Week 16 Observations
It could have been better, it could have been worse. Christian Watson was targeted all over the place in the first half, including on a wide open deep route Aaron Rodgers overthrew. Still he had six catches in 25 minutes. But he hurt his hip on the final drive and was done for the game. It could have been worse — sometimes your player gets hurt in the first quarter before he does anything.
Mercifully, the second half of that high total game was a total zero. Aaron Jones did nothing, Tyreek Hill and Tua Tagovailoa, nothing. Even with the Watson injury, I was in fifth place in the overall, and no one gained any ground.
I also had the Bucs defense going Sunday night. What a disappointment! They had Trace McSorley sacked three times, and he got rid of the ball before going down. I did get a lucky botched snap fumble and a regulation-ending Hail Mary pick, but nine points against the third-string QB was weak.
I’m in third place as it stands, fewer than seven points out of first, but there are plenty of teams with players left in the Monday night game. I’d say I’ll be in sixth, somewhere between 10-20 points out of first by tomorrow morning, very much in range should I have a strong Week 17.
And I’ll have some decisions to make. So far, I’ve done pretty well, though the Steelers defense scored 13 on my bench in Week 16.
I didn’t watch the Rams-Broncos game because I had no players going, and I didn’t expect anything to happen. Imagine my surprise checking the teams looking to catch me in the standings with players left tonight and seeing one of them with Cam Akers and a “34” in his points column. WTF? Then I checked the score. How did the Rams get 51 points against one of the stingiest defenses in the league?
Aaron Jones (6-25-0, 2-2-9-0) is obviously not 100 percent, otherwise they would have used him a lot more in a must-win game.
Watson saw eight targets in the half, one inside the five, one deep down the field. He’s being used like an alpha No. 1 receiver, something the team hadn’t done all year with anyone. We’ll have to see how serious his hip injury is, but he has a great matchup against the Vikings next week.
Tua fell apart in the second half, throwing pick after pick and not getting his two star receivers the ball. It was odd after such a big first half, but then again, a lot of the production came on a Jaylen Waddle catch and run and a deep throw to Tyreek Hill. Hill and Waddle finished the game with only six targets each.
I hated the Packers decision to kick the field goal on 4th-and-3 to go up six when a first down would have iced the game. All you’re doing is making the other team beat rather than tie you on its final drive, while giving them better field position after kickoff (than had you failed on fourth down) and foregoing a chance to win the game then and there. Teams have figured out the more obscure and less important “go for two down 14 when you score the first TD” but somehow still kick the FG to go up six. I was also dreading Hill killing me on the last drive, but Tua took care of that with his third pick.