Well, that was a week.
To be clear, wild things happen in the NFL every week — on both sides of the ball. But the number of wild big plays that propelled team defenses to big stat lines in Week 5 was — it felt excessive.
In Denver, the Broncos’ throttling of the Las Vegas Raiders included a 100-yard pick-six from Denver cornerback Patrick Surtain II. In Seattle’s loss to the New York Giants, Seahawks safety Rayshawn Jenkins returned a fumble 102 yards for a score. In that same game, the Giants blocked a field goal and returned it for a score.
Oh, we’re just getting started.
In London, Minnesota Vikings edge-rusher Andrew Van Ginkel logged his second pick-six of the season against the New York Jets. The San Francisco 49ers blocked a kick for a touchdown against the Arizona Cardinals. Even the lowly Los Angeles Rams, one of the worst defenses in the NFL, got in on the act with a pick-six.
Two 100-yard touchdown returns in the same week was a first in NFL history. Over a dozen defenses scored double-digit fantasy points. It was a week where defenses legitimately won fantasy managers games. It doesn’t happen all that often in fantasy football, sadly. But in Week 5 – defense mattered.
And it made for quite the afternoon (And morning – Van Ginkel did his thing in London) of football viewing.
Too bad we likely won’t see another like it for some time.
Or maybe we will. Who knows? It’s been a weird year.
THE NO-DOUBTERS
Pittsburgh Steelers (at Las Vegas Raiders)
Despite the presence of the NFL’s best defensive player in T.J. Watt, the Steelers have just been OK as a fantasy defense after five weeks – ninth in fantasy points per game at the position. But Watt and Company should feast in Week 6. The Raiders were on the wrong side of that beatdown in Denver—a game that wasn’t as close as the score. Vegas is reportedly considering a quarterback change (Gotta rearrange those deck chairs). And the Raiders have surrendered 17 sacks and the third-most fantasy points…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/getting-defensive-2024-week-6-072834936.html
Author : NBC Sports
Publish date : 2024-10-08 07:28:34
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