For a while last night it looked like my low Week 5 expectations of Jared Goff were too high. Yesterday I predicted high-end QB2 production. In the first quarter he was 2-for-7 for 24 yards. Oh, and he scampered for a yard. Midway through the second he was 2-for-8. Then 6-for-12 for 79 yards and Seattle poised to run out the first-half clock. But Pete Carroll blinked, Jason Myers missed a field goal, and then Rams of early 2018 ever-so-slightly began to emerge.
Before dismissing Goff as a "streamer at best," consider Gerald Everett's lunge to the end-zone that fell inches short, or Robert Woods nearly getting his knee down in time. Or even Goff's two-point conversation that was narrowly reversed. It was nearly an elite performance. It wasn't, but in a fairly tough road game, he did enough to secure a 350-3 day.
Interestingly, Everett and Tyler Higbee--his two tight ends--accounted for 46% of his passing yardage. With Brandin Cooks getting knocked out and the TD-dependent Todd Gurley once again scuffling on the ground and being largely invisible in the passing game, Goff needed more playmakers. For at least one night, this tandem helped keep the Rams in it.
And speaking of Gurley, since rolling over Carolina Week 1, he's been a sub-4.0 rusher in four straight. There are many possible explanations, all of them reasonable. The most obvious one is that he's not playing close to 100% healthy.
On the other side of the ball, Russell Wilson ripped apart a reportedly vaunted Rams defense that's now yielded 85 points in five days. Chris Carson played error-free for the second straight contest, keeping him at arm's length from Rashaad Penny. Tyler Lockett's amazing catch reminds everyone how good he is. And Will Dissly reminds everyone that some free agent TE pick-ups can be difference makers.
Back to Wilson: Painfully, I should have seen his dominance coming. Sounds like a bad excuse. But I've written about this before: He's never played on a Seattle team with such a middling defense. From a fantasy perspective, he's unquestionably one of the top 5 QBs of the past decade. A QB1 in each of his seven seasons. Top-3 three times. And yet he did all this playing (with the exception of last year) with a terrific defense. He didn't need to do too much to win.
This year he was expected to do more. Much more. He's throwing deeper into games. He's scrambling deeper into games. He's forced to be the best version of himself, which is scary-good.
So I regret not seeing the writing on the wall--that his preseason QB-8 ADP assumed a sub-par (by Wilson's standards) campaign despite needing to step up more often in more games. And this is why I write about this stuff. We have to learn, and then apply what we've learned going forward. Of course defense matters to an offensive player. Sometimes it's a more circuitous link. In Wilson's case, as a gifted offensive centerpiece still in his prime, it's a direct link to a breakout season.
Before dismissing Goff as a "streamer at best," consider Gerald Everett's lunge to the end-zone that fell inches short, or Robert Woods nearly getting his knee down in time. Or even Goff's two-point conversation that was narrowly reversed. It was nearly an elite performance. It wasn't, but in a fairly tough road game, he did enough to secure a 350-3 day.
Interestingly, Everett and Tyler Higbee--his two tight ends--accounted for 46% of his passing yardage. With Brandin Cooks getting knocked out and the TD-dependent Todd Gurley once again scuffling on the ground and being largely invisible in the passing game, Goff needed more playmakers. For at least one night, this tandem helped keep the Rams in it.
And speaking of Gurley, since rolling over Carolina Week 1, he's been a sub-4.0 rusher in four straight. There are many possible explanations, all of them reasonable. The most obvious one is that he's not playing close to 100% healthy.
On the other side of the ball, Russell Wilson ripped apart a reportedly vaunted Rams defense that's now yielded 85 points in five days. Chris Carson played error-free for the second straight contest, keeping him at arm's length from Rashaad Penny. Tyler Lockett's amazing catch reminds everyone how good he is. And Will Dissly reminds everyone that some free agent TE pick-ups can be difference makers.
Back to Wilson: Painfully, I should have seen his dominance coming. Sounds like a bad excuse. But I've written about this before: He's never played on a Seattle team with such a middling defense. From a fantasy perspective, he's unquestionably one of the top 5 QBs of the past decade. A QB1 in each of his seven seasons. Top-3 three times. And yet he did all this playing (with the exception of last year) with a terrific defense. He didn't need to do too much to win.
This year he was expected to do more. Much more. He's throwing deeper into games. He's scrambling deeper into games. He's forced to be the best version of himself, which is scary-good.
So I regret not seeing the writing on the wall--that his preseason QB-8 ADP assumed a sub-par (by Wilson's standards) campaign despite needing to step up more often in more games. And this is why I write about this stuff. We have to learn, and then apply what we've learned going forward. Of course defense matters to an offensive player. Sometimes it's a more circuitous link. In Wilson's case, as a gifted offensive centerpiece still in his prime, it's a direct link to a breakout season.