This article is part of our NFL Observations series.
After a year of everything going my way, that was a near-disaster. I had the Patriots plus 2.5 against the spread, Michael Pittman and Nick Folk in one league each, and Rhamondre Stevenson and Jonathan Taylor everywhere. Taylor salvaged his day with the late long TD -- he easily could have slid down in bounds to run clock -- but Pittman got almost nothing, thanks in part to an unfair ejection, and Stevenson was game-flowed into irrelevance. It's sad to see my winning NFFC Primetime team in such a hole to start the three-week playoff, but like my ATS best-bet streak, perhaps some things have to die to keep the $6M Circa Survivor entry alive.
- Carson Wentz was bad. He missed a wide-open Pittman on a deep throw early in the game and threw a senseless pick while protecting a lead. He is good at QB sneaks, though.
- Jonathan Taylor (29-170-1) didn't catch any passes, but 23 points will do. This was also a good game for his MVP futures, in large part because the Colts improved their playoff chances.
- Mac Jones threw a couple picks, but I thought he looked okay. The Patriots are not a great come-from-behind team, though -- while they were able to get back into this one, it was too little too late, and they rarely strike for big plays.
- Hunter Henry (8-6-77-2) was the fantasy star of the game. Jakobi Meyers (12-6-44-0) got plenty of targets but did little and dropped a perfectly thrown deep ball from Mac Jones. N'Keal Harry (5-2-52-0) made a nice catch on a deep ball in traffic.
- Rhamondre Stevenson (10-36-0, 1-1-4-0) ran hard, but there wasn't a ton of room, and Brandon Bolden (4-3-0, 5-4-31-0) was in on third downs and for much of the second half when they were in hurry-up mode.
- When it was 17-0, I thought I was in trouble with Nick Folk, but a false start penalty netted him a field goal, and five points from your kicker isn't the end of the world.
