Fantasy football isn't fair. Anyone who's had back to back matchups decided by fractional points -- actually happened to me the first three weeks of the season -- knows that luck happens. And if it happens to you, best to remember how much it reflects the actual NFL, where a couple of 0-4 teams can't catch a break. Giants have lost on last-play field goals two weeks in a row, while the Chargers have dropped three by 2, 2 and 3 points. They play next week, so one will get a win. But the other will be 0-5. So like fantasy, the NFL is cruel.
Saints versus Dolphins in Jolly Olde England: You could have got good money on whether the Saints would shut anybody out this season. Especially when the Dolphins easily marched down the field on their opening drive and had a first and goal while I was still on my second cup of coffee. Then there was a quick hitter pass to Julius Thomas that he didn't even turn his head to look for, it was intercepted, and it was all Saints from that point forward. Huge game for Alvin Kamara, who I believe is now startable in fantasy leagues, especially PPR. Saints have a bye and you or at least I wonder if they'll cut Adrian Peterson. No regrets about benching Mark Ingram and his 10 PPR points.
Bills at Falcons: Have to re-work some numbers on the Bills defense, which appears to be for real. Helped by the Falcons losing Julio Jones (hip flexor) and Mohamed Sanu (hamstring), but whatever. Buffalo can play some defense, and an impressive win. Even though their fumble return touchdown sure looked like an incomplete pass. This game knocked a whole lot of people out of Survivor Pools. Bills appear to have two noteworthy players on offense, LeSean McCoy and Charles Clay.
Steelers at Ravens: It's kind of painful watching the Ravens try to play offense. Mike Wallace caught a touchdown but also dropped an easy pass. Terrance West managed to fall down short of the end zone on a well-blocked play that should have been a 2-point conversion. Alex Collins does look like their best runner, but lost a critical fumble. LeVeon Bell finally had a big game, which I think usually happens around Week 4 for him. Didn't take long for Eli Rogers to be a healthy scratch in favor of JuJu Smith-Schuster, who caught a touchdown. Martavis Bryant had a big play and a couple of near misses. I don't think people should give up on him, or Pittsburgh's offense.
Bengals at Browns: Huge game for Andy Dalton. Looks like the Browns can stop the run (Joe Mixon breakout did not happen) and not the pass. Nice game for Tyler Kroft, but I'm going to hold off on saying he'll build on it going forward. Cleveland has some coverage issues there. Maybe Cincinnati will have a good game running the ball one day, but probably not against Buffalo next week. Browns host the Jets next week and thoughts of the Browns being favored a few short days ago no longer seem realistic.
Rams at Cowboys: It's taken some Fishing (see what I did there) but the Rams appear to have finally uncovered a competent coaching staff. With Sean McVay in town (my wife saw his press conference and said, Is he 20? Nope, but close), Rams are slinging it around pretty well these days, and all of us who selected Todd Gurley and felt bad immediately after feel great right now. Dallas defense looked a little confused, particularly in the secondary. Offense was fine early on, but maybe they got a little too comfortable. Anyway, Rams look more or less for real in the shaky looking NFC West. Negative is that it appears different wide receivers are going to trade having good days.
Titans at Texans: Feeling really good about picking up Deshaun Watson wherever I could last week. Not quite as good about leaving him on the bench in two leagues, but at least I started him in one. Anyway great game for him and the Texans offense, pretty much all of them when you score 57 points. For the Titans, kind of have to talk about Marcus Mariota leaving with a hamstring injury, hope he's OK. Because an embarrassment of offensive talent would sure be wasted with Matt Cassel at quarterback, considering he proceeded to have nearly as many turnovers (3) as completions (4) in his fill-in work. Pitiful offensive day for the Titans even before Mariota got hurt, though.
Lions at Vikings: Sometimes games go as expected. This one did, except maybe the Vikings would have figured to be better. Biggest news is of course the worst, that team fears Dalvin Cook tore his ACL. An exciting rookie who seemed set for a huge year, and it's a really steep drop to the Murray/McKinnon combo (McKinnon injured an ankle in the game, too). A shame. Ameer Abdullah scored a touchdown, at last, and the Lions look like a pretty sound team on both offense and defense.
Panthers at Patriots: Probably should have seen this one coming, what with New England totally incapable of stopping anyone on offense these days. They can even make Carolina's offense look good, and were fortunate to beat Houston last week. Still going to win the AFC East by 4-5 games, but fair to say they may have to win a road playoff game for a change. Carolina got big games from Newton, Funchess, and Benjamin, very little from the running game. New England got its usual numbers from the usual people, including 10 catches from James White. Which wasn't enough.
Jaguars at Jets: Just when you think the Jaguars might be for real, they go and give up over 250 rushing yards while losing to the Jets. Bilal Powell's 75-yard touchdown was kind of flukey; he fell down but apparently wasn't touched, so got up and ran the rest of the way. Jaguars got a fumble return touchdown so at least you didn't get burned starting their defense (unlike with Miami last week). And a nice overall game from Fournette. But Blake Bortles and the passing game, well it's just not happening. Jets win after playing a full overtime period, because four quarters of Jets-Jags just wasn't enough.
49ers at Cardinals: Speaking of needing a full overtime period. Who'd have thunk the decision to shorten overtime periods would actually seem to be an important one? This one went right down to the final minute (with 9 field goals, exciting!) before ageless Larry Fitzgerald caught a game-winning touchdown. Carlos Hyde got through it no worse for the wear, evidently, and John Brown had a nice game, which probably means you have to cross your fingers before counting on him to play next week. Big receiving numbers from Andre Ellington, too. With San Francisco, they seem a little better than 0-4, like the Chargers, but you know what Bill Parcells once said about that.
Eagles at Chargers: Ah, the Chargers. Team without a home stadium, and they can't catch a break on the field either. Can't run the ball. Can't get a critical stop. Can't tackle LeGarrette Blount or Wendell Smallwood. Eagles looking pretty good, in general and in the NFC East. Chargers play another NFC East team and another 0-4 team in the Giants, so at least one of these teams will get htat W. Nice game for both Keenan Allen and Tyrell Williams, alas laboring for a team that doesn't know how to win. Presumably Melvin Gordon was playing hurt, because he didn't look good.
Giants at Bucs: This was an entertaining game to watch, with big plays for both teams and big emotional swings. Mike Evans early, then Eli Manning (one of the uglier touchdown runs you'll see), a couple big grabs by Odell Beckham Jr. (and a couple of limping off incidents after each one), and little moments of excellence by Shepard, Marshall, Winston and O.J. Howard. A long score by Howard who the Giants forgot to cover, and some clutch throws by the quarterbacks. Not as clutch: the kickers, and the officiating, which missed some calls and probably misread a replay review or two. Giants might have found their running back in Wayne Gallman. I mean, he didn't look like a superstar, but after a few games of watching Paul Perkins run into the line, he looked great. Probable starter the rest of the way, or at least he should be. What are they clinging to?
Raiders at Broncos: Derek Carr left with a back injury. Jack Del Rio downplayed it, but quarterbacks and back injuries usually aren't good things. Broncos defense is really good, Raiders offense is damaged, missed Michael Crabtree, just isn't good enough to go win in Denver right now. Running backs collectively carried 15 times for 24 yards, proving what Denver did to Ezekiel Elliott is no fluke. Jared Cook dropped a touchdown, because being in the vicinity of the end zone goes poorly for him more often than not. Nice game for C.J. Anderson and a pretty sweet one-handed touchdown catch by A.J. Derby, though I'm not ready to say for sure he's the guy at tight end going forward.
Colts at Seahawks: This game was close for a while, making it look like Survivor Pools across the country would actually end this week. But then Seattle's defense and Russell Wilson took over and pulled away. Chuck Pagano is a nice guy and all, but seems to be a lousy coach. I mean, he's working with some injuries and talent issues, but that doesn't explain going for 2 when pulling to within 10-8 in the second quarter. Is forging a tie then (which they of course didn't get) important? Take the sure point. Whatever. Some nice throws and near misses by Jacoby Brissett in this game, which is good with latest reports having Andrew Luck maybe out until November. Chris Carson suffers "significant" ankle injury, so maybe I shouldn't have dropped Thomas Rawls last week. Although his next significant injury isn't far off, no doubt.
Monday, Monday: Kansas City is looking like the class of the AFC right now, so probably Washington will come in an win. Not really, but home losses to inferior teams can't surprise anyone these days. More likely it will be a huge game for Kareem Hunt and Tyreek Hill and Kansas City wins something like 27-17.