I was positioned to have a solid bounce-back week until disaster struck in a couple of games. Ultimately, it wasn’t too bad and I am still in 1st place in both of my pick ’em leagues but that’s just a consolation prize.
Christen won her second weekly with a record of 10-4 and Ridley also went 10-4 to beat my 9-5. I regretted the Packers pick as soon as I made it and that cost me a shot at the weekly W. I also went 9-5 against the spread and picked up another two games with an 8-6 record vs the over/under. It’s not amazing but I’ll take what I can get.
| Nick W | Nick L | Nick T | ATS W | ATS L | ATS P | O/U W | O/U L | O/U P | Christen W | Christen L | Christen T | Rids W | Rids L | Rids T |
| 9 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 0 |
| Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous |
| 58 | 35 | 1 | 48 | 44 | 2 | 39 | 53 | 2 | 50 | 42 | 1 | 50 | 43 | 1 |
| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall |
| 67 | 40 | 1 | 57 | 49 | 2 | 47 | 59 | 2 | 60 | 46 | 1 | 60 | 47 | 1 |
Week 7 came to a close with a big surprise, but I entered Monday night sweating. I needed the Patriots’ defense to score less than 12.7 to pull off another upset fantasy win but the Bears’ offense heard my pleas and beat the Pats 33-14 in Foxborough.
Chicago clearly enjoyed their 11 days off and played their best game of the season, sticking to their run dominance, working some play action off of it, and getting Justin Fields moving. New England went back to Mac Jones and he didn’t appear to be doing too bad, but Coach Belichick pulled him after an interception early in the 2nd quarter when they were still down 10-0. Enter Bailey Zappe.
Zappe led the Pats on back-to-back touchdown drives sandwiched, around a Fields pick, to briefly take the lead. That would be the last time they scored as the Bears recovered a fumble, forced a pair of 3 & outs, and followed it up with back-to-back interceptions off Zappe to run away with the win. This game also featured an unusually high number of tipped passes at the line of scrimmage from both sides.
Sunday night gave us an underwhelming contest as Tua Tagovailoa returned from injury to lead the Dolphins past the Steelers 16-10. I took a flyer on the Steelers pulling off a W and they were actually pretty close to doing so but Kenny Pickett threw a pair of bad interceptions on their final two possession. The second pick was even worse than the first, floating its way to the front of the end zone where only the Dolphins’ backup CB had a play. They did cover the 7.5-point spread for me, but neither team scored in the second half of a game I questioned for being on National TV in the first place.
America’s Game of the Week saw the Chiefs pummel the 49ers 44-23. San Francisco started off strong and jumped out to an early 10-point lead but KC battled back with a pair of TDs to retake the lead. I figured Christian McCaffrey wouldn’t be a huge impact and said the game was going to come down to which QB made more mistakes, just like last time, and Jimmy G led the way there.
He threw a bad pick in the endzone after the Chiefs muffed a punt near the end of the first half. That was huge but he also took a bad safety on a drive where SF needed to answer and he fumbled in KC territory on their next drive. To be fair, the KC defense stepped up with big plays after a rocky start and their offense made the vaunted Niners’ defense look almost non-existent.
The other side of the afternoon coin saw the Seahawks go into SoFi and embarrass the Chargers, 37-23. Austin Ekler’s garbage time TD made the final score respectable, but the game was kind of one-sided. The Chargers managed to make it a 3-point game in the 2nd quarter but Seattle stretched it back out to 21 shortly after. In picking this game, I said SEA is my feel-good story of the season right now and had them covering 5-points but their defense surprised me. The Chargers’ identity is all janky and the “fire Staley” talk is heating up.
The Raiders kept their season alive with a 38-20 victory in a must-win game over the Texans. As I said on the show, Josh Jacobs was going to go off and he did for 143 yards and 3 TDs. The Texans just aren’t good and it looks like Davis Mills is feeling the sophomore slump. Las Vegas’ AFC West counterpart Denver Broncos fell again, in another snoozer, 16-9 to the upstart Jets. Denver has too many mouths to feed at RB and they all struggled against an improving NYJ defense. New York’s offense also struggled against a stout Denver D, but the big news was the season-ending injury to rookie RB Breece Hall. He had a great game and a good season to that point, so it was a huge bummer. New York wasted no time trading to acquire James Robinson from Jacksonville.
Speaking of the Jags, there were favored to beat the Giants for some reason so that was my Upset Pick of the Week and the G-Men delivered, 23-17. The Jags were winning but, as they have many times before this season, the Giants rallied in the 4th quarter. Brian Daboll has done a great job over there and they are finding ways to win shorthanded.
Cleveland and Baltimore engaged in a typical AFC North slugfest, with the Ravens finding a way to win 23-20. Gus Edwards returned with a pair of TDs as part of the 44-carry assault by the Ravens. The Browns seem like they are close as they had good games from Nick Chubb and Jacoby Brisset only missed 5 passes, but not quite there yet.
In the two most embarrassingly hilarious games of the week, the Packers got Sammy Watkins back just to lose to the Commanders, 23-21, and the Buccaneers could do nothing on either side of the ball as they lost 21-3 to the Panthers in Carolina. Both of their defenses got run over and beaten by efficient backup QBs. Until further notice, both of the Bays suck. It’s a great time to be a football fan of all the other teams.
The Titans effectively ended Matt Ryan’s season and just may have ended his career with a 19-10 win over the Colts. Indy announced that they would be moving ahead with Sam Ehlinger next week, but made sure to add that it had nothing to do with an injury Ryan suffered. That’s gotta feel good for the 37-year-old who has been battered thanks to shitty offensive line play all season and still managed to lead them to victory in a couple of close ones. While I haven’t been complimentary of Ryan over the years, he deserved better than that.
Dak is back for the Cowboys, but it was looking like that may have been a mistake around halftime vs the Lions. He wound up playing okay but it was the defense that got the job done, picking off Goff twice and limiting the injured Detroit offense. Zeke scored a pair of TDs but also hurt his knee, so that’s something to watch.
Wrapping things up, the Bengals came out and handled a crafty and competitive Falcons team with relative ease, 35-17. Joe Burrow hit Tyler Boyd for a 60-yard TD to start the game and they made it a track meet from there with Burrow going 34/42 for 481 yards and 3 TDs. I was hoping that would force Atlanta to throw but Marcus Mariota threw only 13 passes.
Things didn’t change too much, but there was some jockeying inside the Top 10 thanks to a handful of bye weeks.
| 1. Eagles 6-0 (=) |
| 2. Bills 5-1 (=) |
| 3. Chiefs 5-2 (+2) |
| 4. Cowboys 5-2 (+2) |
| 5. Giants 6-1 (-1) |
| 6. Vikings 5-1 (-3) |
| 7. Jets 5-2 (+1) |
| 8. Dolphins 4-3 (+8) |
| 9. Bengals 4-3 (=) |
| 10. Titans 4-2 (=) |
| 11. Seahawks 4-3 (+9) |
| 12. Ravens 4-3 (+5) |
| 13. Chargers 4-3 (-6) |
| 14. Colts 3-3-1 (-3) |
| 15. Buccaneers 3-4 (-2) |
| 16. Falcons 3-4 (-4) |
| 17. 49ers 3-4 (-3) |
| 18. Rams 3-3 (-3) |
| 19. Patriots 3-4 (-1) |
| 20. Cardinals 3-4 (+6) |
| 21. Commanders 3-4 (+6) |
| 22. Packers 3-4 (-3) |
| 23. Bears 3-4 (+5) |
| 24. Raiders 2-4 (+5) |
| 25. Saints 2-5 (-4) |
| 26. Steelers 2-5 (-4) |
| 27. Browns 2-5 (-4) |
| 28. Jaguars 2-5 (-4) |
| 29. Broncos 2-5 (-4) |
| 30. Panthers 2-5 (+2) |
| 31. Texans 1-4-1 (=) |
| 32. Lions 1-5 (-2) |
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