I discovered this morning DirecTV is now charging extra for the fantasy and red-zone channels. I thought about paying, but resented it a bit - who do they think is buying the Sunday Ticket in the first place if not the fantasy player? So I held off and decided to surf manually while watching the games. The main challenge is keeping two screens away from commercials. The Microsoft ones are embarrassing. If the Siri voice is so damn annoying, then don't subject me to it. It's the same thing with the Kenny Rogers one. If hearing him sing that song gets old, then why are you playing it on an endless loop? I can't even remember what product they were advertising, and that's a good thing for them because when I do, I will make sure never to buy it. The Bud Light "up for whatever" ones show how vacuous their ad agency thinks millennials are. "Yeah dude, I'm up for whatever." You know who's up for whatever? Justin Blackmon and Aldon Smith. The NFL should be forced to reinstate both before they're allowed to run that ad again. I don't mind the Matthew McConaughey ones, though. He's all: "Time is a flat circle, and I'm gonna put Reginald Ledoux's corpse in my Lincoln." I would buy a car on that basis.

Other than that, flipping through the channels was actually a better experience in some ways. I feel like I understand what went on better because the red-zone channel only deals with scoring, and you usually see highlights of that stuff anyway. Watching entire drives gives you a much better sense of a team's rhythm and overall success rate and how it calls (or defends) plays in combination. It's certainly easier to have the Giants on one, and leave the other on a flip-around channel, but I'll hold off paying for another week.

• Injuries to A.J. Green, Jamaal Charles and Robert Griffin were especially huge because they happened in the first quarter of their games. Not only (with the exception of Griffin) do you lose a key player for who knows how long, but you probably lose a week on top of that. Going from Charles' projected production to zero is a much bigger hit than going from Charles to whoever you use as a fill-in. In a 12-team league, I think I'd rather know that I were going to miss a star for two weeks in advance, than have him leave in the first quarter of one game.)

• Crazy that in addition to Charles, Green and Griffin, Knowshon Moreno, Ryan Mathews, Vernon Davis and DeSean Jackson all sat out significant portions of Sundays games. That's a lot of dead lineup slots.

• The Giants lost mostly because of bad special teams play and turnovers, but they looked like an actual NFL team. Eli Manning was sharp (though his pocket awareness is still poor), and the offensive line played better. Victor Cruz had some inopportune drops, though two of them, in his defense, would have been great catches had he brought them in. Larry Donnell looked competent, though Arizona has been especially soft on tight ends since the start of last year. And Rueben Randle made an appearance. But forget about the specifics - they key is the offense no longer looks like a wasteland.

• There's no good reason for Doug Martin to get his job back from Bobby Rainey if and when Martin gets healthy.

• It's depressing to think about where RGIII was two years ago and where he is now. I doubt the Redskins' projected win total even moved after his injury. Pierre Garcon was barely used in this game - though Washington was way ahead all game - and given how heavily Griffin targeted him last year and in Week 1, Garcon has to lose some value with Kirk Cousins.

• So much for Allen Hurns. And maybe even Marqise Lee. Allen Robinson was the top receiving target Sunday. I still don't understand why Gus Bradley insists on using Chad Henne. Is it really necessary to throw 2014 away before it even starts? If Blake Bortles does take over, any of the three - or Cecil Shorts if he ever gets healthy - could be his favorite target.

• The Saints are a 7-9-type team on the road, so why is everyone so surprised when they lose? If the Browns are a 6-10 type, they'll beat the 7-9 type 50 percent of the time at home. It's insane the Saints were laying 6.5 points. Mark Ingram and Jimmy Graham are still usable on the road, but I'm staying away from Marques Colston, and I'd even sit Drew Brees if I had another QB like Andy Dalton or Ben Roethlisberger with a good matchup. At home, Brees is 2013 Peyton Manning. I haven't even looked at who the Saints are hosting in Week 3 or what the line is, but I'm pretty sure I'm backing them, as they're a 14-2-type team at the Superdome.

• I feel a little less foolish for drafting Trent Richardson over Brandin Cooks in the NFFC Classic than I did a week ago. Maybe I'll go back to feeling dumb Monday night when Richardson plods his way out of the job entirely.

• The Seahawks are a 9-7 type team on the road, and the Chargers would probably win 10 or 11 games if they played at home all the time, so you should not have laid the wood here, either. Percy Harvin got a lucky (out of bounds) TD run early, but was a non-factor after that. The Chargers dominated time of possession, and when the Seahawks had the ball, Russell Wilson spread it around to eight different receivers with no one getting more than six targets. Even Marshawn Lynch saw only six carries, a rare game-flow situation for the Seahawks who are usually playing with a lead.

•Antonio Gates looks like the rare veteran who got healthy and rediscovered his old skills. You see it in baseball with players like Chipper Jones, Carlos Beltran and David Ortiz, but it rarely happens in the NFL, so I wonder how sustainable it is.

• For the second-straight week, the Broncos got off to a big lead, then went into a shell, only to see the opposing team knocking on the door with their final possession. They will not win a Super Bowl doing that

• Montee Ball had 12 carries for 60 yards, but you'd think he'd have had a bigger workload given the Broncos were leading all game. C.J. Anderson had five carries, while Ronnie Hillman had none.

• I didn't watch the Vikings game, but it's odd with Adrian Peterson out the Vikings never handed the ball to Cordarrelle Patterson.

• It didn't take long for EJ Manuel to discover Sammy Watkins is his No. 1 receiver.

• The Packers looked like themselves again this week with Jordy Nelson especially having a huge game, Randall Cobb scoring twice and Davante Adams getting involved. Eddie Lacy didn't do much for the second straight week, but the Jets had the toughest per-carry run defense in the league last year. It should get better for him. Right now he looks like his predecessor at Alabama.

• Eric Decker had a good day, but it could have been huge had Geno Smith not missed him on a wide open bomb and had he not later left with a leg injury. But we all knew Decker could never stay healthy without Peyton.

• I hope the Texans think throwing a touchdown to J.J. Watt is a gimmick reserved for uncompetitive games against the Raiders and don't make it a regular thing. If they do, it's simply unfair in IDP leagues.

• How often do you see a road team get manhandled by one of the league's more physical defenses for the first half, then come out and destroy that defense in the second? The Bears not only beat the 49ers decisively in their own building, they made it look easy.