With the second quarter of the NFL season officially underway, it’s time for elite teams to start separating themselves. There’s a lot of primetime matchups this week, but these six games are the ones you can’t miss.

Cardinals at Steelers (1:00 EST) – The Cardinals are fresh off a dominant victory against the winless Detroit Lions. It didn’t come as a surprise, considering Arizona was stunned by St. Louis a week prior.

Through five games, Carson Palmer is right in the middle of the MVP discussion. He has a touchdown to interception ratio of 13 to 3 with a quarterback rating of 114.0.

Standing in Arizona’s way of a 5-1 start are the Pittsburgh Steelers. Without Big Ben in the lineup, veteran Michael Vick was able to help lift his team over the Chargers Monday night.

If Pittsburgh plans on upsetting Arizona, they’ll need Vick to be more efficient because the Cards should have no problems putting up points against the Steelers less than stellar defense.

Bengals at Bills (1:00 EST)  – It looked as if Cincinnati’s undefeated season was nearing an end last week. In front of the home crowd in the ‘Jungle’, as the Bengals trailed Seattle 24-7. However, Cincy showed their toughness by storming back to a 27-24 victory.

While the Bengals were storming back, Buffalo was grinding their way to a 14-13 win in Tennessee.

Considering E.J. Manuel is starting at quarterback, it’s hard to imagine them putting together enough drives to come away victorious.

One aspect that could offset the Bills lack of firepower is their defense causing turnovers.

Dolphins at Titans (1:00 EST) – Expectations were high for Miami heading into the season and deservedly so. However, former head coach Joe Philbin was unable to put it all together, which lead to his premature dismissal.

As Miami hopes to turn things around with interim head coach Dan Campbell, they must figure out a way to get through a feisty Titans bunch.

“I feel there is a lot more we can get out of these guys,” Campbell said. “We have to change the culture. This is the most talented team we’ve had.”

On the flip side, Tennessee is just as thirsty to get back into the win column after losing three straight.

It’ll be interesting to see if Miami’s talented front four will be able to get constant pressure on Marcus Mariota.

Panthers at Seahawks (4:05 EST) – It wouldn’t be naive of anyone to say this is a must-win for the Seahawks. They haven’t looked the same all year, even in their two wins.

Now, Seattle find themselves in a 2-3 hole with unbeaten Carolina coming to town. This will be a rematch of last year’s divisional round.

While Russell Wilson’s line has struggled to keep him upright, Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott is still concerned with Wilson’s play making ability.

“I turn around to write something down, and I left it on play instead of hitting pause, and I turn back around and he’s still running around,” McDermott stressed. “He gives you headaches. He drives you crazy.

“You see people when they do get him on the ground, the sideline erupts because everyone knows that’s such a big threat.”

Carolina is sitting pretty, but a win in Seattle would give them the ultimate confidence moving forward, especially since their season ended in front of the ’12’s’ last year.

Chargers at Packers (4:25 EST) – When you see these two facing each other, it’s a matchup that instantly catches your eye.

Why?

Well, first of all, it’s only going to be the 11th meeting between San Diego and Green Bay. Secondly, these are two super talented teams, but the Packers are backing it up, unlike the Chargers, who are still trying to orchestrate everything.

“We are what we are but we got a long way to go,” quarterback Philip Rivers said. “And we have the right guys to battle back. This is a long season.”

The task of beating Aaron Rodgers at Lambeau Field is already tough enough, but considering he’s coming off a game in which he threw two picks at home makes it even more difficult.

Before last week, Rodgers went three years without tossing a pick at home.

There’s no doubt Rivers will have to put points on the board if San Diego wants to have any chance.

“It’s a defense which is very knowledgeable in what they are doing,” Rivers said. “There are very few guys running open, running free. There is nothing easy; they make you earn everything.”

Patriots at Colts (8:30 EST) – To this point in the season, there hasn’t been a team more dominant than New England. They average 37.2 points per game, which is tops in the AFC.

Meanwhile, the Colts have endured a lot of adversity. Things weren’t looking good as Indy got off to an 0-2 start, however, they’ve managed to win three straight games to put themselves over .500 and back in first place in th AFC South.

To continue their momentum, Indy must find out how to get over their nemesis.

“They’re playing at a high level right now. You see the score differential,” Chuck Pagano stated.”You see how the offense, how the defense is playing. They’re playing really good team football, as good as anybody in the league right now. So it’s going to be a heck of a challenge.”