Monday Night Observations

Thank God I didn’t need Rhamondre Stevenson for the Primetime — what a disaster. Even worse, there’s probably someone out there who needed seven points to make the playoffs with Kyler Murray and Stevenson. This is why the airplane test doesn’t usually apply. Even a scenario as rosy as that can easily fail in fantasy football. In retrospect, it’s lucky the Primetime team held on at all after getting 13 points combined from Saquon Barkley, Travis Etienne and Stevenson.

At least the Circa Millions Pats -1.5 came in, but that was thanks to a defensive TD on the DeAndre Hopkins fumble and Kliff Kingsbury botching the end of the first half.

• I picked up Mac Jones for my Primetime playoffs thanks to matchups with the Raiders (Week 15), Bengals (Week 16) and Dolphins (Week 17), but it’ll be tough to use him. I’m strongly leaning Trevor Lawrence against the Cowboys now for next week, or even Daniel Jones against the Team, ahead of Mac. Jones just doesn’t do anything especially well. He’s like Baker Mayfield with less arm strength.

• If Stevenson is out, Damien Harris (who I nearly dropped, but kept) becomes a possibility against the Raiders if he plays. I don’t think the respectable showings for Pierre Strong or Kevin Harris would change that. Worst case is Stevenson plays, but is less than 100 percent and Damien Harris is back.

• It seems like the Patriots have some skill weapons (though Davante Parker got hurt yet again), but it’s hard to tell because Jones is so average, and the line didn’t give him much time.

• It looks like Murray might have torn his ACL, which means he’d be iffy for the start of 2023. What a strange career he’s had so far. I wouldn’t call him a bust — he was in the MVP conversation through Week 10 last year, but he’s never really established himself, either.

• Colt McCoy is basically Mac Jones.

• James Conner (15-85-1, 7-6-29-0) had a good game, though was rarely used in the second half.

• The turning point in the game was with the Cardinals up 13-7, 36 seconds left in the first half at the Patriots 32, Kingsbury elects to go for it on 4th-and-1 and tries a swing pass to a rookie TE. I’m all for going on 4th-and-1 generally, but even if they make it, it’s just 1st-and-10 at the 28 or so with 30 seconds left, i.e., they’re likely to wind up with a field-goal attempt anyway! Going up nine in a defensive-oriented game would have been big too. Instead, they leave the Patriots with decent field position, they drive down and get the FG to make it 13-10.