Week 3

The case against Tony's lineup management is getting stronger. So is his record.

Even after the tight end switch, Tony left the better quarterback on his bench: Jared Goff outscored Allen, 23.36 to 16.96. Across three weeks, Tony has left a league-high 72.30 points unused. This would make a persuasive argument for intervention if his running backs had not contributed 77.00 on Sunday. You can spend a long time discussing the proper tight end when the running backs have paid for the entire afternoon.

Jonathan had to live with a much less forgiving margin. He picked his lineup more efficiently than Tony, lost by 7.76, and was the only losing manager this week who had enough points on his roster to change the result. Everyone else could close the app knowing that rearranging the furniture would not have saved the house. Jonathan had a reason to keep looking.

There was Worthy, promoted after an 11.00-point week on the bench, contributing 3.00 while Doubs scored 6.40. There were the Bengals, also contributing 3.00 a week after Jonathan had enjoyed 23.00 from the Patriots. Doubs alone would not have closed the gap, and last week's Patriots score was no longer available, but there was plenty to revisit in a game this close.

Jonathan still leads Tony 13-7 in their series. He has not added to his side of that record since 2023, which is a long time to keep explaining that you tend to win this matchup.

Matthew Stafford spent Week 1 on Thinh's bench and Week 2 on Dashon's, where his 34.98 points offered Dashon an unpleasant alternative to the 9.88 he had received from Justin Herbert. For Week 3, Dashon gave Stafford the job. Stafford delivered 24.90, Herbert scored 14.74, and for once there was nothing to fix at quarterback.

There was very little to fix anywhere in the lineup. Dashon collected 96.5 percent of the points available to him, the second-best mark in the league, and posted his highest score of the season. After two losses, he had done the part a manager can do.

He lost by 20.18 to Thinh, who had employed Stafford as bench decoration two weeks earlier.

Even a perfect lineup would have left Dashon more than 15 points short. De'Von Achane lasted four snaps before landing on IR, adding a Week 4 problem to a Week 3 defeat. Dashon is now 0-3 with fresh proof that he can make the right decisions and still need better players, better health, or a different opponent.

Thinh, meanwhile, has picked Brock Purdy over Joe Burrow correctly in consecutive weeks and reached 3-0 with the league's second-most points. He also pulled even with Dashon in their career series, 13-13. Stafford was useful to Dashon on Sunday; Thinh managed fine without him.

John improved on last week's score by two hundredths of a point. That was apparently the adjustment he needed.

After losing with 134.36, he kept the same lineup and won with 134.38. Sticking with Trevor Lawrence required some tolerance: John had promoted him in Week 2 and received 6.16 points for the trouble. Lawrence stayed in and scored 25.78 this time, helping John end Nate's two-game winning streak in the series and return the favor for last year's consolation-bracket loss.

Nate also kept his lineup, although the argument for patience was harder to make at receiver. Puka Nacua had a hip injury, an Out designation, and zero points in Week 2. Nate started him again in Week 3 under the same conditions. Whatever uncertainty Nate faced elsewhere on the roster, this particular decision came with the answer attached.

Replacing Nacua would not have rescued the week. Nate's best possible lineup would still have lost by 25.74, which makes the unused receiver slot less an explanation for the defeat than an objection to how it happened. He is 0-3 and last in points. Before worrying about which players will have a good Sunday, he could start with players who are having a Sunday.

Andrew had already seen Patrick end a good season's title run. Their previous meeting came in last year's semifinals, when Patrick beat him by 5.78, knocked a 12-3 team out of the title race, and continued on to the championship. This meeting offered Andrew a chance at revenge without requiring him to wait until December.

Patrick arrived with Sam Darnold, who had not been on his roster a week earlier, and won by 79.24.

The defending champion had done more than shuffle the same names. He replaced Bo Nix at quarterback, added a kicker, and took his roster's best possible score from 114.52 to 189.76 in seven days. Then he put almost all of it into the lineup. Four players on his roster did not play, and he still posted the week's high. Andrew had the bad luck to meet Patrick during the successful portion of his home improvement project.

Andrew's own repair went less well. Jaylen Waddle had scored 17.80 on the bench the week before, a reasonable invitation to start him. Andrew accepted and got 5.40. At quarterback he stayed with Hurts, while Shough outscored him from the bench for the second straight week, this time by more than 19 points. Moving a player cost him; leaving another in place cost him too.

Neither decision would have made this close. In 31 meetings, these two had never finished so far apart. Andrew used to own the record for their biggest beating, set in 2021. Patrick took that as well.

There is a satisfying version of this game in which Daniel picks up the defense Kevin no longer wants, starts it against him, and makes Kevin spend the afternoon regretting the transaction. Daniel completed the first two steps.

The 49ers scored 1.00. Kevin's replacements, the Vikings, scored 17.00. Whatever revenge Daniel had available would need to come from somewhere else on the roster, and by the end of Sunday it was clear that nobody else had brought any.

Daniel has played 69 career weeks. This was his second-worst. His worst was an 82.00 in a 2022 fifth-place game, also against Kevin, who is developing an unpleasant presence in the personal record book. Daniel would have lost to every team in the league this week, but Kevin got to be the one across from him and take a 5-4 lead in their series.

Kevin had also escaped last week's indignity of watching his kicker outscore his quarterback. With Caleb Williams out, Kirk Cousins supplied 28.22, and Kevin reached 150. His kicker, Trey Smack, scored a single point for Smack Down the Middle. In a 62.38-point win, Kevin could afford to carry someone for the name.