Welcome to Statistically (in)Significant, the place to find great stats that probably only matter at the water cooler (or bar). Each week I'll dig through the stats of the week gone by and deliver you some choice conversation starters. All fantasy stats are standard Yahoo scoring unless otherwise noted.
3 Allens are 3-0
There are three young QBs with the name Allen that all started (and won) yesterday. Josh Allen, whom we all know, led the Bills to victory over the Redskins yesterday. He threw for one score and got another on his own on the ground on the way to 17.6 fantasy points as the QB12 for this week and the highest scoring Allen. Just behind him was Brandon Allen, making his first NFL appearance at the age of 27 and grabbing a victory in the process. He threw for 193 yards and 2 TDs against the lowly Cleveland Browns and did just enough to win the game. Congrats to Brandon in his first start – though his career as a Bronco is not likely to last very long with his team at 3-7 and a rookie QB almost ready to start. Finally, we have Kyle Allen, one of the more surprising mid-season success stories this year. Allen threw for a couple of TDs, but more importantly, he gave Christian McCaffrey the ball 27 times, which is the most important part of the QB’s role on the Panthers. Allen is now 5-1 as a starter and will continue to hold the job next week when his team travels to Green Bay. Congrats to all the Allens this week!
11 Home Teams are 11-0
Going into Sunday, home teams were 57-65-1 across the NFL. Discounting the London game, where there is no real home team, every home team won on Sunday, going a perfect 11-0. There were some obvious ones here, like the Bills beating the dumpster fire from Washington and the Eagles holding on to beat the dumpster fire from Chicago. (I may not be creative, but I am accurate). There were also a few surprises, such as the Chargers playing like a real football team and running the ball down the Packers throat. The Chargers were in command the entire game and shut down Aaron Rodgers after one of his best two-game stretches of his career. The most impressive home victory came courtesy of the Baltimore Ravens, who put up as many points on the New England defense as they had surrendered in the previous 8 games. It wasn’t all easy for home teams, as the Steelers had to survive a missed FG to win the game, the Chiefs had to make a FG at the end to win and the Seahawks had to win in OT, but the true winners here are the Miami Dolphins, who finally got their first win of the season. Or are the real winners the Bengals, who now have sole possession of the first overall pick in next year’s draft?
25.55 Fantasy Points Per Game
This season, Christian McCaffrey is a fantasy madman. He’s currently averaging 25.55 points per game in standard scoring, which is nearly unheard of. He’s on pace to come very close to the season record in total scrimmage yards and already has 13 TDs. He’s already outpacing the next 4 RBs by a range of 30 to 80 points, and all of those players have played one more game than he has. We’re only halfway through the season here, folks, and McCaffrey is on pace to score over 400 fantasy points this year. The last time we saw that kind of performance was LaDanian Tomlinson in 2006, when he had 31 touchdowns. Since Tomlinson’s 2006 season, only 9 RBs have broken the 300-point mark, most of them just barely. McCaffrey, at his current pace, will reach (and pass) that milestone the very first day of December, while the rest of us are digging in to our Thanksgiving leftovers.
42% - Average Ownership of the Top 10 TEs
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. OK, don’t stop me, because yes, I am a broken record when it comes to pointing this out. This week, we saw another slew of random guys make up the top 10 scoring TEs of the week. This week featured Noah Fant (12% owned) leading the way with 17.5 points, helped along by a 75-yard TD. Jacob Hollister (1%) caught two touchdowns, one of them the game winner. Mike Gesicki (4%) and Nick Boyle (0%) complete the list of players who are owned in very few leagues, but made contributions to their teams. In fact, all 4 of these guys listed helped their team win. Honorable mention goes to Foster Moreau (0%) who caught one pass for a 3-yard TD, good enough to be the TE11 this week. Over the season, the active players in the top 10 at the position are owned in 90%+ of leagues (except Darren Fells, 63%), so I guess people are paying attention. The weekly chaos at the TE position is just begging for a further look and perhaps a change in how we incorporate them into fantasy football leagues.
39.22 Fantasy Points
With his stellar OT performance, Russell Wilson is now the first player this year to repeat as the top fantasy point scorer in a week. He also led the league back in Week 3 with 41.34 points. He now has 5 games (out of 9) with 24 points or more. His floor this season is 14.30 points, and he’s had between 14.3 and 16.6 points 4 times this year – a result of his team having a very strong run game. Despite this up-and-down nature of Wilson’s fantasy performances, he now leads all players in total points on the season with 225.50, though Lamar Jackson and the aforementioned Christian McCaffrey have played one fewer game and retain a higher per-game average. Wilson leads the league with just one interception and one fumble. His two total turnovers on the season is very impressive. The second-best players in turnovers are Aaron Rodgers and Kyler Murray (impressive for anyone, especially a rookie) with 4 total. Wilson has his team at 7-2, and they’re definitely the best looking second place team in the league. For Week 10, the Seahawks go to San Francisco for which is sure to be the best Monday night matchup of the season.
Twenty teams were eliminated last week, this brings our surviving entrants down to 186 with 8 weeks left to go in the
season. Last week we managed to fade the dreaded Thursday night nightmare on Halloween of all nights,
when the 49ers were able to pull out an unnecessarily close victory against the Cardinals 28-25. The
Cardinals jumped out to an early 7-0 lead and had me doubting game manager Garoppolo's ability to
keep up with the potent Cardinal offense. But then the tables turned and the Niners had the 21-7 lead at half,
wrap it up, easy game right? Wrong the Cards rallied back outscoring the Niners 18-7 in the second half
capped by an 88 yard touchdown from Andy Isabella to bring the game within 3. But alas, the Cards
couldn't get a stop and the Niners held on. Seriously, I would not bet against Kyler Murray if they are down
by a score and have the ball last.
Now, on to this week, where I will again be taking the cowards way out by selecting the largest favorite of
the week in the Saints at -13.5 on the road vs the Atlanta Falcons. The announcement that Matt Ryan
would be returning for this game shockingly did not move the line an inch. Bottom line in this one is the
Falcons can not stop anyone, and this week that anyone is Drew Brees and the best team in the NFC.
Could this be Dan Quinn's final coaching performance? Hopefully the Dolphins can do me a favor and
knock off the next biggest favorite Colts at home, which will surely eliminate a large number of
remaining players.
Welcome to Statistically (in)Significant, the place to find great stats that probably only matter at the water cooler (or bar). Each week I'll dig through the stats of the week gone by and deliver you some choice conversation starters. All fantasy stats are standard Yahoo scoring unless otherwise noted.
33.42 Fantasy Points
Through Sunday, your Week 10 fantasy points leader is, for the first time this season Lamar Jackson. He’s finished in the top 5 a total of 6 weeks out of his 9 games this season, though never as the actual top player. He’s having an amazing season and is clearly one of the candidates for MVP, along with Russell Wilson, who we get to see later on tonight. Jackson had his second game of the season where he threw more touchdowns (3) than incompletions (2). He had a perfect QB rating, also for the second time this season, which is only the second time anyone has done it twice in one season. He added 65 more rushing yards and 4 total touchdowns. With 702 rushing yards so far this season, he’s on pace for 1,248 yards, which will crush Mike Vick’s single season record of 1,039 yards.
0.08 Yards Per Touch
Saquon Barkley was the #1 ADP player across all the major sites back in August, but he’s wound up as one of the more disappointing first round picks, especially after yesterday’s game. On 13 carries, Barkley managed to gain only 1 yard on the ground. 9 of his 18 total touches went for zero or negative yards. He’s having a very disappointing season, though a lot of that can be attributed to his garbage pile team. The Giants lost to the lowly Jets and it marks the low point of their season (so far). Compared to last year, Barkley is averaging a full yard per carry less, one fewer catch per game, and 24 fewer rushing yards per game. He only has 3 TDs on the season compared to 15 last year and having missed 3 games, he’s on pace to finish with numbers well shy of his rookie year. At least the Giants can point to their rookie QB Daniel Jones as a bright spot, even if he’s only won a couple of games. He’s thrown at least 1 TD in every game he’s started, and 4 of them twice.
9.6 Receptions per Game
Michael Thomas is currently leading the league with 86 receptions through 9 games, on pace for 153 on the season. This would match the single season record with an entire game to go. This year, Thomas has 5 games with at least 10 catches, and in every game except for one, he has at least 8 catches. Thomas is his usual PPR machine this year, but he’s also leading the league in yards, with 1027 already. Even in a standard scoring league, Thomas is third in points on the season, with a floor this year of 8.90 points. Thomas now has 1000 yards in each of his first 4 seasons, only the 4th player to ever start his career like that.
446 Passing Yards
On Sunday, Patrick Mahomes returned to the Chiefs lineup after missing just 2 weeks from a dislocated kneecap. His 446 passing yards were the most any QB has thrown for this season, breaking the previous high of 443 yards, also by Mahomes, in Week 2. Mahomes also had a season high 50 passing attempts, and 3 TDs to zero INT, bringing his season-long ratio to 18:1. Mahomes put up a very respectable 29.84 fantasy points, good for the 5th overall player this week. He’s currently at 2,626 yards on the season, good for 5th overall, really good for a guy who has played 1 or 2 fewer games than all the players ahead of him. He’s leading the league in yards per attempt, yards per completion and yards per game. Not a bad follow-up of an MVP season – he would be in the conversation if it wasn’t for lots of other guys having stellar seasons.
49 D/ST Fantasy Points
Well folks, it looks like the AFC North is once again proving to be a tough matchup for anyone who finds themselves thinking there’s easy wins to be had. The Ravens and the Steelers defenses have come alive. The Ravens managed two scores against the hapless Bengals and were the best D/ST replacement for the Patriots that I could ever have hoped for. Now I just need to find a person willing to trade for a D/ST. This is definitely a first world problem, but on to the Steelers. Their trade for Minkah Fitzpatrick seems to be the smartest trade of the entire season. Fitzpatrick has 5 interceptions, 2 TDs and 1 fumble recovery in his 7 games with the Steelers. He’s a huge upgrade to their passing defense, and is a huge reason the Steelers have given up just one double digit game to opposing WRs since Week 2. The Steelers D/ST have double digit points in every game that Fitzpatrick has played with them this year.
Welcome to Statistically (in)Significant, the place to find great stats that probably only matter at the water cooler (or bar). Each week I'll dig through the stats of the week gone by and deliver you some choice conversation starters. All fantasy stats are standard Yahoo scoring unless otherwise noted.
7 Games of 60+ Rushing Yards
It’s hard to pick just one stat to lead with for Lamar Jackson, so let’s go with the one that nobody else has done in league history. Jackson is now the first QB in the NFL to have 60+ rush yards in 7 straight starts, as he continues his march towards Michael Vick’s single season record. Jackson added 86 yards on just 9 carries on Sunday. He’s now on pace for 1,260 rush yards and at this rate will easily break the record before Christmas. Jackson is amazingly efficient and playing so well for his team. His fantasy totals are gaudy, but don’t exactly feel like they would be if you look at just his passing stats. Another 4 passing TDs yesterday brought his season total to 19 – congrats to you preseason bettors, his Vegas over/under was just 15. He has had over 30 pass attempts just 4 times this season (2 of them were his team’s losses), and is just magnificent this year, especially for fantasy. He has zero fumbles, something that only Dak Prescott, Kyler Murray and Mason Rudolph can claim, though none of them run the ball like Lamar.
0.36 More Fantasy Points Than Lamar Jackson
Only one player in the NFL had more fantasy points than Lamar Jackson through Sunday, and it was Josh Allen, as he dismantled the Dolphins. The difference between the two is really that Allen had a rushing TD, his 7th on the season, which leads all QBs and is tied for 6th among all players in the NFL. Allen is showing plenty of growth in his second season. Last year he started 11 games, and this year he has 10 under his belt and he already has more pass yards, more pass TDs and fewer INTs. His completion rate has improved significantly and he is the QB6 on the season. Allen hasn’t thrown a pick in the last 5 straight games. He has played very well and just might hold on to make the playoffs. With a solid QB and a good defense, they might even be able to win a game there.
3 TDs in 3 Straight Starts
I don’t mean to only talk about QBs so far, but I would be remiss if I did not gush a little about the play of Dak Prescott, who has quietly been awesome this year. Unfortunately, his team does not beat good teams, but damn he’s played well against everyone since New Orleans in Week 4. Over the last 3 weeks, Prescott has 9 passing TDs and 1,098 passing yards over that time – he now leads the league with 3,221 passing yards. Prescott has reduced the frequency that he runs, but he’s gaining a lot more per run on the ground this year, up to 5.8 yards per carry, the second highest total of his career. These smarts also help keep him on the field – he hasn’t missed a start in his 4 seasons. So, Dak sits as the QB3 in fantasy football and the 4th player overall. He’s having a great season and would be in the MVP talk if it wasn’t for the couple of QBs ahead of him, who are just a little bit better and winning a few more games. That being said, don’t count him out – there’s still lots of football left to play.
19.10 Points Without a Touchdown
OK, enough about the QBs, let’s dive into the RBs, who admittedly, had a down week. Leading the pack was Mark Ingram, who is the only RB to break the 20-point barrier as of Sunday in Week 11. He found the end zone twice through the air and was the week’s RB1, despite only gaining 85 yards from scrimmage. The guy who did rack up gaudy totals was, of course, Christian McCaffrey, who added another 191 yards from scrimmage on 25 touches. McCaffrey has 1,576 yards from scrimmage on the season, and he’s still on pace to just squeak by the single-season record of 2,510. Considering he put up another 19 points without finding the end zone, he’s clearly the fantasy MVP outside of QBs. He has 32 more fantasy points than the 2nd place team and is beating the RB8, the aforementioned Mark Ingram, by over 100 points on the season.
94 Receptions in 10 Games
Congrats to Michael Thomas, who continues to be an absolute beast for Drew Brees and the Saints. Thomas now has 94 receptions through 10 games, obviously a league lead, but also a milestone that no one else in league history has reached. He’s leading the league this year with 1,141 receiving yards and is on pace for 150 receptions on the season, which would break Marvin Harrison’s record of 143. Heck, Thomas is already 5th on that list with his 125-catch effort last season, a number he’s certain to break soon. Thomas now has 11 or more targets in all but 2 games this season, and has done the majority of his damage without Brees under center. Yesterday’s effort of 114 receiving yards exactly matches his 114 yards per game average this season. I’m all for players who like to express themselves, as we have seen at WR in the last few years, but there’s something awesome about the quiet dominance we get from guys like Michael Thomas, Julio Jones and Deandre Hopkins.