The finals have come and gone in most leagues. Hopefully many of you are celebrating championships. Inevitably, most aren’t. After looking at what happened in Week 16, we’ve put together the Fantasy Football Lumps of Coal Team.
This team could very well have been a legitimate starting team in the championships…and completely fell on its face. Without further delay, let’s meet the team that is a little heavy on the Giants.
Quarterback: Eli Manning (New York Giants) Â had a dreadful day against Baltimore. Manning hit 14-of-28 passes for 150 yards with one touchdown and absorbed three sacks. People had to think that Giants would screw their heads on the right away after getting blanked by Atlanta the week before. Apparently not. Manning had 3500 yards and 20 touchdowns for the season before this lump of coal. Baltimore is a middle-of-the-road team in terms of pass defense so this is still quite shocking.
Running Back: Arian Foster (Houston) Arian Foster has been running wild on the league this season and has been a great threat out of the backfield too. Going up against Minnesota, this had all the trimmings of a monster game. Instead he left the game in the third quarter with an irregular heartbeat. Hopefully, he’s doing okay as the Texans will need him to  try and make a Super Bowl run.
However, he probably left your fantasy team searching for a defibrillator when you saw his stat line. Foster’s 10 carries for 15 yards probably put your team in the morgue. It’s no secret Foster isn’t really interested in his fantasy owners. It’s also no secret that his owners are rolling their eyes about the second-place trophy they won.
Running Back: Chris Johnson (Tennessee) CJ2K showed some weeks where he looked like a real running back and other weeks where he looked like the frustrating back from earlier this year. Well, championship week was more of the latter. The Titans got skunked in Green Bay by a 55-7 score and Johnson was held to 28 yards on 11 carries. Yes, part of it was the score but there should have been a better commitment to the run game to at least keep Aaron Rodgers on the sidelines as long as possible.
Wide Receiver: Victor Cruz (Giants) With Manning having an awful game, his wideouts suffered. Badly. There was no salsa in the end zone against the Ravens. Cruz was held to just three catches for 21 yards. Cruz had more than 1,000 yards and nine touchdowns for the season before this giant lump of coal in Baltimore. If you started the man called “Victory” Cruz, his performance this week was a torpedo through your title dreams.
Wide Receiver: Hakeem Nicks (Giants) The only thing worse than Cruz was Nicks’ game. Three targets. No catches. No yards. Yes, you scored as many fantasy points as a former Pro Bowl wide receiver in the championship week.
Tight End: Tony Gonzalez (Atlanta) Â Gonzalez had a great season going and was a key part of many fantasy teams this year. Atlanta was able to move the ball up and down the field against Detroit with Matt Ryan throwing four touchdown passes and picking up 271 passing yards. Â Gonzalez was held to one catch for nine yards and was targeted all of twice in the game.
Coming into the game, he had 880 yards and 8 touchdowns. Leaving the game, he had many fantasy owners reaching for the Pepto.
Kicker: Since Mason Crosby of the Packers actually had a good day kicking, we really don’t have one for this spot.
Defense: San Francisco 49ers (DST) has been giving up points by the pile lately. They had a good first half against New England but got mauled in the second half. It wasn’t any better when Seattle hung 42 on them during championship week. This was a DST unit that was one of the better ones during the season and has completely fallen apart over their last six quarters.
So, there you have it. A real team that fell completely on its face. Hope your teams did better than the All-Lump Team.
