Week 8 Fantasy Football Recap

Week 8 Fantasy Recap

The first week of fantasy football on AdaPart, save for any major scoring adjustments, is in the books.  To recap, I'll be breaking down the Hits and Misses of last weeks GOFO, giving some overall impressions and some insight into the impact last week's results will have in the week(s) to come.

Week 8 Hits:

QBs

Peyton Manning

Finished just under his projection with 24 ESPN standard points.  Manning dominated, putting up 305 yards and 3 TDs.  Manning is a top 5 option again this week.

Tom Brady

I told you he's still the best.  304 yards and 4 TDs for a personal season-high 28 points.  Brady is on a bye this week.

RBs

Willis McGahee

McGahee had his personal best game as well, rushing for over 120 yards, adding over 30 receiving yards, and notching a TD.  I expect McGahee to come back to earth a little, but the added dimension of the forward pass in Denver's offense raises his ceiling.

Vick Ballard

Even though Ballard scored arguably the season's best TD to win the game in OT for the Colts, it came at the end of a ho-hum day where he rushed for sub 60 yards.  On top of that, Brown is back, and Ballard will return to seeing the ball around 5 times a game.  For a player who nets about 4 yards per touch, that's not nearly enough for fantasy relevance. 

WRs

Demaryius Thomas

Thomas had another big game, especially in PPR leagues.  In standard leagues, his 137 yards receiving and a touchdown night was good for third amongst WRs.  Thomas is a must start WR week in and week out.

Dwayne Bowe

Over Dwayne Bowe underproduced, as expected, considering he was a Fall Off player last week.  Bowe scored 6 fantasy points in what was his (tied for) third worst fantasy day of the season.  Cassel is back under center this week, so those numbers should go up.

Victor Cruz

That's right.  No salsa for you when you're on the Fall Off list.  Cruz, the number 1 fantasy wideout, had a paltry 2 catch, 23 yard day.  The Giant's receiver went without doing his ubiquitous TD dance for the first time since week 3.  Cruz will be alright, though.  Cruz still leads the league with 89 targets, so look for the Giants to get him the ball often in their matchup against a hobbled Steeler's team.

Week 8 Eh's:

QBs

Ryan Tannehill

Mr. Mrs. Lauren Tannehill left the game early with a quad injury.  The Dolphin's reserve, Matt Moore, had a decent day in Tannehill's absence, notching 9 points in the relief.  No word yet on which QB will start against the Colts, but either is a decent matchup play in deeper leagues.

Michael Vick

Although he didn't turn the ball over, Vick had another average day (both in real and fantasy football) that left his job security still hanging by a thread.  Philly's clamoring for Nick Foles will likely be postponed another week, (not from Hurricane Sandy, but) from a(n even more) disastrous New Orleans Saints' defense. 

Carson Palmer

Palmer still threw his trademark interception, but for the first time since before his knee injury in Cincinnati, he had more touchdowns than turnovers (someone check that stat).  He is a serviceable bye-week fill in if necessary.

 RBs

Adrian Peterson

All Day did what he seems to do best: flashes of brilliance, overall disappointment.  Over 100 yards rushing and a touchdown, a great game, but still a far cry from the projected Vintage Peterson day that was expected.  It has to come Sooner than later. [Omit awful, irrelevant pun]

WRs

Brandon Marshall

Marshall had 98 yards receiving.  Cutler couldn't get anything going until late in the game.  The Bears have the Titans this week, so I'm not worried at all about Marshall.

Reggie Wayne

His streak of 10+ targets continued.  Wayne hauled in 7 for 91 yards.  The Colts play a surprisingly stout Miami team this week, but Wayne is getting such a significant amount of targets that there's no need to take him out of most lineups this week. 

Randall Cobb

Jacksonville virtually shut down the Packers offensively until the end of the game.  Cobb caught 5 balls for only 28 yards, but his touchdown kept him off of the schneid.  Cobb is a must start, at least until the Green Bay mainstays get healthy again.

Weeek 8 Misses:

RBs

Jamaal Charles

Great call on this one.  Charles touched the ball only FIVE times for four yards, numbers so low I typed them instead of using a numeral.  That's a goose-egg in ESPN standard.  As a silver lining, in the postgame interview, Romeo Crennel commented on his mishandling of the back, a sign that we'll see Jamaal Charles back to being a top-flight back this week.

Alfred Morris

The Redskin's back had 59 yards rushing in a game where the entire offense looked out of sync.  He gets back at it a little bit this week against the Panthers, but see him as nothing more than a mid-range number 2 back this week.

LeSean McCoy

Shady showed up a week early.  With the Eagles FINALLY using their star back properly, McCoy now becomes a prime option every week (unless they start being too effective, in which case Andy Reid, because he is Andy Reid, will try come hell or high water to get the ball elsewhere).

-AdaPart