Man, Monday night games sure are fun. Unless you lose. Then it's not as fun. But once again, we had some intense finishes in matchups this week, with 2 ending with a margin of less than 2 points. Let's break them down from least to most exciting:
6. Rich vs. Mike
The only matchup that didn't have any Monday night players was actually a thriller on Sunday night. If Mahomes had been able to put up a 60 spot with a few more kicks from Butker and a Waller injury, we could have seen one of the most ridiculous comebacks ever. But the gap Rich built during the day was too big to overcome.
5. David Y vs. Eric
Before: David up 35.1
Final: David wins by 28.4
Eric had a huge deficit to overcome but with Aiyuk regaining form recently and Higbee an end zone threat, it looked like this could be a possibility. But alas, game script was determined in the first quarter in what had to be one of the shortest football games in history (it ended in under 3 hours). The 49ers ran the ball more than 40 times and Higbee, even though he had multiple opportunities, couldn't finish his catches. A matchup that should have been more intriguing lost its appeal before halftime.
4. Dan vs. Chris
Before: Dan up 26.9
Final: Dan wins by 8.2
Dan was up a solid amount with 2 players left on Chris's squad. Unfortunately for Dan, one of these players was Kupp, who could make up that deficit on his own. The other was the Rams defense who just added Von Miller and was probably ready to go and wreak havoc on non-elite QB, Jimmy G. Well, Kupp did his part, adding 122 yards on 11 catches. All the Rams needed to do was limit the 49ers to 13 points or less, sack him 4 times and generate a couple turnovers. Instead, they got trounced by the 49ers run game, only sacked Jimmy once, and couldn't get the 49ers to turn over the ball. The game script nobody expected came to fruition, resulting in a rare loss for Chris.
3. Cho vs. David K
Before: David K up 33.52
Final: Cho wins by 14.58 (MONDAY NIGHT COMEBACK)
Honestly, the game script favored David. Gay hadn't had many opportunities and probably wouldn't as the Rams were trying to close a big deficit and OBJ was on a limited snap count due to just joining the team. David absorbed Kittle's first TD and even Deebo's rush TD. All that was left was for the 49ers to run the clock out. Officially, he lost the lead in the 3rd quarter on a short pass to Deebo. But he still had a small chance if there was a fumble or negative yards. Instead, Deebo caught a 40 yard TD (we'll cover this play later) that put this matchup away for good before Gay added an unnecessary FG (more to come on this one too) to pour salt in the wound. David K must hate Mondays more than the rest of us.
2. Simon vs. Paul
Before: Simon up 14.3
Final: Simon wins by 1.02
My goodness was this close. Simon needed every single one of those 14 points he had built up on Sunday to hold off Jimmy G. With Darrell Henderson completely phased out of the game due to the Rams playing from behind, Simon just had to pray that Jimmy G wouldn't get 21 points. The game script was actually favorable as they continued to run the ball over and over. But in the 4th quarter, after the Rams stopped the 49ers on 3rd down, Simon walked away to tend to his children, expecting a punt from the 49ers. Instead, they went for it on 4th and 6 and not only did they convert, it became a TD, adding 7.6 points to Paul's score. At this point the matchup was within 2 points. Thankfully for Simon, after the TD, the 49ers didn't attempt another pass. Although Simon got hemorrhoids from squeezing his butthole as he barely hung on, it was a small price to pay for a fantasy win.
1. Jung vs. Jon
Before: Jung up 13.54
Final: Jung wins by 1.72
Jung had to have expected to lose. Jung had a pretty poor showing on Sunday (<82 points) and Stafford just needed to put up 14 points to put away another win for Jon. And then a pick. And then a pick six. All of a sudden, Stafford was at negative points and the 49ers were eating the clock away. The bad news is, when a team is down, they're going to throw the ball more. Eventually Stafford got his first TD. And while they went 3 and out over and over an in the 2nd half, there was a drive near the end of the game where the 49ers were sitting back in a shell and allowing the Rams to move the ball. It seemed inevitable that Stafford would continue to throw, score a TD, and eventually make up the few points that Jon needed to win. Then all of a sudden, on 4th and goal from the 19, they... kicked a FG?? In a 24 point game, they kicked a FG?!?! Now I understand that the chances of converting on 4th and 19 is slim to none but if you're not just running the ball to kill the clock, what's the harm in going for it on that play? This one baffled me. But Jung didn't care. He had survived.
ONE FRIENDLY REMINDER: The trade deadline is this Saturday so all trades must be accepted by 11:59PM that day (I don't know what time zone but I think it is Pacific).
Good luck to all!
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