There were some shocking performances this past week and some shocking results, can we say Saints? Some key injuries also played a role in those performances and other guys stepping up in ways not previously seen. Let’s see who had big games through the air, on the ground, receiving, and defensively.

Red Zone Passing Attempts

Kyle Allen , QB CAR – Allen was feeling right at home at Lambeau in Week 10 even with the snow coming down despite growing up in Arizona and going to Texas A&M for college. The nine Red Zone passing attempts he had at Green Bay was the most he’s had all season and got off on the right foot after finally being told he’d be the starter the rest of the year, and in all likelihood past that giving the contract status of Cam Newton . Allen shouldn’t have too much trouble with the remaining games in his division with the Falcons and Bucs secondaries being so bad.

Brian Hoyer , QB IND – Hoyer got the start in Week 10 against Miami with Brissett still ailing and he made the most of it. He had one of the highest Red Zone passing attempts totals in a single game this season to this point for a quarterback with 13 of them. Now only one of them went for a score and the Colts did hand the Dolphins their second straight win. Jacoby Brissett should be back under center potentially next week but if not, Hoyer is at least a guy capable of driving the ball down the field.

Philip Rivers , QB LAC – Rivers is another QB who had their most Red Zone attempts of the season in Week 10 in a thrilling game against the Raiders on Thursday night. The Chargers offense has been up and down most of this season and Rivers himself got off to a sluggish start for a guy expected to be another top-12 QB this year. Is it possible that the switch in offensive coordinator a couple of games ago has had this quick a turnaround? Anything is possible, but they are also making better use of Melvin Gordon as well and that’s bound to help Rivers going forward on all parts of the field.

Red Zone Rushing Attempts

Aaron Jones , RB GB – It’s hard not to put a guy that had three carries in the Red Zone against Carolina and turned all three into touchdowns. He’s become commonplace in this section in the second half of the year, but with the way the Green Bay offense is using him, it’s hard to ignore him in a piece highlighting Red Zone work. Jones is still clearly the top back in that backfield even with Jamaal Williams getting more Red Zone touches than Jones in Week 10, but doing far less with them.

Melvin Gordon , RB LAC – Gordon has now made this section a couple of times in the last few weeks because he’s resembling the Gordon we saw last year that was a dominant force at the position. He toted it seven times inside the 20 on Thursday against one of the tougher rush defenses in the league in Oakland and turned one of those into a touchdown. Since Gordon has returned, he has seen more Red Zone work than Austin Ekeler each week and that gap just keeps getting bigger as well. Going forward, Gordon is the top back in the backfield.

Brian Hill , RB ATL – Hill came in with Devonta Freeman getting injured and saw four carries inside the 20 and a catch that resulted in a touchdown. He’s clearly capable of getting the carries down near the goal line and that’s good because he’ll need to do that for at least another week if not two with Freeman and Ito Smith out for potentially that long. If you are needing help in the running back category, or want to take a flier in DFS this week, he’s clearly getting the workload when the offense gets to the opponent’s 20-yard line or closer.

Red Zone Receiving Targets

Kyle Rudolph , TE MIN – Rudolph was a big factor in the Vikings win over the Cowboys this week as he snagged a couple of touchdowns and grabbed all three Red Zone targets in general. That makes back-to-back three target weeks for Rudolph who seems to be getting some of the looks that Adam Thielen typically would get. He’s a viable streaming option with Thielen out at a position that is typically not very good nor deep.

O.J. Howard , TE TB – Hey! Join the party O.J. Howard . Welcome to the endzone for the first time this year, though it was against the Cardinals, a team that allows tight ends to run amok against them. He also saw a couple of other targets go his way for a total of three in the game. Not only was it his first TD but those three targets are more than he had all year to that point as well. He’s been a highly-under utilized weapon in Tampa this year, but that’s to be expected with what Bruce Arians does to tight ends in his system.

Eric Ebron , TE IND – Continuing the week of the tight end theme in this section, Ebron was the beneficiary of his quarterback having as many attempts as he did on Sunday. The five Red Zone targets he saw in Week 10 were the most he’s seen all year and equals his total from the first five weeks combined. As he and Brian Hoyer or Jacoby Brissett get more comfortable, this should be more of a trend and less of a one-off week but it’s certainly frustrating to fantasy owners who didn’t see this level of regression coming.

Red Zone Defense

Oakland Raiders – The silver and black were a popular add this week as they have a very tough rush defense and a burgeoning pass defense that’s improving each week. In the Red Zone, however, there’s still plenty of room to improve. So far on the year, their 64.5-percent touchdown allowance rate is the fourth-highest in the league as they’ve given up 20 touchdowns out of the 31 trips they’ve allowed to inside their 20. With the AFC West seemingly still up for grabs with the Chiefs' recent struggles, they’ll need to improve this part of their game if they want to put the clamps on the division later in the season.

Green Bay Packers – The Packers defense has been flying a bit under the radar this season, but they are a solid unit starting with their Week 1 showing against the Bears. This past week, they helped clinch the win for Green Bay over the Panthers with a last-second goal-line stand in the snow at Lambeau. With snow already being a factor just over halfway through the season, having a solid defense that can crackdown on opponents doing anything in the Red Zone is crucial to their late-season success.