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Week 8 takeaways: Slaton a non-factor
Fantasy Football
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Dolphins 30, Jets 25
• After a dull first half, these two teams rang up major points in the third quarter. And Miami's defense and special teams basically won this game for them. It was a huge shock to see that Miami managed 30 points, but Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams each ran for no touchdowns and 27 yards on the day.
• Those who started Mark Sanchez over their regular QB who happened to be injured or on a bye sort of found a winning lottery ticket. For as good as Sanchez looked today, don't forget that he's going to follow it up with hugely disappointing efforts (like the five-INT day against Buffalo). He's still a rookie and is still learning on the job, and like any rookie, he's going to have his good days and lousy days.
• Shonn Greene has pole position for the most disappointing Week 8 pickup. Some of you probably shoved women and children out of the way in order to get to the waiver wire and claim him, and all he gave you in return was 18 yards on eight carries. Ouch.
Eagles 40, Giants 17
• Donovan McNabb threw three touchdowns passes early in the game, and the route was on. He's pretty much atoned for his miserable outing in Oakland a few weeks ago, hasn't he?
• LeSean McCoy filled in as the featured back for Brian Westbrook, but what was somewhat telling was that the majority of the 82 rushing yards he posted came on one 66-yard touchdown run. I don't think he's quite ready to be thought of as a true RB1 yet. He's more of a flex play for fantasy purposes.
• Eli Manning has been struggling with some kind of foot injury, and I don't buy that it's completely healed. This offense seemed to slow down quite a bit after the Raiders game, and it all starts with Eli. He hasn't thrown for more than one touchdown pass in any game since Week 5.
Colts 18, 49ers 14
• Peyton Manning posted a monstrous 347 passing yards, but didn't throw a touchdown pass, which is highly unusual. Before the game began, you'd have expected him to maybe add three scores to that kind of yardage total. Reggie Wayne did catch a touchdown pass, but it came from Joseph Addai.
• Alex Smith didn't really light up the Colts defense, but he did continue his touchdown connection with Vernon Davis. Davis only had three catches for 20 yards, but one of them was a score. Hey, if he can get at least one of them every week, that sort of makes him more productive than most other tight ends in a standard scoring format. Michael Crabtree, by the way, is becoming a major factor in the Niners offense. He could be a very, very good fantasy WR1 come next season.
• Frank Gore ran for 91 yards and a score, and while a lot of it came on the long touchdown run, you almost have to start any running back going against the Colts nowadays. Going against Indy's run defense has been fantasy gold on a weekly basis this year.
Rams 17, Lions 10
• Steven Jackson — what more can you say about him? The Lions knew he was going to carry the ball all game long, and they still couldn't stop him. Well over 100 yards on the ground, and congrats on your first touchdown of the season. I hope it wasn't the last.
• Marc Bulger had a really good opportunity to post some stats against a bad defense, and he failed to take advantage. If he couldn't handle it against the Lions, you have to imagine it's just never going to happen for him this year.
• Read the sentence above and insert Kevin Smith for Bulger and Rams for Lions, respectively. I officially surrender any and all hope for Smith to post a big game this year.
Cowboys 38, Seahawks 17
• Tony Romo has been a fantasy monster in recent weeks, and Miles Austin didn't have a lot to do with it this time. Romo seems like a great start against poor defenses, but a mediocre play against good ones. That's awfully logical, I know. But he may not be quite as prolific next week when the Cowboys visit Philadelphia.
• It was nice to see Marion Barber score a touchdown, but come on. Only 53 rushing yards against the Seahawks when your team was up big for most of the game? Barber had 14 carries, but the rest of his teammates combined for 15 and outrushed him.
• Matt Hasselbeck is another player who is basically fantasy roulette. If he happens to be on, he can deliver a pretty solid performance for you. Like he did in Dallas, for example — 22-for-39 for 249 yards, two touchdowns and no picks. Just prepare yourself for the infuriating lows if you own him.
Bears 30, Browns 6
• The Browns are on a bye next week, and it's even money as to whether their offense will score a touchdown against it.
• Matt Forte was a nice dual-threat today. He's another player who seems to excel against horrible defenses while struggling against good ones. If the Lions and Browns were on the schedule every week, he'd have to be a consensus No. 1 overall fantasy choice. I'm not too optimistic he'll have many more of these performances this year.
• A lot of Jay Cutler owners salivated when they saw the Browns secondary on the schedule for this week. To finish with no touchdown passes and one interception has to be one of the biggest disappointments of the week.
Texans 31, Bills 10
• If Ryan Moats didn't take Steve Slaton's job away completely, he at the very least earned himself a split workload. The Texans had finally had enough of Slaton's fumbling problems and rendered him a non-factor very early in the contest against the Bills. That really hurt for Slaton owners since this was one of the matchups they were waiting for. We can officially label Slaton as one of this season's top busts.
• OK, so Matt Schaub didn't throw a touchdown pass or reach 300 yards against the Bills. But complaining about that is like complaining you were dealt 3:2 paying blackjack instead of a good double-down hand. Schaub led the NFL in passing yardage and passing touchdowns coming into Week 8. If you own him, show him a little leniency and give him a mulligan, for the love of God.
• You had to figure it wouldn't be long before defenses figured out Ryan Fitzpatrick. He completed just 15 passes for 117 yards, no scores and two picks. Expect a few more box scores like that, and it's also a big reason why Marshawn Lynch has been relatively ineffective since returning — no threat of a passing attack really exists, so it's easy to key on stopping the run.
Ravens 30, Broncos 7
• This game was probably a lot closer than the final score may indicate. Or it was for a while, anyway. Knowshon Moreno saved his fantasy day somewhat with a touchdown run while Correll Buckhalter was relatively useless. You had to think the Ravens would correct a few of those defensive wrongs during their bye week.
• Joe Flacco started the season on an absolute tear, but he has really cooled off in recent games. Fantasy football is all about finding players who get hot for you at the right time, so don't throw him onto the waiver wire just yet.
• Willis McGahee: two carries for minus-one yard today. Amazing how fast someone can become waiver wire material, isn't it? Le'Ron McClain only had three carries in Week 8, but ran for 31 yards. I wonder if we'll start seeing him work his way back into the picture. Ray Rice can't run the ball on every single down, can he?
Chargers 24, Raiders 16
• Not quite what we expected from LaDainian Tomlinson, but we'll gladly take it. Two touchdown rushes can help his owners overlook a miserly 56-yard rushing yardage total against the horrible Raiders defense.
• Vincent Jackson had eight catches for 103 yards and a score. Such a stud, he is. Do you know he's caught a touchdown and gone over 100 yards more often than he hasn't this season?
• JaMarcus Russell — wow. Raiders fans (and the three of you out there who might own him) have to feel like they're watching a weird remake of The Blair Witch Project since he seems to be going in horrifying circles over and over again with no end in sight.
Titans 30, Jaguars 13
• Going into this game, Chris Johnson hadn't scored a touchdown since Week 2. He and Maurice Jones-Drew went at each other and put on a show that reminded me a lot of when two basketball players try to one-up each other and end up accounting for something like 70 percent of the scoring that day. Remember the Bird-Magic battles? This was one of them. Want some good news? Tennessee has some pretty favorable matchups coming up on the schedule in the next few weeks. Johnson should stay hot.
• Vince Young wasn't all that bad in his debut, actually. Going 15-for-18 with a touchdown pass and no picks? Admit it — you thought this would end up being much worse. We all did. Is he fantasy-ready yet? No. Not until next year at the earliest.
• David Garrard — yikes. Let's just say I was worried this shoe would drop eventually.
Vikings 38, Packers 26
• Brett Favre managed to sound humble and sincere in the postgame interview. Had you told me earlier that Favre would throw for 244 yards and four touchdown passes in this game, I'd have imagined he'd probably have mooned the crowd from midfield the second the clock hit zero in the fourth quarter. Favre continues to be a fantasy stud and gets jacked up to play every week, regardless of the opposition.
• Not one of Adrian Peterson's better days, and he still rushed for 97 yards and a score. It seemed like the Packers were so preoccupied with stopping him that they didn't even bother to cover the Vikings receivers. Hey, come to think of it ... maybe that's why Favre had such a field day.
• Aaron Rodgers tried to match Favre punch for punch, but he didn't get much help from his offense. Had Rodgers' offensive line blocked for him at all in the first half, he might have had 500 passing yards and five touchdowns. I'm not even kidding. Instead, he had to settle for 287 and three, respectively.
Panthers 34, Cardinals 21
• DeAngelo Williams didn't find the end zone, but did have 158 rushing yards. Jonathan Stewart had two scores and 87 rushing yards. These are the kinds of tag-team efforts we were used to seeing from Carolina last year. They're so hard to predict this year, though. The Panthers are the kind of team which can literally beat anyone or lose to anyone, and that's why you probably get so annoyed with both of those running backs when they post puzzlingly low yardage totals they shouldn't. Weeks like this more than make up for it, though.
• Jake Delhomme took a hard shot to the ribs and went to the sidelines for a few minutes, but eventually came back into the game. He reportedly had some trouble breathing. But it's not like you've been starting him (or Matt Moore, who replaced him briefly), so I'm not really sure why I'm telling you this.
• Kurt Warner's yardage (242) and touchdown pass (2) totals were OK, but the six turnovers he committed were brutal if they counted against you. The guy who started him in my big money league ended up getting a mediocre point total from him when it should have been a pretty good one. At least Warner finally got the tight ends involved in the scoring category this week.
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