NFL Week 6 Predictions

Week 6 NFL Predictions

Boxscores and stats from every upcoming game

By Paul Bessire, WhatIfSports.com

October 7th, 2008

Each Tuesday morning, we will preview every NFL game of the upcoming week. All of our NFL content, including our most recent power rankings and weekly fantasy projections, is located here. If you want to take WhatIfSports weekly college football and/or NFL picks with you (to your MySpace, Facebook or personal homepage), please see the widget below on the right or at this page.

The inputs to the 10,001 simulations of each upcoming game are based on a rigorous analysis of each team that considers strength-of-schedule-adjusted team and player ratings and then makes modifications for injuries and depth at each position.

Game of the Week: #4 Carolina 21 @ #14 Tampa Bay 24
There are only three games in Week 6 that pit two teams with winning records (Atlanta vs. Chicago and Dallas vs. Arizona are the others), and two of them include teams from the NFC South. This game is big for the division that has been far better than most expected. The beauty of the NFL may also be summed up in this game, where we are actually predicting our #4 team to lose to our #14 team (we are also predicting #12 to beat #3 this week). Parity is a great thing. In the NFL right now, there appears to be one great team (the New York Giants), one pretty good team (Washington), two horrible teams (Detroit and St. Louis), two teams that find ways to play just below their competition each week (Houston and Cincinnati) and 26 teams lumped together. When that happens and so many teams are even, divisional matchups between two teams with winning records become absolutely crucial. With Brian Griese banged up and mostly ineffective and Joey Galloway like still out, look for Jeff Garcia to step in... and hand the ball off to Earnest Graham and Warrick Dunn en route to the narrow Tampa Bay victory. In 10,001 simulations the Buccaneers average 143.6 yards on 30.6 carries (4.7 yards-per-carry) to win 56.7% of the time.

Click on the Boxscores below to see detailed team and player stat projections for every game.

Week 6 Scores for Every NFL Game

Matchup	Home Win%	Avg Score
St. Louis @ Washington	95	11-35	Boxscore
Cincinnati @ New York	91.5	14-29	Boxscore
Detroit @ Minnesota	89.9	16-31	Boxscore
New England @ San Diego	80.9	21-31	Boxscore
Jacksonville @ Denver	71	23-29	Boxscore
Oakland @ New Orleans	62.7	23-28	Boxscore
Dallas @ Arizona	61	26-30	Boxscore
Carolina @ Tampa Bay	56.7	21-24	Boxscore
Baltimore @ Indianapolis	56.1	20-23	Boxscore
Chicago @ Atlanta	47.5	26-22	Boxscore
Miami @ Houston	39.9	27-21	Boxscore
Green Bay @ Seattle	37.2	26-19	Boxscore
Philadelphia @ San Francisco	30.4	30-21	Boxscore
New York @ Cleveland	25.1	28-17	Boxscore

Paul Bessire is the Senior Quantitative Analyst and Content Manager for WhatIfSports.com and a member of the Pro Football Writers of America. With any comments, questions or topic suggestions, Paul can be reached at [e-mail]. Thanks!