It wasn’t as rare as seeing the Blood Moon that won’t appear for another 18 years, but three running backs rushed for three touchdowns apiece in Week 3 and they aren’t names you would expect. Devonta Freeman, Joseph Randle and LaGarrette Blount were fantasy studs and there was another guy named Chris Johnson who scored twice himself.
Meanwhile, owners who drafted LeSean McCoy and his one-and-a-half hamstrings saw his rookie backup Karlos Williams rush for 110 yards on 12 carries and a score. The impressive first-year pro out of Florida State has scored in every contest so far and will likely get the lion’s share in next week’s matchup because McCoy’s status is looking real shady.
Philadelphia’s Ryan Mathews rushed for over 100 yards in DeMarco Murray’s absence after being a late scratch Sunday morning. Darren Sproles had a key 89-yard punt return touchdown and the Eagles’ defense made up for Sam Bradford’s whopping 114 yards passing. The former No. 1 overall pick completed 14 of 28 passes with one being a lone touchdown pass to Mathews.
We saw repeat offenders C.J. Anderson and Jeremy Hill both get bottled up again while their teams won their respective games relying heavily on the passing attack. There will be brighter days ahead for both young talents although they may have been eclipsed on the depth chart for the short-term and those first-round picks are looking like a waste.
There may not be brighter days ahead for Alfred Morris’ owners as he was relegated to backup duties getting just six carries in Washington’s Thursday night loss to the New York Giants. Rookie Matt Jones drew the start over the veteran, but didn’t do all that much except drop the ball while diving for the goal line similar to, but certainly not as bad as Frank Gore last week. Morris’ touches could continue to decline if Jones does well and/or the Skins play from behind on the scoreboard all year.
Several quarterbacks played sloppy games as Philip Rivers, Matthew Stafford and Nick Foles all struggled in losses. But those owners shouldn’t feel as bad knowing things could have been a lot worse if they started Teddy Bridgewater and Colin Kaepernick.
It is also that time of year, when Michael Vick becomes fantasy relevant for roughly five days before pulling a disappearing act like Roddy White the past couple weeks. I hope you didn’t have multiple fantasy woes on your team this past week, but if you did, hopefully you had some of these top performers from Week 3 and were able to get a win. If not, I wish you better luck this upcoming week.
