Bad day for home fans. Road teams went 8-4 yesterday, with six one-score wins and a bunch of last-second field goals and final-minute touchdowns involved. Lots of crazy scores, and of course, some rough injuries. Starting with a wild shootout, ending with an ugly blowout.
Bears at Bengals: "Colston Loveland, good spot for a breakout game." Indeed. It was even before his game-winning touchdown, required by some late Joe Flacco magic (guess that shoulder was OK) and a successful onside kick and then enabled by 2 Cincinnati defenders horrifically blowing a tackle. The range of emotions experienced by Bengals fans watching that game is hard to fathom, but when you don't have a defense, I guess it shouldn't be that surprising. Crazy up and down game for Caleb Williams, hard to explain shutout for Rome Odunze (no one saw that coming; I will note that he did drop a touchdown) and a monster game for seventh-round rookie Kyle Monangai, although he sadly got kept out of the end zone. Big game for Flacco and his receiving corp, really tough loss (maybe some solace in the fact you don't normally recover onside kicks? I dunno).
Vikings at Lions: Didn't see this one coming, something about the Lions occasionally brings good games out of the Vikings. J.J. McCarthy doesn't exactly look smooth out there but he does have some playmaking ability, benefiting his receivers. Lions had a couple of miscues, fumble and blocked field goals and whatnot, letting this one get away. Hard to imagine they'll be able to catch the Packers in the NFC North...wait, what's that?
Panthers at Packers: Apparently I jinxed the Packers by saying they'd win this one easily. I mean, they were 14-point favorites. But the Panthers came to play, their defense is better this year, and the Packers offense had some red-zone failures (I was in trade talks to acquire Jordan Love in dynasty this week, glad today that those didn't amount to a deal). Big game for Rico Dowdle (good since his quarterback threw for 102), rough game for Brandon McManus, who badly missed a 43-yard field goal (while counterpart Ryan Fitzgerald nailed the clutch 49-yarder as time expired). Josh Jacobs and Romeo Doubs were solid in defeat. Tucker Kraft limped off with an injury, we'll see on that one.
Broncos at Texans: Denver wins another nail-biter. Stat that last year they were 1-6 in one-score games, this year they're 5-2 in them. Want to mention I'm not a Broncos fan, my son is, thus I root for them and get more stressed about these nailbiters than I'd like. Anyway, defense made plays all day (for both teams) but Bo Nix made some clutch plays late. C.J. Stroud left with a concussion and Davis Mills did not move the offense much (Stroud was better enough that maybe Houston wins if he sticks around). RJ Harvey scores again, as does Courtland Sutton. PPR making Harvey viable these days (5 catches) even without the touchdowns.
Falcons at Patriots: I hate when kickers get blamed. There's a lot of pressure, there's a lot that goes into these kicks (snap, hold, etc.), and Parker Romo's missed extra point at the end was just one play. But you lose by one after that, and you get blamed. Michael Penix to his credit made some clutch plays, while Drake London -- who I've underestimated in the past -- had a huge day and I won't underestimate him again. Patriots should have probably won this game by 10, but they did win. TreVeyon Henderson and Terrell Jennings split touches, with Jennings scoring but TreVeyon also good for his receiving work.
49ers at Giants: Haven't seen snap counts but I do note that Devin Singletary got more touches than Tyrone Tracy and maybe played more too. Giants receivers did OK and Jaxon Dart (3 total touchdowns) was solid, but New York's defense did not get much in the way of stops as McCaffrey had his usual big day. Kendrick Bourne streak has come and gone, Mac Jones finished with decent numbers with more receivers back healthy, he spread it around. I wonder if Brian Daboll gets another year. New York's defense seems a bigger issue than its offense these days.
Colts at Steelers: Just when you thought it was safe to recommend Daniel Jones. He did of course finish with 342 passing yards and a couple of total touchdowns, so he was fine if you're not penalized for turnovers (of which there were a lot against a Steelers defense playing one of its better games). Colts receivers mostly productive, but Pittsburgh really put the clamps on Jonathan Taylor (it happens). A big deficit a factor. Jaylen Warren wasn't effective but scored twice, guess I can't knock him this week. Aaron Rodgers OK, his No. 1 DK Metcalf not so much. Pat Freiermuth the best TE again.
Chargers at Titans: Maybe the Titans were right to fire their coach. They were very competitive in this one, making some plays on both offense and defense -- although granted, their offensive numbers still weren't good. But a defensive touchdown and a punt return score (Chimere Dike, making up for, you know, not doing much in the passing game) had them playing with a lead for a lot of this one, albeit not at the end, obviously. Pick Six aside, a nice game for Justin Herbert and No. 1 lately Oronde Gadsden. Kimani Vidal the main disappointment, possible his 15 minutes are up.
Saints at Rams: About as expected. Big games for the right Rams players. Nacua would have had a huge game but missed a lot of the second half after landing hard on his shoulder/chest. McVay said he could have returned if contest in doubt, we'll see. Saints offense didn't do much, and Tyler Shough's lone touchdown came about in large part because of a helmet-t0-helmet penalty on a big sack near the red zone. Alvin Kamara didn't have much chance and there could be more similar games coming up.
Jaguars at Raiders: Crazy game, it was an ugly 6-3 dud at the half and 9-6 after three quarters, before both teams stopped playing defense and Geno Smith and Brock Bowers lit up the night. Trevor Lawrence had a couple of rushing scores (one a scramble after his receiver, Hunter Long, dropped a perfectly thrown ball near the end zone, which seemed like a, OK, guess I'll start running in touchdowns myself. Travis Etienne stopped near the goal line several times, resulting in touchdowns for Bhayshul Tuten and Lawrence again. Pretty painful to watch both teams play, but Jacksonville especially frustrating (the Raiders don't have as much talent out there, though Bowers reminded everyone what a force he is when healthy). Both teams scored touchdowns in overtime which I believe is the first time that's ever happened in an NFL game? (Before this year, it could only have occurred in a playoff game.) Raiders went for 2 after theirs but the pass was batted at the line and that was it.
Kansas City at Bills: Bills had caught some heat about not beating anyone good (I think the Ravens are still pretty good btw), so they took care of that here. Of course the regular-season matchups have gone their way a few years in a row, it's the playoff one they need to win. But a good game for their offense and defense, which got a lot of pressure on Patrick Mahomes, who's currently dealing with some of the same issues at offensive tackle as a year ago. Another big game for Dalton Kincaid, touchdowns for Kareem Hunt and Rashee Rice. I'd say it's a big game but I'm sure I'm not the only one a little weary of the matchup, plus it's never predictive of the playoffs, so...
Seahawks at Commanders: Props to Ian for pointing out how well the Seahawks have played on the road in recent years. They demolished the Commanders, with Sam Darnold looking like he was facing a high school defense and Tory Horton looking like he should have been playing ahead of Cooper Kupp for a while now. The Commanders weren't competitive, making it hard to figure how this team was in the NFC Championship last year. I'd knock Dan Quinn for leaving Jayden Daniels on the field to suffer a dislocated elbow in the waning minutes of a 38-7 game, but I've been criticizing Quinn for putting important players in harm's way for two years now, with this being the second or third time it's happened with Daniels this season and also landing Austin Ekeler on IR last year (concussion on a kick return) and again this year (Achilles injury in a blowout loss at Green Bay). Football players play football, I'm sure the argument goes, but I'm in the Sean McVay school of getting key starters out of games when you can.
Monday, Monday: Cardinals at Cowboys, I don't think the road team will be winning this one. Although as we saw in Bears-Bengals, when you have a lousy defense, a high-scoring loss is always possible. But I'm calling it Dallas 31, Arizona 24.