Before we begin, I would just like to take a moment of silence in
remembrance of the 2011 Eagles.
…
And that is the last you will hear of them today. Besides,
there were plenty of interesting games played yesterday that I can discuss that
involved teams with playoff aspirations, including, the Denver Broncos?
BRONCOS 17, CHIEFS 10
TRIUMPH: Dexter McCluster had 1/3 of the Chiefs'
receptions in this game and led them in receiving yards, while also being
second on the team with 8 carries and 45 yards (for a total of 14 touches and
93 yards). He did his best Jamaal Charles imitation, but I have to say
that this game is probably the upper bound of his productivity.
TRAGEDY: The mercurial Dwayne Bowe had yet another of
his trademark "Where in the World is Dwayne Bowe?" games, grabbing just
two passes for 17 yards. While he has had quite the breakout the last two
years, he has still had 6 games (out of 25 since the start of last year) with a
stat line of 2 / 17 or worse, including a zero-catch game against the Broncos
last year.
TREND: The Broncos have been running a college-style
option offense the last two weeks, similar to many college teams, which led to
Tim Tebow throwing just EIGHT passes in this game, completing two (more on that
below). The Broncos have run 76% of the time the last two weeks, which is
perilously close to the prototypical triple-option offenses of the Navy
Midshipmen (84% run) and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (82% run). Although
their next opponent, the Jets, have been uncharacteristically average against
the run this year, the fact that this offense is so one-dimensional
should make next week's game a blowout.
TRAIL MIX: Tim
Tebow’s statline in this game: 2-8, 69 yards, 9 rushes, 43 yards. Just as a point of comparison: Dan
Orlovsky (of being-totally-inept fame) and Tyler Palko (whom I had never heard of, and therefore you shouldn’t have) both
had more completions, and they averaged just 4 minutes of game time.
Tebow played every snap.
And while it seems like I’m piling on Tebow, you can’t argue with the
fact that the Broncos are 1 game out of the division lead, Tebow has a 7/1
TD/INT ratio this season, and despite the abysmal statistics, he still tied for
the 8th best fantasy performance among quarterbacks this week.
BEARS 37, LIONS 13
TRIUMPH: Former
Hammer of God Marion Barber appears to have a very similar role with the Bears
that he did with the Cowboys a couple of years ago,
taking goal line duties and serving as the 4th quarter
run-out-the-clock guy. The Bears
were winning 34-6 with 10 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, so Barber’s
13 carries to Matt Forte’s 18 shouldn’t bother fantasy owners any, especially
given his 2.1 yards per carry and the fact that Forte ended up getting a goal
line touchdown instead of Barber.
TRAGEDY: With the
Lions drafting two consensus top-five talents on the defensive line in the last
two years (Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley), you’d think they’d get more than 5
sacks in two games against a Bears offensive line that allowed 56 sacks (3.5
per game) last year.
TREND: In the Bears’ last two
games, Earl Bennett has 11 catches for 176 yards and a touchdown, while the
rest of the Bears have 16 catches, 155 yards, and a touchdown. People tend to overemphasize the fact
that Bennett and Cutler were teammates at Vanderbilt (they were teammates for
one year), but you have to respect the increased role Bennett seems to have.
TRAIL MIX: Here’s
an example of numbers lying: if I told you that Jay Cutler would go 9-for-19 with
no touchdowns and Matt Forte would have under 70 total yards while Matthew
Stafford threw for 329 yards, you’d probably say that Stafford had a great day
and the Lions won. Oh, did I
forget to tell you that Stafford acquired those yards on 63 attempts? Or that he threw 4 interceptions, two
of which were returned for touchdowns?
COWBOYS 44, BILLS 7
TRIUMPH: Tony
Romo was 18-19 for 237 yards and 3 touchdowns in the first half, with all three
touchdowns coming before the 12:00 mark in the second quarter. Not only that, but Romo attempted just
7 passes in the second half, and none in the fourth quarter. He completed 88 percent of his passes
after not having 80% completions in a game since 2007.
TRAGEDY: Seriously,
how did the Cowboys have the best run defense in the league three weeks
ago? Fred Jackson had 114 yards on
just 13 carries, which actually hurts the fact that the Cowboys have allowed
179 yards per game the last three weeks after allowing 70 yards per game in the
six games prior.
TREND: Ryan Fitzpatrick’s NFL
quarterback rating each month has declined from 103.5 to 92.4 to 48.9 from
September to November, and this degradation runs parallel to the Bills team
falling out of playoff contention.
This trend doesn’t come as a surprise, as Fitzpatrick’s quarterback
rating declined monotonically from 92.4 to 71.7 from September to December last
year. It seems like Fitzpatrick
doesn’t much like the cold, which doesn’t seem like a great trait for the
quarterback of a team from Buffalo, NY.
TRAIL MIX: The
Cowboys’ offense is bottom-five in the league in red zone touchdown percentage
(under 40 percent). Not only does
that mean that this game could have been even more out of hand, but it also means that their kicker, Dan Bailey,
is a fantasy stud. Aside from the
game in which the Eagles simply dominated the ‘Boys, Bailey has kicked at least
two field goals in each of the last 8 games, with at least three in five of them. He has more fantasy points than top-ten
receivers AJ Green and Dwayne Bowe!
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