The Tecmo Bowl: Looking Ahead: Week Six

Week Six: aka The NFC West Side Story. A combined record of 15-5 coming into the sixth week, with three of those losses attributed to the Rams of Los Angeles, this division has clearly taken notice of the rest of the Tecmo Bowl. San Francisco remains one of only two undefeated teams, with the other, Minnesota, being off this week with the rest of their division. New Orleans and Atlanta have each only lost once, leaving the Rams to struggle to stay afloat. With all four teams in action this weekend, there are sure to be a few bloody casualties left in their wake, though perhaps they've raised some eyebrows and neck hairs around the league amongst teams ready to make a statement. As we mentioned, the NFC Central is off (joined by the 4-1 Chargers) so that should leave those of you salivating for bloody massacre pitching the proverbial Tecmo tent.

The first two games feature three of the four teams out of the Wild Wild West of the NFC. Bobby Hebert will more than likely have his choice of sides when he makes a buffet of the Rams' secondary, while Steve Young and his 49ers should manage to stay one step ahead of the pesky Saints by putting New England through their Frisco burger meat grinder. Back in the AFC, Eric Dickerson's Jekyll will continue to battle the ugly beast that is Jay Schroeder's Hyde as the bipolar Raiders attempt to take advantage of the immensely flawed Buffalo Bills.

The other early games will feature the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers returning to action from their bye. Both sit at 1-3, but we really only give one of these teams a chance at turning their season around. If the Steelers can't do it here, with their stout defense and weapons in Barry Foster and Neil O'Donnell, then it may just be time to put a bullet in their head. Philadelphia picks a decent-sized straw with the Kansas City Chiefs on the docket, giving them a chance to hit restart on their thus-far disappointing season.

The early games are rounded off by a somewhat intriguing AFC East showdown between the Colts and Jets. Both are headed in quite opposite directions, with the Colts' time running out to get back into the winner's circle. And as luck would have it, they'll meet their irritating siblings in the New York Jets. The Jets enter Week Six leading the league in rushing offense with the ever-popular Brad Baxter and Blair Thomas tandem hitching the rest of the team, including rookie quarterback Browning Nagle, to their star to try and keep pace with the Dolphins and Bills. Baxter himself ranks behind only Eric Dickerson and Thurman Thomas in yardage. Though it's hard to see him keep that pace, it's always nice hear someone named 'Brad' doing something positive, instead of hitting on underage girls or starring in Canadian soap operas.

The later games begin with a slobberknocker between two playoff-destined teams in Miami and Atlanta. Both teams only have one loss each, but at this point in the season it appears the Falcons will need to be the ones to keep it that way. Dan Marino appears to be losing his touch, and now that he's up against a pretty dominating defensive front there's a good chance he'll lose feeling in other places as well. The Giants will continue to lay some bricks in the hole they're sitting in against the winless Cardinals, even though Dallas will be busy making widows out of the wives of an equally winless Seattle team. Sunday night closes with division-leading Cincinnati attempting to hold on to their crown against a surging Oilers team out of Houston. The Bengals have a very heavy task of flipping the momentum that Houston has found, just as their own was turned around before the bye with a thumping on behalf of Minnesota.

The short schedule will close out on Monday night with an inter-conference showdown between Washington and Denver. It's yet another meeting of playoff teams from a year ago struggling to repeat their success. The worn down Mark Rypien has had all sorts of trouble finding the receivers his coaches and GM have presented to him, though he's been a paragon of talent compared to the downright ugly John Elway. Elway finally helped his Broncos get their first win just last week, though there's still lots of work to do on the other side of the ball. The last place defense of Denver may just be what the doctor ordered for the 27th-ranked Washington offense, though with a match-up that ugly it won't be surprising if doctor's office visits don't rise through Tuesday morning.

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