🏟️ And Then There Were 4...
In today's Fantasy Life Newsletter, we recap a wild Sunday of Divisional Round football, highlight the vulnerabilities in the 49ers, and more.
The New Heights podcast should have Tyler Bass on…
In today’s Fantasy Life Newsletter presented by Masterworks:
- The Bills let it slip away
- Pete’s Weekly Wrap-Up: Mike Evans goes out with a bang
- Jason Kelce is enjoying retirement
- Overreaction Monday: The Niners are vulnerable…
- It’s 1/22. Take it away, Peter Overzet…
This was supposed to be the year that the Bills finally got the monkey off their back.
Over the last three seasons, they've gone 38-18 with only two losses greater than seven points.
They entered their Divisional matchup as 2.5-point home favorites. A tentative date with Lamar Jackson was penciled in on the calendar.
But like death and taxes, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are simply inevitable.
After a heartbreaking field goal miss by Tyler Bass and some questionable play calling (a fake punt to Damar Hamlin?!), the Chiefs did what they've done every January for the past seven years and advanced to the AFC Championship game.
Mahomes, per usual, was surgical. The Chiefs had 8 offensive possessions and only punted once.
Taylor Swift’s Boyfriend—more on him below—tapped into the fountain of youth on his way to 2 TDs and one heart flash.
And now the Conference Championships are set:
🏆️ AFC Championship: Ravens vs. Chiefs
- Sunday, January 28 at 3pm ET (CBS)
- Ravens -3.5
- Total: 45
🏆️ NFC Championship: Niners vs. Lions
- Sunday, January 28 at 6:30pm ET (CBS)
- Niners -7
- Total: 51
Get the complete playoff picture
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Peter is here to share his big takeaways from the first four games from Divisional Weekend. Take it away, Pete...
🏆️ Lamar Jackson cements MVP season
The MVP front-runner led all players in fantasy scoring this weekend as he combined for 4 total TDs vs. an overmatched Texans squad.
He became the first player in NFL history to have:
- 100-plus passing yards
- 100-plus rushing yards
- 100-plus passer rating
- 2 passing TDs
- 2 rushing TDs
💪 CMC puts San Fran on his back
The Niners barely escaped a red-hot Packers squad on Saturday thanks in large part to Christian McCaffrey once again delivering an epic performance:
- 24 touches
- 128 total yards
- 2 TDs
He’s now averaged 108.8 total yards and 1 TD across all 5 of his career playoff games.
🤪 The Josh Allen Experience
History will not remember Josh Allen’s fantasy line vs. the Chiefs, but he was too impressive to ignore.
He gave us his best Lamar impression with 72 yards rushing for 2 TDs, as well as 186 yards passing for 1 TD.
If you are directing blame for the Bills flop, look elsewhere.
⭐️ Travis Kelce balls out like it’s 2018
It’s been a rough fantasy season for Kelce, but he stepped up big vs. the Bills yesterday with 5 receptions for 75 yards and 2 TDs.
Per StatMuse, he’s now only 5 playoff TDs away from breaking Jerry Rice’s record (22).
After scoring one of his TDs, he rocketed the ball into the stands before flashing Taylor a heart. This man contains multitudes:
❗️ Mike Evan punctuates an impressive year
The Lions won the war, but Evans capped off another great season with a career playoff-high 147 yards and 8 catches, including this incredible one:
We all hope he can run it back with Baker Mayfield again next season.
🤷 Jahmyr Gibbs is the second-best RB in the league
One of these days the Lions will realize they need to give their electric RB more than 14 touches, but until then Gibbs will continue to deliver elite efficiency (9-74-1; 4-40) on limited work.
How can you not root for this kid?
🗓️ Will Travis Kelce retire after this season? Interesting report.
👀 Sharp money has already started influencing betting lines for next week. Run, don’t walk, to lock in these early bets.
🙏 The Detroit Lions are doing things. FINALLY.
📊 The Conference Championship matchups are set. Everything you need to know for the rest of the playoffs.
🔊 A Divisional Round DOINK. It was loud.
🔥 Bills Mafia remains wild. Not sure the fire was needed.
🍺 Jason Kelce had himself a day. Incredible.
🧯 The Eagles shake up their defense. Makes sense.
We're humans who play fantasy football, so we are prone to overreact. Today, Kendall overreacts to this weekend’s action…
🎯 The 49ers are vulnerable
The end of this game just felt like a huge sigh of relief for the 49ers. It wasn’t a dominant performance by any means. Honestly, the Packers lost this game more than San Francisco won.
Green Bay held the lead in this game for 50 minutes, which was impressive as 9.5-point road underdogs. Quarterback Jordan Love finished 21-of-34 for 194 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Unfortunately, the youngest playoff team in years showed off their lack of experience in the final minutes.
Love was trying to lead his team to a comeback victory and sealed their fate when he connected with 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw for his second interception of the game.
Honestly, the Packers did everything right.
Aaron Jones walks away with 18 carries and 108 yards (the first Packer in history to rush for over 100 yards in five straight games). Bo Melton caught a wide-open touchdown pass. It was all there for them, but the 49ers emerged victorious.
This did show, though, that they have flaws.
We’ve said the same thing about the Kansas City Chiefs this season. It was the first win for Kyle Shanahan when down seven or more points in the fourth quarter. I still believe we will see the 49ers in the Super Bowl, but this showing against the 7th seed was almost unexpected.
It was the first time in a year and a half that the defense gave up over 100 yards to a running back. They gave up a 73-yard return in the third quarter.
They were vulnerable and will spend the next week trying to tighten up before taking on the Lions.
Brock Purdy led his team 69 yards down the field in 12 plays for his first fourth-quarter comeback, and Greenlaw sealed the deal. They’re beatable, but they’ll bounce back.
🎲 Las Vegas finally got it right
Interim no more.
On Friday the Las Vegas Raiders announced that they hired Antonio Pierce as their head coach.
Pierce took over once the Raiders fired Josh McDaniels after starting the season 3-5 and he immediately won over the locker room, and took the team to an 8-9 record — finishing tied for second in the AFC West.
We have to wait and see what Pierce’s staff will look like, but this is an obvious culture change that the team desperately needs. He won over the locker room because he was the exact opposite of McDaniels, and it proved to be beneficial.
The Raiders had memorable games during the 2023 season. Remember when they put up a 60-burger against the Chargers? How about that win against the Kansas City Chiefs?
Key contributors like Davante Adams and Maxx Crosby voiced their support for Pierce not too long ago. Just see what Crosby said last Thursday:
"There's only 32 [NFL] head coaches in the whole world," Crosby said. "You've got to find a leader of men. And when you've got one of them in the building currently, I don't know why you would let them go."
Pierce will have lots of decisions to make coming up. What will the team do with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo? He has a $28.5 million cap number in 2024 with $11.25 million guaranteed. Running back Josh Jacobs is also a free agent this year.
No matter what, it feels like the Raiders have the right person to lead this team going forward. Time to light some more cigars.
