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Monday Night Observations

I went to sleep before the games started (1:10 am my time) for once and am catching up on Game Rewind (the condensed version) this morning. Actually, I'm catching up on Steelers-Redskins only because I can't bring myself to watch the Niners-Rams, except for this clip which I saw on Twitter.

• The way the game started, you'd think Jordan Reed was going to have a huge day. He had a couple catches and several targets, including one in the end zone early. For some reason they didn't go back to him much.

• The Steelers threw a TD to Antonio Brown on 4th-and-1 from ~25 yards out. Mike Tomlin doesn't always get it right, but he's not a coward, and he's willing to take a chance if the odds are in his favor. How I wish the Giants had a coach like that.

• DeAngelo Williams is actually older than Frank Gore, but doesn't look it. All those years of light workloads in Carolina must have kept him fresh. The odds five years ago that Williams and teammate Jonathan Stewart would still be starting in 2016 were beyond slim.

• A healthy Le'Veon Bell is going to be a monster again in this offense.

• Antonio Brown is better than Odell Beckham and Julio Jones in fantasy because the former has a coach who won't get him the ball and the latter has a mediocre QB.

• Eli Rogers looks shifty, and so long as Markus Wheaton is out, he'll get targets.

•  A healthy Ben Roethlisberger is a top-three real life QB. I'd take him over Tom Brady and Drew Brees right now. The throw to Sammie Coates on a fumbled snap was Aaron Rodgers-esque.

• Kirk Cousins needed to take more shots down the field to DeSean Jackson, who had a good game, but mostly on shorter throws. (Jackson drew a long pass interference penalty in garbage time on an underthrown ball. Had it been thrown right, it would have been a TD.)

• Vernon Davis is still in the league.

• Chris Thompson won't carry a big load, but should be the team's most useful back in PPR.

• Jesse James (The Outlaw) looks like a regular part of the offense. Even saw some red-zone work.

• Sammie Coates had an early drop, but made a couple big catches including a key third-down conversion in the fourth quarter.

• The Steelers put up 38 points on the road without Bell, Martavis Bryant, Ladarius Green or Markus Wheaton.

• Rams -2.5 at 49ers was a sucker play, and I knew it at the time, but I still took it.

• Chip Kelly is a slightly better coach than Jim Tomsula.

• Watching the condensed versions of games on Rewind really drives home what a small sample an NFL game is.