After Sunday’s game against the Giants, Eagles RB Saquon Barkley insisted there was no bad blood between him and his old team. “I'm thankful for that organization. They're the team that drafted me. I still got nothing but love and respect for all the guys over there, but I'm happy to be an Eagle.”
That’s a very noble and professional approach from the Pro Bowl back. It’s also undercut a bit by how he treated the Giants earlier on Sunday, beating them about the head like a ragdoll for three hours. Consider:
** Barkley (just him) rushing yards on Sunday: 176
** Giants (whole team) rushing yards on Sunday: 76
** Barkley (just him) total yards on Sunday: 187
** Giants (whole team) total yards on Sunday: 119
** Barkley (just him) plays over 20 yds on Sunday: 3
** Giants (whole team) plays over 20 yds on Sunday: 1
** Barkley (just him) plays for negative yds on Sunday: 1
** Giants (whole team) plays for negative yds on Sunday: 10
** Barkley (just him) points scored on Sunday: 7
** Giants (whole team) points scored on Sunday: 3
It’s good to see that Barkley can still be elite on the field in New Jersey, even if he’s not playing for that squad anymore.
WR: Amon-Ra St. Brown, 17.47 pts — started by Jonathan
RB: Jahmyr Gibbs, 28.53 pts — started by Jo
TE: Mark Andrews, 16.73 pts — started by Paul
K: Cameron Dicker, 21.00 pts — started by Jeff
DEF: Denver, 21.00 pts — started by Ant
D: Cody Barton, 15.50 pts — on the wire
So, so close to a perfect week.
Jackson posted the highest fantasy score of the year so far and the highest in all of football since week 17 last year … when he posted 46.34 pts. He’s the only player to top200 total fantasy pts for the season (208.40, to be exact). Bucs QB Baker Mayfield was number two on the week and is just 10 fantasy pts behind Jackson. After that, it’s a 30-point drop to third place.
But let’s not focus too much on positives here. Take a look at St. Brown’s score again. The top wideout on the week couldn’t crack 18 pts. I did the research this week, went all the way back to 2006 in the blog archives, and could not find a worse performance by the league’s best wide receiver for a week. In the last three years I only found one other time it was less than 20 pts.
Some of the other pass catcher lowlights of the week? Tyreek Hill (1.53 pts), Jalen Waddle (1.23 pts ), Tank Dell (0.48 pts), and Devonta Smith (0.37 pts) — all receivers drafted in the first five round of fantasy this year — didn’t top 2 pts. Deebo Samuel had 0.50 pts before leaving the game due to illness, and all his scoring came from a tackle after an interception. WRs Chris Godwin and Brandon Aiyuk suffered season-ending injuries. WRs DK Metcalf, Mike Evans and Zay Flowers were also hurt but might only miss a few games.
I don’t know what bad mojo wideouts had going this week, but here’s hoping the voodoo dolls disappear before next Sunday.
“Awful QBs” edition3rd place: Bryce Young, -0.16 pts — on the wire
2nd place: Jarrett Stidham, -0.20 pts — on the wire
1st place: Gardner Minshew, -1.64 pts — on the wire
Minshew managed four turnovers all by himself in Sunday’s very winnable 20-15 loss to the Rams. His 154 yds passing and three interceptions gave him a QB rating on the day of 20.96, which is almost half the 39.58 you recorded on Sunday (1 pass attempt, no completions or INTs).
Just missing the cut of worst performers was Panthers starting QB Andy Dalton. Young came in late and lost a few yards rushing, but Dalton played for most of the game, recording 93 yds passing and two INTs. He did manage one TD pass, but it was to the other team.
FYI, six defenses scored -2.00 pts or fewer this week. Shout out to Joel and Mom D for starting two of the worst (Jets, -5.00, and Patriots, -3.00).
** I know we’re eight weeks into the NFL season and 10 weeks into the college football season but how in the name of all that is holy is Alabama allowed to have a star defensive back named Devonta Smith just three years after they had a star wide receiver named Devonta Smith? Isn’t there some sort of waiting period for players with the exact same name?
** From ESPN.com: “In making the case for a third NFL Most Valuable Player award, Lamar Jackson is apparently a triple threat now. In addition to throwing five touchdown passes and rushing for 52 yards Monday night, Jackson showed off his latest skill -- lead blocking for Derrick Henry in the Baltimore Ravens' 41-31 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With the Ravens ahead by 16 points (34-18) in the fourth quarter, Jackson saw Henry switch directions and ran upfield to push All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield Jr. out of the way to help Henry to a 39-yard gain.”
Jackson also spoke to teammates and smiled a lot. Why not call him a quadruple threat? And he tied his own shoes. Quintuple threat!
Seriously, dude had a great game on Monday night. There’s no reason to exaggerate how good he was after a five-TD performance.
** Also from ESPN.com: “More bets have been placed on Los Angeles Lakers rookie Bronny James to win the NBA's Rookie of the Year than any other player at multiple major U.S. sportsbooks.”
Sure, he’s a second-round draft pick who won’t be a starter and is considered a fringe professional, but I guess the last name is right. Let’s throw money out the window.
The Yankees and Dodgers will square off Friday in a World Series showdown that one Washington Post columnist called “too good to be true” given the pedigree of both teams. It will also be a contest between two insufferable cities who believe that sports are meant to be played to award championships to them and them alone.
Still, it could have been worse. Here’s a look at a few potential championship series matchups that would make the Dodgers/Yankees fight look appealing in comparison:
** Yankees vs Mets: We dodged this one by just two wins. There has already been one NY vs NY in the World Series before, and preening and posing by all of New York would be too much to bear for a second time.
** Red Sox vs Dodgers: Boston has claimed 13 major sports titles since 2000, LA has claimed nine. And if they were playing each other, you’d hear about every single one of them again and again and again and….
** Patriots vs Giants: Another nightmare scenario repeat. Rooting for a meteor strike would be the only acceptable outcome.
** Al Qaida vs Celtics: I might root for the Celtics, but only reluctantly. And I could be swayed to root against Boston.
** Cowboys vs anyone: Honestly, if the Cowboys make the Super Bowl, the entire event is already garbage. Woe to us all.
The Cowboys had their bye this week, giving the team a chance to reset and re-strategize for the second half. Most teams work on new plays and formations, but Dallas isn’t like most teams. So that begs the question — how does the most evil franchise in all of sports enjoy their mid-season break? The answer is spelled out in the letters of the question itself: What do Dallas players work on during their off week?
** Praying for death, hatred for kids, weak lulls, own woe
You’d think by now the team would be as good as they can be at hating kids, but apparently there are more techniques to learn every year. It probably focuses a lot on social media now.
** The Eagles are 27-7 in their last 34 games against the Giants. Just saying. ** I went 2-1 against Dad this week, so I’m only at -1 for the season in our picks. More important than that, Dad is an astounding 73-34 so far in predicting games on the season, a success rate of just over 68%. That makes my 67.3% rate look pathetic.
** Delaware’s dreams of an undefeated season were extinguished on Saturday with a loss to the Richmond Spiders, which just goes to show that spiders are not good for anything.
** Joel Embiid and Paul George are both already hurt so I guess we can skip right to baseball season again after the Eagles get crushed by the Bengals next week.
Week 7 standings 1 — Still The Best (Jonathan), 878.31 pts
2 — Kodos for President (Jo), 849.60 pts
3 — Blue Collar Killers (Jeff), 839.63 pts
4 — Jabronis (Ant), 828.75 pts
5 — Murder Hornets (Mike), 815.87 pts
6 — Chop Block to the Artery (Capt. Awesome), 806.81 pts
7 — DeVonta’s Inferno (Mom D), 790.27 pts
8 — Beer 'n Chips (Dad), 779.76 pts
9 — No One Likes Us We Don't Care (Bob), 771.32 pts
10 — Ezra *IYKYK* (Paul), 686.24 pts
11 — The Fightin Pickles (Sam), 654.67 pts
12 — All Rogers No Sauce (Joel), 624.63 pts
Brutal bye week for Ant, who was forced to start Dalton and his 0.02 fantasy pts. His run atop the standings is over, and Jonathan immediately grabbed it and started running. His 143.27 pts this week were the week’s best and good enough for a 29-point cushion hearing into the halfway point of the season.
We’ve got six teams over 800 points and one more just a 32-yd TD catch away. There’s a pretty big gap between 9th (just 107 points out!) and 10th (just 192 points out!), but everyone else is in the mix. And I’m already working on plans to handicap the boy's chances at success.
We’re heading into week 8, where there is only one Thursday game, one Sunday game and no byes, because … I dunno, eight is enough? The NFL is so random. No excuses, everyone should have all their starting spots covered this week.
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