Intro: I watch the TNF games (and every NFL game) live, then watch it again on tape for scouting Fantasy/DFS and future betting (player props) purposes. I am a decade-plus-long football scout and Fantasy writer/player (and bettor) of football things. I am a fan of no NFL team, except the one I may have bet on. I review/study game tape for personal profit (or loss) in DFS and handicapping/props.
Let’s look at the BEST and WORST of TNF Week 5, Bears at Commanders.
WORST -- The Milly Maker 1st-Place Win Streak is Broken
After two TNF Milly Maker 1st-place finishes back-to-back, we didn’t win it this week. What? I thought you could just dial up these wins with the FSL Contrarian Optimizer! I thought it was our personal ATM!
No 1st-prize share on TNF. That’s always a ‘worst’ now. Expectations are high for the Optimizer every week based on our previous 2023 performances.
Oh, well. Moving on to Sunday and Sunday night game, and then MNF, then next week’s TNF …
WORST -- Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda
We almost got to the promised land again -- one player off on one of the entries. ‘SO CLOSE’/’one player off’ DFS losses are an easy ‘worst’.
BEST -- D.J. Moore Goes Off
Moore opened the game with 2 catches for 78 yards and a TD -- just like that. Then, he ended the game with a 56-yard catch-and-run TD. Eight catches for 230 yards and 3 TDs total. What a night for Moore.
WORST -- You Do Know D.J. Moore is the Only Guy Fields Throws To, right?
Coming into this game, Moore had caught 54.3% of the passes among all Bears wide receivers. He also made up 60.6% of the receiving yards among all the Bears wide receivers. Moore also has half the receiving TDs among all the Bears wide receivers.
It’s fair to say everyone reading this knew that Moore was basically the only wide receiver Fields looks for.
How is it that the Commanders secondary didn’t plan for that? It’s shocking how wide open the one guy Fields successfully works with was. What did the Commanders think was going To happen in the passing game?
BEST -- FF Lineups with D.J. Moore
I don’t know why, but doesn’t it seem like whenever you have Fantasy players (in head-to-head) going in a TNF game, they suck! And even worse, then you only have 3 days to brew/wallow about it until the rest of your Fantasy team gets after it?
Not this night with DJM.
And obviously, you needed Moore to be your Showdown DFS captain to try to get in on the top prize, and if he was, you had DFS money hopes.
WORST -- If You Faced D.J. Moore in Head-to-Head This Week
Even worse than your own starting player sucking on TNF and thus stewing about it for days, is the nightmare of having the ‘luck’ of your FF opponent this week having Moore. That’s a little extra dose of horrible luck that you can stew about for a few days as well.
BEST -- Justin Fields Delivers to D.J. Moore
On the other end of the D.J. explosion was the maligned Fields. He didn’t look amazing, but he hit on the passes to Moore to rack up nice numbers and finally ran for better yards than he had the past few weeks. QB1 night, maybe the #1 QB1 this week event for the unpredictable Fields.
WORST -- Did You Bench Justin Fields This Week?
What might be worse than any of your Fantasy players sucking on TNF or facing D.J. Moore this week? Did you have Fields on your bench? Enjoy staring at that 30+ point score every time you look at your roster the next few days.
EXTRA WORST -- Did You Trade Justin Fields This Week?
What is definitely worse than any of your Fantasy players sucking on TNF, or facing D.J. Moore or benching Fields, is if you had traded Fields.
Three duds to start FF 2023 for Fields, then a spike in Week 4 that you had to make a call on going forward. Was it Fields ‘figuring it out’ last week? Or was it Denver being so bad on defense that this week seemed like a good escape hatch to deal Fields.
There’s pressure on whatever player/s you acquired for Fields to make this all feel better this weekend.
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