The weather played a role in some of the outcomes for Week 7 as rain on the East coast and Pacific Northwest affected several of the games. There were also some blow out wins that happened as well, but just like every week, a bunch of key plays happened in the Red Zone and now it’s time to see who did what in each category.

Red Zone Passing Attempts

Mitchell Trubisky , QB CHI – Trubisky made a comeback from the shoulder injury this week and immediately had one of his better games of the year. The nine Red Zone attempts are more than the combined total he had before the injury sidelined him since Week 4 and equaled what Chase Daniel put up in the two starts in Trubisky’s absence. The Matt Nagy offense has been highly-criticized pretty much all season and in Week 7 they threw it 54 times and only ran it seven which is why Trubisky had nine Red Zone attempts. If this keeps up, the rest of the offense will be more playable in fantasy leagues going forward.

Matthew Stafford , QB DET – This is the third straight game for Stafford with at least eight passing attempts. Half of those eight attempts resulted in touchdowns on Sunday as it was a shootout with the division rival Vikings. The Detroit offense has always been a pass-first system and that hasn’t changed with the new coaching staff, and that makes Stafford have some upside each week in a good match-up. This week most of the targets went in the direction of one receiver, but in the previous weeks he’s been better about spreading the targets around. Stafford always has big play potential but it’s nice to see that he’s not always requiring the big play to get on the board.

Jacoby Brissett , QB IND – Brissett has been still flying under the radar this year as he’s still available in far too many leagues on the free agent market. This week he put up the most Red Zone attempts that he’s had in a game all season with nine and four of those went for scores. For a guy that was theoretically thrown into this situation he’s performed at a very high level and now there’s some additional weapons stepping up for the Colts which could make his recent performances more common ones.

Jared Goff , QB LAR – Goff was coming off a horrible outing against the 49ers in which he didn’t even crack 80 yards through the air. Then he got a weak Atlanta secondary to capitalize on and he did just that. Goff had the most Red Zone attempts he’s had all season in Week 7 with the eight that he had with two of those going for touchdowns and that doesn’t include the two rushes and rushing score he also had against the Falcons. If Goff is getting back on track, he’s surely got the weapons to make the Rams dangerous with Robert Woods , Cooper Kupp , Brandin Cooks , and Gerald Everett in play and that doesn’t include a guy coming up later on in this Red Zone report.

Red Zone Rushing Attempts

Ezekiel Elliott , RB DAL –  It was a beat down by the Cowboys on Sunday Night against the Eagles and while they put up 37 points, most of the work inside the 20 came from Zeke and not Dak Prescott . Elliott toted the rock 10 times on Sunday which was the second week in a row he made double-digits and he used those 10 touches to account for two Red Zone scores. Earlier in the season, Elliott was being gingerly brought back in the fold but now the training wheels are off and they are using him everyway possible, which is what you’re supposed to do with a guy they’re paying as much as they’re paying Zeke.

Leonard Fournette , RB JAC – Fournette has been a popular choice for this column each week but for just the second time this season, he logged eight Red Zone touches in Week 7. While those eight carries didn’t generate a touchdown this week from inside the 20, it’s great to see just how much Jacksonville continues to use Fournette this year and that injuries haven’t slowed down the bell-cow back attitude that he has. To borrow an NBA term, the usage rate is high with Fournette and that’s great for fantasy owners going forward with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Todd Gurley , RB LAR – Gurley has been a back that’s had a conversation surrounding him as to whether or not he’s done with his arthritic knee taking a toll early this season. That wasn’t the case against the Falcons in Week 7 including a spectacular catch he made for a receiving score inside the 20. The nine Red Zone carries that he had in Week 7 betters by one the total for the year to this point and it gives a glimmer of hope that the Rams have just been protecting him and his degenerating knee. The Rams get the Bengals in Week 8 and so it could be another good week from a scoring chance perspective for Gurley and company.

Latavius Murray , RB NO – There was some skepticism as to exactly what Murray would supply in Week 7 as he was filling in for the ailing Alvin Kamara and facing a pretty stout test in the Bears defense in Chicago. However, he allayed all of those concerns with a great performance on Sunday that included nine Red Zone carries, five inside the five, and two Red Zone catches with two rushing touchdowns on the day. The Bears were coming off their bye week and had been gashed by Oakland’s rushing attack in London the week before, apparently they didn’t use the bye week to fix whatever issues they had against Oakland as Murray put up the best Red Zone performance from a Saints’ running back this year. The Saints get Arizona in Week 8 and there is some concern that Alvin Kamara may not play once more which makes Murray an intriguing play this Sunday.

Sony Michel , RB NE – Michel finally had the big game his fantasy owners have been waiting patiently for since drafting him to be an RB2 for them. The Patriots crushed their division-rival Jets 33-0 on Monday Night Football and leading the way offensively was Michel and his six Red Zone touches that turned into three Red Zone touchdowns on the night. The New England game plans can always be finicky depending on the opponent and then they’ll have a game like this to suck you back into the upside their players hold. For Michel this likely wasn’t just a one off but should be a sign of things to come as we get later in the season and they will be looking to ice games away on the ground more often.

Red Zone Receiving Targets

Marvin Jones , WR DET – Who saw this coming? I mean seriously?!? This was likely the game of Jones’ career as he was seemingly the only weapon the Lions had in the contest against the Vikings and he was quite efficient as that weapon. He saw five targets, of the eight that Stafford threw, but turned those into four catches of which all four went for scores. Those that took a shot on him in fantasy and DFS circles were heavily rewarded for their faith, but let’s not get too excited here. It was a game script that played right into the Lions’ pass-heavy game plan and with Xavier Rhodes locking up Kenny Golladay much of the day, that left Jones to run free on the other side. He’ll continue to be a week-by-week match-up only play despite Sunday’s great effort.

DeAndre Hopkins , WR HOU – Hopkins had been the center of bounce-back conversations by his fantasy owners after he’s had a slow-ish start to the season in 2019. On Sunday against the Colts he reminded folks what he can do, especially in the Red Zone. He saw three targets of the six that Deshaun Watson threw and caught two of those including one for a score. Hopkins was expected to be the top wide receiver option this year with he and Watson’s chemistry on full display, but that hasn’t necessarily borne out. He has the chance to change the conversation again this week facing Oakland and with Will Fuller missing a couple weeks with an injury.

Zach Pascal , WR IND – Pascal had to step up to help Brissett and the Colts mount an offensive push against the Texans otherwise it would have been strictly the T.Y. Hilton show. Pascal saw three targets and caught two of them for two scores as that was easily the best game of the season from him. The Colts have been a bit outpaced in the receiver category this year and have been waiting for the tight ends or another receiver to step up and that’s what happened this week with Pascal. Eric Ebron also had three targets and caught two of them including a score. Pascal might see a few more targets this week as well with Hilton being shadowed by Chris Harris on Sunday against Denver.

Darren Waller , TE OAK – Waller is fresh off a big contract extension and has been proving why they signed him to that deal since. It was a slugfest against the Packers and Waller was a key part of the Raiders being able to compile points all afternoon with three targets inside the 20 while catching two of them for two scores. Waller has been a must play nearly every week for fantasy owners and he’s really stepped up his game while Tyrell Williams has been out with an injury the last few weeks. There is no reason to not play Waller at this point.

Red Zone Defense

New England Patriots – Are you aware that the Patriots have played more games than they’ve allowed trips to the Red Zone by opposing offenses? That is to say, they’ve played seven games this year and only allowed six trips to their 20-yard line and only once has a trip inside the 20 resulted in a touchdown. How scary good is that? Now to be fair, it’s not been the murderer’s row of opponents, but still holding any collection of seven opponents to six trips is an impressive feat. They get a down-trodden Browns offense in Week 8 and so there’s not a lot of reason to be concerned with this unit once more.

Washington Redskins – The Redskins have been the laughingstock of the league for much of the year with the way they’ve handled things and the team they’ve run out there week after week. Perhaps the only team worse is Miami. The one area that they’ve been moderately good at is stopping opponents from scoring inside the 20. They’ve allowed 26 trips to the Red Zone in seven games and allowed 14 scores for just over 50-percent which is actually one of the better percentages for any team with at least 20 drives allowed to this point. They’ve used the bend-but-don’t-break strategy to this point and they’re improving as they didn’t allow a touchdown to San Francisco in Week 7, though that was with the help of the weather.