Every week dozens of players stand out and perform exemplary. Today I am going to be highlighting the top 5 players or units that stood out.
Honorable mention: Tony Pollard
With Ezekiel Elliot out with a right knee injury, it was on Tony Pollard to pick up the slack. Pollard proved that he was more than up for the challenge, taking 14 carries for 131 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Cowboys routinely went to Pollard to spark the offense, and he responded with four plays of over 15 yards, highlighted by a 54 yard touchdown run to ice the game, making the score 49-29 with 10 minutes left. The Cowboys offense had its best game of the year, in large part to a career day by Tony Pollard.
Honorable mention: D’onta Foreman
The Panthers lost a heartbreaker against the Falcons 34-37 final overtime, where they completed a hail mary just to miss the extra point to force overtime. Then, in OT, the Panthers missed a 33 yard field goal for the win and ended up losing. But the reason why they even had a chance in overtime, in large part, was due to D’onta Foreman. The Panthers offense ran through Foreman, feeding him 26 times for 118 yards and 3 touchdowns. Foreman’s rocksolid 4.54 yards per carry consistently kept the Panthers offense ahead of the chains and gave them a powerful redzone weapon. While they didn’t win the game, the offense had easily their best game, with their previous season high being 24 points, and a large reason for why was D’onta Foreman’s career game.
The fact that there are two players with three touchdowns that were left on the honorable mentions spot, shows just how many players went off this week.
Honorable mention: Za’Darius Smith
The Vikings beat the Cardinals in large part to Za’Darius Smith being a force on the edge. Consistently harassing Kyler Murray, Smith piled up 3 sacks with all 3 effecting ending their respective drives. He also tallied 7 tackles, 4 tackles for loss and a pass deflection. The Cardinals stuck around the whole game, but could never quite overcome and take the lead, in large part to Za’Darius Smith’s effort. Smith is now up to 8.5 sacks for the year, tied for first in the NFL.
#5 AJ Brown
AJ Brown was a man on a mission, having a career first half piling up 5 catches for 113 yards and 3 touchdowns. In the game Brown finished with 6 receptions for 156 yards and 3 touchdowns. Brown had four receptions of over 25 yards, with chunk plays of 27, 29, 39, and 43 yards. He became the first receiver with three 25+ yard touchdowns in the first half since Tennessee’s Drew Bennett in 2004. Thanks to Brown’s penchant for big plays the Eagles jumped out to a 21-10 halftime lead, and cruised to a dominant 35-13 victory over the Steelers.
#4 Alvin Kamara
Alvin Kamara entered the game saying that the Saints were going to “Whoop” the Raider for head coach Dennis Allen, who used to be the head coach of the Raiders. Well he did his part, leading the Saints in rushing and receiving. Kamara had 18 carries for 62 yards and a touchdown, and 9 receptions for 96 yards and 2 more touchdowns through the air. His three touchdowns were the first ones of the season for him, and the Saints used them all to crush the Raiders 24-0. While the Saints defense was impressive, Alvin Kamara was the key offense piece that everything went through, having 27 touches on the game, which made up 49% of the Saints team touches (rushing attempts + receptions). In his best game of the year so far, Kamara willed his team and completed his promise to “Whoop” the Raiders.
#3 Christian Mccaffery
The 49ers traded four draft picks for Christian McCaffery with the thought of running the offense through him. After his first week some fans were disappointed as he only had 10 touches for 62 yards the entire game. The 49ers decided to fully unleash him in the second game with the team, McCaffery was everywhere doing everything all game. He had 18 carries for 94 yards and a touchdown rushing, 8 catches for 55 yards and a touchdown receiving, and even one pass for 34 yards and a touchdown! It was the first time a player has had a rushing, receiving and passing touchdown since LaDanian Tomlinson in 2005. The 49ers only had one drive where McCaffery didn’t touch the ball at least 3 times, and he still got the ball twice in the four plays on that drive. McCaffery was tasked to do everything and he delivered, leading the 49ers to a dominant 31-14 win over their rival the Rams.
#2 Derrick Henry
The Titans were going up against the 1-4-1 Texans but the Texans have had 3 games decided by less than one score so they were still a potentially tricky matchup. When also considering that the Titans were starting rookie Malik Willis for the first time in his career, this had all the makings for a trap game. Titans head coach Mike Vrabel decided to take the game nearly completely out of the rookies’ hands. Willis threw the ball 10 times in the entire game, and instead placed the entire offense on Derrick Henry. Henry came to play, running the ball 32 times for 219 yards and Tennessee’s only 2 touchdowns, the Titans ended up winning the game 17-10. Henry himself was responsible for 64.4% of the Titans total yards, becoming the first player to run for 200 yards this year. Henry now has six out of the last 10, 200 yard rushing games in NFL history and his six 200 yard games tie Adrian Peterson and OJ Simpson for most 200 yard rushing games in a career.
#1 Saints secondary
With all the incredible offensive performances this weekend, the most impressive performance comes on the defensive side of the ball. The Saints’ secondary were up against the Raiders and the number three offense in the NFL, entering the game they were averaging 27.2 points per game. The game started with the Raiders going three and out and things wouldn’t get much better for the Raiders going forward, the game ended 24-0 for the Saints. The Raiders didn’t even cross the midfield line until less than 2 minutes remaining in the game, when their backup quarterback did it after they benched Carr because the game was already essentially over. The Saints secondary absolutely dominated the game. Going up against super star Davante Adams and the third highest scoring offense in the NFL, not only did they get the shutout but they held Adams to one catch for three yards. Adams wasn’t the only one who was shut down by the Saints secondary, Derek Carr was limited to only 101 yards passing, the third lowest of his 134 game career, and the lowest in a game where he didn’t get hurt. Playing against an explosive offense and not allowing them to even get across midfield until garbage time, while forcing stars into career bad days, that gives the Saints secondary the performance of the week.