18: The league leading receiving touchdown total since the start of last season. Two men are tied. Allen Robinson caught one ball for a score Sunday to reach that number while Odell Beckham Jr. caught two.
Cole Beasley caught six balls for 53 yards and a score. That’s four touchdowns in four games even though he hasn’t hit 60-ayrds in one of those outings as he’s been remarkably consistent catching between 53-58 yards of passes each time out. In fact, in nine games he’s been between 53 to 75 yards in every game. Meanwhile Dez Bryant caught one ball for 19 yards. For all that Dak Prescott love, is Prescott really that good if he can’t get the ball to Dez Bryant? The lack of Bryant production could lead to a return of Tony Romo who knows what to do with Bryant, but it’s by no means certain that the veteran gets his job back at this point.
Le’Veon Bell ran for 32 yards on 14 carries but somewhat saved his day, at least in PPR setups, with six grabs for another 38 yards. He has not scored a touchdown this season. #Disappointing?
Kelvin Benjamin caught five balls for 76 yards in Week 9, a 4th straight outing with 70-yards. Unfortunately, he hasn’t caught a single touchdown in that time and he has but one score over the course of his last six games. He’s really no different than Kenny Britt. Seriously. Benjamin has 36 receptions, Britt 37. Benjamin has 543 receiving yards, Britt 584. Benjamin has four scores, Britt has three. #SoMuchForADP
The Vikings changed offensive coordinators this past week. It’s just one game, but it doesn’t appear like it’s a positive move for Sam Bradford. The quarterback averaged 5.7 yards per target in Week 9, well below his 7.5 season long mark. He also got rid of the ball immediately in Week 9 at 2.1 seconds per throw versus 2.46 for the season.
Drew Brees isn’t very good on the road. Oh wait, he is. He blew up the Niners for his 30th career game with 300-yards, three scores and no picks, the most in NFL history. #OverblownStoryline
Seems like Antonio Brown has been a bit disappointing this season, right? He’s on pace for 110 receptions, 1,354 yards and 12 scores. #JustSoGood
Isaiah Crowell was a beast early on running for at least 62 yards each of his first four games while scoring three times. His last five games he’s only scored twice, but worse yet he’s run for 62 yards just once in that span – a 63 yard effort against the Bengals. But it’s even worse than that. Over his last five games Crowell has failed to run the ball for 30-yards four times. He hit an all-time low in Week 9 with six carries for four yards against the Cowboys.
Joe Flacco threw for 241 yards and a score. That gives him three times in four outings with less than 250 passing yards, and a total of three passing scores in six games. #SimplyDreadful
Frank Gore has run for 85-yards just once this season including Week 9 where he ran the ball 19 times for 60 yards. However, Gore also scored twice in Week 9 and he’s now produced 78 yards from scrimmage or a touchdown in all nine games this season. #SolidIsAsSolidDoes
Tyreek Hill was in far too many start/sit questions in Week 9. He caught five balls for 98 yards and a score in Week 8 but – #DontChasePoints – Hill caught three passes for 11 yards and ran the ball twice for 21 yards in Week 9.
Marvin Jones, who isn’t on a single one of my teams by the way, is sickening me. In 3-straight games he hasn’t scored, and in three of four games he’s failed to produce 35 yards. He hit a low point in Week 9 catching one pass for five yards. He gone from a guy producing like a WR1 – the first three weeks his average effort was 136 yards and 0.67 scores – to a guy trying to convince us he’s anything more than a WR3. #Woof
Travis Kelce was epic for tossing his flag at the referee after the referee threw a flag on him.
That was two 15-yard penalties and an ejection for Kelce. #Buffoon
Vance McDonald scored a long one against the Saints to become the first tight ends with multiple 65-yards touchdowns since Shannon Sharpe in 1997.
DeVante Parker is totally useless. He caught two balls for eight yards in Week 9. He’s been under 25-yards in 2-straight and under 30-yards in 4/5. #TimeToMoveOn
Cordarrelle Patterson lept high in the end zone, and let the ball go right through his hands. He caught six passes but they went for just 45 yards in the Vikings’ popgun offense. #ItWillNeverHappen
Brian Quick caught four passes for 48 yards in Week 8. That’s 6-consecutive games of at least that many yards, and in each of the last three games he’s caught at least four passes. He hasn’t scored in 4-games however. #CantHaveEverythingWhenYoureARamsWR
The Ravens ran the ball for 11 yards in Week 7. They had a bye week to fix things in Week 8. They returned in Week 9 and ran for 50 yards against the Steelers. #JustAwful Kenneth Dixon saw 20 snaps to 30 for Terrance West though neither obviously did anything with the ball in their hands. West had 16 touches to 11 for Dixon but the youngster is closing on West.
Ben Roethlisberger stinks, sort of. Wasn’t his return supposed to spark Sammie Coates? Didn’t happen as he caught zero of five targets. Blame Coates more than Big Ben though as Coates continues to drop passes at an alarming rate, including one in the end zone in Week 9. By the way, Big Ben is 2-6 in his first game back from injury with 10 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions. The Steelers also became the first team since the 1986 Broncos to have seven punts in the first half of a game.
Darren Sproles carried the ball 13 times for 57 yards and caught three balls for 14 yards. He didn’t catch six passes thrown his way. He still has one game this season with 60-rushing yards and one game this season with 25 receiving yards. He also has one offensive touchdown all year. #PleaseStopAskingMeQuestionsAboutStartingSproles
I’ve been holding on to Ryan Tannehill as a second quarterback in a couple of leagues. I’m dropping him this week. He threw for 149 yards and one score against a Jets team he should have torched. The Dolphins have no desire to throw the football anymore and are content to stuff the ball down the gullets of the opponent on the run. Tannehill has failed to reach 205 passing yards in 4-of-5 outings and he has two passing scores in four games. #EpicFail
Golden Tate caught 11-of-12 targets for 79 yards and a score against the Vikes. As Marvin Jones fails, Golden Tate excels. Over his last four games Tate has caught at least six passes each outing and 32 passes overall. Obviously that’s eight per game. So much for Tate being a washed up loser, eh? #Patience
Laquon Treadwell caught his first NFL pass for 15 yards… in Week 9. #WelcomeToTheNFL
I’m not making this up. Mike Wallace scored on a 95-yard play, the longest in Ravens history. He was so fired up after scoring against his former team that he needed to take a series off after the score. “I just had to calm down,” Wallace said. “I was just overly excited.” Wallace got lightheaded after the score, something that he said has happened before. He ate a banana, drank some water, and was out there in the second half. #IveHeardItAllNow
Carson Wentz threw for 364 yards in Week 9. So what? If you watched the game you saw some poor decision making from the rookie signal caller. He hit on just 27-of-47 passes, and was intercepted twice (if could have been three). That’s two touchdown passes in four games for Wentz. #GoodLuckWithThat
Jason Witten has scored in 2-straight outings. He had one touchdown the previous 21 outings. He also produced his first 100-yard effort since the final game of the 2013 season with eight grabs for 134 yards in Week 9. #DontChasePoints
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday, 8 PM EDT, Wednesday 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 9 PM EDT on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).