Booms and Busts: Touchdown trolls take over Week 15
Commonly, the stars win in fantasy football. That’s certainly the way to bet. But sometimes, the trolls sneak out a win, funky things happen en masse. The game wouldn’t be much fun if it were completely predictable.
Week 15, at least in the early part of the slate, was one of those days. Random touchdowns? We’ve got some for you, a whole truckload of them. Let’s sort through some of the failure and frustration.
• Frank Gore went for 115 total yards at Minnesota, sparking the Colts to a 34-6 blowout. Ah, but the touchdown glory went to understudy Robert Turbin; he scored twice. T.Y. Hilton was capped at 45 yards receiving, while Phillip Dorsett and Erik Swoope scored touchdowns.
The less we say about Minnesota’s offense, the better. Adrian Peterson (6-22 rushing, 1-1 receiving, one fumble lost) was a complete pothole, hitting the bench early in the third period. Jerick McKinnon (71 total yards) did some work, mostly in garbage time. Adam Thielen suffered a neck injury on his only target; Stefon Diggs (2-13-0) never got going. Kyle Rudolph usually shows up (8-97-0), though he wasn’t able to score a touchdown. Even when the Vikings fell far behind, Mike Zimmer never saw a field-goal attempt he didn’t like.
• The Steelers on the road, you know the story by now. Pittsburgh copped a 24-20 victory at Cincinnati, but there wasn’t much fantasy fun. Eli Rogers had Pittsburgh’s only touchdown, while Chris Boswell ironically booted six field goals. You remember Boswell, he’s the kicker who usually gets thrown to the side while Mike Tomlin abuses the two-point conversion chart. Jeremy Hill stumbled into the end zone despite a 2.2 YPC day, and Andy Dalton stole a touchdown run.
• DeMarco Murray ran for about five yards a pop, Spencer Ware four, but neither made the end zone in Tennessee’s upset win. Titans backup Derrick Henry pilfered a pair of touchdowns; one came on his dedicated series, while the second was a more traditional vulture job. Ware (95 total yards) received a handful of goal-line chances, but apparently it would take a Congressional Hearing to get him into the scoring area. At least Tyreek Hill had another thrilling touchdown, from distance.
• Paul Perkins (11-56) looks like the best Giants running back, but of course Ben McAdoo had to feed Rashad Jennings (18-38-0). New York won another low-scoring game, boring as it may be, so don’t look for major changes. Odell Beckham had a nifty one-handed touchdown catch, the type of thing he can do in his sleep. Matthew Stafford wasn’t bad (24-39-271), but the Lions couldn’t get into the end zone. Zach Zenner had a fumble at the goal line.
• Cleveland gets about a touchdown a week, and Robert Griffin III’s scoring scramble didn’t help many teams. Sorry Crowell; try next time, Pryor. The Bills went off on the ground (mostly Shady McCoy, with one Gillislee thrown in) and Charles Clay had a day (7-72-1), but Sammy Watkins (1-10-0) was not invited to the party. That foot is feeling better all the time, though.
• Joe Flacco had another two touchdown passes in Baltimore’s narrow win over Philly, though no one went past 60 receiving yards. Flacco targeted ten different players and no one had more than seven looks; it’s hard to make fantasy value from this wide receiving tree. Ryan Mathews (20-128-1) and Zach Ertz (6-80-0) showed up for the Eagles, but you can throw all of their other options in the dumpster. Add Carson Wentz to the list of QBs who stole a short touchdown run.
• Jacksonville’s only scrimmage touchdown came on a Blake Bortles run; otherwise, Bortles was horrendous. Allen Robinson was stuck at 15 yards and Marqise Lee didn’t have a single catch, though he did take a kick return to the house. Gus Bradley didn’t last the day; the Jags fired him shortly after their 12th loss.
• There was plenty of fantasy goodness in Green Bay’s 30-27 victory at Chicago, but not for Davante Adams owners. Adams, who’s been so good to us for most of the year, dropped two routine touchdown passes. Aaron Rodgers didn’t have a touchdown pass, but it certainly wasn’t his fault. Heck, his MVP odds seem to be shrinking.
Okay, enough of the downers. A bunch of players went off late, that was nice (thanks, Saints and Cardinals). Looking at the overall Week 15 slate, let’s focus on a few things that went right:
• Brock Osweiler finally got benched for Tom Savage, and it was Savage that steered a comeback victory over Jacksonville. DeAndre Hopkins got to 8-87-0, though he needed 17 targets, and Ryan Griffin caught all of his eight looks (8-85-0). Assuming Savage stays in the gig, this passing offense finally has a chance. Houston hosts Cincinnati next week.
• The Packers were the last to accept it, but they have something with this Ty Montgomery. He rumbled for 162 yards and two scores on 16 touches, a mix of powerful inside running and some outside breakaways. The Vikings are no pushover next week, but I’ll be starting Montgomery where I can.
• It took a while for Alshon Jeffery to show up, but he had a productive fourth quarter en route to 6-89-1 on nine targets. Matt Barkley was picked three times, but he also kept the Chicago offense moving. Jordan Howard and Cameron Meredith have been productive regularly, too. In short, the Bears are one of those bad-but-entertaining teams, and I expect some fantasy fun when Chicago plays Washington next week.
• The Jets were steamrolled by Miami on Saturday night, but at least we saw snappy things from two emerging players, Bilal Powell (162 total yards, including a whopping 11 catches) and Robby Anderson (4-80-1). A keen reminder that we just want the numbers; who cares about the names? Meanwhile, Matt Forte played sparingly, and Brandon Marshall caught just one of his 11 targets. New York usually plays New England tough, no matter the records; they clash in Foxboro next week.
