Sheesh Report. Nullified Touchdowns, Missed Big Plays And More From Week 3.

Week 3 has come and gone. Sixteen NFL games brought joy, laughs and tears to football fans and, of course, fantasy football faithful.

Today, we’ll focus on the latter sadness and break down just how close some came to achieving fantasy football glory.

What follows is a breakdown on all the “Sheesh” moments from Week 3. I’ve watched every game and combed play-by-play data to help determine instances when:

• Pass-catchers who could have scored or picked up big yardage with a more accurate pass 
• Pass-catchers who did receive an accurate pass that should have resulted in a score or big gain, but the ball was dropped
• Ball carriers who managed to get all the way to the one-yard line, but didn’t score 
• Players who scored or picked up big yardage, but the play was nullified by penalty
• Other random shit that tilted fantasy football managers of all shapes and sizes

First, the single-biggest sheesh moment of Week 3.

Browns WR Amari Cooper was ROBBED

The Browns' No. 1 WR had himself a great afternoon at the office on Sunday, catching seven of eight targets for 116 yards and a score despite continuing to play through a groin injury.

However, Cooper’s performance could have been even bigger had the officials simply let him, you know, play football for a little bit longer. A well-placed sideline pass from Deshaun Watson landed right in Cooper’s bread basket, only for the 29-year-old veteran to display some crafty footwork in order to stay inbounds and seemingly set himself up for a 65-yard TD.

One problem: The referees blew the whistle at the initial catch point, limiting Cooper to a 25-yard gain instead of far more. Usually the officials mess this sort of thing up on strip sacks that look like incompletions — this instance is completely inexcusable and made all the more brutal by the fact the official was STANDING RIGHT THERE.

It wasn’t a guarantee that Cooper would have scored, although he sure seemed to have the Titans’ last line of defense on absolute skates on his way to picking up an additional chunk of YAC.

Sadly, sometimes the best thing any of us can do in a situation like this is take a deep breath, take a long look in the mirror, and mutter one word: Sheesh.

Broncos WR Cortland Sutton had a productive, yet also horribly bad, day at the office

On the surface, Sutton’s 8-91-1 receiving line was pretty great. The eight receptions were good for his highest single-game reception total with Russ and the score marked just the fourth time that the duo hooked up for six points.

Here’s the catch: Sutton was also on the wrong side of *four* separate sheeshes that wound up being the difference between his fantasy production being great and being absolutely fantastic.

Overall, Sutton had a seven-yard TD nullified due to OPI on a (very questionable) illegal pick, lost not one, but TWO fumbles, and committed an egregious drop on what should have been a short four-yard TD before the half.

The OPI-sheesh certainly wasn’t Sutton’s fault, but leaving 11.4 PPR points on the board with self-inflicted wounds otherwise is enough to make any fantasy manager feel awfully sheeshy.

Is this whole Kyle Pitts thing ever going to happen?

The third-year TE has struggled to get going in a major way early in the 2023 season typically due to volume concerns, but on Sunday Pitts saw a team-high nine targets on his way to (sadly) racking up a season-high 8.7 PPR points.

However, one such play prevented the 2021 NFL Draft’s No. 4 overall pick from an even bigger day at the office. Pitts managed to break rather wide open deep downfield on a post, only to seemingly not exactly run his fastest AND perhaps accordingly not receive a catchable ball from QB Desmond Ridder.

You can be the judge on who is more at fault here.

Whether you believe Pitts or Ridder was the problem here: This *should* have been at least a 40-yard gain — if not an 85-yard house call. Sheesh.

Down at the 1-yard line

These players managed to get the football within three feet of the goal line, but not quite across the plane. Sadly, they did not score on the same drive:

• Texans QB C.J. Stroud
• Raiders RB Josh Jacobs
• Chiefs RB Isiah Pacheco
• Dolphins RB De'Von Achane — yes, his day somehow could have been even bigger
• Chargers RB Joshua Kelley
• Vikings RB Alexander Mattison
• Packers RB Patrick Taylor
• Chiefs WR Rashee Rice (x2)
• Panthers WR Adam Thielen
• Raiders WR Jakobi Meyers
• Chargers TE Gerald Everett
• Commanders TE Cole Turner
• Eagles RB D'Andre Swift
• Buccaneers WR Chris Godwin
• Buccaneers RB Rachaad White
• Rams RB Kyren Williams

“Congrats” to Swift for having an NFL-high three such sheeshes through three weeks of action. Williams, Rice and Pacheco are the only other players with multiple instances of this sheeshy affair so far in 2023.

Side note: Rams WR TuTu Atwell SEEMINGLY took a reverse 24 yards to the house (TuTu YACwell, amiright?), but upon further review he was ruled out of bounds at the two-yard line. Failure to get all the way to the one would normally result in exclusion from this list – but that would be if we were POSITIVE that Atwell didn’t actually score. Sheesh.

Nullified TDs

TDs usually get nullified by penalty for a good reason, but that doesn’t make the roller coaster of adrenaline any less sheeshful for fantasy managers to deal with.

In Week 3 there were four-such instances.

*Law and Order Music*

These are their stories:

• Dolphins RB Devon Achane scored a 23-yard rushing TD, but the score was wiped out by a hold. Luckily, Achane caught a short four-yard TD from Tua Tagovailoa just four plays later.
• Broncos WR Courtland Sutton caught a seven-yard score from Russell Wilson thanks to an apparently illegal pick, which was called for offensive pass interference.
• Broncos WR Jerry Jeudy caught a short six-yard TD from Russ, but an illegal shift penalty wiped out the score. Week 2 Hail Mary hero WR Brandon Johnson was the guilty party on both nullified scores — makes you think.
• Chiefs WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling took advantage of a coverage bust to score from 50 yards out — the problem is that LT Jawaan Taylor AGAIN lined up too deep in the backfield and was flagged for an illegal formation penalty.

Victims of DPI

Defensive pass interferences can be finicky and don’t always occur in instances when the targeted receiver would FOR SURE make the catch.

That said: They are very annoying for fantasy managers to deal with when the result could’ve, should’ve, would’ve been a chunk gain — and maybe even a TD.

The top-seven players in most yards gained courtesy of drawing DPI flags were as follows:

• Browns WR Amari Cooper (45)
• Packers WR Donteavou Wicks (45)
• Titans WR Treylon Burks (26)
• Jaguars WR Calvin Ridley (25 — down to the 1)
• Packers WR Romeo Doubs (22)
• Cardinals WR Marquise Brown (22)
• Giants TE Darren Waller (22)

Also note that Jets WR Randall Cobb drew a shorter DPI penalty that gave the Jets the ball at the 1-yard line and in position to score.

Interceptions that were NOT the QB’s fault

While the box score doesn’t account for who to blame on any particular interception, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that sometimes the QB isn’t to blame.

There two especially notable instances of this in Week 3:

• Giants QB Daniel Jones hit TE Darren Waller in the hands before the ball was knocked into the air and landed in the hands of the defense.
• Late-game clock management issues aside: Vikings QB Kirk Cousins hit TE T.J. Hockenson in the mitts from six yards out with the game on the line, only for the ball to be dropped and deflected right to the Chargers.

Also note that Broncos QB Russell Wilson had an interception occur after his pass was initially tipped at the line of scrimmage, while Packers QB Jordan Love and Bills QB Josh Allen essentially chose to punt with their arms on long third downs via desperate downfield heaves that were picked off.

Not to suggest any of these situations were ideal, but they also probably aren’t something that should be criticized quite as harshly as a bad read or objectively terrible throw. Cool? Cool.

Brutal drops

Eight key drops stood out over the weekend on plays that seemingly would have been six points with good hands, although in two-noted cases the butter-finger culprit in question would have needed to display at least a little bit of YAC goodness in order to find the end zone:

• Titans WR Treylon Burks (61 yards out — 11-yard dig where all the defenders fell after the drop)
• Jaguars WR Calvin Ridley (30)
• Bills TE Dawson Knox (19)
• Eagles WR A.J. Brown (6, 1)
• Vikings RB Alexander Mattison (15 — would have had to beat one defender to the pylon but looked like he had the angle)
• Buccaneers WR Mike Evans (15)
• Texans TE Dalton Schultz (13)
• Vikings TE T.J. Hockenson (6)
• Broncos WR Courtland Sutton (4)
• Packers WR Jayden Reed (2)

Additionally, Saints WR Chris Olave (7 yards) and Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill (1) had potential short scores hit their hands, albeit they were in the corner of the end zone and hardly dealing with a routine pitch and catch.

A similar “not super egregious” sentiment is true for Bills WR Gabe Davis (22), who only managed to get one foot inbounds on his near score, as well as 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey (23) and Packers WR Jayden Reed (20), who both had potential TDs in their hands in the end zone … only for their coverage defender to do a great job ripping the football out before possession could be established. 

Also note that Bears WR D.J. Moore (35 yards), Titans WR Treylon Burks (32), Seahawks WR Colby Parkinson (26) and Panthers WR D.J. Chark (25) suffered inopportune drops on rather perfectly thrown downfield dimes, although the plays certainly didn't look to be headed towards six points if caught.

Most unrealized air yards

Air yards measure the distance that any given pass travels (wait for it) in the air. So if Lamar Jackson throws a b-e-a-utiful 50-yard bomb to FB Patrick Ricard, who then takes the ball into the end zone for a 75-yard TD: We have just 50 air yards despite the gain being for 75.

Unrealized air yards are a good way to see what pass-catchers had a lot of fantasy-friendly opportunities in a given week, but simply couldn’t get the job done (job done). Sometimes unrealized air yards are more akin to “prayer yards” because the pass wasn’t overly catchable in the first place, so grinding the ole film helps with identifying those sorts of situations.

Subtracting yards after the catch from every player’s receiving yards total before taking the difference with total air yards helps us pinpoint exactly how much opportunity through the air a player failed to come down with for one reason or another.

Sep 24, 2023; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams (17) reacts after catching a touchdown pass against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first half at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The following 12 players racked up at least 80 unrealized air yards in Week 3:

• Colts WR Alec Pierce (118)
• Bucs WR Mike Evans (112)
• Titans WR Treylon Burks (109)
• Raiders WR Davante Adams (104)
• Panthers WR D.J. Chark (101)
• Packers WR Romeo Doubs (101)
• Bears WR D.J. Moore (99)
• Rams WR TuTu Atwell (94)
• Seahawks WR Tyler Lockett (93)
• Packers WR Samori Toure (86)
• Raiders WR Jakobi Meyers (82)
• Bears WR Chase Claypool (80)

Slightly better ball TDs

Our previous section helped quantify the most missed opportunities through the air, but there were an additional handful of targets that I can’t help call out because it sure seemed like the following players could have put six points on the board with a bit more accurate pass.

Pressure, openness and other extenuating factors vary; none of these were complete layups. That said, fantasy managers undoubtedly jumped out of their seats for a whole lot of nothing when they happened.

• Lions WR Kalif Raymond (best case 75-yard TD)
• Colts WR Josh Downs (36)
• Vikings WR KJ Osborn (24, 5)
• Cowboys WR Michael Gallup (18, drew DPI)
• Jets WR Garrett Wilson (9)
• Chiefs TE Travis Kelce (6)
• Rams WR TuTu Atwell (5)
• Packers WR Jayden Reed (2)

Also note that Packers TE Luke Musgrave had a chunk opportunity down the middle of the field sail far over his head and incomplete. A reasonably accurate pass probably “only” produces 40 or so yards, although my lovely mother thought it would have been a TD while watching live — and whomst amongst us wants to risk disagreeing with Mom.