What a time to be alive if you drafted your franchise QB at the top of the 2018 NFL Draft. You had Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, and Josh Rosen all to pick from and all of whom went out and won this week. Imagine if your team had an aging QB who was 37 years old showing significant decline in play and with the 2nd overall pick in this past draft, you decided the clear choice was a running back. Man. That team would be crazy to do something like that. So guess what Giants fans? I have started the preliminary work on a mock draft (to debut at the end of the season) and I have you guys actually taking a QB. But enough of that for now, let’s see what happened in a couple of the games yesterday.
Falcons @ Steelers
Lol the Falcons defense is absolutely atrocious. The new rule for this season: ALWAYS play whatever RB is going up against the Falcons. They can’t stop anything. James Connor went off for over 100 rushing and 2 TD’s as well as 75+ receiving yards. Antonio Brown finally got over 100 yards on a boat load of targets and 2 TD’s from Ben Roethlisberger. JuJu Smith-Schuster had a relatively quiet game in this one as he wasn’t really needed. This game got out of hand early and somewhat died off in the 2nd half. If the Falcons had been able to keep up with scoring, Connor might have had 50+ fantasy points in your fantasy leagues. For now, you’ll have to settle with the 34ish points he got you.
The offense for Atlanta was… interesting. Austin Hooper had 12 targets in this one and brought in 77 yards receiving. Mohammad Sanu still had another TD in this one as well as 73 yards receiving. Julio Jones came from the dead of the first half and ended with 62 yards on 9 targets. We finally saw a down game from Calvin Ridley as he only put together 38 yards on 5 targets in this game. Devonta Freeman returned to the lineup only for Ito Smith to get the rushing TD for Atlanta. The game script was pretty against what you needed for Freeman to be successful.
Titans @ Bills
LOLOLOLOL this game sucked to watch. Josh Allen is further cementing himself as a poor man’s White Cam Newton with another rushing TD (it actually was a real Cam Newton-like run). LeSean McCoy had 108 scrimmage yards in this one (with 3 targets in the passing game) as it seems like the Bills really want to get him a ton of touches in this one (26 in this game). Zay Jones was the best WR for the Bills, but holy god you cannot start him with a straight face. There’s not much in this offense you can like until something drastic changes.
Tennessee went from being the SB Champs to losing to a Bills team that had less than 90 passing yards. Marcus Mariota did not look comfortable throwing the ball. Derrick Henry and Dion Lewis looked average at best. Taywan Taylor ended up with 5 targets in this one and also lost a fumble early in the game. Corey Davis ended up with 4 receptions for 49 yards, most of which were when Tredavious White was not covering him. Mariota ended the game with 129 passing yards as this game was a complete dumpster fire for offense.
Raiders @ Chargers
So this game was essentially a home game for the black and silver. But the Raiders struggled to learn the lessons of Pete Carrol in the SuperBowl. On a play from the 1 yard line, instead of giving the ball to Marshawn Lynch, Chucky decided to throw it, only for Derek Carr to get picked off. Amari Cooper had 1 target in this game (10 yards) and is doing exactly what everyone thought he would this year. Jordy Nelson and Martavis Bryant led the team in fantasy points from the WR position and are the only ones you can really even consider starting at this point. Lynch struggled in this one as he only had 31 yards on 9 carries. Carr did have 268 passing yards and a TD and an INT in this match as the Raiders were playing catch-up for most of the evening.
The Chargers were much more methodical in their approach this game. Phillip Rivers had fewer incompletions than he has children as he threw for 337 yards and 2 TD’s in a really efficient game. Austin Ekeler had a 44 yard TD catch and that was about it from him. Melvin Gordon had 120 scrimmage yards and a TD in this game. Keenan Allen put up 90 yards on 9 targets to lead the Chargers in this match. Again, very efficient game from the Chargers offense as it looks like the Raiders defense is absolutely a unit you should be excited to have your players play against.
Vikings @ Eagles
Kirk Cousins had over 300 yards in a game where he was highly efficient in throwing the ball. His only TD went to Adam Theilen, who had 116 yards and a TD on 11 targets. Stefon Diggs was a PPR god in this game, tallying 10 catches for 91 yards as well as 2 carries for 25 yards. Otherwise, that’s about it from the offense in this game. Not really much else to speak on for this one.
The Eagles were a 3-man show in this game. Carson Wentz was pretty good in this game and he threw almost everything to Zach Ertz, who ended his day with 11 receptions for over 110 yards and a TD. The third player in this show was Jordan Mills, who was abused over and over by Theilen in this one and frankly has looked awful this entire season.
Cardinals @ 49ers
Josh Rosen looked very good in this one as he connected with Christian Kirk for a 75 yard TD bomb in the very early stages of this game. The issue with Rosen is that his team had 4+ drops in this game and that will put a hamper on his ability to put up elite numbers. David Johnson had 55 yards on the ground and 2 rushing TD’s to help salvage his statline in this game. Otherwise, there wasn’t a whole lot going on for the Bird Gang here.
CJ Beathard should be on 0 fantasy radars this season. That being said, he was trailing all game and threw like it. Beathard ended with 349 passing yards, 2 TD’s and 2 INT’s. Matt Breida left this game with an ankle injury as Alfred Morris picked up the slack in the backfield and ran for 61 yards on 18 carries. Famous French WR Pierre Garcon had 12 targets in this game, only to come away with a measly 5 receptions for 47 yards. This was another great George Kittle game as he is the only 49er I think you can start at this point. Kyle Juszczyk was also effective in the passing game, but it’s so hard to justify using FB for any format at this point.
Rams @ Seahawks
So the Rams finally faced adversity late in the game and Sean McVay decided it was the right decision to go for it on 4th and 1 (it is ALWAYS the right decision when playing to win) as Todd Gurley was more about TD’s (3) than he was about yardage (77 on 22 carries). Robert Woods was an animal with 53 rushing yards and 92 yards receiving. Before exiting the game with an injury, Cooper Kupp had 6 catches for 90 yards and a TD as Jared Goff had a little bit of a down game in this one. Goff threw for 321 but had 1 TD and 2 INT’s as this game was much closer than it needed to be.
Looking over to Seattle, Russell Wilson had mediocre yardage but found a way to throw for 3 TD’s to wide open receivers against a porous secondary. David Moore had 38 yards receiving and 2 TD’s while Tyler Lockett had 98 yards on 3 catches and a TD. The running game is by far the most hilarious part of this match. Chris Carson had 19 carries for 116 yards. Mike Davis carried the ball 12 times for 68 yards and a TD. First-Round pick Rashaad Penny had a total of 0 offensive snaps this week. I honestly cannot believe they drafted a RB in the first round. But Carson and Davis both looked good. I would lean towards Carson as a safer play than Davis, but I’m probably not playing either unless one gets hurt.
That’s it for the fantasy leftovers this week. Comment below if you have any questions. Enjoy the MNF game tonight!
