NFL Week 6 ‘Higher Register’ – Jets, Cowboys, Patriots & Texans Tepid Takes

Thursday means Higher Register, and this week the segment had a guest participant with a family connection: Rich's son, Cooper, sitting in on the show.

Rich had one concern going in. "Your voice is not, I don't think, built for the higher register," he told Cooper. TJ, who gets beat up for his every week, could relate.

Chris Brockman went first, and the bar stayed low. His take: the Texans-Jaguars game in London on Sunday decides the division, and even at 1-4, Houston might still be the team to beat in the AFC North.

The AFC South, he meant. He corrected himself, but not before Rich jumped on it. "You didn't even go full higher register. You got the name of the division wrong," Rich said. "My son's here. We're trying to teach him how it's done."

Rich pressed the actual argument anyway: would a 2-4 Texans team really be the best in the division behind a 4-2 Jacksonville? Cooper didn't buy it. He thinks it is the Jaguars' division. He pointed out that Trevor Lawrence keeps playing well, that the Texans offense hasn't gotten going the way people expected, and that the Jaguars' only loss came against the Broncos. Cooper also admitted, to laughter, that he is not the biggest Broncos fan. Rich sided with his son: it's Jacksonville's division regardless.

TJ Jefferson came next, with a take on his Dallas Cowboys. The offense is rolling. The other side of the ball, not so much, to the point that the defense held a defense-only team meeting before Week 6.

"So that being said, I think this is the week we resolve all of our problems," TJ said.

Rich called it possibly TJ's greatest Higher Register yet. TJ wasn't exactly selling it himself. "Rich, we're having team meetings already."

Then it was Cooper's turn, and he went Patriots. New England went into the new Highmark Stadium and handed the Bills their first-ever home loss there. Then the Patriots took the Raiders, 3-1 at the time, down to 3-2 by putting up 45 points. Watching the Monday night game before Harrison Mevis kicked the field goal, Cooper started thinking maybe the Patriots could run away with the AFC East.

There was one problem. He delivered it in a deep voice. "Except that's not a high register, Coop," the room informed him.

Rich closed with his own, and it was about his Jets. Through five weeks, the top scoring defense belongs to the Vikings, then the Jaguars, the 49ers, and Cooper's Patriots. Only three other teams have held opponents under 20 points per game on average: the Chiefs, the Bears, and the team heading into New England this weekend.

"I think the Jets defense gives them a really great chance this weekend," Rich said. He name-checked David Bailey's Defensive Rookie of the Year case and pointed out the opposing quarterback has had trouble keeping the football in the right hands.

Pressed on why the Jets would suddenly change, Rich answered with a question of his own for Cooper, because Bob Costas was waiting. What is the greatest thing Rich has done as a parent? The answer he was fishing for: letting Cooper choose not to be a Jets fan.

Cooper delivered. The Boston side of the family is the bigger sports side, and it was "very kind" of Rich to let him go his own way. Rich noted that Cooper's uncle Jeff didn't do the same for cousin Lee. Cooper's honest reply: if Rich had told him he had to root for the Jets, he probably would have said, "Okay, fine."

"We just laid a lot bare for everybody here," Rich said.