There are so many fantasy leagues (and therefore so many fantasy teams) that it’s a certainty that some teams have both Josh Allen and Ja’Marr Chase. Maybe they had Zach Carbonnet just for fun. And a good number of those teams were either in the playoffs this past weekend, or faced a team that needed to win to make the playoffs next weekend. And for that opponent, week 14 was a pivotal matchup. They probably studied all week, hoping to find the right combination to win the game and accept the glory that came with it. In reality, they should have saved their time, started anybody they wanted, congratulated the other team Sunday morning and enjoyed the rest of their weekend. Because they had no chance against that lineup in week 14.
Not much to say about Josh Allen and his six TDs, or Chase’s 14-177-2 stat line on 18 targets (and a 14-yard run because, well, just because). It’s clear that Ian’s hunch was correct, though: Cincinnati wanted to pad Chase’s stats to make sure he stays ahead of all receivers in terms of catches, yards and touchdowns. Put one or both of those guys together, and what can you do if you’re on the other side of the ledger?
Laugh, maybe. That’s all you can do. When you go up against performances like that, you shrug your shoulders and accept what happens. And if it occurs at the worst time in the fantasy season, you shake your head for good measure and look forward to the offseason. You might overcome one of them, but both (or three if you include Charbonnet or some other crazy performance)? Very unlikely. You just accept the results and move on, even if it’s into the sunset.
Honestly, I think it’s easier to accept those losses than the close ones. You can nitpick every lineup decision, or a catch that was called back, or a penalty that was accepted instead of the meager statistic. Or a missed extra point, or an easy field goal that should have been made, or blah blah blah. It’s easy to find a point here or there. If you lose by a fraction of a point, every decision can be questioned. But lose by 50, and none of it matters. There’s nothing you could have done, nothing to second guess, no permutation that would have won the game. It’s a loss, but an easier one, I think. Now, if those guys helped a team make a miracle comeback, it’s back to the second guessing. But if you were sent packing because of some great week 14 performances, there are worse ways to go out.
There’s an old proverb that goes “Man plans, and God laughs.” I don’t think your fantasy outcomes are the result of divine intervention, but it’s true that we can waste a lot of time on decisions that, in hindsight, never had a chance of happening. The lineup dilemmas that seemed important on Saturday look comical on Tuesday. All that research was done simply for your personal enjoyment. It can be a tough pill to swallow when it means the end of your season, but that’s how things work when a random schedule collides with a breakout performance. All I can say is, I feel your pain. We’ve all been there, and hopefully next time you’ll be the one having trouble keeping up with your guy’s catches and touchdowns while your opponent turns off the television in disgust. Whatever’s still at stake, good luck this week.
Did your team survive Allen or Chase, or (somehow) both? Did your own players’ performances outduel theirs? Did you lose with one of those guys in your lineup? Would you rather lose a nail-biter that goes down to the wire, or get blown out early? Share your thoughts below.