It finally rained in Los Angeles, something that's badly needed on account of the drought here. It wasn't a heavy rain, but it watered the plants and washed my car, while making me feel better about being installed in front of the television nine hours for the 13th-straight Sunday. If you live in Buffalo or Cleveland you're not forced to squander sunny, 70-degree days for your habit the way I am - at least not after early October. The more brutal the weather, the more conviction you can have that watching NFL games - no matter how low the quality - is in fact the highest use of your time and attention.

I bring this up because had it been nice out, I think I would have gone for a walk, perhaps a long one. It's not merely that I'm 5-10 against the spread as I type this or that the Giants incredibly blew a 21-point lead to the Jaguars, horrifying as both scenarios were. It was also what seemed like an excessive amount of odd bounces and unforced errors determining outcomes, to the point where few of the games had any flow. Probably the most annoying one was the Redskins-Colts which had the makings of a good game, but Washington - after putting up a decent fight - repeatedly gifted the Colts long touchdowns with blown coverages. (I had faded the Colts for Survivor purposes, so I made the mistake of investing myself in that contest.)

• Andrew Luck is either very good at something that's hard to measure or the most aptly named player in the league. At least 177 of his 370 yards and three of his five TDs came on plays where his receiver was simply not covered.

• Colt McCoy isn't likely to be the Redskins starting quarterback next year, but that he's light years ahead of Robert Griffin right now is inarguable.

• How strange that a largely competent Brian Hoyer, who held the Browns together for 10 games with terrible receivers, is falling apart to the point of losing his job now that his superstar target is finally back. As much as I thought Hoyer might be a factor in the fantasy playoffs, I'd rather be wrong and see Johnny Manziel start next week.

• I wasted 15 minutes this morning agonizing over whether to use the Rams or Texans (over the Colts) in my Survivor pool. This after wanting to switch to the Ravens before realizing I had used them already.

• It was nice to see Jonas Gray finally get a carry after oversleeping last week. No one can ever take those four yards away from him. You can't blame Bill Belichick for using LeGarrette Blount, who looks great. But Brandon Bolden? That's on purpose.

• I took the Patriots plus three, and predicted a 26-24 final score. They lost 26 - 21 and didn't cover after Stephen Gostkowski missed a field goal with four minutes left. (I realize the Packers should have been up 30-21 had Davante Adams not dropped an easy TD, but still.)

• The 49ers are even less watchable than I thought. Colin Kaepernick arguably has more physical talent than any quarterback in history, but physical talent above a certain floor is probably 10 percent of the job.

• When you lose by 11 to the Falcons despite getting an 88-yard pick-six, you're in trouble. Bruce Arians didn't help his cause by punting in plus territory on 4th-and-short. The Cardinals got Michael Floyd involved early, but after a fumble on what looked like a decent strip by the defender, Floyd was largely ignored again.

• The Chiefs-Broncos was an awful game. The Chiefs defense actually played great, holding Peyton Manning to 5.3 YPA, but every time it got a stop in the second half, something unlucky would happen, from a Chiefs player getting nicked on a sideways bounce from a short punt (causing a turnover) to Alex Smith having a pass batted at the line of scrimmage up in the air and into the hands of DeMarcus Ware. Every time I tried to invest myself in the game for a few minutes, something stupid and random would undermine it and make me question why I wasn't doing something more useful with my life.

• Marvin Lewis made the greatest challenge I've ever seen, and it wasn't even legal. Up one, in the final minute of the game, after Tampa completed a pass to get in easy field-goal range, Lewis threw his red flag, asserting there were 12 men on the field on the play. Because the game was in the final two minutes, all challenges are handled by the booth, and throwing your flag is illegal and costs you a timeout. But once Lewis threw it, the officials had to investigate whether he was right, and when they discovered he was, they had to undo the gain and penalize the Bucs for the infraction, taking them out of range. It was the difference between a win and a loss and could determine whether they make or miss the playoffs.

• The Raiders celebrating a sack last Thursday deep in the Chiefs backfield during live action while Kansas City still had a small chance to win the game told you all you needed about their likely level of "preparation" for their game in St. Louis this week.

• Stedman Bailey, who made a great catch in the first quarter, caught five of six balls for 100 yards. It was the second straight week he's made an impact,  and apparently (I don't follow college football) he was also a monster at West Virginia. If Brian Quick can return at 100 percent next season, the Rams should have two dynamic wideouts, not including former first-round picks Tavon Austin and Kenny Britt (if Britt's still around.)

• Tre Mason had a huge day, but any back in the league with above-average speed would have scored that 89-yard TD - Mason was untouched and made no moves on essentially a straight-ahead sprint.

• I saw people on Twitter getting props for recommending the Vikings defense this week. Please understand while the four sacks are nice, the main reason they went off is they blocked two punts for touchdowns. That's not defense, that's special teams. And unless the Vikings have a pattern of blocking punts or the Panthers are especially vulnerable to the blocked punt, and you knew that in advance, it's dumb luck.

• I didn't watch much of the Texans-Titans game for obvious reasons, but if I could go back in time and change one thing about my life it would be to sign up for some large DFS tournaments and play Ryan Fitzpatrick and DeAndre Hopkins.