Phew! Needed that one!

My cash game lineups across the sites:

I cashed on DK and SD, but not on FD. On DK the cash line was a little higher than normal at 141.42. I was able to identify some players who had enough upside, which, as you’ll see below, I definitely needed it.

I went a little different on FD, which I obviously regret, but I wanted guys who I thought were in great spots to receive a majority of work.

The Good

It’s funny, but there are two players yesterday who did awesome and I literally saw only one play that featured either. The first is Mitchell…he is the starter in an offense who wants to run the ball, and at one point his entire o-line carried him into the endzone. I celebrated loud enough to startle my daughter when it happened too. It could have been a better day if Jimmy G didn’t vulture him for 2 rushing TDs.

The other player is Beasley. I literally didn’t see one of his catches but he had 10 of them for over 100 yards. With Knox out, the intermediate routes were all his…well, when the Bills finally showed up in the second half anyway.

AJ Brown was a force yesterday. You can’t give that man a 56 lbs advantage over his covering corner. I also got lucky with the gamescript as Tennessee was down 14 early and Henry got a “little banged up.” More on that later.

Ja’Marr Chase was serviceable. This was a really odd game and not just because the Jets won. It was odd in the sense that the Bengals ran 27 first half offensive plays, and 14 of those plays were inside the Jet 10-yard line because they kept throwing INTs. While initially that might sound good, it ultimately put the Bengals in a position where their offense had trouble getting started. The same thing sometimes happens in hockey. If a team gets a couple powerplay opportunities to start a game and doesn’t score, it messes with them. Anyway, I don’t think the Bengals were prepared for such short fields and resorted to Mixon handoffs (which he got one) and Chase targets in the endzone (he caught one but dropped another). In any event, this was more an okay play as, ultimately, Chase didn’t pay off his salary with the necessary 2.7x, but he didn’t sink my lineup on DK. Additionally, it seemed like Tee Higgins and Chase switched roles yesterday with Higgins being the one catching 2 deep balls.

Arnold did more than I thought he would with his 8 grabs for 68 yards, but I feel good about identifying this play except that close to 50% of the field identified it as well. I would expect a price increase here for week 9 vs the Bills.

Godwin was also the correct play with Lattimore on Evans and no AB. 50% of the field thought this as well. Evans caught a TD, but his output was not high due to only 2 catches.

Allen, Stafford, Brady and Burrow all finished in the top 10 at QB this week.

I am calling Winston a “good” here because he was doing great prior to his injury. You can’t predict injuries, just like you can’t predict benchings (more on that later), and Winston was well on his way to a fine day after putting up 10 fantasy points in one quarter.

N Harris, D Harris, Henderson, Mixon and Carter were all good. Carter was the top RB of the week, and someone I wish I had more exposure to in gpp, but the lineups in which I did use him made some nice $.

Pittman is the best WR on the Colts and the team finally treated him as such yesterday.

Kupp continued to do Kupp things, I’d expect another price increase here.

Deebo Samuel had a ton of yardage yesterday and came within inches of a TD after he took a checkdown pass on 3rd and 19 for 84 yards.

Diontae Johnson, who I refer to as DJ, did his usual north of 2.7x his salary.

Gesicki, Goedert and Arnold were the only TEs I got right.

The Bad

If you had told me that the Eagles would win this game 44 – 6, I likely would have started Jalen Hurts everywhere. Instead, this friggin team waits until Miles Sanders is out of the lineup and then has the combination of Scott/Howard/Gainwell run the ball 37 TIMES for 144 yards and 4 TDS.

Running against the Lions I get, them waiting to do it this way when Sanders is out???? Anyway…good thing Hurts put up 71 rush yards as well otherwise his 104 passing yards, ON 14 ATTEMPTS, and 0 TDs would have been woefully short. In addition, the Eagles benched Hurts for the 4th quarter since the game was over at that point. As I teased earlier, good thing I had Brown, Beasley, Mitchell, Arnold and Godwin to bail me out.

Tua and Teddy aren’t reliable and the gpp lineups I had them in largely failed.

Henry was a huge fail yesterday as he got gamescripted out, was the focus of the Colt defense, and apparently suffered a bad injury that they are now saying could be season ending. Here’s my question though…WHY WAS HE STILL PLAYING?!?!?!?!? He got hurt in the first half, but played the whole game, even got 28 carries.

I fell victim to chasing Swift’s performance from last week. Good news is I only used him as a run back for my Hurts gpp lineups, which were dead in the water anyway. I did like Swift more with the news that Jamaal Williams was out…good thing DK priced him high enough so that I couldn’t get to him.

James Robinson got injured…can’t predict that.

Khalil Herbert initially gave me a great scare at about 1:07 Eastern yesterday when the Bears came out with Williams as the starting RB. Williams left with an injury though and then Herbert was in the game. He then looked great with a couple big runs and catches and then was largely ignored for the rest of the game as the Bears finally decided to unleash Fields. I need to be careful with this situation going forward.

Mike Williams had 2 catches yesterday. Belichick apparently made him the guy the Pats would take away.

The Broncos receivers were largely ignored yesterday and Melvin Gordon, who simply refuses to die, had both a rushing and receiving score.

Devonta Smith. He can’t catch the ball if the team decides to never throw it.

Nick Chubb and Kyle Pitts were a huge miss as I pivoted to them on Fanduel where they were easy to fit in. First, Chubb. Man, the Browns blow. They love shooting themselves in the foot. I thought with Hunt out, Chubb would be in line for all the goal line work and have a larger role in the passing game. Nope and nope. I’m glad the Browns lost, they fucking deserved it. For Pitts, I thought with the news that Ridley was out, and Pitts lining up as a WR, which he did yesterday btw, would lead to a bunch of targets and receptions. Instead, he got 2 catches for a measly 13 yards. I fell victim to one on of the classic blunders…

the most famous of which is “Never get involved in a land war in Asia,” but only slight less well known is this: “Never go trusting Matt Ryan, when money is on the line!!!!”

Gronk got injured…I think you actually could have predicted that one.

Hunter Henry got only 1 catch. I actually missed that Jonnu Smith dressed for this game. That’s on me.

RSJ had 2 catches…I’m done trusting any of the WFT players.

All the DEFs I mentioned were actually fine and serviceable. Yay.

The Misses

Jimmy G, Mike White, and Justin Fields were in the top 5 at QB this week. There was no reason to see any of that coming. I did have one White gpp lineup which actually did quite well. My only reason for doing so though was to fit in Kupp, AJ Brown and Najee Harris. White actually left the game with an injury, but was resurrected and came back.

Austin Ekeler, who was questionable to even play was someone I just didn’t look at this week.

Jonathan Taylor is someone I should have at least mentioned. My bad.

The Seattle WRs were not really on my radar with Geno Smith starting, but clearly they are still serviceable. Predicting the Tyler Lockett breakout games is close to an exercise in futility though.

TJ Hockenson was the highest scoring TE of the week. I’m finding it extremely difficult to trust the Lions.

The Eagles defense pummeled the Lions. Any D against the Lions should be considered.