During the 1980s, the late, great actor John Ritter hosted a series of educational videos for children and young adults (“Where There’s A Will, There’s An A”), offering various methods (or tricks) for retaining sizable nuggets of important information.
Among the key lessons, young minds should condense the material into shorter periods of processing, creating more opportunities to recall the first and last bits of information.
So, taking a cue from Where There’s A Will … There’s An A, we’ve reduced the number of weekly Fun Facts to an easily digestible four items.
In other words, we’re taking a Less Is More approach to gleaning top-shelf insight for your fantasy league.
Enjoy!
FUN FACT #1
Cowboys tailback Ezekiel Elliott might have eight touchdowns on the season, but that Toucan Sam-like nose for the end zone doesn’t necessarily apply to games against non-conference competition.
Charting his last seven meetings with AFC foes, the three-time rushing champion has accounted for only two scores during this stretch. On the plus side, though, Elliott holds superb averages of 114 total yards.
Here are other Elliott-related nuggets to celebrate during Thanksgiving week:
**The Bills are allowing 4.6 yards per carry to opposing backs this season.
**Citing Points Per Reception leagues, the seven-tailback grouping of Le’Veon Bell, Saquon Barkley, Joe Mixon, Adrian Peterson, Derrick Henry, Kareem Hunt and Nick Chubb collectively averaged 17.1 points against the Bills.
**On Thanksgiving Day, Elliott boasts supreme averages of 132 total yards and 1.5 TDs.
FUN FACT #2
Only wretched weather can stop Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes from carving up the Raiders; and by the looks of things, Missouri’s mid-week snowstorm will likely be gone ahead of Sunday’s late-afternoon kickoff window.
What makes us so sure? A few things:
a) Last week, Jets QB Sam Darnold torched the Raiders for 315 yards passing, three total touchdowns and a sterling completion rate of 69 percent.
b) Citing his three career starts versus Oakland, Mahomes sports stellar averages of 340 yards passing and 3.3 touchdowns.
c) Mahomes has accounted for 300 yards passing and/or multiple TDs in his last nine regular-season home outings.
For this productive stretch, the NFL’s reigning MVP has averaged 309 yards passing and 2.6 scores.
FUN FACT #3
Don’t fall asleep on Bucs running back Ronald Jones being a bankable star for Weeks 13-16, the universal period for the fantasy football playoffs.
WEEK 13 — Jones (nine-game average: 66 total yards, 0.6 TDs) draws the Jaguars, who have surrendered the third-most rushing touchdowns to opposing backs.
What’s more, these same backs are averaging 5.6 yards per carry versus Jacksonville.
WEEK 14 — The Colts are solid against the run; but opposing backs have enjoyed a robust catch-to-target rate of 82 percent.
WEEK 15 — The Lions are among the NFL’s worst defenses with opposing tailbacks, citing rushing yards, rushing touchdowns and receiving TDs allowed.
As such, Detroit ranks 31st in fantasy circles against PPR backs.
WEEK 16 — The Texans own bottom-5 tallies with opposing backs, across the board, citing catches, targets, receiving yards and receiving TDs surrendered.
And last but not least …
FUN FACT #4
The last three games have been a major struggle for Aaron Rodgers, with the Packers quarterback averaging only 166 yards passing and 0.7 touchdowns.
That’s the bad news … now for the good stuff:
a) Of his last eight games played on FieldTurf (including the playoffs), Rodgers holds excellent averages of 319 yards and 2.1 touchdowns.
b) The Giants defense ranks in the bottom 10 with passing yards and passing touchdowns allowed.
c) Charting his last eight meetings with the Giants, Rodgers boasts elite-level averages of 313 yards passing and 2.9 TDs.