After a season punctuated by high-profile fantasy injuries and marred by offensive capitulation, Week 12 gave us three tremendous Thanksgiving games and a Sunday slate that more than lived up to the fast start.

We had two contests with totals in the 70s, two contests won by two-point conversions on virtually the final play, and a game forced to overtime by a one-handed David Njoku TD catch. As if the catch wasn’t enough, that play came on 4th-and-10 with 30 seconds remaining.

This was a week where the Zach Wilson experiment was mercifully aborted and Mike White unlocked the transcendent Garrett Wilson despite a driving rain.

This was a week where you could forgive Arthur Smith, Nathaniel Hackett, and the Houston Texans for sabotaging any game they play in. There was simply too much to celebrate instead.

Josh Jacobs vs Christian McCaffrey vs The Ultra-Confident Miami Dolphins

Even before Josh Jacobs broke free for an 86-yard score in overtime to exorcise some of the Raiders demons – and provoke more of those emotions that Derek Carr and Davante Adams wear so gratifyingly on their sleeves – he was having an excellent game. He gained 109 of his 303 yards from scrimmage in the extra session, but he’d already scored 35.7 points before a final run that will be forever etched in memory.

The heart of this article will be a deep dive on similar earth-shattering games this century, but we’re not ready to go down that rabbit hole quite yet. We had some other big RB-related stories this week:

• Miles Sanders put up 31 points in a game where the Green Bay Packers gave up 363 rushing yards. Sanders averaged 6.8 yards per carry and scored twice but still managed to be overshadowed by Jalen Hurts (157 rushing yards). The Packers came into the game as one of the seven worst run defenses in all of the following categories: yards per game, yards after contact per play, stuff percentage, positive play percentage, and EPA per play. Those stats are not going to improve after this one.
• Travis Etienne went out early against Baltimore, continuing a trend of key players posting virtual zeros. That allowed JaMycal Hasty to show off his passing-game chops with five catches for 100 yards and a score in the huge Jacksonville upset.
• Brian Robinson finally broke through, willing his team to victory with the impressive dual-threat ability that had Antonio Gibson on the outs in training camp. On his 14-yard receiving TD, Robinson bulldozed one tackler and ran through the arms of another at the goal-line. He also demonstrated better long speed with a 21-yard gain down the sidelines. Robinson came into the game as one of six high-volume backs averaging less than 2.5 yards after contact and less than 1.5 before. The rookie looked completely different in this one.

Everyone Hearts Tua Tagovailoa

The other biggest story was another woefully pedestrian game from the 49ers offense, and the media shots from former RB employees. Suffice it to say that the Miami Dolphins love their quarterback, and they should. He leads the NFL in yards per attempt by almost a full yard over Patrick Mahomes and Hurts.

But while Mahomes has responded to Tyreek Hill’s departure – and offseason criticisms – by easily leading the NFL in passing yards and passing TDs, the 49ers have squashed their respective receiving weapons while fading to the middle of the pack in Shanahan’s signature element: the rushing game.

Mike McDaniel took this offense to Miami and lit the world on fire with his pass-heavy version. Hill and Jaylen Waddle may be two of the best WRs in all of football, but their historic start stands in stark contrast to the mundane numbers for Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel, and George Kittle.

McDaniel’s success also reinforces the importance of hiring a head coach who believes in a quarterback and builds the offense around his talents. Tagovailoa has a weak arm but otherworldly accuracy and anticipation. Brian Flores wasn’t a fan, and his season-long flirtation with a sexual predator undermined an entire organization and eventually led to his dismissal. (Circumstantial evidence suggests other unsavory things going on with ownership, but Flores is accountable for his part in these failures.)

The 49ers Almost Seem to Want the Criticism

Back in San Francisco, the 49ers have an elite defense and rudderless offense. The most telling sequence came with three minutes to go in the first half and Jimmy Garoppolo’s squad leading 3-0.

Facing a third-and-goal from the 2, San Francisco called a pass and benefitted from a broken coverage where no one picked up McCaffrey as he filled in the area vacated by Aiyuk’s route. Or perhaps the Saints ignored McCaffrey by design. It didn’t fool anyone when Garoppolo quickly looked to a bunch of three receivers on his right. Kittle and Samuel cleared out/blocked for Juaun Jennings who took the quick pass and was summarily stuffed by Chris Harris. Of course the play was for Jennings, who tied for second in targets (7) and scored the only 49ers’ TD.

Samuel, who’s always a little bit dinged, was shaken up, so he left the field for fourth down, along with McCaffrey. Kyle Juszczyk and Elijah Mitchell were the backs of choice on this critical play. Garoppolo faked to Mitchell and probably wanted a quick pass to Kittle but settled for a scramble/scuttle/collapse that left him short of the goal. This was the entire 2022 San Francisco offense in a nutshell.

The Curse of the San Francisco RBs is the final cherry on top. McCaffrey, Mitchell, Raheem Mostert, and Jeff Wilson are all dinged up to various extents heading into Week 13. Whether you view this through the lens of tragedy or comedy depends on your own personal brand of literary criticism and how much exposure you have to this quartet in fantasy.

Now it’s time for more Josh Jacobs.

The Greatest RB Games of This Century

The RotoViz Screener provides a wide variety of play-by-play data going back to 2000. In this exercise, I’m going to peruse through the 129 games where a running back has scored 40 or more points. We’ll look at how they accomplished it, when they accomplished it, and what ramifications it might have for the fantasy playoffs.