Most who are educated on Viking lore are familiar with the legendary Lief Erikson, the first European to ever set foot on the North American continent. But generations before Lief raped and pillaged his way across the ocean, there was one even more historic Viking: Ragnar Thielen. You won’t read about Ragnar in any of those propagandized history books. He was the most peaceful of the Vikings. Instead of collecting skulls Ragnar spent his time knitting with the skin of pig. That’s right, old Ragnar Thielen created the first football back in the year 969. Fast forward 1,051 years and his great-greatX20-grandson Adam Thielen showed how the pigskin runs in his veins as he snatched 4 catches for 43 yards and his 8th and 9th touchdowns. Viking lore aside, I’ve been saying since summer that Thielen is a first half player. In the last two seasons he’s caught only two touchdowns in 12 games after the first week in November. This could be the year he bucks the trend, but I’m not betting on it. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday for fantasy football:
Kirk Cousins – 25/36 for 292 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception—he now has 17 passing touchdowns on the year. As our local Vikings fan Everywhere Blair says, it’s garbage time all the time for Cousins.
Dalvin Cook – 30 carries for 96 yards, 4 catches for 16 yards. It was cool seeing The Chef working his food truck, giving back to the people, but it did look painful when he smashed his meat balls in the 4th quarter. No good deed goes unpunished.
Justin Jefferson – 8 catches for 135 yards. JJeff is El Jefe. For all the hype surrounding Jeudy, Lamb and Ruggs this preseason, Jefferson, Claypool and Higgins might all be just as good, if not better. What a class. As for Jefferson, the great Pigskinonator ranked him #17 among week 10 fantasy wide receivers which was 7 spots higher than the Fantasy Pros expert consensus.Â
Nick Foles – 15/26 for 106 yards, 0 touchdowns and 1 interception before leaving in the final minute with a very painful looking back injury. I hate to kick a guy when he’s down but as a Bears fan I’m contractually obligated to at least nudge Foles with my foot. I know it’s only partially Foles’ fault but the Bares offense is just pathetic. It’s about time to give Mitch Trubisky (shoulder) another chance—assuming the shoulder is good enough to go next week.
Cordarrelle Patterson – 12 carries for 30 yards, 2 catches for 19 yards and a 104 yard kickoff return touchdown. Patterson was the lone bright spot in the Bears “offense.” Actually the lone bright spot was on special teams, the offensive production was still pretty dim. Newly signed Lamar Miller (2 catches for 6 yards) should see an expanded role if David Montgomery (concussion) needs to miss more time. I’m not rushing out to add Miller nor Patterson.
Allen Robinson – 6 catches for 43 yards. If there’s any silver lining from this game it’s that Robinson was able to play a majority of snaps—I don’t have the snap counts yet but guessing he was 80%+—without a setback to his knee. Yeah, I’m digging pretty deep for positives here.Â
Darnell Mooney – 2 catches for 3 yards. With the Full Monty out I expected the Full Mooney to show us a little more skin.
Anthony Miller – 2 catches for 28 yards. Can I stop writing about the Bears offense yet? This is just sad.
Jimmy Graham – 0 catches on 2 targets. I can’t believe I missed the Jimmy Graham retirement announcement!
