James Harrison doesn’t believe in participation trophies. Back in August, the Steelers linebacker made (well, he told his Instagram followers he would, anyway) his two sons return awards they had been given for taking part in some unspecified athletic activity.

Here on the Talkboard, we spare ourselves such awkward conversations by making sure never to give out trophies in the first place, but this will be the first column since week one in which nobody gets that greatest of rewards: a virtual shout-out up here. That is because not a single person called all six of games correctly last week. Must try harder, folks, so get going with the games below. Full standings will appear shortly in the comments section below.

Jacksonville Jaguars @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Sunday 1pm ET/6pm BST)

San Francisco, Carolina, St Louis, Baltimore, Minnesota, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Green Bay, New Orleans, Tennessee and Carolina again. Eleven games, 10 different teams and still no home wins for the Buccaneers since December 2013. Will that run end against Jacksonville? The betting markets would have us believe that it might, the Buccaneers listed as a three-point favourite as of Thursday morning.



To me, though, their prospects do not look all that great. To win, they will likely need to establish their ground game – as they did en route to victory in New Orleans a fortnight ago – taking the onus off Jameis Winston. But the Jags rank fourth in the league against the run, giving up just 83 yards per game, and should be able to slow Doug Martin and company down even if linebacker Paul Posluszny is kept out by his ankle sprain.



The story is reversed on the other side of the ball, where Tampa Bay have defended well against the pass but struggled to bottle up the likes of Bishop Sankey and Alfred Blue. Jags rookie TJ Yeldon is better than either of them. If Jacksonville can just work out how to finish a drive every now and then (and granted, it’s a substantial ‘if’), I think they should extend the Bucs’ miserable home run. Jaguars to win



Buffalo Bills @ Tennessee Titans (Sunday 1pm ET/6pm BST)

While we’re on the subject of unhappy streaks, why not check in on Buffalo – whose hopes of ending their 15-year playoff drought suddenly look a lot less likely to be fulfilled than they did six days ago. Widely tipped to beat the Giants at home, they instead were easily defeated and have now alternated lopsided wins with underwhelming losses.



Will it be back to the former in Tennessee? That might come down to which players they can put on the field. At time of writing it is not yet clear whether LeSean McCoy or Karlos Williams will be ready to play, potentially leaving the Bills’ running game in the hands of Boobie Dixon and newly-acquired Dan Herron. Given that the Titans’ pass defense has given up just 194.7 yards per game, the onus on those two might be significant.



Or perhaps we ought to take that last statistic with a spoon of salt, given that two of the three quarterbacks faced so far by Tennessee have been Jameis Winston and Johnny Manziel (with an out-of-sorts Andrew Luck as the third). The Titans are coming off a bye and I don’t feel as confident as I would like with this pick, but I’m sticking with Buffalo. Bills to win



New Orleans Saints @ Philadelphia Eagles (Sunday 1pm ET/6pm BST)

Sam Bradford’s Eagles face a weak Saints secondary. Photograph: Al Bello/Getty Images

The only team to have appeared in every round of the Pick Six contest so far, the Eagles remain a mystery. Clearly, they are not what they were billed to be in preseason, but exactly how bad are they? Bad enough to be beaten by Washington, apparently, but still good enough to defeat a solid Jets team. Or did New York, with four turnovers (and the worst play in history), just lose that one all by themselves?

Sam Bradford may never get a better opportunity to prove that he is capable of running Chip Kelly’s offense than he will against the Saints’ woeful secondary, but would we really trust him if this came down to a shoot-out against Drew Brees? Granted, the Saints signal caller is on the downside of his career, and his throwing motion during the win over Dallas looked very awkward, but he has had another week to recover from his bruised rotator cuff.

The relative health of each team may yet be a deciding factor. Brees was, by his own request, taken off the Saints’ injury report on Wednesday but a number of starters continued to feature on Philadelphia’s – from offensive tackles Jason Peters and Lane Johnson through to cornerback Byron Maxwell and defensive end Brandon Bair. Saints to win

Seattle Seahawks @ Cincinnati Bengals (Sunday 1pm ET/6pm BST)

How special is Kam Chancellor? In eight quarters since he ended his holdout, the Seahawks have surrendered just three points on defense (the Lions’ lone touchdown against them was on a fumble return). Sure, things might have gone differently if officials had called KJ Wright’s illegal bat correctly at the end of Monday Night Football, but equally the ball that Chancellor jarred loose from Calvin Johnson’s hand would in all likelihood have bounced out the back of the end zone anyway if Wright had simply got out the way.

Seattle’s next challenge, in any case, is of a different order of magnitude. The Bengals are a perfect 4-0, having piled up more than 420 yards per game with an offense that suddenly seems to have too many different ways to hurt you – from the power of Jeremy Hill and the elusiveness of Giovani Bernard in the backfield through to the variety offered by AJ Green, Tyler Eifert, Marvin Jones and Mohamed Sanu in the passing game.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks are struggling to protect Russell Wilson – pressured on 43.3% of his dropbacks, the most of any quarterback who has taken at least half of his team’s snaps, according to Pro Football Focus – and now must contend with a Cincinnati defense that has 11 sacks already this season. With Chancellor’s influence, Seattle might slow these Bengals down more effectively than anybody else had to this point. But even if they do, will they have enough on offense to triumph? Bengals to win

Arizona Cardinals @ Detroit Lions (Sunday 4.05pm ET/9.05pm BST)

A home defeat to St Louis has cooled the title talk in Arizona, highlighting imperfections that the Cardinals had previously kept hidden from view. Faced with the Rams’ tremendous defensive front four, they struggled to run the ball in short-yardage situations and to keep Carson Palmer upright. A defense that had excelled against weaker opposition got caught playing too aggressively and was beaten for big plays in the passing game – as well as being trampled by Todd Gurley on the ground.

But this is not the moment to hit the panic button. For one thing, the Rams have a knack of showing up in division games under Jeff Fisher – who always seems to do a better job of scheming against the devil he knows. The Cardinals also still might have won the game without sloppy mistakes. David Johnson’s lost fumble on the opening kickoff was converted into six points by St Louis, as was Larry Fitzgerald’s in the third quarter. So, yeah, I still think they’re better than this 0-4 Detroit team, even on the road. Cardinals to win

Pittsburgh Steelers @ San Diego Chargers (Monday 8.30pm ET/Tuesday 1.30am BST)

With a better kicker, Pittsburgh could be 3-1. After losing Shaun Suisham and Garrett Hartley to injury in preseason, the Steelers cut Josh Scobee last Saturday in the wake of two costly misses during their overtime defeat to Baltimore. Into his shoes steps Chris Boswell, who has spent time with the Texans and Giants but is yet to attempt a field goal in a professional game since going undrafted last year.

Unfortunately, his signing does not address this team’s biggest problem: the absence of injured Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback. Michael Vick was not terrible in replacing him last week, but nor does he provide anything like the same threat. Where Big Ben was averaging 10.2 yards per attempt this season, Vick has produced exactly half that figure thus far.

He will have an extra weapon this week as Martavis Bryant returns from suspension, but so too will San Diego, for whom Philip Rivers has likened the end of Antonio Gates’s ban to “acquiring a Hall of Fame free agent”. The Chargers, though, have their own problems in the form of a decimated offensive line or a defense that recently allowed Josh McCown to throw for 356 yards. I think the extra few days of rest after playing on Thursday last week might just give Pittsburgh the edge. Steelers to win