What We Saw: Week 17

Ja'Marr Chase single-handedly decided many fantasy matchups this week

Ben Brown
What We Saw 3 Years Ago
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Introduction
Eagles @ Football Team
Buccaneers @ Jets
Dolphins @ Titans
Jaguars @ Patriots
Raiders @ Colts
Chiefs @ Bengals
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Broncos @ Chargers
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Vikings @ Packers

Jaguars @ Patriots

Final Score: Patriots 50, Jaguars 10

Writer: Ben Brown (@BenBrownPL on Twitter)

 

This was… something. In a cold, damp, foggy Foxboro, the New England Patriots completely and utterly dominated the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are limping and coughing their way to the offseason. Jacksonville elevated nine players from the practice squad on Friday after they had 27 players on the COVID list at one point this past week, so they were uber depleted heading into this one. They were also without James Robinson, their starting RB, who ruptured his Achilles in Week 16.

 

 

New England got off to a quick start, intercepting Trevor Lawrence twice in the first half and scoring touchdowns on each of their first five drives. It was a big day for some familiar fantasy names, specifically Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson, but it was also a big day for a name not many recognize: Kristian Wilkerson. He caught his first career pass in the 1st quarter and would go on three more in the game, including two touchdowns.

Meanwhile, Trevor Lawrence had a couple of nice passes but also threw some very poor ones, including his three interceptions. He threw his first touchdown in four weeks late in the game in garbage time but otherwise had a bad day.

New England clinched a playoff spot with the win and faces off with the Dolphins in Miami next week.

 

 

 

Jacksonville Jaguars

 

Quarterback

 

Trevor Lawrence: 17/27, 193 yards, TD, 3 INT, 2 Sacks | 2 carries, 16 yards

 

Trevor Lawrence is an enigma at this point in his career. At times, he can make incredible throws like these:

 

 

 

And then at other times, he makes throws like this:

 

 

 

What this tells me is that Lawrence is an immensely talented QB (I know, shocking right?), but his lack of good coaching is holding him back. And that was very apparent in this game on Sunday. Lawrence fell victim to too many bad decisions, forcing throws into windows he shouldn’t have which either resulted in picks or near interceptions. I counted four passes that should have been intercepted on top of the three that he threw, though his first pick bounced off a receiver’s hands and into the hands of Myles Bryant so it’s not totally Lawrence’s fault.

 

 

However, neither of his other picks were good decisions.

 

 

 

Coming into this game, Lawrence hadn’t thrown a touchdown pass since Thanksgiving weekend. He broke that streak this week while down 50-3, so it really didn’t matter for game purposes, but this should help his confidence moving forward to finally get the monkey off his back.

 

 

Running Backs

 

Dare Ogunbowale: 9 carries, 36 yards | 2 targets, 2 receptions, 32 yards, TD

Ryquell Armstead: 6 carries, 28 yards | 2 targets, 1 reception, 6 yards

 

With James Robinson out this week, starting RB duties fell to Dare Ogunbowale. He was on the receiving end of the only Jacksonville touchdown of the day, which saved his day from a fantasy perspective after many likely fired him up in their DFS lineups this week. He was pretty pedestrian on the day, though he did have one run that I thought he could have broken for a much longer play if it weren’t for Kyle Dugger stepping up to make an excellent stop.

 

 

Ryquell Armstead was among those elevated from Jacksonville’s practice squad, and he played his first game since missing all of 2020 due to COVID and a Myocarditis diagnosis as a result. He didn’t do anything special in this game but it was great to see him back on the field.

 

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends

 

Marvin Jones Jr: 6 targets, 2 receptions, 46 yards

Tavon Austin: 4 targets, 3 receptions, 2 yards

Laquon Treadwell: 6 targets, 6 receptions, 87 yards

Laviska Shenault Jr.: 3 targets, 2 receptions, 13 yards

Luke Farrell: 2 targets, 1 reception, 7 yards

Chris Manhertz: 1 target

 

If you started any of these receivers against the Patriots’ defense in your championship matchup, you deserved to lose. With Trevor Lawrence‘s struggles, pretty much this entire crew struggled. However, Laquon Treadwell did enough to redeem himself if you took a shot on him, and he had one heck of a catch during the course of this one.

 

 

Treadwell has really come into his own down the stretch this season, and he has developed into Lawrence’s most trusted receiver. That was clear today, as Lawrence looked his way whenever he needed to be bailed out. Otherwise, there just wasn’t much in this game for any of the other receivers.

 

New England Patriots

 

Quarterback

 

Mac Jones: 22/30, 227 yards, 3 TD | 2 carries, 12 yards

Brian Hoyer: 3/4. 63 yards | 2 carries, 1 yard

 

Mac was very good in this game, thanks mostly in part to his offensive line which gave him plenty of time to throw for most of the day. Jacksonville struggled to get any pressure with their defensive front, and Mac picked apart this defense. Early on he took what was given to him, allowing for the ground game to do the heavy lifting in the red zone, but later in the first half he decided they had had enough fun and wanted to get involved himself. He’d throw his first touchdown to Kristian Wilkerson after rolling out to his right, and then on their next drive he threw a gorgeous pass to Jakobi Meyers for his second passing TD of the day.

 

 

 

This was a perfect get-right game for Mac and the Patriots’ offense, as Jacksonville’s depleted defense had no answers for the Patriots’ attack all day long. While Mac did look great and had one of his best fantasy outputs of the seasons, it does need to be taken with a grain of salt considering the state of their opponent. At the very least it was a game for Mac and the offense to build on moving forward and hopefully a sign of things to come in 2022.

 

 

 

 

Running Backs

 

Damien Harris: 9 carries, 35 yards, 2 TD | 1 target, 1 reception, 12 yards

Rhamondre Stevenson: 19 carries, 107 yards, 2 TD

Brandon Bolden: 1 carry, 4 yards | 3 targets, 2 receptions, 21 yards

 

What more is there to say about the Patriots’ ground game? It’s easy to debate between Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson which is the better back and which should be getting the lion’s share of the carries, but they’re both really good and they both show up in most games. Harris is the top dog in the pecking order, and he got most of the reps in the first half, including two touchdowns.

 

 

He didn’t need many carries to make a fantasy impact, and those two scores did pretty much everything you could have asked for out of him in this one.

Harris took a back seat to Stevenson in the 2nd half, who picked up right where Harris left off and scored two touchdowns of his own. Stevenson looked like the better back, running over guys and making others miss on multiple occasions. He’s a physical runner who isn’t afraid to take a hit, and no matter what the Jaguars threw at him today he was able to bounce off of it and keep moving the ball forward. In games against lesser opponents, the Patriots showed all season that they can sustain two fantasy-relevant RBs and that was no different today.

 

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends

 

Kendrick Bourne: 6 targets, 5 receptions, 76 yards

Jakobi Meyers: 8 targets, 8 receptions, 73 yards, TD

Kristian Wilkerson: 8 targets, 4 receptions, 42 yards, 2 TD

Hunter Henry: 5 targets, 3 receptions, 37 yards

Jonnu Smith: 1 target, 1 reception, 20 yards | 1 carry, 5 yards

Gunner Olszewski: 1 target, 1 reception, 9 yards, Fumble

 

This will forever be known as the Kristian Wilkerson game. After N’Keal Harry was surprisingly a healthy scratch, Wilkerson stepped in and had the best game of his career, a game in which he had his first career reception and his first career touchdown.

 

 

 

He’d go on to catch two touchdowns and this truly came out of nowhere unless you paid any attention to Patriots training camp. Wilkerson and Mac Jones worked together throughout much of August, and Wilkerson flashed at times in the preseason. This may have been the end of Harry’s Patriots career, and Wilkerson may have earned the trust of his coaches and QB to be part of the offense moving forward. He’s had issues with drops in the past (he dropped one today in the end zone while getting hit in the head by a defender), but he might be a sneaky late-round speculative add in deeper drafts next season. Mac forced the ball his way on multiple occasions today, including three deep shots. That would add a significant new aspect to this offense moving forward.

Jakobi Meyers caught three passes on the Patriots’ first drive, a sign of things to come for the young receiver on the day. He’d catch all eight of his targets, including the touchdown shown above. He came up clutch on multiple 3rd down plays as well, extending drives that would end up resulting in touchdowns. This was the third straight game where Meyers caught six or more passes, and he showed why he’s Mac’s number one option.

Hunter Henry was relatively quiet in this one. He got shaken up on his first reception midway through the second quarter, as he was shown hobbling to the sideline and wincing in pain. He was able to make it back out on the field and caught a few more passes, but he wasn’t targeted at all in the red zone which is where he really makes his money. This day was reserved for the run game and Kristian Wilkerson instead.

Kendrick Bourne would have had a quiet day had it not been for his 46-yard catch and run late in the game that helped pad his yardage stats. He was mostly quiet otherwise and wasn’t a big part of the offense in this game.

 

 

— Ben Brown (@BenBrownPL on Twitter)

Series Navigation
Introduction
Eagles @ Football Team
Buccaneers @ Jets
Dolphins @ Titans
Jaguars @ Patriots
Raiders @ Colts
Chiefs @ Bengals
Giants @ Bears
Falcons @ Bills
Texans @ 49ers
Broncos @ Chargers
Panthers @ Saints
Rams @ Ravens
Lions @ Seahawks
Cardinals @ Cowboys
Vikings @ Packers

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