The Cowboys - Patriots game on Sunday will get a lot of national attention, as almost the entire country will get to see the 4:15 pm ET game. Many pundits are expecting a shootout between the two teams, and they may not be too far off the mark if the season so far is anything to go by:
In this wild NFL season, teams have combined for 3,566 points, the most points through five weeks in NFL history. Right now, the league is scoring 46.31 points per game, and if this rate were to be maintained for the entire season, it would rank as the second-highest of any season in history (1948, 46.48 points per game).
As we try to predict the game outcomes each week, we find that old habits die hard in that we still tend to overrate teams that were good last year and underrate teams that were bad last year. Yet compared to last year, through the first five weeks this year, all eight divisions have at least one new team either in first place or tied for the top spot.
After the break, find out if we're still basing our predictions on last year's accomplishments as the BTB panel tries to pick the winners for week six.
With last week's results reflected in our season standings below, our panel is beginning to resemble the NFL: Parity everywhere! With five of us separated by only three games, it seems we are just as closely bunched as most NFL divisions this week. And I guess that would make KD the Colts and Tom the Dolphins!
Here are our week 6, 2011 picks:
