The Patch Work Report, NFL Week 7
This weekly column will give a brief run through of all the previous week’s NFL games. All fantasy points discussed will be related to the Chalk Daily Fantasy Sports official NFL scoring system (www.gochalk.com).
Chicago Bears @ Green Bay Packers
1.) The Packers offense has been struggling. Everyone has been saying, “what’s wrong with Aaron Rodgers?”. Well, once again, he showed people they needed to “R-E-L-A-X”. Rodgers went off for 326 yards and 3 TDs.
2.) The strange part about his big day was that he barely looked to his bromance, Jordy Nelson. He had a very disappointing day with 1 catch for 9 yards.
3.) With no Eddie Lacy and essentially no Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, Davante Adams, and Ty Montgomery feasted. They had 28.6, 38.2 and 22.6 Chalk fpts respectively.
4.) The GOAT, Brian Hoyer, broke his arm in this game. The offense died after that. The Bears’ season is over.
NY Giants @ LA Rams (London)
1.) Poor Rams. No, sorry, I mean the poor people of London. This game was gross. Here is an idea for the NFL, if you want it to gain in popularity internationally, don’t send shit teams to play there. Luckily Mexico gets the Raiders and the Texans; so much fantasy greatness there.
2.) After a career game for Case Keenum last week, he woke up and remembered he was Case Keenum. This week he threw 4 interceptions (including a comical one to end the game). That’s more like it.
3.) Eli Manning also reminded people why he is the worst QB to ever win a Super Bowl. How he did it twice blows my mind. Despite having arguably the best WR core in the league, he only threw for 196 yards and 1 TD.
Cleveland Browns @ Cincinnati Bengals
1.) As expected, Andy Dalton lit up the Browns and he did so by targeting his best friend A.J. Green. The numbers were a bit inflated by a 48-yard hail-mary pass at the end of the first half, but that counts.
2.) Giovani Bernard continued to out-touch Jeremy Hill (18 vs. 11), but it was Hill that ate up the weak Browns defense. He finished the day with 192 total yards and a TD.
3.) Another Cleveland Browns QB was injured on Sunday. That is all.
Washington @ Detroit Lions
1.) This game had shootout written all over it. However, this game fell short of expectation.
2.) Golden Tate lead the Lions in targets once again, but this might have had to do with Josh Norman playing a lot of this game covering Marvin Jones. I have a feeling the “number 1 WR” on this team will continue to change back and forth between these two
3.) Matt Jones had a bad case of the fumbles. He lost two before being benched for the rest of the game. Coach Gruden has already said they trust him going forward to carry the workload.
Oakland Raiders @ Jacksonville Jaguars
1.) What the hell is wrong with Allen Robinson? It’s not like he isn’t getting targeted. Bortles looked his way 8 times and it turned into 2 catches for 9 yards. Something is very wrong there.
2.) Figuring out which WR to roster on the Raiders is going to be difficult week to week. One thing is for sure, if you get it right, you’re going to get some nice production. This week it was Michael Crabtree’s turn. He ended the day with 23.6 Chalk fpts, while Amari Cooper only had 6.9.
3.) Latavius Murray returned from his turf toe injury for this game. Before his injury, he was losing market share each week. He ended this week with 20 touches for 64 yards and 2 TDs. Not the most efficient production, but the Raiders might be looking to use him as a workhorse from now on.
New Orleans Saints @ Kansas City Chiefs
1.) This game was covered in last week’s Highlight article (see here) and I got about half of my calls right. I expected Drew Brees to have a below average “Drew Brees type of day”, but he showed up to play like he was in the dome. He was the second highest scoring QB on Chalk with 31.68 Chalk fpts.
2.) As I expected, the Chiefs went run heavy. This is their normal game plan, but with Brees in town, they definitely wanted to keep him off the field. There was some concern over Jamaal Charles impacting Spencer Ware’s fantasy production, but with reports of Charles’ knees swelling before the game, we knew Ware was going to have to carry the load. He rewarded those who rostered him with 21.2 Chalk fpts.
3.) My sleeper call was a bad one. I went with Chris Conley in The Highlight, and he threw up a stinker with 2 reception on 2 targets for 29 yards. Alex Smith only had 17 completions and spread the ball out amongst 10 different receivers.
4.) I made up for the bad sleeper call with nailing the bust for this game. Coby Fleener, coming off a big 2 TD performance in week 6, only had 2 reception for 44 yards.
Buffalo Bills @ Miami Dolphins
1.) Leading up to this game there many there were many reports expecting Lesean McCoy to miss the game due to a hamstring injury. On Sunday morning, he went through a full warm up and was active for the game. He totaled 8 carries for 11 yards before leaving the game after reaggravating his hamstring.
2.) With Robert Woods inactive, it was unclear who would shoulder the work load in the passing game. Marquise Goodwin only caught 4 balls, but made the most of his opportunity, gaining 93 yards and 1 TD for a total of 19.3 Chalk fpts.
3.) Devante Parker has been unproductive this year and it looks like the offense is ready to make him an afterthought. Kenny Stills stepped up with the team lead in targets, which he turned into 5 catches for 100 yards and 1 TD.
4.) I think that covers everything from this game… No? Oh… right… Jay Ajayi went off for another 200+ rushing performance. That’s his second in a row. Only 3 other RBs in history have had back to back 200+ rushing yard games. He finished the day with 28.6 Chalk fpts.
Baltimore Ravens @ NY Jets
- ) Geno Smith started this game and looked alright, until a knee injury ended his day. Ryan Fitzpatrick came in to manage the rest of the game. Not to mention Geno got called out by a pretty important Jet:
2.) It seems to me that the Jets do not trust Fitzpatrick anymore. Matt Forte, who had been losing market share to Bilal Powell over the past couple of weeks, became a workhorse. He carried the ball 30 times for 100 yards and caught the ball 4 times for 54 yards. He also scored 2 TDs which lead to his massive 29.5 Chalk fpts day.
3.) Since Steve Smith Sr. went down with an injury, this offense has been shifting towards Mike Wallace. He had his best game yet as a Raven with 10 receptions on 13 targets for 120 yards.
Minnesota Vikings @ Philadelphia Eagles
- ) This game will be summed up with this gif:
Indianapolis Colts @ Tennessee Titans
1.) Another Highlight game. I got a lot wrong and some right. I’ll get my worst call out of the way. Andrew Luck was not a bust. In fact, he was the best QB on the day. He made me look like a fool by dropping 353 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs for a total of 33.82 Chalk fpts.
2.) I did make up for that awful call by nailing the Demarco Murray’s day. He finished with 127 yards and 1 TD for 21.7 Chalk fpts.
3.) After last week’s dominating performance where Kendall Wright went off for 8 receptions and 133 yards on 9 targets, he followed it up with 2 catches for 12 yards on 4 targets. I bought in and it blew up in my face.
4.) I guess I went for 50% on this Highlight as I pegged Jack Doyle to be the sleeper. He had a career day with 9 receptions for 78 yards and TD, to lead all TEs in fantasy with 22.8 Chalk fpts.
5.) It was also a disgrace to myself to not mention T.Y. Hilton in the Highlight. With many of the Colts pass catchers injured and this game expected to be a bit of a shootout, I was a perfect spot for T.Y. He ended the day with 26.3 Chalk fpts.
San Diego Chargers @ Atlanta Falcons
1.) Another game featured in the Highlight and again I missed on most of it. I wrote the narrative that Matt Ryan was going to put up big numbers. He did not. It wasn’t a bad day, but he didn’t win you any contests.
2.) Julio Jones delivered in his juicy fantasy matchup. Despite not finding the end zone, he finished as the 3rd highest scoring WR with 26.4 Chalk fpts.
3.) After a few weeks of solid fantasy production, Hunter Henry came crashing down to earth. He was only targeted 3 times for 1 catch and 16 yards. He got close to scoring, but even with that, the day would have been a letdown.
4.) I am bitter about Melvin Gordon. I expected him to be a bust and he should have been. He has averaged only 3.3 yards per carry this season. That trend continued in this game. That’s bad… but of course, he finds the end zone 3 times. Of course, he does! He finished the day as the top fantasy scorer on Chalk with 36.1 fpts.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ San Francisco 49ers
1.) The theme of run against the 49ers continued this week with fill-in RB Jacquizz Rodgers carrying the ball 26 times for 154 yards. Despite the big real-life performance, he was limited in the pass game to just 1 catch and did not find the end zone. He finished the day with 17.3 Chalk fpts.
2.) Jameis Winton had one of his most efficient days passing the ball and it resulted in one of his best fantasy outings. He threw for 269 yards 3 TDs and 1 INT.
3.) Mike Evans, once again, lead the team in targets by a large margin. That partnered with a very poor 49ers secondary resulted in Evans being the 2nd highest scoring WR on the week. He finished with 8 reception for 96 yards and 2 TDs.
New England Patriots @ Pittsburgh Steelers
1.) Both Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell racked up a ton of yardage in this game, even without Big Ben under center, but both failed to find the end zone. Brown finished the day with 18.9 Chalk fpts and Bell had 24.9 Chalk fpts.
2.) For the Pats, Rob Gronkowski lead the team in receiving yards with 94 (and 1 TD), but Edelman dominated the targets with 10, which he turned into 9 catches for 60 yards. Edelman has been quiet on the fantasy front due to lack of big plays and TDs, but those will come one of these weeks.
3.) This was a LeGarrette Blount “revenge game”. He spent all of 10 minutes on the Steelers a few seasons ago before getting cut, then got scooped up by the Patriots. They leaned on him heavily in this game, carrying the ball 24 times for 124 yards and 2 TDs.
Seattle Seahawks @ Arizona Cardinals
1.) Old school football fans loved this game, with two phenomenal defensive performances, limiting each side to 6 points. The rest of the world, especially fantasy players, thought this was the ultimate snooze fest.
2.) The only fantasy relevant observation from this game is that David Johnson continues to be matchup proof. He touched the ball a ridiculous 41 times, turning it into 171 total yards and 25.1 Chalk fpts.
Houston Texans @ Denver Broncos
1.) Brock Osweiler’s return to Mile High Stadium was ugly, much like the rest of his season. He threw for only 131 yards and had a controversial fumble.
2.) This game was mainly about the RBs. Although Lamar Miller and his back up Alfred Blue were efficient, they didn’t put up significant points. On the other side of the ball C.J. Anderson and his back up Devontae Booker almost had a perfect 50/50 split on touches and both found the end zone. C.J. ended with 16.7 Chalk fpts and Booker had 15.4 Chalk fpts.
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