It was the best of Cams, it was the worst of Cams, it was the age of Akers wisdom, it was the age of Newton foolishness, it was the epoch of Akers belief, it was the epoch of Newton incredulity, it was the season of Akers Light, it was the season of Newton Darkness, it was the spring of Akers hope, it was the winter of Newton despair. It was certainly the spring of hope for Cam Akers’ owners Thursday night as the rook toted 29 carries for 171 yards and hauled in 2 catches for 23 yards. We speculated last week that Akers was taking the Rams’ backfield by the horns but even I didn’t expect the kid to out touch Darrell Henderson (2 carries for 5 yards) 31-2. Neither did the brilliant Pigskinonator, who was extra bullish on Akers this week ranking him #14 among RBs compared to the expert consensus of #25, but only projected him for 15 touches. The L.A. runner just might be a league winning RB1 down the stretch, at the very least he looks like a rock solid RB2.
Unfortunately, it was the winter of despair for Cam Newton owners as the “quarterback” went 9/16 for 119 yards, 7 carries for 16 yards and 1 interception before being bench for Jarett Stidham (5/7 for 27 yards). This game scared the Dickens out of anyone who happened to make the unwise decision to start Newton in their playoff matchup. Odds are this is Stidham’s team for the final three weeks. Add him up in superflex league and ignore him everywhere else. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday for fantasy football:
Jared Goff – 16/25 for 137 yards, 4 carries for 11 yards, 1 passing touchdown, 1 rushing touchdown and 1 interception–he now has 18 passing touchdowns and 4 rushing touchdowns on the season. With Akers trampling the Patriots like they were Mufasa and Kid Cam was a stampede of wildebeest, it wasn’t written into the game script for Goff to air it out. He still managed a less depressing fantasy line thanks to the touchdown scavenge, but you definitely aren’t thrilled if you started him.
Cooper Kupp – 5 catches for 33 yards and his 3rd touchdown. If we got fantasy points for the number of times announcers mention a players name then Kupp would’ve had a monster game. I started Kupp this week and told others to start him as well. So I felt like a real true to name jackass midway thru the 3rd quarter with a nightmare game script unfolding, but thank the fantasy gods because Coop bailed us all out with a touchdown.
Robert Woods – 5 catches for 32 yards. I’ve always been more of a Kupp man than a Trees-hugger, That said, Woods faced off against Stephon Gilmore a bit tonight, and did I mention the nightmare game script? Don’t read too much into this dud.
Damien Harris – 11 carries for 50 yards, 1 catch for 0 yards. I was a little spoked by Sony Michel’s (7 carries for 22 yards) workload in his return last week, but of course Bill dropped him this week like a Playstation 4. Almost all of Michel’s work on Thursday came on the final garbage drive. Harris is still the lead dog, although it might be tough to stomach starting him in this offense.
Jakobi Meyers – 4 catches for 47 yards. Maybe Meyers Lemon and the Big Harry, N’Keal Harry (3 catches for 49 yards), will fare better with Stidham at QB. Regardless, neither are startable until we see signs of life.