Thursday Night Observations

We’re in Comporta for two days during Sasha’s (my 10-YO daughter’s) winter break. Comporta is an hour and a half south of Lisbon, and I describe it as the Hamptons, circa 1978. Actually, that’s how I described it six years ago when we first came here, but now it’s more like 1985 — built up, more popular and known, but nowhere near as known or packed as the Hamptons are now. Actually, I wouldn’t know first hand because I haven’t been since 2002, but even then you were in wall to wall traffic in the town, and I’m told it’s only gotten worse.

Here’s the beach yesterday:

I post this to illustrate my mental state as I prepare to watch the 40-minute edited version of Titans-Cowboys, the first game of the Week 17 NFFC overall slate this Friday morning — calm and relaxed. I have no players going in it, and my biggest interest is in rooting against CeeDee Lamb, the Cowboys defense, the Cowboys kicker, Zeke Elliott, Dak Prescott and Dalton Schultz in that order. The biggest enemy is Lamb who’s been strong in the fantasy playoffs and is likely on the rosters of some of my nearest competitors. Let’s hope Tennessee mails it in completely, and the Cowboys don’t need to step on the gas. (Of course, this is exactly the type of game where the stat-padding Prescott goes off, so I am wary.)

. . .

I’ll give that game an seven out of 10. Lamb got his, but he didn’t have a monster game against one of the league’s worst passing defenses, Brett Maher got 11.1 points which is strong, but nothing crazy, Elliott got only 9.7. despite an early TD and the Cowboys defense got 10 against a third-string QB playing from behind all game.

Prescott too had a modest game, and Derrick Henry and Tony Pollard were both scratched. The only player who moved the needle was Dalton Schultz with the two TDs (24.6 points), but you have to drop down to the 24th-place team (after Schultz’s big game) to find him on a roster.

• Joshua Dobbs looks like a player. He moved well, bought time and found open receivers on the move. He was calm in the pocket against a top defense, though it feels like the Cowboys have slipped a little since earlier in the year.

• It’s amazing the Cowboys covered in a game the Titans seemed to overperform.

• Prescott’s showing (22.2 points) was especially modest given the opponent. He was sloppy with the ball, and not having Pollard’s easy run-after-the-catch yards probably hurt a bit too.

• Malik Davis (10-39-0, 2-2-23-0) looked more spry than Elliott (19-37-1). I was cheering Davis the whole time as he’s obviously unrostered.

• Lamb (14-11-100-0) was annoying to root against because the Cowboys were finding ways to get the ball into his hands. He even had a cheap catch on the team’s last drive before the punt too. But it could have been a lot worse.

• I loved the final Titans drive from deep in their own end, when they just handed off and let the clock run out in the final minutes. Sometimes you see the team drop back to throw and give up the killer pick six.