This article is part of our NFL Observations series.
That disturbance in the force you felt last night was the cry of two more souls lost in the $6M Circa Survivor pool on the Seahawks. We're down to 28, and I'm already nervous thinking about Week 13. I had the Seahawks plus one ATS, so I was hoping for a Seattle loss by one to push. But the elimination of those entries was the far bigger priority, as $6M divided by 30 is $200K, but by 28 is $214,286, i.e., we gained $14K is equity with those two eliminations.
- Taylor Heinicke is a player. He dodged a few would-be sacks, kept the mistakes to a minimum and made some strong throws. He's exhibit 20 as to why you don't reach for an early first-round QB you don't love, and why you don't extend the Andy Dalton/Baker Mayfield types for big money. Decent and sometime good QBs are available on the cheap.
- Antonio Gibson (29-111-0, 7-7-35-0) carried a huge load and looked good. J.D. McKissic (7-30-1, 5-5-26-1) got his share too and vultured both touchdowns.
- Terry McLaurin (7-4-51-0) was the only receiver of note, but the Team didn't need to attack downfield much, given gameflow and the ineptitude of the Seahawks' offense.
- Joey Slye got hurt during the blocked PAT, and as a result, the Team couldn't kick a FG, something that almost cost them, as they could have chip-shotted with two minutes left to go up 10 and seal the game. Instead, the Seahawks stopped them on fourth down, scored a last-minute TD and would have sent it to OT had they made the two-point conversion. (I would have feared those Seattle entries had they won in overtime, but alas there is only one Team Of Destiny.)
- Russell Wilson made a nice throw in the closing minute to make it 17-15, but he was way off on some throws, and he never got into rhythm.
- Tyler Lockett (5-3-96-0) made a 55-yard catch, but didn't do much else, while DK Metcalf (4-1-13-0) was barely targeted, and at least one of those was a ball thrown well out of bounds. I thought a healthy Metcalf couldn't fail this year, and I could not have been more wrong.
- Alex Collins (fumble) and the Seattle running game were non-existent. Chris Carson is out for the year, Rashaad Penny is on IR, Travis Homer (calf) was out, so don't be surprised to see more DeeJay Dallas going forward.
- It's strange to write off the Seahawks this early during the Russell Wilson era, but there's no coming back from 3-8.