Takeaways from Week 11 as told by the tweets of the Fantasy Stronghold.
It was the height of Seussian nonsense that Hunt had just four carries in the first half. The Chiefs rectified that somewhat by giving him 14 rushing attempts in the second half. Still the Kansas City offense doesn't look anything like the juggernaut that ran over opponents in the first month of the season. The upside is that Hunt put up a decent yardage total (77 scrimmage yards) even if he still hasn't seen the end zone since Week 3. His usage rates have remained steady, which is enough to keep hope alive. But man ... a touchdown every now and then would certainly make it easier to keep the faith.
The bad news is that Travis Kelce (nor any other Chief) scored a touchdown this week. The good news is that you can still start your tight ends against the Giants with confidence. Kelce caught eight of his 14 targets for 109 yards. Still ... no touchdowns, bro? I'm not mad. Just disappointed.
This is a commentary mostly on the broken treadmill that has been the Ravens offense this season. Despite Brett Hundley and the Packers offense serving up the game like a pre-Thanksgiving feast, Baltimore didn't do much to take advantage. The fantasy upside is that you did get good games from Alex Collins and Mike Wallace but an offense that could barely muster 200 total yards against a team with a shaky defense and an offense that couldn't stay on the field isn't really one that you want to invest in for your fantasy fortunes.
This is probably more of a real football tweet than a fantasy one since we have a good idea of Cousins is from a statistical perspective. In that respect, he's been pretty darn good. Cousins has been a top 10 quarterback nearly all season with six 20-point games during the campaign. It's made him the heir apparent to Tony Romo as the late-round quarterback that can put up QB1 fantasy numbers for you. I'm not quite ready to say that Cousins deserves every-week starter status but it's pretty close.
It appears that the long-awaited Josh Doctson breakout is around the corner. He's started to see more work and has been targeted seven times in each of the last two games. While Doctson hasn't caught a touchdown in three straight games, he is turning into a trusted option for Kirk Cousins and posted a season-high 81 yards on Sunday. Washington's schedule down the stretch is fairly middle of the road, so there's no obvious advantage there. But if Doctson's target share is truly increasing (and all signs point to yes) then his opportunity in a pass-heavy offense makes him worth an add for the stretch run.
Speaking of pass-heavy offenses ... Washington might need to lean on the aerial attack a little more now that one of the team's main playmakers is gone. Samaje Perine will slide in an pick up a much bigger workload going forward and had a huge state line on Sunday. Yet overall, Washington has struggled to move the ball on the ground consistently and Perine has had issues with ball security. That could mean more work for guys like Josh Doctson, Ryan Grant and whoever the team's tight end of record is going to be for a particular week.
You can bump that up to 638 yards and 11 rushing scores in the past 12 quarters. In short ... that's ungood. A lot of it coincides with the Bills shipping run-stuffing defensive tackle Marcell Dareus to Jacksonville. What's made it worse is that in the past few weeks, the Bills offense hasn't done much to help the defense. That means this unit has been on the field for a lot of plays and isn't offering much resistance. Next week, Buffalo travels to Kansas City to face the sputtering Chiefs offense. We'll see who gets the best of whom.
This was a train wreck from the beginning. Peterman threw three picks in the first quarter and five in the first half before being yanked for Tyrod Taylor. Now the questions will swirl -- who will be the Bills starting quarterback on the road at Kansas City next week? (The early returns aren't encouraging.) The answer is likely to impact whether you consider starting LeSean McCoy or Charles Clay. Oh, by the way, Jordan Matthews was inactive with a knee injury and Kelvin Benjamin left the game with a knee injury which will be further evaluated during the week. So everything's going great in Buffalo.
As the weather changes, so might the lead back in Minnesota. Jerick McKinnon has played well this season but the past couple of weeks have seen a shift to feature more Latavius Murray. Minnesota's offense has been rolling the past couple of weeks and now it looks like they're becoming more of a grind-it-out sort of squad. With some decent matchups on the remaining schedule, it might be time to see if you can make a move to add Murray.
Heading into the Sunday night game, Gabbert was the QB6 for the week. I don't even know what to say about that.
Wait...what?"
- Saints corner: Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara have a combined 540 scrimmage yards and six total touchdowns in their last two games (h/t @MattFranchise)
- If you combined Jay Cutler and Nathan Peterman into one quarterback their line would have been: 12/16, 149 yards, TD, 8 INT. In 6/4 fantasy scoring, that works out to -20.04 points.
- Both Alex Collins and Joe Mixon needed 20 carries to rush for 49 yards.
- The Raiders defense still does not have an interception.
- Keenan Allen caught 12 of 13 targets for 159 yards and two scores. He hadn't found the end zone since Week 1 or crossed 100 yards since Week 4.
- TE Watch: Some of the tight end luminaries to land in the top 10 this week (heading into SNF) included O.J. Howard, Adam Shaheen, Marcedes Lewis, Jesse James, and Jeremy Sprinkle.
And one for the road...
Marcas Grant is a fantasy editor for NFL.com and a man who isn't sure how to feel about reports that it will be almost 90 degrees in Los Angeles for Thanksgiving. It definitely bolsters his idea to make sure he has extra ice cream to go along with his pie. Tweet him you Thanksgiving menu options or ask fantasy questions on Twitter @MarcasG. If you read all of that, congrats. He also dishes out (get it?) fantasy advice -- and life shenanigans -- on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat (marcasg9)
