It was looking like a lost season for Pierre Garçon and his owners just a few weeks ago. After starting the season with a 4 catch 109 yard performance with a touchdown in the first quarter against New Orleans, plenty of fantasy owners who jumped on him late as a WR3 had to become completely elated. Here was a wide receiver who’d put together solid seasons with Peyton Manning at the helm in Indianapolis, a man who’d just finished of a 70 catch, 950 yard season with guys like Curtis Painter throwing to him. The sky was the limit with RGIII leading the offense. But then, the sky started falling. A little tumble that he took into coach Shanahan in that first half made him sit out the second half. He then proceeded to miss the next two games but returned with hope renewed against one of the weakest secondaries in fantasy football in the Buccaneers. So when he only caught 1 pass for 20 yards, we owners out there had started to worry. After another clunker the following week, Pierre was shut down until late November and had become nothing more than an FA that you used to know. All reports kept saying there would be no time table and that he wasn’t going to play until his plantar tear in his right foot was good enough to go. So when he finally returned against a weak Eagles defense – 3 receptions for 5 yards – it was most likely the final nail in the fantasy coffin for Pierre owners. But somehow, Pierre has found the health and the spark to re-ignite that je ne sais quoi we all saw early in the season. Over the last two weeks, Pierre has played as a top ten receiver and there’s no reason to think – health permitting – he won’t keep at that pace for the rest of the season, regardless of matchup. If I wax ecstatic any more, I’ll start rapping in French about him. The blessing in disguise about all this 2012 fantasy anguish is his WR1 status is going to be masked going into 2013. Don’t believe me? I specifically learned that weird squirrel tail on the ‘c’ of his last name because I think I’ll be writing it plenty moving forward. You see me putting umlauts on Todd Marinovich? Hrm, he doesn’t have any umlauts on his name…but he should! But without further ado, let’s take a look at some other players of note from week 13 Monday Night Football for the 2012 fantasy football season…
Robert Griffin, III – Even when he fumbles, he helps the Redskins score. As Gruden puts it, ‘the magic of RG3’ or as I like to put it ‘Gruden is a blonde’. Overall, it was a solid performance as his rushing game – 72 yards on 5 carries – saved his mediocre passing stats of 163 and a TD. The 4th quarter turned into clock management as the Redskins weren’t in a shootout or down two touchdowns as they normally are so plenty of handoffs were made. Sorry, reality is gonna wreck your fantasy sometimes. This ain’t Madden folks; you don’t go for a touchdown with under 4 to play when you have a 1 point lead in the real world.
Martellus Bennett – Scored the lone touchdown on the night for the Giants but was very productive in the passing game as a whole with 5 receptions on 7 targets for 82 yards against the third worst team in terms of fantasy points against by opposing TEs. He gets the 9th and 11th worst next in the Saints and the Falcons before having a week 16 flattener in the Raiders. I know ‘flattener’ isn’t a real word, wordpress. I’ve already written in French and about Marinovich. Do you really think I care? In the end, he’ll most likely end the year a top 15 TE with a shot at being a top 12. Now go look back at weeks 4 thru 6 to realize how little that all means.
Alfred Morris – I want RG3 to be called Batman so bad so that we can call Alfred his butler. It’s just such a fitting analogy. While everyone is in awe of Griffin, Morris just quietly plods along for 124 yards on the night. Sure he had a costly fumble at one point but we can’t all be blessed with ‘the magic of RG3’. Yeah, I’m gonna take a rip at Gruden twice for that. Absurd. Neverthewho, Alfred has been the quiet, steady low-end RB1 that no one saw coming and even if he loses a little time to Roy Helu in passing situations next year it’s hard not to see an RB2 for 2013.
Ahmad Bradshaw – So Andre Brown went down. So what? You’re still not getting a goal line shot! Finished the night with 116 total yards and 3 carries inside the 20 that eventually led to the aforementioned Bennett TD. But don’t worry, Ahmad, you’re still my Bradshawty. Meanwhile, David Wilson continues to do nothing which means Bradshaw has no concerns with splits moving forward.
Victor Cruz – No salsa dancing but plenty of production with 5 receptions for 102 yards. Even though Hakeem Nicks lead his team in targets with 10, Manning has been set on Cruz control all year due to Nicks’ dings. Google ‘If he could only stay healthy’ and you’ll get images of Hakeem. If you take the safe filter off, you get naughty pictures but really, you could type anything and get that with the filter off. Internet rule #34.
Eli Manning – It really looked and felt like a playoff game out there tonight. That is until Eli didn’t lead a 4th quarter comeback after multiple team mistakes leading up to what had them down 1 point in the 4th. Obviously still regular season, then. Finished the night with a quiet 280 yards, 1 TD and gave plenty of fantasy owners Manning Face as he went against one of the worst secondaries in the league.
