Does it feel like there have been more shocking upsets the last two weeks? My Survivor Pool had 100 participants just 8 days ago and has been slashed down to just 4 after another week of favored teams laying eggs. Several fantasy upsets too. Hope more of your teams overcame than didn't.
Bills at Jets: Good old fashioned whupping. Shall we talk about Matt Breida? He hadn't even been active since Week 2. Fortunately the Jets are equal opportunity blowout victims, so you got touchdowns if you started either Zack Moss or Devin Singletary, too. The Mike White quarterback controversy talk should die down this week, also any worries about the Bills struggling on offense. But the Jets don't offer any defensive resistance these days. Garbage-time touchdown for Michael Carter, which was nice for those who started him.
Bucs at Football Team: This one was a pretty big surprise. Tampa Bay didn't have Gronk or Antonio Brown, but they didn't have those guys for a bunch of recent wins. Evidently the bye treated Washington better than it did Tampa Bay. Bucs came to play, Antonio Gibson wound up punching in 2 TDs, some big throws by Taylor Heinicke and big receptions by Terry McLaurin. Ricky Seals-Jones seemed to be on his way to a good day before leaving in the second quarter with a hip injury after a reception. Unfortunate. Not sure what the issue was with the Bucs offense, but obviously it wasn't good enough. Chase Young left with what apparently might be a torn ACL, making what's been a bad defense even worse the rest of the way. But it was good enough yesterday.
Falcons at Cowboys: So the Week 1 Falcons showed up again, which they've generally done against good teams (but fooled us last week by upsetting New Orleans). Dallas, even more so than Buffalo, bounced back big time from last week's upset loss, with Dak hitting a couple of insane throws, including a touchdown to CeeDee Lamb, and Lamb and Elliott both having monster games. Dallas offense did pretty much whatever it wanted. Atlanta...maybe they bounce back, but it was a really ugly performance by Matt Ryan and company.
Saints at Titans: You don't like to say officials decided a game, but they sure helped. In a close game, a Titans drive had just ended with an end-zone interception. But a dubious roughing the passer call gave the Titans first and goal, they scored to go up 10, and that was pretty much the game. Not a great moment. I guess there's always bad officiating, and maybe this year is no worse than others. But it sometimes feels like it. D'Onta Foreman looked pretty good (to me) running the ball. Jeremy McNichols almost made a spectacular touchdown catch, couldn't hang on. Saints limited the Titans offense, but not by enough (with the officials' help) to get the win. Poor game for A.J. Brown. Easy touchdown run for Mark Ingram, and other startable Saints had decent games. TreQuan Smith looks more like the No. 1 than Marquez Callaway. But a second straight tough loss for New Orleans.
Jaguars at Colts: This game started out like a Colts blowout; looked like Jonathan Taylor would run for 8-10 yards on every play and the Colts would dominate. And they did, early, but the Jaguars hung around kicking field goals and whatnot, and suddenly it was 20-17 in the fourth quarter. Nifty touchdown run by Jamal Agnew, a tough short touchdown by James Robinson, not enough good plays in the passing game for the Colts. Guess the Jaguars have figured some things out defensively, after shutting down Buffalo last week and playing credibly for much of this one. But Colts win.
Lions at Steelers: Mason Rudolph wasn't particularly good. Maybe not terrible, but he missed some throws. Steelers fairly lucky to get a tie, with Ryan Santoso missing an overtime field goal and an extra point beforehand. Regular kicker Austin Seibert out. That kind of year for Detroit. Early touchdown for James Washington, rewarding those who started him, but not really a big game -- more looks and catches for Ray-Ray McCloud, who seemed to take some grabs away from Najee Harris. Harris, incidentally, had an early touchdown erased by a penalty. Always frustrating. Anyway, Lions won't go 0-17, but the way Jared Goff looked throughout this game, they won't necessarily win one, either.
Browns at Patriots: So benching Rhamondre Stevenson, and recommending against Rhamondre over the weekend, leaves a mark. I wasn't comfortable that Belichick would feature him after he didn't practice all week, and I was wary of the matchup with Cleveland's tough run defense. Obviously none of that stuff mattered. Sorry if you were hurt by it. Not only was the Cleveland defense terrible yesterday, it kind of looked like they weren't trying very hard in the second half. Like they were making business decisions as far as tackling and so forth. Anyway, Browns were terrible, Bake Mayfield got hurt (after being terrible), Patriots have really upped their game lately. Jakobi Meyers first touchdown, I hope he got the ball.
Vikings at Chargers: Pretty entertaining game, though a disappointment for Chargers fans. A lot of very close plays that could have gone either way that favored Minnesota. Couple of semi-fortunate touchdowns for Tyler Conklin, a critical dropped touchdown by Mike Williams late where he seemed unsure of how to position his hands to catch it; weird. Vikings as we noted last week could have a much better record; next week they have a chance to knock off the Packers (so they'll probably pick the worst possible time to play their worst game).
Panthers at Cardinals: Another big upset, not just because the Cardinals lost but because it wasn't even close. Carolina let P.J. Walker do most of the quarterbacking except for the key goal-line sequences, which they gave to Cam Newton (who delivered 2 TDs). Nice contract he's got there! Be glad you got a touchdown out of James Conner, because game script was against him from the get-go. Cardinals have an interesting choice this week -- with a Week 12 bye, they could hold Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins out another week, or bring them back. I think Murray at least plays. Carolina, having moved on from Sam Darnold, looks like they'll be a playoff factor in the NFC.
Eagles at Broncos: My son's a Broncos fan, and safe to say he's done with Vic Fangio, Teddy Bridgewater and to a lesser extent Melvin Gordon. To an extent I agree with him. The offense has been a huge disappointment in most games, and Bridgewater as per usual flashes the occasional good game. But too often he just doesn't see or misses open receivers (like Jerry Jeudy basically throughout this game), and Denver, still, and always, needs an upgrade at the position. They passed on both Justin Fields and Mac Jones for a cornerback, as did Carolina, decisions which look pretty suspect today. Philadelphia did its usual stuff on offense and had the defensive play of the game, forcing a Melvin Gordon short-yardage fumble that was pivotal. Javonte Williams had a 20-yard touchdown run called back by a holding penalty, or he'd have worked out much better for you.
Seahawks at Packers: Weather? Wilson coming off finger injury/Rodgers coming off COVID? Just one of those weeks where both offenses sucked? Lots of options for what happened in this train wreck. The weather didn't look so bad, but maybe more of a factor than it seemed. Wilson in particular just looked rusty, understandably, but considering it was a 3-0 game that Seattle could have won with better offense, maybe they rushed him back and were hurt because of it. Green Bay defense is legit, but doesn't seem to be that legit. Guess we'll see when they play the Vikings next week. Season looking pretty much over for Seattle. Aaron Jones left with a knee injury that's being called a sprained MCL. Should be AJ Dillon in the lineup for the next month, and he's looked better for the past few weeks anyway.
Kansas City at Raiders: So Patrick Mahomes and the offense shook off their past month struggles in this game. Mahomes, Hill, Kelce and Darrel Williams all put up big numbers, dominating throughout. The Raiders continued their slide, which seems to be a seasonal thing but probably isn't helped by the off-field distractions they've been enduring. Las Vegas falling behind killed the ground game potential, fortunately Josh Jacobs was involved as a receiver, giving him some modest production. One catch for DeSean Jackson, disappointing game for Darren Waller. But both guys could/should have scored, with Jackson losing a fumble and a Waller score getting erased by a penalty.
Monday, Monday: This game will answer a lot of questions about what the future holds for Van Jefferson. Breakout potential No. 2, or lightly used No. 3. Report over the weekend that Ben Skrowneck will be used to replace Robert Woods, at least as far as blocking; I don't think Skrowneck is going to catch a bunch of passes. Nor do I think that Odell Beckham returning punts, as was also reported, is particularly wise or likely, but I guess it's a way to get him on the field early in his Rams career. Also a way to get him injured. In any case, Rams are a lot better and should put up good numbers, but the game's in San Francisco and the 49ers have played them tough. And it's a year where it's risk to make assumptions. But I'll go Rams 24, 49ers 23.