It was in the third quarter of the late games when Doug Baldwin caught a touchdown, and Blake Bortles threw a 90-yard TD to Allen Robinson that I knew I was sunk in the $10K Stopa Law Firm League. I was a slight favorite for most of the day, but Ben Watson didn't show up, the Steelers kicker and defense gave me seven points combined, and I needed Bortles to do his damage mostly away from Robinson. A 90-yarder gave Bortles 8.5 points and Robinson 15.5 (half-point PPR), a net loss of seven, and Baldwin's catch, yards and score made it more like 15. 

The structure of the league is such that I won't get any money for second place because the winner, Andy Behrens, also had the most points. I could have worked out a partial split but turned it down.  While having an extra $1,000 - or whatever we worked out - would be nice, I don't regret it. I wanted to play for the bigger prize, so I let it ride.

I also lost in the NFFC Online "Beat Chris Liss" final to Alan Seslowsky for $800 (we each got paid $700, and had a three-game playoff for the rest), won the multi-sport League of Leagues (with partner Dalton Del Don) and am in a close battle with  just lost to Derek VanRiper in the RotoWire Steak league.

I was bitter over some of my bad lineup choices (Lamar Miller over Javorius Allen, Dan Carpenter over Justin Tucker in the NFFC and Bilal Powell over Eddie Lacy in Stopa) for 20 minutes, but I'm over it. Fantasy football is torture if you treat it as something over which you had control, but it's not that bad if you embrace its randomness and short-term injustices. I'm honestly more pissed I agreed to let my neighbor cut down some overgrown bushes dividing our properties, and my backyard is now a fishbowl.

• Peyton Manning's Nationwide commercial promises: "Gonna Blow Their Minds This Year," and he sure did. We'll see if the allegations he used HGH, sent to his wife, were true, but he didn't deny his wife received medication from the clinic in question. Moreover, his wife could help clear things up by firmly declaring she never received HGH. Manning told SI's Peter King he might sue Al Jazeera, the network that broke the story, and whether he actually follows through will be a big tell. If he sues, his and his wife's medical records would be subject to discovery, so he's unlikely to do it unless he's truly innocent. Again, we don't know for sure if the allegations are true, but so many of the athletes the media casts as admirable turn out to be frauds. George Carlin put it best.

• If the NFL wanted to punish Odell Beckham, they should have just fined him. Putting the Giants on Sunday night without him only punishes a nation of football fans and gives Beckham even more leverage over the organization he carries on his back.

• Johnny Manziel's passing numbers were terrible the last two weeks, but he was in Seattle and in Kansas City, and he also rushed for 108 yards today. If he's still the Browns' quarterback next year, he'll be interesting with Josh Gordon coming back.

• Be wary of stars in division-rival rematches as the unders in those games come in roughly 55 percent of the time (h/t Scott Pianowski.) Four examples from today: the Steelers, Seahawks, Patriots and Panthers.

• The Packers might win a first-round playoff game at home (assuming they even beat the Vikings next week), but forget about them beating anyone good in Round 2.

• No quarterback is a better or more reliable play than Drew Brees at home. He's like Peyton Manning on steroids.

• Give credit to John Harbaugh both for likely keeping the Steelers out of the playoffs and also going back to Buck Allen after benching him last week for fumbling. Contrast that with Bruce Arians' handling of David Johnson who only got a chance after both Chris Johnson and Andre Ellington got hurt.

• Speaking of which David Johnson has to be considered for the top slot on the running back board next year. Todd Gurley will be in the conversation, but I can't see a great case for anyone else.

• The Panthers lost their undefeated season because the Falcons got pressure on Cam Newton and totally shut him down (4.7 YPA.) The loss could take off some of the pressure, and a re-match division game on the road was a bad set-up, but the Panthers will likely have to face the Cardinals and/or Seahawks defenses in the playoffs.

• The Patriots elected to kick off in overtime, and it turned out to be a mistake, as the Jets scored a touchdown on their first possession. The advantage in going first is a TD wins it. The advantage in going second is you know your situation and whether to use all four downs. Somecalculations give the receiving team roughly a 56/44 advantage, but that doesn't account for wind conditions, personnel, game-flow, etc. It's possible the Patriots had a good reason to kick given these unaccounted for factors, but there's also this:

Belichick has achieved the level of "genius" status whereby when his team does something obviously stupid, people guess 3rd level thinking.

— Craig Elsten (@619sports) December 27, 2015

• A healthy Jordan Reed is the No. 2 fantasy tight end behind only Rob Gronkowski and Kirk Cousins is a top-five fantasy quarterback right now.

• For the second year in a row, Zach Ertz had a huge Week 16. Stash him next year until your championship game.

• Brandon Marshall is the wide receiver version of Gronkowski. He's too big for opposing DBs to cover and knows how to use his size and strength to box defenders out. Marshall also became the first receiver in NFL history with six seasons of 100 catches or more.

• Julio Jones had a monster game, though I don't know how many plays Josh Norman shadowed him. Either way, it's mind boggling the Falcons didn't take more shots with him down the field before Week 16.