Welcome to Statistically (in)Significant, the place to find great stats that probably only matter at the water cooler (or bar). Each week I'll dig through the stats of the week gone by and deliver you some choice conversation starters. All fantasy stats are standard Yahoo scoring, unless otherwise noted.
8 Turnovers in 3 Games
Since Ezekiel Elliott took some mid-season R&R about 3 weeks ago, the Cowboys have struggled mightily. Dak Prescott, hailed last year for his ball security, has turned the ball over 8 times in the last 3 games, all of them without Zeke. He has 5 INT and 3 fumbles lost in those games and has thrown zero touchdowns. In fact, the Cowboys have only scored 2 TDs in those three games. With Zeke in, Dak threw 16 TDs with only 4 INTs over 8 games. The rest of Zeke's suspension will see the Cowboys taking on the Redskins, Giants and Raiders. I'm not sure that the Cowboys are going to win any of them. This strangely begs the argument - Is Zeke the most valuable player to his team? It sure would be a hilarious thing for Goodell to have to see the Zeke be given such a big award that was highlighted by the suspension that ruled (and ruined) the news cycle for the first half of the season.
-0.6 Yards per Carry for Bears RBs
Several bad rushing days have found their way into my column this season, but oh boy, the Bears took it to another level yesterday. The three Bears running backs, Jordan Howard, Benny Cunningham and Tarik Cohen combined for 10 carries and -6 yards. It took QB Mitchell Trubisky's monumental 4 carries for 12 yards to make sure that they didn't finish in the negative as a team. But yes, of course, the Bears are bad. I'd rather talk about the team that beat them, the best team in the league right now, the Philadelphia Eagles. Carson Wentz threw another 3 touchdowns, making it his 5th game where he threw 3 or more TDs. He's also got the league lead with 28 for the season. The Eagles have won 9 in a row, and now have two huge tests over the next two weeks, both on the west coast. First to Seattle next Sunday night, and a visit to the Rams the following week.
1.24 Points Per Touch
Step aside Kareem Hunt, Alvin Kamara just took your spot for the favorite to win rookie of the year. He's now third in STANDARD fantasy scoring and he only has 77 carries on the season. His production is off the charts, fantasy wise. At 1.24 points per touch(ppt), he's even crushing Chris Thompson (ended the year at 1.09 ppt), whom we gushed about earlier this season. The next closest player still going is Duke Johnson at 0.94 ppt, but seeing as Duke has only the 17th most fantasy points, there's really no comparison. Look instead to how much he's dominating the guys above him. Todd Gurley is averaging about 0.80 ppt, and high volume guy Le'Veon Bell is getting just 0.52 ppt. This means that somehow, Alvin Kamara is more than twice as efficient with the ball than the guy commonly accepted as the best back of the last couple years. All this talk about Mark Ingram being a first team all-pro might be a bit premature. He's got a teammate doing at least as well as he is!
46:21 TD:INT Ratio
This week, quarterback play was a lot cleaner than last week. With a ratio of 46 touchdowns to only 21 interceptions, this week's games felt a lot less sloppy than last week's 39:31 ratio. An obvious side effect of this better play is improved numbers for wide receivers. This week, 6 guys found themselves north of 20 points, with Julio Jones leading the way with an absurd 38.8 in standard leagues. His 253 receiving yards was the highest total for a player in one game since his 300 yard game last season. Meanwhile, Antonio Brown is the major beneficiary of an improved Ben Roethlisberger and has put up an absurd line of 20 receptions for 313 yards and 5 touchdowns in the last two games. Not to be outdone, the surging Chargers have scored 82 points in the last two games, behind Philip Rivers awesome Thanksgiving performance and Keenan Allen's 331 receiving yards over that same stretch. All of this means that the end of the fantasy football season is sure to be freaking amazing.
7-0 Since Week 5
Congrats to Case Keenum, easily the best performing player in the league whose job is constantly in jeopardy. Since taking over for good in Week 5 - remember Sam Bradford? - Keenum has won 7 straight games and the team has averaged 27.4 points per game. This has the Vikings sitting pretty at 9-2, while every week, Coach Zimmer has to announce Keenum as his starter, and not Teddy Bridgewater. Bridgewater may be the future of the team, but he has almost nothing to do with their success this season. I think that changing the signal caller at this point in the season would be disastrous, but hey, with Zeke finally suspended, what else do talking heads have to discuss?
