A windy Thursday night in Foxboro with the 5-0 Patriots taking on the 2-3 Giants without Saquon Barkley, Evan Engram, Sterling Shepard, and Wayne Gallman? This game is cooked and is going to be boring as hell right? Wrong. It was actually pretty entertaining! Well, at least it was before the 4th quarter when the Patriots ran away with it. There were 3 touchdowns that happened on defense and special teams, which isn’t great for fantasy football but it kept the viewers engaged for most of the night. Â
The under was looking like a great play from a gambling standpoint for a quarter and a half. Then of course, things got weird and the over ended up covering. Vegas took a beating with sharps and the public both leaning into the Patriots’ point spread. Even with 21 of the 49 points coming without offense, there are still a few things to cover from a fantasy standpoint.
Performance ChecksÂ
-Daniel Jones was horrible tonight, but that should have been expected against one of the best defenses in the NFL. Jones threw 3 interceptions… And they were bad interceptions, so keep an eye on your waiver wire just in case a league mate decides to drop him. The Giants face the piss poor Cardinals defense next week which makes Daniel Jones a good streaming option.Â
– Golden Tate caught 6 of his 9 targets for 102 yards and a touchdown. 64 of those yards came in 1 play but fantasy points are fantasy points. Tate is in a great spot next week and I wouldn’t get discouraged by offensive pieces coming back for the Giants. This was a chance for Daniel Jones to get acquainted with a very valuable target so I actually like Tate going forward, especially in PPR.Â
– Jonathan Hilliman did exactly what we thought he would do and averaged 3.5 yards per carry on 11 carries. You can drop him now with Barkley returning next week.Â
– The first half was not looking good for Tom Brady, but Tommy did what he does and threw for over 300 yards and snuck in 2 touchdown runs. Even though Brady didn’t throw a touchdown pass, the two rushing touchdowns equal 12 fantasy points which is the same as 3 touchdown passes in standard scoring. Tom ends up being a solid QB1 play once again.Â
– We got exactly what we were expecting from Julian Edelman before we knew that Josh Gordon was going to be on the field this season. With the Patriots’ receiving corps beat to shit, Edelman caught 9 of his 15 targets for 113 yards.Â
-Sony Michel owners have to be upset with the Tom Brady and Brandon Bolden punch ins. This is the stuff that the Patriots do so nobody should be surprised. But still, it is absolutely brutal for the Patriots to have the ball at the 1 yard line 3 times and Sony doesn’t get a single punch in. It’s the complete opposite feeling of owning Aaron Jones at this point. Still, Michel looked good in the 2nd half closing out the game for the Patriots. HE FINALLY CAUGHT A COUPLE OF PASSES. Weird things happen when you don’t have Rex Burkhead, amiright? Michel mustered up over 100 all-purpose yards so it wasn’t all a wash.Â
-James White caught all 9 of his targets for 46 yards. That’s 13.6 points, but White just isn’t the solid RB2 that he was last season. White is catching plenty of passes but he only has 1 touchdown this season.Â
– Dorsett should be back next week and Gordon looked like he was moving around alright after a scary looking injury. But if either of them are not available for the Patriot’s next week, Jakobi Meyers is the pick up.Â
