I have in the past won or split a Survivor Pool or two. One of my strategies is to pick home teams. That didn't work so well in Week 4. As we speak, road teams are 11-3 for the week. Somebody will tell us whether that's a record; it certainly should be. That's a lot of fans who spent a lot of money going home unhappy. My picks did not survive. Fantasy, well, that had its ups and downs.
Titans at Falcons: The preview noted that the Titans are better defending the pass than the run. That held up, as Matt Ryan didn't throw any touchdowns and Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley didn't do anything. Nice game, at least, for Index favorite Austin Hooper and Devonta Freeman. For the Titans, just when you write off Marcus Mariota or drop Corey Davis (as happened in some of my leagues last week), those guys and A.J. Brown have good days. Falcons D is one to attack right now.
Browns at Ravens: All offseason I had my doubts about Baltimore's defense. But I got suckered in by their demolition of Miami, shutting down Arizona, and hanging with Kansas City. The Browns just ran roughshod all over them yesterday, with a monster game for Nick Chubb. That one is going to leave a mark. It also bounced me from two different pools, thanks Baltimore. On the bright side, the AFC North just got a lot more interesting. Big game for Ricky Seals-Jones, who the Browns sent a lot of work to after he played just 6 snaps last week. Ravens held Odell Beckham down, so that's one thing they did well. He nearly threw a touchdown.
Patriots at Bills: Patriots jumped out to the early lead (blocked punt touchdown) and hung on, in part by knocking Josh Allen out of the game with a helmet to helmet hit. The Bills were upset about it and I understand. It is one of the risks with a running quarterback, teams occasionally aren't above looking to get that guy out of the game. You're feeling good if you started James White (and the Patriots Defense) and benched banged-up Rex Burkhead and Julian Edelman. New England's defense is really good right now. Some serviceable PPR production from Bills receivers, not Patriots, Bills D is for real.
Kansas City at Lions: No touchdown passes for Patrick Mahomes, so you got burned with him and his receivers. But a couple of touchdowns for Darrel Williams and a good all-around game from LeSean McCoy, plus Travis Kelce with his stat line that was eerily similar to all his other stat lines this year. Big game for Stafford and Golladay, bizarre 100-yard touchdown return after a goal line fumble by Kerryon Johnson. Touchdown for T.J. Hockenson, on the downside he got hurt and is likely going to miss time. A good move to start skill guys against Kansas City. But they're 4-0 anyway.
Panthers at Texans: Carolina defense looking pretty good these days. To go into Houston and hold Deshaun Watson and company to just a single rushing touchdown is impressive. And Christian McCaffrey looking like he should have been the No. 1 overall pick in every fantasy league, hope I didn't just jinx the guy. Not a great outing for Kyle Allen and the Carolina passing game. I think it's officially OK to worry about DJ Moore with Kyle Allen at quarterback. Maybe just call it a bad day for passing and move on. Do note that Houston came remarkably closing to winning this game on a Hail Mary, broken up on a pretty impressive defensive play.
Raiders at Colts: This wasn't the upset that got me personally bounced in any pools, although the Colts were on my short list. Tyrell Williams scored again (pretty sure I heard some national media guys calling him Tyrone). Colts quite clearly missed T.Y. Hilton, and uh yeah Andrew Luck. Seven more catches for Darren Waller, some trickery by the Raiders (including a touchdown by the recently acquired Trevor Davis of all people). Dud game for Marlon Mack and Jacoby Brissett, though he did throw 2 TDs, to his tight ends natch.
Chargers at Dolphins: See, THIS was the pick everyone should have made in their pools. Thought about it but went a different way. Dolphins took their first lead of the year in this one, but it didn't last long. Good game for Philip Rivers and Austin Ekeler, as expected. Melvin Gordon active but didn't play, can't say we weren't warned, score one for Ian Rapoport, guess he had a good source. Chargers Defense delivered what all defenses do against Miami.
Washington at Giants: Hey, it was the first Daniel Jones versus Dwayne Haskins matchup! Ultimately. Will there be many? No guarantees. While Jones is busy kicking ass and taking names, Haskins threw an ugly pick six after replacing Case Keenum, one of three interceptions in relief. Jay Gruden apparently might be fired. Not gonna stick up for him but everything about this team looks like an 0-4 trainwreck regardless of whether Joe Gibbs in his prime was calling the shots on the sideline. Big game for Wayne Gallman, nice outing for Sterling Shepard. Washington doesn't play defense any better than it plays offense.
Seahawks at Cardinals: The doubts can now start to creep in about the Cardinals offense. It has its moments, but all the good plays are being overshadowed by the bad. Zane Gonzalez missed a couple of makeable field goals, oh yeah the defense is also terrible. Nice game for the Seattle offense and a defensive touchdown by Jadeveon Clowney. Just the way they were hoping. NFC West an interesting division, amiright? Three 3-win teams and Arizona.
Bucs at Rams: Never in my life would I have thought a Wade Phillips defense would give up this many points at home. Maybe 30 years ago in a Super Bowl, Ba-Dum-Bump! So yeah while all the wisdom in avoiding injured players looked great in other games, it looked terrible here as Chris Godwin blew up with a career day. A career half, actually. Least I didn't recommend you bench him Sunday morning. Though I myself did bench the guy, not good. Anyway, Gurley scored twice and Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods finished with big numbers, and Jared Goff had a great yardage day, which tends to happen when you fall way behind and throw the ball 68 times. Some teams probably only ran 68 offensive plays yesterday. Kind of nuts. Shaq Barrett is having himself a season for the Bucs, with 9 sacks in four games. Ronald Jones owns this backfield right now.
Vikings at Bears: Is the offensive coordinator Mike Zimmer fired last year having a good laugh at the Vikings offense these days? Dalvin Cook is about all the team has going for it. Granted, great defense for the Bears, but Minnesota has struggled all along. Mitchell Trubisky left this one with a shoulder injury that has the looks of something that will keep him out for a while. It's not quite as catastrophic as losing Drew Brees, sorry Mitchell. Tarik Cohen scored, difficult to start the right Bears running back these days. Chicago versus Oakland in London next week, not exactly giving them our finest.
Jaguars at Broncos: Denver has lost two home heartbreakers on last-second field goals. Both times they drove the field for the go-ahead touchdown but left enough time on the clock for their defense to blow it. That defense and its disappointing play thus far is the big story here; we knew Joe Flacco couldn't move and was pretty likely to disappoint. Although at least he's getting some decent numbers out of Emmanuel Sanders and Courtland Sutton. The Gardner Minshew legend lives on. And a big game for Leonard Fournette, with Denver helping him along with some shoddy tackling.
Cowboys at Saints: Somebody went through this game with the ugly stick. Saints get the win, but nobody really did much to help fantasy teams here, just Michael Thomas and I guess the Saints defense (though probably no one started them). I think the silver lining of the Drew Brees injury is the Saints discovering that although they can win with Teddy Bridgewater, they probably don't want to -- they're not going to want to pay him like a long-term starter. Not a great passer and prone to costly mistakes, like the sack he took in the final two minutes to knock New Orleans out of field goal range in a 2-point game. If Dak Prescott made himself some money the first few weeks, this one did the opposite, showing how Dallas looks when the running game is stifled. Offense misses Michael Gallup too; Randall Cobb looks about as cooked as he did in Green Bay.
Monday, Monday: One final road upset for Week 4? It's possible. Steelers haven't looked particularly good in any respects, don't have their quarterback, defense has been shaky. Bengals have done some good things on offense, granted their defense is terrible. I haven't picked a road upset yet on Monday night, but here's the first. Bengals 23, Steelers 20.