บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ High Points Drifter

it was good to see him play through it. But they've got a short week. You've got the Lightning Bolts this week on Thursday Night Football, which should be a hell of a game. Um. I know, Marcus, he's going to be picking up Kelvin Benjamin in all of his leagues this yeah, all of them. No, not even but it is bad news. And for those of you who get to week sixteen and for some reason maybe some play in week seventeen. I will never know why I don't let friends play Week seventeen, you would think Tyreek Hill, assuming the Chiefs have sort of clinched everything, will be resting some of their players, So Tyreeko could be on that list, depending on how serious this foot injury actually is. I mean, but I mean real talk though, I mean, you know, I laugh kind of joke about Calvin Benjamin would have you, but Graham, I mean, Chris Connley. It is kind of a name. Maybe keep in your back pocket, I would think this week. I mean, it's kind of crazy to think Sammy Watkins obviously is gonna probably miss the rest of the regular seasons foot injury. It's kind of crazy to think Connley could walk into week fifteen and be their lead founder receiver. But that's kind of what we're looking at. I mean, still even without Sammy Watkins, I mean, Tyreek Hill has just been on a terry as ten, fourteen, six and fourteen targets in his last four games. Obviously have the one weird one for bad game. You known two weeks ago, but still, I mean, he's just been that cost me a playoff spot. He has just been shredding without Sammy Watkins obviously would be huge if he missed Week fifteen. But yeah, especially in the game. Well obviously for the Chiefs, obviously it's a big deal because this is a game that has a lot to do with the a f C West for fantasy folks, it's a game that potentially could be very high scoring. So to not have Tyree Hill, there's gonna be bad. Interesting, like this could decide the first round by and they have c now because yesterday Houston, if Houston would have beat Indie, they would have been in the running for that still be in the running for that first round by now. The Chiefs and Chargers are right there to the Chiefs right now, are are in that one spot. The Patriots losing, you know they're they're not out of it, but it certainly makes it a little more difficult. That was crazy. That was wild the way they lost that football game. That that Sunday of football was a reminder of why we all love the NFL, especially if you're a Cowboys fan. Yeah, how about the Cowboys. That game was nuts, though. I mean, like, even if you're just a football fan, the second half with Dak, the ups, the downs, the interceptions, the long touchdown throws, the flags, the refs will and we'll get to some of that because I'mari Cooper went went ballistic elsewhere. Lashawn McCoy left yesterday's game for the Bills with an injured hamstring. The reports right now or that he is day today. Um, I mean, Graham, does this matter because Josh Allen obviously is the RB one there in Buffalo,

right, so they don't even need McCoy. Yeah, man, whatever, that is what it is. I mean, look, Josh Allen is averaging seven point four yards. Burg cames insane. I mean, look, I don't really know what to do. I mean, at this point for fantasy, we just kind of have to Troy. He's had three and thirty five rushing yards in his last three games. That's the most by a quarterback in a three game stretch. It's nineteen seventy and I mean you look at this, three turnovers yesterday and he still scored twenty points. Running quarterbacks, My friends, I've been preaching it for years. It's just It's so weird because I tweeted yesterday that, you know, I twoted a meme of a skeleton on a bench saying that's me waiting for the rushing regression to hit for Josh Allen. And and you know, Benjamin Slack on Twitter, who does stuff for Drafting Network actually responded. But what I thought was actually a really smart point. It's not so much that rushing regression will hit. It's at some point defenses are going to say, hey, maybe we just don't let this guy run all over. Well, it's bizarre. Yesterday is is the Jets didn't even commit a spy on some of those players. I mean there was nobody in the middle of the field and Allen but just just gashing them. And he have he averaged like eleven yards per carryer in week fourteen. I mean, it's so bizarre because he's only completing his passes four picks. He has five sacks in the last three games. Like, as a passer he's been abysmal. But for fantasy, because he's rushing for nearly a hundred yards and score every game, we're just yeah, and fantasy, you put up good rushing to les and it sort of covers up your your deficiencies as a pastor. So I'm just I'm waiting for the defensive coordinator to say, hey, maybe we should just put a spy in the middle of the field and not let this guy just run all over us. Uh. If that and if and when that happens, then suddenly maybe it's a different ballgame for for Josh Allen And maybe that means more Lashawn McCoy if he gets healthy and back on the field. If their quarterbacks not running, somebody's well, I mean, you'd probably be looking at Chris Ivory is a waiver wire ad um. He led the backfield and touches yesterday. But uh, it's an uninspiring one. It is very uninspired. A little bit more inspiring at least as the running back situation for the l A Chargers. Austin Ekeler did suffer a stinger yesterday, had a very good first half. Was kind of meant in the second half, but he had done a lot of his damage early. But there's always a chance that Melvin Gordon comes back for Thursday night football facts. I guess this means though, that we're keeping an eye on Austin Ekeler because if he doesn't go as Justin Jackson. If not, I mean, this is one I think we're gonna to monitor all a week. Yeah, no doubt about that. I mean I'd kind of be surprised if Gordon came back. I mean, obviously it is a big game, but they want to have him for the playoffs because that's what's most important, uh, for the Bolts. But Eckler with the stinger, Justin Jackson was a big bust. A lot of there not much liked him to sort of take over the Gordon role and Eckler would fall back into the Eckler role. And unfortunately for those who did not play Eckler or started Justin Jackson, Uh, the opposite was true, and Eckler went out and had a big, big game. I can't remember a defense that has been this bad weekend and week out against one position like the Bengals are against running backs. If you started, if you started running back against the Bengals, every you're guaranteed to get a nice statline. Gear Ron tied and Uh, anybody who started Ekeler in that game was it was probably very glad to do it because he helped you get to the next round of the playoffs. I'm looking so uh, Marcus was like a man who's playing. But does this mean we're all in on Doug Martin this week? Yes, all right? And you know who they played the following week They played the Brown So it's in the show. So uh, that'll be interesting. Start Doug Martin. I do think the one reason that you may see Melvin Gordon back is because I mean they could tie. Yeah, I mean, look, this is a humongous game. They could. They could theoretically, for as good as the Chiefs have been, for as ridiculous as Patrick Mahomes is, for the fact he might even break the single season touchdown record, the Chargers could still be the number one. They could still be in the one season. I wouldn't be surprised if Melvin Gordon comes back to playing. Uh finally, Washington benches Mark Sanchez. He was awful, The team was awful. They got blown out. Josh Josh Johnson. I'll remember it. I'll get it right. He comes in and you know, he rallies them and he scores a couple of touchdowns. Lady ends up as as we sit here right now, he is the QB three. Ridiculous and he is projected to be the starter again next week. Don't even ask, I don't even ask two QB leagues, Like two QB leagues, maybe you know for the DFS, minded, do you consider it maybe against Jacksonville? And I get it. The Jaguars defense hasn't been all that good this season. But that is Derrick Henry. That is bold, man, I know that is bold. Really is Josh Johnson the number one overall pick in the A a F. That's right, I said yesterday. The a F is already developing NFL players. Man, do they have fantasy football leagues for that? They haven't even played an actual game and they're already sending guys to the NFL. So good for them. So there it is. Uh, yes, so chances are you probably not taking a shot at Josh Johnson. But you know, there's not a red skin that you could trust that that's that's none. It's especially Jordan Reid. I mean, it took weeks to get hurt, so this is crazy. It's been the healthiest season ever been. It's been his worst season in terms of production. But yeah, there's not a red skin I want, right, that's such a that's such a such a the lima for Jordan read It's like I could I could be productive but injury prone, or I could stay healthy and not do

much of anything. Quickly have the have the wheels fawn off of that Redskins bandwagon because they were the number one team in the NFC East not so long ago, really just a handful of weeks ago. First Division. Early in the season, like the first few weeks of the season, it looked like their defense was going to be good. And it is when they when they beat the Cowboys, when Dak fumbled in the end zone and they recovered it, they were the they were the class of that division. Not so much, not so much anymore. So there you go. That is pretty much everything you need to know, all right. Week fourteen in review, I took a handful of storylines from the week, broke them down into good, bad, and weird. I'll go over them and then we can kind of kick around. I'm just curious get your thoughts on which ones you guys, we're you know, we're the best storylines, the worst or the weirdest. And if there's one here I missed pheel Free obviously to jump in and throw that in as well, so we'll start with the good. So I got four of them here. You got Amari Cooper's second thirty point game in three weeks, just going nuts, almost fifty almost in PPR legs. Uh. Josh Allen, who the last three weeks has averaged ten yards per carry and I believe he has almost as many rushing yards on the season as Lashawn McCoy nets. Uh. The Giants defense. They go over fifteen Fantasy points for the second straight week, which I think that was one we sort of predicted because Jel Washington was gonna be bad. D Jarvis Lantry Awakens hadn't had a touchdown since Week seven, had to a rushing and a receiving touchdown, and almost had a passing touchdown on those of those four. So those are my four like kind of good stories for the week. If you had to pick one father that you think was kind of the best, one word, I'm going, I mean, you're going to come on, man, I'm going to Mark Cooper. And when the Cowboys made the trade, I'll never forget. I walked into the newsroom and um, I think it was Emily who socially who had said that the Cowboys had traded for for Cooper, and I said, what did we give up first round pick? And I was like, oh man, because Roy Williams and Joey Galloway instantly jumped into my head. Well and everyone thought that that one, you know, but this is this is a perfect both things can be true. I mean, Dallas paid too much for a receiver, but was in the final year of his deal. They're gonna have to pay him next year. They paid too much for Amark Cooper, and Amark Cooper has been a badass for them. He's got five touchdowns in his last two games. He's had a hundred eight yard game, He's had a two seventeen yard game, and he's not only improved that offense tenfold, but he's made Dak Prescott very fantasy relevant once again. Uh And at the same time, Cooper is no longer a guy that you ask Graham, do I start him this week? Marcus? Should I start Cooper this week? No? Was in your line every single week. The whole stink of the silver and black is gone. Now with that beautiful blue star on his helmet, Amari Cooper is re emerged and end up he could end up being the fantasy Football Playoff m v P. If he has a couple of good games, You've got the Colts next week could be a very high scoring game, and then he's got the Bucks. So it's not out of the realm of possibility that Amari Cooper becomes your fantasy playoff m v P. And I would I'm trying to speak that into his This is because it would be good for the Cowboys and we could potentially secure the NFC East, which we're close to doing. And h boy, it would be nice to see the Cowboys sneak into that three seed. I don't know if it's gonna happen, but we shall see. All right, So of those four Graham, is there one that stands out to here or there one that maybe I missed that you thought was big for the week. Just for what it's worth, Josh Allen does have more rushings, so he has more. Now, all right, it's wild, I mean it's it's wild, But yeah, I mean it was gonna be Cooper for me too. I'd like to personally apologize first to Amari Cooper um for basically the entire d of his career. I kind of doubted him, and uh, it kind of became a running joke for me on Twitter, but that bit is over. Amark Cooper, I'm sorry. You are as good as we thought you weren't when you came out of Alabama. You're as explosive as as any player or any receiver in the NFL right now. It's a it's remarkable. I mean, Dallas has basically turned their season around from a bottom ten offense to a top twelve offense just by adding a Mark Cooper. It's it's incredible. It sort of begs the question because obviously, the the overwhelming reaction was that Mark Cooper going to Dallas wasn't going to change much. You know, it's like he can't get separation, He's not gonna get open. You know, that's not gonna be able to help him all that much. Obviously, here we are, what's six weeks later, and we all have sort of egg on our face about this. So but it does beg the question, like what exactly were the Raiders doing? Is it's more or less? Is Derek cart just that bad? Is it? I mean? Yeah, because it can't just be a Gruden thing, because this Mari Creup wasn't doing much before John Gruden got there so just be you know, hey, the coaching staff. But it took me look at his numbers in Oakland, like this season to eight, then he had twenty one. They had three seven, twenty six. Then he had to uh and then the big move. Yeah, like like de Marcus point before even this year, before the Raiders got Gruden in twenty seventeen, Cooper at six yards and fourteen games is sixty two and six or Dallas this year. It's not it's not like you said, It's not just a Gruden thing. It's more or less just like I know, we always want to say we want to take these sounded players and put them in more advantageous situations, and rarely doesn't work out the way it's worked out for Mr. But like this is genuinely one of those types of situations where Amar genuinely needed another like a fresh start apparently, And that's what we talked about when the

trade went down. I don't think any of us saw this coming. I didn't, and I'm a Cowboys homer. I didn't see this coming. I said, change of scenery is good. Maybe he sees a little uptick in value. I was projecting him as a wide receiver two three dude. Now he's a one in fantasy right now. He is absolutely And you know, let's talk about the Cowboys defense too, Holy cow Yeah. I mean, it's all come together at the right time. They've been very good obviously all year long, and now they've kind of think kicked it up. I think, as they have as this team has gotten hot and they're winning games, this defense I think has sort of gone next level. One of the things you got so many good You mentioned those numbers last year, Grandma for for Mark Cooper guardage wise, keep in mind how much of them came in that one game and that one Thursday night. Yeah, and that was the bulk of them. And that was the game where they the Chiefs. Basically they put Cooper in the slot and like fifty of his roots or something like that, and I just decided not to cover him. And if you remember, he had been bad and so people were afraid to start him on the Thursday night game. I believe I believe I had him as a sit that way. I advised people to avoid Mary Mark Cooper. It had not been producing since like the middle of two thousand and sixteen. He'd been highly, highly inconsistent. We saw flashes of the talent, but he just never put it together. And he's gone to Dallas and fully put it together. Yeah, it's been it's been absolutely wild, all right. So that was the good. So now we're onto the bad. So that the things that happened that we maybe didn't see happening, Uh, the things that might have forced some folks out of the playoffs. This year's the first one. The Saints offense lets you down yet again, right, and this was supposed to be the bounce back week. They were playing the Buccaneers. Uh, they needed a win and and ended up getting a win. It wasn't pretty and offensively, you know, Drew Breese was a disappointment. Alvin Camaro wasn't great. Mark Ingram got a touchdown which sort of salvaged his day, but on the whole, it was not a huge day for the Saints offense. So that was one. Uh, Philip Rivers, we thought the Bengals were going to be that matchup that you know, Rivers could just cruise against. It would be fine. He put up a whole bunch of points. He didn't really do that. I don't think he even got you the fifteen fantasy points this week. It was kind of a slow week for him. Third, Bela tricks are back because now it's a couple of weeks in a row that Sony Michelle has been underwhelming this past week. James White, I think got you less than thirty scrimmage yards total um names Devlin is scoring touchdowns. Now it's kind of a mess, and it looks like the Patriots running back situation is back to being, uh, the same headache that it had been a couple of years ago. I mean, we've gotten to a point where I think we had sort of figured it out and everything was fine. Now it's back to kind of being the bane of our existence yet again. And Fourth, Jared Goff Todd Gurley get shut down. Now. I had kind of warned people about golf this week, and you know, we knew the Bears would be tough. I didn't think that Jared Goff would get you negative fantasy points. I didn't think Todd Gurley would be held to what about five six fantasy points. I mean they were. They were completely and utterly shut down. And chances are if you had to play them this week, one or both of them probably really hurt your chances of of advancing to the second round of the playoffs. So I'll start with you, Graham, which of those four or if there's another one, uh, you think was the most impactful, probably in a negative way, this week, all of them were incredibly impactful. I mean, if you just look back, I mean, starting with the Saints, we look back over the last three games. Their touchdown scores are Dan Arnold, Austin Carr, Kirk Keith Kirkwood twice, Tommy Lee Lewis, and Zac Line. Obviously, Drew Brees had the sneak, mark Ingram had the late score. But I mean the last three weeks the Saints touchdown wise have not been what we were expecting. Since that Thursday, that Thanksgiving game, pretty much, it hasn't been great. Yeah, it's it's been a fantasy killer. And I mean, moving on to the Patriots, I mean James White snap right has has fallen for five straight games. He has six or fewer touches in two of his last three. He's basically gone from a PPR stud to kind of just a flex play like what we are used to out of James White at this point. I mean, it's it was a really brutal Week four team from the sense of we were relying on the Saints, relying on the Patriots, are lying on the Rams. So many of these players have have carried teams to Fantasy, the Fantasy playoffs, and they all well. I think about James White is that he really had been kind of the centerpiece of that offense. I mean, he was leading them in targets and catches, and he had sort of been the engine of that Patriots offense until recently. I think he had one touch in the first half yesterday. It was ridiculous. It was It was ridiculous. And Margaret's is making good points on all these but the Saints is the one that surprises me the most. I'm not surprised Jared Goff had a bad game because he's not good in the cold, and he's quickly gaining a reputation as a quarterback who's not good in the cold. So if the Saints have home field advantage, they better jack up the air conditioning in the NFC Championship game, if they play against the Rams, that would be good. Get it down to about thirty degrees. But it's been it's been a complete reversal of fortunes, because I mean Alvin Camara every single week was almost guaranteed to give you over twenty Fantasy points in his last four games ten fifteen, last three games ten fifteen and fifteen. Not going to get it done. From your first round pick mark ingram you mentioned it got into the end zone. Didn't have a huge game yardage wise. Michael

Thomas was very good in PPR leagues, but over his last three games sort of overall been a little bit underwhelming. And Drew Brees, you know, I talked about it on TV. I said trade him six weeks ago. In his last two games, he's averaged right around ten Fantasy points. And there's a stat that I knew about it. I didn't use it because I'm thinking, now, this is a bounce back game. It's got to happen. Breeze in the last three years, including yesterday, has averaged fewer than ten Fantasy points in Tampa Bay. Okay. I don't know why because the Bucks defense has been garbage. But and it was like Derek Brooks and Warren Sap out there, you know, in this contest, and Breeze could not get it done. And he is single handedly at a position that's really deep. Probably cost you a chance at a championship because he gave you a stinker against the Cowboys and he stunk against the Buccaneers. And that's a big surprise to me because Breeze in the offense, especially after what they did the Eagles in that game, was like, Wow, this is the best team in the National Football League. They they have really hurt you, not only with uh their lack of consistency, the lack of production from Breeze, but the fact that when the points did come you mentioned it, you know, our old kirkwood Zach Line scored touchdown. Who are these guys? Give us some guys that were starting in our fantasy league. So the Saints that have been a really really I mean, they won, but they certainly didn't win from a fantasy perspect Crazily, all these odd guys scoring touchdowns, and Taysom Hill hasn't been one of them. I know, I kind of figured he would have been one, because that's just the way the season is going, all right. So now onto the weird. Um just a bunch of just goofy things that that you couldn't necessarily predict. One the Derrick Henry forty seven point explosion, which ended up being the same in both standard and PPR because he did not I don't think he had a single target. I know he didn't know he did. I think he got targeted like once or twice. He was five yards markets from breaking the record that Sharp set in two thousand and twelve for receiving yards. You don't like just bubble screen. Just throw it out there and let him run for five yards and he breaks the record and they don't do it. I don't know why, Derek So that the Brandon Bolden scoring two touchdowns against the Patriots in a game, Uh, how many people even knew that he was on the Dolphins? You know, I honestly didn't. I saw Brandon Bulling score a touchdown and I'm like bella tricks car, and I'm like, oh wait, no, no, he's a Dolphin now, okay. George Kittle's Taylor two halves yards in the first half, zero in the second, and then mentioned earlier, Josh Johnson, a top three quarterback coming in and go like obviously no one played him, No one expected him to play for Washington on Sunday, but he comes in after Mark Sanchez looks awful. Uh, Washingtons getting blown out. So Johnson comes in, he's a top three quarterback

and now he's getting a start coming up in week fifteen. Uh faves of those four things, which is the most like WTF of them, it's gotta be Derrick Henry to me, because not only had he not produced big numbers all season long, but you know, the Jaguars had given up I think four rushing touchdowns all year to running backs, and they gave up four in one game. And he had that one big nine yard run where he was basically punching Jaguars defenders in the mouth and Jaguars defenders were missing tackles. It was it was unreal, but the performance was was phenomenal, and very few people benefited from it. I mean Al Bundy's four touchdowns in nineteen sixty six for Polkai, Derrick Henry's four touchdowns against the Jaguars. They helped about the same number of fantasy players because nobody was playing them because not only was he not producing huge numbers, but the matchup was bad and I had our research guys look up, so we had Derrick Henry went for two thirty eight. Then we had a Mari go for over two hundred, and we had George Kindle go for over two hundred. I was like, how many times has a running back had two hundred and then two receivers had two hundred? Uh in the same week. And it looks like it's only happened a handful of times in in in the history of the National Football League. Uh, but it's happened twice since two thousand and twelve. Before that, there was a game five or a week in five Joe Morris, George Rogers, Stefan paid and then Drew Hill of the Houston Oilers. Yeah. So um a very surprising stat line from Henry considering his lack of production. And I believe he went Marcus from at the time from load a mid thirties at running back to sixteen based on one game he had not had a sixty yard rushing game. Yeah, that's how it was. Graham, You're you're your big case of weirdness out of this this group. Yeah, Henry went from the RB thirty nine to RB twenty one in PPR. It's gonna be hilarious when we're all looking back and being like he was. Derrick Henry was an R b two this Yeah, um no, I mean Derrick Henry based on I mean, if you trust the process here, Derrick Henry was a terrible fantasy. Of course, this was against the Jags. I mean, Dean Lewis has been basically the lead back there all year. How can it not be Derrick Henry. I mean, like, what do you think how many people do you think actually started him this past week? And I believe that it was like four, But now I I break that down because how many of those people were actually in their fantasy playoffs? How many many of those are active leads? Right? How many were the people who just like had quit and just never took their Henry out of their lineup? You know, on a weekly basis. I'd have to bet the actual percentage for like a playoff team is like less than five percent, I would think. So, I think, I think I saw I cannot remember who I saw it from, but I remember seeing a screenshot someone faced Cooper Yeah, because he faced Cooper Kittle and could you imagine that bad luck? And it was three points right there? He said he was down a hundred points and he had one of the best teams in the league going into the playoffs. That's all. That's brutal. Luck not Andrew, that is luckily brutal. Yeah, it was. It was funny because there was a weird It was a weird week also in the sense, and I didn't even put this in here, just the number of like vultured rushing touchdowns. You know that that happened this week. I mean, you know, I mentioned the Brandon Bolden getting to you know, you've got the Zac line Zac line. You've got the Bears play action faking to a chem Hicks only to throw it to a backup the offensive office line. And you know, it's like, it was a weird, weird week fantasy wise. And so um if you if you survived, congratulations man. Because between the you know, injuries, guys missing weird touchdowns, I think there're gonna be a lot of really good fantasy teams that got bounced out of the playoffs this week. Yeah, especially you know, and and I thought of you two because you have the number one seed in our league. You have Todd Gurley, and boy, if you have Gurley and you didn't get a bye, I mean that your season is over. And if you do have a bye, you dodge the biggest bullet in fantasy football this season. That's the big I think, that's you know, I know we put the Jared Goff and the Rams getting shut down is the bad, but like that was also just beyond bizarre. The Rams did not adjust in that game, Sean McVeigh did not adjust. They were getting basically their interior defensive line was just getting shreded the entire game and they did nothing to adjust for that. Yeah, yeah, it was. I mean, it's just a weird game. I mean, credit the Bears obviously for coming up with a good game plan to slow them down, but it was just at some point you were just waiting for the Rams to to do something right. You were waiting for Girley to to break a big play or or maybe Robert Woods with a big catch and run, and it just never happened. Well, I mean, we've seen the Rams be able to adjust right there. When you're getting destroyed through the interior, you want to check the ball down to your running back, you want to try to set up screens, get the ball over the medal, whatever the case may be, and the Rams didn't do that. That was by far Sean mcveigh's worst game. As a head coach in his you know short rams tenures so far. Yeah, it was weird. And and again if you had to play Todd Gurley or Jared Goff, hopefully you you picked up some points from elsewhere to can kind of mitigate what that happened, because that that that wasn't great. You know, guys are terrible at taking care of their health, whether it's a knee injury, bad back, or something worse. Guys are usually more comfortable rubbing some dirt on it than seeing a doctor. What at the time, I think I tweaked my achilles and I just sat there with an ice pack for two weeks. Get going to work through it anyway. The same is true for erectile dysfunction. Studies show seventy percent of guys who

experienced e D don't get treated for it. Thankfully, Roman created an easy way to get checked out by a doctor and get treated for e D online. Roman is a one stop shop where licensed US physicians can diagnose e D and ship medication right to your door. With Roman, there are no waiting rooms, awkward face to face conversations, or uncomfortable trips to the pharmacy. You can handle everything online. All you have to do is visit get Roman dot com slash live, fill out a brief medical onboarding chat with a doctor, and get FDA approved e D meds delivered to your door in discrete, unmarked packaging direct How this function is a problem that most guys don't tackle, but with Roman it's easy to take care of. For a free online visit, go to get Roman dot com slash live. That's get Roman dot com slash live. For a free online visit, get Roman dot com slash live. All right, So for those of you who survives Playoff Week one, although I guess there's still one more game to be played, so I'm I'm sure there could be some more weirdness that happens. But for those of you who are already locked in, you know you're making it to Playoff week two. Figure we look ahead and obviously we'll preview all the games when we get to Thursday. Um, by the way, there are Saturday games this week. Yeah, there's two Saturday games. Yeah, so that's something to kind of keep an eye on. There already a couple of Saturday games, so make sure you are prepared for that as well. But looking ahead, we each picked a hero and a villain that we predict for Week two of the Fantasy football playoffs season, and I'll start my my my Week two playoff hero is. I'm going with Brandon Cooks UM one because the Rams offense two weeks in a row has not been particularly great. Uh yeah, but yeah it was one. It was a little bit shocking. It was not shocking to see the Bears slow them down, a little bit surprising to see them sort of sputter against the Lions. But now they're back home, They're gonna be back at the Coliseum on Sunday. Leave. It's a Sunday night game against the Eagles, the same Eagle secondary that's been beat up all year and we saw get torched by a Mari Cooper. I see Brandon Cooks sort of playing that a Marii Cooper role in the Rams offense, being the deep threat, being the guy that they take some shots to down the field and he can get behind that secondary. And I feel like Brandon Cooks is all set up to have a really big Fantasy playoff week at a time where certainly the Rams could use it. And I think a lot of folks with Brandon Cooks on their roster, uh could use it. The facts were also Wilson, why three words? Well is it two words? Sam is sand? Sand is one word? San Francisco, That's that's what's one word? Also forty niner because that's so that'd be three words. I'm going three words there, and um, it's because of the matchup. It's because Russell has owned the fourty niners in his career and that's the matchup that I see Russell having. He is going to put up a monster, monster stat

line for you. And Russell has always been a second half hero. It's ridiculou It happens every single season. We talked about in the first half how we're worried about Russell. He's given you some inconsistent lines, and then the second half comes and Russell turns into Superman. So I expect him to put up a nice stat line against that NFC West Fox. I don't know what it is about Pete Carroll teams that just when it gets to November, they turned it on. It was the same when he was at USC. It's been the same in the NFL with the Seahawks. Something about the calendar flipping over to November. Pete Carroll teams just seemed to turn it around. So I don't know, Graham, who you're looking at. I'm just gonna be lazy and take the lay low hanging fruit here and just say Mark Cooper, all right, that's fine. I mean, I mean it gets the Colts next week. We don't think anybody in the Colt says, anybody to even remotely close come close to covering him. And he's been the most explosive playmaker in the NFL, basically outside of Tyreek Hill since Dallas traded for him. Yeah. No, I have the problem with low hanging fruit. It's just as tasty as regular fruit, and you don't have to climb quite as far. It's fair point. Yeah, you know. Alright. So on the flip side, if they're going to be heroes, there are going to be villains. And my villain potentially for next week in the fantasy playoffs Andrew Luck Um, you know, I know, he's had a bunch of good games, but he's got the Cowboys and it's a a really hot cowboy team with something to play for. And you credit credit the Dallas defense because early on in that game they kind of kept that thing close while the offense was just blowing chances. I mean, they dominated the ball, but they couldn't really score. They were settling for a bunch of field goals. And the defense really clamped down on the Eagles and kept that thing where the Cowboys were in leaf for a long portion of it. I finally just made some plays down the stretch, and I just think they're gonna get after Andrew Luck. I think that maybe he gives you a decent number, but it's not going to be a spectacular number. And I think if that's what you're needing to get through potentially to your fantasy super Bowl, I think that the Cowboys may make life tough on Andrew Luck this week. So there you go. You know what, when we do our Facebook thing this week, I'm wearing an Andrew Luk jersey. You know I'm gonna do it. I did is sprowls last weeks Sport, and I tweeted you and we still won. This is five weeks in a row. Man. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And I I know, I get it. The Cowboys defense is really good. Andrew looks also really good at home, really good. So we'll see, all right, who's your your villain for the week, Kenny Golladay, who I told you to sit against the Cardinals. And if you look at his matchups, dude, he has got three tough matchups, including the one that he just had against Patrick Peterson um over the next couple of weeks, Stafford's lost in that offense. They don't I mean Zack center really we all like like Garrett Plunt and they gave the ball the Zenter. So now everyone's gonna freak out. There's no one in Detroit you could start with any kind of confidence, including Galladay. He's got really bad matchups the next couple of weeks. I believe this week coming up, he's got Dradevious White. So Galladay is now someone that, as great as he looked at different times, this sea reason you simply cannot trust. And I also think that, and we talked about this last week on the podcast too. Not only you're looking at points of production, you're also looking at teams that that have sort of like tanked. Right. The Lions are a team that's that's I mean, they're just they're just they're not any good. The Cardinals aren't any good. Uh, you know, Atlanta, they had sort of been tanking to you know, Ryan had had a couple of late touchdowns and ended up with a decent stat line, but a lot of their players haven't been producing as well. So for Alliance team that has nothing to play for, and uh, a bad matchup across the board here. Galaday is someone that I I fear starting the rest of the season. Yeah, I mean, he's been so good for so long this season, but it has kind of come crashing down the last few weeks. I think, you know, losing Marvin Jones certainly, I think had an impact there. Uh, Graham, who's your villain for for playoff Week two? Has to be Cam Newton. Um dealing with a sore shoulder, you, by the way, has not has not looked right. Um during the Panthers five game losing stretches averaged only twenty six rushing yards per game. In his are games of the rest of the season, he was around forty six rushing yards for a game the Saints. Uh. The Panthers get the stands in Week fifteen, and the Saints have not allowed a top ten quarterback in their last five games. They've held Um uh pretty much every quarterback the last five quarterbacks they've faced two under eighteen fantasy points. I believe Matt Ryan needed forty seven past attempts to get to the QP eleven finish when the Falcons played the Saints back in Week twelve on Thanksgiving. I mean, you gotta. But if you're if you're playing this deep in the playoffs right now, Cam Newton cannot beat your starting quarterback. And it's wild because he was in the midst of I mean really one of the best seasons, maybe the best season he's had since his MVP season a couple of years. And absolutely the other thing too, we and we had talked about this probably about midway through the season. His playoff schedule. It was great, so good it was it was great, so good. Yeah, and uh, just he just has not been healthy, although it has been really good things for Christian McCaffrey. So, I mean basically that entire game they allowed they he did not throw deep all but basically the entire game except for one play, and it was wildly inaccurate. I mean, they just checked the ball down to McCaffrey, they checked it to Samuel Ian Thomas's average step to the target was

like two yards. Um. Yeah, I mean it's well, I've really had to condense that playbook because of camp the last two weeks. They brought in Taylor Heineke to throw you into half hail Mary's. I mean, that's that's where all right. I love that that's where we are right now. So so good luck to you if you made it through. But for those of you who didn't, I'm sure you have hit me up, probably with some Monday moning tweets. Eddie, I would assume that we had a few said sad tales on Twitter today. Of course I can mention, mind I did not. I picked up the Giants defense, but I did not play them, and I'm probably gonna get blown out anyway, but it would have been nice to have my optimal lineup. And so, like I started off with that one, let's do a quick uh look at the waiver wire two before so, so, Josh Allen has got to be on the list. Elijah McGuire's gotta be on the list. If Doug Martin's out there Bengals this week, he's gotta be on the list. Chris Connelly, Chris Ivory, if you're really hurting Um, Kenny Stills right, Curtis Samuel Day, Shawn Hamilton's Ian Thomas is another guy. And uh and I'm sure I missed a couple of here defensively Seahawks and Buffalo. So you've mentioned Kenny Stills. Yes, two games in a row. He's I'm just saying the points have been there. He had a touchdown two weeks ago, but he had like thirty seven yards. I just I don't know. I just don't know what to think with this, with this Miami. Yeah, they get the Jackson. The Viking is their next two games too. I just I don't know what to think about this Miami offense. I can't with them. Um, you know, like Kenyan Drake ends up with a decent day, but because he scores a touchdown on that last nothing he had seven touches total, he just one of them happened to be like a sixty yard touchdown on a broken le you know, hooking lateral like we're just gonna throw the ball around and try to get in the end zone sort of play and if Gronk doesn't stumble and fall and who knows what happens there. Yeah, it's funny too, because you know when you hear that term hook and ladder. What do you think of Well, I think of the Chargers. Well, actually, actually actually nowadays Boise State. I think of Boise State too. By State and the Fiesta Bowl. For me, I think of the Dolphins against the then San Diego Chargers in that epic game in the playoffs. Who a three whenever that was? Yeah, No, nowadays I just think of Boise State and the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma and then Ian Johnson proposing to his cheerleader. I think we got that too. I know that's so random, like, why would I remember the random dude proposing to this cheerleader? But I remember the same thing. Yeah, yeah, funny story about that. I actually remember watching that game and almost leaving because Boise States quarterback through a pick six late and I thought, well, they had a good run. I think I'm gonna go out and take a walk. I'm like, you know what, I'll just stick around and watch the end of that game. And boy, was I an't glad I did. So

there we go. Alright, let's see now we get the Monday moment tweets. Uh so a couple of brewal ones this week. We'll start off with this one from Brandy Parker played, Todd Gurley got seventeen twenty fantasy points. Thought I had the league's number one running back. Uh oh man, yeah, I mean, look, you weren't gonna sit Todd Gurley because you know Todd Gurley. But you know, against the Bears, it was always in the realm of possibility. Uh. Stick with the Rams. Here m Boucher rode golf minus six lost me my matchup. Lamar Jackson is placed but of one and handily hindu six. Man, that must be a really rough score and that's really hard on interceptions. Yeah, man, that's a rough scoring system. Uh. Go to defense now from fi Cell morally said, I sat the Bears defense started the Saints twenty two points on my bench. Hey, I would have done the same thing. The Saints were good play this week and they ended up with a decent stat line. Just the Bears went nuts daylor Meres wrote, the only guy held in my fantasy from beginning to end. I benched Kenyan Drake for Leshaw McCoy point one points today when I needed to, when I needed twelve points to win my playoff matchup. Uh, there's nothing you can do about that. Boy obviously hurts his hands during the middle of the game, Drake has the miracle played too. Basically, booie, what was a horrible game for him? There's nothing you could do? Yeah, a m hubbs. I played Brandon Cooks over a Marii Cooper. Yeah, I mean again, I think I had I had Cooper ranked ahead of them, but they were close. I don't know, Yeah, I don't know what they have to feel about that, like that's that's a coin flip and it just didn't go your way. Then we get in with this one because it could lead into the conversation has come a bunch here in this show about kickers. Um been in first place the entire season, attend and three and in the first round of the playoffs I lose by one point because of Greg's arlines missfield goal. Yeah, well, yeah, it was a bad day to be a kicker unless your name was Mike Badgeley. And I think Bretton Mayor had a had a nice one too for the Pokes. So I still love kickers. I don't care what anybody says. I think I love I think I think. What I don't understand, and I know we've talked about this, is that a kicker misses a fuel goal or an extra point, and everybody's like band kickers, And I'm like that would be like if you know, hey, Jared Goff through four interceptions. We're not trying to ban quarterbacks, you know what I'm saying. So although some people may have hoped and wish that he was banned after that game last night, cost him at least that yeah, for sure, there you go. Oh quick note that just came across here. Harbor not committing to Joe Flacco as the starter. I really feel like, I really feel like John Harball doesn't want to just come out and say, hey, Lamar Jackson's our guy. They want to keep kind of dancing around it, like just well because then defenses kind of have to well maybe they're gonna use Flacco as well preparation, but he's the dude. Yeah, and uh wait someone just uh m r I um ed he said, yeah, Ian Rapp or just to Jordan Reads going in all right, well, uh yeah, I know it just it took us a week four teen, so there you go. Uh see, do we have any I don't know if we any Twitter questions or or anything like that. Otherwise we can just uh you know, I wish everybody luck as we get ready for Week two of the playoffs, so that'll log I'll kind of wrap things up for us as always, glad you're listening. Congratulations to you guys who made it through. At some point where we should start doing me a way too early rankings for next year for all the folks who were no longer in the playoffs, so we can start kind of picking out who the quarterbacks, running backs, all that stuff. We got, caperspers and all kinds of stuff. Let's start doing all that probably next week. Even if you are not in your fantasy playoffs, there's a reason for you to keep up coming back listening to the sweet sound of our voices because I know that that's is what gets you guys up in the morning. So that'll do it. As always, remember friends don't let friends do stupid things alone. So you're on Thursday, wow w wall, I'm going