With plenty of good teams missing because of their bye week, yesterday had the potential to be a very stale day in the NFL. Blowout wins were predicted throughout the set and we got plenty of those games, but we also got some very close games that came down to the final minutes of the 4th quarter along with some surprising results. Who could have predicted the Buccaneers incredible comeback against the Steelers? I think Pittsburgh lost that game more than the Bucs won it, but it was still an impressive drive by Mike Glennon to win the game with only seconds left on the lock. If not for Tampa Bay’s win, the entire NFC South loses yesterday, something that seemed crazy since it’s supposed to be one of the stronger divisions in the league. Staying in the NFC South, the Falcons were victims of Teddy Bridgewater’s first game as a starter with the Vikings. How amazing was Bridgewater? Sure, he wasn’t world-class with his passing but his dazzling plays throughout the game gave hope to Minnesota of a bright future with a young quarterback. Now let’s just hope his ankle injury isn’t anything too serious. What other teams dazzled yesterday? The Packers went into Chicago, one week after panic spread throughout Wisconsin, and routed the Bears built off of a huge second half. The Colts have climbed back to .500 after another huge win led by another huge performance by one Andrew Luck, who continues to be the biggest revelation in fantasy football this season. What about the Ravens? We’ll get to Steve Smith a little later but Baltimore was very impressive at home against the Panthers yesterday. Carolina had no response on defense and all of a sudden, the Ravens have some real pressure on the Bengals and makes the AFC North much more interesting. Don’t worry, I left my Cowboys for the end to save the best for last. Dallas had a very impressive win last night, routing the Saints in the spotlight of the final game of the day. I predicted a competitive game, but if anyone had predicted a lopsided win, it was in favor of New Orleans. Excellent win for the Cowboys.
So we know who impressed us as a unit, but which players are stealing the headlines? Which players are being features in “Top 10” lists around the sports world? And, more importantly, which players deserve the honor and distinction of being recognized as the performance of the day or my favorite play of the day? Well, if you know what i’m a fan of, you probably have an idea of who will get the honors. Unfortunately, I only have Steve Smith on one of my fantasy teams but I was very quick to put him as one of my starters. I had anticipated Smith playing against the Panthers from the start of the season and boy, oh boy, did he deliver. Yes, he had some luck with his first TD catch (or was it planned?) but it was just that kind of day for #89 of the Ravens. Smith’s “revenge” big game yesterday gets honors for my performance of the day while Antonio Brown’s WR pass to Le’Veon Bell is my favorite play of the day. It was pretty obvious from the get-go that those would be my two choices but I have to recognize other players who performed well. I mentioned Andrew Luck (393 yds, 4 TDs) but have to include Aaron Rodgers (302 yds, 4 TDs) and Philip Rivers (377 yds, 3 TDs) as other quarterbacks who led their teams to victories with impressive performances. From the back field it was DeMarco Murray (149 yds, 2 TDs) who led the Cowboys to another impressive performance based off the running game. Let’s not forget about Matt Asiata (100 scrimmage yards, 3 TDs) who was very impressive in the red zone, scoring three times and racking up the fantasy points. One thing is for sure about this season, the Seahawks and Broncos might still be the favorites to return to the Super Bowl but they aren’t glaring favorites so that sets up for an exciting rest of the season now that we’re a quarter of the way into it.
Tonight’s game features the Patriots (-3) in Kansas City to take on the Chiefs. Normally i’d jump on the Patriots in a heartbeat but New England, despite winning, did not look impressive last week. The Chiefs, on the other hand, were thought to be pretty much done before their impressive win in Miami last week. The way these teams are trending, it’s temping to go with Kansas City. But I can’t bet on Tom Brady and co having back-to-back unimpressive performances. I like the Patriots but the Chiefs are certainly playing well enough to make tonight’s game very interesting.
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