We've had good luck with Thursday night games this season. I was going to say it'll end soon, but in fact in the next six weeks we've got Bengals-Ravens, Commanders-Eagles, Packers-Lions, and Rams-49ers. A couple of duds (two Cleveland appearances?), but Amazon Prime bought a good season this year. Including last night.

QUARTERBACKS

Hey, did you hear the trade rumor about the Rams shipping Matthew Stafford off to the Vikings? Just the 2nd-most popular rumor involving a Rams player in recent weeks. Rams are a game out of first in the NFC West and 1st-place Seattle faces Buffalo this week. Anyway, Stafford threw 4 touchdowns last night, seemingly benefitting from having both of his elite wideouts back on the field, go figure. Also benefitted from a couple of soft pass interference penalties along the way, but was really accurate, made a couple of remarkable plays to elude sacks before touchdowns ("elusive" is not a word commonly used in association with Stafford these days) and made a lot of people glad they started him. Hey I used him in best-ball, let's go! If the Rams are 7-5 and leading the West a month from now, the Rams will be glad they didn't try to deal the guy.

Sam Darnold started off strong, leading a couple of methodical touchdown drives while connecting with Justin Jefferson time after time. And then...it went away, with some errant throws, heavy pressure (losing Christian Darrisaw on a play just before the half that absolutely should not have been called was a factor; just take a knee guys), and oh yeah the most blatant facemask that wasn't called in league history resulting in a safety and essentially ending the game. The cracks in Darnold's game have crept in of late. But the next three are against bad AFC South teams and Darnold and company will look pretty good when they're sitting at 8-2, which they will be. Side note, Darnold threw his touchdowns to two players (Josh Oliver and Trent Sherfield) who I'm confident saying won't catch another touchdown all season. Read the room, Sam.

RUNNING BACKS

I understand that Aaron Jones is three years older than Josh Jacobs, but a case can be made that Green Bay should have just kept him around rather than demanding a paycut, cutting him when he balked, and signing Josh Jacobs. Jones' final numbers weren't great (3.1 yards per attempt and he didn't score), I understand, but he looked better than that for most of the game. Jones clearly wasn't bothered at all by a recent hip/hamstring injury. Ty Chandler played 2 snaps and didn't touch the ball, so I'm leaving his name unbolded.

In the realm of dynasty league missteps, we have Kyren Williams, who I drafted in the third round two years ago and then cut over the summer after his first season. So I didn't benefit from his fantastic second season or what's been a similarly great third season. I do have him in some leagues this year, since no one wanted to draft him this summer, confident that Blake Corum would be making things into a committee or something. Corum might be a thing one day, but right now he's a barely used change-of-pace while Williams is scoring every week. Five catches and a touchdown to go with 97 rushing yards last night. Rams host the Colts next week, bet the over on Kyren.

WIDE RECEIVERS

Believe it or not, Puka Nacua actually did play limited snaps last night -- 57% according to the official gamebook. Thank heavens I didn't start him! Well, he did help a best-ball team or two, at least. Nacua was involved right from the beginning, with 9 targets, 2 runs and 7 catches and 111 total yards. No touchdowns, but there were a couple of plays on the second touchdown drive that were close: catch down to the 14, running play down to the 7 that looked like it had a chance. Puka is locked in lineups the rest of the way. Apologies to those who didn't start him last night. I was one of them and I regret it, but I also understand why I had reservations from a guy who'd barely practiced leading up to the game.

Cooper Kupp also played under 60 percent of the snaps, and because he's older perhaps he looked rustier than Nacua. They both had early drops, but Kupp also went out of bounds when he shouldn't have and was very fortunate to give you a good stat line at all. There was an early pass interference that was iffy at best and his touchdown came on a play where I'm comfortable saying Stafford gets sacked 8 times out of 10. But he caught a touchdown and got us all 16-plus PPR points, and he too is locked in lineups the rest of the way. I'm not saying the trade rumors weren't real, but hopefully they'll go away with the Rams now in 2nd place (and last, I suppose) and just a game out of 1st in the NFC West. Why the Rams would be sellers (this is a team that has seldom cared much about draft picks in recent years) didn't make sense to me a few days ago and definitely doesn't today.

Demarcus Robinson caught 2 TDs yet could arguably be dropped this week, which is one of the weirdest things I could write yet accurate. Those were his only catches last night, just 1 other target, and he's averaging just 4 targets and 2 receptions per week. Hard to figure. Definitely droppable are Tutu Atwell and the injured Jordan Whittington. Unless or until Nacua or Kupp gets injured, they are not usable.

Big game for Justin Jefferson, although it's shall we say inexplicable that he caught 6 of Darnold's first 10 pass attempts for 74 yards, and then proceed to catch 2 balls on just 3 targets in the final 2.5 quarters. Did the Rams sneak Deion Sanders or Darrelle Revis onto the field for the second half? Most of it was Darnold's protection breaking down from not having Darrisaw, but it's hard to understand how they couldn't get Jefferson a few more looks. None of Minnesota's other receivers did anything either, with Jordan Addison and Jalen Nailor each catching 2 passes, with one of the latter's missed connections a costly drop. There were a couple of defenders there who maybe screened Nailor a little, or perhaps he was expecting Darnold to keep running -- I'm trying to be diplomatic here. But a pretty big play. Nailor had a nice game against Detroit but he too is averaging just 2 catches per week.

TIGHT ENDS

Nothing to see here. Colby Parkinson has no value with Kupp and Nacua back and has disappointed most weeks for longer than that. I've heard nothing about when Tyler Higbee might return, but that's a further negative for Parkinson's outlook. Vikings held T.J. Hockenson out of another game and you wonder a little if they're regretting it after a pair of close losses where he might have made a difference. But I haven't examined the guy's knee so whatever.

MISCELLANEOUS

It's hard to understand how the ref staring right at the play missed the facemask in the end zone that denied us a final Vikings drive that could have made for an exciting ending. Darnold's head almost came off his neck; how exactly did the ref figure the tackle occurred? Not reviewable, which is ridiculous in itself, but there's just no way the call shouldn't have made in the first place. It was not difficult. I understand that some plays are reviewable and some are not. But the entire point of instant replay is preventing the league from looking bad when critical, game-changing calls are missed due to human error. And that was one of them.

So the Rams are in the mix for the NFC West, and I don't think we'll see Kupp or Stafford traded. The Vikings have slipped to 5-2, but with the Colts, Jaguars and Titans the next three weeks, they're going to be 7-3 at a minimum and probably 8-2. They've got some issues, like trying to figure out how they went three quarters without getting in the end zone against a lousy Rams defense, but should be good enough to put it together. Getting Hockenson back, presumably next week, will help.