I think that we’re all use to bad Thursday night football games, but so far this season the NFL has delivered two out of the three weeks of this season. Honestly though who thought that the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers would keep that streak going this past Thursday, but they did.
Now the game looked like it was just going to be a blow out as the Rams had a 34-20 lead heading into the 4th quarter, but the 49ers got themselves back in the game and ended up being just an unconverted 2-point conversion away from possibly sending the game into overtime.
In the end the Rams ended up with a 41-39 victory and improved their record to 2-1 while the 49ers fell to 0-3 even though they’ve played three close games to start the season.
I’m not sure if fantasy owners where expecting this, but the game provided them with some very good numbers to start off Week 3.
Jared Goff was 22 of 28 for 292 yards and 3 touchdowns. Goff was credited with 1 rushing attempt for -1 yards as well. Brian Hoyer went 23 of 37 in the game for 337 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 interceptions. Hoyer also ran the football 1 time for 9 yards and a touchdown. Did you start either of these guys?
As for running backs Todd Gurley put up some big fantasy numbers. Gurley carried the football 28 times for 113 yards and scored 2 rushing touchdowns. He also caught 5 passes for 36 yards and had a receiving touchdown as well. Who had Gurley having a 3 touchdown night? Carlos Hyde did well for the 49ers as well. Hyde carried the football 25 times for 84 yards and scored 2 rushing touchdowns. Hyde also added 3 receptions for 10 yards. I’m sure Gurley was in everyone’s starting line up, but I wonder how many people used Hyde this week.
The Rams had two receivers go over the 100 yard mark in the game. Robert Woods had the most yards for them with 108 on 6 receptions, but Sammy Watkins was the Los Angeles receiver to have in this game. Watkins also had 6 receptions and went for 106 yards, but he had 2 touchdowns. Pierre Garcon had good numbers as well as he went for 142 yards on 7 receptions, but it was Trent Taylor and Garrett Celek who caught the 49ers touchdowns in this game. I actually had Garcon starting in one of my leagues, but I wonder how many line up Watkins and Woods where in.
I don’t think that either teams Defense/Special teams will be much help to you in fantasy this week as they both let up quite a few points. The Rams did have 4 sacks to go with 1 interceptions and 1 fumble recovery while totaling 83 return yards. The 49ers had 2 fumble recoveries to go with 65 return yards.
The win improved the Rams record to 2-1 while the 49ers fell to 0-3. Both team are on the road for Week 4 as the Rams will take on the Dallas Cowboys in AT&T Stadium while the 49ers will face the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium.
We’ve haven’t heard much about this lately, but as we get closer to NBA training camps opening Carmelo Anthony is still a member of the New York Knicks.
Now Anthony has a full no-trade cause in his contract; so he’ll be able to pick which team he ends up on if a deal is worked out. Anthony had agreed to go to the Houston Rockets, but the teams where unable to work out a deal for him. There are reports now that Anthony has added the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder as two more teams he’d be willing to accept a trade to. Now it’s no surprise at all that Anthony would be willing to go to the Cavaliers. He and LeBron James are friends off the court and James has mentioned being interested in playing with Anthony before. Now you have to wonder if either of these teams would have the assets required to make a deal for Anthony. The Knicks aren’t looking for any long term veteran type contacts in a deal and draft picks are only going to get you so far. Cleveland is still the best team in the Eastern Conference, but would the addition of Anthony to go along with their earlier acquisition of Paul George give Oklahoma City enough to challenge the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference?
Now don’t forget that the Portland Trailblazers still remain interested in acquiring Anthony, but as of now he hasn’t said that he’d accept a trade to Portland. Portland’s top two players guards Damon Lillard and C.J. McCollum have been trying to convince Anthony to join the Trailblazers if a deal could be worked out, but so far no word out of Anthony on if he’d go to Portland. Could Portland emerge as the front runner for Anthony if deals with the Cleveland and Oklahoma City can’t be worked out?
The Knicks open camp on Monday and you can just how awkward it’s going to be as Anthony plans on reporting to camp. You’d have to expect a ton of tension between the two sides and Anthony has been encouraging the Knicks to show urgency in their pursuit of a trade before the season.
Anthony has two years and $54 million dollars left on his contract, but he has an option year for the 2018-19 season that would pay him $27.9 million dollars for that season if he chooses to opt into that.
Do you remember Anthony Bennett? I’m not surprised at all if you don’t, but he was the #1 overall pick of the 2013 NBA draft. After playing just one season at UNLV the Cleveland cavaliers made Bennett the top pick in that 2013 draft.
Bennett was with the Cavaliers for one season before he was dealt to the Minnesota Timberwolves along with Andrew Wiggins in the deal that landed the Cavaliers Kevin Love. Bennett also stayed just one season in Minnesota before being waived and signing with the Toronto Raptors. Bennett played just 19 games for the Raptors as he spent most of his time in the D-League before being waived. The Brooklyn Nets signed Bennett next and again he spent most of his time on their D-League team playing just 23 games for the Nets before they released him. Bennett them found his way to the Euro League where he played with the Turkish team Fenerbache.
So it’s looking like Bennett is going to end up being another 1st round NBA bust, but maybe not. The Phoenix Suns have signed Bennett to a non-guaranteed contract and he’ll be joining them for training camp this week. It appears that it may be another trip to what is now called the G-League for Bennett, but at least he’s going to get another chance to prove himself in the NBA.
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