Manic Monday: Week 5

Everything is so polarizing these days. I’ve been trying to engage in conversations with people I know and I often find myself shaking my head, like…really? What happened?

I guess the guy that created the prove me wrong meme is happy but I find it fatiguing. In a locker room full of NFL players, there must be so outrageous disagreements, but those guys can make it work. Then again, that paycheck probably helps.

I guess it’s just a product of the times. We aren’t allowed to sort of remain neutral, you have to choose sides.

Everything this is hit or miss.

Take this week’s NFL action…we had lots of hits, and (especially) lots of misses.

Hits

I was beyond excited to see what Lawrence from Office Space was up to. Turns out, he’s the Cincinnati Bengals long snapper. Guess that construction gig didn’t work out, but can’t blame him for taking those NFL bucks and still getting some fresh air. F***ing A.

Whew, there were some brutal helmet-to-helmet hits on quarterbacks this week. Taysom Hill get knocked out early on a downfield catch attempt, then Daniel Jones had a scary collision near the goal line that knocked him out of the game. I’m glad the NFL has tried to clean these hits up but they’re still hard to watch when they occur.

No team took more hits than the Giants. Major props for New York staying in the game after losing Saquon Barkley to an ugly-looking sprained ankle, Daniel Jones to that head injury, and then lost No. 1 WR Kenny Golladay to an already thin receiving corps.

Misses

You had one job. Dude, what was with the place kicking this week? The Sunday slate was just loaded with terrible kicking performances but the end of the Cincinnati Green Bay beats all. In the final 2:12 of the 4th quarter and overtime, Mason Crosby and Evan McPherson combined to miss 5 kicks. It was so awesome, that the Bengals started celebrating the misses!

In all, kickers missed 12 extra-point attempts and 12 field goals on the day, the first time that’s occurred since 2015, when PAT’s were pushed back to their current range.

Some pass-catchers had some egregious misses too. Dalton Schultz and Dallas Goedert dropped easy touchdowns. Darren Waller and Bryan Edwards didn’t do Derek Carr any favors with perfect passes bouncing right off their hands. I can just imagine poor Trey Lance saying “we got about 200 yards” and Deebo correcting him “I got about 200 drops…”

Davis Mills, fresh off a 40-0 debacle and facing Bill Belichick, just had 24.68 fantasy points- the most produced by any rookie quarterback so far this season. Everyone missed on that one.

Where We Were Right

We were the highest on QB Tom Brady in the entire industry. Brady delivered for 411 passing yards and five touchdowns. Miami boasts a pair of solid cornerbacks but the Dolphins made the mistake of trying to play Cover 1 against Brady. Switching to zone didn’t help either.

Our award-winning projections also loved RB Alexander Mattison filling in for Dalvin Cook at home against Detroit. Mattison racked up 32 touches for 153 total yards and a receiving touchdown, right en route to top-5 fantasy numbers. We had Mattison as our RB5.

Speaking of the Lions, despite the appealing matchup, we were wary of TE T.J. Hockenson this week due to concerns about his lack of consistency and knee. Hockenson came in as a fringe TE1 in our projections and was held under 45 receiving yards and without a touchdown for the third consecutive game.

Bonus bragging rights: in our FullTime Discord, WR Kadarius Toney was a recommended play and came through huge.

Where We Were Wrong

It was Bizarro quarterback week, so not taking things too hard here, but we had Sam Darnold and Kirk Cousins as fringe QB1 options in good matchups. But seriously though…Davis Mills?

Myles Gaskin was predictably bottled up as a runner but we didn’t properly anticipate that Gaskin would play such a huge role in the passing game after entering the game with just 12 grabs all season and zero targets last week. Gaskin wound up nearly doubling his season-long catch numbers in a huge game.

We thought Philadelphia’s secondary would be a huge, top-10 blow-up spot for Carolina WR D.J. Moore, who we ranked as a WR1. Instead, Sam Darnold wanted to make sure the Eagles stayed in the contest by throwing the ball to Philly defensive backs and Moore was held to just 38 scrimmage yards on six touches.

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All morning on Sunday, Senior Analyst Jody Smith will be standing by to answer all your crucial start/sit and keep you updated with all the latest news and injury updates.