Injuries to big names continue to dominate the season. It's that point in the fantasy season where if you had Aaron Rodgers, for example, you were thinking about shipping off his backup, if you had a decent one. And then just like that, his season is over (probably), and you're wondering if you have a decent alternative.
As usual with these injuries, I'm struck by how they generally don't look that much different than any ordinary play in any ordinary game. A split second of difference, or a slightly different hit or landing, from one play to the next and a guy is either going back to the huddle to maybe throw a touchdown, or the name "Brett Favre" is coming up on the Sunday night pregame show.
Dolphins at Falcons: Hard to say exactly what's wrong with the Falcons offense, but let's go with the absence of Kyle Shanahan. They also missed Mohamed Sanu today, something which at least translated into more chances for Austin Hooper. Alas, with Atlanta on the verge of going in for a winning touchdown, Ryan targeted Hooper in double-coverage and it was deflected for an interception. Good defensive play, not all on Hooper, maybe not the best choice by Ryan. Anyway, Atlanta is a little off, and suddenly the NFC South has a lot of teams in contention. Nice game for Jay Ajayi, not a horrible one for Jay Cutler, Landry and Stills benefit from Parker's absence.
Bears at Ravens: Ravens really miss Brandon Williams, their run defense is pretty poor right now. But both offenses overshadowed by special teams and defense, with a punt return, kickoff return (old friend Bobby Rainey, just signed last week) and interception return for touchdowns. Throw in a Tarik Cohen passing score and you've got a fun game to watch. And more confirmation that whatever Joe Flacco used to have, he doesn't anymore. Hideous. Decent ground game for Baltimore, but no touchdowns (and a fairly even committee this time). Here's a great stat: Kendall Wright the only Bear wide receiver to catch a pass (2 for 36). Neither team had any receiver reach 50 yards.
Browns at Texans: Hopefully others lucky enough to grab Deshaun Watson everywhere are just starting him and letting the points roll in. Guy is playing great, he's getting great matchup after great matchup, and although he'll slow down eventually (bye this week followed by Seattle), don't sell high, just enjoy. Receivers didn't post great numbers, but at least the key ones scored. Kevin Hogan was a train wreck and I'm wondering if will be DeShone Kizer back this week. Cleveland's offense is a train wreck. D'Onta Foreman ended up with similar numbers to Lamar Miller, but the game was a blowout and only real takeaway is Watson isn't letting his running backs score right now.
Packers at Vikings: So Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone in this one, and with any luck the Packers will take the mystery out of things by putting him on IR so people don't wonder if they need to carry him on their roster. I suspect he's done for the year or fantasy season anyway (if he's placed on IR, Week 16 is the earliest he could return -- they play the Vikings again that week). I'm not going to say the hit was late or unnecessary, but, well, it was close. Needless to say it's not good news for the Green Bay passing game, Brett Hundley looked overmatched to say the least. The Aaron Jones-Ty Montgomery committee did not work out for fantasy owners, but nothing in Green Bay's offense did. Huge game for Jerick McKinnon, who's doing a nice Dalvin Cook impression.
Lions at Saints: Kind of a crazy game with the Saints jumping out to a huge lead (Mark Ingram buoyed by the Adrian Peterson trade), the Lions crawling back into it (great TD by Index favorite Marvin Jones, crazy Pick Six at the goal line, punt return touchdown, Jamal Agnew's second of the year), Saints ultimately scoring 3 defensive touchdowns, teams combining for 90 points. Saints need to be taken seriously in the NFC South, and hey their defense doesn't even seem as godawful as it looked early on. Nice game for Alvin Kamara though no touchdowns, typical game for Ameer Abdullah (so you know, disappointing). Golden Tate hurt.
Patriots at Jets: Don't really understand the Austin Seferian-Jenkins play. Sorry I haven't seen the replay more than 3-4 times, but was there a fumble? Why wasn't that a touchdown? Kind of a big play in a game that the Jets could actually, seriously have won. Mike Gillislee lost a fumble that factored into Dion Lewis, not him, scoring. Kareem Hunt fumbled on his first carry; I guess if Bill Belichick was his coach Hunt wouldn't have done much this season. Anyway, nice game for Josh McCown, though he couldn't finish the upset. But no denying that any quarterback matched up with the Patriots has some fantasy value. Big game for both tight ends: 2 TDs for Gronk, and should have been 2 TDs for Austin Seferian-Jenkins. One that counted at least. Couple of nice grabs for Robby Anderson in defeat, and nice passing game work by Matt Forte (no one doubts his receiving ability, but probably Powell will be back to confuse everything next week).
49ers at Washington: Didn't think Brian Hoyer would get benched this soon, but I didn't think the 49ers would say stuff like "not much difference between Carlos Hyde and Matt Breida" this early, either. Hyde scored 2 TDs but averaged just 2.2 per carry. Washington didn't win in a blowout but Kirk Cousins finished with some nice production; the wide receivers people started just didn't really benefit. Cousins spreading things around, to running backs and multiple tight ends; hard to start anyone here. C.J. Beathard almost pulled off the upset so I guess he's next week's starter.
Buccaneers at Cardinals: Guess I owe Adrian Peterson an apology. Not totally washed up, really impressive game for him. Guess he just needed a better offensive fit and some carries, hey, I didn't tell him to sign with the Saints. Anyway, Cardinals were fired up, Jameis Winston got hurt, Cardinals got a lot of fortunate bounces and plays, and hope you didn't trade away Larry Fitzgerald last week. Some late production by the Bucs after Cards kind of fell asleep, including great touchdowns by Doug Martin and Mike Evans, but their defense (and the injuries that have weakened it) is really killing them right now. And if Winston misses time...
Rams at Jaguars: Nothing like one team having a spectacular opening kickoff return touchdown to build on. Jacksonville followed up it up with a long touchdown of its own, but the Rams added another defensive score and that was enough. Not a great game for either offense. Leonard Fournette left with an injury. Rams may well be for real.
Steelers at Kansas City: Novel idea for the Steelers - give the ball to LeVeon. Worked out great. Even still, Kansas City could have won had they made a couple of different fourth-down choices and if Alex Smith hadn't sailed a couple of errant throws late when he had Demarcus Robinson wide open twice. Winnable game, Kansas City still really good. Kudos to the Steelers, still the best team in the AFC North.
Chargers at Raiders: So, not a shootout. Chargers are a pretty good team who all of a sudden have the same 2-4 record as a Raiders team who was a little overrated in the preseason. But for a missed field goal or two, maybe the Chargers would be 4-2. Anyway, big game for Melvin Gordon, though at least Philip Rivers and Melvin Gordon finished up decent. And indeed Rivers did complete a pass to Henry at the goal line, but it was ruled short (Gordon dove in on the next play).
Giants at Broncos: So what went wrong for the Broncos. They definitely passed way too much, including one goal-line series where that's all they did (then missed a short field goal). Trevor Siemian threw a couple of horrific passes. Maybe Denver had read too much press about weak and terrible the Giants were. It's possible to win games without wide receivers, teams are doing it all the time these days. Nice game for Evan Engram, big win, I guess, for the Giants. Denver, try running it a little more next time.
Monday, Monday: Couple of apparent also-rans, it seems, but in the AFC South the difference between best and worst teams is pretty small. Or was until Deshaun Watson started tearing it up, anyway. Indications are that Marcus Mariota will play, and if he's healthy he should be a difference-maker. But with the Titans defense maybe no better than the Colts, you never know. But I'll go with Titans 27, Colts 20.