Andy Richardson

It was a day full of leaps and bounds, by LeGarrette Blount (expected, that's what he does) and Roy Helu (unexpected, because who knows if Shanahan will even play the guy, but it's about time). And when the dust had lifted, some teams had moved closer to or further from the playoffs, and so had my/your teams. No time to waste, so let's go.

Bills at Jets: What a game. Bills should have won this one multiple times in the final minute, with Steve Johnson getting open (as he did quite regularly against Darrelle Revis) but the ball being thrown behind him. Earlier, he dropped a ball over the middle that also might have gone for a long touchdown. Two other near completions in the final minute fell to the turf. Jets win, but not the most convincing one ever. And oh yeah, Steve Johnson did an end-zone celebration where he pretended to get shot in the leg. Uh huh. ... Nice fantasy day for some, not so much for others. Good one for Mark Sanchez (4 TDs). Not always pretty, but he made some great throws on the run and at times his receivers bailed him out. Santonio Holmes couldn't hang onto one touchdown chance, and he and Sanchez weren't on the same page for most of the game, but ran a great route on the game-winner. All is forgiven. A re-emergence for Dustin Keller, too bad most of us benched him. Plaxico Burress scored, as he often does, but a far bigger play was a spectacular sideline grab to convert a third and 11 on the winning drive. Big game for Steve Johnson., as noted, and he could easily have had a second score. Now the bad: Decent numbers for Shonn Greene, but the Jets emphasized the pass around the goal line. And C.J. Spiller didn't do much (2.9 yards per carry); a couple of good runs, a whole lot where he was stuffed near the line of scrimmage. Tough matchup, but I don't see him breaking out even with Fred Jackson on IR.

Browns at Bengals: I'd like to point out that at his Monday press conference, Cleveland's Pat Shurmur said Peyton Hillis wouldn't play. That obviously changed over the course of the week, but maybe we shouldn't give coaches too much grief for being vague on injuries. if they're too certain, they might seem like liars. Fortunately Hillis didn't do anything anyway, but he seems to be healthy. ... A.J. Green caught only 3 passes, but they went for 110 yards and the last one set up the winning field goal. Guy's a difference-maker. ... Nice touchdown grab by Jermaine Gresham, who's also emerging quite nicely in Year 2. I mean, he's no Rob Gronkowski, but he's pretty good. ... Greg Little finally caught that first touchdown, getting wide open in the end zone and neither dropping it nor falling down without being touched. I'm picking on him a little but I do like the guy; he's definitely the No. 1 here going forward, probably for a while, too. Put it this way, he's got a better chance of being a starter here three years from now than Colt McCoy.

Jaguars at Texans: Broke one of my own rules in this game about starting players coming off injury. I usually like to see them healthy before putting them into a lineup, but I decided to throw Andre Johnson in anyway. Caught 2 passes, didn't do much. He's healthy, but the Texans are a running team and they're now down to a third-string rookie at quarterback, so it's difficult to be too optimistic about starting Johnson the rest of the way. (That fantasy team is now 6-6 so the rest of the way might be only one more game anyway.) ... There was some buzz about the fifth-rounder Yates coming out of college, but I'm not sure he'll do too much this season. He's not ready to play and the Texans aren't going to mess with putting too much of the offense on his shoulders. ... Blaine Gabbert benched, and rightly so, because he's been awful. But in fairness, he's got a pretty sorry cast of receivers, which included Marcedes Lewis committing about the season's worst drop of a sure touchdown, a little toss where there was nobody near him and he dropped it like he was trying to catch it with his feet. Ugly. I mean, it's not like there's a league deep enough to start Lewis (right?), but it was painful to see anyway.

Vikings at Falcons: As expected, Toby Gerhart didn't exactly impress, with his 17 for 44 day including getting stuffed in the backfield on fourth and goal from the 1-yard-line in the final minutes. He did get a short touchdown when set up at the 1-yard-line on another occasion; as a starting running back, mediocre though he may be, he has value, and he had a pretty tough matchup here. Vikings shouldn't rush Adrian Peterson back either; why not just get the high draft pick, guys. Michael Turner also had a quiet game; two teams better defending the run than the pass. ... Pretty spectacular Christian Ponder to Percy Harvin touchdown. It came after the Falcons won a challenge to push the Vikings out of field goal range, so Minnesota went for it anyway. This time, Mike Smith's decision didn't cost him. Harvin also was a couple of yards short of a kick return touchdown, and a rushing score 2 plays later. ... Back to back big games for Roddy White; he's back. Julio Jones started, but didn't do those who started him any favors; apparently his hamstring flared up and he spent a lot of time on the sidelines, not catching a pass. Bad luck, but just the latest chapter in a season we should perhaps call Bad Hamstring Season.

Bucs at Titans: LeGarrette Blount hurdling players on big runs! Catching passes! But his 100-yard day wasn't enough to beat the Titans, who got a 190-yard day from Chris Johnson, who's back, and just in time for the fantasy playoffs. ... A lesser guy to make mention of here is Damian Williams, who only caught 3 passes, but one went for a touchdown, and he also got another goal-line chance that was deflected away on a good defensive play. Nate Washington's big game last week came with Jake Locker doing most of the quarterbacking; with Matt Hasselbeck in, Williams is the top guy. And the 6-5 Titans are hanging around in the playoff chase. ... Back to Blount, who caught 3 passes for 56 yards. The guy can play. Should be more involved as a receiver, but apparently they don't trust his blocking. Really, could Kregg Lumpkin be that much better? I don't see it. Bucs are 4-7, so may as well let Blount get some work developing those skills in live action the rest of the way.

Bears at Raiders: Up and down game for Caleb Hanie. A nice TD throw to Knox, followed shortly thereafter by a poor toss in the red zone where the route was easily jumped and nearly turned into a 90ish-yard interception return touchdown. A couple of other picks, and a sweet 81-yard bomb to Knox to convert a third-and-16. So really, he's an ideal backup for Jay Cutler. (Hey, not too late to coax Brett Favre out of retirement! Nah, not likely.) Weird ending, with Hanie wanting to fake a spike, holding it to maybe fool the Raiders, then spiking it. Refs called intentional grounding, and the 10-second runoff ended the game. Kind of funny, not sure I've ever seen a game end like that. ... Yardage numbers and yards per carry not good for Michael Bush, but he scored and continued to look pretty good with the ball in his hands. Even caught 4 passes. Can't complain for a guy who was just a goal-line back earlier in the year. And I guess I've got to talk about fullback Marcel Reece, who was the Raiders' leading receiver (by about 40 yards) in this game. Don't rush out to add him. Eventually they'll have a couple of healthy receivers. ... And yes, Matt Forte has been pretty disappointing of late. Maybe the contract thing has worn on him. Nice call, Chicago.

Random notes from other games: Big game for Donald Brown. Too bad you couldn't safely use him with Joseph Addai drawing the start. ... Finally, the Roy Helu breakout we've been waiting for since he was drafted. Thanks, Shanahan. ... Huge game for Beanie Wells, looks like he's healthy now. Right there to help those of us who have patiently kept him on our bench except for the weeks he started and didn't do anything. He's having quite a year if you start him the right week. ... Funny from the Broncos-Chargers game, after a sideline throw from Tim Tebow. sailed over Eric Decker's head. Announcer commentary: "Good decision to throw it away...." "I'm not so sure he was throwing it away...It was close to Decker..." With Tebow at quarterback, you can never be certain. Oh I know, the guy won again. Has Norv Turner been fired yet? Chargers could have lined up a 48- or 49-yard field goal in overtime on third down. Instead they gave Mike Tolbert the ball, he got dropped in the backfield for a 5-yard loss, and the 53-yard field goal faded off the mark. Broncos got a short field and won. ... Bad week to be facing pretty much any Patriots starter. They clobbered the Eagles with the pass and even set up BenJarvus Green-Ellis for a couple of short touchdowns (though he did nothing else). The Eagles are strange; it seems like they quit every other week, get angry and play hard a week later, then quit again. Horribly blown coverage on the long Wes Welker touchdown. Maybe they should put some money into that secondary or something.

Monday, Monday: Best Monday game of the year? It's definitely an interesting battle of the Saints' powerhouse offense versus the Giants' elite pass rush. I elected to bench the Giants' defense in a couple of leagues, we'll see how that works out. I kind of like Eli Manning in this game, which by default means I think it will be fairly high-scoring. I'm going to give the Giants a 30-24 win, and maybe we'll see Brandon Jacobs hurdle somebody. But probably not.

• Comments [5]

Readers' Comments

Add a Comment

Already a registered user? Please sign in to add comments.

To add comments, you must become a registered user of our site. To register, please click here.