2024 Game Report/Fantasy Scouting (Wk17): Giants 45, Colts 33 (By Ross Jacobs)
Game Overview:
Chalk this one up to the Colts being completely unable to stop anything. The defense looked like Swiss cheese and the Giants carved them up all night. New York took a 21-6 lead early and every time the Colts would pull it back within a score the Giants would quickly answer to extend their lead again. The game ended in the final three minutes as Flacco threw an INT trying to make a play and the ball sailed on him straight to a Giants defender.
The loss eliminates the Colts from the playoffs and Giants fans are lamenting the fact that the win knocked them out of pole position for the #1 pick in the draft.
Player Scouting Notes from the game:
*Note any fractional numbers in parentheses (4/2) or (2/3), etc., are a 'split' stat on our definition of a 'quality start' (or not) marker on a player -- using 14 PPR points in a game for RB-WR-TE and 21 (6pts TD pass) for a QB ...point levels that are good/productive/well above average starts for a Fantasy week. Trying to identify trends, consistency (or not) in players we might not normally realize.
A (3/2), for example, means: 3 times the player hit at/above the QUALITY mark, and 2 times they did not (this current season).
– I've never been as big a detractor of Drew Lock (17-23 for 309 yards, 4 TD/0 INT) as RC is, but don't believe for a second this stat line was primarily his doing. He played like new-age Sam Darnold here, take what the defense is giving you and let the receivers do their thing. And boy did the receivers do their thing, particularly one guy…
– This is going to be a controversial statement, but Malik Nabers (7-171-2/8) is already the best, most well-rounded WR in the league. Yeah. Above even fellow LSU alum Justin Jefferson and Ja'Marr Chase. He is the perfect blend of those two players, the route running nuance and change of direction of Jefferson and the speed and downfield playmaking of Chase. He has no weakness. Like I've said all along...best WR I've ever scouted out of college. Give him a decent QB and he is going to set records.
Both his two TDs here were just simple short passes, one a screen and one a curl, and he just turned on the jets, broke a tackle, and pulled away with ease. I've never seen a receiver go from 0 to 100 in a single step the way Nabers does, and he moves with an effortless grace like he's gliding on air. I still cannot understand how anyone could have watched Nabers and Marvin Harrison Jr in college and concluded that Harrison was better. The Cardinals will rue the day they passed on Nabers. They should already.
– As I wrote in a recent article, Jonathan Taylor (32-125-2, 2-11-0/4) is a RB1 for the foreseeable future and certainly into next year. He should be a top 5 drafted RB in redraft next year whether Anthony Richardson is the starting QB or not. Taylor is probably the 2nd best runner right now behind Saquon and the gap isn't very big. All that said the Giants did a surprisingly nice job bottling him up here. That 125 yards doesn't look nearly as impressive when you realize it took him 32 carries to get there.
– Josh Downs (3-22-0/4) looked like an afterthought here but it was mostly because Andru Phillips (6 tackles, 1 INT) was all over him. Phillips ought to be the DROY but we'll see if the voters have been paying attention or not.
RC NOTE: Spoiler alert…the voters have not.
– Instead it was a combination of Michael Pittman (6-109-1/10) and Alec Pierce (6-122-1/9) leading the way on a variety of mid-range passes with the occasional bomb to Pierce. In fact, Pierce dropped two passes for another 60 or so yards, but he still looked like the best receiver of the bunch. Curious to see if this carries over into 2025, but even in 2024 it is actually Pierce that is the current leading receiver for the Colts on the year with 767 yards and 6 TDs despite trailing both Pittman and Downs significantly in targets.
– The worst receiver by far here is rookie Adonai Mitchell (2-22-0/4), a guy I've been against since draft season. I said then he was an overrated bum and well...a 42% catch rate on the year isn't helping his cause. And yes, even with Richardson's accuracy issues that is still a full 10% lower than even Pierce who is averaging a monstrous 20 YPC on the year and is working with low percentage deep balls. Just being athletic doesn't make you a good football player.
– You better believe the Colts are going to be drafting heavily on defense in 2025. They are terrible overall. Really surprised that rookie 1st round pick Laiatu Latu hasn't been more effective. Maybe he can get it going next year.
– One Colts defender that has been excellent this year is one of my favorites from the 2022 draft and the guy I thought was the best safety in that class, Nick Cross (7 tackles). He's piled up a tremendous 138 tackles on the year with one game still to go. That is a huge number for a defensive back, and he's got 3 INTs, 5 pds, 1 forced fumble, and a sack to go along with it. You should easily be a Pro-Bowler this year.
– More Colts content from Ross on his substack, where he is writing about various football things. This one on defending Anthony Ricvharfson, a ‘thing’ I’ll be researching and debating ‘what went wrong’ on this offseason.
If you simply subscribe/follow his Substack, that platform just drops his latest articles into your email to let you know when anything new has dropped in a given week.
https://considerthefootball.substack.com/p/anthony-richardson-is-undervalued
