We finish off fantasy football Week 11 by looking at the storylines coming out of the Patriots-Panthers game.
-You have to hand it to Cam Newton. The guy has clearly elevated his game against the bets opponents on the schedule. Newton was terrific Monday night in throwing for 209 yards and 3 touchdowns while also rushing for 62 yards on only 7 carries. When Newton combines passing scores with rushing yards, he is a gem of a fantasy football QB. Sure his penchant for getting off to slow starts is maddening but Newton is looking pretty locked in at the moment.
On the other side Tom Brady threw for 296 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT as he continued his season-long pattern of underwhelming play. He has a full allotment of receivers now but in this one had to deal with the top-ranked Panthers defense. In actuality as well, Brady was robbed of a chance to win it due to the bogus non-call of pass interference after Rob Gronkowski got mugged in the end zone on the final play of the game.
-Shane Vereen returned to action but he got only one carry for 7 yards. Meanwhile Bill Belichick was at it again in toying with Stevan Ridley in a negative way as he gave LeGarrette Blount 10 carries. Blount rushed for 49 yards on those ten carries while Ridley yielded 48 on 13. Luckily Ridley got the goal-line carries which resulted in a fantasy football game-saving score.
Now as far as Vereen is concerned, he shined in the passing game by leading the Pats with 8 catches for 65 yards. This is the role Vereen will be featured in so he has little to no value in standard formats. However in PPR leagues Vereen has absolute RB 2 status.
-Getting back to Gronkowski, he had his customary touchdown reception to go with five overall grabs for 59 yards. Danny Amendola chipped in 6 catches for 45 yards and Aaron Dobson added 4 for 38.
-It was fun duel between Steve Smith and Aquib Talib but the former wound up getting hurt because of the rough stuff. Still Smith returned to the game but was not effective afterwards. He would catch only 4 passes for 62 yards overall. Greg Olsen picked up the receiving slack along with Brandon LaFell. Olsen caught a touchdown pass among his 5 grabs for 52 yards and LaFell hit paydirt as well among his 7 catches for 59 yards. LaFell now has four touchdowns on the season and he has done enough to be a guy you could use as a WR 3 in standard setups.
That's all for now. As always feel free to post your thoughts.
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