NFL Picks Week 6: Patriots, Bills and Bengals Will Breeze into Bye

The bye week can be a tricky thing for NFL teams on a roll.

Just ask the Patriots, the Bills and the Bengals...once they're done playing on Sunday, that is.

New England Patriots

New England will welcome a well-rested Dallas team to Gillette Stadium before taking off for its own week of "rest." The Pats' pass defense is terrible (32nd in the NFL) and will have its hands full with the Cowboys' talented attack, which ranks third in the league in yards per game through the air.

Tony Romo, Dez Bryant and Miles Austin have all made the most of the time off to rest their wounds and should be ready to put up some serious points on the Pats.

But if there's one team you don't want to face in a shootout, it's New England. Not with Tom Brady playing as well as he has this season, not with Wes Welker and Rob Gronkowski piling up yardage like it's their job (which it is), and certainly not with Aaron Hernandez likely to be back in the lineup.

Dallas' defensive backfield, which has been banged-up all season, will get torched once again, allowing the Pats to triumph in a high-scoring affair before departing for their seasonal sabbath.

Buffalo Bills

Elsewhere in the AFC East, the Bills will get their fill against the cross-state rival Giants in a rematch of Super Bowl XXV, though the difference between winning and losing won't likely be a matter of "Wide Right" for Buffalo this time around.

Neither team brings much to the table defensively, though Big Blue's pass rush will be particularly hampered by the absence of Pro Bowl tackle Justin Tuck.

That bodes well for Ryan Fitzpatrick, who will have plenty of time to pick apart New York's suspect secondary while Fred Jackson makes minced meat of the Giants' linebackers.

And if you think the G-Men will be at all aided by their "home-field advantage" at MetLife Stadium, a quick look at the box score of last week's game against the Seahawks might just change your mind.

Cincinnati Bengals

Granted, Buffalo's lone loss of the season came on the road in Cincinnati against a Bengals team that has a beat on a 4-2 record heading into its bye week. That's not to say that Marvin Lewis' squad is all that good, but rather that their opponent, the 0-5 Colts, is just that bad.

An early score or two for Cincy should give Andy Dalton plenty of leeway to hand the ball off to Cedric Benson early and often. Benson isn't exactly the most explosive 'back, but he should have no trouble finding running room against an Indy defense that ranks 31st against the run this season.

Meanwhile, the surprisingly stingy Bengals' D will have its way with the calamitous Colts offense.

That is, unless Curtis Painter suddenly turns into Peyton Manning and Donald Brown proves he's no bust while filling in for the injured Joseph Addai.

Which is to say, the Colts are doomed to whiff on a win once again.