Rams, Giants among NFL Week 6 disasters; inside wildest day ever in college football

Plus, why the Rays have all the momentum entering ALCS Game 6

Oct 19, 2026 at 8:53 am ET • 9 min read

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😬 Five things to know Monday

1. The Rams and Giants were disastrous in Week 6. While a handful of teams will want to flush Sunday from their memory and move on, none are reeling as badly as Los Angeles and New York. It was just over a month ago that we were nearly ready to crown the Rams as Super Bowl champions before a single game was even played, but now? They're off to the worst start of any team in their division. The biggest upset of the year -- a last-second loss to the Cardinals -- emphasized glaring issues on a massively disappointing team. On the other side of the country, desperate times called for desperate measures when the Giants benched Jameis Winston in favor of J.J. McCarthy. It didn't help their cause in a loss to the slumping Saints that they demoted Cam Skattebo to the sideline. Their NFC East lead feels tenuous.
2. College football's craziest Saturday ever flipped the rankings upside down. The first AP rankings in college football history came out 90 years ago, and never before had five of the top seven teams lost on the same day until last weekend. That included No. 1 Georgia, which fell to Auburn on a walk-off field goal in what was easily the Tigers' biggest win in years. All of the madness precipitated major changes to the AP Top 25 and in the Coaches Poll. Miami is now the team to beat in the College Football Playoff race, and the Hurricanes nearly fell victim to the upset epidemic themselves.
3. One win stands between the Rays and the World Series. Tampa Bay moved one step closer to the Fall Classic on Sunday with a 3-1 win over the Guardians, and fortunately, Game 5 went off without a hitch following Game 4's postponement due to rain. Drew Rasmussen outdueled Parker Messick in a battle between an established ace and a Rookie of the Year hopeful, and the top of the Rays' lineup delivered at the plate to push Cleveland to the brink of elimination. Game 6 of the ALCS gets underway at 8 ET tonight.
4. The Valkyries took an early lead in the WNBA Finals. Just two years into their existence, the Valkyries are already on the board with a win in the finals. Their defense led them to a Game 1 win over Angel Reese and the Dream, as they limited Atlanta to a meager eight points in the fourth quarter to complete the 68-64 victory. It was domination on that end of the floor, and it needed to be, because Golden State shot just 32.1% from the field. That is quite the statement to make to begin the series. Game 2 tips off tonight at 8.
5. Ben Simmons' torn Achilles is bad news for both him and the Kings. This was supposed to be a comeback year for Simmons after he missed all of last season to address back and leg injuries. Instead, he will not play a single minute for the team that signed him last month on a one-year deal. Sacramento was not expected to be anything more than a Western Conference bottom-dweller even with (and partially because of) Simmons in the lineup, so his absence will test the depth of an already underwhelming squad. The Kings might not make it to 20 wins, and in turn, we have them picking first in our final preseason 2027 NBA Mock Draft.

☑️ Do not miss this: Preseason NBA awards picks

The 2026-27 NBA season is just one day away. It is so close that lineup decisions are already locked in -- like the Spurs committing to Dylan Harper as a starter and the Knicks using their final roster spot on James Wiseman. This is our last chance to lock in preseason predictions, so with all the information available to us at the end of the offseason, we locked in our picks for all of the biggest league awards.

While Victor Wembanyama is the popular pick for MVP, we found better value in a superstar a little bit further down the odds board. Wembanyama is not the best bet for Defensive Player of the Year, either, because of his implied 77% chance of winning. So why not take a shot on Bam Adebayo, whose odds are much longer at +4000 but who is a bona fide rim protector on a top-five defense? Our Sam Quinn explained why Adebayo is the smarter pick.

• Quinn: "Adebayo has spent years complaining about how he doesn't have one of these awards yet. Well, this is his best chance. Miami has one of the best defensive lineups in the NBA. Giannis Antetokounmpo has won this award, but he has declined just enough not to compete with Adebayo for this year's. Davion Mitchell and Andrew Wiggins are legitimate plus starters, and Erik Spoelstra might be the NBA's most creative defensive coach. Adebayo doesn't post gaudy block or steal numbers, and the all-in-ones usually nudge him below the top handful of defensive bigs, but the eye test is obviously favorable and there will be a sense that he's due if he comes close."

Check out the rest of the picks to see our selections for Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year and Most Improved Player.

📝 NFL Week 6 takeaways

• Overreactions: It is no stretch to say C.J. Stroud has earned himself big money. He was fantastic, again, outside of a late interception in the Texans' 34-31 win over the Jaguars in London. That was only Stroud's first pick of the year, and he passed for 312 yards and a season-high three touchdowns. Plus, he now has another weapon in Marvin Harrison Jr., who had his best game of the year in his Texans debut following last week's trade.
• Grades: Mike McCarthy might want to move on from Week 6 and forget about his head-scratching timeout call at the end of regulation and the injury that forced him to spend halftime in the sideline medical tent, but his team earned high marks on our report card for surviving in overtime against the Buccaneers. The Steelers pulled off their biggest fourth-quarter comeback since 1992 in the 26-19 win.
• Injuries: The biggest injury news of the week came just in advance of game day when the Eagles placed Jalen Hurts on injured reserve due to a blood clot. We also learned ahead of kickoff that Tyler Shough is playing through broken bones in his non-throwing hand. And then in the course of game action on Sunday, the Eagles lost another starter when Nolan Smith suffered a concussion and the Rams lost their newly signed kicker just minutes into his debut.
• Highlights and lowlights: When you don't have time to get a throw off, why not toss a backhanded pass into the end zone for a touchdown instead of taking a sack? That was Josh Allen's mentality when he made one of the most unbelievable plays of his career. You know what else was unbelievable in the Bills' win over the Raiders? The boneheaded decision C.J. Gardner-Johnson made to spit at Brock Bowers, which resulted in his second career ejection. And Cowboys' offense didn't get on the scoreboard in the first half for the first time in five years thanks to that Packers defense.
• Milestones: There is a new name among the top 10 reception leaders in NFL history. Keenan Allen climbed all the way to No. 9 and passed a Hall of Famer in the process, and he has room to surge even further before he calls it a career.

🤯 Inside college football's wildest weekend ever

Our Tom Fornelli explained how no regular-season game will ever be meaningless even if the soon-to-be-expanded College Football Playoff makes it feel that way. Take Tennessee's rivalry win over Alabama, for example. No CFP worries can extinguish the flames in the cigars of Volunteer fans as they celebrate a win on the Third Saturday in October. The Vols might even make the playoff this year thanks to their revitalized defense.

Texas, on the other hand, might be wishing that the 24-team playoff was in effect this year, because without sweeping changes in Austin, the Longhorns might not be a top-12 team at season's end. Saturday's loss to Florida was their second in a row to an unranked team. Our John Talty says Steve Sarkisian has to swallow his pride and overhaul the offense.

• Talty: "The play-calling isn't good enough. The quarterback play isn't good enough. The much-ballyhooed roster construction isn't good enough. For one of the most expensive rosters in the sport led by one of the highest-paid coaches, that is completely unacceptable. Sarkisian was given the keys to a Lamborghini this season, and he drove it into a ditch."

There is cause for concern at another powerhouse program even after a victory. How do you receive just a "B-" grade for defeating a top-five team on the road? Squeaking past Indiana and losing your starting quarterback in the process will do it. Ohio State will be without Julian Sayin for "several weeks" due to the apparent right arm injury he sustained in the win, and his status may end up deciding the Buckeyes' season.

Week 7 was about highly ranked teams losing. A few of them found the opposite fate, though, and the survivors all climbed up the ladder amid all the chaos. No program made a bigger statement than BYU. The Cougars earned all kinds of respect for taking down Notre Dame, even if they got a little help from the officials in doing so.

👍👎 The best (and not-so-best) of the rest

• The college basketball preseason AP Top 25 comes out today, and we have an idea as to how it will shape up.
• Here's how LeBron James can pass Michael Jordan in the GOAT debate during his 24th NBA season.
• Aaron Rodgers questioned the safety of the Buccaneers' home playing surface.
• Maryland fired defensive coordinator Ted Monachino. Is Mike Locksley next?
• Orioles owner David Rubenstein admitted what MLB front offices don't want fans to know.
• The NCAA sued Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine over an executive order on player eligibility.
• What's wrong with Bo Nix and Sam Darnold? Both quarterbacks are off to slow starts, and while the Seahawks are committed to Darnold, the Broncos have tough decisions to make about Nix's future.
• There is a new contender for Knockout of the Year. Mike Malott stole the show at UFC Fight Night with his brutal finish against Joaquin Buckley.
• Aston Villa surged nine spots in this week's Premier League Power Rankings.
• The NFL addressed its plans for next week's Paris game as social unrest is escalating in the French capital.
• Something historic might be brewing for Barcelona amid an 11-match win streak to open the season.
• The feud between Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes is not cooling off anytime soon.
• The Spirit locked up a spot in the NWSL playoffs and captured their postseason form with a win over the reigning champions.
• Daniel Dubois retained the WBO heavyweight title with a second-round TKO of Fabio Wardley.
• Police arrested four-time Pro Bowl WR Cordarrelle Patterson on a domestic assault charge.

📺 What we're watching Monday

⚽ Cagliari at Monza, 12:30 p.m. on Paramount+
⚽ Coventry City at Tottenham Hotspur, 3 p.m. on USA Network
⚾ Game 6: Guardians at Rays, 8 p.m. on TBS
🏀 Game 2: Dream at Valkyries, 8 p.m. on USA Network and Peacock
🤼 WWE Raw, 8 p.m. on Netflix
🏈 Commanders at 49ers, 8:15 p.m. on ABC