I went to a Palm Springs resort for the weekend with my family, so I didn't watch all of the games for the first time in years. I was unlucky enough to catch the Texans-Chiefs, the end of the Steelers-Bengals and most of the Vikings-Seahawks, so I spent Sunday afternoon teaching my nearly four-year-old daughter how to swim. By that I mean standing in the pool, throwing her five feet into the air and watching her crash into the water, bubble to the surface and say: "Again!"

•  The Chiefs have won 11 in a row and just blew out the Texans 30-0 on the road, but they weren't that impressive. Their first TD was a kick return, they let the Texans get first-and-goal from the two-yard line (before Houston ran it nowhere with J.J. Watt and Brian Hoyer threw an unbelievably bad pick) and the Texans would have had a second TD had tight end Ryan Griffin not dropped an easy TD in the second half. I was obviously wrong to have Houston plus three, but this should not have been a blowout. Coach Bill O'Brien didn't help Houston's cause, either, when he punted on 4th-and-3 in plus territory down 13, and the Chiefs scored on the next possession.

• I'm pretty sure Watt isn't one of the top-20 most valuable players in the league.

• Judging by my Twitter feed, I missed a lot of terrible things in the Steelers-Bengals, and I'm glad. I also witnessed terrible things like the Bengals dialing up an incredibly bad two-point conversion play (had they made it, the game goes to OT even after the subsequent disasters), Jeremy Hill fumbling away a sure win, and the refs deciding this contest based on personal fouls/unsportsmanlike conduct calls, i.e., penalties that didn't affect the action on the field.

• I got killed on Twitter for this, but I call it like I see it: I don't think Vontaze Burfict necessarily was trying to hurt Antonio Brown, and I don't think the flag should have been thrown. Brown was jumping one second and bending at the waist and ducking the next (keep in mind the clip is super slow motion.) Burfict hit him late and squarely in the helmet, but had Brown stayed upright, Burfict would have hit him in the chest. It's possible Burfict was aiming to tackle him or jar the ball loose and followed through on the hit a beat late. I can't infer intent from that, and most people arguing with me on Twitter cited past instances of his rough or dirty play that have no bearing on what happened on that particular one. Maybe Burfict is a terrible person, but good and bad guy narratives from the league's corporate yes-men rarely stand the test of time. (Think of Joe Buck being horrified by Randy Moss fake-mooning the Packer fans after a TD, or James Harrison - long considered a bad guy like Burfict - now in the role of respected veteran.)

Bottom line, it's too bad Brown took a shot to the head, but the hit had nothing to do with the play, and in order to make an example of Burfict, the referees altered the result of a playoff game. I don't know what the solution is as intent is awfully hard to predict, barring a punch being thrown, or Odell Beckham spearing Josh Norman without any plausible football justification, but making game outcomes even more arbitrary is not it.

• At least the Bengals still covered the spread (if you got it at 2.5 or 3.)

• If the Bengals-Steelers wasn't arbitrary enough for you, the Vikings-Seahawks should do the trick. The Vikings drove down for the game-winning chip-shot field goal, and Blair Walsh just shanked it. Why not flip a coin, designate a random player on each team to be concussed and pretend there was a game played? What's the use in fans sitting through sub-zero temperatures and people at home watching commercials, penalties and reviews? It's not like there's any meaning to which team advances and which goes home.

• I missed most of the Packers-Redskins which I imagine was the best game of the weekend, but I don't regret it. The Redskins played so much better than the Packers of late, but put this one in the column of season-long body of work matters. I thought the Redskins had turned a corner with Jordan Reed and DeSean Jackson healthy, but it wasn't the case. I still think the Packers will get killed in Arizona next week, though.

• Russell Wilson's recovery after a bad snap which turned into a big downfield play was something only he and maybe Cam Newton would even consider doing. Almost every other NFL QB would fall on the ball, and half of them would fail trying.

• I should be looking forward to a Wilson-Newton showdown, but this week's games left such a bad taste in my mouth, I'm expecting to be disappointed.

• The Broncos and Cardinals should now be considered the favorites in their respective conferences.

• Mike Carey knows less and is worse than I thought. I can't recall his specific quotes, but I remember thinking he's an imposter.

• The commentary by Phil Simms and Jim Nantz in the Bengals-Steelers game was so bad it nearly destroyed my will to live.