Fantasy Football Reax: Calvin Johnson, Matt Forte
It looked like the Chicago Bears would be able to pull off an impressive Thanksgiving Day upset of the rival Detroit Lions when they jumped out to a 14-3 lead, courtesy of a second touchdown reception from Alshon Jeffery after a nasty strip-sack from Jared Allen. But the Lions put up three second-quarter touchdowns to take a lead into the half and pulled away with ten points in the fourth quarter to make it an easy, 34-17 win.
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Calvin Johnson was at the center of the Lions victory, as Matthew Stafford looked to him early and often. The Lions QB had 390 passing yards in a thoroughly impressive performance, especially considering the issues up front. He rode Megatron to a 34-45 passing day, as the elite wideout caught 11 of the 16 passes thrown at him for 146 yards and two TDs, including a beautiful 25-yard hook-up for the Lions first touchdown of the day.
With an average of 72.3 yards per game this season (coming into today’s game) that takes into account missed chunks and limited play due to nagging injuries, Johnson is producing at a consistent level. As expected, he’s exploding after resting up earlier this year, though he was held in check by the Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots in the previous two weeks after that 100-yard breakout game against the Miami Dolphins. That said, the subpar statistical displays against the Cardinals and Patriots shouldn’t bother anyone, since he was going up against elite secondaries. The counter-argument, though, is that the Bears secondary is beyond reproach, so a huge day from Johnson was always to be expected.
Johnson is one of the three best wide receivers in fantasy football going forward, as only Demaryius Thomas is a better option by any noticeable distance. The Lions get the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Minnesota Vikings, and Bears again in their next three games, so you can count on Megatron to continue to put up monster numbers. Golden Tate and Theo Riddick aren’t tapering his upside, because Stafford makes sure that his No. 1 guy gets fed.
Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte has been one of the lone bright spots in an otherwise dismal season, and he’s generally been the one guy who could hold his head high after a tough loss. Well, the Bears suffered another brutal defeat today, though Forte could muster only six yards on five carries, as the Bears decided to try and throw themselves back into the game. It didn’t work out as planned, but Forte did make a sizeable impact as a pass-catcher, notching six receptions for 52 yards, including 22 on his first reception of the game.
Better days will surely be ahead for Forte, who is averaging nearly 75 yards per game this season with 822 total rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns. And, as always, he continues to make a profound impact in the passing game, as he already has 78 receptions, three receiving TDs, and over 600 receiving yards. He’s easily one of the top five fantasy backs going forward, but he simply ran into an elite run defense this week and didn’t receive any sort of a volume boost in this one. Despite this, he still managed to salvage something fantasy-wise with his pass-catching prowess, and he’ll have much easier defenses ahead of him. Brian de la Puente’s injury will hurt him, but it doesn’t put a significant damper on his fantasy output.