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I tell you one thing, if this season is anything like the preseason was, we are in for a roller coaster ride.  There is so much petty stuff going on in the NFL, I swear I feel like I am reading a script to 90210. Ya'll know what I'm talking bout, don't play like you don't, lol.

MORE INJURIES:
Just when you thought it was safe to go back out on the field, BAM, a few more guys get jacked up. Green Bay got a second scare when Randall Cobb took a fall on his shoulder. They originally thought it was a broken collar bone but an MRI showed that it was an AC joint sprain. You guys KNOW, Cobb is NOT missing his chance to shine in GB, come on man, you thought he was going down that easily, not today people, not today. He will be playing.

​RB, Duke Johnson for Cleveland ended up on the bad end of a concussion in the 1st half of Saturday night's win over Tampa Bay. They said that he was ROCKED on a ​hit by Bucs CB Mike Jenkins and could be out for some time. The Browns were putting a lot of hope in Johnson for the season but he hasn't been able to stay healthy. With Johnson's injury and throw in veteran Shaun Draugh and Glenn Winston, this has left the Browns thinner than Olive Oil at the running back position. 2nd year backs Terrance West and Isaiah Crowell have pretty much NOT lived up to expectations and Pettine said the team may consider other options at the position. In a word, some people are about to get the boot. There's more, word is Ray Rice could be one of those options. All Pettine said is, "if we do come to the decision that we need to add a back that is not here, we'll look at the list and see who's open." Talk about not making a firm commitment.

I didn't believe it until just now. They say twins feel each others pain. Well Dolphins Center Mike Pouncey left the game against the Falcons with a knee injury when another player fell on his leg. and will undergo an MRI on Sunday. The injury left the Dolphins with only two OL starter at their regular season. If you recall, his twin brother Maurkice Pouncy, Steelers Center, was cut down early with an ankle injury in preseason week 2, that will require surgery and he is out indefinitely. Hot off the presses today, MIKE Pouncey practices Monday and will be ready for WK1. At least one of them is still standing.

It's not enough that we get some of the worst winters ever, but we [The Bears] are still dropping like flies.  So the Bears cut Tim Jennings, like they got a wide selection of players at any position at this point, but you cut a veteran player who could maybe help some of the youngsters that are coming in. With that being said, we lost the top two nose tackles to injuries during the preseason loss to the Bengals on Saturday. Veteran Jeremiah Ratliff left the game early and when he returned he was wearing a walking boot. The X-rays showed no fracture, but I am sure he will be out a game or two. Then 2nd round rookie Eddie Goldman suffered a concussion. I'm done with the injuries, too many to list anyway, it will never end.

IT'S GET'N HOT IN HERE!!!
OK, so there is a war in the Redskins' locker room. RGIII has been benched for the start of the season, even though his face is on the ticket for WK1. The starting honor now goes to Kirk Cousins, he is the new starting QB for the Redskins. Things have taken such a turn for the worse with the already-dysfunctional relationship between Griffin and the Redskins that reports indicate many high-ranking officials and several coaches want to move on from the quarterback. Sources have also said that the team discussed trading RG3. I heard St. Louis was peeking and another team too, can't remember which one.  But get this, they had an article explaining why RG3 would be a good fit in Chicago. My thoughts: No thank you, we still got some cleaning up to do ourselves.

IT JUST WON'T DIE.
That pesky "jawbreak" is still in the headlines. So my CI told me that the whole thing was about money and a promise not kept. Geno owed Ike $600. Geno promised to come to a charity event for Ike and then he doesn't show up. So Ike just wanted his $600 that he paid for Geno to come and $1000 for his charity. They even threw Mark Sanchez in the mix and said he would have gladly paid Ike back and given him money for the charity.   Come on man, you have an ATM right there in the locker room, but the way Geno's checking and savings is set up............well, you get my point. He paid for it in a more painful way and naturally, the locker room is split. My thoughts: I still think Geno Smith is overrated. Ryan Fitzpatrick will step up now.

As "deflategate" turns. So, Tom Brady's 4 game suspension was overturned. The Judge said that Tom was never told he could be suspended. You mean like if you rob a bank and you go to jail but then they overturn the sentence and let you out of jail because you were never told that you could go to jail for robbing a bank? Really, come on man.  I don't know what Brady did or didn't do, but you guys know that it always comes down to the money. You also know that if Brady doesn't play, it affects the money, do the math with me people.  Goodell was sucker punched on this one. He will NOT attend the season opener with the Patriots going up against the Steelers. Tom said the intern did it!  P.S. Snoop Dogg is not too happy with the judges decision, he's a Steelers fan. The NFL is already working on an appeal, stay tuned.

Speaking of interns.. so RG3 supposedly "liked" a tweet or post, whatever it's called on instagram, bashing the Redskins organization.  RG3 said, no way, you ain't pinning this on me, the INTERN did it. He put a full post on instagram, big ole giant letters saying, "I did not "like" that Post." Which I guess is what folks do when they like a post, lol. Really RG3, kinda sounds like, "I did not have sexual intercourse with that woman." We all know how that turned out. I'm just saying.  Just in this morning, it's 5 teams that are looking at RG3, they all only have slight interest, none have a strong interest.

​FYI: MO FOOTBALL, MO FOOTBALL.
In case you are looking for some really good football shows that showcase a different player/team/coach that played or coached over the years, you might want to check out, "A Football Life" and "30/30".  I have watched a lot of them but a few that really stood out were the ones on Bo Jackson, Jerry Rice, Walter Peyton and Lyle Alzado.  Last night, I watched  "The Book of Manning."  I love P. Manning and I think Eli is cool and I knew their dad Archie played and brought Ole Miss back to life, where Eli followed in his footsteps and attended Ole Miss and broke almost all of his dad's records. Peyton opted for Tennessee which brought him and his dad death threats and all kind of crazy hate mail. Then there was Cooper, the oldest, whose career was cut short by a disease that put him one hit away from a wheel chair, so he left the sports world. I was intrigued by a family where 2 sons of a QB went on to play pro ball, win Super Bowls and were MVP's in Super Bowls. Quick, name another family that has that mix?  If there is one, I would love to read up on them. I know about the Barber and Talib brothers already. Both shows are really good and if you are a football nut like me, you probably already know about these programs. Just my 2 cents.

Last tidbit. The K.C. Chiefs went undefeated this preseason. Did you know that the last 2 times they went undefeated in the preseason, they played in the Super Bowl those years?  No lie, lol. Maybe they will make it to the 50th in 2016.  

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.

4 Lost Fumbles

I’ve been talking up Trevor Lawrence, so it’s only fair that I talk about when he’s remarkably bad as well. He’s the first player this century to lose 4 fumbles in one game. Those 4 fumbles canceled out Lawrence’s 2 TD passes. He finished the game with 6.66 points – truly not a great sign for what I thought was a step forward in his second year. Lawrence added one pick to his total, for 5 overall turnovers – the most he’s had in a single game in his career. Sometimes I wish that there was still someone on TV to hype the Jaguars so I didn't feel so alone in this. Meanwhile, their opponent the Eagles D/ST has been having a great year – they now have 5 INTs, 5 fumbles recovered, and 16 sacks through just 4 games. They are now the D/ST2 on the season, but have 2 tough matchups leading into their bye week, so – maybe time to try and trade a D/ST? Is that even a thing?

2 Quarterbacks Over 30 Fantasy Points

…And neither of them are owned in the drinkfive.com so-called “Experts League”. Well, let’s not be too tough on everyone, here. Geno Smith threw for 2 TDs and ran in another while accounting for 369 total yards on the day on his way to leading the Seahawks to 48 total points – and they needed nearly every one of them. More on that in a moment. Joining Smith in the 30+ territory was his opponent, Jared Goff. For the second time this year, Goff threw for 4 TDs and he’s now the QB5 on the season. Goff is also tied for the league lead with 11 passing TDs. This is likely a trend that can continue for Goff, considering his team has given up the most points in the league so far this year.

140 Points Scored on the Season

The Detroit Lions are leading the league in scoring, having scored 140 points on the year so far. Unfortunately for them, they have given up 141 points – also the most in the league. This is why they have a very disappointing 1-3 record. The Lions have scored 35 and 45 points in games they lost this season. They are leading the league in passing TDs (tied), rushing yards per attempt, and total yards. Second in the league in rushing TDs, and top 10 in lots of other important offensive milestones. Unfortunately, they are dead last in defense when it comes to points, yards, first downs given up, rushing TDs, and rushing yards per attempt. It’s really an extreme experience being a Lions fan this season.

5 of 5 Field Goals in the Home of the Hotspurs

Kickers haven’t come up much this year so far, and props go to Greg Joseph of the Vikings who completed 5 of his 5 field goal attempts in England on Sunday morning. He kicked for a total of 181 yards, including one with under 30 seconds left to answer Will Lutz’s 60-yard field goal which had tied the game just minutes earlier. The fans in England were treated to a good game, one that had 5 scores in the 4^th quarter alone. Unfortunately for Joseph, he can’t claim he had a perfect day, as he did miss 1 extra point. In fact, each of the top 4 scoring kickers missed one kick this week – 3 of them missing extra points attempts. Perhaps this shows that the NFL moving the extra point back is accomplishing what they wanted. Perhaps this shows that kicking is pretty damn random indeed. Perhaps they don’t even belong in a column about fantasy football. My apologies, it’s getting late.

35.9 Fantasy Points

I tried my best, but I just couldn’t avoid talking about one more Detroit Lion. It’s not as if he doesn’t deserve it. T.J. Hockenson scored 35.9 fantasy points, the most of any TE this season – by more than 10 points. Hockenson had 8 receptions for 179 yards (lead the league in receiving yards) and scored 2 TDs. He even tacked on a 2-point conversion catch just for the cherry on top. This catapulted him all the way to TE3 on the season, even though he had only 19.2 points going into week 4. He has 65% of his points in just one game this year. Sometimes a small sample size is really fun to play with.

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.

The NFL season is in full swing. There have already been two games in London, bye weeks are kicking in, and Thursday Night Football is as bad as we all make fun of it for being. Meanwhile, House of the Dragon is nearing its peak of the season. We’ve had weddings, funerals, dragons, and the Greens fighting the Blacks. In that spirit, here are some stats from Week 5 inspired by my favorite show on TV right now.

Fire

125 Points in the Last Two Weeks

Like a couple of random soldiers in the Stepstones, Austin Ekeler and Josh Jacobs are on fire. The two running backs have combined for 125.6 points over the last two weeks. Jacobs has 368 yards from scrimmage over that span, giving him 619 on the season, good for third in the league – ahead of all wide receivers. It took Jacobs until week 13 to reach that mark last year. This season, the Raiders are not particularly dominant on offense – just 8^th overall in points and 10th or lower in most offensive categories. Credit for these performances lies with Jacobs, who is averaging a career-high 5.4 Y/A and has caught 17 of his 18 targets. Ekeler has 5 touchdowns in the last 2 games after not finding the end zone in the first 3 games. He started the season with 32.4 points over weeks 1 through 3, then averaged 32.9 points per game in the next two. He finds himself as the RB2 on the season now. In week 5 @ Cleveland, Ekeler posted his career high in rushing yards, 173, blowing away his previous career high of 117. It’s only his third time posting 100+ rushing yards in a game. Ekeler has gotten going, and so have the Chargers, putting up 30 or more in the last 2 games. Ekeler is paying off his very high overall ADP3 going into the season.

Ice

5:7 TD to INT Ratio

After winning the Super Bowl last year, Matthew Stafford just can’t find fantasy success this season. He’s throwing INTs at a rate he hasn’t seen since his rookie year (though it can be noted that he led the league in INTs last year). This season he leads the league in sacks and has his worst QB rating since 2012. The Rams are now the most imbalanced offense in the league, passing on 66.7% of their plays. As we learned last week, this is not a recipe for success. Stafford is just the QB23 on the season, after being drafted as the QB12 coming off a season where he averaged 20.4 points per game. Stafford has only one game over 12 points this season and is coming in behind players like Jacoby Brissett and Marcus Mariota, who are not even sniffing the chance at being rostered in single QB leagues. Stafford and the Rams are cold as ice, and as long as they keep putting the 29th-ranked offense out on the field, you can go ahead and just send him to the wall.

Green

50 Yards Per Reception

Double green bonus points here. Not only is Breece Hall green – as in, he’s a rookie. He also plays for Gang Green. Hall had his breakout game this week, making his dramatic entrance in green, if you will. He scored 26.7 fantasy points as the Jets demolished the Dolphins, 40-17. Hall had 197 yards from scrimmage, featuring 2 catches for 100 yards. Hall’s 79-yard reception (an early leader for the longest non-scoring play of the season) to close out the first quarter kept him from an even bigger game. Being tackled at the 1 is never fun, and then Michael Carter came in to vulture his touchdown. Hall is now the RB10 on the season and is trending up over the last 3 games – something we love to see here. Another green player on Gang Green – Tyler Conklin, came up totally empty on Sunday, though I suspect that is more of a bump in the road, rather than an omen of things to come.

Black

3 Games with 2+ Passing TDs in a Row

Fitting (or forcing) our Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon theme, we’ll have a vet represent the black side. Geno Smith is easily playing the best football of his career, and it only took him 8 seasons to get there. Smith is like Daemon, just leaning against the wall smirking, biding his time. Daring someone to start him again. Smith has never had consecutive games with 2+ passing TDs until this year. Over the last 3 games, Smith has 2, 2, and 3 passing scores on his way to 9 on the season. His previous career high is 12, and that’s for a full 16-game season. Smith is leading the league in completion percentage, and perhaps even more unexpectedly, QB rating. He’s the QB7 on the season, and is still only rostered in 51% of Fleaflicker leagues. What’s going on guys? He’s doing better than Brady, Herbert, Rodgers, Stafford, and Wentz, though only barely on that last one. OK, I’ll grant you some things are just statistical oddities. Regardless, Geno Smith is playing very well, and the Seahawks would probably have a more impressive record if it wasn’t for them giving up the 2^nd most points in the league. This journeyman, as they say, has found the fountain of youth in the pacific northwest.

The Stink Eye

25 Yards, 4 Touchdowns

Travis Kelce earns a major stink eye this week. Like Aemond Targaryen, he just hung back all night and made the most of his modest contributions. Kelce’s 7 catches went for just an average of just over 3.5 yards each. Discarding one game where he had one reception, this game featured both his lowest yards per catch of his career, and the most touchdowns of his career. Four touchdowns double his previous career high of two. Kelce is somehow turning up the fantasy juice with the exit of Tyreek Hill. He’s leading the league in receiving TDs, he’s near his career high in receptions per game, and does have a career-high catch rate of 78.6%. As the TE1 on the season, he’s absolutely dominating the field. He’s 20 points ahead of Mark Andrews at TE2, and nearly 40 points ahead of Taysom Hill, even with his huge breakout in Week 5.