Well, that was…something. What a way to move into the second half of the season, with a truly odd week. Some of the league’s best offenses were total no-shows and fantasy scoring appeared to be non-existent. Overall, division-leading teams went 2-4 on Sunday.
It was so bad my buddies started texting incorrect versions of player names just to pass the time. This is something we’ve done for years but since there were so few touchdowns to occupy the conversation, the “mishaps’ were at a fever pitch Sunday.
Some of my favorites:
Head coach: John Hardball
QB: Jacob Brisket
QB: Stan DamnOld
RB: Mike Gasket
WR: Alan’s Feelings
TE: Hunter Hearst Henry
PK: Matthew Wrong
Feels like some of those guys could’ve scored fantasy points than some of the guys we put in our lineups. That brisket guy is going places.
Bizarro Week
There’s an episode of Seinfeld where everything wrong or the opposite keeps happening. Affectionately called “The Bizarro Jerry,” Elaine meets three guys that look just like Jerry, George, and Kramer but pretty much act the exact opposite.
That’s what Week 9 felt like. 
How else can you explain how Jacksonville Josh Allen seemingly scored more fantasy points than Buffalo Josh Allen? The Buffalo Bills went into Jacksonville and failed to score a touchdown. Had to have been LB Josh Allen’s man-hands, because he sure put them to use against Josh Allen.
And how about them Cowboys? Getting blown out 30-0 at home by…Denver is an all-new season-low for Dallas. Looks like the red stripe didn’t help after all. I think I saw a few Dallas fans chugging Pepto Bismol like Kramer when his ulcer started acting up at Brandt-Leland.
Surely the Browns would miss Odell Beckham, right? (Elaine voice) “GET OUT!” Cleveland laid the hammer down on Cincinnati like they haven’t since the fan base knew them as the Bungals.
Weeks like this remind us all that it is a long, long season and we have to take it all in stride. If Week 9 hit you hard, just be thankful it wasn’t the playoffs, and continue to trust the process.
Where We Were Right
It was nice to see RB Christian McCaffrey back on the field and back in our projections. Despite the pre-game rumors that the Panthers would put McCaffrey on a snap count and split carries evenly with Chuba Hubbard, we projected CMC as RB15 and Hubbard all the way down at RB50. Entering Monday, McCaffrey ranks 14th and Hubbard is 48th.
After researching things this week, I realized that WR Keenan Allen thrives against zone coverage and, with a date against Philadelphia’s defense on deck, I tweaked Allen’s projections to get him into WR1 range in PPR formats. Allen responded with a season-high 13 targets and 12 receptions en route to top-5 PPR stats for the week. One of the few big-name fantasy wideouts who showed up on Sunday.
Our projections also liked QB Teddy Bridgewater quite a bit this week. His numbers came in as a top-10 fantasy signal-caller for the week, ahead Jalen Hurts and Kirk Cousins. That’s exactly what happened on Sunday. Bridgewater is currently QB6, while Cousins is one spot behind, and Hurts is outside of the top-10.
Where We Were Wrong
If I pretend it was LB Josh Allen instead of…ugh. I mean, one of the best quarterbacks in the league is facing the Jaguars, you go all in but that was….not good. We could pretty much say all Bills this week, but we’re not alone with missing here. How Buffalo traveled to Jacksonville and came away without a touchdown will be one of the great mysteries of the 2021 season. Badbye, indeed.
We could also nominate all wideouts as a miss. The top-10 is currently loaded with guys that aren’t even rostered in most fantasy leagues. Most likely, scoring in your home league is significantly down. A lot of that has to do with some good teams being on bye this week but as the day developed, it just became more obvious it was going to be one of those weeks.
Far too low on RB Joe Mixon. Actually, that Cleveland Cincinnati game was another one that just went awry. The Browns came through just fine without OBJ but the Bengals came out flat, leading to poor fantasy performances all around. Mixon was the bright spot, turning 18 touches into 110 total yards and punching in a pair of touchdowns. He’s currently inside the top-5 running backs for the week, significantly higher than our projected 20th.
