By now (if not a month ago) you know what your fantasy team is. Either you've got Gurley or Mahomes and are pretty much winning every week, or you've got a nice mix of 2-3 high-scoring guys like Barkley and Gordon and are winning more often than not. Or you drafted Devonta Freeman or somebody else who has been or is now hurt. The high-scoring shootouts continue across the league; hope you're on the right side of them.
Titans versus Chargers across the pond: Chargers dominate the first half (I had pancakes), Titans the second half (I drank coffee). Disappointing game for Austin Ekeler as Rivers hit a couple of long bombs for touchdowns, reducing the team matriculating the ball down the field. Titans showed fight and hit on some plays to Tajae Sharpe (started by pretty much no one), eventually scoring the touchdown to pull within one -- and going for 2. So going for 2 there looks bold and admirable if you get it, not so much if you don't. And if your plays (they got two chances thanks to a penalty) are both Mariota throws into traffic, well, it looks foolhardy. If you started a Titans running back, you made out OK. Tennessee will work on its offense over the bye, Chargers are 5-2.
Patriots at Bears: Guess I shouldn't have underestimated the Patriots. Special teams was huge in this one; Cordarrelle Patterson had a kick return touchdown, plus the Bears let the Patriots block a punt for another score. Sony Michel left due to injury, helping James White have a huge day. Patriots roll on, not really missing Gronk evidently. (Defense not too good, though.) That's a couple of poor weeks in a row for the Bears defense, with Khalil Mack playing hurt, and maybe he shouldn't be. Made the mistake of benching Trey Burton, we'll see how bad I feel after Austin Hooper's game tonight. Probably bad. Bears completed a Hail Mary at the end. To the 1-yard-line.
Bills at Colts: Turns out signing a veteran quarterback off the street to be your third-string guy and starting him a week later might not work out. In fairness, LeSean McCoy left early with a concussion, so that didn't help either. But I made the Colts my Survivor pick on the idea they were better than their 1-5 record, and so they are. Hey, the NFC South looks pretty wide open with the Jaguars falling all over themselves these days, so you never know. Colts one game out of 2nd. Another good game (TDs) for Andrew Luck, his receivers caught touchdowns, Marlon Mack had a big game running the ball.
Texans at Jaguars: Hard to believe how close Blake Bortles came to leading the upset at Foxboro in last year's AFC Championship game. Seven games later, he's benched for Cody Kessler. But he's been pretty bad (since beating the Patriots again in Week 2, ironically enough) and I guess it had to happen. As his coach later noted, he wasn't the only guy who deserved to be benched. Jacksonville defense isn't looking as impressive, although your quarterback fumbling near his own end zone doesn't help. Good game for DeAndre Hopkins (not Deshaun Watson, though, who Bill O'Brien says is playing hurt) and even a Lamar Miller touchdown. But at least Jacksonville has an extra running back option for next week.
Lions at Dolphins: Dolphins were able to make a game of it thanks to a long Kenyan Drake touchdown (finally) and a short Kenny Stills one. But the big story was Kerryon Johnson, who's finally given the Lions a running game. Detroit did not miss Theo Riddick, something I've been saying for the last three years or so. Guess I need to bench Marvin Jones, who seems to be just a guy these days. Thanks for 2017, Marvin. Dolphin defense has slipped, Lions suddenly multidimensional offense is playing well.
Vikings and Jets: Big win for the Vikings, who won with defense early and offense late. Latavius Murray, Adam Thielen, Kirk Cousins ultimately. Jets look good when they're beating up on bad teams, not so much against better ones. Guess that's true of everyone. Noteworthy for their absence: Jets wide receivers, even the healthy ones like Jermaine Kearse (2 targets, no catches). Sam Darnold looked like an overmatched rookie against this defense, predictably. Nice game off the bench for Trenton Cannon (Bilal Powell, neck injury), we'll see if he gets more chances (although Elijah McGuire eligible to return soon).
Panthers at Eagles: Wild game that shows what a fine line it is between winning and losing. Eagles dominated most of the game before Carolina mounted a comeback. Scored the winning touchdown on a final-minutes drive that included a flukey fourth-down completion and then a fourth-down touchdown. Eagles got the ball back and got near the end zone on a long penalty (correct), but a couple of near-misses that would have won the game. Tough being the defending champs. Thought the Eagles would win but steered clear of this one in picks pools because of the athletic ability of Cam Newton. Guy is a tough out. Greg Olsen caught the winning touchdown but only one other pass.
Browns at Bucs: The Browns have played four overtime games this year. Four! Is it a measure of GOOD coaching that they're able to force all these extra sessions, or BAD coaching, that they're 1-2-1 in those games? Whatever. They're a very competitive team, I guess. Good game for Nick Chubb, good game late for Mayfield, Landry, Njoku. Not as much offense as you were hoping for, but quietly the Bucs are 3-3. Bucs still can't run the ball at all and Peyton Barber had a touchdown vultured by Ronald Jones.
Saints at Ravens: This game was about as expected, with the Saints struggling for a lot of the day but (unfortunately for the Ravens) staying close enough to win at the end. Suppose we should have known eventually Lamar Jackson would steal a touchdown from a player or two (John Brown tackled just short of the goal line on what would have been his first of two TDs). Kamara and Thomas ultimately finished with solid numbers, best you didn't bench them. Justin Tucker missing an extra point the main story, I guess, because it had never happened before. But probably not scoring more in the first place a bigger issue.
Cowboys at Washington: A sack/fumble/defensive touchdown against Dak Prescott where it kind of almost looked like Prescott threw the ball out of the end zone to avoid a safety was pivotal here. Dallas almost won or at least tied anyway, but they'd certainly have won except for that play. Nice game for Adrian Peterson, big-play touchdown grab for Michael Gallup. Pregame reports that Dallas is looking at trading for a wide receiver, and Kelvin Benjamin's name came up. Not seeing the upgrade there. Washington won with no wide receivers, so I guess it can be done. But Jordan Reed did nothing, either. Rough game to use any Washington players but Adrian Peterson.
Rams at 49ers: Nothing much to see here. Not as much as you'd like out of Goff, but decent games out of Cooks and Woods and the usual great game out of Todd Gurley. Maybe the short week worked against San Francisco, plus losing a heartbreaker. Plus the might just be a lot worse than the Rams.
Bengals at Kansas City: Fun to watch Kansas City, looks like they can do pretty much anything. Kareem Hunt went at 2.06 of my rookie draft a year ago, which shows how people make mistakes. Of course Patrick Mahomes slipped to the 10th pick of the draft in a quarterback-desperate league, too. Bengals disappointed on offense in this one, that's actually three straight where they kind of underperformed. And the way Kansas City is piling up points, they might be able to hide their own defensive flaws a little bit. No stopping them now.
Monday, Monday: Having drafted Sterling Shepard, Evan Engram and Austin Hooper in a number of leagues, I have more than a passing interest in tonight's game. Having also been burned by Eli Manning in other favorable matchups (Saints, Eagles) I have only mild optimism about the outcome. But the Falcons' injury-ravaged defense has been consistently soft, so one hopes it will be soft enough. A Giants win would pretty much destroy Atlanta's season and knock a whole bunch of people out of my Survivor pool, but not sure I'm bold enough to pick it. But what the heck. Giants 27, Falcons 24.