Week 9 Fantasy Stats: Rounding Up The Notable Performances

The only problem with Forte’s 2011 season has been his almost complete lack of scoring. Despite 805 yards rushing and 436 receiving yards, the Bears running back has scored just two touchdowns, although both of them have come in the previous four weeks.

Despite that lack of scoring, SB Nation still pegged Forte as the fourth best option this week. To be sure, there were plenty of reasons to think that better days are ahead for the 25-year-old, especially coming off his 145-yard, one-touchdown performance in Week 8.

Amidst a frustrating season for the Eagles, McCoy has been a bright spot. Entering Week 9, the running back was averaging 107.7 rushing yards per game, scoring eight touchdowns. Even before Monday’s game, McCoy was ranked fourth in rushing yards and second in rushing touchdowns. He also had 138 receiving yards and had caught a pair of touchdowns.

In recent weeks, McCoy has been especially good. In weeks 6 and 8 he had rushed for 126 and 185 yards, respectively, with three touchdowns. He had rushed for at least 80 yards in six of his first seven weeks.

After a bit of a slow start, Vick had been stepping up his fantasy production in recent weeks. Over the four-game stretch entering Week 9, he averaged nearly 312 yards passing, about 67 yards rushing and had thrown seven touchdowns. All were significant improvements over his first three games this season.

As it is, Vick has been one of the better fantasy quarterbacks this year, even if his team’s performance has not always been up to snuff. Vick entered the week projected as the fourth best quarterback.

Aside from those games, though, he’s been considerably less helpful. Week 8 was probably his best performance outside of those games, as he caught three passes for 54 yards and a touchdown.

Still, SB Nation pegged Maclin as the ninth best wide receiver option this week. We projected him to register about 10 fantasy points.

Coming into Week 9, Cutler was having a very Cutler-esque season. With 1,910 yards, 11 touchdowns and six interceptions, he hasn’t exactly been great, but he’s done just enough to seem worth keeping around.

For more Cutler news and analysis, be sure to check out Bears blog Windy City Gridiron.

Coming off a pair of 1,000-yard seasons, much was expected of Jackson in 2011. Instead, he’s been plagued by inconsistency, which is maybe part of what being a big-play threat is about. Aside from his 102-yard game in Week 1 and his 171-yard explosion in Week 4, Jackson has been largely disappointing.

In Jackson’s previous two weeks, for instance, he had caught a total of six passes for 77 yards. If you take away his two biggest games of the season, Jackson has just 230 yards and one touchdown in six games. That comes out to just 38.3 yards per game, which, sadly, is still more than twice what he managed Monday. While you are clearly playing Jackson for those big games, he’s making it increasingly difficult to live with his up-and-down nature.

Coming off a disappointing 2010 season in which his yards were nearly halved (511 yards, four touchdowns), the Eagles’ tight end came into Week 9 in the midst of another up and down season. Before collecting 14 catches in his last two games, he tallied just 13 over the first six games of the season.

For more news and analysis of Celek’s performance, check out Eagles blog Bleeding Green Nation.

It remains to be seen if Ford will emerge as the Raiders number one receiver. Ford has struggled to get much going this season and finally had a breakout performance against the Broncos. For fantasy purposes, he is worth stashing on your bench, but it is hard to consider starting him on a regular basis when we don’t really know what Carson Palmer will do on a consistent basis. Of all the Raiders receivers, Ford is probably the best start moving forward. But it will be a roller coaster ride much of the way, which more or less describes the Raiders season.

For more on the Raiders, check out Silver & Black Pride. For more on fantasy football, check out Fake Teams. Follow @sbnationfantasy on Twitter.

For more on the Falcons, check out The Falcoholic. For more on fantasy football, check out Fake Teams. Follow @sbnationfantasy on Twitter.

Ben Tate remains a bench player for now given how hard it is to predict these kinds of situations. The Texans have a few games remaining on their schedule that could result in blowouts, but it can be a bit of a roll of the dice. The “any given Sunday” mantra of upsets makes it a risky proposition to play Tate while Foster is healthy. If you want to roll the dice go ahead, but it is arguably a sucker bet to do so.

For more on the Texans, check out Battle Red Blog. For more on fantasy football, check out Fake Teams. Follow @sbnationfantasy on Twitter.

Felix Jones suffered a high ankle sprain in week six, opening the door for Murray to step into the starting lineup. In three starts (technically he came off the bench against St. Louis, but we’ll overlook that for now), Murray has rushed for 466 yards at an 8.47 yards per carry clip. That’s not too shabby.

The question now is what his role will be when Felix Jones is healthy again. Murray has earned his share of the carries, but does he deserve starter carries or platoon carries at this point? It is a good problem to have in the sense that too much talent is usually a good problem to have. It is a bad problem because making changes or switching to a committee approach can mess with a running back’s flow. It raises numerous question marks and the Cowboys have not really answered them yet.

McGahee fractured a bone in his hand a few weeks back and sat out last week’s game against Detroit. He had a plate and some pins inserted in his ball carrying hand, but that didn’t seem to be an issue for him. McGahee has had a resurgent 2011 season and he looks to be back on track after the hand injury.

For more on the Broncos, check out Mile High Report. For more on fantasy football, check out Fake Teams. Follow @sbnationfantasy on Twitter.

The question now is what will happen with the Redskins running back situation. Ryan Torain was essentially benched in the game and Mike Shanahan said after the game that Torain would only play when Helu gets tired. That would seem to indicate Helu has the starting job, but in the world of Mike Shanahan things are never that clear. For now Helu is the man, but don’t be surprised to see changes come out of the blue.

For more on the Redskins, check out Hogs Haven. For more on fantasy football, check out Fake Teams. Follow @sbnationfantasy on Twitter.

Tebow finished the day 10 of 21 for 124 yards and two touchdowns. He added in 117 rushing yards on twelve carries. As has become expected in these kind of games, Tebow’s rushing totals drastically helped a questionable passing day. In an average league, Tebow would have netted approximately 24 points. A few rushing yards can do wonders for a quarterback’s fantasy performance.

For more on the Broncos, check out Mile High Report. For more on fantasy football, check out Fake Teams. Follow @sbnationfantasy on Twitter.

Rivers performance provided another glimpse into a continually struggling Packers defense. They have put up some solid efforts, but more often than not they have given up a significant amount of points on a fairly regular basis. They are prone to some shootouts, which bodes well for quarterbacks facing them in the coming weeks. Add in the highly prolific Packers offense putting teams in a trailing position and it only means more pass attempts.

For more on the Chargers, check out Bolts from the Blue. For more on fantasy football, check out Fake Teams. Follow @sbnationfantasy on Twitter.

For more on the Raiders, check out Silver & Black Pride. For more on fantasy football, check out Fake Teams. Follow @sbnationfantasy on Twitter.

Mendenhall had 421 rushing yards and 48 receiving yard on the season with 3 rushing touchdowns entering Week 9. Mendenhall was averaging 60 yards rushing per game and 7 yards receiving per game. Mendenhall’s rushing yards per game were down nearly 20 yards per game from last season.

Mendenhall was ranked as the 20th ranked running back according to Yahoo! heading into his match up with the Baltimore Ravens who rank 3rd against the run, giving up 89 rushing yards per game.

Rice had 489 rushing yards and 373 receiving yard on the season with 5 rushing touchdown entering Week 9. Rice was averaging 70 yards rushing per game and 53 yards receiving per game. Rice’ rushing yards per game were down nearly 5 yards per game from last season.

Rice was ranked as the 7th ranked running back according to Yahoo! heading into his match up with the Pittsburgh Steelers who rank 8th against the run, giving up 99 rushing yards per game.

Roethlisberger completed 20 of his 37 passing attempts for 365 yards and a touchdown while adding an additional 61 yards by way of three scrambles out of the pocket.

In Week 9, Roethlisberger faced the only team that’s been able to shut him down, the Baltimore Ravens and their 3rd-ranked pass defense. They certainly didn’t shut him down, but at least they held him out of the win column.

It had been a rough few weeks for Joe Flacco prior to Sunday evening’s win. He was once a promising young passer, and he still has ability, but he’s grown more and more inconsistent, missing throws he hit just last year.

For more on Flacco and the big game against the Steelers, visit Baltimore Beat Down and Behind The Steel Curtain.

Green had 516 receiving yard on the season with 5 receiving touchdowns entering Week 9. Green was averaging 74 yards receiving per game.

Green was ranked as the 11th ranked wide receiver according to Yahoo! heading into his match up with the Tennessee Titans who rank 17th against the pass, giving up 235 passing yards per game.

Johnson had 439 receiving yard on the season with 4 receiving touchdowns entering Week 9. Johnson was averaging 63 yards receiving per game. Johnson’s receiving yards per game were down nearly 5 yards per game from last season.

Johnson was ranked as the 31st ranked wide receiver according to Yahoo! heading into his match up with the New York Jets who rank 7th against the pass, giving up 197 passing yards per game.

Burress had 243 receiving yard on the season with 5 receiving touchdowns entering Week 9. Burress was averaging 35 yards receiving per game.

For more on the New York Jets and Plaxico Burress, visit SB Nation’s Jets blog Gang Green Nation. For more on fantasy football, check out Fake Teams. Follow @sbnationfantasy on Twitter.

Jones caught just one pass in his team’s 45-38 victory, but that lone grab was a 21-yard touchdown reception. Rodgers hooked up with three other receivers for his three other touchdowns, though, so it doesn’t exactly mean anything going forward.

Jones had 326 receiving yard on the season with three receiving touchdowns entering Week 9. Jones was averaging 47 yards receiving per game. Jones’ receiving yards per game were up nearly 5 yards per game from last season.

Heyward-Bey had 434 receiving yard on the season with a single receiving touchdown entering Week 9. Heyward-Bey was averaging 72 yards receiving per game. Heyward-Bey’s receiving yards per game were up nearly 50 yards per game from last season.

Heyward-Bey was ranked as the 24th ranked wide receiver according to Yahoo! heading into his match up with the Denver Broncos who rank 19th against the pass, giving up 250 passing yards per game.