Takeaways from Week 11 as told by the tweets of the Fantasy Stronghold.
Last week, teams went for two-point conversions with reckless abandon and didn't have a whole lot of success. This week, NFL head coaches decided to take their chances with the traditional extra point and had a record-setting day. Just not the record they'd hoped to achieve. The 11 failed PATs (heading into Sunday Night Football) were the most in any given week since the merger. Maybe this was some sort of weird kicker solidarity after Blair Walsh was released by the Vikings this past week. Maybe we need to find a better way. Or maybe the kickers should just try to be a little bit better at their respective jobs.
Don't look now, but Rashad Jennings has become fantasy relevant in the past couple of weeks. He's averaged 45 offensive snaps in the past two games and responded with two of his best fantasy performances of the year. We saw this last season with the Giants. They spend most of the season trying to foist a multi-headed running back upon us only to realize that Jennings is their best rushing option ... if they just give him a decent number of carries. We've apparently reached that portion of the program. What took you so long, Ben McAdoo?
It would be one thing if the Ravens had been run out of the building early on and were forced to completely abandon the running game. But Baltimore took an early lead and remained within one score through the end of three quarters. Yet, somehow the Ravens ended the day with Joe Flacco throwing it 35 times while racking up just 16 rush attempts. It's even more egregious considering Terrance West averaged 5.3 yards per carry while Kenneth Dixon was at 6.7 yards per attempt. If Flacco really believes the Ravensshould have won the game, maybe he should take it up with the person calling the plays.
That was the good news. The bad news is that Robinson had three catches for a total of 18 yards. The hope was that the Jaguars (and particularly ARob) woule put up a decent offensive performance against the Lions, allowing for an increase in value ahead of this week's NFL.com trade deadline. Jacksonville's next five games are against the Bills, Broncos, Vikings, Texans and Titans -- not exactly an inviting slate. You'll still want to try and move Robinson this week if you can, but the Jaguars didn't do you any favors with the team's performance today.
This was an important tweet because a large portion of Fantasy Nation was tilting for much of the day. That one catch -- for 14 yards -- didn't do much to make anyone who started Bennett feel better. But I guess it's better than him getting shut out. It also highlights the problem of starting any Patriots skill players not named Rob Gronkowski. There's no telling who will be featured on a week-to-week basis. This week it was Malcolm Mitchell and Julian Edelman. Next week against the Jets, who knows?
Is that a lot? That seems like a lot. I think it's a lot. By this point of the season, we've given up any hope of Derrick Henry really taking a significant number of snaps and touches in Mike Mularkey's Exotic Smashmouth offense. But seeing that Murray played all but one of the Tennesee's offensive snaps is a bit surprising. Hey, it's been working statistically so I'm not going to knock it.
This is where we are now, people. Todd Gurley is a matchup-based RB2 (at best) and we get excited after he scores. Especially when that score is his first one since Week 5. I'd like to think this is the start of a quality late-season run against a fairly favorable schedule. But considering it's the Rams, that feels like false hope.
Wait...what?"
- Blake Bortles has as many pick sixes (10) as career wins.
- Dwayne Washington had six yards on 13 carries. With a long run of four. Four.
- Kyle Juszczyk played the same number of snaps as Terrance West (22) and more than Kenneth Dixon (21).
- Jordan Howard had eight targets. No other Bear had more than four.
- Through three quarters, Russell Wilson had as many receiving yards (15) as the Eagles wide receivers.
And one for the road...
Marcas Grant is a fantasy editor for NFL.com. His snapchat (marcasg9) is a mixture of fantasy football and shenanigans. He doesn't know what else to write in this space, so he's just going to ramble for just a few more words in order to make it look better. Okay, that's good enough. If you read all of that, congrats. Follow him on Twitter too.
