Not a great week for the Don't Bench Your Studs crowd, with guys like Braxton Berrios and Rashaad Penny lighting things up, while CeeDee Lamb and Dalvin Cook flopped. I don't think we can make any sweeping generalizations (cold weather didn't bother the Packers offense), beyond you never know -- don't be afraid to trust a lesser player in a great situation over a great one in a lesser one. Hope all your Super Bowls went well.
Eagles at Football Team: Closer game than expected, with Jalen Hurts not putting up the kind of numbers you'd have hoped for. Boston Scott scored twice; I had Scott in a couple of leagues but left him on the bench with Jordan Howard active and playing. Howard did nothing, but more surprising he didn't get the goal-line opportunity that Scott scored one of his touchdowns on. Good game for Dallas Goedert, as expected. Jaret Patterson scored an early touchdown for Washington. Had him on the same bench I had Scott on, and that decision was less defensible. I meant to start him in a flex spot but didn't get around to it. Oh well. Brandon Aiyuk did OK in that spot.
Rams at Ravens: Crazy game in which the Rams (most notably Matthew Stafford) seemed to do about everything they could to lose, but then proceeded to make enough plays late to win. Tip of the cap to Odell Beckham, who made an impressive 4th-down grab in traffic to set up the winning touchdown, then caught the touchdown with a nifty bit of footwork. Great throws by Stafford, under pressure, too. Usual strong numbers for Cooper Kupp, strong game from Sony Michel. Baltimore loses yet another close game, with Lamar Jackson being missed; the Tyler Huntley offense didn't get in the end zone. Decent game from Mark Andrews as per usual, another quiet one from Marquise Brown.
Buccaneers at Jets: Lots to unpack here. First off, Ronald Jones was a bust because the defending Super Bowl champs came out and fell behind and trailed throughout against a terrible Jets team. Jones also left early with an injury, KeShawn Vaughn and LeVeon Bell were also involved anyway. Then Antonio Brown had a bizarre meltdown involving him throwing his T-shirt into the stands and being cut, presumably after the game but essentially during it. Braxton Berrios had a huge game, rewarding those who believed. My weekend featured a wide variety of questions from people along the lines of, Can I really trust my fantasy Super Bowl to a Jet? I hope you did. Mike Evans scored, I still don't regret not using him. I do regret cutting Cyril Grayson in dynasty, a few hours before snuck free for the game-winning touchdown. Big game for Tom Brady; again, game didn't go exactly as expected, but hopefully you made a few good starts.
Dolphins at Titans: I wish I could say I was surprised the Dolphins got punked in this one. They're not very good, with a winning streak largely based on playing a lot of bad or mediocre teams. Maybe a good win or two in there, but not many. They even managed to give Jaylen Waddle a bad game. Their backfield is a sad joke of marginal committee backs who might do OK if they ever gave one an actual workload. They were so bad that Tennessee's offense also disappointed, at least everyone but D'Onta Foreman. Titans win the South, apparently they still have a shot at the No. 1 seed in the AFC, as well.
Jaguars at Patriots: Neither here nor there but I'm kind of pleased to have picked the five best players from this one for a FanDuel lineup and won a little money. Both Patriots running backs, Mac Jones, Dare Ogunbowale in garbage-time, and one of three different Patriots wide receivers (I used Bourne); winning. It's nice when a game goes the way you want and expect it to. Damien Harris might have scored 4 TDs in this one if he hadn't left early with a hamstring injury; Rhamondre Stevenson panned out great after that. Patriots are going to be a wildcard team no one wants to face, that's for certain.
Raiders at Colts: Mild surprise here. Colts offense didn't actually even play as well as they scored, with the touchdown from Carson Wentz to T.Y. Hilton a crazy heave that deflected off two other people, and Hilton happened to be in the area. Good games from Josh Jacobs, Hunter Renfrow and Zay Jones. Good game from Jonathan Taylor, though it kind of seemed like he should have had even more; lots of plays with the Colts passing it when they probably ought to have been running it. In my opinion.
Kansas City at Bengals: So JaMarr Chase got 55.6 points in PPR leagues. I'm going to need to look into it but I can't remember a wide receiver ever scoring that many points. Unbelievable, and he and Joe Burrow pretty much won the AFC North all by their lonesome with that game. Crazy ending where the Bengals decided to go for it on fourth and goal from the 1 rather than kick a field goal in a tie game (to go up by 3, but risking losing on a late Patrick Mahomes drive). They didn't get it, but penalties gave them additional chances, and ultimately another first down, after which they could run the clock down, spike it (they seemed to almost blow that, with backup Brandon Allen in the game because Joe Burrow got injured, hopefully nothing significant), and then kick the field goal to win. Nice game for Darrel Williams. Marginal running back, but seems to do pretty well in this offense when Clyde Edwards-Helaire is out.
Giants at Bears: Hey, 100-yard rushing performance for Saquon Barkley! Otherwise, not much from New York, which saw Mike Glennon put up the lowest score for a quarterback I've ever seen in one of my leagues -- negative 5.7 points. Not that anyone was starting him, but there are still point totals generated for free agents. New York's 24 passing yards including 2 catches by Devontae Booker and 1 each by Evan Engram and somebody named David Sills, essentially disputing the statement "Well, somebody has to catch some passes..." Because Kenny Golladay didn't catch any, and neither did any other wideouts but someone named David Sills. Good games for David Montgomery and Darnell Mooney, the only guys you needed to start.
Falcons at Bills: Weird game with the Bills struggling early and Josh Allen making a few ill-advised throws, enabling the Falcons to lead and look like they might hang around for a while. And then Devin Singletary and Allen started making positive plays, the Falcons were the Falcons, and the Bills won going away. Bad sequence toward the end where Matt Ryan scored on a rushing touchdown, spiked the ball, and drew a 15-yard flag. And then some crazy review showed that Ryan had actually touched his knee down before even getting in the end zone, turning a touchdown to pull Atlanta within a score into a fourth and forever. Ugly stuff. Josh Allen had a pair of rushing scores, hurting his receivers, and Mike Davis scored for Atlanta, hurting Cordarrelle Patterson. Game played in the snow, fun to watch but not if you had receivers going.
Texans at 49ers: After a slow start, the 49ers took care of business, mostly with defense. But Trey Lance worked out, making enough plays with his legs and through the air, Elijah Mitchell was a workhorse, and two of the three receivers you should have started worked out. Not George Kittle, unfortunately, who was doing more blocking. Strong performance for Deebo Samuel, who nearly had a second score (Lance also had a rushing score erased). For Houston, Brandin Cooks was the only strong producer, a story we've seen many times.
Broncos at Chargers: An unpleasant no-show by the Broncos. I got a lot of Javonte Williams questions this week, which is fine, he's a talented back and he was facing a soft run defense. We ranked him just inside the top 20, so a starter in most leagues. But people were choosing between say Damien Harris and Javonte, and there's no comparison. One guy's in a committee on a team that's gonna lose. The other is the feature back on a team that's gonna win big. Anyway, disaster game for the Broncos, Noah Fant (given the team's wide receiver absences) was the lone strong performer, having his best game of the season. Key Chargers put up good but not great numbers, so at least that projection worked out.
Panthers at Saints: A breakaway touchdown run by Chuba Hubbard was the lone highlight of this one for Carolina. Sam Darnold struggled, as expected, unfortunately he took the entire passing game, including DJ Moore, down with him. ugly stuff. Saints got a big receiving game out of Alvin Kamara -- so it's possible, even with Taysom Hill -- and a good one out of Marquez Callaway. Saints in the playoff picture, with a defense that could make for an ugly low-scoring postseason encounter with someone, if things go their way next week.
Lions at Seahawks: I've said a lot of unkind things about Rashaad Penny. I take them back, he was huge for me this week. And in recent weeks, the ones where I had the nerve to start him. At home, lousy opposing defense, probably Russell Wilson's last home game -- everything broke well for Penny to help a lot of teams win their fantasy Super Bowls. And he's going to get paid in the offseason, maybe by Seattle. Probably should have put more stock in Wilson having his best game in months as a Farewell, Seattle; sometimes it happens, sometimes not. Still didn't work out for Tyler Lockett, did for DK Metcalf. Limited work for D'Andre Swift, yet another great game in defeat for Amon-Ra St. Brown. Somewhere teams were starting a Lion and a Jet and winning fantasy Super Bowls. Crazy game.
Cardinals at Cowboys: Can we blame Mike McCarthy when the Cowboys come out flat, as they do every other week or so? I suppose -- no, I know -- there are some who blame Dak Prescott; I think they're wildly outnumbered, though, by those of us who wonder what exactly McCarthy is doing. Anyway, Dallas didn't show up until the game was almost over. Free-agent-to-be Michael Gallup apparently tore his ACL, which is one of those things you hate to see anyway, and the timing makes it even worse. Not a great game for Arizona's offense, but it was good enough. Two weeks in a row the Cardinals tricked some media member into believing James Conner was going to play only to make him inactive; nice, guys.
Vikings at Packers: It would be hard to say that Kirk Cousins would have made a huge difference, but maybe. Certainly it would have helped Dalvin Cook and Justin Jefferson finish with better numbers; maybe a 37-24 loss rather than 37-10. But nothing was slowing down the Aaron Rodgers train lately, and maybe this will be the year they get back to the Super Bowl. They certainly look a lot better than everyone else these days.
Monday, Monday: Sunday's results eliminated the Browns, making this one a lot less interesting. Maybe they'll have the emotion of playing spoiler, although nobody really thinks Pittsburgh is going to the playoffs anyway, since it requires the Colts losing to Jacksonville. Not impossible, but kind of unlikely. I think there will be a lot of running from both teams in this game, and have to think the Steelers do enough to get a win over a deflated opponent. Steelers 24, Browns 20.