NFL Week 6 opening line projections: Early power rating adjustments to help attack spreads for every game

While the most exciting part of the early slate in Week 5 may have been comeback wins by the Steelers and Falcons, the most consequential result likely came in Foxborough, where the Patriots took action to close as short favorites before suffering their worst home shutout loss ever at the hands of the Saints. What's wrong with Bill Belichick's squad? In a word, everything. The beat-up defense only gave up 4.3 yards per play, but that still translated to 27 of the 34 points surrendered. The offense was next level terrible, averaging 3.1 yards per play and going 1 of 14 on third down. 

We had the Patriots at 1.5 points below average in our spread power ratings heading into the game, and the question is now how much do we adjust them downward. Are they as bad as the Panthers, who were blown out by a banged-up Lions team from the opening whistle, or the Giants, who continue to be thoroughly outplayed on both sides of the ball? Would they lose to a Bears team that just scored 40 points on Thursday night? You want to say a Belichick-coached team couldn't possibly belong with the basement dwellers, but after getting blown out in back to back weeks, it's fair to wonder how checked in he's is at this point.

You can see all of my early projected spreads below, which is designed to help you attack the Week 6 opening lines later today.  We'll run our full look at power ratings and official spread projections on Tuesday here at SportsLine.

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