Week 6 was a mixed bag. I lost my best bet, the Eagles, I lost another Super Contest pick, the Falcons, in part due to a missed PAT, and I went 7-6 overall despite the Dolphins getting me a miracle cover. On the other hand, I'm probably going 5-0 in fantasy, and one of my teams is 31st out of more than 3,000 in the NFFC with the Packers defense going tonight. It could have been worse.
• The Chargers need to beg San Diego to take them back, suck it up for any deal they can get. You can't have a franchise playing road games at home.
• I sat Hunter Henry this week, unsure of how much they'd use him. At least I'll know to start him next week. After a massive start, Keenan Allen has disappeared the last few weeks.
• The Steelers defense is good, but they need Mason Rudolph back -- you can't win many games when your only receiver is a running back. James Conner broke a lot of tackles for key first downs, mostly on receptions, but Benny Snell out-carried and out-rushed him.
• I'd buy-low on Juju Smith-Schuster this week.
• Sam Darnold looked like a player against the Cowboys, except for his awful red-zone pick. That's unfortunate for me because I love dunking on the Jets so much, but he might end up being very good. Jamison Crowder, Robby Anderson and maybe even Demaryius Thomas are playable again.
• Dak Prescott looked like a lock for a big payday a few weeks ago, but he's been bad since losing Tyron Smith right when the schedule got tougher. It didn't help that he lost Amari Cooper early in this game, either.
• Zeke Elliott usually gets his -- 28 carries and six targets Sunday.
• The Broncos might be a decent team. They're awfully close to being 4-2 instead of 2-4, and the defense is top-five, though the Marcus Mariota/Ryan Tannehill combo makes a lot of defenses look good.
• Phillip Lindsay (AFC's Matt Breida) is a better runner than Royce Freeman, though Freeman did more in the passing game.
• The Falcons defense is abominable, but the offense still had them back in the game before Matt Bryant blew it on a missed PAT. It was a frustrating watch if you bet the Falcons -- in addition to Bryant's miss, they lost a few key overturns, notably a fumble into the end zone they recovered that was called down even though the replay showed otherwise.
• Matt Ryan will have monstrous attempt and yardage totals by season's end. Austin Hooper might be a league winner too.
• Kyler Murray looked good against a defense that left players wide open all day, but his receiving targets (Larry Fitzgerald, David Johnson and Damiere Byrd) are below average.
• The only question left for the Niners is whether they're better than the Patriots. They flat out dominated the Rams on their home field, despite two turnovers from Jimmy Garoppolo, one of which was a total giveaway in the end zone. The 49ers were also coming off a short week, having played Monday night, while the Rams had 10 days off.
• Jared Goff managed 78 yards, 3.3 YPA, four sacks, a lost fumble and zero TD against the 49ers. The only bright spot on offense for the Rams was Darrell Henderson who for God knows what reason has been backing up Malcolm Brown all year and still saw only six carries and two targets in this game. Why draft a guy in the third round if you're never going to use him, and when you finally do use him, and he looks great, you stop using him?
• George Kittle is a monster -- the Rams could not stop or tackle him.
• Kyle Shanahan >>>> Sean McVay
• I foolishly had the Ravens -11.5, and when the Bengals were driving in garbage time down 13, I was praying they didn't settle for a short field goal on 4th down. As it turns out they scored a TD and covered anyway, but a legitimate backdoor cover I can live with. That the Dolphins miraculously covered and sealed it by going for two at the same time also softened the blow.
• Lamar Jackson beats up on bad teams, but I'm not sure he's an asset to the Ravens against better competition.
• The Saints won convincingly on the road against a decent Jaguars team. There's no way Drew Brees is six or seven points better than this competent caretaker version of Teddy Bridgewater. I'd say two or three, max.
• Leonard Fournette had another 20 carries and six targets. You will rarely go wrong with that combination, no matter how few points the team scores.
• I made the Eagles my best bet, so that was a disappointing game. The Eagles came back from 24-3 to 24-20, despite a failed fake FG try and being stopped on downs in the first half, but couldn't finish the job. Carson Wentz looked great to me despite merely decent numbers. He's one of the hardest QBs to corral in the pocket, and he's accurate throwing on the move. He misses field stretcher DeSean Jackson though, as most of his throws were dink and dunk.
• Kirk Cousins had another good statistical game. He's accurate when he can stand in the pocket and throw, and the Eagles secondary left Stefon Diggs absurdly wide open on two deep balls. But I still don't trust Cousins in adverse conditions.
• Alexander Mattison looks like a player and could be a league-winner should anything happen to Dalvin Cook.
• Ryan Fitzpatrick is better than Josh Rosen who seems headed down the Blaine Gabbert career path.
• Terry McLaurin produces every week he suits up, no matter how bad the QB is.
• I didn't see a lot of the second half of Chiefs-Texans, but Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs were shut down almost completely.
• Deshaun Watson had a huge fantasy day thanks to the rushing TDs, but his longest completion (thanks to some Will Fuller drops) was only 23 yards.
• The Chiefs attempted only 10 rushes all game and lost the time of possession 39:38 to 20:12.
• Russell Wilson is a top-five all-time NFL player and a massive favorite for MVP so far this year.
• Tyler Lockett has gone back to seeing only a handful of targets per game. D.K. Metcalf might not be agile, but he's big, fast and powerful.
• I was skeptical of Chris Carson before the year, but he's a beast -- just does not go down and is even useful as a pass catcher.
• Baker Mayfield looks like just a guy, not a player the Browns should have taken at 1.1. Give me Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones over him.
• Nick Chubb is starting to get the workload he deserves -- 20 carries, two TDs, six targets. He's a top-five back.
• I took the Bucs plus two, and even though they lost by 11, I felt like I was on the right side. I mean you have to price in a couple Jameis Winston turnovers, but six, and the score should have been far more lopsided. I did like having Chris Godwin and Mike Evans going in what seemed like endless garbage time. What a narrow tree they have, given they refuse to throw to O.J. Howard. But Evans should have had much more -- he dropped a long TD in the first half, and he had trouble tracking another deep ball when he was one on one with a much smaller defender. But together he and Godwin had 29 targets.
• Christian McCaffrey didn't do much against the Bucs, but the workload (22 carries, five targets) and the touchdowns (2) were there. Through six games, McCaffrey has nine TDs already. Last year through six games he had only one.