Week 2 Fantasy Football Bad Beats

Week 2 is barely in the rear-view mirror, but the sting of victory being snatched by the jaws of defeat is still very fresh. Maybe even somewhat raw. That’s what this article is for, to deal with that — and will be each week throughout the fantasy season.

We put out the call to the fantasy football community for everyone’s Week 2 bad beats. Call it part group therapy. Part group hug. Even a little bit screaming into the night. We’ve all had those bad beats that are so razor-thin that they hurt like a paper cut with salt dumped on it.

This is to let everyone who had a bad beat know that they’re not alone. Time for us to commiserate on our shared misery.

A Life Lesson In Bad Beats?

Bad beats are painful. Hard to swallow. But can they be a life lesson?

Case in point, my Familia league had a father-son matchup: Manny Arredondo Sr. vs Manny Arredondo Jr. They picked next to each other, and even grabbed Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen back-to-back in our draft.

Well, the two quarterbacks each had big games, with the father-son tilt too close to call on Sunday. Sure enough, the fantasy matchup came down to the final "Monday Night Football" game, with a late Elijah Moore catch being the difference for father outlasting son.

With Manny Jr. about to turn 21, this could bring with it a future lesson. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes an innocuous play means extra chores. Now go mow the lawn, Junior!

That wasn’t the only bad beat on a week where NFL injuries really came to roost. None more painful than Nick Chubb’s season ending on an awful knee injury. Salud to you on a return to health.

We put out the word for some bad beats and you delivered some doozies.

Big comeback falls just short

Going into Monday Night Football, @_DukeFan89 had a pair of players — Chris Olave and Miles Sanders — who could put up some points. They did, just not enough. And that’s even with the losing team having Puka Nacua putting up 30.10 in a FLEX spot while the winning side had Darnell Mooney sporting a goose egg.

Joining in the furious "Monday Night Football" comeback was @kpickkkk, who had Deshaun Watson going against the Steelers and even jumped a little ahead midway through the fourth quarter. That’s when T.J. Watt had other ideas, sacking Watson and causing a fumble he scooped up for a touchdown. The negative points from the fumble were the difference in losing by .2. Ouch, by the @kpickkkk handle, does that mean you’re a Kenny Pickett fan? Well, the Steelers won.

Monster points … on the bench

How that last FLEX spot can be a cause of hand-wringing on Sunday mornings before making those last-minute roster decisions. We’ve all done it, where we flip flop two players practically until the first Sunday games kick off. Then it becomes almost immediately apparent the wrong decision was made.

Ask @GLargaespada after leaving Raheem Mostert (25.20), Brian Robinson (27.90), Tyler Lockett (21.90) and Gabe Davis (18.20) on the bench for Isiah Pacheco and his 7.5 points. To be fair, @GLargaespada was chasing the week's highest over/under from the Chiefs/Jaguars with Pacheco. Sound thinking sometimes comes up wrong. Your consolation prize is having a great “Wayne’s World” Garth avatar. It’ll have to be “party time, excellent” another week.

Since misery loves company, @mtiburon is here to raise his hand about successfully picking up Kyren Williams off the waiver wire. Then sat Williams and his 25.0 points, only to lose by 21. Yes, the 49ers matchup looked daunting, and who knew that at halftime of the early games word would come out about Cam Akers being inactive and thrusting Williams into the spotlight? Raise a glass to the NFL truly being an up-to-the-minute league. Hint, start Williams this week. 😉

One more bench play that had to be brought up by @levy_ross, who watched on "Thursday Night Football" as D’Andre Swift did his best Undertaker impression by rising up from the depths of the bench in Week 1 to explode for 25.60 fantasy points against the Vikings. Only to be on his bench. There’s a prevailing feeling that when the decision to start Swift or Alexander Mattison comes up this week, the decision will be made swiftly indeed.

Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty close

Shoutout to @palmerjoe for having a pretty fun team name: Herb Your Enthusiasm. Larry David would approve, until that roster came up short by .04 of a point. The difference appears to be the final run by Chubb, which is more painful for the winning team. The consolation prize is having a quarterback tandem of Justin Herbert and Daniel Jones that should put up 50+ points many weeks. That’s “prettay, prettay, prettay, prettay good.”

Renegade consolation prize

No one would have blamed @Shelley_Rodgers for not wanting to tweet out this razor-thin loss, so her husband @markrodgers29 did the honors. In looking at Shelley’s Twitter bio, she’s all things Pittsburgh. So the final result of "Monday Night Football" had to be a salve. Maybe play “Renegade” when setting your fantasy lineup to ease the hurt.

The name game

In a battle of incredibly original team names, Freemason Rudolph needed that late Pittsburgh sack-fumble-recovery touchdown to take down Silence of the Rams by fractional points. And that was even with Mike Evans and Davante Adams combining for almost 50 points for the loser. Maybe a nice Chianti will make it easier to swallow the loss.