When was the last time a Carolina defense gave up 28 straight points? In fairness, their offense was almost completely overmatched by a Pittsburgh D and special teams that forced turnovers and pressured the hell out of Cam Newton, who had been sacked merely 12 times in his first eight contests before going down five times yesterday.
Christian McCaffrey was the only Panther the Steelers couldn't stop, racking up an incredible 118 yards and two scores on 13 touches . . . in the first half. Apparently the best way to shut him down is to run up the score and earn some takeaways, because CMC barely touched the ball in the second half, though he managed a one-yard punch-in for his third score late in the fourth, which I'd like to think was a well-deserved "thank you" for carrying the team all night.
It was a game of what-ifs fantasy-wise. Yes, Big Ben and CMC had huge evenings. But the Steelers distributed the ball far and wide -- too far and wide than many fantasy managers wanted. Antonio Brown merely hit his average fantasy production for the year, while JuJu Smith-Schuster exceeded his by a couple of points. ames Conner dealt with concussion symptoms and wouldn’t have been needed anyway after the game broke open, leaving him with middling RB2 production. If you fell asleep early and awoke to the news that Pittsburgh hung 52 points on Carolina, you'd think Brown or JuJu or Conner (or maybe all three) would have dominated.
Instead, last night was all about McCaffrey (36.8 fantasy points) and Ben (35.8). McCaffrey is about one big game away from cracking the top 4 RB echelon, while Ben incredibly could end Week 10 in the top 4. Remember, Ben's had only one huge fantasy season: 2014, when he was the #5 scoring QB with 306 points. He's on pace to obliterate those numbers. This summer he was the consensus 11th ranked fantasy QB, only a few months removed from questioning whether he still belonged out on the field -- a guy who has considered retiring in recent offseasons and who last October acknowledged, "Maybe I don't have it anymore."
Clearly he's still got it.
Christian McCaffrey was the only Panther the Steelers couldn't stop, racking up an incredible 118 yards and two scores on 13 touches . . . in the first half. Apparently the best way to shut him down is to run up the score and earn some takeaways, because CMC barely touched the ball in the second half, though he managed a one-yard punch-in for his third score late in the fourth, which I'd like to think was a well-deserved "thank you" for carrying the team all night.
It was a game of what-ifs fantasy-wise. Yes, Big Ben and CMC had huge evenings. But the Steelers distributed the ball far and wide -- too far and wide than many fantasy managers wanted. Antonio Brown merely hit his average fantasy production for the year, while JuJu Smith-Schuster exceeded his by a couple of points. ames Conner dealt with concussion symptoms and wouldn’t have been needed anyway after the game broke open, leaving him with middling RB2 production. If you fell asleep early and awoke to the news that Pittsburgh hung 52 points on Carolina, you'd think Brown or JuJu or Conner (or maybe all three) would have dominated.
Instead, last night was all about McCaffrey (36.8 fantasy points) and Ben (35.8). McCaffrey is about one big game away from cracking the top 4 RB echelon, while Ben incredibly could end Week 10 in the top 4. Remember, Ben's had only one huge fantasy season: 2014, when he was the #5 scoring QB with 306 points. He's on pace to obliterate those numbers. This summer he was the consensus 11th ranked fantasy QB, only a few months removed from questioning whether he still belonged out on the field -- a guy who has considered retiring in recent offseasons and who last October acknowledged, "Maybe I don't have it anymore."
Clearly he's still got it.