Well we couldn't get a Sunday Millions cash streak going last week so it's time to start a new streak starting with week 10! Spending high on a QB/WR stack in a matchup which should be hemorrhaging fantasy points, grabbing a couple highly productive RBs with amazing matchups and playing two WRs whose teams face head to head. Good luck gamblers!
QB - Tom Brady, NE - $9,100 at NYG: Spending high at the QB position this week mostly because I think there will be a ton of fantasy points coming out of the Patriots and Giants matchup. The Giants are also allowing opposing QBs to pass for 308 yards per game which is second worst in the league.
RB - DeAngelo Williams, PIT - $7,600 vs. CLE: No brainer pick this week with Williams toting a cheapish price tag and playing against the league worst run defense in the Cleveland Browns.
RB - Mark Ingram, NO - $7,500 at WAS: Ingram has been putting up consistent points this season and should continue to dominate touches after the loss of Khiry Robinson. He gets a plus matchup against the 4th worst run defense in the league.
WR - Julian Edelman, NE - $8,000 at NYG: Playing Edelman as a combo to Brady this week, he should torch a paper thin Giants secondary.
WR - Golden Tate, DET - $6,300 at GB: Calvin Johnson is shaping up to be a game time decision as he hasn't practiced all week with an ankle injury which means Tate should benefit with more looks in a game that Detroit will need to score a lot of points to win.
WR -Devante Adams, GB - $5,800 vs. DET: Adams is back at the number two WR position after coming back from injury. Somewhat of a pairing play with Tate here as I'm betting on a lot of points being scored in the Green Bay/Detroit game.
TE - Tyler Eifert, CIN - $6,200 vs. HOU: Eifert is coming off a three touchdown performance against the Browns last week. While I don't see him repeating, he's a great play with the red zone targets he gets and has also been lining up wide on plays this year.
K - Brandon McManus, DEN - $4,800 vs. KC: Usually would default to Gostkowski but didn't want to pair a QB and kicker. Kicking in Denver always gives more opportunity for 50+ yard field goals too.
DEF - Panthers, CAR - $4,700 at TEN: The ever consistent Panther defense gets a great matchup against a Titans team giving up the most fantasy points to opposing teams this year.
Well the Vegas fix was in last Sunday in full force. More importantly, I will consider my pick a win since I was picking in a rigged week. Exhibit A can be see here:
This Duke Johnson phantom fumble undermined my premonition of the Browns first win. In all my years watching football I have never seen a play more baffling than this fumble. Duke insta pops out of the pile with the ball as the ref signals Redskins football.
The second fix came in the 4th quarter of a tight Rams Cardinals game. The powers that be made the call that Carson Palmer had to come out of the game because he took a big hit and could have a concussion. Surely somebody bet the house on the Rams money line and stood to make a fortune on the 8.5 point dog. I have no doubt that a brain-dead Carson Palmer would have outperformed Drew Stanton and led the Cardinals to a 4th quarter comeback win at home.
As it stands 128 of the 163 eliminated this week were on that Cardinals pick, trimming the survivor total list down to 314 from the original 871. This coming Sunday I will be fully endorsing the pick against Cleveland strategy. The New England Patriots should be a no brainer. An angry Tom Brady will be making his 2016 debut as a 10.5 point favorite on the road vs the Browns.
Cheers, Drink Five!
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.
157 Yards
Thursday night, David Johnson set the season high for rushing yards with a 157 yard, 2 TD performance - adding 3 catches for 28 yards. Johnson was the focus of the offense with Carson Palmer out, running the ball 27 times. The Cardinals were able to roll over the 49ers and start to right the ship. They'll get 11 days to recover before playing next Monday night, so look for Palmer to be back and the team to continue to improve.
3 Punt Return TDs
I complained after two weeks that we weren't getting enough returns. Things have started to average out, but the totals are still below where they should be. This week, Red Zone watchers were treated to three punt return TDs in the first half of the noon games. The Dolphins, Redskins and Vikings all rewarded their fantasy owners (probably just Vikings owners out there) with a return TD. This brings us to 7 of the most exciting plays in football we've seen this year.
406 Yards
The Tom Brady Middle Finger Tour 2016 kicked off with a bang in Cleveland. Brady lead the week in passing yardage, getting his 8th career game over 400 yards. This game also featured the proper 2016 return of Rob Gronkowski, going over 100 yards, though Gronk owners squirmed while Martellus Bennett got 3 TD's. The Bengals are the next victim on Brady's list, as he gets some good home cookin' against a team that just can't catch a break.
81 Years
The two top kickers this week have a total of 81 years between them, and they are outperforming all of their younger counterparts. Adam Vinatieri was the first kicker to pass the 20 point mark, going 5/5 with 2-50+ yarders and tacking on an extra point as well. Meanwhile, Sebastian Janikowski went 4/5 after having only 4 attempts through the first 4 weeks. Congrats gentlemen, you're the best fantasy kickers this week.
5-0
The Minnesota Vikings are the last undefeated team in the 2016 season. This is a team that has replaced it's starting QB before the season started, lost its hall of fame running back, yet they're just rolling over everyone in the NFC. Minnesota is on bye for week 6 and has a big matchup against the Eagles coming off the bye. The Bears and Lions in the following weeks means that at least a 7-1 start is all but wrapped up for the Vikings.
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.
1500 Yards from Scrimmage
Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram continue to be the most prolific RB tandem that we've seen in a long time. Currently, they're both on pace to pass 1500 yards from scrimmage by the end of the season, a feat that has never occurred with teammates before. Ingram and Kamara are now sitting as the 2nd and 3rd highest scoring fantasy RBs on the season. They've combined for 20 touchdowns on the season. They've been the driving force behind the Saints leading the division and are now 9-3, just a game behind getting a bye in the first week of the playoffs. The Saints are once again an offensive juggernaut, ranking 3rd in the league in rushing. Interestingly enough, they are just 16th in pass attempts, but 3rd in passing yardage. I suppose it helps to have Drew Brees to go along with a pair of amazing RBs.
70+ Yard Plays
Alex Smith had a 70 yard run on Sunday to go along with a 79 yard passing TD to Tyreek Hill. This makes Smith the first player in the Super Bowl-era that has both a passing and rushing play of at least 70 yards in the same game. This was the rebound game that Smith was looking for, despite the outcome, fantasy owners are really happy with his performance. The Chiefs changing signal callers seems to have worked for them, at least for now (reminiscent of the Bengals in Week 3). Now for the Chiefs, they need to figure out how to fix their defense, because giving up 38 points to Josh McCown's Jets just isn't a good look for a team that's still leading a division. Want to know how frustrating it is to be a KC Chief this year? I leave you with Marcus Peters's mini tantrum.
3 Years & 85 Yards
It's been 3 years since we've been able to go nuts with real Josh Gordon hype, and though his return to the field wasn't Flash Gordon style, it was very promising. Gordon, you'll remember, led the league in receiving yards in 2013 with 1,646 on 87 receptions in only 14 games. That season he went over 100 yards 7 times and over 200 yards twice (in a row). He had 8 games with touchdowns and was a fantasy juggernaut. On Sunday, he had a very tough matchup against a Chargers passing defense that hasn't had a 100-yard receiver all season. In fact, the only player to get more yards than his 85 (4 rec out of 11 targets) was Odell Beckham Jr. way back in Week 5. The volume of his targets is very encouraging, now if only you could have any faith whatsoever in DeShone Kizer.
85.7% of His Team's Offense
Russell Wilson demands to be a part of the MVP discussion. Not that he would ever say that out loud. No, the leader of the Seahawks speaks exclusively in cliché's (I think I counted 7 in his extremely brief post-game interview on NBC). Going in to Sunday's game, he accounted for well over 80% of his team's total offense by yards. He got a little break with the help of the briefest glimmer of a run game and only had to handle about 78% of his team's offense last night as they took down the former top team in the NFC. Wilson's continued ability to just do whatever the hell he wants is incredible, considering the offensive line crumbles around him every play. He's certainly the fantasy football MVP, considering he was drafted at the end of the 5th round and is the highest scoring player in the league, by a decent margin.
27-3 Against Buffalo
Tom Brady owns the Bills. Even, arguably, more than Roethlisberger owns the Browns (he does own their stadium, however). No quarterback in the Super Bowl era has more victories against a single team. In that game, he also became the 4th QB to eclipse 65,000 passing yards for his career. That's about 37 miles of passing yards or 2600 fantasy points. Brady, now 40 years old, is currently leading the league in completions with 300 and passing yards with 3632 and has his 14th straight double digit win season as the Patriots starter (yes, they still won double digit games when he didn't play in 2008). The Patriots are, once again, the team to beat in the AFC had are on a collision course for a huge game in Pittsburg in Week 15. That game will likely determine home field advantage in the AFC playoffs, provided the Patriots can get by without Gronk in Week 14.