⚔️ An Epic Duel Between The QB1 & QB2

Arthur Smith went on an Eat Pray Love journey during the bye week…

In today’s Fantasy Life Newsletter presented by Hugo Boss:

The marquee matchup on the Week 12 slate did not disappoint as the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Buffalo Bills 37-34 in a wild, overtime finish to move to 10-1 on the year.

Jalen Hurts and Josh Allen both posted monster fantasy lines, reminding everyone why they were the first and second QBs off the board in fantasy drafts all offseason:

• Allen: 40.66 fantasy points; 339 yards & 2 TDs + 9-81-2 rushing

• Hurts: 35.50 fantasy points; 200 yards & 3 TDs + 14-65-2 rushing

Gabe Davis (6-105-1) and DeVonta Smith (7-106-1) came along for the ride to an extent, but Hurts and Allen gobbled up much of the fantasy production with dominant rushing performances.

Allen should have connected with Davis on a play that would have ended the game in regulation, but he badly missed the throw.

Instead, the Bills managed to lose a game where they won the turnover battle, totaled 500 total yards, and out-gained the opposition by 127.

It’s been a season of bad luck for the Bills, who still look impressive in most advanced metrics, but just can’t get the Ws to bounce their way:

This loss puts Buffalo in an extremely precarious position, as they sit 10th in the AFC and have a brutal remaining schedule.

It’s unfortunate that they’ve lost so many close games because otherwise, we’d all be chomping at the bit for a potential Super Bowl rematch between these two squads.

Only time will tell if the Bills are up to the challenge with their backs up against the wall…

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The Fantasy Life FREE Bet Tracker is already loaded with a handful of plays for Monday Night Football. Looking for a peek behind the curtain? Mark Drumheller has his pick…

Per Mark, “Chicago's offense has looked much better after Fields returned last week, as he added 100 yards on the ground versus Detroit. The Vikings’ blitz-heavy defense will be a test, but I like that it's Getsy's second time seeing it.

Minnesota has covered in six straight, but Chicago's rush defense should be able to force Dobbs to carry the offense with his arm. Over the past four weeks, Chicago ranks third in rushing success rate allowed and fourth in EPA per rush. I'm getting the better defense, better quarterback, and three points.”

Peter is here to share his six big takeaways from Week 12. Take it away, Pete...

👑 Kyren Williams returns to his RB1 throne

We felt pretty confident yesterday that Kyren would return to close to a full workload in Week 12 after his stint on IR, but even that proved to be too cautious because he returned to a monster workload:

As you can see, he was used in all facets of the game and continually sliced his way through the Cardinals’ Swiss cheese defense.

Congrats if you weathered the storm while he was out, you have a locked and loaded Top 5 RB…just don’t ask how the Rams WRs will fare going forward.

🐶 The Big Dog stays on the radar

It’s been an up-and-down year for Derrick Henry, but he took advantage of a cushy matchup vs. the Panthers’ forgiving run defense.

He rushed 18 times for 76 yards and 2 scores, while also standing up for his backfield mate, Tyjae Spears.

Henry’s day also pushed him over 9,000 career rushing yards—a truly impressive accomplishment in this chew-em-up-and-spit-em-out era of football for RBs.

🥊 CJ Stroud & Trevor Lawrence go toe-to-toe

It wasn’t quite Allen vs. Hurts, but Stroud and Lawrence gave us an impressive back-and-forth in their AFC South matchup yesterday.

Stroud (304 yards & 2 TDs + 6-47-1 on the ground) and Lawrence (364 yards & 1 TDs + 1 rushing TD) currently sit as the QB4 and QB5 on the week after both orchestrated multiple impressive drives.

We’ll be watching these two square off for the next decade, although Lawrence isn’t particularly excited about it:

🧨 Bijan out of the bye = fantasy goodness

If there’s one thing fantasy managers have collectively wanted more than anything else in the 2023 season, it’s more touches for Falcons rookie RB, Bijan Robinson.

Well, Arthur Smith apparently had a come-to-Jesus moment during the bye and blessed us all with 22 total opportunities for Robinson.

Bijan held up his part of the bargain, converting those touches into 123 total yards and 2 total TDs, including this nifty play.

While nothing is ever safe with Arthur, the good times should theoretically continue to roll…

🎉 The Rashee Rice breakout game

It’s been frustrating to watch the Chiefs rookie WR make plays all year long only for his role to never meaningfully expand.

That finally seemed to change in Week 12:

Let’s keep feeding Rice so he can cook like this, ok???

👷 The Steelers fixed their offense?

It seems hard to believe, but before yesterday the Steelers had gone 58—yes, fifty eight—games without topping 400 yards on offense.

It would appear that Matt Canada was the problem because the offense promptly tallied 421 total yards in their win over the Bengals.

Both Najee Harris (15-99-1) and Pat Freiermuth (9-120) enjoyed big games in the new-look offense.

I don’t know whether this is a bigger indictment of Canada (the coach, not the country) or the TE position on the whole, but Freiermuth currently leads all TEs in receiving yards on the week:

🥣 Joey Bosa eating raisin bran? Joey Bosa eating raisin bran.

🚑️ Key Week 12 injuries to watch. Rough day for the Saints.

✍️ Trying to make sense of the Week 12 madness? Ian and Dwain have you covered.

😆 Speaking of Saints, Blake Grupe made 5 FGs. Let’s check in on Alvin Kamara’s thoughts.

⚔️ A clash of NFC North rivals. Everything you need for the Monday Night betting and DFS showdown slate.

🚨 Redzone evacuation?? Scott Hanson can handle every curveball.

👶 The best TD celebration of the year. From the 5’7” Greg Dortch.

🗑️ The four teams competing for the No. 1 overall pick. The Patriots are making a push.

👀 Previewing Week 13. Betting lines you need to jump on ASAP.

🌲 The coach who looks like he’s selling Christmas trees. I’d buy a nice spruce from him.

We're humans who play fantasy football, so we are prone to overreact. Today, Kendall overreacts to the Steelers coming to life…

In case you missed it, Tom Brady thinks there’s a lot of mediocrity in the NFL right now. Alex Smith responded to Brady’s comments on Sunday, and we can have the discussion about whether today’s NFL is a good product or not, but Week 12 had some seriously bad football (we’re looking at you, Patriots).

Yeah, I’m so sorry but we have to go there.

It was a total and complete meltdown from quarterback Mac Jones against the Giants. In two quarters he went 12-for-21 for 89 yards, with no touchdowns and two interceptions. I promise you, if you watched this game it was worse than what the box score implied. No, really.

Was it that bad? Just check out this tweet. According to Ben Volin, at one point Jones’ passer rating was 27.8. If he were 0-for-21 with all 21 passes spiked directly into the ground, it would be 39.6.

To be fair, this season has been riddled with injuries. When Jake Browning made his first career start on Sunday he became the 50th different quarterback to start a game this season. We went four straight weeks with a quarterback sustaining a season-ending injury — Kirk Cousins in Week 8, Daniel Jones in Week 9, Deshaun Watson in Week 10 and Joe Burrow in Week 11.

💎 Steelers Hidden Playoff Gems?

Well, well, well, look what happens when you make the first in-season coaching change since 1941… YOU WIN AND MOVE THE BALL. 

They recorded 421 total yards against the banged-up Cincinnati Bengals, which was the first time they gained 400+ yards in 59 games! So could there be some fantasy gems as we push towards the playoffs?

Running backs Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren come to mind. Here’s the remaining schedule: Cardinals, Patriots, Colts, Bengals, Seahawks and Ravens. 

Harris had 99 yards on 15 carries and a touchdown while Warren had 13 carries for 49 yards. Will they win your leagues? Probably not, but fantasy managers should be pretty happy with how different this offense ran with Matt Canada out of the picture.

Scoring only 16 points isn’t ideal, but watching this game the Steelers moved the ball way more consistently than we’ve seen. Here’s hoping this team can continue to improve…

🙏 Finally, Bijan Robinson is what he should be

Peter Overzet may kill me if I actually thank Arthur Smith (for doing what he should have been all along), but here we are.

Ed. note: you’re on thin ice, Kendall. - Pete

Bijan Robinson fantasy managers have now had a Week 10 with 17.6 fantasy points and a Week 12 with 27.3 fantasy points. The Falcons rushed for a season-high 228 yards with Robinson running for 91 yards plus a touchdown and he also caught a 26-yard touchdown pass. 

Another reason to continue being excited for Robinson? He faces the Panthers in Week 15, the Colts in Week 16 and the Bears in Week 17.

CAN YOU SAY FANTASY PLAYOFF GOLD?!

Keep using Robinson. Keep featuring Robinson. Only good things happen when you do, Arthur Smith.