The season is really limping to its close, with big names either missing games or playing after missing a lot of practice time and underachieving. We can only hope this is a one-time thing, and a year from now we'll all be sitting around saying Ho ho, remember last year when all those stars missed the fantasy playoffs; glad that's behind us. Winning right now seems more like a feat of luck and endurance than excellence.
Browns at Packers: Packers win close, but it was weird, because they seemed to dominate and had 4 interceptions, but could easily have lost. Rough game for Baker Mayfield, though he and the Browns really did get rooked on a non-call on the final interception, when a field goal would have won it. Great game for Nick Chubb, and of course Davante Adams. Allen Lazard worked out as the No. 2 (should have had 2 TDs).
Colts at Cardinals: When the Cardinals have only one running back available, that guy is very good. So Chase Edmonds was great in this one, as James Conner had been great without Edmonds. But that was really all that was good for the Cardinals offense, and they again had a curious coaching decision late, opting to kick a field goal from the 10-yard line while trailing by 9 points in the final minute...on 3rd down. Really no good explanation for it. You're that close, you use another 5 seconds to try to get the touchdown. Kingsbury has been making these decisions for weeks in narrow losses. With the Colts, a disappointing game for Jonathan Taylor, as disappointing as it can be when you rush for 108. No TDs, no catches, and 43 yards came on Indy's first play. Good game for Michael Pittman though, and a Colts win.
Giants at Eagles: New York did a better job than anticipated on Jalen Hurts, but Hurts did throw a couple of late touchdowns to salvage a decent fantasy day (although no rushing production, oddly). But the receivers except DeVonta Smith disappointed, Miles Sanders left with injury (kind of seems to happen a lot...), so the running back nobody started, Boston Scott, got to score. The Giants offense, well, Jake Fromm set quarterbacking back by about half a century, and Mike Glennon took over in time to throw a Pick Six, thrilling those who started the Eagles defense. Moving on.
Rams at Vikings: Matthew Stafford was crazy careless throwing interceptions in this game, helping a Vikings team that looked much, much worse than the Rams hang around for most of the game. But good numbers (ultimately) for Cooper Kupp, humorously triple-teamed at times near the goal line, preventing him from scoring. Strong game for featured Sony Michel, Darrell Henderson a strict backup right now. Cold. K.J. Osborn paid off in this one after flopping last week, of course no one started him because Adam Thielen started (and limped off during the game). Nice games also for Alexander Mattison and Justin Jefferson, in defeat.
Bills at Patriots: Watching this game it seemed like the Bills were continually marching into the red zone, kind of like the end of their home loss to New England. But there was a dropped touchdown by Emmanuel Sanders, a missed throw or miscue by Josh Allen, Zack Moss tripping over his own feet near the goal line. And Buffalo couldn't stop Damien Harris, at all, so it was 26-21 late in the game and the Bills needed to convert a fourth down to secure the win. They did, with Allen keeping it and making a couple of nifty moves to elude tackles, the play I'd been hollering for on all their failed red-zone plays in the previous game. Nice outing for Devin Singletary, again, I'm glad for him. Patriots defense a disappointment, fantasy and otherwise. Big win for the Bills, Mac Jones and New England's passing game looked pretty mortal. I saw N'Keal Harry drop at least one pass, not sure how many chances New England plans to give him.
Bucs at Panthers: Panthers a lot better defending the pass all season than the run, so we ranked Tom Brady fairly conservatively (and even then, not conservatively enough), and Ronald Jones favorably. Jones was getting a breather when KeShawn Vaughn had a long early touchdown, but fortunately Jones punched one in late, salvaging a good even though it should have been great day. There was a pass play near the goal line where Jones didn't turn to look quick enough, let the ball bounce off his hands; probably why he's been behind Fournette. Panthers, well, it's not often you don't have any players with even 12 PPR points, but Carolina achieved it yesterday.
Jaguars at Jets: Not to overlook the good in this one, like Braxton Berrios having a nice receiving game and a kick return score, Michael Carter rushing for over 100 yards, and Zach Wilson having a crazy touchdown run in part of his nice day. But I'm hung up on Jacksonville, with Trevor Lawrence again failing to throw a single touchdown, and the bizarre game-ending sequence where he spiked the ball to kill the clock near the goal line -- on third and goal with 12 seconds left. (That fourth-down play, besides being incomplete, would have been erased by a motion penalty anyway.) No reason not to run an actual play there, since you don't need 12 seconds to run a fourth and goal play. Sad. More sad: James Robinson suffering an Achilles injury. Anyway, some nice production here, as you might expect with two lousy defenses, but in no way a good game to watch.
Lions at Falcons: Another good game for Amon-Ra St. Brown, faring as well with Tim Boyle as Jared Goff. Kyle Pitts went over 100 yards for Atlanta, alas the touchdown went to No. 2 Hayden Hurst. Lions were competitive as always, but Boyle throwing a pick in the final minute near the goal line with a chance to win was pretty unsurprising. Craig Reynolds-Jamaal Williams committee, and D'Andre Swift probably returns next week.
Chargers at Texans: So clearly Rex Burkhead heard about all the unflattering comments I've lobbed his way this season, although really it's less about Burkhead specifically than the ridiculous committee the Texans have employed all year. So today, perhaps because someone connected with the team had Burkhead on their fantasy roster, he got two-thirds of the carries, and the Chargers defense that had been playing better against the run of late completely fell apart. Huge game for Burkhead, on fantasy benches everywhere. Even Chris Conley and Nico Collins had double-digit points and touchdowns. On the other side, we have Exhibit A on why it's a good idea to have your starting running back's backup -- even though it wasn't always clear who that player was -- with Justin Jackson doing a pretty good Austin Ekeler impression, albeit losing a costly fumble along the way. But Jackson probably won some people playoff matchups, including one of my opponents, most likely. Can't play defense in fantasy football. Bad time for another Justin, Herbert, to have a not-very-good game, although his defense didn't help.
Ravens at Bengals: Mark Andrews, man, he doesn't care who his quarterback is. He's killing it these days. But the big story here was Joe Burrow lighting up the Ravens, again, something I knew that he'd done in the previous meeting, and that the matchup was fine for quarterbacks, but surely the Ravens would rise up, missing cornerbacks and all, and do a slightly better job this time? No, they didn't. Burrow, Higgins, Boyd and Chase all shredded the Ravens in embarrassing fashion -- three wide receivers with over 17 fantasy points (Higgins was far, far over). And Joe Mixon even scored twice. At least the Ravens didn't lose a heartbreaker, I guess. Two different backup quarterbacks have now put up good numbers in Baltimore's offense, hmm.
Bears at Seahawks: A weird game that was played on a snow-covered field in the snow, but although it started out with lots of running, passing numbers weren't that bad. DK Metcalf caught a touchdown, David Montgomery and Gerald Everett had quality receiving numbers, Darnell Mooney was OK. Rashaad Penny had a good day running it, but the biggest plays came late, with another Jimmy Graham touchdown followed by one of the more incredible 2-point conversions to win it that you'll ever see. Exciting game that will be a nice memory for Matt Nagy one day.
Steelers at Kansas City: This is what happens when a mediocre team that's managed to win a couple of nail-biters lately runs into a good team that's really been hitting its stride of late. Not much to say about Pittsburgh, decent game ultimately for Najee Harris, Diontae Johnson caught a meaningless late touchdown, nice for those who started him, but I keep seeing him losing a soft fumble, dropping an early third down, and generally contributing to a disastrous offensive performance. The other element here is of course Tyreek Hill catching just 2 passes on 2 targets. I'm thinking the people who had Kelce generally made out better than those with Hill, because at least you could probably replace Kelce with someone who did something. I thought I'd received a gift by Hill being active, but instead I left a 17-point wideout on my bench. Oh well. Clyde Edwards-Helaire collarbone injury, which is usually a long-term injury (fantasy-wise, of course, there is no long-term at this point).
Broncos at Raiders: Ugly game, as a lot of recent games involving either of these teams have been, so not surprising a game featuring both of them was. Raiders ran it pretty well, mostly with Josh Jacobs, though alas he was getting a breather after taking the offense down near the goal line when Peyton Barber vultured a touchdown. Denver running game was nonexistent, those of us who started Javonte got lucky that he got set up near the goal line after an interception that really should have been a Pick Six. Drew Lock makes occasional throws that look pretty good, but they're outnumbered by the bad.
Football Team at Cowboys: This one was ugly -- or beautiful, if you had most anything connected with Dallas -- from the get-go. Dak Prescott moved the offense through Washington's squabbling defense like a hot knife through butter. Taylor Heinicke chucked up a bomb on his first play from scrimmage that was easily intercepted, and he looked kind of shell-shocked from that moment forward. As the rout moved forward the thought of piling up garbage-time numbers from Washington players was quickly pushed aside by the grim reality that Washington's offense was going to struggle to even get first downs, let alone mounting drives. Any production you got from Gibson/McLaurin and ultimately John Bates on a lucky late touchdown was a gift. This was an eyesore of a game.
Monday, Monday: Speaking of eyesores, I'm thinking Ian Book versus the Dolphins and Tua Tagovailoa versus the Saints will be unappetizing, too. There are probably some fantasy matchups hanging on performances of one of these defenses, Mike Gesicki, and Alvin Kamara, but maybe not many. Low-scoring, defense-oriented, and ugly will probably rule the day. I'll take the Saints, 20-17.