Seahawks vs. Lions
Seahawks
The Seattle Seahawks commanded this game throughout, winning 28-14 after leading by three touchdowns for most of the contest. Russell Wilson was fantastic, and the running game continued to dominate. A few more notes:
Russell Wilson is DangerRuss
The Seahawks once again ran the ball constantly, but that didn’t prevent Wilson from having one of the best, most efficient games of his career. Wilson completed 14-of-17 passes for 248 yards and three touchdowns. He had a perfect passer rating in the first half, and was nearly flawless in this one. Seattle’s newfound run game has some owners concerned, but Wilson is a rock-solid QB1, regardless of opponent this season.
The Run Game Remains Solid
Seattle was expected all along to attack Detroit’s less than stellar run defense, even with Snacks in the mix. That all came to fruition, as Chris Carson ran for 105 yards, caught two passes for 19 yards and had a rushing touchdown. He has cemented himself as Seattle’s top dog in the backfield, and should continue to bring in RB2 value. Mike Davis mixed in a little bit as well, with ten carries for 33 yards and a catch. He is a deep league FLEX play at best, but this is Carson’s backfield at the moment.
Tyler Lockett and David Moore > Doug Baldwin?
While the focus was on the run game, Wilson did throw three touchdown passes after all. Tyler Lockett has now scored a touchdown in six of Seattle’s seven games, tying his career-high halfway through the season. He always has bust potential week in and week out, but his consistency this season makes him a nice WR2 going forward. David Moore has been outstanding, hauling in four touchdowns in his last three games. He is still a risky play, but it is very, very clear he is a favorite target of Wilson’s. Consider him in 14+ team leagues as a FLEX play. Finally, Doug Baldwin only had two catches for 26 yards. He did catch a ball in the end zone, but was not able to drag his toe for it to count. Baldwin is becoming a bench candidate, and I’m comfortable giving him a week or two sidelined if possible.
Big Ed is Back
The Seahawks finally got to see tight end Ed Dickson in action on Sunday, and he responded with a touchdown reception. He is expected to be Seattle’s primary tight end, although the team will mix Nick Vannett in as well. I wouldn’t touch this duo in 10-teamers, although Dickson isn’t an awful add in 12+ team leagues.
D/ST are Turnover Machines
If this defense can turnover the notoriously stingy Lions offense, they can turn over just about anyone. I’d keep rolling them out, even though their schedule is about to get pretty dicey. This is a top ten D/ST, regardless of opponent.
-Andy Patton
Lions
Another week, another new Lions team. There’s always a major difference in Lions performance, and it’s never predictable.
Stafford managed his sixth straight multi-TD performance in a somewhat less stellar performance
Technically, as a fantasy player, Matthew Stafford performed very similar to his past few weeks despite a fumble and an interception, his first turnovers since Week Three. This came on the back of 40 pass attempts (finally), despite the weird game situation in terms of number of drives. The Lions only had five drives heading into the fourth quarter, which isn’t exactly where you want your team to be at any point. However, due to the nature of the comeback, he had a bunch of passing attempts as the game wound down to a close.
This is a continuation of what has been said for several weeks now; Stafford is a consistency machine, but he’s not likely to blow up on any given week.
Marvin Jones wins the wide receiver roulette
Unfortunate that it’s come to this, but it looks like the Lions receivers are going to be picked at random on a week to week basis. Kenny Golladay was back to lining up mostly on the outside, but it didn’t end up paying off in any meaningful way. His one reception was on his only target, and there were 40 passes thrown. Meanwhile, Golden Tate was targeted 12 times and still didn’t manage much in the way of fantasy points.
Marvin Jones was the big winner this week, but the unfortunate truth is that it’s unlikely to be predictable moving forward. The hope after the first three weeks was that each receiver would be in the vicinity of 1000 yards by the end of the season, and that may still be true, but it’s not going to be as obvious week to week who to start.
Kerryon Johnson took over the receiving back role with Theo Riddick out, but didn’t manage much in the run game
The run blocking for the Lions was atrocious this week, and the run game suffered as a result. Those who started Kerryon Johnson were still likely happy with the results, as he reeled in six passes for 69 yards, but almost all of that was in the last quarter when the Lions were running in full comeback mode. It’s hard to forget that Theo Riddick is incredible in the passing game, and likely when he comes back he cuts into that. This week may be a mirage of Kerryon’s floor being boosted by the passing game, as it’s unlikely he ends up with that many receiving yards or receptions moving forward.
The defense was real bad without Damon Harrison, and real good with him
Breaking down the stats is impressive. The Lions were allowing a full two yards less per carry with Damon Harrison on the field than without him, and although some of that is due to situational absence, it’s clear that he’s going to be a very big presence moving forward. The main issue is that the pass defense was absolutely abysmal regardless of who is out there, so don’t expect much from a streaming standpoint here.
Matt Prater was limited due to drives and field position
The starting field position battle was won handily by the Seahawks, who kept the Lions starting inside their own 20 on almost every drive. This meant that, despite gaining a ton of yardage, the Lions were rarely in field goal range. When they were, they either threw a pick or a touchdown, so Matt Prater didn’t get much work this time around.
-Ian Rye