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.
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