It was the week when criticized quarterbacks stepped up. Mitchell Trubisky! Marcus Mariota! Dak Prescott! All have been roundly trashed for the past few weeks, all won their games with big performances, well some more so than others, let's not get too crazy on Dak. And a bunch of wild overtime shootouts. A lot to discuss, so let's take a whirlwind trip around the league.
Jets at Jaguars: A few really crummy early games, and this was one of them. Each week you get upsets, like the Bills going into Minnesota last week. And then you get rookie quarterback taking his team down to Jacksonville and getting punked. Yep, that sounds right. Leonard Fournette aggravated his hamstring injury and left early. It would be hard to do an official tally but I'm thinking there have been far more cases this year where it would have been better to bench players who came into game with injuries than starting them. T.J. Yeldon had a big game on benches everywhere. Serviceable PPR game for Quincy Enunwa, mentioned in Saturday's column as the only Jet anyone should have been thinking about using. Good week for the Jaguars passing offense.
Dolphins at Patriots: Speaking of one-sided games. Which Patriots running back was more impressive? Sony Michel, giving the Patriots great rushing production and having 80 yards at the half, finishing with over 100 and a touchdown? Or James White, who rushed for a touchdown (out of a passing formation, note) also got away with a pick play to set up Cordarelle Patterson wide open for a touchdown, and then caught a score. Nifty diving catch by Phillip Dorsett for another score. All Patriots. They'll have a week of not hearing about all their problems, probably more with the soft part of their schedule coming up. Another disaster by Kenyan Drake. Don't get too amped by Frank Gore's final numbers though, he was running it plenty in garbage time.
Bills at Packers, Bucs at Bears: Grouping the bad games together and getting them out of the way early. I guess these were good games if you were Packers or Bears fans. Green Bay started working in Aaron Jones more, and he responded with a decent yardage day and a touchdown. Not quite as much offense as you'd like out of the Packers passing game, which happens sometimes when the opposing offense isn't good enough to stay close. Green Bay doesn't even have a good defense, but that's more what we expected out of Buffalo. ... Thank you for your work the first three games of the season, Ryan Fitzpatrick. Go 9 of 18 for 126 yards and throw a pick against one of the best defenses in football, and you're benched. That's the NFL. Huge game for Tarik Cohen, who some certainly started, and Taylor Gabriel, who no one did. And a 6-TD game from Mitchell Trubisky, probably dropped in most leagues in the last week or two. That's a bad Bucs defense (but congrats to Trubisky, respect must be given). Only the Bear started most often, Jordan Howard, had a poor game.
Eagles at Titans: Then there was this game, one of those instant classic types. Teams going on clutch drives back and forth, both to take leads, overcome deficits, force overtime, take leads in overtime...you get the idea. Alshon Jeffery debuted big, catching a touchdown and nearly coming up with the game-winner; probably should have. But the big story here was Marcus Mariota, having a career game and making huge plays with his arm and legs, converting a couple of overtime fourth downs and throwing the game-winning touchdown. To Corey Davis, who dropped a perfect bomb minutes earlier that would have also won it. Dramatic stuff, and time to make sure Davis is starting every week and that Mariota is rostered. Nice game, finally, for Taywan Taylor, too. And he's no doubt actually available. Titans 3-1 looks a lot more real than Miami's.
Texans at Colts: This is pretty much all you want out of football, right? A shootout between two of the best young quarterbacks in the game. Uh, is Andrew Luck still a young quarterback? Sure. Big numbers for Watson and Luck. Controversy as the Colts go for it in their own end of the field in the final minute of overtime, setting up the Texans for a one-play drive and winning field goal. Big games for most of the expected receivers, but also rookie wideout Keke Coutee for Houston and rookie runner Nyheim Hines for the Colts. Things won't be that good every week, but they'll be among the hot picks. Comically ineffective days by both ground games, nobody will be asking me if they should start Lamar Miller going forward. Personal note, I was winning like $40 in a $4 entry competition at around 4:15 Eastern. But by the time this overtime period ended, I was down to $15. Boo. Oh yeah, I'm with Frank Reich. Ties suck.
Lions at Cowboys: Exciting game. The Cowboys have found their best wide receiver, and his name is Ezekiel Elliott. Huge game was expected, just not quite as big in the passing game. These weren't all just little dumpoffs, either; on the longer one that set up the winning field goal, Elliott actually looked like a wide receiver. I might have answer a few Golden Tate related questions on Saturday by saying, eh, tough defense, he's one of three good options for Detroit, maybe not a big week for him. Turns out he had a big week, while neither Marvin Jones nor Kenny Golladay did. Rough if you started the wrong one. Good game for Kerryon Johnson (55 yards, TD). Maybe should get more than 9 carries going forward, I'm thinking.
Bengals at Falcons: Wrote about this one, knew it'd be a wild shootout, and still underestimated the performances. Kind of feel bad for the Falcons, offset by my annoyance at Austin Hooper's lack of involvement. Logan Paulsen, of all people, caught a touchdown for Atlanta. But kudos to Andy Dalton, Giovani Bernard, A.J. Green and the rest of the Bengals. A couple more scores for Calvin Ridley, 100-yard games without scores for Jones (natch) and Sanu. Don't look now but the Bengals are 3-1. Broken leg for Tyler Eifert. Some guys just aren't lucky with injuries.
Seahawks at Cardinals: Chris Carson inactive, so the Seahawks started not their struggling rookie but Mike Davis, who rushed for 101 yards and 2 TDs. Seahawks and Cardinals both missed a pair of field goals in this game, but Janikowski made his last attempt to win it, so I guess he gets to keep his job. Cards 0-4 but I didn't think Rosen looked terrible (similar numbers to Russell Wilson, not what you were hoping for if you drafted Wilson), and it was David Johnson's best game of the season. Will Dissly messed up his knee, so I've got an open roster spot across my various leagues.
Browns at Raiders: Kind of a messy game, not that fantasy coaches had to care. But a lot of yards and points left on the field with drops and miscues. For Cleveland, good game for Carlos Hyde, though nerve-wracking for those with Hyde to see Nick Chubb turn 3 carries into 105 yards and 2 TDs. Raiders got a big (touchdown-less) game from Marshawn Lynch, but a monster game from Derek Carr and his up-and-down receiving crew. Except for Jared Cook, who's only been up so far: 110 yards and 2 TDs, he's loving this Gruden offense. Four turnovers from Baker Mayfield, reminding us that it was his first career start, after all.
Saints at Giants: The shootout that wasn't. Alvin Kamara and Sterling Shepard were the only really big games here, Saquon Barkley to a slightly lesser extent. Meanwhile the quarterbacks disappointed and so did both No. 1 wideouts. With the Giants, the offensive line issues remain. Hard to get stuff going downfield when you don't have any time. Saints might have been a little spoiled by how uncoverable Michael Thomas was for three games. Regardless, they got the win with a lesser offensive performance and get Mark Ingram back next week.
49ers at Chargers: This one almost wreaked havoc in a lot of Survivor Pools. Chargers spotted San Francisco 14 but came back to get one they really had to have. Not exactly sure how the 49ers were able to frustrate the passing game with their banged-up secondary, except maybe their backups should be playing more. Big game for Melvin Gordon and then George Kittle for San Francisco, less so for the 49ers running game in a seemingly favorable matchup, and the Chargers passing game. Rivers threw 3 TDs but didn't really have a huge day. Mike Williams with a dud. It happens. Austin Ekeler manages to turn just 10 touches into 56 yards and a TD, it's what he does.
Ravens at Steelers: Ravens were on their way to 21-3 and a dominant win when Alex Collins fumbled at the goal line. I felt bad for the guy, benched for the rest of the half, and not just because he was on my dynasty team. But Ravens won anyway (John Brown making me look good after recommending him over everyone close all last week; he nearly had another touchdown, too, broken up on an awesome play), and Collins did return in the second half. Just maybe we'll continue to see Javorius Allen near the goal line going forward. Steelers cooled off by a really good defense.
Monday, Monday: At least this game's in Denver, so maybe the Broncos can slow Kansas City's offense down. Maybe. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Broncos split the running back workload, and if Case Keenum can have a good game against a soft defense. And selfishly hoping for fewer than 21 points out of Kareem Hunt to get a win. Kansas City 27, Denver 20.