Scouting Notebook: Dallas dials up Dez

“Hey, let’s throw to Dez Bryant,” the Cowboys finally resolved while his fantasy football owners sighed. Bryant had 16 targets and was robbed of a 10th catch and about 25 more yards just before the game-winning field goal with more “completing the act of catching” nonsense. Bryant will win championships this year for his owners. Again.

Tony Romo has tied Troy Aikman now with 21 game-winning drives. Romo haters demand a recount, reminding us that of course this was November and thus doesn’t qualify as a big game. Many (most?) of them are actually Cowboys fans. I eagerly await their miserable football existence once Romo really is gone.

Meanwhile, the Giants ran their way right out of that game. You have to throw it to beat your opponents and run it to beat the clock. I'm sure it feels good to go for over 200 rushing yards, though.

Victor Cruz has been terrible since Tom Coughlin’s offense became primarily about interception prevention. Big Blue is a half game out of last place now. Their personality when winning has been big pass plays, especially to Cruz. I’ll fade that though and get Andre Brown and hope he somehow endures without a season-ending injury, as has been his pattern. Cruz isn’t going to be the guy we thought he was the rest of the season.

I was scratching my head reading my feed all week and getting questions from people panicked over playing Chargers against the Chiefs. Look, the Chiefs are a fraud. Their defense has some nice players (before the injuries) but they made their bones against four backup QBs in five weeks, not even including Terrelle Pryor.

The Chiefs are everything that’s wrong with football: defense wins championships, you win by running the football, you don’t make mistakes on offense, you create turnovers, you make your quarterback a game manager, you are what your record says you are. All of these things are myths as demonstrably untrue as the Loch Ness Monster. It’s not even illustrative of a game gone by, it’s from a game that never even was. Teams have been winning by having the better passing game for 50 years.

I live for receiving freaks like Ladarius Green. That small, slow Vincent Brown is standing in his way is rich irony. And we won't even talk about the ghost of Antonio Gates. But I'd throw Gates' jersey out there over Brown right now. Look, Green, while technically a tight end, easily moves like a receiver. So just stand him up in the slot, San Diego. I’d get Green everywhere this week. Heck, I was telling everyone on Twitter to get him last week. Mike McCoy is a smart guy. I will trust he’ll do the right thing.

I go back and forth with Larry Fitzgerald. He’s been so unproductive for most of the past two seasons. But how can he be washed up already? Michael Floyd was more productive outside of the end zone, again, however. I think Fitzgerald is a deadline sell-high given the Cardinals’ upcoming schedule. I’ll rank Floyd over Fitzy for the rest of the season.

The Colts’ sudden total mediocrity is karmic payback for stubbornly giving snaps to Trent (Train Wreck) Richardson (as christened today by @lateroundQB JJ Zachariason). Free The Donald (Brown)!

Has Andrew Luck broken out yet? I’m not sure what to look for since evidence with him does not matter. He lives in that rare space that’s uncorrupted by facts like passer rating or yards per pass attempt. Feel free to set me straight in the comments. He’s not really fantasy relevant, I know, given the depth at QB right now.

Justin Hunter showed the kind of small-area quickness and moves on his TD that you don’t expect from long receivers. He’s 6-foot-4 with 4.44 40 time (draft workouts) and a 39.5-inch vertical. Yeah, sign me up for some of that. You get burned with this sometimes (Stephen Hill), but this game is about ceiling and the big, fast guys have the much higher ones. I’d never own a guy like Kendall Wright, though, who is small and slow (4.61, #killtheppr).

This is a great year to stream QBs, as Ryan Fitzpatrick owners did today. The last thing you want to do is play a borderline top 12 QB (Luck) every week through thick and thin. What is the point?

Go ahead and have at me again, Calvin Johnson owners, for having the temerity to suggest in October that you trade him for Josh Gordon. I was 100 percent wrong. Johnson clearly is not suffering a season-long malaise due to a chronically injured knee. But Gordon is no stiff and is averaging over 100 receiving yards a game for the season, with three quarterbacks. He has nearly 1,000 receiving yards in nine games. If he can focus like a pro, he will be another receiver you should think of drafting before all those running backs for whom we always seem to settle for (this starts about the second pick).

I had Antonio Brown in that undersized, slower class that I avoid. But he had the better of Joe Haden today. So I’ve turned around on him now completely. Maybe it’s mostly due to having a Hall of Fame QB like Ben Roethlisberger, but who cares? It counts all the same.

Mike Glennon was another QB you could have streamed. It was pretty obvious that Bobby Rainey wasn’t going to have much of a day. Detroit’s run D is too stout. The Lions’ secondary is easy pickings though, as Glennon showed with 247 yards on just 21 attempts.

Case Keenum has crashed to earth and took Andre Johnson with him. The benching last week did not work.

Apparently, the wind was only blowing when the Jets had the ball because Joe Flacco seemed fine.

Further proving my point that there are no real big-time defenses, look at how mediocrities like Ryan Tannehill and Mike Wallace ripped the Panthers secondary for much of the day. (Yeah, I know these guys are gods compared to us but they are mediocre among NFL starters.)

Disappointing day for Alshon Jeffery but you have to stick with him. People are sticking with A.J. Green, right? Just because you are a No. 2 receiver doesn’t mean one bad week and you’re done.

I’m not buying Jared Cook. Ladarius Green over Cook.