After a slate of Sunday games where only three quarterbacks managed
to throw three touchdowns and Ryan Tannehill, Trevor Siemian, and
Sam Bradford turned out to be top six plays, it appears as though
I jumped the gun dubbing last week as the quarterbackmageddon.
Quarterbacks with sizable ownership percentages like Drew Brees,
Andrew Luck, Jameis Winston, and Eli Manning sunk DFS owners this
week, while anyone who forked out $9,000 on Le’Veon Bell
likely rode his 54.8 fantasy points to pay dirt.
Below average wide receiver play across the board was a direct
result of the dearth in quarterback performances, with only Jordy Nelson managing to catch more than one touchdown pass.
Fellow Nelson (no relation), J.J. Nelson of the Arizona Cardinals,
managed to catch a touchdown pass and score on a long TD run,
but I doubt many of you had him in your lineup based on his low
ownership percentage.
It goes without saying that this was a tough week for fantasy
owners, especially those poor souls eliminated from playoff contention
in season-long leagues.
Hopefully you were fortunate enough to weather the storm and
win some cash in DFS.
For this week’s lineup review, I will examine a $5.00 winning
lineup from a casual NFL $30k Pylon single entry contest on DraftKings.
Quarterback: Andrew
Luck DraftKings Points: 19.24
Grade: B
Considering the fact that Ryan Tannehill was a top three play
this week (despite leaving the game with a knee injury) and Jared
Goff scored more fantasy points than Drew Brees, I was fairly
please with the 19.42 points I received from Andrew Luck.
With 276 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, and 32 yards
on the ground, the offensive production was not terrible against
a decent Houston defense. The problem with Luck was the turnovers,
as the former number one pick threw two picks and fumbled the
ball in the red zone.
Assuming he could have turned that drive into points, that fumble
on the sack from Jadaveon Clowney proved to be a six or eight
point swing.
My lack of excitement in quarterback matchups and my belief in
starting running backs against poor run defenses in the snow lead
me focus on spending heavily on RBs this week and punting wide
receivers.
The snow play was Bell against the Bills, because I assumed that
the Steelers would rely on Bell to carry the load on the ground
and limit Big Ben’s throws. Ben isn’t great on the
road, and I felt like the Steelers would focus on the ground to
take pressure off their QB.
Obviously, this was the play of the day, the play of the year
really, and I would not have come close to cashing if I didn’t
pay the premium for Bell.
Johnson was somewhat of a disappointment due the fact that he
didn’t score and lost a fumble. I didn’t pay close
enough attention to the weather report in Miami. I should have
looked elsewhere as sloppy rain in Miami often leads to trouble
with ball security.
Spending just over 50 percent of my budget on two running backs
and a quarterback made it difficult to find viable discount wide
receivers. With Julio Jones out, Taylor Gabriel was a no-brainer
pick for one of my wide receivers.
The other two options were stretches that did not work out so
well, as Pryor managed to catch only one ball for three yards
and Sterling Shepard fell victim to bad quarterback play from
Eli Manning.
Pryor was a close call and a home run play predicated on the
fact that Robert Griffin III was back under center, opening the
possibility for a deep ball or two. What I failed to consider
was just how bad of a QB Griffin is, as he struggled with reads
and accuracy in a lopsided loss to the Bengals.
I wrote about Shepard in my preview piece on how the Cowboys
struggled against wide receivers playing in the slot, and how
I thought the rookie wide receiver would be able to score from
that position.
Eli Manning managed only one touchdown to Beckham (on a quick
slant from the slot), leaving Shepard with only three catches
for 40 yards.
Not much to say here on McDonald, who left the game early with
a shoulder injury. The matchup looked enticing with how much passing
game volume McDonald had received entering the game and the Jets’
struggles against tight ends.
You can’t predict injuries, and sometimes they cost you
a week.
Gresham continues to be an option for Carson Palmer in the passing
game, with five catches for 45 yards on seven targets. As $2,500
player this week, I wasn’t expecting a huge game from Gresham.
My goal was around five catches for 50 yards and a possible score.
He came through with the yards and catches, but he did not reach
the end zone.
Defense: Vikings vs. Jags DraftKings Points: 7
Grade: C
With a weekly goal of trying to get at least ten points from
my defense, I was disappointed to see that the Vikings were unable
to reach that threshold against Blake Bortles and the Jags.
The Vikes did sack Bortles four times and blocked a kick, but
their inability to force a fumble or interception was surprising.
Perhaps I should have faded them due the fact that safety Harrison
Smith was out.
