I write these preview columns on Saturday and a lot of things sound good at the time. Benching TreQuan Smith, as a for instance, as I did in a league in favor of TJ Jones. Starting Carson Wentz. Those kind of things. It's frustrating. And then you see teams lose games like the Chargers, Jaguars and Cardinals did yesterday. And think, well, yeah, that's football.
Cowboys at Falcons: This was a battle of field goals for much of the way, before Dallas took a late lead, then Atlanta -- with Julio Jones scoring for the third straight week -- tying it up. But the Cowboys got it done late, and suddenly a team that looked like it would be playing out the string is very much in good shape in the NFC East. Atlanta, defense gutted by injury, is the one more or less playing for next season. Quiet game for Amari Cooper, a reminder that it's not a high-powered passing game in Dallas.
Bengals at Ravens: Lamar Jackson was about as expected, if not more so. He ran the ball 27 times in this game, and that ground game -- added to by undrafted Gus Edwards coming out of nowhere, there's your hot waiver pickup of the week -- was enough for Baltimore to sneak away with a narrow win. Ravens are already saying Joe Flacco probably won't be ready for next week, a sign they knew he wouldn't play this week and probably are in no rush to bring to him back. Joe Mixon was the only noteworthy Bengal to put up fantasy numbers (albeit without running room), which will probably continue until A.J. Green returns (Tyler Boyd was doing a lot better as the No. 2 than the No. 1). Since Jackson is rostered everywhere, Edwards seems like the big story; the guy you save your waiver money for, if you did.
Panthers at Lions:Carolina comes out with a dud for a lot of this one, but DJ Moore had a big game, and the right other Panthers finished with good numbers. Carolina went for 2 after scoring a touchdown with a minute left to get to 20-19. The decision might have been OK, but I think at a bare mininum you have to roll Newton out there so he can use his legs; having him stand flat-footed trying to hit that 2-pointer didn't seem likely to work, and it didn't. Big game for Kenny Golladay, as expected, and we can all stop using TJ Jones, forever; Bruce Ellington had a much better day. Kerryon Johnson left with a knee injury while having a great game, hope it's not serious. Pretty cool touchdown grabs in this game by Golladay and Curtis Samuel.
Titans at Colts:Colts are really good; it feels strange to say this but it's been clear for about 5-6 weeks now. Really good offensive line, great quarterback, improved defense. They might still catch the Texans in the AFC South. Huge game for T.Y. Hilton, Eric Ebron stunningly shut out. Marcus Mariota knocked out with an elbow injury, not that things were going well for the Titans previously. This team beat New England soundly last week but got thrashed today. Disappointing for pretty much every Titan, moving on. Lost a matchup because I dropped the Colts D for Arizona. Ouch.
Bucs at Giants:The career arc of Ryan Fitzpatrick is quite remarkable. Play awesome for a string of games, then proceed to play so poorly that your team doesn't even want you back as a backup a year later. That's where we are. Bucs had little choice but to go back to Winston, even though a major injury would force them to pay him $20 million next year (even though they might not want him back). But Winston tends to look good at times, especially after the team is already way behind, as was the case today. Good game for Peyton Barber, startable with six teams on byes, huge for Saquon Barkley. Big game for Mike Evans, which included luckily falling on a Winston fumble for a touchdown. For the Giants, guys like Engram and Shepard tend to be better when the team is losing, not when they play from ahead the whole game.
Texans at Washington:I guess we need to talk about the gruesome leg injury suffered by Alex Smith (it's apparently a requirement that "gruesome" be included in the description). 33 years to the day after Joe Theismann's injury, you can't make this stuff up. He's out for the year, and Washington moves forward with Colt McCoy the rest of the way. It's not necessarily a downgrade. No offense, Alex. Adrian Peterson had a big game anyway, pretty remarkable. Nice game for Jordan Reed, too. But Houston wins again, with some clutch throws by Deshaun Watson and big field goals by Ka'imi Fairbairn. Still nothing doing for Washington wideouts.
Steelers at Jaguars:This qualifies as one of the more unlikely Steelers wins. Jacksonville dominated this thing for three quarters and a lot of the fourth, but their offense didn't put it away and Pittsburgh crawled back. Steelers threw an end-zone pick in the final minute that should have ended it, but a hold gave Roethlishberger another chance. Gut-wrenching loss for Jacksonville which pretty much sticks a fork in their season. Nice game ultimately for JuJu Smith-Schuster.
Raiders at Cardinals:Here's a game that knocked some people out of Survivor Pools. Watching the Raiders last week it occurred to me that the team was still playing hard, so kudos to them for doing so. Touchdown for Brandon LaFell but he left with an Achilles injury. Doug Martin also left due to injury. But they still had enough to beat a Cardinals team that also beat itself, most notably with a holding penalty on Ricky Seals-Jones wiping out a long David Johnson touchdown. Larry Fitzgerald caught 2 passes, both for TDs, plus a long score for Christian Kirk. 3 TDs for Josh Rosen might make you think he had a good game. He didn't.
Broncos at Chargers:It happens every year. A moment comes along that makes you shake your head and say "Poor Chargers." So this qualifies, they're cruising along to yet another win, and then Philip Rivers, who's having a great season, throws a terrible pick to Von Miller and suddenly a 19-7 lead becomes 19-14, and the Chargers go on to lose on a last-play field goal. Rough. Nice statistical games anyway for all the players you reasonably should have been starting, so there's that. Nice win for the Broncos, great game for Phillip Lindsay.
Eagles at Saints:So, the Eagles did not get an upset here. They weren't even competitive; the Saints look like the NFC's best team right now and it's not that close. It was all Saints from what felt like about the longest game in history. New Orleans had over 300 yards of offense at halftime and could have easily scored 60. Eagles have a lot of defensive injuries, but that doesn't explain their ineptitude on offense. And I understand, sort of, Doug Pederson wanting to get some sort of late confidence building drive going for his offense, but Wentz was out there getting clobbered late in the fourth quarter of a 48-7 loss, maybe not the best idea. Hey, Pederson won a Super Bowl. But still, it seemed odd. I picked the wrong week to bench TreQuan Smith (just like I picked the wrong week to start him the last two). Boo.
Vikings at Bears: As expected. Really good Bears defense that pretty much didn't let Minnesota get anything going until the game was virtually over. I assume Kirk Cousins is getting some heat seeing as he was signed to win games like this one. But the Bears are going to make a lot of quarterbacks (and running backs, like Dalvin Cook) look bad. Disappointing usage for Trey Burton. What the heck, guys. But the Bears defense was the best start in this game. Gotta be kind of impressed by Mitchell Trubisky, especially when he's throwing on the run. Bears are in for some successful seasons coming up, I think.
Monday, Monday: So a huge game in the NFL and in fantasy. Not just Week 11; the winner of this game moves one step closer to being able to rest players early, which will shake up a lot of fantasy leagues. I have one league where we're basically tied, and I've got Hunt and he's got Hill. Will make for interesting game tonight. In another I've got Woods and he's got Gurley. I...do not feel good about that swap, but you never know. Of these teams, the Rams are the one that's struggled on defense lately. BTW, I picked the exact right score in last week's Giants-49ers game. Let's try for two straight. Kansas City 34, Rams 30.