I watched the games from the balcony of a hotel room in the Algarve, Portugal. My mother was in town for the week, and she wanted to see it, so Heather booked a place. Once it was completely dark and a little chilly, I moved back into the room, viewing the laptop on low volume in the dark while Sasha and Heather slept 10 feet away. You can imagine watching the awful quartet of late games under those conditions - I nearly bailed at halftime, but stuck it out.

(Lunch stop in Comporta on the way to the Algarve. Above, bar/restaurant next door to where we ate.)

• Ben McAdoo's play calling had me on the verge of suicide early in the game, when he was happily gifting downs to the Cowboys with Rashad Jennings runs into the teeth of the defense. The Giants ran 31 times at 3.0 YPC with a long of 13 and passed 28, though given Eli Manning's fumbles, awful interception and would-be interception that was dropped, there were no great options. McAdoo went for it twice on fourth down, but unforgivably punted on 4th-and-5 from the Cowboys 38-yard line in the first half.

• Manning's pick was on 2nd-and-9 from the Cowboys 22 in a game after finally moving the ball into Dallas territory. Some interceptions more costly than others, and Manning seems to throw an inordinate amount on 1st or 2nd down. A pick on 3rd-and-long doesn't come with the opportunity cost of one on 1st-and-10.

• The Giants defense was a rock, sacking Dak Prescott three times, picking him off twice and holding him to 4.5 YPA. And that was without arguably its best player, Jason Pierre-Paul. No one gives GM Jerry Reese any credit, but he brought in Olivier Vernon, Janoris Jenkins and Damon Harrison and drafted Landon Collins. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo also deserves praise.

• Ezekiel Elliott got his 100 yards, but his long was only 15, he didn't score and the Giants defense did not allow many sustained drives.

• Dez Bryant had a crucial fumble after recording only one catch for 10 yards. I'm not sure if Jenkins was on him all game, but after beating Josh Norman and Xavier Rhodes in consecutive weeks, Bryant succumbed to the Giants secondary.

• Odell Beckham made one huge play - no one is more dangerous after the catch in the middle of the field. His timed speed of 4.43 40 is solid, but he routinely outruns entire secondaries on slant routes. Beckham did drop a would-be TD (Manning's best throw of the game) as well as another would-be catch and recovered his own fumble on a return. It was not Beckham's strongest game, but the Giants need to get him more than nine targets.

• McAdoo punted up three on 4th-and-2 from the Cowboys 31 (he took a five-yard penalty to make it 4th-and-7 from the 36) with 1:15 left and the Cowboys out of timeouts. Ordinarily that would be a criminal act - he could have just gone for it and sealed the game with a first down. But with the Cowboys needing only a field goal, and the Giants defense utterly dominating all game, I didn't have a huge problem with it. A FG attempt would have been the worst decision in my opinion.

• The afternoon games were so awful I don't want to say much about them except I had the Atlanta defense on my bench in the NFFC Online Championships (for the Broncos). I'm 10th overall right now (it's a three-week playoff for $100 K), and had I started them, I'd be third.

• The Buccaneers defense is much better than it was early in the year, but this was also the second straight terrible game from Drew Brees. Brandin Cooks makes a big play most games, but even without Michael Thomas wasn't able to do much, despite 10 targets.

• Russell Wilson has had two awful road games the last three weeks. It was a terrible day for a lot of quarterbacks, though.

• Aaron Rodgers is fantasy's top quarterback this year, and it's not especially close. Jordy Nelson leads all NFL receivers now with 12 TDs in 13 games.

• People stashed Bilal Powell all year hoping for something, but only in formats of oceanic depth (Marianas Trench-esque) did anyone use him this week. (Powell had one carry for three yards and zero catches last week.)

• Carlos Hyde had a surprisingly productive game against the Jets stout run defense.

• Playing in the snow, Le'Veon Bell looked like he was on downhill skis. It seemed at one point like he was going to break Adrian Peterson's single-game rushing record, but the Bills controlled the action in the fourth quarter. Even so, he had such a monster fantasy day in the face of so much failure, it's hard to imagine a Bell owner not advancing in the playoffs. The moral here is always draft the guy suspended three games for weed - he's got fresher legs for the fantasy playoffs, and he's more relaxed than his opponents.

• Ben Roethlisberger's road woes continued. It's not merely that he threw no TDs and three picks, but he did it in enormously favorable counts with Bell bludgeoning the defense. The elements were probably a factor, but Roethlisberger's cavernous home/road disparity goes back a few seasons.

• Sammy Watkins caught four of six targets for 54 yards and a score. It's not the definitive "he's back" game you wanted, but he's getting closer.

• Jeremy Hill had a good game on the ground and caught three passes for 31 yards, but it was against the Browns.

• Robert Griffin seems like a backup college quarterback at this point.

• Matthew Stafford had another Stafford-like game - barely beating a weak opponent at home, but making a great play on the final drive to do so. He's having a good year, but I wouldn't rank him as one of the league's top-10 real-life QBs.

• Looking at the stats, it's hard to see how Denver lost. Both Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas had big games, getting 30 of Trevor Siemian's 51 looks and catching 21 of his 35 completions. The Broncos do seem to miss C.J. Anderson, however, as Devontae Booker has been a bust since taking over, and Justin Forsett, who fumbled on his first Bronco touch, probably isn't the answer.

• Add Marcus Mariota to the list of premium quarterbacks who destroyed their owners this week.

• DeAndre Hopkins is in Allen Robinson territory, or vice-versa. They have to be two of the biggest healthy busts among wideouts in recent memory.

• Even while playing poorly in real life, Andrew Luck has a high floor in fantasy. And when both are healthy, T.Y. Hilton is as safe a bet for receiving yards as any receiver in the league.

• Ryan Tannehill played a great game before tearing his ACL. While the team was once Jay Ajayi's, offensive line problems forced the Dolphins to throw more. Now with Matt Moore under center, it's unclear what they'll do.

• Kenny Stills won't go away - he's been making plays all year, and it's easy to forget he was a promising young wideout on the Saints a few years ago. Of course, he'll now be catching passes from Moore.

• Carson Palmer is Peyton Manning 2015 minus the Super Bowl run. He's a turnover machine and has relegated most of his receivers to irrelevance. Even David Johnson had a subpar game, though he still managed 121 yards from scrimmage.

• Jordan Reed was a tough call because if the Redskins sought fit to play him, how could you not?

• Zach Ertz usually waits until Week 16 to produce, but he's started early this year. After Travis Kelce, he might be the best fantasy tight end right now.

• Rob Kelley ran hard as usual and even got involved in the passing game. I haven't been impressed with him, but he's not going away this year as the early-down workhorse on a top offense.

• Melvin Gordon's first-quarter hip injury is the kind of thing that makes people quit fantasy football. I actually had Le'Veon Bell going in the NFFC playoffs against someone who had Gordon.

• Greg Olsen finally broke 55 yards for the first time since Week 6.

• The Vikings have to be the worst running team in the league. I know the Lions are also bad, but it's painful watching Matt Asiata smash into the teeth of the defense, and Jerick McKinnon was even worse.

• Marqise Lee is having a breakout year. It'll be interesting to see the hierarchy among the Jaguars receivers going forward if they ever figure out how to get league-average quarterback play from Blake Bortles. Allen Robinson had Xavier Rhodes on him for some of the day and was shut down completely.