Week 8 Observations

I’m in the Azores islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, so this one will be brief.

I went swimming in these tide pools — apparently the water has health benefits. It was a little cold, but not too bad:

We also went into a volcano.

Real man goes during an eruption.

. . .

The Giants lost, which was disappointing, especially because they had a chance before Richie James fumbled the game away, his second punt-return fumble of the day. I went 3-2 in the Circa Millions, but as I said, I’m not sweating that as much as I was because I’m virtually drawing dead.

Seeing Travis Etienne go off against the Broncos was nice. I actually had him on my bench in a couple leagues, one of which had Jonathan Taylor, Nick Chubb and Kenneth Walker, the other Saquon Barkley, Dalvin Cook and Walker. But I might have to use Etienne over Taylor, the 1.1, soon. Imagine taking a perfectly healthy player at 1.1 and deciding he belongs on your bench!

One nice thing about getting bounced from Survivor is you don’t need to worry about it anymore. And not writing up all 16 games ATS means I don’t have to live and die with every random bounce in every single game. As the season goes on, your focus narrows, and you can enjoy the games more.

• My 12:1 Panthers to win the NFC South bet was looking great after an incredible closing-second TD to DJ Moore until an illegal celebration penalty cost them 15-yards on the PAT. No matter, an interception in overtime gave them a chip-shot game-winning FG attempt, but Eddy Pineiro missed that too! The Panthers would have been in first place!

• PJ Walker is indeed the best QB on the Panthers roster. He got Moore and Terrace Marshall (9-4-87-0) going too.

• Kyle Pitts (9-5-80-1) finally got involved. He’s the player you thought you drafted, it was just team context that derailed him.

• Everyone loved Tony Pollard (14-131-3, 1-1-16-0), and he had a monster game on only 15 touches, roughly what he got before Ezekiel Elliott got hurt.

• I sat Justin Fields for Aaron Rodgers in a league because of the Dallas defense, but Fields is the default going forward.

• Tyreek Hill (14-12-188-0) now has 961 receiving yards on the year. That’s a 2,042-yard pace over 17 games, ahead of Calvin Johnson’s 1,964-yard (16-game) record from 2012, though falling short of Johnson’s per-game pace. That’s one reason the 17-game season is annoying — you have to talk about the overall record and also note the per-game one. (Actually Wes Chandler had 1,032 yards in eight games during the strike-shortened season in 1982. But once you get below 10-ish games, you can’t really just extrapolate the pace.)

• Mike Gesicki (4-3-38-1) was available in a lot of my leagues not too long ago. The Dolphins are pass-first team with no real third option, and he’s always been a pass-catching TE.

• D’Andre Swift (5-6-0, 5-5-27-1) and Amon Ra St. Brown (10-7-69-0) are back, but the shine has worn off their stars quite a bit.

• DeAndre Hopkins (13-12-159-1) is himself again. He’d go in the second round if we were to re-draft today.

• The Saints are the best team in the NFC South. Andy Dalton can still function behind a good offensive line, and now they have Alvin Kamara (18-62-1, 10-9-96-2) in his proper role.

• Davante Adams (5-1-3-0) misses Aaron Rodgers about as much as Rodgers misses Adams.

• I don’t think there’s a big difference between roughly league average QBs like Derek Carr, Andy Dalton and Jared Goff. They’re all solid when the line play is good and bad when it breaks down.

• No one can take away what QB1 has done off the field, but Zach Wilson reminded me of Sam Darnold yesterday — good mobility, good arm and sloppy, soul-crushing picks.

• If we found out Elijah Moore had leprosy, his treatment would make a lot more sense. Bonus leprosy joke: (What did the leper say to the prostitute? “Keep the tip!”)