Week 13 is an interesting one. Playoff week in some leagues, positioning in others -- meaningless in still others, even if you have a playoff contender. So either you're really annoyed that you finally took underperforming James White out of your lineup, or you take it as a reminder to use him next week (when no doubt he'll do comparatively nothing). Lots to unpack from yesterday, let's go.
Browns at Steelers: A tale of two halves. Browns in control early, Steelers hitting the big plays and getting the big defensive stops late. I didn't really know how to pick this game, which was essentially a pick 'em, but Pittsburgh has a lot of experience winning games like this and the Browns don't. Baker Mayfield injured his throwing hand and tried to play through it, a factor in his struggles after building a 10-0 lead. Jarvis Landry putting up better numbers than Odell Beckham and Kareem Hunt outperformed Nick Chubb today.
Giants at Packers:Cool to watch a game played in snow. Hope nobody sat down Aaron Rodgers or Davante Adams because of it. Sometimes you get burned using guys in bad weather, sometimes you get burned benching them. But facing the Giants pass defense, as with the Lions or Cardinals or Bucs, you generally want to start them. Nice touchdown for Sterling Shepard, welcome back, and Kaden Smith had a nice PPR game for those who gambled on the third-string tight end. Negative: Aaron Jones. Green Bay has gone full committee with Jamaal Williams lately, and Jones was stuffed a couple of times at the goal line and had another score called back.
Eagles at Dolphins: Yeesh. Credit to Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Dolphins, but not much excuse for the Eagles defense playing this poorly. Philadelphia very nearly completed a Hail Mary at the end of this one, but instead they lost...and can still win the NFC East. Good games for Carson Wentz, Miles Sanders and Alshon Jeffery, decent for Dallas Goedert even with Zach Ertz playing through injury. Monster game for DeVante Parker, talk about a contract year push. Good for Gesicki, too. And a cool trick play TD by Miami's special teams.
Bucs at Jaguars: Do the Patriots watch tape of Nick Foles struggling and wonder, How did we lose a Super Bowl to this guy? I don't recall anyone saying, the Jaguars shouldn't hand the franchise to Foles. So he was terrible and was benched at halftime, and probably that will be it for him as their starter, if they can find a way to get out of his contract. Or maybe not; season's over, so maybe they'll evaluate him over the last four games. In any case, at least Dede Westbrook and Leonard Fournette were OK. With Foles imploding, the Tampa Bay offense didn't do as much as it had to, and again Peyton Barber had a good day, Ronald Jones did not. Going forward I promise not to answer yes on any Bucs running back.
Titans at Colts: The drumbeat of the Titans making a run to the playoffs has been going on basically since they put Ryan Tannehill into the lineup. Derrick Henry is playing great, Tannehill is playing great, defense and special teams are playing great. And then you've got Adam Vinatieri involved in some critical misses, blocks and losses all along, with yesterday's disaster (not all on him) just the latest. And a couple of ugly interceptions by Jacoby Brissett, who doesn't look so good when things aren't going his way.
Jets at Bengals: So the story of the Jets' season will probably be giving a pair of winless teams their first wins. But clearly the Dolphins aren't so bad, and the Bengals with Andy Dalton aren't a complete train wreck either. That doesn't really excuse New York going into Cincinnati and being unable to run on the league's worst run defense and having loads of penalties and drops and whatnot, but hey. The Jets are a bad team too. Can't count too heavily on them consistently taking advantage of favorable situations.
Washington at Panthers: Panthers got off to a fast start in this one and I was wondering why I hadn't started Curtis Samuel, since he and DJ Moore both scored. And then...it was all the Washington ground game after that, with Derrius Guice and Adrian Peterson having big games. Credit to Washington for seeing a weakness and fully exploiting it, the Carolina run defense. Carolina officially joins the teams playing out the string.
49ers at Ravens: Anyone else kind of relieved the 49ers made a game of this one? Played the Ravens tough and gave us all hope of a good Super Bowl. Those of us who started George Kittle were hoping for a little more, and those of us who started Deebo Samuel can thank our lucky stars he wasn't flagged for a push-off on his touchdown catch, kind of looked like he got away with one. And yet another game where San Francisco's No. 2 running back had a big game, I'm going to have to look up how often their No. 1 back has had the best game, seems like not too often. Baltimore wins, keeping hope that the AFC playoffs won't go through Foxborough this year.
Rams at Cardinals: Problem with fantasy football is sometimes it pays to have a long memory (the Jets will never prosper for too long) and sometimes it pays to have a short memory (Jared Goff has been trash lately, but look at this choice matchup!). So Goff, Kupp and Woods all delivered, and those who started them were rewarded. And Tyler Higbee, who I picked up and started in a couple of leagues but sadly not all of them. Kyler Murray wasn't quite right physically, probably a factor in his poor game. Running games: Gurley went for 95 yards and scored. Kenyan Drake the lead back in a committee with David Johnson that did very little.
Chargers at Broncos: Kind of fitting that the Chargers would lose a heartbreaker, since both these teams have been losing heartbreakers all year. But then again, they had a chance to go for a win on a 4th and inches play in field goal range. Instead they settled for the field goal, and a chance at overtime, while the Broncos took a deep shot rather than taking a knee in the final seconds, setting up the winning field goal. Pretty sure there's a lesson there. Drew Lock gets the win, Courtland Sutton has yet another big game, both teams playing out the string, like so many others.
Raiders at Kansas City: Considering Kansas City scored 40 points, not a huge game for most of the players you started. But touchdowns from most of the key guys and a rushing score and easy win for Mahomes and company. Raiders little run of competitiveness has gone away the last couple of weeks. This one was pretty much over early.
Patriots at Texans: Deshaun Watson has a lot of believers now, after a pretty much perfect performance against what had been a shutdown pass defense. Made some amazing throws, then made them again when his receivers couldn't hang on to the first one. Highlight for me was DeAndre Hopkins getting credit for a touchdown pass on a play that about a foot from being a lateral (for which he'd have gotten nothing), salvaging what would have been a lesser day from a guy it's very tough to bench. Another story here was the huge James White game, all piled up in the latter stages; I benched him in most leagues and I'm sure others did too. Guess all it takes is for New England to fall way behind, which they haven't done all year, and forget about Rex Burkhead (thank heavens). Anyway, AFC might not go through Foxborough. And quite a statement game from Houston.
Monday, Monday: I've felt Seattle would dominate this one, but since their defense isn't what it used to be, you never know. Could be a higher-scoring or at least reasonably scoring one. I'm giving Russell Wilson and homefield advantage the edge, though. Seattle 26, Minnesota 20.