This game was about the exceptional play of Xavier Worthy, who looks like he might lead all rookies in touchdown receptions. He and Mahomes are going to be fun to watch. What was more upsetting to watch was how poorly Lamar Jackson threw the ball. He totally missed Zay Flowers for a game-tying touchdown. Ravens TE Isaiah Likely was fantastic, scoring 26 fantasy points and missing a second touchdown by a big toe. I would be worried if I have Mark Andrews.
Packers QB Jordan Love was injured at the end of the fourth quarter when he sprained his MCL. He’s expected to miss somewhere between three and six weeks. This is a monumental loss for the Packers, considering Malik Willis is their backup, and I’m not even sure he’s completed more than a dozen passes in the league. This also really hurts the rest of their skill players, who are extremely talented, including Jayden Reed, who had 33 fantasy points. For the Eagles, Saquon Barkley was phenomenal, scoring three touchdowns and showing that the Giants were so very wrong for not signing him. He’s still the first-round fantasy talent, as witnessed by this game against Green Bay. A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith dominated the passing attack as expected, and the Eagles look like the class of the NFL once again.
The Giants were legitimately terrible. The only thing worse than the Giants’ uniforms was the play of Daniel Jones. They were only able to get 74 rushing yards on 21 carries. Even worse was that they couldn’t get their ball to Nabers, who is by far their best player. On the other hand, the Vikings looked terrific. Sam Donald was on fire for most of the game. The Vikings really didn’t have to do that much to beat the Giants, as their defense really stepped up and caused a lot of problems. Jordan Addison did get injured in the game, so Jalen Nailor became a priority for pickup.
At halftime, it looked like the Cardinals were going to pull off an upset, but in the second half, Kyler Murray just couldn’t get things going. The biggest problem was that Marvin Harrison only had one catch for four yards. James Connor looked tremendous, as did Greg Dortch, but when Harrison and McBride are only getting 34 yards between them, there’s a likelihood that the team is not going to win. The Bills were efficient, running for 130 yards on a bad Cardinals run defense. Need to attack the Cardinals run defense EVERY week in DFS. Josh Allen looked good as always and there’s a lot of upside with both Shakir and Coleman. The biggest surprise was that Dalton Kincaid only had one catch for 11 yards.
It was obvious that the Bengals were completely out of sync all game long. I don’t want to attribute their loss to a lack of reps in training camp, but I think that’s absolutely what it could be. It also feels like it’s going to take them two or three weeks to fix this. Their running game couldn’t get going, and without Tee Higgins, they really struggled. Iosivas was a DFS bust. Sometimes, the free square is not so free. To their credit, the Patriots played very well. Their defense was excellent, and Rhamondre Stevenson did an outstanding job of running the ball. This might be a perfect storm for New England, though, so I am not overreacting.
In the box score, it will look like the Bears won, but the truth is that their defense won. Caleb Williams was awful, throwing for 93 yards. Their top receiver, D.J. Moore, only had 5 catches for 36 yards. Honestly, if Tennessee had played any better on offense, they would have won this game by 10. As for Tennessee, their running game looked excellent. But Will Levis really struggled, especially in the second half when the Bears started to play better defense. If they want to have any chance to compete this year, Levis is going to have to take his game up at least four or five levels. Would like to see how Hopkins and Ridley look against a less smothering defense. The bit of good news was that Tony Pollard had 82 yards rushing and a touchdown.
This was a big win for the Steelers. They weren’t able to manage any touchdowns, instead kicking 6 field goals, but they ran the ball 41 times and controlled the clock. Even better was that George Pickens looked like a WR1, catching 6 passes for 85 yards. I’m not sure that Justin Fields is going to keep his job as the starter, but he did look good in this game. For the Falcons, Kirk Cousins had no time to throw. He did have two interceptions, but TJ Watt and the rest of the Steelers were in the backfield within seconds of him dropping back. Drake London only had 15 yards on two receptions, but that’s more because Joey Porter Junior played a really good job against him in coverage. Bijan Robinson had 111 all-purpose yards and will certainly have better weeks moving forward.
The NFL is literally a game of inches. Travis Etienne had the ball stripped for him as he was scoring a touchdown, and if that didn’t happen, this game might have had a completely different ending. The Jaguars ran for 128 yards, including Tank Bigsby, who ran for 73. This is pretty shocking to fantasy managers who watched Bigsby be such a disaster last year. He is a priority add this week. The biggest problem was that Trevor Lawrence couldn’t find Christian Kirk and Evan Engram, who both had only one catch. The bottom line is that their two best receivers only had two catches for 35 yards. That said, I LOVE Brian Thomas. He is going to be outstanding! For the Dolphins, Tua may have had 338 passing yards, but he really didn’t look very good. There were lots of missed throws and waiting too long. The Miami running game only had 25 carries for 81 yards. Jaylen Wright was inactive but I would not drop him just yet. What was interesting was that De’Von Achane also had seven catches, which could make him a PPR monster.
I feel like I was literally inches away from winning $1,000,000. I started AD Mitchell against the Texans, and Anthony Richardson missed him twice when Mitchell was wide-open for two guaranteed touchdowns. Richardson had 212 yards on 9 completions, which shows that he likes to take deep shots downfield, but the problem is that he overthrows his guys because he throws off his back foot. This is going to be a problem, much like Cam Newton. Alec Pierce did look like a legitimate third receiver with 125 yards and a touchdown. Michael Pittman was a disaster with only 31 yards but let’s not forget that Derek Stingley Jr. is a great CB and took him out of the game. For the Texans, Nico Collins did a great job, which was expected against the cover 3 defense. The real guy who won it for them was Joe Mixon, who had 159 yards on 30 carries, clinching the game for them in the fourth quarter when they needed it. They will rely on him all season.
It feels like if they played this game 100 times, the Saints would win every time. Derek Carr completed 19 of 23 passes for three touchdowns. Alvin Kamara ran for 83 yards, and the entire Saints offense ran for 180 yards and two touchdowns. They scored at will. Rashid Shaheed torches Cover 3 schemes and is a must-play whenever they play Carolina again. For the Panthers, Bryce Young was awful but he had zero time to throw. Diontae Johnson only had two catches for 19 yards. They need Jonathan Brooks back desperately.
Jim Harbaugh gets his first win behind JK Dobbins, who was terrific in the second half. Ladd McConkey also scored his first touchdown, but what was more impressive was how well the Chargers played on defense. They shut down the Raiders running game and pressured Minshew all game. The Raiders really lacked imagination in their playcalling. Zamir white could not get it going until at some point in the second half, but then he fumbled at a critical time. I will blame this loss squarely on Antonio Pierce. There was a 4th and 1 on the Chargers 40, and he decided to punt with 6 or 7 minutes to go. Once that happened, the game was over.
The Seahawks dominated play with a terrific ground game led by Kenneth Walker. Geno Smith really didn’t have to throw the ball a ton, but he made timely passes when he had to. People who are going to look at box scores are going to say to worry about the Seattle WRs. That would be a huge mistake. Seattle was ahead for most of the game, and Geno didn’t need to throw that much. The NFL is game-flow dependent. The Broncos are just a mess. There is some upside with Bo Nix, but more upside with his legs than his arm right now. If teams shut down Courtland Sutton, the Broncos have nobody else to really go to.
This game was an unmitigated disaster from the beginning. Deshaun Watson is arguably as bad as Daniel Jones, which is not a good thing to say about anyone. They couldn’t run the ball, Watson couldn’t find Amari Cooper and the entire offense sputtered throughout the game. I truly think they would be better off with Jameis Winston at QB. It wasn’t like Dallas was much better, however, on offense. But they played exceptional defense, and Dak Prescott made some timely throws when he needed to. Jake Ferguson suffered a knee injury, and it is likely that he will be out for quite a while. There is no ACL tear, which is good news.
This is going to be a very long season for Washington fans. Their past defense is absolutely atrocious, and Baker Mayfield threw for four touchdown passes, two of which went to Mike Evans. I might argue that he could have thrown for another two had there not been some untimely drops. Need to attack the Washington pass defense every week in DFS. Bucky Irving was involved in the offense and looked terrific, but Rachaad White still had the lion’s share of carries. For Washington, Jayden Daniels had two rushing touchdowns, but he did struggle to throw the ball, and Terry McLaurin only had two catches for 17 yards. Way more was expected of him, so it was a little shocking to see him perform so poorly. Washington will be playing from behind in most of its games, so there is a lot of upside with Daniels, but he just has to get more confident with his arm and take some shots downfield.
This game was decided by a coin flip. If the Rams had won the flip in OT, I could see them driving down the field to win. Once Puka Nacua left the game, Cooper Kupp saw a ton of targets and was sensational. If Nacua is out for any length of time, Tyler Johnson might be an interesting pickup, as he was getting looks along with Demarcus Robinson. Jameson Williams was outstanding for the Lions. I called a Jameson TD on the Sunday morning Discord show, which is a MUST for our subscribers! Both Montgomery and Gibbs looked good, and the Lions ran 31 times. Jared Goff only threw for 217 yards, and Amon-Ra St. Brown was held to 3 for 13, but I am not worried about the Lions offense at all.
