Just when the pieces were falling
into place for the playoffs, all Hell broke loose again. Denver, New
England, New Orleans, Dallas, Philadelphia and Detroit all lost when
they could have taken a big step forward. The few teams that delivered
convincingly were the leaders in the NFC West; Seattle and San
Francisco. Just a few years ago, that division couldn’t get above .500
and now they have the most dominate two teams in the league.
From a NFL fan and fantasy football
participant perspective, week 16 was primarily very frustrating unless
you owned/didn’t face the right few players or followed the right NFL
teams. A few items to note:
- Why was everyone talking about
Jamaal Charles? He only had 20 yards rushing and 1 rushing TD. Hardly
huge rushing numbers against a really bad Oakland defense.
- Another fine outing for Elite QB,
Eli Manning. Barely 150 yards and 5 picks. This is one area that you
can’t bootstrap yourself into on your brother’s heels.
- I LOVE to see the Cowboys struggle.
Too bad Jerry Jones doesn’t get more air-time during that time. All the
money in the world can’t buy you Smarts, Jerry.
- The windiest moment in Chicago came from Marc Trestman when he exhaled following the Bears victory.
- Maybe Mike Shanahan is expecting an
offer from the Rams since he is doing his best Jason Garrett to get the
Redskins a bunch of losses and increase the value of the draft pick owed
to St. Louis.
- I am shocked at how bad the Saints
play away from home, even indoors. Hard to explain, but a loss this
weekend to Carolina definitely dooms their Super Bowl chances.
- Had Colin Kaepernick figured out how
to click with Vernon Davis last year, they probably would have won the
Super Bowl. They are on a mission to rectify that this year.
- With A.P. and Toby Gerhart out last
week, the Vikes ran Matt Asiata at the Eagles and he delivered 2 1/2
times more rushing yards yards than Jamaal Charles and posted three
rushing TDs. Go figure.
The majority of head-to-head fantasy
leagues are in their championship game this weekend. It would be
surprising if a championship team is in need of a player right now, but,
if so, or you are playing through Week 17, here are a few players to
look at.
QB: Kirk Cousins (WASH)
– Cousins found much more success in his receiving corps last weekend
than RGIII had this season. Cousin gets another week of shaking the rust
off and then has a very motivated Redskins unit behind him as they try
to extinguish Dallas’ playoff hopes facing the worst defense that has
ever been fielded by a playoff contender.
RB: DeAngelo Williams (CAR)
– If a league member cast Williams aside when he injured his quad, this
is a good time to pick him up. Though Mike Tolbert is a goal-line
ballhog, Williams won’t be sharing carries with Jonathan Stewart. Expect
the Panthers to pound the ball on the ground against a bad Saints
defense versus the run in an effort to control the clock and repeat the
Rams’ performance from last week.
RB: Jordan Todman (JAX)
– With MoJo a scratch last weekend, Todman stepped up and has a nice
day for the Jags with 153 total yards (109 rushing, 44 receiving). There
is a very good chance that MoJo won’t play again this weekend or even
this season. Todman has a nice home matchup against the second-worst
defense versus the run in the Titans.
WR: Rod Streater (OAK)
– Rod Streater has developed a nice relationship with Matt McGloin in
his 5 games (25/423/2). I don’t think Denarius Moore’s return hurts at
all, if fact, I believe it helps Streater. He plays in San Diego in
what should be a shootout this Sunday.
WR: Greg Jennings (MINN)
– Speaking of building relationships, Jennings is far more productive
with dropback passer, Matt Cassel, under center than he was with
Christian Ponder madly scrambling about. He does play outdoors in a cool
climate this weekend, but the Bengals are dinged up and have yielded 5
TDs to WRs in last 2 weeks.
TE: Delanie Walker (TENN)
– Walker returned from a concussion he suffered 3 weeks ago and picked
up right where he left off with Ryan Fitzpatrick (8/53/1). He visits the
Jags and has a warm matchup against the 3rd worst D vs TEs.
What a week last week was from a
spectator’s standpoint! It was the highest scoring week in NFL history
and contained some of the craziest finishes ever witnessed.
- New England proved to really own
home field advantage when they received two critical penalties that
helped them erase a 26-14 in the last 2 and a half minutes, though they
left enough time for Cleveland to try a very long game-winning field
goal that came up short.
- After 20 points total for a 14-6
Detroit lead in 8 inches of heavy snow, Philly exploded for 4 fourth qtr
TDs, including 3 of 38 yards or longer, to cruise by Detroit and keep
their division hopes alive.
- Baltimore and Minnesota outdid
Detroit and Philly for 4th qtr scoring as they managed 13 total points
through three quarters and then put up 42 combined in a wild 4th quarter
that saw 5 lead changes in the last 127 seconds.
- Green Bay was on the verge of
getting the final nail in their 2013 coffin after giving up 21 points to
Atlanta in the 2nd qtr and the surprisingly shut them out in the second
half to eek out a 1-point win and give them false hope of making the
playoffs.
- The Steelers came oh-so-close to one
of the greatest multi-lateral finishes in NFL history when the only
flaw in the 5-lateral, 79-yard sequence was Antonio Brown stepping out
of bounds as he passed the last defender into the end zone with no time
on the clock.
The unfortunate part of last weekend
was the number of injuries. Gronk is done for the year and we will be
inundated with his recovery status again going into the 2014 season. AP
went out with a foot injury and one has to wonder if he is done for the
year since the Vikings are. Reggie Bush slipped in pre-game warm-ups and
re-aggravated his calf injury. Lamar Miller was also hurt for Miami and
will be trying to pass the NFL concussion tests in hopes of playing
this weekend. Mojo hurt his hammy. RGIII proved again that he cannot win
games by himself and will now be shut down for the rest of the season.
I certainly hope that you tethered
Toby Gerhart and Joique Bell to AP and Bush. If not and you survived
last weekend, here are a few choices to chose from who have now become a
factor on the waiver wire.
QB: Jason Campbell (CLE) – so,
I have repeatedly bashed Campbell after watching him play worse than
Celeb Haney last season for the Bears (rightfully so). However, he has
been dynamite for the Browns this year when healthy and on the field.
Sure, Josh Gordon helps, but Campbell still has to accurately get the
ball to him. He faces a suspect Bears defense coming off a game Monday
night and could prove useful.
RB: Daniel Thomas (MIA) –
assuming Gerhart and Bell are not available in your league, there is a
good chance that Thomas is. Miami’s running game this year has been a
bit stagnant and Thomas was dinged up for awhile and ineffective. If
available, grab him if you are looking for help as he is playing in nice
weather, will most likely get the start and goes against a bad
Patriots’ rush defense.
WR: Cordarrelle Patterson (MINN)
– Patterson has flashed his speed all season as a kick returner, but
has gotten more and more offensive plays as the season has worn on. He
is getting carries and Looks each week; moreso of the latter with Matt
Cassel at QB. They play at home this week in what should be a shootout
so the weather is not a concern.
TE: Dennis Pitta (BAL) – Pitta
missed 3/4ths of the season with a hip injury but returned last week
and instantly regained the rapport he had in 2012 with QB Joe Flacco. He
is Flacco’s main Red Zone target as well as a trusted outlet. Tight
Ends are an inconsistent bunch (see Ladarius Green) so Pitta is a nice
replacement if you own the likes of Jordan Reed or Rob Housler.
There were some monster performances
this past weekend who helped those needing a win to make the playoffs
get in. Of course, for those facing those players, y’all may have
suffered your worst defeat of the season, especially if you were
counting on a normal outing from Drew Brees. Running backs delivered on
Thanksgiving as Reggie Bush and Joique Bell, DeMarco Murray, and Le’Veon
Bell all put up big numbers. Those were then dwarfed by a trio of wide
receivers on Sunday with Alshon Jeffrey, Josh Gordon and Eric Decker all
going off for big 36+ point totals. Of course, kudos to anyone who
started Ben Tate on Sunday. Knowshon Moreno showed that you could easily
run on the Pats, but no way did the writing on the wall spell out that a
banged up Tate would come close to what he did.
I am not sure if Marc Tressman
decided to kick the FG since he cannot disguise a running play in an
obvious running situation…or has a play-action pass to a TE in his
playbook…but a 47-yard field goal on second down was foolhardy. His week
10 reluctance to pull Jay Cutler out when he was in more pain than
Vernon Davis on this play
played a much bigger role in the loss to Detroit than his gamble on
Gould did on Sunday, but he has to shoulder much more of the blame for
them falling out of playoff contention than he has been willing to do
thus far.
So much for the nostalgic feeling in
Green Bay from Matt Flynn’s initial turn at the helm. He was brutal on
Thursday and showed why he didn’t catch on anywhere. If Aaron Rodgers
isn’t cleared for Sunday, Green Bay may just shut him down for the rest
of the year. Not a good end to the year if you are a Packers fan or
Rodgers owner. While the Packers and Bears are slowly drifting off the
next season, the Jets have definitely crashed and burned. After heading
into their Bye with wins over the Patriots and Saints (sandwiched around
a azz-whupping at the hands of the Bengals), the vibe was definitely
positive. That is long gone after getting destroyed in the three games
since coming back…and looking much worse as each game has passed. The
Jets had 38 yards of offense in the first half against Miami and didn’t
sniff two hundo for the game. I am not sure how they can do much worse,
but it actually does seem possible.
For those still looking for
replacements for this week, and possibly beyond, there are a few new
players on the waiver wire to consider.
QB: Ryan Fitzpatrick (TENN) –
thanks to 11 points on the ground, Fitzpatrick had a serviceable day
last Sunday. Since they will be undoubtedly trailing in Denver this
weekend, Fitzpatrick could put up similar numbers to Alex Smith last
weekend (22) and help you out immensely if you are in dire straits.
RB: Willis McGahee (CLE) –
desperation, thy name is McGahee. After failing to do much of anything
all season, he surprised with 13 points out of nowhere last weekend.
Normally, this would be written off as an anomaly, but McGahee faces the
Patriots, fresh off of getting run over for big points by the
aforementioned Moreno and Tate.
WR: Andre Holmes (OAK)
– loads of people were Googling Holmes during the Dallas game as he lit
them up for 7 catches for 136 yards. Since the Raiders have seemed to
have found their next starting QB, maybe Holmes will be more than a
one-week wonder with Denarius Moore out.
TE: Ladarius Green (SD) – it
is time to move past Antonio Gates on the Chargers. San Diego loves to
throw the ball and have been banged up at WR and Gates so they have
worked Green into the gameplan a bit more as the season has gone on and
is now a primary weapon. He has totaled 9/206/2 over the past 3 games
and has good matchups during your playoff run.
