Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

This week we were treated to a Thursday night blowout that was especially kind to Julio Jones owners, and as is usual, a fantastic Sunday slate of games. Here's what we learned.

- It's going to be a looong time before we see RGIII again, which isn't a bad thing for the rest of the team. In two games, Kirk Cousins has 677 yards passing with 5 TD's to go against just 1 INT. Washington has put up 41 and 34 points with Cousins at the helm. It's clear that the rest of the fantasy players on that team are now in much better hands.

- Le'Veon Bell looks like he's settled in as one of the best RB's in the league. He's second in the league with 315 yards (behind Demarco Murray, who has 385 yds on an incredible 75 carries). Maybe most interesting is Bell's 81-yard run last night, which was the longest non-touchdown run in about 20 years in the NFL. It's also the longest run the Panthers have ever given up, as well as the longest run for the Steelers in 44 years.

- Three Quaterbacks caught passes yesterday. Russell Wilson caught a 17 yard pass from Jermain Kearse and Johnny Manziel had a long catch and run using some subterfuge which got called back. Most impressive was Andy Dalton's 18 yard TD reception from Mohamed Sanu , who is now 4 for 4 in his career for 166 yards and 2 TD's. Sanu has a perfect QB rating of 158.3 for his career.

- Devin Hester, you really are ridiculous. Hester saved a play by forcing and recovering a fumble from a defensive player who was returning an earlier fumble. He then took and end-around 20 yards for a TD and capped it off with a punt return for a TD, giving him 20 in his career, leaving him alone atop the NFL record books. That's quite a game that should remind Lovie Smith of his days in Chicago.

- Ted Ginn Jr. must love to see his name on the box score. He threw a 10 yard pass, had a 4 yard rush, a 3 yard reception and had 1 punt return for 8 yards. He's not getting much activity in any phase of the game, but he's certainly available for whatever the coaches ask of him.

- Stephen Tulloch has joined the ranks of Bill Grammatica and Kendry Morales by tearing his ACL while celebrating a sack of Aaron Rodgers . Tulloch was placed on IR on Monday and while I suppose as a Bears fan, it's wonderful to see a division rival be the victim of such a ridiculous circumstance. What did we learn here? Clearly nothing, players will always celebrate and get hurt, shit happens.

- Kelvin Benjamin is going to give Sammy Watkins a run for his money when it comes to the best rookie WR. Benjamin caught 11 passes on 11 targets and now has 19 for 253 yds and 2 TD's this season. He's turning into a must start every week, regardless of who is throwing him the ball in Carolina.

- It's good to be a 'kowski'. The only players that scored points in the Patriots - Raiders game had 'kowski' in their name. Sebastian Janikowski and Stephen Gostkowski had three field goals each, and Rob Gronkowski topped it off with a touchdown, with the extra point by Gostkowski of course.

- There's running back controversy in Baltimore, and it doesn't involve Ray Rice. Bernard Pierce is not fully healthy right now, and rookie Lorenzo Taliaferro had a great showing, gaining 91 yards on 18 carries and scoring a touchdown. Taliaferro was praised by his coach after the game and he could easily take over the starting role from Bernard Pierce in the next couple of weeks.

- Defense continues to be the most erratic position, but it's not without its favorites. Preseason favorites like New England, Houston and Cincinnati are all in the top 4 point scorers, but Seattle, the unquestioned #1 drafted D/ST is sitting at 26th right now, only scoring 14 points through three games. Some things never change, like people's ability to be wrong about fantasy football.

9/16/14, Fantasy Apocalypse, Waiver Wire Wonders

Avast, ye mateys. We're sailing fer Fantasy Island. Yea, I've got no more pirate lingo for you, but I just HAD to use this awesome picture of Giovani Bernarrrrrrrd that Dave put together for one of my fantasy teams. I needed a replacement after Purple Jesus's fall from the league and my team's moniker.

Anyways, back to the podcast. During the show, we enjoyed a Maharaja courtesy of Dave's chili cook-off win and had more than a little Glen Grant Single Malt Scotch Whiskey. All in all, it was a wetter show than normal.

This week, we broke down some of the upsets from last week, talked about the major injuries from week 2. Spoiler alert, this took a little while to get through. Finally, we broke down a couple of games coming up in week 3. I even made a bold bet that the Giants will beat the Texans at home this week. Loser buys beers for the show next week.

Make sure to join us next week, live at 9pm CST on blogtalk radio (blogtalkradio.com/drinkfive). Feel free to send us your questions and we'll answer them on the podcast! Ask us on our Facebook page, follow us on twitter (@drinkfive), or send us an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. You can also grab the podcast on iTunes.

A lot has gone on between the games that sometimes it's all anybody talks about. Let's figure out a few things that we learned ON the field on Sunday.

- Jay Cutler and the Bears have reminded us, once again, of the importance of winning the turnover battle. This week, only 3 teams that won had a turnover, and each of those three forced at least one turnover from the losing team. So no matter how favored you are against a team *coughninerscough*, you aren't going to win when you have 4 turnovers and don't force any of your own.

- J.J. Watt can do it all. He's appearing in commercials everywhere, on the SNF intro and now he's catching touchdowns. He currently has the same number of sacks as he has touchdowns. I think they should get him in there every game!

- No one is safe from injury. We saw a flood of injuries throw a stick in the spokes of fantasy football yesterday. Ryan Mathews, RG3, A.J. Green, Carson Palmer, Jamaal Charles, Doug Martin, DeSean Jackson, Vernon Davis were all guys who were fantasy starters, or almost in Palmer's case, who disappointed owners on Sunday. It's a long season guys, as long as I didn't recite your whole roster, you'll recover.

- Never count Aaron Rodgers out, especially at home. At one point in the second quarter, the Packers were trailing 21-3 and had only a 12.2% chance to win. After a beautifully executed two-minute drill to close the first half, he threw two more touchdowns in the second half on his way to being the leading QB of the week, throwing for 346 yards and 3 TD's. Rogers is the only QB to throw over 300 yards on Sunday.

- The Washington Redskins tied a franchise record with 10 sacks of Chad Henne on Sunday. Despite RG3's injury, Washington was able to put up 41 points and break a losing streak stretching way back into last year. My reason for directing your attention here is simple though. Blake Bortles will be starting in Jacksonville sooner, rather than later. Weel ahead of their week 11 bye.

- Arian Foster has shut up all of his draft doubters. After logging another 28 carries yesterday, he's at a league leading 55 carries, with 241 yards and 1 TD (4 rec for 29 yds as well). The Texans are sitting pretty at 2-0 with everything going their way early in the season. Reminds me of a recent season they've had, maybe 2013? While i don't think that Fitzpatrick is going to go on a crazy pick-six streak, don't think for a moment that people in Houston aren't thinking about last year a whole lot right now.

- There will be lots of good pickups on the waiver wire this week. Knile Davis, Bobby Rainey, Donald Brown and Kirk Cousins all performed very well when called upon this week and all, except maybe Rainey, are expected to get the start in week 3. In fact, rumors in Washington are that Coach Gruden prefers Kirk Cousins anyways. He's certainly looked better than Griffin over Washington's last 6 or so games.

- Marc Trestman seems to have a little Belichick in him. After rumors all week that Jeffery and Marshall would not play, including a very bleak outlook on Sunday morning, both of them were on the field to start the game on Sunday night. While Jeffery may have looked like a decoy, he still made a few important catches. Marshall, on the other hand, reeled in 3 TD catches(!) and is tied for the league lead. This is a game that the 49ers had a 98.7% chance to win at one point, definitely the best comeback of the week.

- Antonio Gates is apparently living like it's 2009. He's been targeted 17 times already, has 13 receptions for 177 yards and 3 TD's. As long as he stays healthy, he will be Philip Rivers' security blanket. He's moved firmly back into the higher end of Tight Ends, currently second among ALL TE's in the league. He's going to be a starter every week for the foreseeable future.

- Leaders so far - after two weeks, the leaders at rushing, receiving and passing yards are not surprises by any stretch, none of them are studs that were expected to take this role. Passing: Matt Ryan, 679 yds, Rushing: DeMarco Murray, 285 yds, Receiving: Jordy Nelson, 292 yds. The fantasy points leader is, of course, who we all expected it to be. Jay Cutler. WHAT?!?