By The Hudsonian, Joshua Hudson
And week 1 has officially come to an end. It was rather eventful — the only time in league history that 4 games were decided by one point. There were injuries — Keenan Allen, Robert Griffin III, and Zach Ertz among others — and lots of fantasy points scored. You can check out our podcast for the Sunday recap, but in case you feel asleep from boredom or unfortunately had to work, here’s a recap of the Monday night games.
Steelers at Redskins
It seems like Kirk Cousins forgot how to play football. The Steelers have an up-and-coming defense, but based off of how Cousins finished last year, I don’t many were expecting the young Steelers to confuse and abuse the Redskins QB. It is very apparent the Redskins have no running game (Matt Jones had only 8 touches, 7 being rushes for only 24 yards) and they ended up throwing the ball 43 times. That’s not a healthy balance no matter how you slice it.
But good news for DeSean Jackson owners. He’s healthy and ballin’. 6 catches for 102 yards. And Jordan Reed added 7 catches for 64 yards. If they can’t run the ball effectively (Jones is still worth rostering, but I wouldn’t start him until the Redskins can show they can run effectively and consistently), those two guys should be in your starting lineups going forward.
On the other side, Big Ben showed that when he’s healthy, he’s a top option not just in the NFL, but in fantasy football. He threw for 300 yards and 3 TDs (with 1 INT) and two of those TDs were to his top target Antonio Brown. Brown finished with 8 catches for 126 yards and 2 TDs. As I was reminded on Twitter, he’s currently on pace for only 128 catches, which would in fact be his lowest total in the last 2 seasons. Shame on him.
And how about DeAngelo Williams? At 33, he’s clearly not slowing down and is making a case to at worst split carries with Le’Veon Bell. He finished with 171 total yards and 2 TDs. Newsflash: He’s good. The biggest surprise though? Eli Rogers, the little slot man that could. Being overlooked in favor of Markus Wheaton (DNP) and Sammie Coates (2-56), Rogers had a nice day with 6-59-1. He’s looking like the Steelers WR you want if you don’t have Brown.
Rams at 49ers
And this was what I meant by boring. Holy snoozefest Batman. Chip Kelly does it again. No QB, no legitimate WRs, no problem. His offense hung 28 on the Rams behind his new workhorse RB Carlos Hyde. Hyde ended the night with 23 carries for 88 yards and 2 TDs, while adding 2 catches for 5 yards. I think this was what Kelly had in mind when he acquired DeMarco Murray for the Eagles. A year late. It happens.
And what about the Rams? Their #1 overall pick from this past draft, Jared Goff, was inactive for the game, but I can’t imagine he would’ve had more success than Case Keenum. 35 pass attempts for only 130 yards and 2 INTs. Oof. Even Gurley had a bad game; 17 carries for 47 yards. This is what teams will do. Their defenses will load the box to stop Gurley and dare Keenum to beat them. The latter certainly isn’t happening, so good luck and Godspeed Gurley owners. It may be a long season.
Scoring Leaders from Monday Night
RB DeAngelo Williams – 37.1
WR Antonio Brown – 32.6
QB Ben Roethlisberger – 27.8
RB Carlos Hyde – 23.3
WR Eli Rogers – 17.9
WR DeSean Jackson – 16.2
TE Jordan Reed – 13.4
WR Jeremy Kerley – 13.1
WR Quinton Patton – 11
WR Kenny Britt – 10.7
QB Kirk Cousins – 10
TE Vance McDonald – 9.4
TE Jesse James – 8.1
RB Todd Gurley – 5.2
RB Matt Jones – 4.3