Thursday Night Observations
Insane
What an insane game that unfortunately didn’t go my way. I had the Rams -1.5 in my home picking pool, and in my four-team bet with Erickson. I thought they outplayed the Seahawks, but they couldn’t get a stop in overtime (or make a field goal in regulation.)
I had Matthew Stafford going in the semifinals of the RotoWire Dynasty league, but was going against Puka Nacua. I had JSN going in my best consolation NFFC league, but of course swapped out Kenny Walker to my bench yesterday for Quinshon Judkins who will probably do nothing. Walker is the worst kind of player to own: rugs you out of the playoffs, then tortures you from the bench.
What a monster game from Stafford — 457 yards, three TDs, no picks, no sacks, and this despite a few drops from his receivers and no Davante Adams on the road during a short week against a good defense.
Nacua is such a beast. He’s what DK Metcalf *should* be but isn’t, an unstoppable size-speed-power combo the defense can neither catch nor bring down when they do.
The other Rams receivers are not good. They missed Adams.
Sam Darnold threw two soul crushing picks, only to be bailed out by Rashid Shaheed’s punt return TD that put the game back in reach. I don’t trust Darnold in big games, and I don’t think the Seahawks, even if they get the one seed, will come out of the NFC. I’d still take the Rams ahead of them and maybe even the Packers, though losing Micah Parsons is bad for them.
Walker is such a good running back when they use him, but his usage is the nut low relative to his skill level. They put in Zach Charbonnet near the goal line and only seem to lean on Walker when they absolutely need his play-making ability. Maybe it’s how they kept him healthy this year, and the retarps™ were slow to grasp his health risk couldn’t be avoided, only transmuted into “safe” and fantasy-poor usage.
JSN was quiet for the first half, but got going in the second. They finally gave him 13 targets, but it took an overtime game that totaled 75 to get there. AJ Barner made a nice TD catch, but the Seahawks barely use Shaheed at all.
After a heroic game last week, Jason Myers got you only two points, thanks to the Seahawks having to go for two three times. Live by the kicker, die by the kicker, there’s a reason people say “here’s the kicker” when they tell a story about getting rugged.