debating whether Justin Fields is any good.

If you missed the game, here's a quick rehash of what happened and what we talked about on the podcast:

Commanders win despite ugly performance on offense. With their win over the Bears, the Commanders became just the third NFL team this season to win despite totaling fewer than 215 yards of offense (They put up 214), which included just 99 passing yards from Carson Wentz. A big reason the Commanders won is because they were able to take advantage of a huge mistake by the Bears that came in the fourth quarter when Velus Jones Jr. muffed a punt. The Commanders recovered the ball at Chicago's six-yard line and two plays after the turnover, Washington took a 12-7 lead by scoring its first and only TD of the game on a Brian Robinson run. That muffed punt proved to be the difference in the game. As for Robinson, he scored the game-winning TD just 46 days after being shot, which makes him one of the most inspiring stories that you'll read about in the NFL this year.
Bears miss game-winning TD by inches. Trailing 12-7, the Bears reached Washington's 5-yard line with 52 seconds left to play, which means they were going to have four shots to win the game. After the first three came up short, Justin Fields hit Darnell Mooney with a pass on fourth down that came up just INCHES short of the end zone. Mooney appeared to catch the ball at the goal line, but then he bobbled it, and by the time he regained control, it was clear he didn't get in the end zone. It was a wild play and you can see how close Mooney came to scoring the game-winning TD.
Bears meltdown in the red zone. The fact that the Bears couldn't score on their final drive shouldn't have surprised anyone considering their red zone woes in this game. The Bears got inside of Washington's 6-yard line on THREE DIFFERENT possessions and came away with zero points. One of the biggest issues was the play-calling. The Bears ran 11 plays from inside Washington's six with eight passing plays called and three runs. Considering the Bears averaged more than six yards per carry on the night, it made no sense for them to give up on the run that close to the end zone. Between the ugly red zone performance and the muffed punt, this felt like a game that the Bears gave away.
Bears steamroll the Commanders on the ground. Thanks to the combination of Justin Fields (12 carries for 88 yards), Khalil Herbert (seven carries for 75 yards) and David Montgomery (15 carries for 67 yards), the Bears absolutely dominated on the ground with a total of 238 yards rushing. To give you an idea of how improbable this loss was, the Bears' rushing total was their most in a loss since 1984. They were also just the third team since the 1979 Saints to rush for at least 235 yards without reaching double digits in the scoring column.
Ron Rivera lashes out at ESPN report and cuts his postgame press conference short. In a damning story about Dan Snyder that was published Thursday by ESPN.com, there was a report that Carson Wentz was only playing for Washington because Snyder wanted him there and made the deal happen. Rivera took issue with that after the game in a profanity-filled tirade, "Everyone keeps wanting to say I didn't want anything to do with Carson. Well, bullshit," Rivera said. "I'm the f****** guy that pulled out the sheets of paper and looked at the analytics and watched the tape of when we were in Indianapolis. And that's what pisses me off. Because the young man doesn't deserve to have that all the time. I'm sorry. I'm done." Rivera then stormed out of the press conference and didn't take any more questions. Whomever called for the trade doesn't look so brilliant right now with Wentz struggling. Against the Bears, the QB finished just 12 of 22 for 99 yards.

If you want to hear our entire recap of the game, be sure to click here. You can also watch today's episode on YouTube by clicking here.

2. Today's show Part II: Best bets for Week 6

The best part about Friday -- besides the fact that it's Friday -- is that you get two episodes of the podcast in your feed. After recording the postgame podcast with Wilson and myself, Brinson kicked us to the curb so that he could record his weekly picks show with Pete Prisco and R.J. White.

Those three guys spent nearly 60 minutes going over the best bets for every single game being played in Week 6, and we're going to cover three from each guy below.

Pete Prisco (2-1 last week in picks covered here, 9-6 on the season)
Giants (+5) to cover against the Ravens
Falcons (+5.5) to cover against the 49ers
Bills at Chiefs OVER 54 points

R.J. White (1-1-1 last week in picks covered here, 8-6-1 on the season)
Panthers (+10) to cover against the Rams
Seahawks (+3) to cover against the Cardinals
Cardinals at Seahawks OVER 50.5 points

Will Brinson (2-1 last week in picks covered here, 6-8-1 on the season)
Dolphins (+3) to cover against the Vikings
Eagles (-6) to cover against the Cowboys
Bengals at Saints UNDER 44 points

To hear what the rest of the best bets are for Week 6 -- and there are quite a few -- be sure to click here so you can listen to the entire episode of the podcast. You can also watch the episode on YouTube by clicking here.

3. NFL Week 6 picks: Jaguars and Patriots both pull off upsets

This is the final newsletter of the week, which means we will be cramming as many Week 6 picks as humanly possible into this space.

With that in mind, we've got four more Week 6 picks coming your way and those will be coming from NFL senior writer Pete Prisco, along with Jordan Dajani, Tyler Sullivan and myself.

Here's how things are going to work: I'm going to give you one pick from each guy and then direct you to the rest of their picks. That way, if you like their pick, you'll be able to read the rest of them, but if they pick against your favorite team, you can ignore the rest of their picks and move on.

Pete Prisco -- Jaguars (+2) 24-17 over Colts. From Prisco: "The Jaguars shut out the Colts in Week 2, so they know they can stop them. But the Jaguars are coming off a bad loss to the Texans, while the Colts beat the Broncos last Thursday, which means they are rested. Even so, the Jaguars seem to have their number. Jacksonville wins it behind their defense." For the rest of Prisco's Week 6 picks, be sure to click here.
Tyler Sullivan -- Patriots (+3) 24-21 over Browns. From Sullivan: "We have Bill Belichick getting points with a shutdown defense and a capable running back for the Patriots going against a horrible run defense? I'll take the Pats, please!" For the rest of Sullivan's Week 6 picks, be sure to click here.
Jordan Dajani -- Bills (-2.5) 37-30 over Chiefs. From Dajani: "It's fun to debate which one of these teams is the best in the AFC. To me right now, it's the Bills. They have a higher-ranking offense, higher-ranking passing offense, higher-ranking rushing offense, higher-ranking total defense, higher-ranking passing defense and higher-ranking rushing defense. They are the most complete team on both sides of the ball." For the rest of Dajani's Week 6 best bets, be sure to click here.
John Breech -- Bengals (-1.5) 27-24 over Saints. It's the Andy Dalton revenge game. It's Joe Burrow's return to Louisiana. It's Who Dey vs. Who Dat. We've got a lot going on in this game this week. I think the big thing here is that the Bengals have one of the best rushing defenses in the NFL this year, so they're going to make Dalton beat them, and that could be a problem for New Orleans. We saw the Saints give up 32 points in Week 5 and we could see an equally big game from the Bengals. I'm rolling with Cincy here, but you probably already knew that. For the rest of my Week 6 picks, be sure to click here.

4. Deshaun Watson hit with another lawsuit

For the 25th time over the past 21 months, Deshaun Watson has been hit with a lawsuit. The beleaguered Browns quarterback was hit with another sexual misconduct lawsuit on Thursday by a woman in Texas.

Here's everything you need to know about the situation:

The woman's claims against Watson. The unnamed woman claims that Watson pressured her into a sexual act during a private massage session that occurred in December 2020. Like most of the other cases, Watson hired the woman through Instagram. He also paid her $300 for her services even though she was only owed $115.
Tony Buzbee not involved. Buzbee was the lawyer for all 24 women who originally sued Watson, but he is not the lawyer in this case. Instead, the woman has retained Anissah Nguyen of the Universal Law Group in Houston. Watson ended up settling 23 of the 24 cases that involved Buzbee's clients.
Watson won't face any additional punishment from the NFL over this lawsuit. When Watson accepted his 11-game suspension with the NFL back in August, part of the deal was that the league couldn't increase his punishment over any similar accusations of sexual misconduct that took place BEFORE the suspension was announced on Aug. 18. According to NFL.com, Watson's suspension can only be increased if he faces accusations for something not related to the massage cases. His suspension can also be increased if he faces a similar sexual misconduct accusation that is alleged to have taken place AFTER the suspension was handed out.

Watson just returned to the Browns facility on Monday for the first time since the regular season started. The quarterback will be allowed to practice starting in mid-November and then he'll be eligible to return to the field on Dec. 4.

5. Best bets for NFL awards heading into Week 6

With Week 6 kicking off last night, that means we're somehow already one-third of the way through the 2022 NFL season, which makes now the perfect time to see who the front-runners are for the various awards that will be handed out at the end of the season.

With that in mind, let's check out the current odds for MVP and Defensive Player of the Year, along with a best bet to win those awards from Tyler Sullivan. All odds courtesy of Caesars Sportsbook.

MVP

Best bet: Jackson. "While Mahomes and Allen are duking it out with the top-two odds in this race, I still wouldn't sleep on Lamar Jackson. He's third in the NFL in passing touchdowns, while also dominating with his legs. His 374 rushing yards are the most among any quarterback this season, and he is the first player in NFL history to average 200+ passing yards per game and 70+ rushing yards per game through five games."

Defensive Player of the Year

Micah Parsons (+100)
Nick Bosa (+650)
Rashan Gary (+1200)
Aaron Donald (+1500)

Best bet: Parsons. "Through five weeks, he leads the NFL with six sacks. Parsons also has 28 pressures on the season and has an average time of 2.19 seconds to pressure, which ranks first in the league. Parsons is far and away the leader in the pack to win DPOY."

If you want to see who the favorites are to win several other awards -- like Comeback Player of the Year and Offensive Rookie of the Year -- then be sure to click here so you can check out Sullivan's entire story.

6. Rapid-fire roundup: Tom Brady gets hit with fine for kicking his opponent

It's been a busy 24 hours in the NFL and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.

Brady hit with $11,000 fine. CBSSports.com NFL Insider Jonathan Jones has reported that the league has decided to fine Tom Brady $11,139 for kicking Grady Jarrett in Week 5. The kick came after a sack by Jarrett that ended up being controversially flagged for roughing the passer. Brady hasn't been fined for violating an NFL rule during a game since 2013 when he was docked $10,000 by the league for kicking Ed Reed during the AFC Championship game.
Broncos almost hired Kevin O'Connell. During an interview with the St. Paul Pioneer Press this week, John Elway revealed that the Broncos almost hired Kevin O'Connell over Nathaniel Hackett as head coach. It's not clear why Elway shared that information, especially because it's not a great look for the Broncos considering how well O'Connell is doing this year. The new Vikings coach has Minnesota at 4-1 and as an offensive-minded coach, it would have been interesting to see what he could have done with Russell Wilson.
Rams don't have an offer on the table for Odell Beckham yet. If you're wondering why Odell hasn't re-signed with the Rams yet, it's because they haven't given him an offer, which is something the receiver revealed this week. Rams coach Sean McVay was asked about Beckham's claim and didn't deny it. However, he did say that Beckham would soon be getting an offer from the Rams and I'm guessing it will probably be a decent offer since the Rams offense could really use Beckham's help right about now.
Dak practices for first time since thumb injury. The Cowboys QB participated in practice on Thursday for the first time since Week 1. Prescott was listed as a limited participant, which means he almost certainly won't be playing against the Eagles on Sunday, but this is a huge step toward his eventual return to the field.