James Morris hails from Rio Rancho, NM and has been playing fantasy sports for just over 15 years. Not only does he write the Bengals fantasy section, but he also does the Miami Dolphins fantasy section. Crossing over, Morris writes the fantasy sections for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA. Just send him an email and he will reply back the same day with your answer. Or, find him on Twitter (Fantasyguy23) and get all your NFL news before it hits the national media. *
There are winners and losers every week in the NFL, but I will be honest here and say the losers have to be the NFL fans. Enough said!
Just a word of advice for Week 4. Fred Jackson is likely going to be back, so you might want to try and flip C.J. Spiller while his value is highest. He won't lose ALL value, but he is going to split carries and won't see 25 touches a game. The same goes with Andre Brown, as Ahmad Bradshaw is coming back to protect his job.
Austin Collie is done for the season, which means Donnie Avery is going to be a hot waiver wire addition this week. Right now Avery is owned in just 7.2 percent of NFL.com leagues, and is worth a roster spot as a WR3 since he has no competition as Andrew Luck's No. 2 target in Indy.
Let's take a look at who was a winner and deserves a pat on the back, and who was a loser and will not be getting a Christmas card from your family this year.
Andy Dalton – QB, Bengals: Dalton is an underrated QB by many, but the tandem of Dalton-Green is going to be a dangerous one for years to come. This week he was able to toss the pigskin for 328 yards, 3 TDs and 1 INT, good enough for 27.72 points in the Dolphins NFL.com fantasy league.
Andrew Luck – QB, Colts: I told you the rookie was one to watch this weekend against a weak Jaguars defense, and he didn't disappoint.
Jamaal Charles – RB, Chiefs: Charles finally got his steam engine chugging along as he ran for 233 yards on the ground and a TD. He also added 6 catches for 55 yards and scored a nasty 40.08 points in NFL.com PPR scoring formats.
Andre Brown – RB, Giants: Brown took over for injured starter Ahmad Bradshaw, and may have just stolen his job in the process. The 3-year journeyman RB finished with a robust 113 yards rushing and 2 TDs. Bradshaw is going to push it to get back for Week 4 after this performance, so we will have to take a wait-and-see approach with how the carries shake out in New York.
Maurice Jones-Drew – RB, Jaguars: MJD went off on the Colts defense to the tune of 177 rushing yards and a TD. The yards and TD carried him to 27.30 points in NFL.com PPR leagues.
A.J. Green – WR, Bengals: Green started the game out by hauling in a 73-yard TD pass on the first Bengals play. He finished with 9 receptions for 183 yards, and racked up 30.80 points for NFL.com fantasy-leaguers.
Calvin Johnson – WR, Lions: And the rich get richer as Megatron hauled in 10 passes for 164 yards and a TD. I would consider playing Johnson in his bye week because I still think the man can get you points playing Madden NFL 2013 at home!
Kyle Rudolph – TE, Vikings: I told people about Rudolph all the way back in the preseason, and the kid is showing why I was right. He is a red zone threat and finished with 2 TDs on 5 catches for 36 yards. He is owned in just 17.2 percent of NFL.com fantasy leagues.
Chicago Bears Defense: The Bears defense was my start 'em defense because the Rams offense is just a train wreck. The Bears ended up allowing just 6 points, while amassing 6 sacks, 2 INTs, and a defensive TD.
Tony Romo – QB, Cowboys: Romo is one of the most criticized starting QBs in the NFL for his performance under pressure. That view probably isn't going to change much after Sunday's game where he threw for 283 yards, no TDs, an INT, and lost 2 fumbles. For a QB projected to get 29.38 in our Dolphins fantasy league on NFL.com, his real-time 6.32 points was a major letdown.
Michael Vick – QB, Eagles: I'll admit that I was wrong here! I thought Vick was headed in the right direction with the offense, but if by right I mean completely wrong, then I was right. Vick managed to finish with 217 empty passing yards and 28 rushing yards in a blowout loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
Chris Johnson – RB, Titans: CJ2K is owned in virtually every fantasy league out there, but the Titans have yet to figure out a way to get blocking for him so he can get his little engine started. The good news is that Johnson managed to up his seasonal YPC up from 1.1 YPC to to a robust 1.4 YPC after his 14 carries for 24 yards on Sunday. Hey, any improvement is still improvement, right?
Frank Gore – RB, 49ers: The 49ers have been called one of the best teams in the NFL over the first two weeks, if not THE best. I have argued against getting too excited about them because the offense is too conservative to keep up the pace they were on. On Sunday the Vikings put them in check and held Frank Gore to just 63 yards on the ground, and forced a fumble. Gore was projecting out with 16.60 points according to NFL.com "experts" (No. 19 on their RB projections), and finished with just 6.20 points (No. 37 for all RBs).
DeSean Jackson – WR, Eagles: As I said earlier, the Eagles team as a whole looked pretty horrendous against the Cardinals, and Jackson was far from the bright spot in their cloudy day. He finished with just 3 catches for 43 yards and no end zone visits.
Vincent Jackson – WR, Buccaneers: V-Jax wasn't worth playing on Sunday as the Cowboys did a great job of shutting him down until the end of the game. That means there is 77.4 percent of NFL.com fantasy football right now wishing they had started player X over Jackson because all he did was bring in a single pass for 29 empty yards. That equals 3.90 points in our PPR league vs. a projected total of 20.40 points.
Colby Fleener – TE, Colts: Fleener isn't someone I typically think of when I talk about fantasy TEs, but did you know he is owned in 39.6 percent of NFL.com leagues? Well, almost 40 percent of people playing fantasy football on NFL.com were disappointed on Sunday as Fleener failed to register a single catch against the porous Jaguars defense.
Pittsburgh Steelers Defense: The Oakland Raiders offense is not an offense to take lightly, but I doubt anyone expected them to hang 34 points on the scoreboard and hand the Steelers a loss on Sunday. To make it worse, all the Steelers defense could muster for fantasy stats were a single sack and INT.
For those wondering how I did, I missed on Michael Vick (7.48 points, low-end QB2 numbers), Antonio Gates (5.20 points, TE3 numbers), Peyton Manning (23.20, QB1 numbers) and Carson Palmer (21.86, QB1 numbers). So, I missed on four out of the 16 picks I made, still good enough for a 75 percent rating this week. Not my best showing, but still above par and better than the experts I know at the big box websites. I did however do FAR better in my Twitter, Facebook and email answers as I was able to tell people to grab Michael Leshoure (100 yards rushing, 34 yards receiving on 4 catches and a TD) and Andre Brown.
