Week 6: Looks and Touches

The following is a list of the Week 6 leaders in looks and touches. It defines those running backs and receivers who received the most attention this past weekend.

Touches is defined as the number of times a running back carried or caught the football.
Looks is defined as the number of times a player was the intended target of a pass.

The biggest storylines of Week 6 came from the legs (and in one case, the arm) of the league's premier running backs. Shaun Alexander, Edgerrin James and TD machine LaDainian Tomlinson all had monster days at the office, combining for 10 touchdowns. Tatum Bell continued to turn up the heat on Mike Anderson in Denver with another long TD run, while Thomas Jones shocked Bears fans and unfortunately fantasy owners who had believed the negative injury reports all week with a big multi-TD day and 24 Touches. His brilliance kept ineffective rookie Cedric Benson on the sidelines learning from the master again.

On the receiving side, it was another big day for Santana Moss in terms of productive Looks from Mark Brunell, while frequent tosses to Troy Williamson and Jabar Gaffney failed to produce fantasy gold for the Vikings and Texans, respectively.

It's time to rip apart the box scores and shake out the Looks and Touches for Week 6.

Looks:

The continuing pain and misery for Minnesota can be summed up in the fact that three different targets registered 10 Looks from Daunte Culpepper this week. What's more telling is that these players are the TE, RB, and a rookie wide receiver. Jermaine Wiggins tied for the league lead this week with 15 Looks, while Troy Williamson (13) and Mewelde Moore (10) saw tremendous action in the drubbing by the Bears.

After getting in Drew Bledsoe's face during the Week 5 contest against Philadelphia, Keyshawn Johnson knew he'd hear his number called with greater regularity against the Giants. Johnson was the target of 14 Bledsoe passes (eight catches for 120 yards). Keyshawn had taken exception to Bledsoe's encouragement/criticism after a fumble against Philly. I suspect Keyshawn responded with a request for some end zone love like Terry Glenn had been receiving.

With Rudi Johnson firmly established as the workhorse on the ground, the Bengals needed to find a way to get second-year playmaker Chris Perry more involved. He's become a frequent target for Carson Palmer out of the backfield and is even splitting wide. He was targeted nine times this week, and has been thrown to 33 times this season. To put that number in perspective, Antwaan Randle El has had the same number of passes thrown to him, and Tony Gonzalez has been the target of just one more pass.

Despite playing with an injury and watching Marc Bulger leave with a shoulder injury on a bizarre play, Torry Holt finished the Monday night game with eight looks. He leads all receivers with 70 Looks through six weeks of play. For those keeping track, 62.9 percent of all passes thrown to Holt are completed, and the Rams gain slightly better than nine yards for every pass thrown to him.

Touches:

Chester Taylor ran quite well in his limited duty (8 carries, 4 receptions) for the Ravens, but Brian Billick continued to pound the ball between the tackles with Jamal Lewis. Despite a weak yards per carry average against the Browns and having the explosive Taylor at the ready, Billick called Lewis' number 26 times on the day. Billick maintains that he believes Lewis is on the verge of breaking off a huge game, and emphatically declared him his starting tailback.

Despite some troubles on the offensive line and the obvious issues due to turnover at the QB position, Curtis Martin is well on his way to his 12th consecutive 1,000-yard season. He gets there with durability, patience, and a coach who knows his value. Martin is averaging 22.5 Touches per game to guide the Jets offense.

Fantasy owners continue the call for Peyton Manning to capitalize on the brilliance of the O-Line and the dominance by Edgerrin James. Instead, it's the Colts tailback who continues to pile up tremendous numbers and a heavy workload. James is averaging nearly 27 Touches per game in the Colts' 6-0 start.

Greg Jones and Alvin Pearman made for an effective tag team in Sunday's OT thriller against the Steelers. Pearman had 20 Touches on the day, with Jones racking up 19. Should Fred Taylor miss an extended period of time, Jack Del Rio will have an interesting thunder/lightning combination to work with in support of Byron Leftwich.