Mark Sanchez, Zach Ertz, Riley Cooper's Post-Week 16 Fantasy Reaction

Week 16 came early for the Philadelphia Eagles, which meant fantasy owners were also rushing to make sure they had the key starters from the game in their lineup. A favorable battle against a mediocre Washington pass defense had the makings of easy points, although the Eagles lost 27-24.

That optimism turned out to be sort of right if you owned Mark Sanchez, Riley Cooper and Zach Ertz. The news was not all good for the Philadelphia quarterback, but there were a lot of positives to take away from Saturday's game for fantasy purposes.

Here's a look back at what those three were able to do against Washington and the fantasy impact it had for your team. 

Player	Comp-Att/Receptions-Targets	Yards	TDs	Turnovers
Mark Sanchez	37-of-50	374	2	2 (1 INT, 1 Fumble)
Zach Ertz	15-18	115	0	0
Riley Cooper	5-7	53	2	0

Mark Sanchez

Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

Sanchez had what has become a typical game for him, at least by his Philadelphia standards. There were some positives, plenty of negatives and a bloated artificial stat line that makes him look better than he really was. 

Case in point, the former USC star was 17-of-23 for 172 yards and one touchdown in the first half. He finished with 374 passing yards and two touchdowns. That sounds terrific by most fantasy measures, but Sanchez also lost points on the opening drive after losing a fumble. 

To start the second half, Philadelphia had excellent field position following a Washington turnover. The Eagles were on Washington's 16-yard line. Sanchez threw two passes on the drive—a short screen to LeSean McCoy that lost one yard and an incomplete pass to Riley Cooper. 

Another problem Sanchez had was standing in the pocket too long. At times he had all day to throw, but he took unnecessary sacks at other times. He went down three times in the first half, per ESPN Stats and Info:

Sanchez did find a groove in the second half and finished with at least 300 yards in a game for the fourth time this season. 

However, as he is wont to do, he made a critical mistake on Philadelphia's final drive of the fourth quarter. He threw a pass behind Maclin, and Bashaud Breeland intercepted it to set up Washington's go-ahead score. 

The interception prompted this question from Phil Murphy of ESPN.com:

Right now, fantasy owners and Eagles fans have some choice words for that question. Sanchez did score double-digit points thanks to his 374 yards and two touchdowns, but he could have had more if not for the two critical turnovers. 

Zach Ertz

Michael Perez/Associated Press

There were no complaints about Ertz, who set a modern Eagles record and a season high in receptions, per ESPN Stats and Info:

He finished the game with 15 catches for 115 yards. It's not an impressive yards-per-catch average (7.7), but fantasy owners have to be more than happy with the production they received from Philadelphia's tight end. Whether you owned Ertz in a standard or points per reception league, he delivered. 

This was a completely unexpected performance from Ertz. Per Mike Clay of Pro Football Focus, the Eagles tight end's previous career high in receptions was less than half of what he had on Saturday:

The only way to win a championship in fantasy football is to have an unexpected performance. Ertz likely wasn't high on the radar this week, though ESPN.com did project him to score 10 points against Washington. 

If you believed that hype throughout the week as you were making final preparations, congratulations on your success. If you were skeptical since Ertz hadn't had more than three catches in a game since Week 12, sorry for your luck. 

Riley Cooper

Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Unlike Ertz, who was being targeted all day, Cooper had to make the most of the few opportunities that he got. He did just that with two touchdowns on his five receptions, despite finishing with 53 yards. 

Patrick Daugherty of Rotoworld highlighted a stat from this game involving Cooper that will shock casual fantasy players:

McCoy did score a touchdown in this game to push his season total (five) above the Cooper-Darrel Young tandem (four), but it's still telling about how off McCoy has been in 2014. 

For Cooper, this performance was particularly satisfying because he had just one receiving touchdown in the first 15 games, and that came all the way back in Week 5 against St. Louis. His 10.6 yards per reception were right in line with his season average of 10.1, though this was the first time he's averaged more than 10 yards per catch since Week 12 against Tennessee.

The Eagles haven't always known what to do with Cooper this season, but he couldn't have picked a better time to find the end zone. Hopefully, fantasy owners were patient enough to keep him on their roster during the down periods to reap the rewards in Week 16.