The worst (or best, depending on if they won or lost for you) plays in fantasy football are the touchdowns taken away or given. The replay reversals, the overtime scores that almost didn't happen, or shouldn't have. There were a lot of those yesterday, with extra periods and extra scores that could have been avoided. Hope more went for you than against you.
Colts at Bills: Maybe the worst snow game seen in the NFL in years. I can't recall a worse one offhand; guys seemed to be running knee deep in snowdrifts for large portions of the game. But also really cool to watch, with throwback players like Frank Gore pounding through snow. Naturally, the running games much better than the passing games. Colts seemed to have this game won with a gutsy 2-point conversion in the final minute. But no, it ended up being erased by an offensive penalty that seemed a little sketchy, game went to a full overtime period, and LeSean McCoy had a breakaway touchdown to win it. Tough if you were facing him.
Vikings at Panthers: Adam Thielen dropped an easy touchdown, then couldn't control one all the way to the ground two plays later. But then he did catch a long touchdown late, giving you a pretty good game that was very close to being a monster game. Three touchdowns for Jonathan Stewart, a tough blow if you were facing somebody who had to start him in desperation. Normally Newton gets more of those scores, or they don't happen. Game ended up being much more high-scoring than expected; just when you think it's safe to say the Vikings defense is impervious.
Bears at Bengals: Bengals defense without a bunch of starters was as bad as you might expect. Result was a Bears offense much better than expected. Or rather, the passing game was. Jordan Howard being great not as surprising. Kendall Wright sighting, coming out of nowhere; Bears seemingly arbitrarily decided to give him all the targets instead of Dontrelle Inman. Giovani Bernard was about as good as expected in a full-time role, alas no touchdown. Quiet game for A.J. Green.
Packers at Browns: Called a Browns upset here, which looked great at 21-7 in the fourth quarter. But, the Browns. Can we blame coaching at all for this loss? Or is that all on the fired GM? Josh Gordon having a big game was unsurprising, but Corey Coleman having a big game a little bit unexpected. But it's a bad and really injured Packers secondary. Browns running game also had better than expected production. But Green Bay came back, with a huge game from Jamaal Williams (so much for local media saying Aaron Jones would have a huge role; maybe I'd have started Williams somewhere) and late production from Davante Adams, including the game-winning OT touchdown thanks to shoddy tackling.
49ers at Texans: With the exception of Stephen Anderson and Lamar Miller, most of the right players had good games. Monster outing from DeAndre Hopkins, good games from Garoppolo and Goodwin, rewarding those of us who dared. Good enough game from Carlos Hyde, though he's still losing a stupid amount of work to Matt Breida. San Francisco on a Garoppolo-led winning streak. Texans will take criticism this week by handling of Tom Savage, seeming to send him back on the field after what turned out to be a flawed concussion evaluation.
Raiders at Kansas City: Still pretty angry about a pass from Alex Smith to Travis Kelce that was originally ruled a touchdown, but I guess if you slowed the replay down to a glacial pace it was possible to see a knee being down while the ball was a blade of grass short of the goal line. Stupid. Kareem Hunt scored on the next play. Ultimately a big game for Kansas City, lousy one from the Raiders (though at least you got some junk production). Hard to figure out exactly what's up with the Raiders, but let's go ahead and blame Derek Carr, who simply doesn't look like the same guy as last year in most of his games. (And one of the exceptions was the earlier KC game, making this all the more baffling.) Anyway, one-sided affair, great week to have Harrison Butker on your side.
Lions at Bucs: Pretty good game. Disappointing output by Marvin Jones, but we knew Bucs play better defense at home, and there was also the surprising development that Eric Ebron caught 10 passes. Lousy performance by Doug Martin; a touchdown but it's not clear why Dirk Koetter likes him so much. Might mean the difference between a win and a loss, you know? Quiet game for Cameron Brate, 2 rushing TDs for Theo Riddick, unexpected (and a negative for Stafford, obviously). Lots of turnovers for the Bucs and Jameis Winston, it's almost like they're poorly coached.
Cowboys at Giants: A little while back -- pre-benching -- Eli was lighting things up with completions to Sterling Shepard and Evan Engram. Where did that go? I'd made the decision a couple of weeks back not to risk using either player any more, but bought into the idea of a Giants maximum effort narrative in Eli Manning's return. Uh, nope. Watched a good portion of this game and saw a whole lot of useless completions to running backs, and whaddaya know, Giants were sitting on just 10 points until the fourth quarter when the Cowboys gradually blew things open, and that's how the Giants season has gone. Now I'm done starting Shepard, definitely, and Engram, well, I don't feel too good about him but Ertz was out and I was stuck. Good game for Dak and company, unlikely huge game from namesake of long-ago Index favorite Rod Smith.
Titans at Cardinals: Can we now just agree that the Titans are a pretty mediocre team. They have a good run defense, they don't have a good pass defense, and they don't seem to utilize their offensive players well at all. Delanie Walker is great, and the running backs are capable enough. But they're Oakland south this year. We'll all be much better off seeing Jacksonville in the playoffs. Cardinals didn't do enough to help fantasy teams, disappointing game for Larry Fitzgerald in particular.
Jets at Broncos: Josh McCown got hurt early on, and that was it for the Jets. Offense did zip (that's why they weren't in any hurry to bench McCown). Denver got a great game from the best player to start, Demaryius Thomas, and that was it. Not much to else to say about this one, but watch a New York writer give McCown an MVP vote this offseason.
Washington at Chargers: This game went about as expected. Washington's defense has fallen apart, injuries on the line have derailed the offense, and it's possible they should have brought back one or two of last year's receivers. Chargers got more good numbers from Rivers and Allen, including a near touchdown on a completion down inside the 5-yard line (That was the Melvin Gordon touchdown, fortunate for him). Big game for Tyrell Williams who I almost picked up and started this week, but alas did not; Hunter Henry TD too. Kellen Clemens served up a late Pick Six.
Seahawks at Jaguars: Well, the anti-Russell Wilson and Seattle offense decision worked great for the vast majority of this one. But then Jacksonville went to sleep, Wilson threw a couple of bombs, and it was a game. If you benched Wilson and are annoyed, well, yeah. Things did go poorly for a while. Jimmy Graham shutout, frustrating for those who started him (and who lost to any of his big games over the past month or so). Some nice throws by Blake Bortles in this one, gotta say. Some ugliness at the end, some sore losers on the Seattle sideline.
Eagles at Rams: This was an epic game, and I don't say that only because it seemed to take four hours. Overshadowed by Wentz getting hurt. Eagles won, but the cost might be greater. Lots of back-and-forth and big plays by stars. Cool Cooper Kupp touchdown in this game, but instant replay forces us to hold our breath before celebrating while we go frame by frame -- did his toe graze the line? Where was the ball? Did it move? Sucks. Same situation a little later when Todd Gurley had a touchdown overruled by replay, thank heavens they then allowed him to carry it in on the next play. Couple of great runs by Gurley. The Trey Burton gamble paid off, although it's doubly painful for those of us who had Zach Ertz but didn't have Burton for one reason or another (in a league where transactions ended two weeks ago, for example). Anyway: instant classic.
Ravens at Steelers: Sort of had a sense how this game might go early on when Bell caught a touchdown, then scored another one a little while later after a fairly ticky-tack end-zone interference penalty set him up at the goal line. What was surprising was Baltimore's offense keeping up the pace (and even taking a double-digit lead at one point) before Pittsburgh came roaring back. A lot of big games from big names, deciding a lot of playoff matchups. Pittsburgh's defense was a lot better before losing Haden and Shazier the last few weeks.
Monday, Monday: A probably one-sided game that will have lots of fantasy implications, for me mostly the lesser-regarded starters: Gostkowski, the Patriots D. Then you've got a multitude of Dolphins and Patriots receivers and running backs, and we all need to hope that ours is the best. The game is in Miami so just maybe the Dolphins make things interesting. But I doubt it. New England 34, Miami 17.