I have mixed feelings about the Red Zone Channel. You get to see all the highlights, and that's great, but you miss a lot of merely good plays along the way. This becomes clear when you're limited to just one game for an hour or two, due to Northeast win and rain which wreaked havoc with our satellite. So I watched a lot of Giants-Lions in real time, and it was pretty great.
I had to catch up on all the other games later on, that's the negative, reduced to just hearing about some big plays and occurrences before getting to see them late last night. But there's a lot to be said for watching just one Sunday game, dealing with the lame commercials for shows nobody is watching, but seeing not only the big plays from your game but all of the smaller ones. As comforting as the Red Zone Channel can be, taking a break is worth doing every so often.
Broncos at Colts: Broncos are the team that sucks the life out of an NFL game this year. They play offense and defense just poorly enough to lose close game after close game. Royce Freeman getting more scoring chances lately, giving him the edge over Phillip Lindsay. Adam Vinatieri, supposedly nearing retirement after some uncharacteristic misses early in the season, with the big kick to win it (albeit after missing an extra point that could have lost it). Good game for Marlon Mack. Courtland Sutton the only target left for Denver but the only guy defenses need to account for, too.
Bucs at Titans: Score one for Ryan Tannehill. Not as many yards as you'd like, but Jameis Winston and the Bucs offense set him up with some short fields (at one he point he had 2 TDs and just 20 yards passing). Finished with nearly 200 yards and 3 TDs including the game-winner to A.J. Brown, those of us who started him will take it I think. Monster game for Mike Evans, what an amazing duo of wide receivers the Bucs have in Evans and Godwin. Too bad they don't have much else.
Cardinals at Saints: Got some Latavius versus Edmonds questions over the weekend. Latavius the guy facing the crummy run defense, Edmonds facing the really good one, helps with making the calls. Edmonds also left with a hamstring injury, so we'll see. Cardinals made a curious fourth-down gamble in their own end in a close game, and Drew Brees turned back the clock and exhibited zero "rust." Huge game for Michael Thomas. Saints defense really shutting teams down in a lot of games, impressive.
Bengals versus Rams: So, we figured the Rams would run it a little more, what with the Bengals giving up 200 rushing yards a game for the last month. And at least you got a touchdown out of Gurley. But instead the Rams had a lot of success with the pass, including a long touchdown to Cooper Kupp (huge day) that included some of the sorriest secondary defense you'll ever see. Watch as the safety basically backs away from Kupp until he lopes into the end zone. That will look bad in film room. Naturally Joe Mixon finishes with decent overall numbers including a receiving score after being benched everywhere. Maybe sell high if you can. Brandin Cooks left early with a concussion, grab Josh Reynolds this week.
Jets at Jaguars: Ryan Griffin who I'm pretty sure nobody started scored both of the Jets touchdowns. One day everyone who stashed Chris Herndon will cash in on that production. No other Jet did much, LeVeon Bell is just dying on this franchise right now. Big game for Gardner Minshew, Dede Westbrook left early, the risk with using players who come into games with injury. Touchdowns for DJ Chark (solid starter), Chris Conley and Keelan Cole (nobody started those guys). Big game for Leonard Fournette aside from scoring, he has some bad luck in that regard. Josh Oliver caught a pass, whoohoo! Maybe that breakout will come soon. Great game for the Jags defense against struggling Sam Darnold. Uh, isn't Adam Gase supposed to be developing him?
Giants at Lions: There are some special talents in the NFL. I mean, all these guys are talented, but you watch games and certain guys just pop, in ways a box score or highlights package won't always tell you. Two such guys are Saquon Barkley, obviously, and Kenny Golladay. Barkley gets the ball in his hands and is shaking tackles and making defenders look silly. Golladay came off a quiet game and was seemingly invisible for about a half of this game, but he went on to prove why he's too good for most fantasy teams to bench. Yes it was a horrible pass defense he was doing it against so it wasn't unexpected, but what a game. I will also give some respect to Daniel Jones, who made some big throws (though the mistakes and holding the ball too long and forcing some things issues remain) and had a nice rebound from some bad performances, albeit against a really bad defense. Darius Slayton, a bench stash for me in several leagues, had a couple of acrobatic touchdown grabs, making you wonder what New York will do when they finally get Sterling Shepard back. And the Lions used a Ty Johnson and Tra Carson committee, something I kicked around in Ask the Experts last week but didn't consider strongly enough to actually pick up Carson when he was cheap. Not that the Lions will ever put up big rushing numbers, apparently.
Chargers at Bears: Maybe things do all even out? Chargers lose heartbreakers a lot but got pretty lucky in this one, with previously solid Eddy Pineiro missing two kicks, one off the upright and the other from 40ish in the final seconds. In the analysis I thought this might be a good game for David Montgomery, with the Chargers soft against the run lately. But it was hard to call it with the way the Bears hadn't been blocking for him or giving him enough chances or basically anything. Naturally Montgomery had a huge game. Sorry for not trying to sell it more last week. Chargers eke out a win and both running backs score, everyone is happy until their next collapse.
Eagles at Bills: Not entirely surprising that when people were writing off the Eagles they came out with one of their better games. Key was getting the ground game going, just like they did in their last big road win, at Green Bay. Could have done without Boston Scott suddenly being part of the committee and scoring, but whatever. Good game for Miles Sanders including a big-play touchdown, but Jordan Howard and Scott around to limit the overall appeal. If you had to use Josh Allen, he didn't really hurt you, thanks to the rushing and 2 TDs. Windy day, so not a surprise the passing games didn't do much, as discussed here yesterday. Dallas Goedert continues to outperform Zach Ertz.
Seahawks at Falcons: Kudos to Matt Schaub, who did a pretty fair Matt Ryan impression. Let your defense stick you in a huge, un-climb-out-of-able hole, then roll up gobs of passing production in a futile comeback. But hey, worked great for Julio Jones, Austin Hooper and Devonta Freeman in PPR. Seahawks got touchdowns and good production from pretty much everyone. Nice to put players up against the Falcons these days.
Panthers at 49ers: San Francisco defense is something else. I thought it might be a good game for Tevin Coleman and the Niners running game; it was a great game. Thought the Panthers defense might be good enough to keep things close; it is not and was not. Jimmy Garoppolo continues to drive a sports car, but threw a couple of touchdowns to new No. 1 Emmanuel Sanders and perhaps future No. 1 Deebo Samuel. San Francisco defense not getting the attention of New England's but it's also shutting teams down, maybe better offenses, too.
Browns at Patriots: Browns started this game off with a couple of bad turnovers and one that was a really impressive play on Nick Chubb by a defender. Armed with a lead, they're too good on defense to give it up. Nice games for Brady and Edelman, serviceable for James White thanks to a big play. Cleveland had an uphill battle all along but in some respects a credible game against a superior opponent.
Raiders at Texans: Suppose we should get the Kenny Stills thing out of the way first. Didn't work out. Deshaun Watson had a big game but it was all to DeAndre Hopkins and aged tight end Darren Fells. Controversial non-call on a pass interference in this game, but apparently coaches are like 0 for 28 challenging pass interference or something crazy like that. Refs love that new rule. J.J. Watt left with a pectoral injury and is likely done for the year, a major blow to Houston's hopes. But Texans offense looks good. Maybe next week for Stills. (But it will be on benches.)
Green Bay at Kansas City: This game was way better than anyone had a right to expect. It's a reminder that I need to tone down the jokes about quarterbacks signed out of retirement like Matt Moore; sometimes those guys can play just fine. I will continue my grudge no one cares about regarding touchdown "passes" that are just forward handoffs, like first Rodgers to Jones touchdown and then the Moore to Hardman touchdown. Those are running plays, or should be. If you're facing Rodgers and lost by a few points, I suspect you agree with me. Anyhoo, Packers wide-receiver-less offense looks very good and so does Rodgers these days. Kansas City defense is arguably worse than it was a year ago. Hard to win a Super Bowl if you can't stop anyone, ever.
Monday, Monday: It's a friend's birthday and he's a huge Steelers fan, so I think a home Monday night game against the Dolphins should be a pretty nice present. Looks like a big James Conner game, although I'm sure some are using JuJu Smith-Schuster and Vance McDonald as well. With Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback, I do think Miami can make a game of this one, but ultimately don't see them slowing down Pittsburgh. Steelers 27, Dolphins 20.