A Look Back at Week 5 Fantasy Football Leaders
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If you, like so many others, spent this Sunday tuned in to direct tv keeping an eye on your favorite NFL teams and players, then you certainly caught quite a bit of exciting action. Sunday was filled with a number of great games and great individual performances.
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Most notable, however, was that a few players who have been a bit quiet on the fantasy front stepped up and had big days on Sunday, which could of course mean good news for your team if you feel you’ve been underachieving. Along these lines, here are a few of Sunday’s top achievers, as listed on espn.com.
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o Adrian Peterson led all scorers (depending to some extent on how your individual league scores its players) by torching Arizona on Sunday, rushing for 122 yards and 3 touchdowns. Peterson has by no means had a poor season, but he has not been the top running back to date – Sunday may have marked a turning point in that regard.
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o Ben Roethlisberger exploded on Sunday as well, lifting the frustrated and underachieving Steelers with 228 yards for 5 touchdowns with just 1 interception. This was by far Roethlisberger’s best performance of the season, and could be a sign of better days ahead for Pittsburgh.
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o Matt Cassel had a surprisingly strong performance (largely due to the fact that the Chiefs were playing in Indianapolis, where the Colts’ season just keeps getting more miserable), completing 21 of 29 passing attempts for 257 yards and 4 touchdowns. Don’t get too excited on Cassel, as this performance is likely to be an outlier – but enjoy him this week if he’s yours!
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o Most of the story in New England this season has revolved around the ridiculously high numbers being posted by Tom Brady and Wes Welker. This week, however, it was running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis that stepped up and had the big game for the Patriots, rushing 27 times for 136 yards and 2 touchdowns.
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These are just a few of the top performances from week five (excluding Monday night’s game), most of whom had not been leading the league in previous weeks. Some of the more consistent fantasy players of the year, including Aaron Rodgers and Cam Newton, also posted solid numbers on Sunday, and appear to be dialed in as the season quickly approaches the midway point. It does seem that the fantasy landscape is changing to some extent, with a number of first round caliber players having sub-par seasons, and a number of new fantasy stars taking their places.
