BUFFALO, N.Y. — New England Patriots running back Rex Burkhead only was started in 44 percent of Yahoo! fantasy football leagues this week. That means owners in 56 percent of fantasy leagues are reconsidering their thought process right about now.
Burkhead wasn’t the only Patriots player who went off Sunday in New England’s 23-3 win over the Buffalo Bills. Here are this week’s standouts:
RB DION LEWIS
Ho hum. Another great day at the office for Lewis, the Patriots’ undersized bell-cow running back.
Lewis rushed the ball 15 times for 92 yards with a long carry of 44 yards. He would get the Patriots near the goal line then be vultured for the score by Burkhead.
RB REX BURKHEAD
The Patriots’ rushing attack, in general, is on fire. The Patriots carried the ball 29 times for 188 yards with two touchdowns.
Burkhead rushed 12 times for 78 yards with both scores. He also picked up 25 yards on three catches.
TE ROB GRONKOWSKI
There’s just something about Gronkowski returning to Western New York that makes the big tight end go off. The Amherst, N.Y.-native caught nine passes on 11 targets for 147 yards. When he wasn’t uncovered, he was uncoverable.
He also was penalized four times, including drawing an unnecessary roughness flag when he dove on Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White when the rookie was laying out of bounds on the ground. White was evaluated for a concussion after the illegal hit.
LB DAVID HARRIS
Harris helped boost the Patriots’ pass rush with 1.5 sacks. He tackled quarterback Tyrod Taylor for no gain on one sack and combined with linebacker Kyle Van Noy for the other. He was heavily involved in the defensive gameplan with Van Noy nursing a calf injury.
DE ERIC LEE
The Bills probably are hoping they had kept Lee. The Patriots signed him off Buffalo’s practice squad last week. He had an interception, sack, batted pass and quarterback hit.
PATRIOTS CORNERBACKS
How about that Patriots’ pass defense? Taylor was made to look like Nathan Peterman by completing 9-of-18 passes for 65 yards with one interception. Then Peterman was made to look like Peterman by completing 3-of-9 passes for 30 yards.
Stephon Gilmore let up two catches on six targets for 23 yards with two pass breakups. Malcolm Butler allowed two catches on five targets for 21 yards but was flagged for holding on a running play. Jonathan Jones let up one catch on two targets for just 3 yards.
Gilmore matched up with receiver Zay Jones, while Butler was on Deonte Thompson and Jones covered Jordan Matthews.
