Club Fantasy – 2016 Week 4 Monday Night Recap

By The Hudsonian, Joshua Hudson

So the Vikings are for real y’all. Minnesota, minus Teddy Bridgewater and Adrian Peterson, just keep on winning behind the strength of their defense and the mistake-free football of one Sam Bradford. From a fantasy perspective, their defense has been unstoppable, though this week they were rather pedestrian with only 9 points.

The star of this game for the Vikings? How about the offense as a whole? Bradford (262-1-0), Jerrick McKinnon (85 yards and 1 TD rush; 3-10 rec), and Kyle Rudolph (5-55-1) did their thing. Stefon Diggs (5-47) was okay, but how about the uptick in usage for Cordarrelle Patterson (9 FFL pts) and Charles Johnson (9 FFL pts)? Johnson had only 2 catches but made them count and OC Norv Turner moved Patterson around quite a bit to get him the ball. I wouldn’t rush out to grab either, but keep an eye on Patterson. The usage rate is intriguing in deeper leagues to say the least.

On the flip side, Eli Manning continues to disappoint. 261 yards passing with no touchdowns and one interception. He almost threw a second one late but LB Eric Kendricks dropped it. We knew it would be a tough matchup, as the Vikings continually shut down the game’s best quarterbacks, but yeesh.

Manning’s wide receivers – Odell Beckham Jr. (3 catches, 23 yards), Sterling Shepard (4-30) and Victor Cruz (5-50) – were less than spectacular as well. OBJ needs to stop acting like a child. I’m just waiting to hear of a story where someone has him on their fantasy team and drops him because that individual manager doesn’t roster children. Seriously, you know someone will.

The only decent thing to come out of this game from the Giants’ side was the usage of RB Paul Perkins. He broke off a huge catch and run in the second half that moved the Giants into the red zone. Is this a sign of things to come for the rookie out of UCLA? Orleans Darkwa (48 yards and a touchdown) and Bobby Rainey (22 rushing yards, 7 catches for 43 yards receiving) didn’t exactly light the world on fire in replacing injured starter Rashad Jennings. Maybe there’s still hope for one of my preseason favorites!

Scoring Leaders

RB Jerrick McKinnon – 18.5

QB Sam Bradford – 17.1

TE Kyle Rudolph – 16.5

RB Bobby Rainey – 13.5

RB Orleans Darkwa – 10.8

RB Paul Perkins – 10

WR Victor Cruz – 10

WR Stefon Diggs – 9.6

Vikings D/ST – 9

WR Cordarrelle Patterson – 9

QB Eli Manning – 8.4

WR Sterling Shepard – 7

WR Odell Beckham Jr. – 5.3