A lousy week if you like high-scoring shootouts (and who doesn't). There were a ton of underperforming offenses and players, and how you feel about them depends if you were lucky enough to be facing them or unfortunate enough to be starting them. And if you happened to be facing two of the few stars -- I don't know, say Landry and Godwin -- you're not feeling so great. Let's commiserate.
Seahawks at Eagles: Two of the three touchdowns in this game were scored by Rashaad Penny and Malik Turner. Anybody start those guys? Penny scored after a lost fumble by Chris Carson (which might have actually been charged to Russell Wilson, it was on a handoff), we'll see how that plays out going forward. Sunday morning there were some questions about if weather was going to keep the score in check. I don't think it destroyed either offense. The Eagles being shorthanded at wide receiver (and Carson Wentz getting hurt, though he returned) were factors. Seattle didn't have to do as much on offense (as somebody theorized here yesterday). Tyler Lockett caught 1 pass on 2 targets. There should have been a Russell Wilson to Jacob Hollister touchdown, but Wilson air-mailed it over his head. Wilson certainly disappointed, but I think Lockett, who came into the game at less than 100 percent, was the biggest letdown. Hope you benched him; I did not.
Lions at Washington: Dwayne Haskins gets his first win, with a key late scramble to pick up a first down and help set up the winning field goal. An ugly game on a day of ugly games. Bo Scarbrough finished with nice rushing numbers, didn't get the touchdown, so kind of disappointing. Modest numbers for pretty much all involved.
Raiders at Jets: A trainwreck of epic proportions for Oakland. Was poor weather a factor? Didn't bother Sam Darnold or his receivers, who had a big day. Pivotal sequence here, with the Raiders down 20-3 and facing a 3rd and short near midfield. They got a bad spot and didn't get it, went for it on fourth down and got another bad spot (but not as bad), challenged it, and lost. Jets got a quick TD and then Carr threw a Pick Six on a ball of his receiver's hands the next series. And that was the game. Not saying a good spot would have changed the outcome but it at least might have remained competitive (with Carr not getting yanked early and stuff). Nice all-around game for LeVeon Bell, the Jets are playing well all of a sudden, now that it's too late.
Panthers at Saints: Great game, one of the few high-scoring shootouts on the day. Another huge one for Christian McCaffrey, and maybe I owe Kyle Allen an apology, because he made a lot of big throws in this one, ones I wasn't sure he could make. Saints didn't have Marshon Lattimore, but that wasn't the only thing wrong with their defense. Nice game for Michael Thomas, DJ Moore, and fortunately the Saints decided to throw Alvin Kamara a few passes late to save his day. Only Curtis Samuel really got left out of the fun. Gonna be an interesting battle in the NFC for the top 2 seeds.
Dolphins at Browns: So I don't know if you want to chalk up the monster game for Jarvis Landry to revenge/payback or just say the Dolphins are really bad, because basically every Brown, including the ones who didn't begin their careers with the Dolphins, had really good games. Beckham, Baker, the candlestick maker. And the running backs. Nice game all-around. Ryan Fitzpatrick managed some late production, but not nearly enough.
Steelers at Bengals: Good thing Mason Rudolph wasn't suspended for his role in the skirmish a couple of Thursdays ago. They had to keep in around to get benched because of terrible play against the Bengals. Devlin Hodges took over and immediately threw a long touchdown to James Washington, who was not a college teammate. That was enough for the Steelers to get an ugly win. Does Ryan Finley know that he can throw passes to Joe Mixon? It should happen more in this offense. Tyler Boyd came through for you if you had to start the guy. Pretty much no one else, unless anyone happened to start Benny Snell (98 yards, no touchdowns).
Giants at Bears: Other than a bad end-zone interception, Mitchell Trubisky played...somewhat well? ... in this game. Although the Giants defense does tend to make quarterbacks look really good. But Trubisky and Allen Robinson were doing their thing, and it was enough. As anticipated/feared with the Giants, it struggled against a good defense, and what production there was was kind of spread around. Saquon Barkley another disappointing game in a disappointing season.
Broncos at Bills: Broncos offense did essentially nothing in this game, perhaps the Brandon Allen era will end quickly. Josh Allen and the offense got off to a quiet start but gradually pulled away, with Allen hitting a couple of big throws for touchdowns. My decision to sit him for Matt Ryan in his choice matchup with Tampa Bay worked out badly.
Bucs at Falcons: A lot to unpack here. One thing I'll focus on, since I had Matt Ryan and my opponent had the Falcons kicker, was Atlanta on two occasions in the latter stages of game, trailing by 15, kicking field goals to pull within 12. What is the rationale there? At 25-10 with lots of time left, maybe. But at 28-13 midway through the fourth quarter, why are you trying to pull within 12? You're still down the same number of touchdowns. Aggravating. Insult to injury for those of us who started Matt Ryan (all of us, probably), the Falcons put Matt Schaub in to lead a touchdown drive that the Bucs didn't care about happening. Huge game for Chris Godwin, guess it was his turn, Jameis Winston too. Will be tough for anybody to trust Ryan and the Falcons going forward.
Jaguars at Titans: Another big Derrick Henry game, natch. But also very good for Ryan Tannehill and A.J. Brown. And on the other side, Leonard Fournette lit it up in defeat, scoring twice as many touchdowns as he'd scored all season to this point. The idea of the Titans sneaking up to win the AFC South is still alive. Jaguars will probably be quietly figuring out how to get out of Nick Foles' contract and put Gardner Minshew in the starting job. Disappointing game for DJ Chark against a Titans secondary that hasn't been great, but he can't throw it to himself.
Cowboys at Patriots: Kind of expected a lower-scoring defensive struggle. Did not expect the only touchdown to be scored on a great catch by N'Keal Harry, and for my lineups to all be killed by James White and I guess anybody else you started for either team. Amari Cooper, shut down by Stephon Gilmore and the driving rain (this was the worst weather game), didn't catch a pass, until a big fourth-down grab late...that was correctly overturned by replay. But that was preceded by a couple of bad officiating calls (most notably a trip that didn't happen) that prevented the Cowboys from maybe making things interesting. Note to refs, you should see a trip -- not just a player falling down -- to call a trip. Dallas also elected to kick a short field goal down 13-6 with seven minutes left that looked a little dubious. Entertaining game, but terrible for fantasy teams. Was that kind of Sunday.
Packers at 49ers: I'm not a big fan of Aaron Rodgers (except for that one time he won me a lot of money), so I don't mind seeing him get blown out. This game speaks to how impressive what Kyler Murray and Kliff Kingsbury's offense is doing, since their two good games the last few weeks against San Francisco made it look like the 49ers defense had slipped. Uh, nope. It's very good. Things don't get easier next week, of course (Lamar Jackson and Baltimore). Dud game for Aaron Jones, who was well behind Jamal Williams for chances once Green Bay was ...well behind. Davante Adams with a meaningless late touchdown (not to those starting or facing him, natch). George Kittle is something else.
Monday, Monday: Cooper Kupp. I need you, man. Suspect I'm not alone among Index readers. He's got to do it with a struggling Jared Goff against a defense playing out of its mind lately, that's the negative. But hopefully Sean McVay has been up all night this week figuring out how to get things going. Hard to bet on it though. Ravens 24, Rams 17.