Readers, I am a hot little potato this morning. I decided to dabble in a little offshore gambling this past weekend as I sometimes do. You know what? My day was going pretty well. The Panthers covered in a pretty worry-free affair. The Cardinals marched down and scored a game winning touchdown on the final drive. I’m sitting at 2-0 thinking that there is no way that I am getting to 3-0 because I laid 7.5 points and took the Rams. All of a sudden, the Packers fumble the kick off with two minutes to go in the fourth quarter. I have life! The Rams have the ball at the 20 and the best running back in football. The Packers best chance of getting the ball back is letting Gurley walk in the end zone and hope for a missed extra point.Â
The first two plays were dumb reverses and now all of a sudden, it is 3rd down with just under a minute to go. The Rams snap it and toss the ball to Todd Gurley with blockers ahead of him. Gurley busts through the first ten yards, the play is looking good. Gurley is outrunning everybody and has a clear path to the end zone that he makes 10 out of 10 times. He stops. Right at the damn 5 or so yard line. My heart sinks. It’s the smartest football play he could’ve made. But C’MON GURLEY! Pad those stats and pad my wallet in the process. Team players aren’t good for fantasy or gambling, folks. I’ll take my fury out on these game review takes.Â
Be sure to check out our most popular tool, the trade analyzer. You like to trade? Rudy would love to help! It’s free, comprehensive, and simple to use.Â
Philadelphia Eagles Vs. Minnesota Vikings
The London series is now closed for the 2018 season. The long night for the Jaguars secondary the previous night bit them against Carson Wentz and his passing attack. Wentz threw for 286 yards and 3 touchdowns. Jalen Ramsey did a great job against Alshon Jeffrey holding him to four catches for 35 yards. Wentz wasn’t able to find any of his receivers for touchdowns but he was able to hit Dallas Goedert, Wendell Smallwood, and Zach Ertz. Josh Adams led the Eagles backfield with 9 carries. He averaged 6.8 yards per carry so he is a name to watch going forward.Â
The Jaguars were able to get some things done this week with Blake Bortles under center. Unfortunately, Carlos Hyde was invisible. Dede Westbrook only caught two of his 6 targets for 31 yards but he did score a touch down. T.J. Yeldon was the leading receiver and Blake Bortles was the leading rusher. Of course, this is believable because it is the Jaguars. Moncrief had his 3rd consecutive game as the WR1 for Jacksonville and he caught 4 passes for 54 yards.Â
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Vs. Cincinnati Bengals
Joe Mixon had a huge first half while running for over 100 yards and two touchdowns. I heard something during the broadcast that the Buccaneers were ranked 6th against the run this season. Well yeah, it’s pretty easy to not give up a ton of rushing yards when you are getting gashed through the air every game. The one time that they did play a top tier running back was in week one and Alvin Kamara scored three touchdowns against them. Andy Dalton threw for 280 yards and two touchdowns. Tyler Boyd and A.J. Green were the main recipients, as expected. Boyd and Green combined for 214 yards and each had a touchdown.Â
Jameis Winston might have started his final game for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And there is nobody happier about it than me. Hey man, karma is a bitch sometimes. Jameis still somehow almost threw for 300 yards while throwing 4 interceptions. These interceptions weren’t the “ahh, the receiver ran the wrong route or it went off of his hands” type of interceptions. These were some of the ugliest interceptions that I’ve ever seen. I was shooting the shit with Rudy earlier this week and he pointed me in the direction of Neil O’Donnell’s interception in Super Bowl XXX against the Dallas Cowboys. Yeah, Jameis’ were just as bad, if not worse than that one. The crazy thing is, Ryan Fitzpatrick brought the Buccaneers all the way back to tie the game after being down three scores. He’s quite the quarterback sometimes.
Mike Evans had a huge day with 179 yards and a touchdown. After being so frustrated with how underutilized he was and asking for a trade, DeSean Jackson saw 8 targets. He score a 60-yard touchdown but wasn’t able to do much else with his other two catches. Peyton Barber had his second good game in the past 3 weeks with 85 yards and a touchdown. O.J. Howard is also having quite the season and is becoming a set it and forget it type of tight end.Â
New York Jets Vs. Chicago Bears
There wasn’t a lot of action here but there were some positives in the Bear’s offense. Mitch Trubisky didn’t have the easiest day but he was still able to brave the elements and throw for a couple of touchdown passes. It was also good to see him run for over 50 yards. He is secretly or maybe not-so-secretly a really good running quarterback. The Bears do a lot of designed quarterback runs on 3rd downs. Another great thing, Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen were both able to have very good fantasy days out of the same backfield. They both did what they do best on Sunday. Trey Burton put up a dud and Taylor Gabriel was only able to gain 52 yards despite being second on the team in targets.Â
The Jets couldn’t get anything going on the ground. Considering that they are a team without a stand-out wide receiver AND they are marching out a rookie quarterback every week, not being able to run the ball is pretty detrimental. Deontey Burnett (who I had to google during the game) led the Jets with 61 yards on four catches. Jermaine Kearse more than doubled anyone on the Jets with 10 targets, but he wasn’t able to do anything with it.Â
Indianapolis Colts Vs. Oakland Raiders
I almost went an entire game without laughing out loud at the total fraud that is Doug Martin. He actually looked like an NFL running back while averaging 5.5 yards per carry but then he had a key fumble in the 4th quarter and all was lost. Jared Cook was the biggest beneficiary of the Amari Cooper trade. He caught 4 passes for 74 yards and a touchdown. Martavis Bryant didn’t do anything from the bench and Jordy Nelson caught 1 ball for 14 yards. Seth Roberts doesn’t do enough week to week at this point to be worth rostering.Â
Jack Doyle is back, baby! Doyle went for 70 yards and a touchdown. But the big story from the pass catchers was the disappearance of T.Y. Hilton. He caught 1 ball for 34 yards. Andrew Luck still had a very solid week with 3 touchdowns. Marlon Mack continued his dominance of the Colts backfield. He looks just that, dominant. As long as he stays healthy, you can put him in your lineup with confidence.Â
Washington Redskins Vs. New York Giants
Adrian Peterson was incredible again this week even with Chris Thompson back in the lineup. Peterson had a pair of touchdowns and fell just a yard short of 150 yards. Alex Smith game-managed his way to 178 yards and a touchdown pass to Peterson. There were not any receivers that crossed the 50 yard threshold for the Redskins.
If it weren’t for how awful Jameis Winston was on Sunday, I think Eli Manning would be taking a lot more heat for how terrible he was, once again. If it weren’t for Beckham and Barkley, this guy wouldn’t be able to do anything. Speaking of Beckham, he made one of the prettiest, errrr, incredible catches that he has made in his illustrious career. Saquon Barkley ended up being a PPR-monster again this week without even finding the end zone. Evan Engram had a terrible drop but I guess he made up for it? He caught the only Giants touchdown.
