Sep 25, 2017

By: @SMich_5

Well, that was interesting. Week 3 of the season was by far the craziest, most entertaining, and competitive week of the young season. It started with a bang on Thursday night, got some additional heat added via some pointed political statements, and went full blown supernova by the end of the late afternoon games. It was even more interesting as the initial read on the week was that these match-ups were going to be a real test of fandom and would be something to survive rather than enjoy. There were also some standout performances and we saw scoring across the league go up. While there were some good calls in our targets piece, there were also some definite misses. Let’s see how the week went.

#QB

##Derek Carr

There’s no way to sugarcoat this performance; it was bad. Carr looked lost for most of this game and didn’t complete a pass to a WR until Seth Roberts caught a 5 yard pass right after the two minute warning in the second quarter (he did have an earlier completion to Amari Cooper taken off the books by a penalty against the Raiders). He was getting pressured early and often, and the Raiders didn’t have a drive of more than 4 plays until there were only about 6 minutes left in the game. The Raiders couldn’t run effectively, weren’t getting great passes, and then were dropping balls that did make it to them. Hopefully, this was just a bad game for Carr, as he had looked good the first couple of weeks against Tennessee, who might be the best team in the AFC South, and the Jets, who even when they win seem to lose (draft position in this case). Carr finished with a 118 yard, 1 TD, 2 INT line that made you wonder if he and Brian Hoyer had reenacted some sort of body swapping buddy comedy. His receivers weren’t helping him much but he wasn’t exactly sharp with his reads and throws either. Hopefully, just a bump in the road for Carr.

WR

DeSean Jackson

It was obvious that Jameis Winston was trying to work Jackson into the offense in their first game last week. He was a popular DFS pick given his price and the Vikings vulnerabilities on speedy #2 WRs. He didn’t disappoint as he more than tripled is DK price with a 4 catch 84 yard day with a TD thrown in too. This is about what we should expect from DJax moving forward; decent yardage on a few catches, and what will make him tricky is the TDs. His kind of usage is what TB wanted when they went out and got him, and Jackson will get plenty of chances to sneak behind coverage with Mike Evans drawing attention on the other side of the field.

AJ Green

Green wanted the ball in his hands more and the Bengals did the right thing by listening to him. Green had half of his teams targets and made the most of them. He racked up 10 catches for 111 yards and a TD on the road in Green Bay. Green owners were able to breathe a sigh of relief and QB Andy Dalton was able to halt the AJ McCarron talk for at least a week. Green should see just as much work moving forward with TE Tyler Eifert getting hurt and the Bengals almost pulling off the upset on the road. Green’s a stud and he’s been one since his first day in the league. Not much else to say here.

RB

Javorius Allen

Buck had a lot of things trending his way and what set up to produce for a Ravens team that cam into the game 2-0. He had out-touched Terrence West each of the first two weeks, 21-19 in Week 1 and 19-10 in Week 2. Then the strangest game of the week started over in London and the Jaguars took it to the Ravens. They got into a hole early and weren’t able to get out. Even with a big deficit, Allen seemed ready to garner a bunch of targets as his team passed more to try to catch up. While he did lead the team in targets and was the second leading receiver, the QB play was so poor that it didn’t matter. He finished with 5 catches for only 13 yards and only had 15 yards on the ground. This game was bad for every Raven, and while the production wasn’t there, he still out worked Terrence West and should see better days moving forward.

Duke Johnson, Jr.

A much better call from our targets article, Duke did Duke things on Sunday. He only had two carries, but one was an impressive 19 yard, scoring scamper that showcased the skills Johnson has in space. Finishing the day with 104 total yards, 81 through the air on 6 catches, and that TD, he was a great DFS option as he easily tripled up his DK price. I mentioned that his line in Week 2 should be his floor moving forward (80 total yards and 3 catches) and anytime he scores a TD he should be able to triple up his price. Expect more games like this moving forward for Duke as he continues to develop and as DeShone Kizer becomes more comfortable passing.

TE

Jack Doyle

No more dated Adam Sandler references for me. Doyle most certainly did not rule on Sunday as he managed only 2 catches for 15 yards. The chemistry he seemed to have working with QB Jacoby Brissett wasn’t as noticeable and Brissett seemed to be looking for TY Hilton most of the time. Doyle will still have good days in the future, but he mostly remains a TD dependent lower tier option who will be a matchup play.

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