Yardage has been hard to come by for Jimmy Graham in recent weeks. (USATSI)
Yardage has been hard to come by for Jimmy Graham in recent weeks. (USATSI)

Josh Gordon's third game back from suspension Week 14 against Indianapolis didn't live up to the first two. Not only did he catch just two passes for 15 yards, but he also saw his playing time reduced -- and by design, apparently.

"I think we wanted to get Josh's reps down a little bit and kind of balance it out a little more," coach Mike Pettine said. Because in the NFL, equal playing time for wide receivers of all talent levels is paramount, you see.

OK, so Pettine didn't spell it out for everyone, but giving Gordon a few plays off after his admission earlier in the week that his poor routes were responsible for three of quarterback Brian Hoyer's five interceptions the last two weeks seemed reasonable. Limiting his snaps limited his potential for mistakes while still giving him the opportunity to make plays. It's just that he didn't make those plays on the 77 percent of snaps that he played.

It wasn't for lack of trying. Gordon tied for the team lead with seven targets. There was the overthrow on what could have been an 80-plus yard touchdown early in the second half, the diving first-down catch that wasn't with about four minutes to go in the fourth quarter, and the decision to pull up early only to turn on the jets again on a 50-yard pass that would have put the Browns in position for a game-winning field goal with about 20 seconds to go if it hadn't slipped through his fingertips. All close, but no cigar.

And then came this bombshell from ESPN after the game:

Just like that, the Internet was abuzz, calling the report bogus, Hoyer the worst quarterback who ever lived and everyone with any involvement in the situation an idiot or some derivative thereof -- so basically, the same brand of inflammatory hyperbole that has dominated the Internet since the dawn of the message board. 

But what gets overlooked in the disappointment is just how close Gordon came to having a monster game. If he converts on either of those long catches, we're not talking about him now, and if he converts on both, we're lauding every Fantasy owner who had the foresight to stash him away for 10 weeks.

And for all the talk of reduced playing time and poor conditioning, the fact Gordon had a chance to put the Browns in position for the game-winning field goal tells us something -- or three things, actually.

1. He was involved in the game plan right up until the very end.

2. His ability is still evident enough for the Browns to throw him the ball with the game on the line.

3. His indecision and rust were the only things preventing him from turning in a big play at that critical moment.

As long as he has the opportunity and ability, the rest is just a matter of repetition, of getting caught up with everyone else at this stage of the season. And even if he doesn't completely, he's still capable of big numbers. Again, his first two games lived up to Fantasy owners' expectations.  

It may not all be smooth sailing for Gordon, but unless I have Jeremy Maclin or someone equally ridiculous stashed away on my bench, I'm sticking with the player who led the NFL in receiving last year despite having no better quarterback to work with than ... well, than Hoyer.

Now, for the rest of what happened in Week 14 ...

• Wide receiver isn't the only position of unrest for the Browns right now. Running backs Isaiah Crowell and Terrance West had nearly identical lines against the Colts, with the former rushing for 54 yards on 14 carries and the latter rushing for 54 on 15 carries. Crowell scored a touchdown and has gotten all three of the touchdowns between the two since the Browns parted ways with Ben Tate, but because neither player is getting the lion's share of the touches, it's still a guessing game every week, i.e. not what you want this time of year.

• Reggie Wayne was targeted eight times but caught only one pass for 5 yards, uncharacteristically struggling with drops. And then word slipped after the game that he's been playing with a torn triceps. He's giving the Colts every excuse to turn the page to Donte Moncrief, who has the potential for big numbers in Fantasy with Andrew Luck as his quarterback. I don't know that he's a start yet, but he's certainly a stash for championship hopefuls.

• A.J. Green had 224 receiving yards Sunday to Mohamed Sanu's 16, bringing their totals to 596 to 221 since Green's return in Week 9. It was fun while it lasted, Sanu owners.

• Martavis Bryant bounced back from a two-game drought with four catches for 109 yards and is certainly capable of turning in a big play, going for 94 yards on his fourth-quarter touchdown. It'd be nice if his production was directly tied to quarterback Ben Roethlisberge's, but Bryant had just 23 yards in Roethlisberger's 435-yard game last week. So he's a streaky option for a streaky quarterback. At least in PPR leagues, I'm not sure it's worth it. He's only once gotten even five catches in a game, after all.

• Whether it's because of more favorable matchups or the return of Calvin Johnson, Matthew Stafford has definitively turned the corner, throwing for 300 yards and multiple scores in back-to-back games. He doesn't have another tough matchup until Week 17, and who's still playing Fantasy Football then?

• Even with the return of Reggie Bush, Joique Bell remained a Fantasy stud, scoring two touchdowns on 133 total yards. It's less about opportunities for him than just running more effectively, and his matchups to close out the season should help him with that.

• With less than 45 rushing yards for the third straight game, Denard Robinson's period of Fantasy relevance appears to have come to an end. You hate to write him off because the Jaguars don't have anyone else to run the ball, but as often as they're trailing in games, their opportunities to run the ball are infrequent and nearly impossible to predict.

• I'd like to say Charles Johnson has become a reliable target for the Vikings with rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater throwing two touchdown passes in back-to-back-to-back games, but he has a grand total of nine catches during that span. Plenty of targets, sure, but a low number of catches generally doesn't make for a high rate of consistency.

• Will the real Percy Harvin please stand up? The highs are so high and the lows so very low.

• Speaking of high highs and low lows, Cam Newton continues to confound, putting together his best performance of the season against a division opponent that had always had his number. He hasn't had back-to-back 20-point games in Fantasy this season, though. Even Shaun Hill has done that.

• If only DeAngelo Williams would go away. Of course, Williams owners have probably been saying the same thing about Jonathan Stewart. Imagine the career either one of those two would have had if they had gotten the opportunity to fly solo. Precisely because the timeshare has been in effect for so long, you shouldn't expect anything to change when Williams returns from a broken hand, perhaps as soon as Week 15.

• You can blame Jimmy Graham's lack of production over the last couple weeks on his bad shoulder, but no tight end has scored more than his six touchdowns since his first game back from the injury in Week 7. He still got 11 targets in Week 14, which only seven other tight ends have gotten at any point this season, so even if you can't count on him to be at his best down the stretch, what's your alternative?

• Just when you thought Mark Ingram was good for 20 carries every week -- a mark he had reached in five of the previous six -- he gives you only 10 in Week 14. Of course, the flow of the game probably had something to do with it. The Saints were trailing 17-0 in the first quarter of a game they lost 41-10. With their offense, they aren't blown out too often, and in any other scenario, Ingram gets his touches. He remains a must-start.

• Andre Williams made the Giants backfield really interesting with his first competent performance of the season. Of course, take away his 50-yard touchdown run, and he averaged just 3.5 yards per carry. Still, that's a big upgrade over his 2.9 previously, and now maybe he'll cut into Rashad Jennings' touches more than ever. Of course, Jennings has to get healthy first, but assuming he's ready to go in Week 15, we could have another Browns situation.

• What a letdown for Stedman Bailey. Shaun Hill has his biggest game yet at quarterback, and his supposed favorite target was barely even a part of it, getting just two balls thrown his way. Of course, he caught both of them for 47 yards, so he wasn't a complete embarrassment. And nobody got more than five targets for the Rams. As productive as Bailey was in Weeks 12 and 13, he deserves a pass for this one in leagues where teams start three wide receivers.

• We had a Pierre Garcon sighting in Week 14 with DeSean Jackson sidelined by a bruised shin. An afterthought in the Redskins passing game just one year after hauling in 113 passes for 1,346 yards, the former Colt overcame a nine-game stretch in which he averaged 31.1 yards with 95 yards on nine catches, leading the team with 11 targets. The Redskins still have plenty to sort out at quarterback after Colt McCoy left Sunday's game with a neck injury, but since Jackson isn't expected to be sidelined for long, you shouldn't put much stock in Garcon's performance regardless.

• What, so you're going to sit Alfred Morris now after he won back your trust with those four straight games of double-digit Fantasy points in Weeks 8-12? Look, I get the frustration after he ran for just 6 yards against the Rams, but in standard CBSSports.com leagues, he's still the ninth-best running back to date. He's the one constant on an offense with no continuity at quarterback. When the game gets away from the Redskins, as happened in Sunday's 24-0 loss, he's in trouble, but he's good enough often enough for you to stick with him in Fantasy.

• Looks like Kerwynn Williams is the Cardinals running back to own with the loss of Andre Ellington for the season. Raise your hand if you saw that one coming. Some combination of Marion Grice, Stepfan Taylor and Robert Hughes was supposed to step up in Ellington's absence, but Williams got more than three times as many carries as any of them.

• Guess the Broncos really do intend to stick with this new run-first approach. Peyton Manning has more sub-200 yard games in the last two weeks than he had in his first two seasons with the Broncos. I'm still dubious that's going to be the norm for him, though. The Broncos supposedly opted for this approach after their disappointing loss at St. Louis in Week 11, but Manning had four touchdown passes the very next week. Something tells me if their last two games had been a bit more competitive, they would have leaned on Manning's arm before all was said and done.

• Things have gone from bad to worse for Colin Kaepernick. He couldn't even muster respectable numbers against the Raiders, who had allowed a 22-to-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio coming into the game. Kaepernick hasn't had multiple touchdowns in a game since Week 6 and has one touchdown pass to four interceptions in his last two games. And it's not like he's making up for it with a bunch of yards either. In three of the last four weeks, he has thrown for less than 200. He now trails Andy Dalton in year-to-date Fantasy production, which tells you everything you need to know about his value.

• Michael Crabtree suddenly became Kaepernick's preferred option with 14 targets, three more than his season high and four more than in his previous two games combined. Of course, he wasn't so productive with those targets, picking up 56 yards on nine catches, so at this point, Fantasy owners would just prefer they go to Anquan Boldin. Outside of maybe PPR leagues, nobody is activating Crabtree based on this performance.

• The Raiders may have found a keeper in Latavius Murray, who got 23 carries to everyone else's eight in Week 14. Of course, he gained fewer yards on those 23 carries than he did on four carries in Week 12, when he left with a concussion after two impressive touchdown runs, but against a 49ers defense that ranks seventh against the run, that's understandable. He's looking like a must-add at this stage of the season.

• Marcel Reece has been a difference-maker in PPR leagues before, catching 52 passes in 2012, so his back-to-back games with at least six catches are worth noting in Fantasy, especially since he scored on one of his seven grabs in Week 14. With the emergence of Latavius Murray as the primary ball carrier, Reece probably isn't versatile enough for standard-league use, but he's no less relevant than, say, Roy Helu.

• Mychal Rivera had a productive three-game stretch earlier in the season, so his seven-catch, 109-yard, touchdown-scoring performance Sunday wasn't completely out of nowhere. But considering he had a combined seven catches for 69 yards in three games in between, a repeat performance might be a bit much to ask. The Chiefs, his Week 15 opponent, permitted him just one catch for 8 yards in Week 12.

• It's true. Mark Sanchez threw for only 96 yards Week 14 against Seattle. But the way the Seahawks have played lately, nobody's able to throw the ball against them. They haven't even allowed 150 yards through the air since Week 10. Sanchez averaged 300.5 passing yards in his first four starts in place of Nick Foles, and as productive as the Eagles offense has been all season, you can trust him to bounce back from this.

• Julian Edelman certainly had a big game Sunday night and, with an average of 8.0 catches in his last five games, has gotten back to being a fixture in PPR lineups. But he's averaged a modest 83.4 yards during that stretch and, given his size and role in the passing game, isn't much of a red-zone target for Tom Brady. His touchdown catch Sunday was just his third all season. He's plenty usable in standard leagues, but more as a flex option than anything else.

• I've been careful not to write off Jonas Gray too soon, knowing coach Bill Belichick's proclivity for changing gears, but with his 20 carries in Week 14, I think it's safe to say LeGarrette Blount is the Patriots' primary ball carrier now. He has 42 carries over the last three weeks to Gray's three and is a perfect battering-ram style running back at the goal line. He's not a great source of yardage, really, but given his potential to score every week, you could do worse for your third running back.

• Hopefully, you didn't go head over heels for Keenan Allen after his back-to-back 100-yard games in Weeks 12 and 13. This matchup had disaster written all over it. The Patriots are excellent at neutralizing top wide receivers, thanks in no small part to star cornerback Darrelle Revis. Allen and quarterback Philip Rivers had a good thing going, though, so look for him to get back on track Week 15 at Denver. He had nine catches for 73 yards and a touchdown against the Broncos in Week 8.