We’re back.
Boom or bust wide receiver Calvin Ridley made the milly-maker winning lineup after his third consecutive week on the list. He reeled in a sweet garbage time TD last Sunday against a Charger’s D that effectively took away every other weapon that the Titans fielded.
As an aside, it’s great that the Chargers won and that their defensive coordinator is getting his flowers as a future head coach candidate. I’m a massive fan of Jim Harbaugh and the front office is probably the sharpest in the NFL. But if you are allowing two scores to the only legitimate receiving threat on the Titans, I’m not sure you should be entirely satisfied with the defensive game plan and execution.
They are going to have to stop Ja’Marr Chase this week, a player just slightly better than Ridley. Using the Titans as a warm up game to lock down the top receiving threat would have made me a lot more confident about their chances in keeping the Bengals offense in check Week 11.
But back to the model and my mental state.
It had only been three weeks of failure, but no matter how long I do this it can start to feel like the model will never work again when it hits a losing streak. That makes no sense, of course. The model started hotter than it ever has this year. But the hot streak to begin the year didn’t make a lot of sense either. It was unsustainable, so I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop the whole time; fretting about the end of the run instead of enjoying the ride.1 Ultimately I ended up not enjoying the great start as much as I should have, and of course hated the inevitable downturn. This week is legit the happiest I’ve been about the model’s performance since Week 1. Human psychology is weird.