Stars and Black Holes: The Big Trubisky

I’m bored with reviewing five or six games per week. I feel suffocated, you know? Why keep me tied down to just writing about half of Sunday’s games? It’s my Monday column, why not bring the realness. Like Marky Mark says in The Other Guys, “I’m a peacock, you gotta let me fly!” I want to go position by position and see how it flows.

So what are two fun categories to correctly identify each? Well, ‘Stars’ is easy. It’s clear and to the point. What could possibly categorize something so blind-siding and awful that it sucks the life right out of your fantasy team that stays with the astrology theme? There has to be something that’s, let’s say, related to the misery of being a Raiders fan. There literally can’t be anything worse. I’ve got it. Black holes. Now that we have that covered, let’s start with quarterbacks…

Quarterbacks

Stars

The week 10 MVP for Sunday quarterbacks has to be Mitch Trubisky. Mitch only had 7 incompletions on his way to 355 yards and three touchdowns. Since struggling for the first three weeks of the season, Trubisky has only scored under 20 fantasy points one time since. This is his third game since week 4 with at least 30 fantasy points. You might be wondering if a title run is possible with Trubisky in your quarterback slot every week. I think the answer is absolutely. Trubisky is one of just a handful of quarterbacks that you can count on to get you points on the ground every week. Trubisky now has 3 rushing touchdowns this season and has 4 games with at least 47 rushing yards. Looking at the rest of the schedule, the only remaining challenge to the Bear’s passing game is next week against Minnesota.

Baker Mayfield found a way to be very efficient against the Falcons. He only threw 20 passes but was able to complete all but three of them. The important thing is that he found the end zone three times and didn’t turn the ball over. Getting rid of those rookie mistakes will be key for the Browns finishing strong. On the other side of the ball, Matt Ryan had a pretty good day. He did it in a different way. Ryan threw the ball 52 times for 330 yards and two touchdowns.

We had another game with two big performances from quarterbacks and it might not be the one that you were expecting. The Colts and Jaguars combined for 55 points and Blake Bortles and Andrew Luck both were big parts of the scoring. Andrew Luck came out on the winning side of things in big thanks to his fixation of throwing the ball to his tight ends. This was Andrew Luck’s 6th straight game with at least 3 touchdown passes. He’s locked in as a high end quarterback going forward. Blake Bortles, on the other hand, is like throwing darts but you have everything closed out but the 15’s and the bullseye. On Sunday, Bortles threw for 320 yards and two touchdowns. He spread the ball out nicely. Four Jaguars had at least 5 catches.

Black Holes

Ryan Fitzpatrick was a victim of the players around him letting him down. Granted, he did throw two interceptions and lose a fumble. But, Mike Evans dropped an easy touchdown, Cameron Brate dropped a bunch of important passes, and Jacquizz Rodgers lost one of the worst fumbles that I have ever seen. Tampa converted 60% of their 3rd downs on Sunday and spent what seems like the entire game in Redskin’s territory. They scored 3 points. It was the most frustrating game that I’ve watched as a fantasy football player.

In Cincinnati, Andy Dalton was an embarrassment without A.J. Green as a safety net. Tyler Boyd has really emerged as a threat in Cincinnati, but he was almost completely taken out of the game. The Bengals didn’t have a chance to run a lot of plays on offense. It was very similar to what Pittsburgh did against Carolina on Thursday. Drew Brees and the Saints controlled the ball and the clock while piling on points.

Running Backs

Stars

Nick Chubb is finally getting the opportunity to shine in Cleveland and is milking it for all that it’s worth. Chubb had the longest touchdown run in Cleveland Browns history taking one to the house from Atlanta’s 8-yard line. Chubb also caught a touchdown pass. Todd Gurley was also an unstoppable force, but you already knew that. LeSean McCoy scored his first two touchdowns of the season and this was easily his biggest game of the season. McCoy carried the ball 26 times for 113 yards and looked like his old self.

David Johnson had the perfect match up to make up some ground on making the most of a frustrating year. From a fantasy stand point, scoring two touchdowns is a big step in the right direction. So is gaining 183 all purpose yards. With his upcoming schedule, finishing as an RB1 is definitely still in the cards for him. There is a lot of season left. It’s probably too late for Leonard Fournette to pay the price that he was drafted at for this season. That doesn’t mean that he can’t provide productive Sundays for people who traded for him or weathered the hamstring storm. Fournette saw 23 carries and scored a touchdown on the ground. He also caught 5 passes including a 31 yard screen pass and a red zone touchdown catch later in the game. Fournette owners rejoice, he is back.

Black Holes

Joe Mixon didn’t get the opportunity to produce for the Bengals today. He only carried the ball 11 times. Fantasy owners still have to be upset with the output considering that a lot more was expected in a good match up. Tevin Coleman was another one that left owners who started him scratching their heads. Coleman carried the ball 11 times for 44 yards which is pretty normal. But, he is usually able to muster up more than 3 catches for 19 yards. Especially disappointing considering how many passes Matt Ryan completed.

The Bears running backs were both sub par on Sunday as well. Cohen was able to score a touchdown on the ground early on but wasn’t able to do much the rest of the game. It was definitely another frustrating week for Jordan Howard owners. The magic number for having a bad game must have been 11 carries because Howard took his 11 for a putrid 21 yards. That’s less than 2 yards per carry against the Detroit f*cking Lions for those of you that are keeping score at home. Guess how many carries Marlon Mack had? Nope not 11, it was 12. But that is somewhat of a conundrum considering his usage in previous weeks that he was healthy. Is this something to worry about going forward? It might be, but I’m not panicking just yet and am going to start him like usual next week against Tennessee.

Wide Receivers

Stars

Julio Jones is on a touchdown streak, I tell ya. He caught 7 balls for over 100 yards and scored his second touchdown of the season. Something that I didn’t expect on Sunday was Allen Robinson having the day that he had. But, he looked great on his way to a pile of yardage and two touchdowns. His first touchdown catch of the day was a thing of beauty and looked like it took a massive amount of concentration to complete. Concentration that I simply do not have without popping an Adderall.

The thing about Tyreek Hill is that he has been much more consistent this year. It’s not necessarily something that I was expecting with all of the weapons that Patrick Mahomes has around him. Hill doesn’t have a game this season without at least 50 receiving yards this season. That’s Antonio Brown level consistency. On top of that, this is Hill’s 3rd game this season with multiple touchdown receptions. He’s usually good for a couple rushing fantasy points each week as well. Moral of the story, Tyreek Hill can’t be and won’t be stopped on the football field.

Michael Thomas didn’t pile up yards on Sunday but he did catch two touchdown passes. Sometimes, you just take what you can get. Michael Thomas has proven himself to be one of the five best wide receivers in the league this season. Hey, would you look at that! Corey Davis has consecutive usable weeks in fantasy football. Corey Davis is seeing one of the largest target shares in the league this season so this production was bound to happen. On Sunday, he turned his 10 targets into 7 catches for 125 yards and a touchdown.

Black Holes

This was supposed to be the monster Josh Gordon Week. Rob Gronkowski’s back is more messed up than a 45-year old construction worker’s back and he was matched up with Malcolm Butler. Surely, Tom Brady would make my dream come true. Four catches for 82 yards isn’t a terrible day, but it should have been much bigger. It just wasn’t the Patriot’s day. It was Veteran’s Day. I already mentioned that Tyler Boyd was a disappointment so on to Mike Evans. This was the second straight week that an opposing corner has gotten the better of him at the line of scrimmage all game. This week, it was Josh Norman. The icing on the cake? Evans dropped an easy touchdown in the 4th quarter. It’s like he was doing this on purpose to get Dirk Koetter fired. Which is fine, I guess.

We have a T.Y. Hilton problem on our hands. He just hasn’t had the big game yet this season. He led the Colts in targets in a game that Andrew Luck was absolutely on fire. 3 catches for 77 yards isn’t going to cut it for where he was drafted this season. With Andrew Luck under center, hopefully a couple big Hilton games are on the horizon.

Tight Ends

Stars

Eric Ebron and Zach Ertz

Black Holes

All other tight ends are useless. If I ruled fantasy football, I’d get rid of the position altogether. Add another kicker spot if you have to.