It seems to be about that time of season when the scores get out of hand. I picked 6 of 6 correctly against the spread in a competition yesterday, and five were teams that covered as big favorites. A lot of the really good teams are flexing their muscles, and a lot of the poor ones are mailing it in. On to the games.
Bucs at Dolphins:Debatable whether losing Jay Cutler to a concussion was a negative for the Dolphins in yet another lousy effort, which this time gave the Bucs their first road win. Miami also gave the Bucs defense a touchdown on the game's final play, one of a couple I've seen recently where the return players lateralling the ball around seem so concerned about making a legal lateral that they're showing little interest in moving the ball down the field, which is the point of the whole thing. Stills and Landry produced, Parker did not. Damien Williams the best running back on either team.
Lions at Bears: Pretty good game, and Detroit's offense was better than expected. Matt Prater is clutch, Tarik Cohen finally has a nice touchdown again. Jordan Howard great game too. Bears did a nice job on Golden Tate, but Marvin Jones and Detroit's other receivers picked up the slack. Gonna be a real interesting final few weeks in the NFC with some good teams going to get left out of the playoffs. Bears like to throw to the tight end, with Adam Shaheen this week's beneficiary.
Jaguars at Browns: Watching this rooting solely for the Jaguars defense, the officials blew dead what should have been a fumble return touchdown. No big thang; Browns got the ball back and immediately fumbled the ball into the end zone and a Jaguar fell on it for a fumble return touchdown. Fantasy MVP-type stuff. Browns are excruciatingly incompetent on offense, but apparently Hue Jackson will send DeShone Kizer out there again next week, so fire up that Chargers defense. Leonard Fournette must have been plenty healthy since he went over 100 yards, Duke Johnson had decent numbers, and another nice game for Corey Coleman, who'll be good if he can stay on the field. Dede Westbrook fell a little short of 200 yards.
Ravens at Packers: Baltimore's defense has really put everything together, and it made Brett Hundley look bad. You wonder if the Packers might actually consider starting Joe Callahan next week. Probably not, but awful showing by the Green Bay offense. Jamaal Williams got about all you could ask for from a mediocre talent getting all the work at running back; Green Bay will hope to get Ty Montgomery back this week. Passing game didn't have to do much and didn't, but at least Woodhead caught 5 passes. Alex Collins had his worst rushing day but finally scored, which counts for more.
Cardinals at Texans: Not a bad showing by Blaine Gabbert, most notably doing his job of helping the only Cardinals receiver you can reasonably start, Larry Fitzgerald, have a nice PPR day. I'd like to see Gabbert start against the team that drafted him next week, but maybe it will be Drew Stanton. Gabbert threw 2 TDs to Ricky Seals-Jones; the storyline of him liking to throw to TEs played out, just to a guy nobody had rostered in any league I can imagine. Adrian Peterson has had fairly predictable good and bad games thus far, with this being bad against a Houston run defense that's been solid. Nice touchdown run by D'Onta Foreman, but he got hurt at the end of play, something as fluky as the Curtis Samuel injury last Monday night. A shame.
Rams at Vikings: I didn't feel totally confident telling somebody yesterday morning to use Case Keenum over Jared Goff, but it worked out. Vikings defense is really good. Todd Gurley at least got an early touchdown and helped those who started him, but that was it. Latavius Murray had a big game (as did Adam Thielen, as always), which means it will be Jerick McKinnon next week. Robert Woods did OK, all things considered, but Rams had a tough game (and they've got another poor matchup or two the rest of the way).
Washington at Saints: Any Washington fans here? Sorry guys. That was brutal. Washington played a near-perfect game for about three and a half quarters. Then Chris Thompson broke his leg, the defense went to sleep, and the Saints came roaring back. Nice numbers for both Ingram and Kamara (Ingram out for a while, then returned in overtime to mow through Washington like a knife through butter -- unlucky not to score, really. Anyhoo, a killer defeat for Washington, and losing Thompson is a major blow. But maybe they found a new between the tackles runner in Samaje Perine, who looked much better than he had at any point this season.
Kansas City at Giants: So it was very windy and cold, but there's no getting away from the fact that this was an awful game by Kansas City. What happened? Giants defense rose up to save their coaching staff? Kansas City had a rare sluggish return from a bye week -- almost never happens to Andy Reid's teams -- and Alex Smith struggled throughout. Once again, Kareem Hunt didn't score, and Travis Kelce was the only tight end all season not to score against this defense. Crazy. Evan Engram was also a huge disappointment, but I'll cut him some slack because he was due for a poor one. Get me back next week, friend. Giants go on the road to Washington on a short week on Thanksgiving night; we'll see. Still seems like a poor defense which maybe gave the best effort we'll see the rest of the way.
Bills at Chargers: So, Nathan Peterman. Thought this was a very tough spot to put a fifth-rounder making his first NFL start in, and so it was. Hope you also picked up the Chargers defense everywhere. Bills ultimately benched Peterman after he'd thrown almost as many interceptions (5) as completions (6). "Tyrod -- you're in!" Awkward. Huge game for Keenan Allen, which seemed to come out of nowhere. The only good thing about the Sterling Shepard absence was it caused me to start Allen. Bet the Chargers wished they'd had some of those points in one of their three or four narrow losses this year. Nice game for LeSean McCoy, known as the only Bill you'll probably be starting the rest of the way. Kelvin Benjamin suffered a knee injury early on and didn't return.
Bengals at Broncos: Whoa, the Broncos are disappointed in their offense. Maybe the quarterback room wasn't where it should have been at the start of the season, what with a seventh-rounder, poor-looking recent first-rounder, and Brock Osweiler to choose from. Nothing wrong with their defense, although Andy Dalton did throw 3 TDs, but it's hard to win when you don't score. Good game (after a slow start) from Demaryius Thomas, at least, and A.J. Green finished strong as well. Believe it or not, the 4-6 Bengals could actually sneak into the wildcard chase -- seriously. Two of their next three are home against the Browns and Bears.
Patriots vs. Raiders in Mexico: I saw Stephen Gostskowski go from just 2 extra points to 8-plus in my lineup in a hurry. Kicked a 62-yard field goal that would have been good from 70. All those worries about New England's defense can be set aside, because they're just stoning opponents right now. And lighting things up on offense. Homefield advantage in the AFC will probably be decided in Week 15, when the Patriots are at Pittsburgh. Otherwise, they're not going to lose any games the rest of the way.
Eagles at Cowboys: I was glued to this one because I started Zach Ertz and Jason Witten in a league -- ouch and ouch. (Evan Engram, too; it's a 2-flex FFPC lead where tight ends get 1.5 points per catch.) Bad week for tight ends not named Travis Kelce, and Josh Hill scored more touchdowns than all those guys put together (1). Another rough week for the Dallas offense, too. Dak Prescott under a lot of pressure again, and it definitely seems to be in his head -- he was sailing passes high and wide all game. Eagles can apparently do no wrong, putting up big numbers even with Ertz doing nothing and then converting every 2-point attempt when their kicker got hurt (until Ertz fumbled one while crossing the goal line -- thanks, man). Ezekiel Elliott's going to come back to a team out of the playoff picture.
Monday, Monday: So I've got one chance to finish in the top 10 overall in this national competition. I just need Matt Ryan to have a big game against what's left of the Legion of Boom. Seems hard to count on, but I wouldn't have figured Ertz would do zip last night, so that's why they play the games. With Russell Wilson playing well and Seattle's defense banged-up, I'm expecting a higher-scoring game, and can't really bet against Wilson right now. Seahawks 30, Falcons 27.