Fantasy Football Reaction: Winners, Losers And Surprises From Week 11
If you had Jonathan Taylor, congratulations on your Week 11 win
We're inching closer to the fantasy football playoffs, and that means every win becomes more and more crucial.
It also means the players who are responsible for those individual wins are all the more noteworthy.
Here are our winners, losers and surprises from Week 11. Of note, all statistics are courtesy of SportRadar and depict for full-point PPR leagues.
Winners
Jonathan Taylor, RB, Indianapolis Colts
Rather obvious, right? Who cares. Taylor set a franchise record with five touchdowns scored en route to 53.40 points in full-point leagues. Entering "Sunday Night Football," it was more than double the second-highest scoring running back (Christian McCaffrey, 24.90 points). Taylor, who is the highest scoring running back in fantasy football and leads the league in rushing yards, went off for 1.53 points per touch on a league-high 35 touches, which were nine more than the second-ranked player. Taylor recorded 185 of his 204 total yards on the ground despite just two rushes of 12 or more yards.
Justin Jefferson, WR, Minnesota Vikings
The second-year wideout recorded 100-plus yards in the first quarter (!!) and it led him to finish as the league's highest-scoring receiver. Jefferson recorded 4.13 points per touch on nine touches against the Green Bay Packers. Jefferson, who finished with 172 yards of offense, recorded 16.90 yards per target, which led them league among wideouts with four or more targets. He finished with 10 targets on 3.69 points per look and had four catches of 10 or more yards.
New England Patriots defense
The Patriots recorded a shutout against the Atlanta Falcons on "Thursday Night Football" and came away with four interceptions and four sacks. Linebacker Kyle Van Noy returned one of those interceptions for a pick-six, which certainly helped managers who have the Patriots' defense, as well. Opposing quarterback Matt Ryan attempted just two passes of 20 or more air yards and his 3.75 net yards per drop back ranked 27th in the league during Week 11. It was a suffocating performance.
Honorable mention: Austin Ekeler, RB, Los Angeles Chargers
Losers
Dak Prescott, QB, Dallas Cowboys
Cowboys-Chiefs was thought to be an offensive showcase and it turned out to be won by the Kansas City defense, which wasn't good for Prescott owners. Prescott, who entered Week 11 as Yahoo's third-ranked QB, failed to record a passing or rushing touchdown for just the second time this season. He finished with a mere 2.64 points in full-point leagues, which ranked 23rd among signal-callers. Prescott recorded just 2.2 air yards per completion and was 0-for-6 on passes of 20 or more air yards. It also didn't help that Prescott was without receivers Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb (played first half before concussion.)
Michael Pittman, WR, Indianapolis Colts
With Taylor putting together a record-setting performance for the Colts' offense, the opportunities were limited for everyone else. Pittman, who entered Sunday's game against the Bills as Yahoo's WR13, was the 50th-ranked wideout in scoring. He concluded with 0.86 points per target on five targets as Indianapolis threw the ball just 20 times.
Kickers
Nick Folk went off and there were a few other decent performances, but a handful of starting-caliber kickers should have been given the boot. For example, Buffalo Bills kicker Tyler Bass made one extra point against the Colts, Atlanta Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo did not have a chance to kick once against the Patriots and, similarly, Tennessee Titans kicker Ryan Bullock also did not record a point. They don't often win games, but a low kicking performance certainly could lose one.
Surprises
Myles Gaskin, RB, Miami Dolphins
Gaskin entered the Week 11 game against the New York Jets as Yahoo's 17th-ranked running back. He finished as the seventh-best player at the position in total scoring while earning the second most touches (26) behind only Taylor. Gaskin made his mark in the passing game with a receiving touchdown helping him record 2.42 points per target on 96 yards from scrimmage.
Zach Ertz, TE, Arizona Cardinals
Hope you had Ertz in your starting lineup this week, despite the fact he was Yahoo's TE18. entering the slate. The Cardinals pass-catcher caught eight of the nine balls thrown his way by back-up quarterback Colt McCoy. He finished with 3.20 points per target and was the highest-scoring player at the position. Ertz turned his three red-zone looks into two touchdowns and finished with four receptions of 10 or more yards.
