5 Games In: Uncanny X-Men

Heading into Week 6, we're about a third of the way through the regular season and while every team is technically still in the playoff race, some of the bottom feeders are going to have to pick up their game if they want to make it into the lucrative post-season. Let's take a quick look at how our divisional fights are shaping up.

The Dirty Birds have vaulted to the best regular season record in our young season by way of a four game winning streak. Since getting blasted in WK1, they've racked up three 100+ point weeks and four easy wins. The Birds found a ground game behind Browns RB Peyton Hillis, who is averaging 18.0 points a game. The Birds can continue their ascent if QB Ben Roethlisberger's return to action strengthens an already strong receiving game.

Nipping at the Birds' heels is Team Johnson, who is outscoring the entire league by a wide margin (almost a hundred points more PF than the next closest competitor). Two of their losses have come despite scoring over the century mark and in their past two games, both wins, the Johnsons have scored 140+ in each matchup. They've been powered by the explosive receiving trio of Miles Austin, Brandon Lloyd, and Hakeem Nicks. Add in multi-faceted Frank Gore -- not to mention Darren McFadden -- and this is a serious contender.

Balancing good offense with a very easy schedule, Six to Midnight started off 3-1 but lost last week to his cousin Oliver in a low scoring yawner (70-76). The running game has fantasy sensation Arian Foster but neither Shonn Greene nor DeAngelo Williams are performing up to their draft status. The possible season ending loss of TE Jermichael Finley could really hurt too. Still, mojo could be on Andy's side as only eleven total points have kept him from being undefeated. Raise your hand if you knew Antonio Gates was the best WR/TE so far this season?!

Team H and Inglorious Basterds have been pretty similar this year and are currently both at 2-3. Tough schedules, low scoring games, and losing streaks of two and three games respectively have sunk them to middle of the pack. Mark's Team H has the incredible Philip Rivers and erratically explosive Ravens Ray Rice and Anquan Boldin. The problem is, there's not a lot of depth here and they've swung wildly from great highs (125-121 vs Inglorious Basterds in WK3) to putrid lows (55-88 vs Snake Eyes in WK4).

Mike's Basterds are in a tailspin and haven't won a game at home yet. The last two weeks have brought big time beat downs and that pretty much coincides with when Michael Vick went down. RB Adrian Peterson and Wes Welker are around to steady the ship but Vick's replacements -- either Kolb or Mark Sanchez -- need to pick up the slack. Oh and Mike's team photo link is broken, another reason he's probably losing.

Rollen's Ro.Bots have faced the easiest schedule in the league and have mostly been unlucky. A seven point loss in WK1 and a four point loss in WK3. Still, it would be nice to see them put together more consistent efforts as their recent outings have been pretty bad (46 and 75 points, the latter resulting in a win). After clearing a tough week of byes, RoBots will have Tom Brady and Rashard Mendenhall back in WK6. This team desperately needs another RB to pair with Mendenhall.

It's been El Nino season around here but Hong's El Ninos have lost all four of their home games and been crsuhed by one of the hardest schedules in the league. Without much offense to compensate (no century games to speak of yet), it's meant that the El Nino's are going to turn things around pretty quickly to get back into contention. There is a lot of depth here, and some good second half breakout candidates, but for now LaDainian Tomlinson has been their best player at 16.8 points per game. That's great and all for LDT, but its' probably not a good sign when he's outperforming Donovan McNabb, Michael Turner, and Larry Fitzgerald.