Booms and Busts: Stefon Diggs and Golden Tate, PPR monsters
The Minnesota Vikings offensive line can’t block a thing. The Detroit Lions offensive line isn’t much better. So what’s an offensive coordinator to do?
Short passes, short passes, short passes. It might not be that exciting for the real-world NFL fan, but the PPR hounds in the audience are clapping along.
Although Minnesota fell to Detroit in Sunday’s overtime battle, 22-16, wideout Stefon Diggs was the biggest fantasy story. Diggs was targeted a whopping 14 times and secured 13 of them, a busy afternoon from the opening jump. Alas, most of the passes were quick hitters around the line of scrimmage — his longest grab was 12 yards and he made just 92 total yards for the day (including one rushing attempt).
Diggs wasn’t able to get into the end zone, but when one-third of the passes go to the team’s best weapon and the efficiency is good, we’re happy. And for those in full-point PPR leagues (I can hear Andy Behrens booing), Diggs pushed up to 22 points, even without a touchdown. New offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur knows what he’s doing in this case — let’s get the ball to Diggs, our dynamic guy, and take our chances. And let’s try to keep Sam Bradford upright.
Unfortunately, Minnesota doesn’t have anything dynamic in the ground game, especially in short-yardage situations. Matt Asiata plodded for 29 yards on nine carries, and was woefully ineffective on some short-yardage work. It’s hard to imagine the Vikings don’t have something better for those plays. Their go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter came on a surprise sweep to backup tight end Rhett Ellison.
Keep the Diggs focus, coach. Lose this Asiata fixation. He’s not the right back, and you don’t have the right offensive line. As Coughlin’s Law would tell us, anything else is something better.
Detroit’s overtime win was clinched by a nifty catch-and-run by Golden Tate. The 28-yard touchdown was Tate’s only sizable gain of the day; his other 10 catches went for just 51 yards. The Lions offensive line isn’t quite as bad as Minnesota’s, but Detroit clearly wants to get the ball out of Matt Stafford’s hands as quickly as possible.
Marvin Jones might be the receiver hurt most by this game plan. He finished with one piddly catch Sunday (five yards), on five targets. It’s difficult to take deep shots when you’re not confident you can protect the quarterback.
Theo Riddick was the curious part of Detroit’s game plan. Usually a dynamic receiver who thrives on liberal usage in the pass game, Riddick instead was the featured runner Sunday (14-70-0). Meanwhile, Riddick picked up just three targets, finishing with one catch. Sure looks like a square peg and round hole situation, but I’m not calling the plays in Detroit. We should also mention, Dwayne Washington didn’t go anywhere on the ground (10-26-0).
Tight end Eric Ebron was another cog in Motown’s win, securing seven of his eight targets. His 92 yards receiving were tops for the game. Ebron showed up on a lot of sleeper lists prior to the season but was held back by injury; perhaps he’s finally ready to take the step forward. Detroit has a bye in Week 10, then takes dead aim at Jacksonville.
— Jay Ajayi, Matchup Proof
I try to tread carefully with the “Always Start Your Studs” mantra because I think it’s overly-simplistic, and it encourages owners to remain stuck on dated opinions. But once a player starts to validate his ability, you start caring about the matchups less and less, and perhaps not at all.
Ajayi is in that latter category now. The Jets rushing defense looked like a tough draw on paper Sunday, but Ajayi ripped it for 111 yards and a score on 24 carries. it wasn’t a case of a misleading long run or two skewing the numbers — Ajayi’s longest gallop was a modest 20 yards. He’s a damn good football player giving us a high percentage of successful runs, and Miami’s offensive line is also playing out of its mind right now.
Ajayi has a middling schedule to finish (SD, LAR, @SF, BAL, @AZ, NYJ, BUF) and it’s a road-heavy schedule, but I’m past caring about it. He’s been too dynamic. This is obviously what a set-and-forget option looks like. He’s vetted and validated.
— Saints Backfield Has Room For Everyone
The Tim Hightower-Mark Ingram debate turned into one with no wrong answers in Week 9; both players went off against San Francisco’s horrendous defense. Hightower picked up the start and did just fine (23-87-1, plus 1-15-0 receiving), but it was Ingram who had the big highlight, a 75-yard touchdown jaunt. Ingram also caught a touchdown pass and made 173 yards on his 17 touches. The Saints had 31 points at halftime and cruised to a 41-23 victory.
Unfortunately for Hightower and Ingram owners, things could be tricky in upcoming weeks. Denver waits in Week 10, the Panthers are a tricky trip in Week 11, and the Rams aren’t defensive pushovers in Week 12. Ah, but those are tomorrow’s problems. For the moment, we’ll feel good in a week that Sean Payton chose not to troll fantasy players.
On the other side of the field, maybe the 49ers have a little offensive juice after all. Colin Kaepernick struck for a shocking 398 passing yards — YAC is a beautiful thing — and two scores, and RB DuJuan Harris was effective as an emergency starter.
Harris scooped up 142 total yards on 15 touches, including a 47-yard scoring catch, and might turn into the secondary back this team has been searching for. And heck, it’s not like Carlos Hyde is the Cal Ripken of the NFL; you’re always worried about his current and future injury status. Harris was a shrewd fantasy pickup this week, and I expect more useful games to come, especially as we navigate through the end of bye-week season.
