I almost never miss the Sunday night game, but I switched off it at one point to watch Game 5 of the World Series, and I forgot to switch back. The Royals make the game more compelling (in part because I bet on them) but also because they rarely strike out, often swing at the first pitch, are slick in the field and active on the basepaths. So often baseball is a wait-around-for-something-to-happen game, but the Royals force the action. Leads aren't safe, runners are taking extra bases (wisely or not) and the ball is usually in play.

While the NFL is the more action-packed sport generally, the constant penalties, challenges, timeouts, regular commercial breaks, huddles, dull play calls and injuries are dragging it down. I normally watch games in my office where I have two TVs, but I bailed on it yesterday and focused mostly on the Giants (a good and bad choice.) It was enough work to be on Twitter and flipping during commercials/delays on one set.

• Mets manager Terry Collins blew it when he let Matt Harvey pitch the ninth inning and admitted as much after the game. He said Harvey wanted the ball, and he "trusts his players." A manager should trust his players to do their jobs, but not his. It's a good lesson though: don't put pleasing people and being liked ahead of what's right.

• The Giants find the most amazing ways to lose games. First off, Tom Coughlin (who already gifted a win to the Cowboys in Week 1) punted on 4th-and-3 from the Saints 47 down 35-28 late in the third quarter. While it's almost never correct to punt on fourth and short in plus territory, it's even worse when you're trailing on the road. But this wasn't any road game, but one where their offense was rolling, and the Saints were moving down the field at will. Predictably, the Saints got the ball at their 20 after a touchback (a net of 27 yards), drove down the field and scored to go up 42-28.

• After the Giants had miraculously taken the lead thanks to a pick six, the Saints again drove down the field with ease and at one point had the ball at the Giants 26-yard line with two minutes left. The Saints handed the ball to Mark Ingram who ran for 15 yards down to the 11. Coughlin failed to take a timeout, and the clock ran down to 1:20. Then Ingram gained two more yards, and Coughlin let the clock run down to 41 seconds. When the Saints scored the tying touchdown, there were only 36 seconds left for the Giants to get a field goal.

• After hurriedly trying and failing to move the ball into field goal range, the Giants punted with 20 seconds left. For God knows what reason, no one told punter Brad Wing just to boot it out of bounds even if it only went 30 yards. Instead Wing kicked a returnable 46 yard punt, and the return plus a 15-yard facemask penalty put the Saints in FG range, and they won a game that (1) the Giants should have had the last shot at winning; and (2) barring that should have gone to overtime.

• It was amazing the Saints and Giants scored 13 offensive touchdowns, and none were on the ground. Like Philip Rivers three weeks ago, Drew Brees had a shot to break Norm Van Brocklin's single-game passing record of 554 yards had the game gone into overtime. Unfortunately he finished with a mere 511 and seven TDs.

• Ben Watson had his second huge game in the last three, and at this point, should be considered a top-12 tight end. Just keep in mind every tight end torches the Giants.

• I wouldn't get too excited by the emergence of Brandin Cooks. Sure, if you drafted him, you finally got your money's worth, but he had only eight of 50 targets, Watson and Marques Colston outproduced him and Willie Snead essentially equaled his production.

• Odell Beckham had a massive game, despite being checked by cornerback Delvin Breaux. Beckham appears to be finally over his hamstring injury, and I'm not sure there's a cornerback who can stay with him.

• The Giants defense is terrible right now, but Jason Pierre-Paul and Prince Amukamara's imminent returns could change that.

• It was so odd the Packers were favored by three points in Denver. Even if Peyton Manning were Trent Dilfer, it's rare for any team to lay points on the road against an elite defense. That the Packers offense hasn't been anything special this year and the team isn't especially good on the road made it even more bizarre. Still, I've never seen Aaron Rodgers struggle that much (77 passing yards, 50 net if you include the 27 yards in sacks.) Randall Cobb managed only 27 yards on nine targets (3.0 YPT.)

• Eddie Lacy looked okay even though he managed only 3.5 yards per carry. He did score, and James Starks saw only five carries.

• Ronnie Hillman ran decently and scored two touchdowns, but while he was nicked up on the sidelines C.J. Anderson rumbled through a huge hole for a 28-yard score. With Anderson looking healthy and explosive, we're probably looking at a timeshare again.

• Who knew Joe Lombardi was the league's most valuable assistant coach? If the Lions don't go Joe Philbin on Jim Caldwell, they're wasting half a season for no reason.

• You can't trust the Chiefs to get heir best players the ball no matter the matchup. That's why Jeremy Maclin and Travis Kelce can't be counted on even if both managed to find the end zone Sunday. Kelce is merely a top-10 TE, not top five, and Maclin is not a top-20 WR.

• There's little doubt Julio Jones is healthy now after catching 12 of 13 targets for 162 yards. More telling, though, was him running 80 yards down the field to catch a linebacker who had picked off a Matt Ryan "free-play" pass after the Bucs had jumped offsides. Jones not only sprinted all that way to catch him (on a play that was almost certainly not going to count) but also body-slammed him to the ground.

• Steve Smith likely ended his career after tearing his Achilles, and my Twitter feed blew up with people hoping he changes his mind and comes back next year. That struck me as odd for a couple reasons: (1) Isn't it better to leave as a good player than come back at age 37 off a major injury and try to hang on like Reggie Wayne? and (2) Yes, it's sad he got hurt, and his career is likely over, but he also beat the crap out of at least three people over the last decade and a half. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve sympathy or he's a terrible person. (You'll probably like the guy if you watch this.) But if he weren't a great player he might have gone the way of IK Enemkpali, and no one felt badly about him losing his job. People will always forgive a winner.

• That's also the case with Alex Rodriguez who was invited to do the World Series broadcast and offered surprisingly good analysis. A year ago, it seemed like he was universally reviled, and  people were hoping he'd go away. But 33 homers later, and it's like he's a senior ambassador to the game. (For the record, I've always liked ARod, and think his biggest fault was being a terrible PR person.)

• Ladarius Green absolutely killed me in DFS. I couldn't resist his $3,000 price tag on Draft Kings, and he was reasonable on FanDuel too. When Antonio Gates was surprisingly active, I pivoted to Delanie Walker where I had $100 left over (on FD), but I still had Green in maybe 45 of 60 lineups. Green had been useful even with Gates healthy, so I left him in (rather than switch to Heath Miller which I considered.) We'll never know what Green would have done had he not gotten hurt, but I'd have posted some big scores had I subbed in Miller.

• I started Willie Snead over Dez Bryant in PPR and Rueben Randle over Bryant in half PPR, and both decisions were correct. Unfortunately, I used Bryant over Snead in a non-PPR league. It's easy to say this after the fact, but it's bizarre the consensus among experts had Bryant ranked higher than both. A full strength Bryant with Tony Romo going against an average CB is so much different than a rusty, snap-count limited, not-entirely-healthy Bryant with Matt Cassel going against Richard Sherman.

• I have one high-stakes 12-team NFFC league with Le'Veon Bell, Devonta Freeman, Lamar Miller, Andrew Luck, Brandon Marshall, Jeremy Maclin, Donte Moncrief and Gary Barnidge, and I was already counting my winnings. Not so fast, it turns out. Over the last three weeks, Bell, Jamaal Charles, Arian Foster and Matt Forte have decimated the top of the running back board, and it's likely there's more to come.

• Todd Gurley would have to be the No. 1 pick going forward, right?

• Derek Carr throwing for 333 (9.3 YPA), four TDs and zero picks against the Jets was impressive. While Oakland was once an offensive wasteland, it now has to be taken seriously. Why can't Latavius Murray be a top-five back, or Michael Crabtree a top-25 receiver? Amari Cooper could even wind up top-10, though Darrelle Revis shut him down.

• Brandon Marshall has made a lot of mistakes this year, but volume is king. He wasn't efficient, but he saw 18 more targets. He's also banged up and might miss an easy matchup against the Jaguars, though.

• Todd Bowles punted on 4th-and-7 from the Jets 20, down 14 with 3:30 left. Take a moment to process that.

• Maybe Houston will turn the corner, but I think it was mostly the Titans offense. I actually thought Zach Mettenberger was good too. Marcus Mariota's return should help a little, but I'd still target this offense for streaming purposes.

• Speaking of terrible quarterbacks on league doormats, Colin Kaepernick isn't just out to lunch, he's taking bong hits in outer space. Otherwise, he might have noticed Torrey Smith lined up with no one on him rather than handing the ball off.

• Why does every big sports media site (ESPN, Yahoo!, CBS) auto-launch video when you land on their pages? They have to know it's killing the experience of using their sites. Whatever ad revenue they're generating, it's a terrible long-term strategy. At a minimum I mute my laptop, and usually I just close the window altogether and find what I'm looking for elsewhere.