In one of our fantasy football leagues this season, the second place team had a 30+ point lead heading into Monday Night Football with the other team only having one player left to play. As you probably deduced from the fact he finished second, this lead wasn’t enough. Instead, he was a victim of a 2020 fantasy football Hail Mary.
This was actually the second year in a row he lost the championship game because of a fantasy football Hail Mary. In 2019, he had a 24-point lead and Mike Boone left to play only for Aaron Jones to erase it all.
Regardless of if it happens in week 1 or week 16, there is nothing worse than losing on Monday night because of an extraordinary performance. The most soul crushing experience in fantasy football is watching one player execute your team when leading by 30 points or more.
What qualifies as a 2020 fantasy football Hail Mary? We are looking for those huge performances on Monday Night Football where there wasn’t a lot of scoring or points were evenly distributed among a lot of players. For example, the matchup between the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens won’t feature on this list because a lot of players had big games. Let’s get into it.
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The 2020 fantasy football Hail Mary review
Week 2
Alvin Kamara (33.9 points)
Alvin Kamara had two rushing touchdowns and 79 rushing yards to go with nine catches and 95 receiving yards on Monday night in week 2. What makes this performance even more soul crushing is that the New Orleans Saints lost this game to the Raiders. Kamara’s final two points of the night came on a meaningless 15-yard reception with the Saints down by ten and only one second left on the clock.
Week 3
Patrick Mahomes (40 points)
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is no stranger to huge statlines, but his 40-point showing in week 3 qualifies as a 2020 fantasy football Hail Mary. Especially when you consider just how well he spread the ball against the Baltimore Ravens. Mahomes four touchdowns went to four different players and five pass catchers had 60 yards or more, but all had less than 90. That limited the ceiling of all his wide receivers.
Week 4
Robert Tonyan (30.8 points)
At this stage of the season, Green Bay Packers tight end Robert Tonyan was still a dart throw option. That makes this all the more backbreaking. Somewhere out there is a manager who had a 30-point lead against a team with only Tonyan to play on Monday Night Football and lost. Ouch.
Week 16
Stefon Diggs (37 points)
It was only fitting that a championship week starting with Alvin Kamara collecting six touchdowns would end with another obscene performance. Stefon Diggs had an amazing fantasy season in 2020. However, he had only scored five touchdowns in the first 15 weeks for the Buffalo Bills and didn’t have a game with more than 26-fantasy points. That is what makes Diggs’ 9/145/3 outburst the top 2020 fantasy football Hail Mary.
