I don’t know what’s going on anymore. I stopped watching the Giants game when they went down 34-10, and suddenly JJ McCarthy is balling out, and they’re driving down the field with a real chance to tie the game. Similarly, I had left the Falcons for dead, and Kyle Pitts (who of course I benched for Dalton Kincaid at the 11th hour) is scoring multiple TDs, and they’re back in the game. The Steelers were down 13-0 and 16-3, and they came back to win. Then I’m watching the afternoon games, and the Raiders are being very clever not targeting Brock Bowers in the first half because the Bills put their best corner on him! Amazing, the Bills’ average defense is the only one in the league that figured out how to stop Bowers!
I don’t mind the craziness, in fact the end of the Giants game was exciting. And now they’re STILL 3-2-1, STILL in first place, with the Cowboys looking terrible Sunday night, the Redskins big underdogs against the 49ers and the Eagles probably drawing dead. The Giants without Jaxson Dart, without Brian Burns, without Cam Skattebo getting the ball these days, with McCarthy as their QB!
Meanwhile the Rams really did lose at home to Arizona and are now in last place at 2-4. No one is happier about this than the proxy for the guy in the Circa Grandissimo (100K buy-in, $550K of equity at kickoff) who submitted his Rams pick to the proxy, but the proxy neglected to submit to Circa which resulted in a “No Pick!” Real man has a No Pick on 550K!
Midway through the Texans game, I built this parlay at 27:1. Do you see the problem with it?
Yes, Parker Washington failed to get 70 yards (he had 64) with two balls hitting off his outstretched hands in the final drives. It was the perfect gameflow, and yet that’s why these pay out the big bucks — any small miss can sink you.
Woody Marks got most of the work, but Jahwar Jordan ran with more juice and scored the TD. The Jaguars had not given up 40 yards to a rusher the entire year, and the Texans had two.
CJ Stroud threw a terrible end zone pick late, but otherwise played flawlessly. He reminded me of Joe Montana as a rookie, and he’s playing with that kind of vision and touch again three years later. The NFL is strange.
The key to freeing up Jaylin Noel was acquiring Marvin Harrison.
Parker Washington failed to get 70 yards despite seeing 11 targets. He’s a good player, but reports of his superstardom might have been exaggerated.
Trevor Lawrence doesn’t pass the eye test for me, but he sure passes the stats test over the last season and a half.
Caleb Williams looked pretty good in his return, and he finally targeted Luther Burden and Colston Loveland more than Kalif Raymond.
Kyle Pitts (7-5-60-2) finally went off, and I have to imagine there’s more from which that came with only Drake London ahead of him on the target chart. Jahan Dotson made some plays (I actually started him in a league), but he saw only five targets.
The Tyler Huntley Ravens are basically the Jalen Hurts Eagles.
DeShaun Watson took five sacks and didn’t throw a TD, but that’s how you care-take in a low-scoring game. The Derrick Henry fumble didn’t hurt, either.
It’s not surprising the Titans beat the Colts who are a low-key true doormat.
Danny Dimes not only threw two picks, he took six sacks for 35 lost yards. He’s regressed to the Giants version.
Jonathan Taylor seems capable of earning his lofty draft slot even in this offense, but what happened to Josh Downs? Tyler Warren was out, and 40 YO Keenan Allen gets 11-8-82-0. Downs is toast because if he ever goes off now it’ll be on your bench.
Why did the Pats give up that push-ATS field goal to the Jets? I would have been 4-0 heading into Sunday night (I had the Cowboys unfortunately.)
I don’t see the point of the Geno Smith Jets. Why bother?
We need one of those fantasy PTs to explain the “kinetic chain” between AJ Brown’s ankle and his hands.
JJ McCarthy had 243 yards passing in the fourth quarter and led the team with 26 rushing yards. Obviously, it was a favorable situation to come in during a blowout and ball out without conscience, but you could see why he was drafted so early a couple years ago.
So much for Najee Harris getting the start. Not sure what to do with Cam Skattebo going forward, but he’s better than Harris and the other two scrubs.
Malik Nabers (15-12-165-0) and Isaiah Likely (11-6-99-1) are studs. Especially Nabers who is listed at 200 pounds, but plays like 220 with 4.4 speed. And he’s probably still not 100 percent back from last year’s ACL tear.
The Giants threw three picks and took five sacks, the Saints threw none and took none. That’s how you lose when Tyler Shough throws for only 144 yards.
Philly’s defense is really good, but not even the Steel Curtain could carry that offense.
The Panthers are a nice narrow tree now — Bryce Young to Jalen Coker and Tetairoa McMillan with Chuba Hubbard getting all the carries.
It was weird when Mike McCarthy went into the medical tent. It was like a customer trying to use the employee rest room.
The Steelers are probably not good, but they’re 4-2, and Germie Bernard (12-11-87-1) is Rodgers’ guy opposite DK Metcalf (15-11-93-0) now, even though Bernard made a horrendous decision after catching a would-be third-down conversion and losing two yards (and the first down).
Jalon Daniels is the NFC’s Tyler Huntley. I sat Chris Godwin in one league for Cody White and Dotson with the idea that Godwin had no upside whatsoever with Daniels, and I was right, even though White got me a zero.
The Rams took the Cardinals lightly, but the Cardinals took the Rams seriously.
Davante Adams appeared to have hurt himself in the second half, catching his hamstring or knee and hobbling off the field.
Kyren Williams and Blake Corum were back in a 50/50 timeshare without notice.
Good thing I backed up Jeremiyah Love with Tyler Allgeier.
The Chargers are the AFC Eagles with Tanner McKee. They actually had a chance to cover, but Keandre Lambert-Smith fumbled just to teach the lesson one more time to those in need of remedial ATS 101.
Of course Ladd McConkey left early yet again, this time with a head injury. He has NFL speed and athleticism, but average durability. And by that I don’t mean average durability for an NFL player but the NFL durability of the average man.
Quentin Johnston had a 57-yard catch which was nice, but I also saw him drop at least one of his other two targets.
There were surely some people who drafted Omarion Hampton over Kenneth Walker.
The Chiefs are the Eagles of 2024, with Walker playing the role of Saquon Barkley. Xavier Worthless (7-7-73-0) had a good game, but you don’t need to throw much to beat the Chargers.
Say what you want about the Raiders, but the cover was epic.
You could argue the Raiders made the Bills pay for shutting down Bowers — after all, they scored 30 points and Kirk Cousins threw for 313 yards, but the last TD was garbage time, and the Bills defense is average at best.
Ashton Jeanty (10-22-0, 6-4-36-0) can’t seem to make an explosive play.
James Cook (22-95-1, 3-3-58-0) finally did some damage in the passing game, but saw only three targets.
The Packers-Cowboys was billed as a shootout, but both defenses looked pretty good. The Packers would have had more points had Matthew Golden and Christian Watson not dropped TD passes, but Jordan Love was under pressure all game, and they couldn’t run the ball to save their lives. Josh Jacobs, assuming no release of a video showing him body-slamming his girlfriend, should be a significant upgrade.
Dak Prescott was out of sync the whole game. I don’t know if it was the pressure or coverage, but nothing was easy. Usually you see CeeDee Lamb running wide open in the middle of the field for chunk plays all game. Indcidentally, not counting the injury game, Lamb has had 42 targets in his last two.
Ryan Flournoy (no flour, i.e., Gluten Free) would have instant, reliable value should George Pickens or Lamb get hurt. I even started Gluten Free in a league.
Brandon Aubrey is a low-key bust this year. It wasn’t his fault the Cowboys only had one PAT and went for two, down 10, but between not being used that much and half the league turning into peak Aubrey, there was no point in wasting a 13th-round pick.
Ladd bullet point…HA! So true