The biggest story line coming out of Thursday night will be Patrick Mahomes’ knee. From the sounds of it as I write this, there isn’t a fracture to go along with the dislocated kneecap so that is not the worst news in the world if you depend on Mahomes in fantasy football.
I’ve started writing this at the end of the 3rd quarter. At this point the Broncos are lifeless and Flacco has been sacked 7 times. Nevermind, now it’s 8. Flacco is a corpse out there with zero mobility and the offensive line is not doing him any favors.
I saw this game going quite a bit differently. I thought that Denver had all of the momentum coming into this game off of two straight wins and KC with two straight losses. These teams were playing on 4 days rest and Denver’s roster was a lot healthier coming into the game. Kansas City can’t stop the run and coming into the game, they only had 11 sacks on the season. It turns out that this Denver offense is completely lethargic and unprepared.
It seemed like Denver was actually prepared on the first drive. They stuck to the game plan and marched the ball down the field benefitting from a couple of penalties and running the ball pretty well. Then it seemed like when Kansas City came down the field and scored, they completely ditched a valid plan of attack. The game was probably over in the first half when Vic Fangio ran a head-scratching fake punt on their own side of the field. It was one of the worst fakes that anyone could ever imagine. Once Flacco was strip sacked and KC recovered it and ran it in for a touchdown, there was no hope for Denver coming back even with Pat Mahomes out. Let’s dive into the other fantasy football tidbits from Thursday night.
Performance Checks
– It was another game that Travis Kelce owners can’t feel great about. Kelce caught 6 passes for 44 yards while leading the team by 3 targets. He didn’t factor into either of Kansas City’s 2 receiving touchdowns.
– Damien Williams couldn’t find any room to run. Williams carries the ball 9 times for 7 yards and caught 2 passes for -1 yard. At this point, William’s stock is toast. He has little to no value on the trade market and is creeping towards being droppable.
-LeSean McCoy, on the other hand, averaged 5.3 yards per carry and had a couple of very nice runs including a 22 yarder in the 4th quarter.
– Mecole Hardman is hanging onto fantasy relevancy by a thread while Watkins continues to be sidelined. Hardman caught 2 passes for 28 yards and that included the first touchdown that Kansas City scored.
– Even with Matt Moore under center, Tyreek Hill could not be stopped. While the stat line was modest for Hill, he ripped a 57-yard touchdown and ended the night with 3 catches for 74 yards.
– Courtland Sutton led the Broncos with 8 targets and caught 6 of them for 87 yards. If there is any positive out of the Broncos offense, it is Courtland trending up.
-Emmanuel Sanders fought through injury issues to catch 5 balls for 60 yards. I feel like this would have been a much bigger game Sanders if Flacco had or created any time in the pocket.
– Lindsay and Freeman combined for 22 carries and 71 yards. What a waste of an opportunity for a big game from this backfield. Freeman scored the one touchdown out of the two for what it’s worth.
– Noah Fant has two pretty bad drops and it’s a trend that I have picked up on since the preseason. Fant’s biggest fantasy day of the year included 2 catches for 31 yards and a touchdown. If you haven’t dropped him yet, you can do so without regret.
That’s all I’ve got! I’ll catch you tomorrow while filling in for Zach with a start/sit post.
