Week 15 Observations

I’m probably drawing dead now for real in everything but my home picking pool. That’s okay because I was playing with house money, so to speak, when I lucked into $1100 and a playoff berth in the Primetime.

I had three big start/sit decisions in that league. One was Bucs or Lions defense. I chose the Bucs, and both scored exactly six points. The second one was Brock Purdy or Dak Prescott. I went with Purdy who had 36.10 points, while Prescott had only 7.4.

The third decision was Jerry Jeudy over Chris Godwin. I had Godwin in under my hard line “never Jeudy” policy, but Godwin was questionable, Quentin Johnston had already played Thursday night, and Jeudy, who played Saturday night, was my only extra receiver. It was Jeudy against the Lions or a gimpy Godwin who might not even play in Green Bay. I held my nose and used Jeudy who got 10.4 points.

Of course, Godwin had his best game of the year by far (10 for 155) on my bench, but I can live with missing out on his 25.5 points because not only was he iffy, he’s been so pedestrian all year. Waiting for Godwin to do something has been like waiting for Godot. To the extent I’m annoyed, it’s not for sitting Godwin, but starting Jeudy, and Jeudy didn’t even do that badly.

But the real problem was Saquon Barkley, Evan Engram and George Kittle doing so little. I suppose if Devonta Smith and Kenneth Walker go bananas tonight, I’ll still be drawing live, but I don’t expect much from either. The one lesson I’ve learned from this league, though, is keep grinding no matter what, that you’re never as dead as you think.

. . .

I stayed up late Portugal time to watch the end of the Football Team-Rams because I had the Team +6.5, and the sequence was one of the more retarded spectacles I have ever witnessed.

Not only did the Football Team run eight plays and take more than two minutes to score, finally, on fourth down, but then they went for the PAT down eight anyway, when even simpletons around the league have now grasped you go for two in that situation. Going for one meant they’d be down seven, instead of six and wouldn’t cover anyway, so I lost sleep to watch that entire 15-minute debacle for no reason whatsoever. That they missed the PAT anyway just cemented the idiocy of them doing it — and me watching it.

• Anyone else notice there were suddenly a bunch of offensive offsides calls yesterday? It was like they were told to normalize what happened in Chiefs-Bills with Kadarius Toney.

• Darnell Mooney dropping the Hail Mary was bad. The Bears still covered, so it wasn’t *that* bad, but you can’t drop a miracle when it happens.

• Can’t remember who the player was (Will Levis?), but the broadcast cut away when he got hurt, and the announcers informed us they wouldn’t be showing the replay of the injury. WTF? If I’m watching the modern-day Roman gladiators, don’t protect me from the gore. Our entire society has become like this, a stifling matron of overprotectiveness insulating us from reality at every turn.

• The Falcons tackled Chuba Hubbard on his goal-line carry to ensure they never got the ball back, and the Panthers could win on a chip-shot field goal. It wasn’t clear whether Hubbard would have gone down on his own near the goal line, but it didn’t look like it.

• With the Dolphins rolling, and Tyreek Hill not racking up any stats, his MVP chances are probably dead. Ditto for Dak Prescott who got destroyed by a decent defense on the road yet again. Brock Purdy has to be the favorite now, but don’t sleep on (dark white horse) Christian McCaffrey.

• The first two Saturday games were entertaining. Gardner Minshew is a player. He made some unbelievable throws on the run, directing traffic downfield. And so did Jake Browning against the Vikings.

• I hadn’t realized it’s was legal to throw a player into a returner signaling for a fair catch. If I were a special teams coordinator, I would tell my guys anytime a returner signals and is looking up at the ball, find a nearby player and use him as a weapon.

• That Tee Higgins catch and goal-line swipe was one for the ages.

• How about the Giants Randy Bullock drilling a 56-yarder! It took so much out of him, he left with a hamstring injury, but when the journeyman backup can do it, you know you’re in the golden age of kicking.

  You might find it odd how much I harp on the glories of the present kicking era, but given the catastrophic decline of virtually every institution in our society from government to higher education to the news media, it comforts me to note any instance of progress, inconsequential though it might seem.