Yesterday's a decent example of why people love football so much. You see things you expect to see (and love anyway: Adrian Peterson), don't expect to see (Browns and Jets beat Ravens and Saints), never expected to see (Nick Foles and Riley Cooper?), and had just about given up hope of seeing again (Chris Johnson, Tom Brady). All in one day! Let's get right to it.
Kansas City at Bills: How much better can things go for Kansas City? Even when they're ready and willing to get beat, they run into another third-string quarterback (fourth, arguably) and have a win gift-wrapped. Their defense is great, don't get me wrong, but they're getting some easy turnovers here. Bills were going in for a touchdown to go up 17-3, instead serving up a 101-yard pick 6 and a 10-10 tie. Jamaal Charles remains the only interesting offensive player, although signs of life from Dwayne Bowe (7 catches). Picking up Dexter McCluster in PPR didn't work out; he caught 2 passes early, dropped a possible long touchdown, and wasn't heard from again. ... C.J. Spiller looked pretty good, even after appearing to aggravate his ankle injury early on. Bad news for Fred Jackson, good for Spiller. ...Jeff Tuel had one highlight, hitting Marquise Goodwin for long TD. Goodwin just explodes past a couple of defenders, wow. And that was Buffalo's scoring for the day.
Falcons at Panthers: It's not too difficult to call the Falcons games right now. They don't have a defense, don't have enough weapons on offense, can't protect Matt Ryan. It's a mess. You'll get occasional numbers out of Harry Douglas, Tony Gonzalez, and maybe Roddy White, eventually, but as the losses mount the interest from a preseason Super Bowl contender will be less. Steven Jackson finally had a short touchdown run, but it's erased by a holding penalty. Ugly. ... DeAngelo Williams gets a chance to carry near the goal line. Once he fails, predictably, Mike Tolbert comes in and scores. Later, a rushing score for Cam Newton. That's Carolina's offense. Williams and Jonathan Stewart can't really be used. With the team winning, Tolbert might be the best start.
Vikings at Cowboys: Another week, another amazing Adrian Peterson touchdown run. Awesome long run to set it up, too. He's the guy we're going to tell our grandkids about watching play. Christian Ponder also had his moments, running the no huddle and almost leading the upset. But he had a bad interception to a well-covered Greg Jennings and lost a fumble in the end zone for a defensive touchdown. Probably played well enough to start the next game. Probably. ... Almost another long week for Tony Romo, who was picked off with four minutes left and the Cowboys down 3 points. But they got the ball back, marched down the field, and won. Romo gets to relax this week (and maybe get a better haircut, that's the observation I have after watching his postgame presser).
Saints at Jets: Give it up for the Jets, who turn in a very impressive win over New Orleans, a week after getting embarrassed in Cincinnati. Unpredictable team, unless you want to bet on the "winning in odd weeks, losing in even weeks" trend, which has been the case all season. We did have a good feeling about Chris Ivory against his former team, and that worked out well. It's not just the revenge thing though, you can run on the Saints. Jets got tricky, too, with Josh Cribbs throwing a pass to Zach Sudfeld. ... For the Saints, well, Drew Brees and Jimmy Graham keep churning out the numbers, but this team looks like it has some issues. Brees got hit a lot. Sproles left with a possible concussion. The wideouts didn't really step up. Not sure any of them can be safely used.
Titans at Rams: Chris Johnson finally lives up to Fantasy Index's season-long faith in him. Nothing like a soft run defense and enough chances to have a big game. Right from the start he had a long run that looked like it could have gone the distance, but for his own lineman getting in his way. Shonn Greene comes in with an impressive touchdown run, and you start thinking, ugh, another frustrating day. Some 150 yards and 2 TDs for Johnson later, nope, he's good. Big games coming the rest of the way, too. Don't sell high. ... Gotta like Zac Stacy. Rams have to be kicking themselves for not getting him on the field sooner. Has been impressive. Think they knock off Seattle last week if he doesn't get hurt. Obviously the team is going nowhere with Kellen Clemens at quarterback and that run defense, but they've found themselves a pretty decent starting running back.
Chargers at Washington: Absolutely devastating loss for the Chargers. In the final seconds of regulation, down 3, Danny Woodhead was stopped short of the goal line twice. One play initially ruled a touchdown, but determined his foot, not the ball, kicked the pylon. The second, well, he's Danny Woodhead, so running him into the middle of the line doesn't work. Then they put Ryan Mathews on the field but call back to back pass plays that aren't close to being completed. Washington wins the toss in overtime and marches to a win. Brutal, but the Chargers have been doing this for years. ... On all three of Washington fullback Darrel Young's touchdowns, Alfred Morris was in the backfield, they gave the ball to Young, and he bulled in. Can't really call him a goal-line back, but I guess he needs to be factored into TD-only leagues. Anyway, could have been a 4-TD game for Morris, instead it was "just" a 121-yard, 1 TD day. Huge games for Pierre Garcon and Keenan Allen too. Allen looks like he's already a star.
Eagles at Raiders: This was the Raiders defense we expected to see all season: no pass rush, no secondary, poor coverage and tackling. Talk about not coming of your bye well. But, 7 TDs from Nick Foles? Guess I can start thinking about dropping Michael Vick in the league where he's my backup, and trying to find someone else to start on Tony Romo's upcoming bye. ... Terrelle Pryor left this game with a knee injury, not sure how severe; he says his departure was precautionary. Sounds like a bigger issue is Darren McFadden (hamstring), something we'll monitor this week. Rashad Jennings rushed for 100 yards after McFadden left.
Bucs at Seahawks: Nice to see the Bucs aren't mailing them in, they're just coming up with different excruciating ways to lose. Some nice numbers for Mike James, even though probably no one started him. Seattle wins again at home, saving those who were able to use them in a suicide pool. Nothing much interesting in this game beyond Vincent Jackson frustrating a lot of people, but keep in mind for everyone frustrated, there was somebody ecstatic to be facing him, so there's that.
Ravens at Browns: Ugh. Super Bowl hangover? Ray Rice still hurt? Offensive line missing a couple of key guys? Browns much improved? Most of the above? In any case, Rice's stat line was just about as bad as Willis McGahee's, as the former teammates both averaged just 1.5 yards per carry. ... Some of what we saw last week was true again: Jason Campbell is doing a nice job for the Browns. I don't know we'll see any more 100-yard days from Greg Little or 2-TD days from Davone Bess, but the guy is moving the offense. Baltimore, coming out of a bye, needs to go back to the drawing board.
Steelers at Patriots: On Saturday I accepted a trade of Stevan Ridley for DeSean Jackson. I desperately needed a wide receiver (had been starting Jeremy Kerley, as a for instance) and Ridley was my No. 4. Ridley had a big day, but it seemed OK. However, I compounded things by benching Aaron Dobson for Jackson. Well, at least I didn't trade him. New England's offense I guess just needed an old familiar AFC rival to really open things up, and so they did. Nothing about it looked particularly fluky. ... Decent offensive performances from the Steelers. If you're starting LeVeon Bell and Antonio Brown, they're not hurting you. That's something.
Colts at Texans: Perhaps you're thinking, I wonder if anyone was facing both Andre Johnson and T.Y. Hilton last night? That would be me, who led a matchup 164-102 heading into the game only to lose by 20 points. Just crazy that one guy for each team could do such heavy damage, but it happens. Houston didn't win, but it looks like they'll stick with Case Keenum, who certainly got the best out of Johnson. ... Bye week issues forced me to use Trent Richardson in a league. I give up. I saw him drop another pass, miss a block that got Luck sacked, and in general do nothing with his carries, his pass protection chances, whatever. Not much else to say; looks like the Browns were right to trade him, not to draft him.
Monday, Monday: Am up 45 points in a PPR league facing Forte and Lacy tonight. Could go either way. Doubt Forte does much on the ground, as we discussed in the Weekly, but he'll be a big part of the passing game, and Lacy could be headed for a breakout game (at least for those people who only watch Monday games and haven't realized the Packers have a talented young running back). Green Bay should win this game something like 34-20, and Lacy will be a big part of it. But after the kind of crazy stuff we saw this weekend, maybe Josh McCown outduels Aaron Rodgers! Hey, you never know.