It was kind of a quiet day in the world of fantasy football – only a few players put up BIG numbers, while a lot of players were simply mediocre. However, an Eagle got revenge on a former teammate, “Fragile” Fred ran roughshod over the Jags, and a Jets QB fell back to Earth. But enough with the tease, let’s get to this week’s Headliners and Flatliners.
HEADLINERS
Donovan McNabb (354 yards, 2 pass TD, 1 rush TD)
In general, quarterbacks were pretty quiet on Sunday, except for McNabb, who continues to be the best at the position. It was important to him that he played well against T.O. and the Cowboys. In short, he delivered. His two pass TDs were wonderful bombs – on one he dodged a rusher before unloading it to Hank Baskett and on the other, the Eagles ran a flea-flicker to free up Reggie Brown. Look below – who would have guessed Smith, Huard and Gradkowski would be on this list?
Honorable Mention: Alex Smith (165 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT), Damon Huard (288 yards, 2 TD), Bruce Gradkowski (225 yards, 2 TD), Mark Bulger (220 yards, 2 TD)
Matt Leinart (253 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT), Rex Grossman (182 yards, 2 TD)
Fred Taylor (22 touches, 143 yards, 1 TD)
The Jets can’t stop the run so the Jags ran on them. And they ran some more, all the way to a 41-0 victory. It looks like Taylor will eventually give way to Maurice Jones-Drew, but he proved today that he’s still got plenty of gas left in the tank.
Honorable Mention: Larry Johnson (22 touches, 142 yards, 1 TD), Deuce McAllister (16 touches, 131 yards, 1 TD), Noah Herron (25 touches, 126 yards, 1 TD)
Cedric Benson (16 touches, 62 yards, 2 TD), Maurice Jones-Drew (13 touches, 59 yards, 2 TD), Frank Gore (30 touches, 172 yards), Chester Taylor (31 touches, 154 yards)
Joey Galloway (4 rec, 110 yards, 1 TD)
I could have gone with Baskett or Battle, but it’s doubtful anyone started them this week, so Galloway is the man. It looks like he is Gradkowski’s favorite target. Michael Clayton only caught one pass for seven yards.
Honorable Mention: Hank Baskett (3 rec, 112 yards, 1 TD), Arnaz Battle (4 rec, 37 yards, 2 TD), Lee Evans (9 rec, 94 yards, 1 TD), Greg Jennings (5 rec, 105 yards, 1 TD), Bernard Berrian (4 rec, 97 yards, 1 TD)
Randy McMichael (6 rec, 84 yards)
McMichael broke out of his funk, probably due to the QB change in Miami. Joey Harrington looked McMichael’s way a lot more than Daunte Culpepper has thus far this season.
Honorable Mention: Kellen Winslow (8 rec, 55 yards), Alex Smith (5 rec, 16 yards, 1 TD)
FLATLINERS
Chad Pennington (71 yards, 3 INT)
I was all set to list Brunell here (after all, I did recommend starting him in the Pregame), but Pennington’s miserable day made that impossible. He had been playing great ball this season, but the Jaguars completely shut the Jets’ passing game down.
Dishonorable Mention: Mark Brunell (109 yards), Drew Bledsoe (223 yards, 3 INT, 1 Fumble), Charlie Frye (173 yards, 2 INT, 1 Fumble), Vince Young (63 pass yards, 1 INT, 43 rush yards, 1 rush TD), Andrew Walter (164 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT), J.P. Losman (115 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT)
Kevin Jones (14 touches, 50 yards)
Maroney and Dillon produced less, but more people were counting on Kevin Jones to have a good game against the Vikings. KJ has a ton of talent, but he’s been nothing but a tease thus far in his career.
Dishonorable Mention: Laurence Maroney (18 touches, 38 yards), Corey Dillon (10 touches, 45 yards), Vernand Morency (8 touches, 24 yards), Willis McGahee (18 touches, 65 yards), Reuben Droughns (21 touches, 68 yards), Clinton Portis (19 touches, 76 yards)
Roy Williams (1 rec, 7 yards)
Williams left the game after his first and only reception with a neck stinger, sabotaging many a fantasy team in the process. He has been on a tear, but an injury like this could throw a monkey wrench into his season.
Dishonorable Mention: Drew Bennett (0 rec), Doug Gabriel (2 rec, 7 yards), Muhsin Muhammad (2 rec, 10 yards), Troy Williamson (2 rec, 11 yards), Laveranues Coles (3 rec, 19 yards), Donald Driver (3 rec, 24 yards), Braylon Edwards (3 rec, 27 yards)
Chris Chambers (5 rec, 29 yards, 1 rush 18 yard), Michael Clayton (1 rec, 7 yards, 1 rush 23 yards), Marques Colston (3 rec, 38 yards), Santana Moss (3 rec, 39 yards),
Terrell Owens (3 rec, 45 yards)
Jeremy Shockey (1 rec, 13 yards)
As well as the Giants played, you’d think Shockey’s line would look better than this, especially considering the comments he made after last week’s game.
Dishonorable Mention: Desmond Clark (1 rec, 12 yards), Dallas Clark (2 rec, 15 yards), Tony Gonzalez (1 rec, 25 yards)
