First Response: There is no explanation
We saw and heard a lot of interesting things leading up to Sunday's slate of action.
For instance, we heard Browns head coach Eric Mangini talk in circles about his running back situation, especially with the reports that Josh Cribbs could be involved. We saw that the Packers were the second-ranked defense in the NFL, including third against the pass. And we saw and heard about a Steelers defense that was focused on regaining some momentum after being part of the reason why the team lost six straight games, including a humiliating defeat at Cleveland the week before.
But these things proved to be "red herrings," or as Wikipedia puts it, deliberate attempts to divert attention. What we were led to believed to be seeing? A running back mess in Cleveland with a possible breakout player involved, a tough matchup for a Steelers offense that had lost five straight games and a defense primed to get right versus an offense that was potent but not without faults.
What did we get? Two record-smashing performances and a third outing that even bests one of the other two stat lines.
Jerome Harrison got the hot hand early for the Browns, looking sleeker and quicker than he had in weeks. Starting the game, he lost some early carries to teammate Chris Jennings and even one to Cribbs before eventually flashing some speed and giving the Browns a good rushing presence with 73 yards on 12 carries.
Deciding to keep giving him the ball in the second half was one of the best decisions Browns head coach Eric Mangini made all year. Behind an offensive line that was forced to re-shuffle due to injuries, Harrison trampled over the Chiefs in the second half from the get-go. His first second-half carry was for 11 yards; his second for 71 yards and the first of three touchdowns. Only six of his 22 second-half carries went for under 4 yards. And on the other touchdown drives he scored on, he carried the ball 8 of 13 plays and 5 of 6 plays. He was almost literally the entire Browns offense in the second half, and it showed: he finished with not just three touchdowns, but 286 rushing yards on 34 carries with 12 receiving yards for good measure.
Not to be out done, especially by a division rival, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger defied his tough matchup against the Packers and led Pittsburgh to a stunning come-from-behind victory to keep the team's faint playoff hopes alive. Making a conscious decision to throw much more than pass, Roethlisberger pushed Hines Ward and Heath Miller to over 100 yards receiving. He ultimately found himself with a whopping 484 yards, but down six points with three seconds to play from the Packers 19.
In what can only be described as joy for Steelers fans and Roethlisberger owners, and pain for Packers fans and owners going up against Roethlisberger in leagues, Big Ben fired a Super Bowl XLIII-esque pass to the left sideline of the end zone, where Mike Wallace did his best Santonio Holmes impersonation and nestled the ball in his hands and chest as he fell to the turf, his tiptoes scraping the grass along the way. Roethlisberger not only won the game for the Steelers (well, technically the extra point won the game ...) but he also finished with 503 yards passing and three touchdowns, the yardage a single-game best in the history of the Steelers' franchise.
But even that wasn't as good as Aaron Rodgers' performance, at least for Fantasy owners. Rodgers didn't break any Packers records, but his 383-yard, four total touchdown game with 22 yards rushing gave him three more Fantasy points than Roethlisberger in standard-scoring leagues.
Alas, both were out-done by Harrison, whose 47 Fantasy points were two better than Chris Johnson's Week 2 explosion and one point shy of Drew Brees' second-best 48 Fantasy points from Week 1 against the Lions (Tom Brady's 51 points in Week 6 is still the high mark of the season). That's a shame since Harrison wasn't started by nearly 90 percent of CBSSports.com's Fantasy owners. Had Mangini actually named him the starter and given some indications that he'd have a chance to play, we could have used him.
Let's take a look around at the rest of the Week 15 action.
Start of the Week result: Even the most pessimistic of Patriots fans who couldn't trust Laurence Maroney can't deny his good performance at Buffalo in Week 15. Maroney had 23 carries -- the same amount of Tom Brady pass attempts -- for 81 yards with a touchdown, essentially leading New England to victory on his own. While his play wasn't off the charts, he still delivered a nice stat line to his Fantasy owners while doing nothing to make people, Bill Belichick included, lose confidence in him.
Sit of the Week result: Darrelle Revis has struck again! This time his victim was Falcons receiver Roddy White, who had just 33 yards on four catches. He now joins the list of stud No. 1 wideouts who have done little to nothing against him, a list that includes Andre Johnson, Marques Colston, Randy Moss, Steve Smith of Carolina, Terrell Owens (twice) and Antonio Bryant. Next up for Revis: Reggie Wayne and the Colts. Wow.
Insane stat line of the day: You mean Jerome Harrison, Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger didn't do it for you? OK, fine. How about Cedric Benson and Thomas Jones combining for 105 rushing yards and no touchdowns. Not only did Jerome Harrison do better than both of these studs combined, but so did Jamaal Charles, Michael Bush, Maurice Morris, Maurice Jones-Drew and Beanie Wells. Oh, and all of those running backs had a touchdown too. Isn't Fantasy Football wonderful?
Out-of-nowhere stat line of the day: Marion Barber had gone six weeks without a single touchdown, and there were signs that the Cowboys were beginning to seemingly phase him out of the offense. Barber broke through that notion, totaling 73 yards and scoring twice against a very good Saints run defense on Saturday night. Can he keep it up, and are owners willing to roll the dice on him again?
Guy we were way right about: There's Roethlisberger, who a lot of people shied away from because of his matchup and subpar offensive line. But we're especially proud of Beanie Wells, who has more or less wrangled the primary rushing job in Arizona away from Tim Hightower. Wells was in at the goal line on Kurt Warner's touchdown pass to Larry Fitzgerald and was out when Hightower took a goal-line plunge. But he racked up the yardage -- 110 on the ground and 13 through the air -- with a score of his own to help sink the Lions.
Guy we were way wrong about: Where do we begin with Texans running back Arian Foster? How about the part where Texans head coach Gary Kubiak raved about him all week and essentially promised him "opportunities," only to see him pull the string and put him on the bench following a fumble on Houston's first possession. That was the end of Foster's "opportunities" as Ryan Moats led the Texans with 46 rushing yards. We were all caught up in the hoopla of Quinton Ganther's big game at Oakland last week and figured Foster would get the same chance here against a weak Rams defense. We're disappointed in his stat line, and can only learn from this that in the heat of a game, anything can happen, and all of the research and pre-game evaluation doesn't do any good once the ball is kicked off.
Overachieving defense of the week: The Falcons had the disadvantage of going up against Thomas Jones and his mammoth offensive line this week, but as we noted earlier they did a great job against him, holding him to his worst rushing performance since Week 3 against the Titans. They also held off the Jets' passing game, which attempted to resurrect itself this week but ultimately didn't. With the Bills coming to the Georgia Dome in Week 16, the Falcons defense might just turn in another quality performance.
Underachieving defense of the week: So many to choose from: The Packers giving up over 500 passing yards was an incredible disappointment. The Cardinals were unable to slam the door on the Lions after shutting them out in the first half. The Texans did limit the Rams to 13 points but even that was a mild shock considering Keith Null was under center for St. Louis. But what about the Saints, who gave up just 24 points but yielded 312 passing yards to Tony Romo and over 140 rushing yards to the Cowboys (and the two Barber touchdowns). They had been so solid at home, but there's obviously a weakness there as Romo was the third straight quarterback to throw for over 300 yards against them. Next up for the Saints: Josh Freeman and the Buccaneers.
Names to add to your scout team:
Michael Bush, running back, Oakland (133 rush yards, 11 receiving yards, touchdown)
John Carlson, tight end, Seattle (86 receiving yards, touchdown)
Matt Cassel, quarterback, Kansas City (331 passing yards, two touchdowns, 10 rush yards)
Jerome Harrison, running back, Cleveland (goes without saying)
Todd Heap, tight end, Baltimore (56 receiving yards, two touchdowns)
Maurice Morris, running back, Detroit (126 rush yards, 35 receiving yards, touchdown)
Chaz Schilens, wide receiver, Oakland (two touchdowns over last three games)
David Thomas, tight end, New Orleans (77 rush yards in place of Jeremy Shockey)
Derrick Ward, running back, Tampa Bay (73 total yards, receiving touchdown)
Demetrius Williams, wide receiver, Baltimore (71 yards, touchdown)
Injury alerts:
Reggie Bush, knee; considered questionable for Week 16 vs. Tampa Bay
Glen Coffee, hamstring; considered questionable for Week 16 vs. Detroit
Trent Edwards, ankle; considered questionable for Week 16 at Atlanta
Justin Fargas, knee; considered questionable for Week 16 at Cleveland
Charlie Frye, head; considered doubtful for Week 16 at Cleveland
Sammie Stroughter, foot; considered doubtful for Week 16 at New Orleans
Michael Turner, ankle; considered questionable for Week 16 vs. Buffalo
Michael Vick, quad; considered questionable for Week 16 vs. Denver
DeAngelo Williams, ankle; considered questionable for Week 16 at N.Y. Giants
The last word:
Something's amiss with Tom Brady.
He hasn't had much consistency over his last five games, including this week's game against the Bills where he completed 11 of 23 passes for 115 yards with a short touchdown and an interception. In his last five Brady has five touchdowns vs. six interceptions and two 300-yard games to go with two games under 200 yards.
"It is a 60 minute game and doing that consistently has been a challenge for this team, for players, for leaders of this team, for coaches," Brady said Sunday night. "We are just trying to find ways to make those critical plays, when we get in the red area we have to score touchdowns, on third down we have to convert. We didn't convert well in the second half, we didn't have many points, we were on the sideline and couldn't sustain those drives. I was proud of that last third down. That was a big play for us to run out the clock there at the end. There just needs to be more of that.
"It wasn't all good, but certainly it was good enough. Obviously we have to try to find ways to play better."
Fantasy owners have gotten into trouble with some stud players of late, and Brady is no exception. He's failed to top 11 Fantasy points in standard-scoring leagues in three of his last four games, a huge decline from earlier this year when he was racking up at least 17 Fantasy points in all but one of his first 10 games.
Why the decline? That's the question. He hasn't faced lots of blistering pass rushes -- he hasn't been sacked in his last three games. The Randy Moss factor from last week was an issue then, but he stepped up and bounced back here.
One likely answer: He's being asked to throw less. He had 23 attempts on Sunday and averaged 32.3 attempts over his last three games. Thirty-two attempts was his low point over his first 10 games. Perhaps a combination of the Patriots' strong run game and the team's interest in keeping Brady fresh for a four-game postseason run is what's holding him back right now.
If there's a glimmer of hope, it's that the Patriots will continue their trend of attacking their opponents' main weaknesses next week when the secondary-challenged Jaguars come for a visit. If the weather is nice, we could see Brady return to form -- just in time for the Fantasy Championship week.
What stood out to you this week? How did your Fantasy teams do? Tell us via Twitter @daverichard. Or drop us a line and tell us about it at dmfantasyfootball@cbs.com. Be sure to put Attn: Week 15 in the subject field. Please include your full name, hometown and state and we'll respond to as many as e-mails we can.
