Sunday Night Football was supposed to be a tremendous matchup between two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks. Peyton Manning was coming into New England with a 23-3 regular season record and was set to take on a Patriots team that came into the game reeling from a late-game loss to the Carolina Panthers a week prior.
While Brady lived up to expectations by throwing three second half touchdowns in the Patriots eventual overtime win, Knowshon Moreno stole the show.
The former first-round pick put up 230 yards on 38 touches against a Patriots defense that came into the game ranked in the middle of the pack against fantasy running backs. In the end, Moreno's performance Sunday night pushed him all the way up to the No. 3 slot for fantasy running backs this year, behind only Jamaal Charles and Marshawn Lynch.
Moreno is now on pace for 1,700 total yards and 15 touchdowns. For comparison's sake, his previous career year came as a rookie in 2009 when he tallied 1,160 yards and nine touchdowns. He has already surpassed those numbers with five games remaining in 2013.
This is utterly baffling to those of us in the fantasy football community, many of whom didn't even have Moreno slotted as a decent FLEX option at the start of the season. After all, Denver had just got done spending a second-round pick this past April on Montee Ball as well as a 2012 third-round pick on Ronnie Hillman. In fact, there were some rumors leading up to the season that Moreno would be released.
He started to get increased playing time earlier in the year when neither Ball nor Hillman proved that they could be decent option in pass protection in front of Manning. Even when Moreno started to break out earlier in the season, many concluded he was more of a product of the future Hall of Fame quarterback under center. It was this skepticism that led us to believe Moreno would end up struggling down the stretch, especially with Ball improving in pass protection.
That all changed on Sunday night. Moreno, not Manning, was the primary reason that Denver jumped out to a huge lead and withstood a Patriots comeback to force overtime. It wasn't until the former Georgia standout limped off the field (for what seemd like the 12th time in the game) that Denver's offense sputtered in overtime. While he remained on the field, Moreno obviously wasn't anywhere near 100 percent.
On that nore, Moreno was seen on crutches in the locker room and left the stadium in a walking boot. The loss coupled with these reports may in fact be injury to insult for a Broncos team that fell into a first-place tie with the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC West.
For his part, let's hope Moreno is able to be on the field against Kansas City at Arrowhead next week. We all know Manning and Co. could use his services. This doesn't even take into account that he's going to be relied on to help many fantasy owners earn a trip to the playoffs.