The Dallas Cowboys (5-1) left their stadium after their game against New England (6-0) Patriots knowing exactly how far they are from being an elite team. They found out the hard way that they have a long way to go.

The Cowboys are an elite NFC team and were beaten by 21 points at home by the Patriots. Meanwhile, New England's real test comes three weeks from now at Indianapolis. That game will alert the rest of the league as to exactly what everyone can look forward to come Super Bowl Sunday.

Out West, though, San Diego is beginning get into gear behind the play of LaDanian Tomlinson on offense and an improved secondary that compliments an already talented defense. By season's end the Chargers may well yet well take their place alongside the Colts and Patriots as a legitimate Lombardi Trophy candidate.

Unfortunately for fans and followers of the NFL, we now know that, barring a catastrophic letdown, the AFC representative in the Super Bowl is going to blow out their NFC opponent. You see, the Cowboys and Green Bay, the present class team in the NFC, are going to get better as the season rolls along.

But what is most frightening is that as well as New England played in Cowboy stadium beating Dallas 48-27, they know they can perform even better. Minus a blocking miscue that led to Tom Brady being blindsided, fumbling, and having Jason Hatcher return the fumble 29 yards for a touchdown, the game would never have been close.

New England knew the Cowboys weakness resided in its secondary and took full advantage of this knowledge. Dallas tried valiantly in the beginning to offset this glaring secondary deficiency by throwing myriad front seven looks at New England. However, once Brady gained a full understanding of what Dallas could or could not do without leaving its cornerbacks and safeties utterly vulnerable, the game was essentially over. The offensive line made the necessary adjustments to keep their QB upright and Brady had as much time as he needed to strafe the Cowboys.

Brady was brilliant, throwing 46 passes, completing 31 for 388 yards and five touchdowns. The Patriots ran only 23 times yet controlled the ball for 38:15 to Dallas' 21:45. Sure the Cowboys took a momentary league early in the second half, but the Patriots immediately embarked on a 5:24 drive and regained the lead. The game was never again in doubt.

The league has done New England no favors with their schedule as the Patriots are in the midst of playing three of four weeks on the road. They must now travel to their AFC East nemesis, Miami, the team that, outside of Indianapolis, consistently plays the Patriots the toughest. Then New England comes home to play against on of the best defenses in the league in Washington before traveling to Indianapolis. Should they run this gauntlet and escape unbeaten and relatively injury free, the 1972 Dolphins can put away their champagne because New England will run the table.

It's just too bad for the rest of us that after week six we can see the future this clearly.

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Now for some short notes on the rest of the NFL games.

AD, baby, All Day. Adrian Peterson, aka All Day, had 361 all-purpose yards against the Chicago Bears. Peterson rushed for 224 yards on only 20 carries against the once-vaunted Chicago defense. For the Vikings, they now know who they can depend on in the clutch. For the Bears it showed that without injured safety Mike Brown, Chicago's defense is nothing. Even with Peterson's performance, the Vikings need a 55-yard field goal from Ryan Longwell to eke out a 34-31 win.

Washington (3-3) stole a win from itself at Green Bay. When wide receivers weren't dropping passes they were fumbling the game away. And Joe Gibbs mismanaged the clock and timeouts for what seems like the 20th time since his return to the NFL. As well as the Redskins defense played it could not overcome the ineptitude of its receivers and its head coach.

The Packers (5-1) won the kind of game (17-14) that, "teams of destiny" win. Green Bay did nothing particularly well on offense, but their defense kept them in the game and when Charles Woodson returned Santana Moss' fumble for a touchdown, won them the game.

St. Louis is horrible, just horrible. The Ravens 22-3 beating of the Rams proved nothing. Did I say St. Louis is horrible?

AFC teams need to beware: Cleveland (3-3) has game, at least offensively. The way Derek Anderson is playing (18-25, 245, 3-0) Brady Quinn won't see the line of scrimmage except from the sidelines or in mop-up duty and Romeo Crennel will keep his job. The Browns busted up Miami (0-6), 41-31. Then again, perhaps the Dolphins were looking ahead to next week's game against New England.

Not.

But they will play the game of their lives next week against New England.

David Garrard still hasn't thrown an interception this season and Jack Del Rio is looking more and more like a genius for getting rid of Byron Leftwich. Jacksonville (4-1) appears to have found some offensive punch as Houston (3-3) found out. The Jaguars pummeled the Texans 37-17 and Matt Schaub, without looked no better than David Carr, except Carr had receivers and Schaub's are hurt. Jacksonville plays the same stout defense it has for the past few years. But if the offense continues to hum, they might be a very dangerous team come playoff time.

Cincinnati (1-4) is a team in disarray. Marvin Lewis is, from all accounts, a great guy, but his team is falling apart around him. Now the offense is as inept as the defense which might portend the end of the line for Lewis' tenure with the Bengals. Kansas City beat the Bengals easily, 27-20, and the game wasn't that close. Even Larry Johnson got his groove on - or maybe he's just getting his game legs. Either way Cincinnati should have known but did little to keep LJ from breaking the century mark rushing for the first time this season. And again, the offense was out-of-synch all day. It looks like it's going to be a long season in Cinci.

Oh yeah, and Herm Edwards is a far better head coach then he gets credit for being. Damon Huard? Come on, he's not fooling anyone. Huard is a good backup QB, not a starter, yet the Chiefs are 3-3, which is pretty close to what most people thought their win total for the entire season might be.

The New York Womanginis got running back Thomas Jones in the offseason thinking that he was the perfect replacement for Curtis Martin and would be the key to helping the Jets make another playoff run. Well the Womanginis are 1-5 and going nowhere fast. Jones can't win by himself (130 yards on 24 carries)  and QB Chad Pennington can't find open receivers when he's flat on his back and completing only 11 passes (11-21, 128 yards). The Jets (1-5) played a one-and-a half man offense in Philadelphia's (2-3) Brian Westbrook and Donovan McNabb and still managed to lose 16-9.

Tampa Bay (4-2) was very lucky that Vince Young pulled a quadriceps muscle during the Bucs game against Tennessee (3-2). Jeff Garcia was very lucky that some of his down field heaves improbably found receivers for long gains. The result of the Tampa Bay good fortune was a 13-10 victory that the Bucs did not deserve. The Tennessee defense is good enough to keep them in any game they play this season. Let's hope they don't get too frustrated watching and offense that doesn't seem to be able to score more than 17 points in any given game.

And Jon Gruden continues to live a charmed life.

Arizona (3-3) had Carolina (4-2), let them get away, and ended up losing a frustrating 25-10 game. Steve smith was wonderful, as usual, but the Cardinals had every opportunity to win that game. Yes, Kurt Warner got hurt, but he wasn't playing all that well and Tim Rattay played well enough for 'Zona to win. One couldn't help but wonder if the Cardinals would have won that game if Matt Leinart was healthy.

They're baaaaaaack! Norv Turner listened to LaDanian Tomlinson a little more than two weeks ago when Tomlinson walked into Turner's office and told him San Diego (3-3) would win if he got the ball more. Turner got the ball to Tomlinson and the Chargers have easily won consecutive games. Oakland (2-3) is far better than they were a year ago, but need some time before they can catch up to the Chargers. San Diego defeated the Raiders, 28-14.

Watch out for San Diego, they are dangerous.

What's up with Seattle? They imploded in their 28-17 home loss to New Orleans. The Seahawks (3-3) are not good enough to think that they can take the field, play a mediocre game, and have that be good enough to beat anyone. But that's exactly what it seemed they did against previously winless New Orleans.

The Saints (1-4) have one win now.