I won't lie to you. After waking up and seeing the final score was 17-14, I couldn't bring myself to rewatch the entire game. Instead I used an edited-down highlight package that spanned about 10 minutes. That means I missed a lot of two-yard runs and incomplete passes which are part of the game and do provide *some* useful information about the players. But you have to prioritize your time on this planet.
Today I'm back in Berlin during an unseasonably cold and rainy stretch:
(Some kid wearing a pink hat she never takes off, climbing at the playground down the block. In the background, a large soccer field. If you wonder why Germany destroys us at soccer, consider they use a valuable swath of urban space for a regulation-sized pitch. Above, the view from a coffee shop a few doors down from my apartment.)
• Jacquizz Rodgers looked like a poor man's Devonta Freeman, breaking tackles and changing directions on the minority of carries I watched. (He was 30 for 101, so I'm sure there were a lot of duds.) He's maybe a quarter-step less quick and explosive, but could retain the third-down role even when Doug Martin comes back with Charles Sims out for the year. Just realize Rodgers is a far less efficient receiver than Sims, and Martin might wind up seeing all three downs.
• Cameron Artis-Payne ran well, but keep in mind that short TD would have been Cam Newton's.
• Derek Anderson got 9.9 YPA but lost a fumble and threw two picks, one of which was especially awful in the end zone.
• Greg Olsen is usually steady-Eddie, but with Anderson at QB, he blew up for 170 yards. Kelvin Benjamin was the only other receiver to see more than four targets. In fact, of Anderson's 28 attempts, 22 went to those two players.
• Mike Evans didn't do much on 12 targets before his 26-yard TD catch. He's been fine fantasy-wise, thanks to the volume (62 targets), but he and Jameis Winston haven't really clicked yet.
• In case you were still holding onto Vincent Jackson (which no one was), you can drop him. With Sims out, I actually picked up Jackson in one league for the matchup, and it was obviously a mistake
• Winston is short of weapons. With Jackson looking done, Austin Seferian-Jenkins gone and Sims out, it's Evans or bust. Rodgers, Adam Humphries and Cameron Brate aren't secondary options, they're tertiary ones at best.
• Robert Aguayo is a disaster. He made the game-winning kick, but I'd like to have seem him attempt it without the benefit of the 15-yard facemask that moved it from 53 to 38 yards. And they're pot-committed to him this year after using a second-round pick.
• Speaking of the facemask, I hate to see games decided by the refs, even if the call is legitimate. It's one thing when you have a pass interference which prevented a play from happening, but a foul that marginally affects the play potentially changing the outcome of a game is always unsatisfying.
• What's wrong with Lavonte David? I've got him in an IDP league, and five tackles per week isn't cutting it.