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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.

0 Interceptions

For only the second time in his career, Jay Cutler did not thrown an INT in his opening game. This means that next week will be the first time that Cutler takes a snap in Week 3 of an NFL season and doesn't have an INT to his name. OK, fine, this might be a way to pick on Smokin' Jay, but I must tip my cap to him and the Dolphins for winning on the road after the surprise Week 1 bye. 230 yards and 1 TD isn't going to blow anyone's socks off, but as I noticed during the game, it's still the same old Cutler. He's still throwing off his back foot, airing it out and getting lucky as hell from time to time. It's nice having tall receivers.

25% Field Goal Percentage

The Chargers new kicker, YoungHoe Koo doesn't even have a success rate that would keep you employed in baseball. The rookie kicker is just 1-for-4 in field goal attempts this season. He's missed or had blocked two at the end of games that would have either tied or give his team the lead with time running out. Both are only from 44 yards away, and his other miss is from 43. His only make has come from 41 yards, and to his credit, he has made 5/5 extra points. Making all your extra points is getting hard to come by in this league. It must be rough being a Chargers fan now. On top of playing in a tiny stadium that people are making fun of, having an owner people poke fun at, you now have to worry about kicking problems on your 0-2 team (which has just a 12% shot at making the playoffs, historically).

20+ Fantasy Points

This week felt a lot more like a normal week of fantasy football. There were 12 players that scored at least 20 points in standard scoring this week, and 9 of them are owned in at least 96% of Yahoo leagues. So, I guess go pick up C.J. Anderson if your league has been asleep? Lots of big names went back to their normal productive selves, but a few new names might stick around a bit. Trevor Siemian leads the league in passing TD's and has the most fantasy points for QB's (second overall). He's only owned by 13% of leagues right now! The Broncos look good at home, but I want to see a them on the road before inserting Siemian in my lineup. It is, however, the right time to pick him up off the waiver wire.

0.1 Fantasy Points

In our drinkfive.com fantasy league, my opponent had her TE break his foot, and he still scored 10x the points that my TE scored. Greg Olsen's 1 point was an order of magnitude larger than Jimmy Graham's 0.1 points. The tight end position is about to get a lot thinner as two of the main starters are looking like they aren't options going forward. Olsen's broken foot definitely leaves him out of your lineup, and Graham has some knee issues and is playing on Thursday night this week. It's time to scour the waiver wire for a new TE, thankfully, there are actually several options out there for you.

14 Seconds

At the end of the first half in the Patriots-Saints game, Tom Brady was tackled with just 14 seconds to go and no time-outs. Bad clock management some of you may say? Not from Belichick; he got his team ready for this. The field goal unit scrambled onto the field and snapped the ball with 2 seconds to spare and gave the Pats a 30-13 lead going into halftime. The poise and calmness that this all happened with made it seem like they planned on just this exact situation coming up on this very drive. It makes you wonder if Belichick told the special teams that they're not allowed to have timeouts anymore, and if they screw it up, they don't get to eat on Thursdays.

Well, last week was a doozy. My Steelers tied the Browns (loss in my book), we had a few injuries, and the leading QB was Fitzmagic. Hopefully you came away with some W’s and made some moves on waivers to improve the squad!

Week 1 recap

Last week, we watched Alfred Morris and Matt Breida vs the Vikings defense. I predicted that Morris would get the goal line work and get into the end zone. Well, I was right in the fact that Morris got the redzone carries, but he fumbled while reaching for the goal line that might have cost the 49ers the game. Carries were pretty evenly split. Brieda had 11 carries for 46 years, and Morris had 12 carries for 38 yards. Missed my prediction as they are still going to be splitting carries, but Morris could be a sneaky flex play this week against the lions.

The second watch-list was on the Indianapolis backfield. Wilkins did get the bulk of the carries and didn’t look too bad considering the OL problems for Indy. He rushed 14 times for 40 yards and caught all three balls coming his way. Signs are pointing to Mack coming back this week so it will be interesting to see how this muddy backfield will work moving forward. A positive was Nyheim Hines. If you are in a PPR league I would urge you to grab Hines. He caught 7 of 9 targets (only 33 yards) but lined up all over the field. Andrew Luck passed the ball 53 times on Sunday. I don’t expect him to throw 50+ every game, but do expect the Colts to be down and relying on Lucks arm to stay in games. 

The final watch-list from week 1 was Aaron Rodgers' targets. I predicted that Allison would be the second highest targeted receiver on the Packers and he was! (tied With Adams who I expected to lead). I was wrong about Cobb. He looked great, and the connection he has with Rodgers can’t be ignored. His ankles look fantastic as well!  Cobb, Allison, and Adams all ended with good fantasy days and touchdowns. Hopefully you grabbed Allison, he has solidified his role in the offense.

Denver Backfield

Royce Freeman was the highest drafted Bronco RB and had a decent first game out there. He rushed 15 times for 71 yards but didn’t have any targets in the passing game. The surprise last week was fellow rookie Phillip Lindsay. Lindsay rushed 15 times for 71 yards and caught 2 passes for 31 yards and a Touchdown. Freeman owners were worried about Booker stealing carries, but now it looks Lindsay is the threat and this is a full-blown committee. It will be interesting to see how the carries are distributed this week against Oakland.

Prediction –Both rookie running backs continue making the most of their time on the field. Lindsay has some flashy plays but Freeman finds the end zone leaving fantasy owners scratching their heads week 3 on who the back to own is in Denver.

J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets

 

One of my biggest surprises week 1 was the Jets Lions game. I expected a blowout, but did not expect the Jets to be on the winning end. Except for the very first play, Darnold looked great. He was poised in the pocket and managed the game well. He also targeted Quincy Enunwa 10 times! The next closest Jet had 3 targets. I tried to grab Enunwa everywhere this week as he is Darnold’s first read and should continue to get a good chunk of targets weekly. With Jermaine Kearse coming back this week it’ll be interesting to see how those targets are distributed.

In the Jets backfield, Powell got the start but split carries with Crowell. Powell had 13 rushes for 65 yards and Crowell (CAWWW) had 10 touches for 102 yards and 2 TDs. Most of those yards came in garbage time on a 62-yard TD run, but the Crow looked good! If the offense continues to produce both backs could be viable flex/RB2 plays.

Prediction- With the Dolphins coming to New York, Darnold has another great game but spreads the ball around a bit more this week. Crow finds the end zone twice for the second week in a row and the Jets move to 2-0.

Steelers vs Chiefs

Being a Steeler fan, they are always on my must watch list. This week is special because they are coming off a horrible week 1 and run into an offense that is arguably scary then theirs. Tyreek Hill is a freak. He went 7-169-2 and added another touchdown on a punt return. He is no doubt electric and silenced the few critics out there that didn’t think he could keep up with limited opportunities. We also got a glimpse of Patrick Mahomes cannon. In a game where Kelce and Hunt were quiet, the Chiefs still managed to put up 38 points against a stout Chargers secondary.

On the other side of the fence is the Steelers. After a heart breaking tie to open the season, there is still no Le'Veon Bell. James Conner shined in his first start rushing 31 times for 135 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He also caught 5 of 6 targets for 57 yards and is a strong RB1 until Bell decides it’s time to come back. Bell was seen in Miami at a club until the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday so I do not expect that to be anytime soon. Even without Bell, the Steelers have an offense that can keep up with the Chiefs and I expect our Defense to get after Mahomes.

Prediction – In the highest scoring game of the week, the Steelers come away with a win. Antonio Brown is the #1 WR of the week and Kelce and Hunt owners can sleep well with great bounce back performances.

The first week of the NFL season is in the books and it was a real humdinger for Survivor Pools. For the pool I participate in, we saw over half of the 1275 entrants eliminated after week one. A vast majority of the L's came at the hands of Fitzmagic defeating the New Orleans Saints 48-40 in a stunning upset. If you followed my advice and went with the Ravens over the Bills, then you were raising your glass over and over again as the Ravens laid one on the Bills 47-3.

In last week's article I laid out the winning strategy to employ this year, which is to pick the team playing the Bills. This week I suggest you stick to that winning formula and choose the San Diego Chargers of Los Angeles/ Carson. The Chargers are playing their second of sixteen road games this season in Buffalo as rookie quarterback Josh Allen gets his first NFL start. The Chargers and their highly touted defense were lit up by Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, but surely they will bounce back against a Bills team that couldn't get anything going in week 1.

Now, if anyone can screw this up it is the Chargers. After all they are the only team defeated by the Browns in the last 2 seasons. But, I think it safe to take them here as 7.5 point road favorites and not have to worry about them the rest of the year. Look for them to cover that spread as well.

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. All fantasy stats are standard Yahoo scoring, unless otherwise noted.

80 Touchdowns

With 10 TD throws in his first two games of the season, Patrick Mahomes is now on pace to throw a cool 80 touchdowns on the year. Give him the MVP right now, because he's going to beat Peyton's record by 25. On a serious note, he's going to need to keep this pace up if his defense keeps playing like...well, like crap. The Chiefs D have given up 65 points in two weeks, and sure, those opponents were playing catch-up, but giving up over 1000 yards is alarming to say the least. Nevertheless, the Chiefs are 2-0 behind the strength of a historic start. Mahomes joins only Drew Bledsoe with at least 4 TD in each of his first 2 games to start the season...and also our next, magic man.

4 TD and 400 Passing Yards

The Fitzmagic is real, folks. Ryan Fitzpatrick is now the only QB in league history to throw for 400 yards and 4 TDs in the first two games of the season. Along the way, he's thrown 4 TDs of at least 50 yards or more and even put one in on the ground - all by himself! The Buccaneers season so far has consisted of blowing out their division rivals New Orleans, and then taking down the Super Bowl champs, two events that really mean that Jameis Winston will not be returning to the starting lineup in Week 4. The Bucs are one of several 2-0 teams that are a surprise, like Miami and Cincy. Unlike those two teams, the Bucs look like they could actually be the best team in their division. Finally, congrats to DeSean Jackson, who tied Jerry Rice for the most 60+ yard TDs, notching his 23rd against his old team on a 75-yard catch and run on the first offensive snap of the game.

28 Receptions in Two Games

If you own Michael Thomas in a PPR league, you're definitely happy with his two straight 30+ point performances. His 28 catches in two games are 10 more than the next closest players - a 3-way tie between Antonio Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Adam Thielen. Thomas has been targeted 30 times and he is catching everything that comes his way. He's basically the entire receiving core of the team. Aside from Alvin Kamara's 15 catches, Thomas has more receptions than the rest of the team combined (21). He's a cool 20 points ahead of the next closest WR, and is second overall in PPR fantasy points, only behind the afore mentioned Fitzmagic. He's on pace for well over 200 catches, smashing the record of 143 by Marvin Harrison. This is, of course, an absurd (but fun) extrapolation.

8.4 Yards per Carry

This year's early season rushing leader is not one that many people predicted. Matt Breida has 184 yards on only 22 carries. His usage is mostly thanks to the absence of Jerick McKinnon, but he's making the most of it. The 49ers have given him 11 carries in each game, and I expect that number to go up. They should have given him more carries in the 4th quarter to help ice the game away, so I expect his production to continue improving. His next three games are against the Chiefs, Chargers and Cardinals - all teams that have a very porous defense. Breida is only owned in 61% of Yahoo leagues, so while not a hidden gem by any means, he is a guy who needs to be in starting lineups in most, if not all leagues.

1 out of 10 Tight Ends

This season, the top 10 TEs have been the model of inconsistency. Only one of the top 10, Eric Ebron, has more than 6 points in both games this season. Most guys have one big game and one dud, not great, but you'll take it. What makes Ebron's consistency surprising is that he went into the season and wasn't considered the top TE on his own team - that belonged to Jack Doyle. Doyle has been targetted more than Ebron, but hasn't been productive. Meanwhile, Ebron has managed to find the end zone in each game and may become a favorite target of Andrew Luck, who had a good showing in Washington on Sunday. Only Will Dissly has a chance to save some face for his positional group, when he suits up tonight in Chicago.