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 half PPR scoring unless otherwise noted.
48 Passing Attempts for Zero Points
Last night, Tom Brady was shut out for only the third time in his entire career. The last time his team did not score any points in a game he started was Week 14 of the 2006 season when the Patriots lost 21-0 in Miami. Fast forward 15 years and Brady had a hell of a streak finally snapped. Last night’s game was the first time in his career that his opponent won while scoring fewer than 10 points. In last week’s column, I gushed about Brady as he broke yet another NFL record, so this week I’m going to have some fun celebrating him having an atrocious game on a national broadcast. Everything is just more fun when Brady isn’t winning every damn thing around. Brady has only lost 73 games that he’s started, so it’s not as if we get to do this every day - but then again, that is over 4.5 seasons of losses, so how great is he really? Brady seems to struggle when New Orleans comes down to south Florida - in those two games with the Bucs, he has 0 touchdowns, 4 INTs, and a fumble. He’s been outscored 47-3 and has a meager 55.8% completion percentage. He is 0-4 against New Orleans in the regular season over the last two years. Brady is currently the QB22 of the week - there’s only 2 starting QBs so far this week that have done worse.
36.1 Fantasy Points
Travis Kelce had his best game in his long career on Thursday night against the Chargers. Kelce’s final stat line was 13 targets, 10 receptions, 191 receiving yards, 2 TDs. This makes him the top fantasy player so far through Week 15 - with 4 games still left to play this week, I feel like anything can happen. This performance is the 2nd best TE game we’ve seen all season, in Week 5, Mark Andrews scored 36.2 fantasy points. George Kittle also had a 35.1 point game a couple weeks ago, so I think we can declare the mid-30’s the Tight End ceiling in fantasy football. Kelce, who has played over 120 games in his career, reached his all-time high in receiving yards with 191 (previous high was 168) and he now has 29 games with 100 or more receiving yards. He also tied his career high with 2 TDs, he now has 8 games with multiple touchdowns. The tight end position was pretty top-heavy this week, with both Kelce and Andrews breaking the 30 point mark, but TEs 7-10 combined did not match Kelce’s point total.
13% Owned in Fleaflicker Leagues
This week’s top RB (so far, yeah) is a player that none of us started last week. The only people claiming to have him in their lineups are Duke Johnson’s mother, and liars. That being said, I want to congratulate Duke’s mom on her fantasy football playoff victory, because Duke had a hell of a game. Posting a career high 107 rushing yards (his only game over 100 yards rushing), and only his second game with two touchdowns, Johnson propelled the Dolphins back to .500 with their sixth win a row (yes, they started 1-7, if you’re counting). Duke has played in 93 NFL games, a rather respectable number for a guy who has never been a regular starter. His 107 rushing yards yesterday are 5.2% of his career total, and he scored 20% of his career rushing TDs! Duke saw 23 touches while only being on the field for 58% of Miami’s offensive snaps, so he could easily supplant the disappointing Miles Gaskin as the RB1 on the Dolphins. Unfortunately for Duke, his next two opponents will be the teams giving up the fewest (Saints) and second fewest (Titans) points to opposing RBs.
14% Owned in Fleaflicker Leagues
For an encore, let’s have a look at the QB1 of the week, who maybe a few of us started since he would have been a smart superflex fill-in. That being said, we’re going to need some proof if you want credit for starting him! Tyler Huntley told the Ravens, “No Lamar, no problem!” and proceeded to do his best Lamar Jackson impression with 28 completions on 40 attempts for 213 yards, 2 TDs through the air, another 13 rushes for 73 yards on the ground and 2 more TDs, good for 35.9 fantasy points. Huntley now has started or played significant time in 3 games this season and is on a definite upward trend, scoring 11.76 (Wk 11 @ CHI), 15.30 (Wk 14 @ CLE), and 35.90 (Wk 15 vs GB). Each of those three games, he has a completion percentage over 70% and has won, or had a chance to win at the end, each of those games. This year is Huntley’s first chance to get real playing time in a game, and he’s shown that he’s definitely more than just a backup level quarterback. If another team wants to design an offense around him, like the Ravens did for Lamar Jackson, I could see him getting snatched up as a starting QB as early as next year.
170 Rushing Yards
Jonathan Taylor had yet another massive game this season, this time against one of the best defensive minds ever in football, Bill Belichick. Taylor posted the highest rushing total and most fantasy points given up by the New England Patriots all season, with 170 yards on 29 carries and 1 TD, good for 23 points. Saturday night for Taylor was punctuated by a 67 yard rushing TD to close out the game when there was just about 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter. This season, Taylor owns the longest rush in the NFL at 83 yards, and the longest rushing TD in the NFL with 76 yards. He leads the league in rushing attempts (270), rushing yards (1,518), rushing TDs (17), yards from scrimmage (1,854), and total TDs (19). It’s all the more impressive when you consider his slow start to the season. In the first 5 games, he was not on the field for more than 55% of the snaps in any of those games, averaged 65.4 yards per game in that stretch, and scored only 2 TDs. Taylor, the 4th-highest scoring fantasy player in 2021, is in the MVP discussion, and is inching ever close to the lead there with Brady’s performance on Sunday night.
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