Studs and Duds: NFL Week Eight

By Brett Malamud

It was a pretty disappointing week for me in fantasy football, as my opponent scored 149 points. That wasn’t even the top scoring team though as one team led by Ben Roethlisberger had 174 points. With that said, it was a great week for many fantasy owners after some huge performances. Here’s this week’s edition of Studs and Duds:

Stud: Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers

Big Ben had a monster game this week, throwing six touchdowns and a total of 522 yards. Fantasy owners must have been pleased, as Roethlisberger racked up 44 points in ESPN standard leagues.

Dud: Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers

Newton finished Sunday’s game going 12-for-22 passing with 171 yards and a interception. He’s been great on the ground all season, but this week he had 24 rushing yards and a fumble. He’ll look to rebound on Thursday night against the Saints.

Stud: Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots 

The pair was fantastic against the Chicago Bears this week. Of Brady’s five touchdown passes, three of them were to Gronkowski. In addition, the two hooked up for 149 yards.

Dud: Julius Thomas, Denver Broncos

For the second week in a row, Thomas has failed to produce. This week, he caught a season-low two passes for just 23 yards. Coming from a team led by Peyton Manning, you’d figure that he’d make some great plays but has been quite a disappointment.

Stud: Emmanuel Sanders, Denver Broncos

Sanders has been great this season and this week was no different. He finished Thursday night with 120 yards and three touchdowns in Denver’s win over the Chargers.

Dud: Geno Smith, New York Jets

The worst possibility has set in for Geno Smith. He started against the Bills and was miserable. Smith was two-for-eight for five yards passing, plus threw three interceptions. He was pulled in the middle of the first quarter.

Geno Smith was replaced in the first quarter by Michael Vick (via AP)

Stud: Arian Foster, Houston Texans 

Foster has been on fire lately. The Texans running back rushed for 151 yards and two touchdowns. Foster also added a receiving touchdown. He now has six touchdowns in his last four games.

Dud: Jordy Nelson, Green Bay Packers

Nelson had been great this season but came away with a bad game. Although quarterback Aaron Rodgers had 418 passing yards, Nelson had just 25 yards. The Packers head into the bye week so Nelson will have to wait a week before attempting to bounce back in week 10 against the Bears.

Stud: Jeremy Maclin, Philadelphia Eagles 

Maclin was put to work on Sunday with 16 targets. He finished the day with 12 catches for 187 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

Stud: Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona Cardinals 

Larry Fitzgerald has been irrelevant for most of the season. He came into this matchup against the Eagles and came out with 160 receiving yards and a touchdown. Not bad. He’ll look to continue the success next week in Dallas.

Brett Malamud is a Computer Science Major at Binghamton University. He is the co-founder of dabuzzza.com. His favorite athletes are Derek Jeter and Todd Bertuzzi. You can follow him on twitter at @brettnyy