In the Buffalo Bills’ latest embarrassing loss, this one a 41-9 drubbing at the hands of the Chicago Bears, more of the same trends continued. The offense was putrid, giving up more points on defensive returns (12) than it was able to muster for itself (9). The passing game is entirely inept. The running game is unable to do much of anything. The defense performed valiantly for a time, but was ultimately unable to sustain its energy and success when consistently forced to defend shortened fields.
In spite of all of this, one Buffalo Bills player actually managed a decent fantasy football day. His day was ugly in reality, but he led the Bills in fantasy scoring this week.
QB Nathan Peterman
Buffalo’s quarterback scored 15.16 fantasy points on the week, a performance buoyed by a useless 24-yard scramble on an untimed down to end the first half (when the play call was a Hail Mary, no less, trailing 28-0) and a useless rushing touchdown with 5:43 remaining in the fourth quarter to cut Buffalo’s deficit to 34-9. Peterman threw for 189 yards on 49 attempts, a paltry 3.9-yards per attempt. He also was intercepted 3 times, though all of them came on balls that either hit his receiver in the hands or were caused by receivers running lazy routes (that’s you, Kelvin Benjamin). It was another ugly performance from Buffalo’s second-year quarterback, yet it was good enough for Buffalo’s leading fantasy total of the week. Yikes.
TE Logan Thomas
If you had Thomas as the random Bills’ player who would lead the team in catches (7) and receiving yards (40) on the day, congratulations to you. Coming into Sunday’s contest, Thomas had 10 receptions for 98 yards in his whole career, so Sunday’s performance nearly doubled his career totals in both categories. With Charles Clay listed as week-to-week due to a hamstring injury suffered against da Bears, Thomas may in line for more work as the season progresses. At a shallow position, it’s possible that you’re looking for any sort of spark, and Thomas has a little upside moving forward.
RB Chris Ivory
Another week, another game in which LeSean McCoy’s backup outshines him. Ivory bruised his way to a 7.1-point fantasy scoring day, totaling 36 rushing yards on 7 carries and adding 3 receptions for 20 yards. He went to the hospital after the game for evaluation, but was only diagnosed with a shoulder sprain. He’s listed as day-to-day, so there seems to be a good chance that he will be available as soon as this week against his former team, the New York Jets. He’s worth adding at this point in the season.