Monday Night Observations
Not bad
I thought I needed the Bucs to cover, but it turns out the two guys one game behind me in my pool also had them, so I had the double week won anyway. It would be like thinking you needed a particular swing state to win, but had already picked up enough other states that it was irrelevant, but won that state anyway for good measure.
That’s $140, plus $70 I won earlier, for a $130 entry with nine weeks to go and an overall prize. Small potatoes, but I like winning.
I had Patrick Mahomes in my dynasty league which was good, but also Xavier Worthless which was not. I needed a little more from Harrison Butker too in the Primetime, but seven points isn’t terrible.
The big story of the game (assuming Mahomes is fine) was DeAndre Hopkins who now looks like a top-10 WR with half the league out for the year. He’s a perfect Chief — old, slow but reliable and able to move the chains. Mahomes finally put up a good fantasy line too.
Travis Kelce is all the way back to being TE1 again. He’s old, full of mRNA poison (who knows if he really gets high on his own supply?), but still effective, lost fumble notwithstanding. The volume came back a few weeks ago, and Hopkins’ presence on the outside only seemed to make it easier.
Kareem Hunt is another perfect Chief — old, tough, slow and steady.
The Bucs have Cade Otton, Sterling Shepard suddenly (though as a Giants fan, trust me when I say he won’t stay healthy) and not much else. The three-headed monster at running back isn’t helping fantasy owners, either, though the Chiefs were a particularly tough matchup. Otton is a top-five TE for now, but we’ll see what happens when Mike Evans comes back.
Baker Mayfield played well, driving the Bucs back to force overtime against a tough defense, minus his top two targets.
I’m biased toward based Todd Bowles, but there was some criticism about his going for the PAT to tie at the end rather then for two to win it. I’ll defend his decision. There were 27 seconds left. If they fail on the two, it’s a guaranteed loss, but if they make it, it forces the Chiefs into aggressive, go-for-broke mode rather than hope to get a good gain on first down and take a knee if it’s tied. And Butker has a big leg (thanks to being well nourished by his wife’s dutiful work in the kitchen), and a FG beats you. Finally, the Chiefs have a stout front, and you’re missing your fade target in Evans. Of course, the Chiefs got the ball and won in overtime, so he turned out to be the wrong call, but who gets the ball in overtime is really a coin flip. Like literally.