Four Week 6 Games Could Shape the Remainder of the 2022 NFL Season

As we embark on Week 6, the NFL is borderline upside-down.

The oft-mocked NFC East is dominating, both New York teams actually look competitive for once, both defending conference champions have losing records, and hyped teams like the Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders and Arizona Cardinals aren't remotely living up to said hype.

Still, we could gain quite a bit of clarity this weekend by way of several critical mid-October matchups. And four games in particular stand out in terms of their ability to shape pecking orders throughout the league, potentially for the remainder of the 2022 campaign.

Let's break each of them down.

Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles

Philly, Dallas and the New York Giants are a combined 13-2, and the Eagles are the NFL's only undefeated team. A victory here would essentially move them 2.5 games up on the Cowboys in a division that is constantly up for grabs.

But the Cowboys are close to getting star quarterback Dak Prescott back from a thumb injury, so the Eagles can't afford to drop a prime-time home game with Prescott still hurt for Dallas. If the Cooper Rush-quarterbacked Cowboys find a way to pull off the upset here, they'll be in the NFC East driver's seat. Ditto if they win Sunday night with a less-than-100 percent Prescott under center.

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A Dallas team with a fairly soft schedule (it has already played its toughest stretch, which included matchups with the Buccaneers, Bengals, Giants and Rams) could then control the division until it gets to host Philadelphia—presumably with Prescott, Micah Parsons and Jason Peters healthy—on Christmas Eve.

In other words, all of the pressure is on the Eagles.

Baltimore Ravens at New York Giants

Meanwhile, a Cowboys win combined with a Giants victory over the strong but shaky Ravens would shockingly move Big Blue into a mid-October tie for first place in the strongest division in football (by record, anyway).

Like Philly, Baltimore is favored by about a touchdown. And there's little doubt the Ravens are the better team—only the Buffalo Bills and Eagles rank higher in terms of DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average) at Football Outsiders, while the Giants rank below the league median in that metric.

But that hasn't meant much this year to a Ravens team that blew sizeable home leads to the Miami Dolphins and Bills and is now on the road against a squad playing above its head with a lot less to lose.

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If the Giants pull this off, they'll officially be players in the NFC East and the conference as a whole. If they lose, it's probably going to come down to Philly-Dallas in that surprisingly strong division.

If the Ravens take care of business, they could start to pull away from the Cincinnati Bengals (who are in a tough spot against the New Orleans Saints on the road) and Cleveland Browns (who remain without Deshaun Watson and are a mess on defense) in the AFC North.

Buffalo Bills at Kansas City Chiefs

The other benefit to a Baltimore win would come with the fact the AFC's two other standout heavyweights are playing each other in one of the most highly anticipated games of the year, with Kansas City hosting Buffalo on Sunday at Arrowhead.

Barring a tie here, a Ravens win would move Baltimore into a tie for second place in the AFC.

But assuming this isn't a draw, somebody will take full control of said conference, and it's possible the team that does that will never look back. It would essentially possess a 1.5-game lead on its top challenger, and it's hard to imagine either team collapsing as long as key cogs remain healthy.

The host Bills have a real shot at gaining a clear road here. They've been the superior team by most measures this season, and their remaining schedule is much more favorable in terms of DVOA.

Regardless, this battle between the conference's two highest-ranked teams in our latest power rankings is widely viewed as an AFC Championship Game preview. The result here very well could decide who is favored at home in that tilt, with a trip to Super Bowl LVII on the line.

No pressure, though.

New York Jets at Green Bay Packers

This was not a game many marked on their calendars when the schedule came out, but it's become a potential season-changer for two teams that probably didn't expect to be battling for wild-card spots in their respective conferences at 3-2.

The Packers were supposed to be better. They've outscored their opponents by a margin of just one point thus far, and in their last two games they nearly lost to a New England Patriots squad led by a third-string quarterback and did lose to the Giants.

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The Jets were supposed to be worse. But they're a middle-of-the-pack DVOA squad that is 2-0 with young signal-caller Zach Wilson starting and just destroyed the Dolphins to move into a third-place conference tie, just a game back of the AFC East-leading Bills.

If Green Bay takes care of business here, normalcy will arguably be restored with the Packers in a contender position and the Jets potentially on track to drift away again. But a Gang Green upset could signal panic mode in Green Bay and indicate that Wilson and the rebuilding Jets are arriving.

And, of course, either result will have a consequent bearing on each team's division rivals, particularly the Minnesota Vikings, Bills and Dolphins.