Week 6 of the NFL season closes with a Sunday slate on October 18 that has a little of everything: a morning game in London, a heavyweight afternoon window on CBS, and a Sunday Night Football trip to Lambeau Field that could reshape the NFC North conversation. ESPN's schedule listings lay out the full day, and FanDuel's early lines, reported Thursday, point to clear favorites in the biggest games — Kansas City by more than a touchdown, Buffalo by five and a half on the road in Las Vegas, and Green Bay by the slimmest of margins at home. USA Today has also walked through the Sunday slate this week, and the through-line across ESPN, FanDuel and USA Today coverage is the same: this is a week where the league's best teams are expected to handle business, and where one or two of them very likely will not. Start your Sunday on Previously with our NFL hub and the scores page.
London starts the day, and the early window is loaded
The day begins at 9:30 a.m. ET in London, where the Houston Texans face the Jacksonville Jaguars, per the ESPN schedule. International games have become a genuine fixture of the calendar rather than a novelty, and an early kickoff means the Sunday slate effectively runs for more than twelve straight hours once the late and night games are counted. The 1 p.m. ET window that follows is headlined by the Carolina Panthers at the Philadelphia Eagles — a game carrying a major caveat. As Previously reported earlier today, Jalen Hurts is out for the Eagles for this game. That changes everything about how Philadelphia has to play: the Eagles' offense is built around Hurts in ways that go well beyond the passing game, and Carolina arrives knowing the home team will look different at the most important position on the field. Previously is not naming a replacement starter here because none has been confirmed in the reporting available to us; what is confirmed, and what matters for Sunday, is that Hurts will not play.
The rest of the early window, according to ESPN's listings, sends the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Baltimore Ravens to the Cleveland Browns. Steelers-Bucs pairs two teams that win ugly as a matter of identity, in a game likely to be decided by turnovers and field position. Ravens-Browns is a divisional fight in Cleveland, the kind of AFC North game where records routinely lie and the home crowd turns every third down into an event. Either game could produce the early window's defining result, and both feed directly into a crowded AFC playoff picture that Kansas City currently watches from the top.
The afternoon belongs to Kansas City and Buffalo
The 4:05 p.m. ET window sends the Los Angeles Rams to the Arizona Cardinals, per ESPN, but the afternoon's center of gravity is the 4:25 p.m. ET CBS doubleheader. The Los Angeles Chargers, at 0-5, travel to the Kansas City Chiefs, at 4-0 — the league's most winless team against one of its last unbeatens. FanDuel listed Kansas City as an 8.5-point favorite as of Thursday, via USA Today and FanDuel reporting, and the number reflects both the records and the venue: Arrowhead in October, against a desperate divisional rival, is still one of the hardest assignments in football. The Chargers' 0-5 start makes them dangerous in the specific way winless teams are dangerous — nothing left to protect, every gamble justified — but 4-0 against 0-5 is 4-0 against 0-5, and the Chiefs have built their start on closing exactly these kinds of games.
At the same time, the Buffalo Bills (4-1) visit the Las Vegas Raiders (3-2) in Las Vegas, also per the ESPN schedule. FanDuel listed Buffalo as a 5.5-point road favorite as of Thursday. Road favorites of that size are a statement about how the market sees the Bills: a 4-1 team expected to walk into a loud building in Las Vegas and win by close to a touchdown. The Raiders, at 3-2, are good enough to make that line look disrespectful if they start fast — Las Vegas crowds do not need much encouragement — and a Raiders win would be one of Sunday's results that echoes into the following week. Previously is based in Las Vegas, and our NFL coverage will follow the Bills-Raiders game closely on Sunday afternoon.
Sunday night: Cowboys at Lambeau
The day closes with the game of the week. Sunday Night Football sends the Dallas Cowboys (2-3) to the Green Bay Packers (3-2) at Lambeau Field, kicking off at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, per ESPN. FanDuel listed Green Bay as a 1.5-point favorite as of Thursday — essentially a coin flip shaded by home field, which is the market's way of saying it trusts Lambeau at night more than it trusts either roster outright. Dallas at 2-3 is better than its record in some ways and worse in others, a team that can score with anyone and has given games away. Green Bay at 3-2 has been steadier without ever quite looking finished. A Packers win tightens their grip on the NFC North race; a Cowboys win pulls Dallas back to .500 and hands Green Bay a home loss it cannot afford. Prime-time games at Lambeau have a way of becoming season reference points, and this one has the records, the line and the stakes to do exactly that.
Monday, the byes, and a note on the lines
The week finishes on Monday night with the Washington Commanders at the San Francisco 49ers, per the ESPN schedule — a road test for Washington against a 49ers team that rarely gives anything away at home. Four teams are off this week: the Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions, Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings have byes, according to the schedule listing published by the IndyStar. Bye weeks at this point in the season are rarely neutral — Detroit and Minnesota in particular will watch the Lambeau result with direct interest, since the NFC North standings move whether they play or not.
A note on the numbers used in this preview, because accuracy matters more than confidence: the point spreads cited here — Chiefs minus-8.5, Bills minus-5.5 and Packers minus-1.5 — are FanDuel's lines as of Thursday, reported by FanDuel and USA Today. Lines move, sometimes sharply, between Thursday and kickoff as injury news and betting action come in, so treat them as a Thursday snapshot of expectations rather than a Sunday guarantee. The same discipline applies to the Hurts news: he is out, per Previously's earlier reporting today, and if Philadelphia's plans at quarterback become confirmed reporting before Sunday, our NFL hub coverage will carry it. Until then, the honest preview is the simple one — a London opener, a Hurts-less Eagles game, two AFC heavyweights laying points in the afternoon, and a classic at Lambeau under the lights to finish the night.
