Week 16 fantasy wrap: Le'veon Bell tops Mostly NFL Notes
Le’Veon Bell totaled another 137 yards with two touchdowns against a tough Ravens defense, showing his usual patience while getting 6.1 YPC. It would be difficult seeing him not being my No. 1 overall player entering 2017. He’s my favorite running back to watch since Barry Sanders…Joe Flacco has a huge arm, maybe the biggest in the NFL, yet he’s thrown the second highest percentage of passes inside 10 yards among all quarterbacks this season…This Antonio Brown game-winning touchdown with time running out was legit.
Eli Manning threw for 356 yards, but it took a career-high 63 attempts and came with three picks. The Giants are somehow 10-5 with a poor running game and a quarterback who’s gotten 6.7 YPA (with 20 turnovers) this season…Odell Beckham should get 20 targets every week.
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The Dolphins are 9-1 over their last 10 games…Jay Ajayi has rushed for 200 yards three times this season, the second most in NFL history. Two of them have come against Buffalo. He’s the real deal…It appears Sammy Watkins is healthy again…There were 1,083 total yards in this game…This DeVante Parker TD catch was pretty sick…A tie eliminated the Bills from the playoffs, and they punted with four minutes left in overtime on 4th and 2.
Matt Barkley definitely has had his moments and looks good at times, throwing for 685 yards (8.3 YPA) while taking just two sacks over the past two weeks, but he’s also tossed eight interceptions over that span, which seems like a problem…Kirk Cousins, Mack Brown and Chris Thompson combined for four rushing touchdowns on 16 carries. Rob Kelley had none on 19 totes. Jeremy Langford also stole a goal-line score from Jordan Howard.
Headlines of the Week: No Clean Getaway For New Jersey Twins Who Stole 180 Bars Of Soap…Burger King Will Let You Exchange Unwanted Holiday Gifts For A Whopper…Canadian Man Caught Trying To Smuggle 1,007 Turtles To China…Man Sues Over McDonald’s ‘Value Meal’ Price…Man Who Tried To Golf On Ice Fell Into Freezing Water…The Disturbingly Accurate Brain Science That Identifies Potential Criminals While They’re Still Toddlers.
Terrelle Pryor has 58 receiving yards over his past three games…Robert Griffin played poorly again and took seven sacks, but the Browns aren’t going to go winless (and it won’t cost them the No. 1 overall pick either)…The Browns allow the most fantasy points to tight ends. Hunter Henry saw zero targets…This Tyrell Williams catch was pretty great.
Aaron Rodgers has a 14:0 TD:INT ratio over the past six games, and his YPA is way up while playing in poor weather conditions. He had more touchdown passes (three) than incompletions (two) at one point Saturday. I wouldn’t want to face the Packers in the playoffs…I expected more from Ty Montgomery…Jordy Nelson hasn’t even seemed fully back to health, yet he’s now up to 14 touchdowns on the year…I must admit I didn’t foresee Adam Thielen going off for 202 receiving yards and two scores.
Police Blotter: Robert Durst Told Prosecutors He Was High On Meth While Filming ‘The Jinx’…Man Leaves Hospital After Stabbing And Is Stabbed Again, Police Say…Woman With Drawn-On Mustache Robs Credit Union.
I expected more than three targets to Bilal Powell, but Robby Anderson (and Brandon Marshall) were the far bigger busts…Austin Seferian-Jenkins had a bad drop that would’ve gone for a score…Khiry Robinson lost a fumble on the first carry he had this season…The Jets kicked a field goal down 41-0 with 6:16 left in the fourth quarter.
The Falcons had more yards returning interceptions than Cam Newton had throwing in the first half. Just a brutal effort by Newton who was at home in a game against an Atlanta team that’s allowed the most fantasy points to quarterbacks this season…Greg Olsen became the first tight end ever to record three straight seasons with 1,000 yards…Matt Ryan has gotten 9.3 YPA. That’s pretty absurd. He’s the MVP.
Tough injury for Marcus Mariota, who now owns a 33:0 TD:INT ratio in the red zone in his career…Blake Bortles was 0-10 when throwing for 300+ yards throughout his career before winning Saturday while getting 325. And here’s his first career catch…Rishard Matthews has as many touchdowns (eight) this year as he’s had during his previous four years in the league.
What an awful loss for the Raiders with Derek Carr…Andrew Luck got 9.9 YPA and the Raiders won comfortably…During the final three minutes of fourth quarters, Oakland has outscored its opponents 42-3 this season…After making his first 35 extra points of the season, Sebastian Janikowski missed his next two Saturday.
Doug Martin was a healthy scratch in a huge surprise. He certainly hadn’t been all that effective but was seeing high volume in a game with the biggest total of the week against a Saints defense that’s given up a ton of points to running backs. And it was an afternoon game to boot with no notice whatsoever. Rough…Mark Ingram helped a lot of fantasy owners who had already been burned…The best bet recently has been to go with Drew Brees winning the passing yardage title (he did it last year while missing a game), and he’s about to surpass 5,000 yards for a fifth time.
Police Blotter Part Deux: Robber Freed 90 Years Early By Mistake Says He Reformed While Free…Naked Man In Socks Leads Police To Robbery, Kidnapping, Battery Arrest…Thieves hijacked Lyft Driver, Forced Him To Be Getaway Driver In String Of Thefts…Orlando Airport Passenger Ditches Pants, Steals Airport Tug, Drives Across Tarmac…Man Fights DUI Charge For Driving Under The Influence Of Caffeine.
The Seahawks/Cardinals combined for 41 points in the fourth quarter…No player was I more wrong about this season than Thomas Rawls…Here’s J.J. Nelson burning a strong Seattle secondary. He now has seven touchdowns over his past eight games…This Tyler Lockett catch was especially impressive considering he held onto the ball while suffering a pretty awful injury…David Johnson is now up to 20 touchdowns, and he tied an NFL record for 15 straight games with 100 yards from scrimmage (Barry Sanders 1997). No one has ever done it to start the season.
Carlos Hyde suffered a torn MCL, and the 49ers lost a chance at the first pick of the draft by going for two here, but they do remain undefeated against the Rams this season…What round does Todd Gurley go next year? Fourth? Later? He’s a workhorse with a pedigree, but he got 67 yards on 23 carries at home against one of the worst rush defenses in recent memory.
The Texans/Bengals game entered the fourth quarter 3-3, so if you missed it due to the holidays, congratulations…Randy Bullock faced his fourth team that had previously cut him…Cincy has scored the fewest fourth quarter points this year and hadn’t scored a TD in its last six games until Brandon LaFell took this slant to the house from 86 yards out.
Longread of the Week: They Passed Out From Heroin With Kids In The Car. But There Was More.
Bonus Longread of the Week: How ‘A Christmas Story’ Went From Low-Budget Fluke To An American Tradition.
The last time the Broncos gave up more than 300 yards in a half before Sunday night was 1981…Travis Kelce has more than 100 yards in five of his past six games, as he’s finally getting fed, and he took this one 80 yards to the house…Facing a team that has allowed the fifth most fantasy points to wide receivers, Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas combined for 46 yards….And then this happened.
