Empty the Bench

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We hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving weekend. After a few days off, Empty the Bench now resumes our regularly scheduled content…

- For the first time this season, a New England Patriots game requires something more than glib, sarcastic comments about their utter supremacy. They’re still the class of the NFL beyond a shadow of a doubt, but the Pats finally looked beatable last night. Philadelphia came into Foxboro as 24-point underdogs, the largest spread for a non-expansion team in NFL history. The Eagles were missing franchise QB Donovan McNabb, and nobody in their right mind thought they had a chance.

McNabb’s replacement, A.J. Feeley, filled in admirably. He threw for 345 yards, 3 TDs and 3 INTs. Unfortunately, the performance was bookended by two egregious picks, the first returned for a TD and the last in the endzone to seal the Eagles’ fate. Still, as John Madden mentioned a few times, Philly provided a blueprint for future opponents of the previously invulnerable Pats. On offense, they proved that the New England secondary can be thrown on, especially over the middle. On the other side of the ball, Defensive Coordinator Jim Johnson designed a number of clever blitzes and pressures that put defenders in Tom Brady’s face all day, showing that he actually can be rattled and hurried. They also doubled Randy Moss all day and showed that, while Wes Welker had 13 receptions, when Moss is out of the picture the Patriots offense looks significantly less dynamic.

New England draws the Ravens this week and should eat up their secondary, but that game against the Steelers in two weeks will be much more interesting now that there is a viable game plan for the Pats. Greg Lewis came out of nowhere to catch 2 TDs in this one, but don’t rush to add him, it was a fluke.

- You should, however, rush to add the original Adrian Peterson. In the middle of his second consecutive strong performance Cedric Benson went down with a leg injury and was carted off the field. The Chicago Sun Times reported today that Benson will miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury. Peterson should already have been owned in most leagues while outplaying Benson, and is now a borderline RB2 for the remainder of the season. Peterson managed 45 yards rushing, 1 TD and 5 receptions for 41 yards in place of Benson. Those in PPR leagues should be licking their chops because Peterson is an excellent receiver and will be looked to often in the struggling Bears passing attack.

- The other significant RB news of the day was the performance of Kansas City rookie Kolby Smith. Smith entered the game with just 10 rushing attempts on the season, but blew up for 150 yards rushing and 2 TDs on 31 carries. With Priest Holmes retired and Larry Johnson likely done for the year, Smith figures to get the bulk of the carries for run-heavy Kansas City the rest of the season. Let’s keep in mind that this performance came against the Raiders, though, a team that gave up over 200 total yards and 3 TDs to Chester Taylor last week. In fact, over the past five weeks Oakland has given up a combined 645 rushing yards and 7 TDs to RBs.

- The other running back in that Oakland/Kansas City tilt also turned in a fine performance. Justin Fargas finished with 139 rushing yards, 1 TD and 2 receptions for 18 yards. While this showing further cements Fargas as the clear starter in Oakland for the remainder of this season, the pesky LaMont Jordan did manage to vulture a touchdown. Still, it was a very strong showing against a tough KC defense, and Fargas is a strong option heading into the stretch. He’s now averaging 96 rushing yards and 3 receptions for 21.3 yards to go with 2 TDs as a starter and draws a soft Denver rush defense next week.

- Eli Manning was in rare form yesterday. Coming into the game at home and against the NFL-worst Vikings pass defense, everything was set up for Baby Eli to post huge numbers. He did that, but unfortunately most of them were Vikings defensive stats. Manning finished 21-of-49 (42.9%) for 273, 1 TD and a career-high 4 INTs (the first 4-INT game also coming against Minnesota). In addition to the INTs, Eli set a personal record for number of times he looked like he was about to cry. Minnesota played well, putting pressure on Manning up the middle all day and capped by Darren Sharper intercepting Eli Manning for a 20-yard TD in the first quarter, Dwight Smith intercepting Eli Manning for 93-yard TD in the fourth and Chad Greenway also intercepting Eli Manning for for a 37-yard score in the fourth. Hey, at least Plaxico Burress got back on track with 7 receptions, 93 yards and 1 TD.
(AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

- Cincinnati crushed the Titans and Rudi Johnson actually managed a serviceable fantasy day, scoring for the first time since Week 2. Unfortunately he still put up a pedestrian 3.5 YPC while backups DeDe Dorsey and Kenny Watson managed 8.4 and 4.3 YPC respectively. Watson scored a touchdown as well and had 5 more receptions for 49 total yards.

- Here’s the good news, St. Louis fans: Steven Jackson finally looked like himself on Sunday, particularly on that 53-yard TD in the first quarter. He rushed 23 times for just 90 yards and caught 3 passes for 15 more, and seemed to have his explosiveness back and should be a strong play going forward. The bad news: just when his owners were feeling comfortable starting him again, Marc Bulger left the game early and produced 0 fantasy points on the day, leaving his owners high and dry once again. Bulger was taken to the hospital for his concussion after the game, and his status for Week 13 is in serious doubt.

- Another first-round back bust returned to form as Frank Gore tore up the Arizona defense for 116 yards and 2 TDs rushing with an extraordinary 11 receptions for 98 more yards. This was the kind of workhorse performance owners were expecting when they took him with a top-5 pick in the draft, but unfortunately they have been few and far between. The TDs were Gore’s first since Week 2. In the same game Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin both did enough to keep their owners happy as well. Fitzy had a monster 9-reception, 156-yard, 2-TD game and Boldin finished with 6 catches for 76 yards. Kurt Warner dropped a whopping 484 yards on the 49ers, going 34-for-48 with 2 TDs and 2 INTs. Warner, along with the rest of the Cardinals offense, is a very solid option going forward with a cakewalk schedule in the fantasy playoffs.

- Drew Brees and Marques Colston continued to put their slow starts behind them in a 31-6 win over Carolina. Brees completed 66.7% of his passes for 3 TDs, 1 INT and an 8-yard rushing score. Colston caught 7 balls for 93 yards and another TD. Brees has now completed a higher percentage of his passes than last season and could easily match his TD total from a year ago. Neither of these guys can be considered a bust anymore.

- We hate to harp on this to all those who took Maurice Jones-Drew in the second round, but he’s still the backup in Jacksonville. Fred Taylor continues to get more touches than MJD, and he looked significantly better on Sunday. Taylor was sharp most of the day with 14 rushes for 104 yards (7.4 YPC), and he looked downright youthful on that 50-yard TD scamper in the first quarter. MJD managed just 10 yards on 10 rushes (1.0 YPC for those who struggle with math) and barely salvaged the performance with a late TD.

-Devin Hester: ‘tis no man, ‘tis a kick returning machine. Hester returned a Todd Sauerbrun punt for a 75-yard score and a Denver kickoff for a 88-yard TD in the third quarter. Hester tied his own record for return touchdowns in a season with 5 and now sits behind only Brian Mitchell in terms of total return TDs.

- Baltimore continues to prove their secondary is one to be exploited. Antonio Gates and Philip Rivers were this week’s beneficiaries. Rivers completed 71.4% of his passes for 249 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INTs. Gates had 6 receptions for 105 yards and 2 TDs. Your taller and stronger receivers need to be in the lineup when they play the Ravens.