2026 NFL season, Week 6: What We Learned from Sunday's games

Around The NFL breaks down what you need to know from Sunday's action in Week 6 of the 2026 NFL season. Catch up on each game's biggest takeaways using the links below: 34 31 Jeremy Bergman's takeaways: Texans are back behind big day from Stroud. Don't look now, but C.J.

Stroud and Houston are on a tear. The once-embattled quarterback on Sunday continued to play his best ball since his Offensive Rookie of the Year season in 2023, throwing for 312 yards and three touchdowns on 24-of-34 passing. Stroud was top-shelf at Wembley, throwing dime after dime (pence after pence?) to a remade receiving corps.

Houston welcomed Marvin Harrison Jr. into the fold against Jacksonville following this past week's trade, and the 2024 No. 4 pick was a factor in the middle of the field, hauling in three balls for 34 yards, all of which picked up first downs. But Stroud's strongest tosses went to Nico Collins and Jaylin Noel , who enjoyed a breakout afternoon (four catches for 107 yards, TD).

The QB's late-half 50-yard bomb to Noel in the face of oncoming pressure was his most impressive toss of the day, followed by another pinpoint dart to Foster Moreau for a lead-flipping TD (the tight end's second of the first half). Finding a bit of a run game with Jawhar Jordan as a spell back for Woody Marks , Houston racked up 114 rushing yards on Duval, its most allowed on the season.

Marks (56 yards) and Jordan (43 yards) snapped the Jags' streak of five straight games to begin this season without allowing a 40-yard rusher. On a day when the Texans had to go toe to toe with a Jacksonville offense counter-punching Houston's supposedly elite defense, Stroud and Co. stepped up.

After the QB's end-zone INT set up a Jaguars game-tying field goal, the Houston offense responded by leaning on Marks and Jordan again, killing enough time and yardage for Ka'imi Fairbairn to sink the game-winning kick with zeroes on the clock. Thus ended Houston's most complete offense performance of the season.

Right on time. Hunter makes history in London. Duval's dual-threat dynamo is built for international play.

Travis Hunter logged a career-high eight catches for 101 yards and the lone receiving TD of his rookie season in Jacksonville's Week 7 loss to the Rams in London last year. After a quiet return to England last week (one catch for 9 yards, six tackles), Hunter was an X-factor in the Jaguars' second U.K. game of the campaign.

His afternoon didn't begin auspiciously. Hunter was beaten on a Nico Collins double-move and C.J. Stroud shoulder fake for a 42-yard catch, setting up Houston's opening score.

His debatable defensive pass interference penalty at the end of the first half led to another Texans score. But Hunter was a force in the fourth quarter. The two-way star caught a TD from Trevor Lawrence on a Texas route out of the backfield , cutting Houston's lead to three points.

Then, after giving up a Collins conversion on third down near midfield on the ensuing Texans drive, Hunter picked off Stroud in the end zone, the QB's first interception of the season in its sixth week. After getting picked on early, the Jaguars star almost single-handedly swung the course of the game in two drives.

In doing so, he became just the third player in the last 40 years to have a receiving TD and INT in the same game. Hunter started the season working almost exclusively on defense, but the former No. 2 pick has shown in recent weeks that can play two ways -- and well.

Margins are slim in AFC South. Suddenly, it's a horse race. A Jaguars win on Sunday morning would have given them a four-game lead over their top competition in the division (no offense to Indianapolis) going into their bye week.

But a handful of mistakes swung the game -- and possibly in the South -- in the other direction. Jacksonville was held scoreless through midway through the second quater despite outplaying Houston. That's because Duval eschewed a long field goal on its second drive to try a fourth-and-3, which failed.

Then, in the red zone on the ensuing 14-play possession – where Jacksonville was 0-for-2 against Philly last week -- Trevor Lawrence threw a third-down interception, taking points off the board. After committing 26 combined penalties over the previous two weeks, Jacksonville improved with just six fouls for 66 yards on Sunday.

But flags at critical times flipped the game around. Brenton Strange 's holding penalty in the second quarter negated a Bhayshul Tuten touchdown, which was followed by the Lawrence pick. Travis Hunter's DPI led to Houston's end of-half score.

On the Texans' following second-half-opening drive, a too many men foul on a Houston punt extended the march, which ended in a Jaylin Noel TD. Despite the errors, the Jaguars were in this one 'til the end. (It took a 60-yard field goal from London legend Cam Little to get there.) But thanks to a number of mind-numbing mistakes, the Jaguars' potential stranglehold on the division is no more -- and the Texans just learned how to putt .

Next Gen Stats Insight for Texans-Jaguars (via NFL Pro): The Texans used six or more offensive linemen on 35.6% of plays in their win over Jacksonville, the highest rate by any team in a game this season and Houston's third highest in a game since 2018. NFL Research: Entering Week 6, the Jaguars were the only team in the NFL to hold every opponent to 20 or fewer points this season.

The Texans scored 34 points in Week 6, the most by any team against Jacksonville since Week 10, 2025 when Houston won, 36-29. Since Week 10 of last season, the Jaguars have allowed 35.0 points per game to the Texans and 14.3 PPG vs every other team. Dan Parr's analysis to come Nick Shook's analysis to come Bobby Kownack's analysis to come Kevin Patra's analysis to come Bobby Kownack's analysis to come Kevin Patra's analysis to come Nick Shook's analysis to come Kevin Patra's analysis to come Nick Shook's analysis to come Brooke Cersosimo's analysis to come Grant Gordon's analysis to come