Game Recaps

If you told me 2 weeks ago that after week 2, Kyle Orton, Michael Vick, Matt Hasselbeck, and Josh Freeman would all be top 10 fantasy QBs, I would have told you, "Stop lying you stupid liar." But it's a fluid league - we talked in the preseason about trying not to overreact or underreact to new information. So don't overreact to just two weeks of gameplay by benching Tony Romo for Matt Hasselbeck. And don't underreact by refusing to play your waiver-wire pickup Kyle Orton, over the guy you drafted to be your starting QB: Carson Palmer, Joe Flacco, or Kevin Kolb (all depending on the matchup). So let's sort through a few games and identify areas that you should react to - by trading for guys, adding/dropping guys, and benching or starting guys - and areas where you shouldn't panic, and hold steady.


Arizona (7) vs. Atlanta (41)
Michael Turner owners are not happy. Turner was on his way to a huge game before being benched due to a minor groin injury after just 9 carries. As backup Jason Snelling went off for 38 fantasy points, Turner-owners cried out, "Those should have been my points!" But you may want to hold off on sending death threats or passive aggressive tweets to Coach Smith. He was just being cautious with Turner, who probably could have come back in the game, but at what cost? The Falcons were up huge and they don't want to turn a one-week injury into a six-week injury, like they did last year with Turner's ankle. Don't panic, Turner-owners.

Beanie Wells-owners, you have my permission to panic. Wells was inactive and apparently, "wasn't even close" to playing yesterday. Coach Whisenhunt is "optimistic" that Wells will be available in week three. Meanwhile, Tim Hightower is making a case to run away with the job or at least, make it an even split. Either way, Wells does not look like he will live up to his RB2 draft value. If you agree, and another owner in your league disagrees, unload Wells on him while you still can.

Steve Breaston followed up an impressive effort last week with just 10 yards this week. With their QB issues, I'm a little worried about Fitzgerald and not even close to starting Breaston.

Baltimore (10) vs. Cincinnati (15)
The fantasy star of the week: Mike Nugent. Cincy's kicker hit 5 field goals accounting for all of Cincy's points. Seriously though, Carson Palmer looked bad after his terrific performance last week against New England. Palmer may have lost some arm strength, but I think this has more to do with Baltimore's secondary (remember when they PWNED Mark Sanchez last Monday?). Palmer is a decent buy-low. We've been suggesting T.O. will be closer to Ochocinco in production this year than most people think. Last week, Ocho made us look stupid with his huge day. This week, T.O. wiped the egg off my face by gaining more yards than Ocho on more targets.

Poor Joe Flacco. When you through as many picks as there are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it's going to be a bad fantasy day. Admittedly, his value has got to sink a little after 2 bad weeks, but I'm not overreacting yet. Flacco remains a buy-low.

Chicago (27) vs. Dallas (20)
This site is for forward-looking actionable advice, not retrospective back-patting. But I have to take one moment to re-read our consistent talking up of Jay Cutler, Matt Forte, and Johnny Knox as superb value picks, and sing the 1991 classic, "When I think about you, I touch myself." Everyone expected some value at WR from this Mike Martz offense, but the debate all summer amongst fantasy experts has been "Aromashodu or Knox?" While Knox led the Bears with 4 catches for 86 yards, Aromashodu had 0 targets. The ball may get spread around too much for Knox to become an elite fantasy player, but 1 more solid game would make him an every-week start.


Philadelphia (35) vs. Detroit (32)
Before I get too proud of myself, I have to apologize to anyone who traded LeSean McCoy or Jahvid Best after we recommended them as "Sell-High" candidates last week. McCoy and Best went off for 32 and 44 points respectively. I will concede that they are both legit RB2 every-week starts, but if another owner wants to give you an RB1 in a slump (Turner, Rice, MJD, Gore), I'd sell-high and make that deal.


Buffalo (7) vs. Green Bay (34)
I was disappointed in Brandon Jackson. The TD saved his fantasy day, but managing just 2.6 yards-per-carry against Buffalo is worrisome. We touted BJax as the featured back, but he had just 11 carries to John Kuhn's 9. Moreover, we wrote that BJax doesn't need to be an elite talent in this situation and system to be successful. But you need some talent, otherwise you'll end up with just 39 yards in an easy matchup. Okay, with all that said, here's why I'm not too panicked yet. Green Bay got up big early, so they relied on their fullback-turned-runningback, John Kuhn more often. When Green Bay is in the game, or playing from behind, I think Jackson will be the man. He is a great pass-catching 3rd down back, and didn't get to show that off while Green Bay ran out the clock. Moreover, even though BJax's day would have been crap without the TD, maybe we shouldn't discount the TD. Green Bay was top 5 in rushing TDs last year, and each of the teams above them had strong RB committees (NYJ, BAL, NO, MIA). The Packers will use their feature back to run it in on 1st and Goal. Even though Kuhn is bigger, BJax got the short rushing TD.

Brandon Jackson's value is not as high right now as I thought it would be. Rotoworld concluded "Jackson doesn't look to be any kind of solution as a full-time back." But I would still trade for him if you could marshal some of the arguments against him to lower his value too far in the mind of his owner. Marshawn Lynch, for example, looks to be the new feature back in Buffalo after 17 carries, so maybe offer Lynch for Jackson. That would be a steal; Lynch was simply being showcased for a potential trade. Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller are still the Buffalo backs to own.


Pittsburgh (19) vs. Tennessee (11)
With Pittsburgh's QB problems, Mike Wallace, Hines Ward, and Heath Miller will have a tough 2 weeks until Big Ben returns after their week 5 bye.

Chris Johnson is human?!? He generated just 53 yards. Don't panic. Pittsburgh has a great run D, and C.J. had one of his trademark long TD runs called back by a penalty.


Seattle (14) vs. Denver (31)
Matt Hasselbeck actually had a bad football day with a QB Rating of 51.2 after three picks, but had a solid fantasy day because of a 20 yard rushing TD. Hasselbeck is making a case to become fantasy-relevant, but I don't expect many more long rushing TDs from old Matty. If he puts together another good game, then I'll have no choice but to consider him. But not yet. Also, Mike Williams had just one catch for 7 yards, though he was covered by Champ Bailey. You can't really count on any Seattle receiver to be an every week start, including John Carlson, who will likely be inconsistent.

In contrast, my boy with the neckbeard Kyle Orton put up a huge day with 300 yards, 2 TDs, and no picks. He is top 5 in QB Rating through 2 weeks. (Cutler is #1 by the way.) Rookie Demaryius Thomas led all receivers with 8 catches for 97 yards and a TD. Last week, we put Brandon Lloyd and Eddie Royal at the very bottom of the Waiver Wire column because we suggested this "is a confusing situation" and "Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker are waiting in the wings." Royal and Lloyd followed up their attention-grabbing week one efforts with 65 yards and 53 yards respectively. And you can't forget about Jabar Gaffney who had just as many targets as Lloyd and Royal. The take-away so far is that Orton will spread the ball around and could have a solid season with his many WR options. I now like Thomas the most of these receivers, but we'll see if there will be any consistency from any one of these 4 WRs before recommending starting him.


St. Louis (14) vs. Oakland (16)
In Oakland, Darren McFadden looks to be the man after generating 145 rushing yards on 30 carries. Michael Bush-owners, you may panic.

In St. Louis, Mark Clayton followed his breakout week one game with just 2 catches, but they were both for TDs. This week, I will try to convince the Clayton-owner in my league that Clayton is a good sell-high candidate because his only points came from TDs, which are hard to predict. But 1) Clayton can obviously get it done in catches and yards because he had 10 catches for 119 yards last week, and 2) Clayton was covered by (IMHO) the best Cornerback in the league, Nnamde Asomugha.


Jacksonville (13) vs. San Diego (38)
MJD-owners, don't panic. MJD has proven he is a beast. Mike Sims-Walker, welcome back! After 0 receptions last week, MSW came back big with 10 catches for 105 yards and a TD. If you followed our buy-low advice on him last week, congratulations.

The Ryan Mathews / Mike Tolbert / Darren Sproles situation will be discussed in tonight's Waiver Wire column. But the shorthand version of it: Don't panic, Mathews-owners.

New York Giants (14) vs. Indianapolis (38)
The Manning-Bowl sucked. It proved that sports are real, and not scripted, because this hyped up game got out of hand and boring by the end of the 1st quarter. The Colts offense is so prolific that it can support a top notch QB, 2 WRs, a TE, and 2 RBs. I was very disappointed in Pierre Garcon's performance - a goalline TD pass didn't quite work out for him. It seems that, like last year, Garcon and Collie will have a few good weeks, but it's hard to predict who it will be and when.

Stupid Brandon Jacobs. We touted Jacobs as having some value and predicted a 2-to-1 split rather than a strict starter/handcuff situation between Jacobs and Bradshaw. But after playing Footloose in the backfield rather than running up the gut like the bowling ball that he is, Jacobs was pulled and threw his helmet into the stands in frustration. In the end, Jacobs had just 4 carries for 8 yards, which is a troubling sign of things to come if he doesn't get his act together.