Bold Predictions for Week 9: Don’t “Goff” at Les Snead’s Two Phase Plan

Recapping last week’s picks:

1. Andy Dalton throws for 300 yards for the second time this season.

Outcome: (Grade: B) Andy fell about 57 yards short of 300 yards but he did have 2 TD’s and finished with the second most fantasy points on the season so I consider this an inexact win.

2. Davonta Freeman rushes for 100 yards for the 2ndtime this season.

Outcome: (Grade: D) Wrong Atlanta RB, Davonta only rushed for 41 yards and to boot he had no touchdowns! Tevin Coleman meanwhile had 82 yards rushing and 22 yards receiving.

3. Carolina Panthers @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers over/under is 46 points. This will be over 49.5 points.

Outcome: (Grade: D). This ended up going the complete opposite way from which I projected. Instead of this being a shoot-out it was a battle of the defensive stops (mixed in with some anemic offense attempts).The Panthers held up a brickwall to Jameis Winston forcing them to punt the ball 5 times, forced one fumble and two interceptions.

4. Kai Forbath is a top 2 kicker this week in Fantasy Football.

Outcome: (Grade: A). Sure enough, Kai knocked in 4 field goals from just about every distance to go along with 1 extra point made (and one missed) to land in the top 2 kickers for the week.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

5. The LA Chargers cover the 7 point spread against New England.

Outcome: (Grade: A) Well good thing I kept it at 7 points instead of 4.5 as they spread ended up being 5 points. One COULD argue that if Travis Benjamin doesn’t run backwards into his own end zone for a safety that LA has a change to be even closer. The Chargers have become an up and coming team and my advice would be to take a look at them.

Week 9 Bold Picks:

1. Houston Texans @ Indianapolis Colts over under is 49 points. This game will go over 54 points.

Background: Since Deshaun really got up and going around week 3, four of their last 5 games have gone over at least 69 points. I’m thinking Houston scores most likely 41+. All that Indianapolis would have to do is score 14 points.

2. Jared Goff throws for over 300 yards for the second time this season.

Background: The Giants are allowing around 260 passing yards per game. Jared had two lower games yardage wise and I think he bounces back with a big performance on the road against the Giants. Add in the Giants injuries that are increasing and hurting their defense (Jonathan Casillas, Landon Collins, Calvin Munson, Olivier Vernon to name a few). If you want more details on Les Sneads plan – we are in phase 2 which includes a new coach, refined process, better offense without compromising the defense.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/10/24/jared-goff-los-angeles-rams-les-snead-sean-mcvay

3. Cincinnati Bengals turn the ball over 3 times at Jacksonville Jaguars.

Background: The Jaguars defense have 10 interceptions and 6 fumbles good enough for 3^rd best take-away to give-away ratio. The Bengals offense has committed 8 interceptions and 7 fumbles, good enough for 3^rd worst NFL take-away to give-away ratio. This game could get ugly if Andy Dalton, Joe Mixon and Jeremy Hill aren’t protecting the football.

4. San Francisco 49ers get their first Win of the season.

Background: It’s not even due largely to Jimmy Garoppolo but more on the lackluster squad the Arizona has rolled out this year. Without Carson Palmer, and with an away record of 1-2 (Colts being their one win), I think San Francisco is in position to nab the elusive win. Kyle Shannahan will muster up some wizardry that propels the offense forward this weekend. I’m expecting Carlos Hyde to have a big game after a down week against the Eagles defense.

Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

5. Kirk Cousins is held to less than 240 yards for the second time this season and no Washington RB has more than 60 yards rushing.

Background: Seattle’s defense started out slow but they are quickly making up for lost time. On the other side, Kirk’s only sub 240 yard passing game was against LA (West Coast good defense) where he threw for 179 yards. Ignoring the high flying Texans putting up 38 points, the Seahawks had limited all 3 of the previous team’s RB to less than 60 yards and 2 of the 3 QB’s to fewer than 240 yards passing.

Digital Media host Jackie Montgomery:

2017 Report card:

A – 8

B – 9

C – 6

D – 12

Here is how I will be grading my Bold picks this year

A – The bold pick happened as I stated

B – The bold pick did NOT happened as stated but the idea behind it was there (example I predicted Jesse James would have 0 TDs and fewer than 20 yards in week 2, he had 27 yards, the general idea to avoid him in fantasy was present.

C – The bold pick did NOT happen and the overall feel for what occurred had you saying “meh”

D – The bold pick was nowhere near accurate