While Broncos fans continue to be up in arms over the way the team has played this season (and well they should be), fantasy owners are congratulating several players for their performances yesterday. The first among them is wide receiver Brandon Lloyd, who caught seven balls for 169 yards and one touchdown. Lloyd's longest catch of the day was a 71-yard reception in the third quarter that set up Tim Tebow's one-yard touchdown run on the next play. Given standard scoring rules (six points for a TD and one point for every 10 reception yards), Lloyd scored 22 points for fantasy owners. Too bad that 71-yard pass didn't go for a touchdown, because he would have given teams a bonus for that.
Kyle Orton also found himself throwing for 369 yards and touchdown, but he also hurt fantasy owners with a lost fumble and an interception. Instead of giving owners 19 points, those two mistakes knocked him down to 15 points, in line with his previous two weeks.
The San Francisco 49ers running back, Frank Gore, also proved to be a good start despite coach Mike Singletary wanting to use his other running backs more. He rushed for 118 yards and a touchdown, good for 17 points. Surprisingly, Troy Smith put up a good game for fantasy owners by rushing and throwing for a touchdown while throwing for just under 200 yards. Mike Singletary hinted Troy Smith will continue to start, but no one should be running to pick up Smith unless they had Alex Smith starting.
The Broncos are on a bye week, but it it may have been overly optimistic to predict Knowshon Moreno would be a good fantasy option. Over his last three games he has averaged 47 yards on 12 carries with no touchdowns. Moreno is certainly capable of more than this, but with the way this team is playing Moreno seems unlikely to get the ball 20-25 times a game. He shouldn't be the main rushing option for any fantasy team. However, Kyle Orton and Brandon Lloyd seem like a good combination right now, which should mean fantasy owners can start both of them without hesitation.