Welcome to the Week 7 Review / Week 8 Preview. If you're new here, check out Week 1's introduction.
primetime recap
This Week's Three Studs of Primetime:
- Le'Veon Bell
- Demaryius Thomas
- Peyton Manning
This Week's Three Duds of Primetime:
- Andre Johnson
- Julius Thomas
- Frank Gore
Last week's inclusion of some of my favorite twitter action was fun, so let's do that again. There are so many people who are funnier and/or smarter than I am, so why not let them unwittingly help me with the column?
4for4 is another nice fantasy site. After you've read everything here at FBG for each week, they're a nice place to stop by as well. 4for4 co-owner and David Dodds' fellow-top-five Expert ranker at FantasyPros.com Josh Moore had this about the St. Louis running game.
Cunningham, Mason & Tavon all rushing ahead of Stacy today for #Rams.
— Josh Moore (@4for4_Josh) October 19, 2014
This is always the danger with running backs like Zac Stacy who rely on volume and goal line touches while catching very few passes to have value.
FOXSports.com's Katie Nolan, who is dominating a bloggers/writers league I'm in, had this one that made me laugh out loud even though I was all by myself.
My fantasy QBs today are Matt Ryan, Jay Cutler, Matt Stafford, Brian Hoyer, and a fart noise.
— Katie Nolan (@katienolan) October 19, 2014
I didn't look at the stats to be sure, but I think Katie would've been better off with the opposite quarterback in every one of those games.
Jordy Nelson is having a huge year (more on that later), but who would have thought Green Bay's best red zone threat would be their 5'10" speed receiver?
Randall Cobb's dictionary does not include "regression."
— Patrick Daugherty (@RotoPat) October 19, 2014
So, we had a Colt McCoy sighting in Washington. In fact, Washington won with McCoy playing the whole second half. ESPN College Hoops Recruiting Expert Jeff Borzello (just hired from CBS; congrats, Jeff) knows as much about fantasy football as he does about 16 year-old prep school players with wingspans four inches wider than their height. He made a good point about the rapid decline of Kirk Cousins.
Four weeks ago, Kirk Cousins was the next Peyton Manning. Now he's being taken out for Colt McCoy.
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) October 19, 2014
While Borzello's tweet was good, this one was just plain funny. What were the preseason odds that Robert Griffin III would be congratulating Colt McCoy on a Washington touchdown pass?
Weird Season pic.twitter.com/vpi5XZhmSN
— Danny (@recordsANDradio) October 19, 2014
CBS Sports' Will Brinson is a great NFL tweeter. He utilizes all kinds of multimedia, particularly Vine. This time, however, it was just a classic meme referencing the Pittsburgh onslaught at the end of the first half last night.
— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) October 21, 2014
last week at the "book"
The "Oops, I'm Sorry" of the Week
In my defense, Le'Veon Bell hadn't scored a touchdown in forever. I suppose regression is real, especially when it fits the topical narrative. While I was happy for @Rich913 here, he had some bad luck last night too (see below).
@Rich913 Losing is possible but not probable. -175. #FFBookie
— Ryan Hester (@RyanHester13) October 20, 2014
Bad Beat of the Year Nominee, Part IV
You may remember the now-imfamous "Percy Harvin" game from a couple weeks ago where the former Seattle receiver had three touchdowns negated by penalty. That week, we had three BBotY nominees. This week, we have a couple more hard-luck losers to add to the mix.
@Rich913 makes his second appearance of the week, because I told him that Antonio Brown would have a big night but that a touchdown would ultimately be the difference between him winning and losing. What I didn't know was that he would have a touchdown reversed by replay because Brown was just barely out of bounds. What a tough loss.
@Rich913 Possible with Brown as he’s PPR Gold. 7-120 absolutely on realm of possibility. The TD will be determining factor. +140. #FFBookie
— Ryan Hester (@RyanHester13) October 20, 2014
I thought after doing the math that if Brown's passing TD were six points, Rich may have won. Even though my math was wrong, I'm going to post his response because I like the attitude. Too often, fantasy football is taken too seriously.
@RyanHester13 Lost by 3. 4 pt TD passes. C'est la vie.
— Fritter (@Rich913) October 21, 2014
Bad Beat of the Year Nominee, Part V
We have five nominees so far, but odds are that fellow FBG Staffer Heath Cummings is taking home this "award" at season's end. With his latest dash of bad luck, Heath has three of the five current BBotY nominees.
@heathcummingssr As our guy @cecillammey says, DEN can’t cover TEs. You should be up 65+ before MNF. -400. #FFBookie
— Ryan Hester (@RyanHester13) October 20, 2014
Sorry for being wrong, Heath. But I'm sure the loss hurts just the same.
looking ahead
Last week, I called Peyton Manning off-limits because it was too easy, so I went with Arian Foster. Foster's night could have been even better than 115 total yards and a touchdown, but I'm calling this a successful prediction. My record needs it.
I selected Ronnie Hillman as the player I thought would disappoint. This selection was because I thought Denver would be passing early and often to get Manning the record. So that was correct, but what I didn't predict is that Denver's offense would be completely dominant in all phases. Hillman doesn't make defenders miss like most players of his skill set, but his speed absolutely adds another element to Denver's attack.
The Jordy Nelson Memorial "You Don't Want to Play Against This Guy" Section
Green Bay is playing on Sunday Night Football. There's a reason this section is named as such. In the theme of posting my favorite tweets from each NFL Sunday, I'll throw one of my own in here.
I’d love to see what Jordy Nelson could do in a home game where the Packers are actually forced to play offense for the whole game.
— Ryan Hester (@RyanHester13) October 19, 2014
In the first quarters of his last two home games, Nelson has posted lines of 1-66-1 and 4-80-1. In fact, this week, his final catch came on a drive that started with 10:03 left in the first! Even in Week 6, when Miami kept the game close, Nelson began the day with a touchdown on the first drive. If an opponent puts up a shootout-type of fight, Nelson could easily post another 200+ yard, multi-touchdown game. New Orleans in the Superdome might just be that opponent.
The Tony Romo Memorial "Bright Lights, Dim Fantasy Production" Section
What are the odds that both of the namesakes of these sections are playing in primetime on the same week? Even though Romo hasn't been the same Romo this season as the signal-caller of a dominant 6-1 team with a stellar defense (seriously, who are these Cowboys), he's getting picked here almost by default. Green Bay at New Orleans could be a shootout with many fantasy stars, and Washington doesn't really have a player with high enough expectations to qualify as a "stinker." Plus, having both Nelson and Romo live up to this billing would be just amazing.
Questions, comments, suggestions, and other feedback on this piece are always welcome via e-mail hester@footballguys.com
