There was some weather in the East Coast games, with the late one -- Dallas at Washington -- the most affected. That and my satellite dish. Unfortunately the picture cleared up in time for me to watch the shootout of the ages between Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson, the latter of whom I benched in three leagues. At least I benched him for Wilson in one of them, so there's that.
Vikings versus Browns across the pond: Early (really early, it was 9:35 on the East Coast) Isaiah Crowell touchdown. Now is the time to sell high, because that was probably his last good game. DeShone Kizer got through the game without being benched, whoohoo! Still nothing doing for the Browns passing game, and though it was close for a while, Browns now 0-8. ... Vikings took a while to get started, but then Thielen, Diggs and Rudolph all got involved. Jerick McKinnon too, as Latavius Murray proved last week was just a one-time thing. McKinnon looks much better.
Raiders at Bills: I'm remembering preseason talk about how good the Raiders were supposed to be. Their defense is bad, their offensive line has slipped, maybe Derek Carr is playing hurt or maybe teams have figured out their two-receiver offense. Whatever the case, not a playoff team, their fortunate win against Kansas City last week notwithstanding. Big game (thanks to a late breakaway touchdown) for LeSean McCoy. Nice touchdown grab in the back of the end zone by Andre Holmes, yes against his former team. Great overall numbers from DeAndre Washington, he was the right waiver pickup last week. Did lose a fumble for a touchdown after a big hit.
Colts at Bengals: Well, at least Joe Mixon had a big receiving game, because he was a bust as a runner. At one point the rookie caught a screen pass and after a nice cut or two looked like he should have gone all the way, but he seemed to slow up at the end, either tired or unaware somebody was right behind him, and got caught inside the 10. Then not very decisive running near the goal-line by him, either. So A.J. Green scored. Huge game by Jack Doyle, the only Colt receiver to do anything, especially if you get 1.5 points per TE reception. Colts had this game won until a late mistake by Brissett that went back the other way for a touchdown. A Marlon Mack receiving score, too, although he also didn't do anything as a runner.
Chargers at Patriots: A disappointing game from both offenses, particularly the Chargers, in part due to miscues/questionable calls. Melvin Gordon had a long early touchdown run. Gronk scored, as usual. And Stephen Gostkowski missed 2 field goals but kicked 4 others. Most probably saw Travis Benjamin running a punt into his own end zone for a safety. Benjamin was also the only Chargers receiver with a positive play, though, getting free for Philip Rivers' lone touchdown, and catching another one wiped out by a pretty shaky offensive interference penalty when two Patriots ran into each other. Tyrell Williams caught one; unfortunately he stepped out of bounds before it. But ultimately a disappointing game for Rivers, who I started ahead of Matt Ryan and Deshaun Watson in different leagues. Wasn't crazy about him but hoped it would go better. Obviously.
Bears at Saints: Other than Tre McBride shockingly going for 92 yards, this was about as expected. Bears kept things close more or less with the run and defense, but didn't have enough offense to get a win. Saints put up fairly typical numbers this year, both Ingram and Kamara scored, offense more successful running than passing. Ingram lost two fumbles, wonder if Sean Payton signs someone else this week to take some carries away from him. Mitchell Trubisky has an arm on him, plus he ran for 53 yards. But he's a ways away. Leaping goal-line TD for Tarik Cohen, frustrating Jordan Howard teams; there won't be many of those for him.
Falcons at Jets: Jets are better than expected, but they're still excellent at finding ways to lose close, winnable games. This time it was Chandler Catanzaro missing 46- and 48-yard field goals in a 5-point loss. Not gimmes, but you know. Big game for Robby Anderson, not so much for Jermaine Kearse. Josh McCown continues to play fairly well. New York throwing a touchdown to second tight end Eric Tomlinson was very surprising, including for the Falcons defense that didn't cover him. Driving rain throughout the game didn't look to be a major problem for either team. Tevin Coleman had more touches and a better game (thanks to a 50-yard run) than Devonta Freeman. Sadly, tough to count on that enough to use him each week. Awesome touchdown grab for Mohamed Sanu.
49ers at Eagles: Lesser offensive numbers for the Eagles; it rained throughout and that might have been a factor. But also the Eagles took a big lead and had a Pick Six in there, and those defensive scores against lesser opposition help to keep offensive production down. But Zach Ertz got his touchdown (wide open; might want to put a body on him), Wentz had a couple, so you can't complain too much. Alshon Jeffery also caught one. Big disappointment was Carlos Hyde, who dropped a couple of passes early, and I guess he didn't have the hot hand. Matt Breida got involved catching a nifty shovel pass touchdown. As for C.J. Beathard, well, he wasn't great, though he was under heavy pressure and knocked around plenty. But none of his receivers reached 40 yards, so their value can be said to be, uh, minimal. Pass protection an issue for the Eagles (3 sacks), who've lost Jason Peters for the season to a knee injury.
Panthers at Bucs: See, this was the game I figured Jameis Winston would have up in Buffalo last week. So I benched him. But he didn't, so I figured, OK, he'll be fine at home against Carolina, and a team they won't be able to run against. Instead the Bucs offense did absolutely nothing, and only a few late catches helped salvage serviceable PPR days for Mike Evans and Cameron Brate. Rushing score for Stewart, good receiving game for McCaffrey, Newton-Benjamin touchdown...so something good from the players people were starting. Winston will be holding a fantasy clipboard for me next week, I think.
Texans at Seahawks: So yeah, made the mistake of benching Watson. Who's awesome, and I knew that, but I also knew the history of visiting quarterbacks up in Seattle isn't good. Watson pretty much kicked that door down with a great throw to Will Fuller early on, an even better one a little, and then DeAndre Hopkins did the rest. For Seattle, Seahawks had one touchdown to Paul Richardson 1) set up by Seattle picking up a first down thanks to Jadeveon Clowney causing a fumble, pretty bizarre and 2) Doug Baldwin was a couple of yards behind Richardson; looked like he might have actually been the intended target. Then Richardson caught another; definitely the intended guy on that one. Kind of unlucky for Baldwin, who was involved but just didn't happen to get any scores with Houston leaving other guys open, including Jimmy Graham for the game-winner (helping his trade value?). Anyway, both quarterbacks were awesome. Fun to watch if you didn't bench one of them in fantasy.
Cowboys at Washington: Weather seemed to affect this one, as the passing games weren't quite as good as they might have been. But also Washington just seems a little out of sync a lot; not sure which wide receivers they want to use, make things tough on fantasy teams. Touchdown for Rob Kelley, but Chris Thompson had the bigger all-around day, as usual. Ezekiel Elliott looked great; we'll find out soon if he'll be out there the next six games or not. With him and Prescott playing well, tough to stop this offense.
Steelers at Lions: On the Lions, another big game for Marvin Jones. He's pretty good, and Matthew Stafford is on top of his game. And with Golden Tate playing hurt, Jones saw a few more looks. That being said, I don't know when the Lions are going to figure out that this pass-all-the-time approach isn't going to work. If you can't figure out a way to at least have teams think you might run the ball in the vicinity of the goal line, you'll have a lot of close losses where you settle for 5 field goals. Ameer Abdullah: for a guy with the kind of moves he has to average under 3.0 yards per carry is just criminal. They need to stop wasting time with stiffs like Theo Riddick and Dwayne Washington, feature Abdullah, and good things might happen. OK, rant done, but they are a frustrating team to watch. For Pittsburgh, nice game for that Schuster-Smith guy.
Broncos at Kansas City: I know there have been a couple of good primetime games this season, but there have been a few too many with lousy offenses -- and the Dolphins are in primetime each of the next two weekends, too. Seriously! Anyway, Kansas City's defense has been soft at times, but tough to see Denver doing much. Would be nice to see Jamaal Charles have a big game against his former team, and it's possible. Still, I'm going with Kansas City 23, Denver 14.