At least the Packers quarterback didn’t go down until the last minute against the Eagles. But many are heartbroken after Hurts and Love ended with Love hurt.

And many have a big puka because Puka is on the IR.

Or maybe you’re like me, a victim of the Moody Blues.

Injuries, the biggest X-factor in football, play an even bigger role in determining wins and losses in the fantasy version of the game. Part of it is because when someone gets knocked out of a contest, fantasy teams don’t get to replace him in the lineup until the next game.

I returned to fantasy football last year after a long break. I got lucky, and a friend maybe-to-be-named-later pretty much handed me Christian McCaffrey, and with him, the league championship.

McCaffrey can beat NFL defenses in so many ways. He threw for a touchdown in his first game as a 49er two years ago. He rushes and catches passes for TDs. And like Harvey Keitel’s character in “City of Industry” who said he’s his own police, McCaffrey is often his own blocker.

CMC can beat you in lots of other ways, too. And by you, I mean YOU, if you’re in a fantasy league.

He defeated my squad and many other fantasy teams without doing a thing in the 49ers’ first game Monday night, a 32-19 win over the Jets. That’s because he was injured and didn’t play a down. It was somewhat of a surprise to some, and the announcement came too late for many with McCaffrey in their lineups to get someone else in there. It might not have made the difference between winning and losing, but everyone’s got a running back on the bench who can score more than zero.

The funny thing is McCaffrey isn’t on my team this year (which I probably jinxed by giving it the name Going For Two), and he’s not on the team that beat mine in Week One. But he was still a major key to my loss — and many others.

When a star of McCaffrey’s magnitude goes down, especially one on a good team, it means more opportunities for his real-life teammates to get the ball and score points for fantasy teams spread around your league.

If McCaffrey is healthy enough to play, it’s unlikely that enough San Francisco drives get stalled for Jake Moody to kick enough field goals to score the 26 fantasy points he did, and let my nephew Tyler’s team, Win, live up to its name.

Yeah, that’s right. I led by more than 10 points going into Monday night, and was projected to win — that is, until Moody swung his leg over and over again like a Radio City Rockette.

One of the things about fantasy football I enjoy is that unlike real games the outcomes rarely come down to a field goal with the clock running down — or six, like Moody had Monday in the final game of the week.

“Puka Nacua’s injury almost doomed me, but I also had Moody who saved week one,” Shane Cummings wrote, in response to my Facebook post asking for fantasy tales of joy and woe from the season openers.

Not everyone who has Moody is in a great mood. My old park league basketball teammate Danny Galang lost by four points despite the Niners’ kicker. His opponent had Cooper Kupp, who scored 32 points (in leagues where receptions count) partly because of his fellow Rams receiver Nacua leaving the game early.

“So I had (Brandon Aiyuk of the 49ers) … if he would have caught that TD pass … I think I would have won and I also had Moody,” Danny wrote. “When does a kicker get more points than your quarterback?”

Not usually, in fantasy football. But in the first week of 2024, plenty of times. Three others joined Moody with 20-plus points, and Punahou grad Ka’imi Fairbairn scored 17 for the Texans.

On a rare week when kickers made fantasy owners winners, some were blamed for losses, too. Just like real life.

”I had Puka and my opponent had CMC. So we offset,” Mark Dayao said. “What did me in was a horrible Cleveland defense and anemic kicking by (Younghoe) Koo of Atlanta which gave me a combined five points. My opponent’s kicker (Brandon Aubrey of the Cowboys) had 21 points!”