Kind of a weird day in the NFL, with a lot of games coming down to the final series, and a few unexpected blowouts and crazy upsets. People got burned by starting (or benching) some big names, with lessons galore. On to the recap.
Bills vs. Jaguars across the pond: The 25-20 final score might have you thinking this was a good, entertaining game. But in fact it was an ugly eyesore that made everyone who watched it feel bad for three quarters, before things finally picked up in a wild, back-and-forth final period. Looking at the box score and fantasy performances you'd think the Bills offense played well; it did not, until a frantic fourth. Jacksonville kept short-circuiting its own drives with fumbles, but they won. Seems like jet-lag affected the Bills, though it's hard to fully excuse their offensive performance. Nice game for Travis Etienne, especially late. Bills lost Matt Milano, probably a factor in their generally lousy defensive performance.
Texans at Falcons: A close hard-fought game, but that was the only expected part. A 300-yard passing game from much criticized Desmond Ridder, outdueling C.J. Stroud. Big games from both Kyle Pitts, out of nowhere, and Dalton Schultz, out of 2022. Not much from either ground game, though at least Bijan Robinson scored. Drake London jumping off waiver wires, Nico Collins disappointing. A game that prevents you from ever getting too high or low on anyone after just 4 games.
Panthers at Lions: This was all Lions, but it was so much all Lions that Carolina put up about three quarters worth of garbage-time production, resulting in big numbers for Adam Thielen, along with basically every healthy Lion. David Montgomery could have scored 3-4 touchdowns, but had to settle for 1 with a Goff sneak, play action pass from the goal line, and then a Craig Reynolds TD with the game over. Ah well, still did well for you. Some might view Bryce Young's final numbers (247 yards, 3 TDs) as encouraging, but his 2 interceptions were factors in Detroit being up 28-10 in the fourth quarter, before Young piled up most of that. News flash, Carolina is not going to win many games.
Titans at Colts: Anthony Richardson scrambled, got sandwiched between two tacklers, and left with his right arm dangling awkwardly. "Questionable to return" -- understatement of the day. But the big story was of course Zack Moss blowing up on benches everywhere while Jonathan Taylor was a change of pace. Frustrating. Taylor was practicing fully and just signed his new deal; I think it was unreasonable to think he'd be featured but reasonable to think Moss wouldn't be. Doesn't feel any better in retrospect. Sorry if you benched Moss, I did too. Next week everyone will start him and Taylor will be featured.
Giants at Dolphins: Game was not as close as its 31-16 final score. Dolphins going in for a touchdown to make it 21-3 when Tua threw a 102-yard Pick Six, might have been slightly tipped, it was hard to tell, receiver definitely got flattened. Either way not the best decision and it made the Giants look a lot better on the final scoreboard than they actually were. Huge games for Tyreek Hill and DeVon Achane, and Waddle and Mostert also scored; nice equitable distribution of production. Giants travel to Buffalo next week, that should go well.
Saints at Patriots: Wow was this bad. I recall skepticism from some in the preseason at the idea that Mac Jones would be replaced by Bailey Zappe. To be clear, I watched a lot of this game, and it is definitely not all on Jones. The offensive line is poor, the skill guys are poor, the entire offensive structure is poor. But so is the quarterback, and at some point they'll just throw Zappe into the lineup to see if he can give the team a spark. New England's defense isn't great, but it's not as bad as a couple of recent final scores would indicate, it's just being put in bad spot after bad spot, week after week. Resounding win for the Saints.
Ravens at Steelers: Just a bonkers game. Pittsburgh did absolutely nothing on offense for about 3.5 quarters, but their defense, with a safety and an endzone interception (underthrown ball from Lamar Jackson to Odell Beckham) kept them close. Rashod Bateman also helped by dropping maybe the easiest touchdown you'll ever see, forcing Baltimore to settle for a field goal, while Zay Flowers beat his man but got twisted around and fell, resulting in an incompletion rather than a potential long touchdown. Then George Pickens made a couple of George Pickens-esque grabs, Kenny Pickett made a couple of nice throws, and suddenly the Ravens had frittered away a game that they controlled throughout. I benched Pickens and it didn't work out, just like with Thielen, but it looked like the right call for about 50 some minutes. Good for the Steelers, I guess Matt Canada will keep his job for another week. A lousy showing for Baltimore's offense too.
Bengals at Cardinals: JaMarr Chase had a huge game, Joe Burrow looked healthy, the Cardinals looked a little more like what everyone was expecting, and James Conner left with a knee injury. Rough game for Joshua Dobbs and the Arizona passing game in general, the Bengals pass defense has been a Jekyll and Hyde group so far. Maybe the Bengals turned the corner in this one, but we thought that after they beat the Rams a couple weeks back, so.
Eagles at Rams: The Rams aren't bad. They're not going to win the NFC West, but they're going to be right there with the Seahawks for a wild-card spot, if they can keep Matthew Stafford healthy. He seems to be the key to making that offense go, along with Sean McVay, and both Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua are going to be pretty good if everyone can stay healthy. As this one showed, Nacua might lose some targets, but he can still be pretty good. For the Eagles, there was positive talk about Dallas Goedert all week, we subscribed to it, and it worked out, hope it did for you too. DeVonta Smith was the big disappointment; starting him alongside Justin Jefferson while Pickens and Thielen were on my bench was obviously quite disheartening, but what could I do? Going forward, though, maybe DeVonta isn't an auto start.
Jets at Broncos: Also had a good feeling about Breece Hall, it also worked out. My feelings on the Jets in general and Zach Wilson specifically are unchanged, and I imagine the upcoming game against the Eagles won't go well. But he made some good throws (and some others), and took advantage of a struggling defense (and still didn't do a lot). For the Broncos, I think we can stick a fork in them. Nice game for Jaleel McLaughlin and that's basically it. I think even when Javonte Williams is healthy, we'll see McLaughlin playing up to half the time, good young player. But it's trading players time for Denver, already. Too bad they gave up so much for Russell Wilson and Sean Payton, because one or both won't be around next season.
Kansas City at Vikings: Scary moment in this one when Travis Kelce caught a pass, pivoted, and fell to the turf untouched with some sort of foot or ankle issue. He was able to return and score, but we'll know more today if there are any issues that need to be worried out. Kansas City is on a short week (Thursday). Same game, Justin Jefferson also left with a hamstring issue of some kind, so we'll need to worry about that too. As for the game, neither offense did quite as much as we might have liked.
Cowboys at 49ers: As happens all too often, the Game of the Week was a real dud. The 49ers are doing some great things on both offense and defense these days, scoring 30-plus in every game and allowing just 1-2 touchdowns in every game. It's early, but they look pretty awesome, with lots of great starters in fantasy leagues. With Dallas, they've bludgeoned really bad teams and stumbled against the Cardinals and now the 49ers. Next week it's another better opponent (Chargers); should be interesting to see how they respond. Nice week to start George Kittle last night, but also a shout out to Brock Purdy, who's taken to Kyle Shanahan's offense better than Jimmy Garoppolo ever did.
Monday, Monday: I briefly spaced who was playing in this game tonight, with both Packers and Raiders have some nice players, but also some flaws. Jimmy G and Jordan Love both look like quarterbacks who could go either way the rest of the season, while stars on both sides are dealing with some injuries. Seems like it should be higher-scoring, but if you're putting Aaron Jones or Davante Adams into a lineup, you've got your fingers crossed. I think picking the Raiders is usually cause for regret, but what the heck. Las Vegas 26, Green Bay 20.