Well the AFC met the NFC and jolly well gave them a bloody nose! AFC take the week 6 honours 7-5, but the NFC won the shutout battle 3-1.

Lets take you through the games one by one...

First up we travel to Minnesota to witness the Bills thumping of the Vikings. If you just looked at the stats then I doubt that you could pick the winner of this game, but the Bills took their chances whilst the Vikings didn't. 1-0 AFC!

Next up the Dolphins hosted the Buccs and sat on them. There is no way in which you can describe a shutout as any thing other than ugly and the Tampa performance was exactly that.

The Jets travelled out to Chicago trying to put last weeks game behind them, unfortunately for them instead of leaving their losing ways behind they took them along. Chicago proved to be too strong for the Jets, despite doing all they could to lose the game the Bears total domination of the second half was enough for them to hold on for the win.

Next on to a battle between 2 of the leagues most influential coaches away from the field. Coach Henderson strolled into New England looking to consolidate his position a top his division whereas the Patriots needed to win to keep up with the Bills and Dolphins and remain only 1 game behind. The game was a classic defensive battle, with both teams struggling to do much offensively. A HUGE 4th quarter for the Lions saw them pull a lost cause back to force the Patriots to OT, but the Patriots had seen enough and popped over the winning FG to end the Lions misery.

AFC East VS NFC Central - 3-1 AFC. 1-0 AFC in Shutouts :o)

From an AFC point of view those results left the Jets 2 games off the bottom of the East and already looking for a bit of a miracle if they are to contest the Division. The Pats are 3rd @ 4-2, but tied at 5-1 are the Dolphins and Bills. This is one tough cookie of a division!

The AFC Central played the NFC West and we got both ends of the spectrum in these games.
First up the Browns travelled out to St Louis to play a Rams side that is a shadow of it's former self. Coach Horne described it as a 'messy' game, including, as it did, 7 turnovers. Unfortunately for the Rams they committed 5 of them and as a result were never really in the game. 2 second half TDs made the score look respectable, but Coach Canwell must be wondering were all his previous seasons form has gone!

The 49ers travelled East to Pittsburgh to clash with the Steelers and probably wish they hadn't bothered. It was a one sided contest to be honest, with the 49ers throwing 5 picks to guarantee that they never really stood a chance. Shame really as I was expecting this to be a tough one.

Out to Atlanta now where we find the Falcons in a bullish mood following their 27-0 drubbing of the Bengals. The Bengals didn't do too much wrong, they just couldn't convert on 3rd down and wound up on the wrong side of an embarrassing scoreline
Much the same can be said of the game in Tennessee where the Titans got a lesson in how to play football by the rampant Saints. The Saints, who are the leagues only remaining unbeaten side, hardly broke sweat as they despatched the Titans 31-0 leaving Coach Birtchenell to wonder how it all went so very wrong. I would point him in the direction of the 6 turnovers his team committed, that's never a good start if you are trying to win a game.

The conferences split the honours here, but it was 2-0 to the NFC in shutouts.

The upshot of those games is that the Titans have surrendered their tie for first place in the Central, leaving Cleveland one game clear of both the Titans and Steelers. The Bengals need to get themselves to the miracle shop if they are to save their season though. It looks a long way back for them.

Out to the AFC West now, who matched up with the NFC East in the final series of interconference matches.

The Chargers first, they travelled a long way East to Veterans Stadium Philadelphia to play the Eagles. As an impartial viewer this looks like it was the game to watch in week 6 as the 2 teams made this game a cracker. Neither team was ever more than a TD in front and both made mistakes to keep the Philly crowd on the edge of their seats.

ogether they produced 62 points and close to 1000 yards before the game finally went to OT after a final play tieing TD by the Chargers. In OT the Chargers started with the ball and made possession count as they took the win. Great game by both sides though.

The defending SB champs travelled out to KC and made heavy weather of beating a under par Chiefs side. If the Redskins want to be taken seriously as possible repeaters then they have to be able to produce a better performance than that against the teams that are struggling to get their seasons going. But a win is a win and Coach Spence will be pleased to have got out of KC with the win. Washington hearts where in their mouths as the Redskins where forced to OT by the previously uninspiring Chiefs. Is this a sign of better things from KC? We can but hope.

Seattle must be wondering what they have to do to get a break. The Cowboys entertained the Seahawks, but the Hawks must've said something bad about the 'boys respective mothers 'cos they showed no mercy in a 34-0 drubbing.

And the other winless team in the league (Seattle being the first one) went way out west. So, it would appear did their gameplan as the Raiders ran roughshod over them in what turned out to be an easy win for the Silver & Black.

Again honours even, but the NFC rack up another Shutout!

The West is an odd division this year. The Seahawks and Chiefs just don't seem to be able to get their seasons on track and are fighting for first pick with each other and the Cards. But further up the West we see a bit of backbone, especially from the Chargers who overcame one of the leagues better teams to hit week 7 @ .500. The division is going to come down to a battle between the Chargers and Raiders of that I'm sure. Whether the loser will get a WC come seasons end remains to be seen.

The AFC has 3 teams @ 5-1 and 3 teams at 4-2 after week 6. One of those teams isn't going to be able to go to the postseason party. From here on in it gets interesting!

I wasn't too confident going into my latest game against the Eagles. I was playing a team top of the NFC East and a top coach in charge! Plus, my offence has been a total nightmare and I've changed it that many times. Maybe it's time to leave it alone and get use to the play calls. That I did, and what a performance!! Doug Flutie - 407 yards, 5 TDs. Running game - 154 yards, Av. 5.7. Total offensive yards - 561. WOW!! Saying that, I won a game I nearly lost!

Onto this week and an encounter against the Scoobs! Not changed too much on offence so if Scoobs is playing his defence to my offence from last week, then I'm in trouble. I have changed a few things on defence though, so we'll see what happens.

Scoobs is a guy who players most want to defeat. Why, you ask? (not really I know why. I want to beat him. Ed) The reason being his views are something which I admire greatly. He plays games the right way and plays it which beats almost everyone. Players like Apple, Julian, Troy and Neil Arthurton are similar and I know fellow coaches try even harder to beat these guys. I've already beaten Apple and Julian, and Scoobs is the next on my list. I have though lost to Troy in a Superbowl and Neil in a regular game so I can't wait to avenge those defeats.

I am looking forward to this game but maybe my team is not ready yet in AB to properly put up a fight against Scoobs, but I'll give it my upmost best not to be embarrassed.

Good lucks Scoobs.

After the slanderous item back in week 4, about how SPLATT was just Brucey with a different spelling. Back to the Drawing Board is happy to publish SPLATT's reply (we believe Brucey might have helped out with a few of the more difficult words, like winning, but other than that its all SPLATT. Ed).

SPLATT only uses simple rules to calculate a points rating for each team, based on things like games against common opponents, last 16 results etc. Each team's points rating is compared to their opponents, and the one with the higher number is deemed to have a better chance of winning the game. The actual points difference prediction is only an indicator of how good the chances of winning might be, and not an assumed winning margin. It's probably not as good as sitting down and working things out for yourself, but it's consistently better than picking winners at random. So much so, that SPLATT predicted EVERY post season game for 2004 correctly...

Well the new season isn't that far away, so I thought it might be interesting to remind everyone how the new divisions will look.

EAST
Buffalo
Miami
New England
N.Y. Jets

SOUTH
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Tennessee

NORTH
Baltimore
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Pittsburgh

WEST
Denver
Kansas City
Oakland
San Diego

EAST
Dallas
N.Y. Giants
Philadelphia
Washington

SOUTH
Atlanta
Carolina
New Orleans
Tampa Bay

NORTH
Chicago
Detroit
Green Bay
Minnesota

WEST
Arizona
St. Louis
San Francisco
Seattle