Packers Fire Bob Sanders?

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/2009/01/breaking-news-packers-fire-sanders/

According to the National Football Post, the Green Bay Packers have fired their defensive coordinator.  Hopefully the rest of the defensive staff will follow.

NFL Notes – Week 6

Adam “Pacman” Jones is really on the verge of some major trouble.  The police recently confirmed he was involved in a fight at a Dallas hotel with his Cowboys assigned security guard.  No charges are being filed, no arrests were made.  Very close call for Jones.  He has to know that if his name goes on one police report, his NFL career is immediately over.  If this kid wants to keep playing football, this is not the way to do it.

Al Davis could be getting himself and the Raiders in trouble for his recent public claim of tampering by the New England Patriots.  Davis said the Pats tampered and brought Moss in for an early workout before trading for him back in April 2007.  The NFL said they may give a large fine and potentiall dock one or more draft picks.  Basically, the league is saying Davis needs to shut his mouth and file his grievences properly and in a timely manner.

Jets safety Eric Smith will be serving a one game suspension after losing his appeal over the hit on Anquan Boldin.  Yesterday afternoon on Sirius NFL Radio, Smith stated his claim and said he was going to knock the ball loose and prevent a TD, and was looking to hit Boldin right in the chest.  The corner hit Boldin from behind, which basically knocked the receiver into the helmet-helmet collision.  If you watch the video below, you can see that Boldin clearly was hit from behind and it does indeed look like Smith was going in for a chest high hit.  However, the severity of the injury and the fact that Smith looks like he was leading with his helmet is probably what the NFL is going on.  It’s legal to hit a defenseless player (IE – receiver in the air), but helmet to helmet while defenseless is going to get you a fine.

In other news, my fantasy team is down to only 2 players I drafted.  Clinton Portis and Braylon Edwards.  I just traded Tomlinson and Earnest Graham for Eli Manning, Greg Jennings and Santonio Homles.  Got my 2nd win with all three new starters in the lineup last week.  Hopefully things are looking up.

Few things to think about going into week 5

I like the website http://www.footballoutsiders.com (no, they didn’t pay me to say that).  They have some neat stats.  Here’s a few random things I found by browsing their database tonight.

• The Colts are 5th worst in the league with their interception rate, throwing one on about every eight drives.
• 39% of Green Bay’s drives do not result in a TD or even a 1st down.
• Denver is averaging 3 points for every time their offense touches the ball.
• St Louis is averaging less than 1.
• Arizona is turning the ball over once every 5 times they get the ball.

In other news:

Yards per attempt numbers can tell a lot about a QB.  Here’s some numbers:

• 6.53
• 5.83
• 5.71
• 5.68
• 4.64

A very good QB is usually around 8YPA or higher (unless you are in a Mike Martz offense, which throws all the numbers out of whack).  Those pitiful numbers above belonged to:

• Peyton Manning
• Marc Bulger
• Carson Palmer
• Matt Hasselbeck
• Derrick Anderson

After tonight, my fantasy starters will be:
Eli Manning
Greg Jennings
Eddie Royal
Clinton Portis
Chris Johnson
Anthony Fasano
Roy Williams

Williams and Portis are the only players I drafted.

NOW it’s official…

…Brady done for the year.  Chris Simms coming in tomorrow morning for a workout.

Damn.

Busy weekend!

Friday 8/22:
Brewer game!  I love Friday night baseball.  Something about the atmosphere just makes it so much more fun.  I think it’s something about everyone finally getting out of work after a long week and just letting go and enjoying the game.  Brewers played the Pirates.  We had great seats, it was a fun game and the hometown boys won 10-4.

View from our seats

Friday was also my first fantasy football draft; for the free league I’ve run the last several years.  Since I was at the game, I missed the draft.  However, I spent ages pre-ranking my players and it actually worked to my advantage.  Despite the fact that Yahoo will fill all starting roster spots before bench spots, I still got a pretty good team.  The draft order in this league was based on last years performance, and since I sucked, I had the #1 pick (snaking order, 8 teams)  Here’s my draft picks:

1. (1) LaDainian Tomlinson

2. (16) Terrell Owens

3. (17) Reggie Wayne

4. (32) Reggie Bush

5. (33) Brandon Marshall

6. (48) Kellen Winslow

7. (49) Matt Hasselbeck

8. (64) New York

9. (65) Shayne Graham

10. (80) Greg Jennings

11. (81) LenDale White

12. (96) Chris Chambers

13. (97) Donovan McNabb

14. (112) Alge Crumpler

I’m decently pumped about my team.  I think I have awesome wideouts and running backs.  The Giants defense is probably going to get dropped because of the hits they’ve taken on the D-Line, but I’m not terribly worried about that.  In fact, while I was posting, I just dropped NJ-A and picked up Seattle.

There was also some good preseason football Friday night.  Cowboys looked really good and Crayton even might have stopped Dallas fans from freaking out about their WR depth.  Packers looked good as well and Aaron Rodgers definitely bounced back from poor play last week.  Running game of the Packers is still a little scary, but hopefully Ryan Grant will help that in the regular season.

Saturday 8/24:
Went golfing Saturday morning.  Got rained out midway through, which bummed me out because when the thunder was first heard I was starting to hit some really good shots.  I also came decently close to a hole-in-one (I know, close doesn’t count for anything).

Went down to Chicago Saturday night and met up with best bud and his woman.  Ate at this place called Earwax which had good vegitarian food and neat little atmosphere.  Almost died afterward at this chocolate/ice cream shop… got some sort of orange dreamsicle float that was really large and had two huge ice cream scoops kind of hanging onto the brim of the glass.  Shouldn’t have finished it, but it was good.

Sunday 8/24:
Another Brewer game.  Finally saw CC in person, although he did not pitch a great game.  Ended up being a pretty good game, went into extra innings (we’ve seen 3 extra innings games this year, 2 of them wins).  On JJ Hardy bobblehead day, Hardy had the game winning single.  Nice how that works out.

Had my other fantasy football draft tonight.  Actually attended this one, although barely made it due to the length of the baseball game.  Another 8 team league, snaking draft order.  I had Yahoo auto pick the draft order and I wound up with the #1 pick (which of course everyone thought was a scam being I’m the commish of the league, haha).  Here’s my team:

1. (1) LaDainian Tomlinson

2. (16) Clinton Portis

3. (17) Braylon Edwards

4. (32) Laurence Maroney

5. (33) Torry Holt

6. (48) Roy Williams

7. (49) Derek Anderson

8. (64) LenDale White

9. (65) Earnest Graham

10. (80) Donald Driver

11. (81) Vernon Davis

12. (96) David Garrard

13. (97) Dallas

14. (112) Josh Scobee

Had one problem during the draft… I was connected to the internet via cell phone and lost my connection in the middle of the draft.  I had players in my “draft queue” but once the connection dropped, the queue was erased and Yahoo auto-picked.  Happened during a back-back pick, and I got Maroney/Holt out of it.  I *never* would’ve picked Maroney.  In the draft chat, I was just commenting on how Yahoo had Maroney ranked way too high just moments before it happened.  Holt is good, but he’s old, so that scares me.  I wanted to grab Reggie Bush in one of those spots and Wes Welker in the other.  Damnit.  Maybe I can make a trade…

I think that’s all I’ve got for now.

Yahoo! Ranks Bears Offense as Useless in Fantasy Play

During their pre-season fantasy rankings of teams, Yahoo! picked the Chicago Bears as dead last for fantasy value.  This should come as no surprise, as the Bears have clearly shown that they have no interest in winning games or even scoring points anywhere inside the next 4 years.  The team is clearly trying to trim as much cap space as possible to go into another rebuilding next year and I’m guessing the only reason they gave Tommie Harris an extension was to keep fans coming in on Sundays.  The team is completely inept in every department but kickoff returns and old lazy linemen.

And that was just last season, they made some drastic changes this year.  Namely, losing a combined 110 catches, 1518 yards and 8 TDs between their two best receivers; Bernard Berrian and Mushin Muhammad.  Not only that, but they let Berrian go to a division rival!  They also wisely cut Cedric Benson, their leading rusher.  However, their new starting running back is a guy referred to as “the other Adrian Peterson.”  Their three starting QBs last year put together a 71.8 QB rating, a meager 6.4 yards per attempt, 17 TDs, 21 INTs.

I’m not sure who their starting wide receivers are going to be this year, but it looks like some combination of Mark Bradley, Rashied Davis and Devin Hester.  Not exactly confidence inspiring.  As the article mentioned, Greg Olsen does show some promise at TE, but he’s definitely not going to be a full time player.  He’ll also probably have a crowd of defenders around him at all times as no other offensive player is worth covering.  Beyond that, it looks like the best hope for Bears fans is that Matt Forte is likely to get 5-10 carries a game.  I’m sure as soon as he gets a 12 yard run (which will probably be the longest play from scrimmage for the first few weeks) his jersey will instantly become harder to find than thin crust pizza in Chicago.  The Bears fans will immediately crown him the new “Sweetness.”  Olin Kreutz will be on Chicago radio 10 years from now saying “Yeah, I remember I cut blocked the nose tackle and Matt got easily an extra 5 yards because of it.”  The crowd will chant for him to be a starter with dreams of “the run” going through their minds; only to see him get the job and average 3.2 per carry the rest of the year.

I’m sure this can all somehow be blamed on Urlacher’s bad back though…

Join my fantasy football league!

I am looking at doing a pay league via Yahoo, as I like their format the best and it seems most user friendly.

Here’s the breakdown of the league scoring/rules:

Scoring Type:	Head-to-Head
Start Scoring on:	Week 1
Can’t Cut List Provider:	None
Max Moves:	No maximum
Max Acquisitions per Week:	No maximum
Max Trades:	No maximum
Trade Reject Time:	2
Trade End Date:	November 14, 2008
Trade Review:	Commissioner
Waiver Time:	1 day
Post Draft Players:	Follow Waiver Rules
Playoffs:	Week 15 and 16 (4 teams)
Roster Positions:	QB, WR, WR, RB, RB, TE, W/R, K, DEF, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN
Stat Categories:	Completions (.1) Passing Yards (25 yards per point; 2.5 points at 300 yards; 3.5 points at 400 yards; 5 points at 500 yards) Passing Touchdowns (4) Interceptions (-2) Sacks (-1) Rushing Yards (10 yards per point; 2.5 points at 100 yards; 3.5 points at 200 yards; 5 points at 250 yards) Rushing Touchdowns (6) Receptions (0.5) Reception Yards (10 yards per point; 2.5 points at 100 yards; 3.5 points at 200 yards; 5 points at 250 yards) Reception Touchdowns (6) 2-Point Conversions (2) Fumbles Lost (-2) Field Goals 0-19 Yards (3) Field Goals 20-29 Yards (3) Field Goals 30-39 Yards (3) Field Goals 40-49 Yards (4) Field Goals 50+ Yards (5) Field Goals Missed 0-19 Yards (-1) Field Goals Missed 20-29 Yards (-1) Field Goals Missed 30-39 Yards (-1) Field Goals Missed 40-49 Yards (0) Field Goals Missed 50+ Yards (0) Point After Attempt Made (1) Point After Attempt Missed (-1) Sack (1) Interception (2) Fumble Recovery (2) Touchdown (6) Safety (2) Block Kick (2) Return Yards (50 yards per point) Kickoff and Punt Return Touchdowns (6) Points Allowed 0 points (10) Points Allowed 1-6 points (7) Points Allowed 7-13 points (4) Points Allowed 14-20 points (1) Points Allowed 21-27 points (-1) Points Allowed 28-34 points (-4) Points Allowed 35+ points (-7)
Fractional Points:	Yes
Negative Points:	Yes

Here’s what would come with a pay league:
– Live stats
– Extensive weekly and draft scouting reports
– Advanced controls for scoring/stats (more customization)
– Prizes (Cash!)

Here’s what I’m thinking for prizes:
– $10 weekly high scoring team (16 weeks * $10 = $160)
– $10 weekly high scoring player (I would probably do NOT on the same team as the high scoring team, but that’s up for debate) (16 weeks * $10 = $160)
– Lump sum grand prize or 1st/2nd place prizes (I’m thinking $160 grand prize, $35 2nd place = $195)

League setup costs $124.99

So, some easy math
160 + 160 + 160 + 35 + 125 = $640

$640/8 teams = $80/team.

If that sounds like too much money, we can either increase the number of teams or decrease the prizes. There’s other ways to add to prize amounts, like charging for trades/transactions, etc.

Been a while…

Looks like since the last time I posted, the Pats went 16-0, the fantasy season wrapped up (finished 1st in one league, 4th in another, tanked it for last in another), Brett Favre was mentioned in MVP voting (2% of the vote is his best in a long time), the wild card weekend finished up and the 49ers destroyed any hope of winning in the next 2 or so years.

Few things on my mind today, first is the 49ers.  I’m sure plenty of people have already said how bad the Martz hiring seems.  Alex Smith has a questionable arm and decision making ability.  The offensive line can’t pass protect.  None of the receivers run great routes.  They should be a smash-mouth running team with Frank Gore getting close to 400 carries.  So instead, we throw Martz in, who will try to make Alex Smith take the most 7+ step drops in the league and air it out to receivers who are probably giving up on routes (but the ball will be under/over thrown anyway) and that young defensive is going to spend way too much time out on the field because of it.  I think this is a desperation move by Nolan.  He must be in the spot where he feels he has to make a huge splash to save his job.  Now, instead of the head coach getting fired, he can blame the woes on Martz and fire the offensive coordinator (and Martz can be what, the 7th offensive coordinator in the past 7 seasons?).

Some good divisional games this weekend.  The two teams I care most about are playing some decent matchups.  I think things don’t look great for the Packers.  Seattle is going to look for interceptions and Favre is going to throw them.  Seattle has 4 wideouts that could all be #1 or #2 guys and the Packers have no reliable depth at corner, Al Harris is shaky on deep routes and their safeties are out of position way too often.  Even if the Packers get a good pass-rush going, Hasselbeck can just keep making quick throws to underneath guys all day.  It will be the same kind of attack the Packers used in the first few weeks.  If it was anyone but Seattle coming to town, I could see Green Bay moving on.  I’d almost put them as the underdog here.  Maybe call it even given home field advantage.

As for New England, they will be tested a bit on defense with the running game that the Jaguars have, but Garrard is no threat in my mind.  Plus, Jacksonville doesn’t have a great pass defense.  They allow about a 60% completion rate and a lot of yards in the air.  None of their corners can cover all that great.  Unless they do something really different to pressure Brady and keep it up for four quarters, I don’t see them being too big a threat.

That’s all I’ve got for now.  Go Pats!

Hmm

I would like to make one note about my fantasy football season…

I just traded Addai and Parker for Tomlinson. Seems silly for both teams, but what the hell, it’s a free league. The guy now has McNabb/Favre, Chad Johnson/Kevin Curtis/Andre Johnson, Addai/Parker/Jones-Drew and the Chargers D. He’s 4-3 but his team is looking pretty full right now.

As for me, Yahoo is picking me to win by almost 30 points now.

My fantasy football team is nearly doomed

So I went into last Monday night down by 30 points, but with Peyton Manning and Joseph Addai still waiting to play.  I figured I had a pretty safe chance of winning.  That was until the following thing happened: 15-56-1.  That’s carries, yards, TDs.  For Kenton Keith.  I realize Addai was still a bit banged up and the game wasn’t really on the line, but that’s a very bad thing.  Not only did I lose that game by about 4 points, but it looks like Keith is on his way to ruining the fantasy season of millions of people who had the 4th-7th pick in their drafts.  Addai looked like a sure thing for 2000 total yards and well over 10 TDs this year.  Now?  Who knows.  All I know is that I’m left with Addai who is in a platoon, Marvin Harrison who I am willing to bet will announce season ending surgery soon for his knee and Willie Parker who might have 1700 rushing yards with 2 TDs.

The bright side?  I’m playing the guy in 1st place this week.  He’s undefeated.  Wait, I was talking about the bright side of all this, wasn’t I?  Well, he did just lose Ronnie Brown for the year.  I might have a shot, especially with Brandon Jacobs playing a scrimmage against the all stars from the UK 60-and-older lawn bowling league this week.

Also, due to the depression related to my lost fantasy season (at least in the league I commish for), I’m not doing an updated ranking this week.  If I did, the Giants would move up a few spots and the Jags would move down a few.  I still think the Giants are going to have their yearly implosion at some point.  I know they have the added motivation of Tiki Barber being a tremendous douche to them, but don’t we see the Giants make a run like this every year?

I do have one question… if the Pats go 19-0 the same year the Dolphins go 0-16, will the world start turning the opposite direction?  Will the NFL move the entire 2008 season to Sri Lanka?  Will Don Shula turn into Mothra?  I want to see what happens, but I’m also very afraid.

Fantasy Roster – Past/Present

I always like to look at how my fantasy team changes over the season. I’ve already made 16 transactions, the most in my league by far.

Here is my roster now:
Kurt Warner (Ari – QB)
Greg Jennings (GB – WR)
Dwayne Bowe (KC – WR)
Brandon Jacobs (NYG – RB)
Ladell Betts (Was – RB)
Antonio Gates (SD – TE)
Donte’ Stallworth (NE – WR)
Joseph Addai (Ind – RB)
Peyton Manning (Ind – QB)
Marvin Harrison (Ind – WR)
Nick Folk (Dal – K)
Seattle (Sea – DEF)
Pittsburgh (Pit – DEF)

Few notes – My league starts 1QB, 2RB, 2WR, 1 “Flex”, 1K, 1DEF/SP. I picked up Betts and Seattle this week because of byes. Manning, Gates, Stallworth came via trades. Jacobs, Jennings, Warner, Folk, Bowe all were free agents. Harrison, Addai, Parker, Pittsburgh were drafted.

This was my team as of draft night:

 

Round Pick Player Position
1. (6) Joseph Addai RB
2. (11) Willie Parker RB
3. (22) Drew Brees QB
4. (27) Marvin Harrison WR
5. (38) Thomas Jones RB
6. (43) Javon Walker WR
7. (54) Calvin Johnson WR
8. (59) Daniel Graham TE
9. (70) Philip Rivers QB
10. (75) Brandon Jackson RB
11. (86) Deion Branch WR
12. (91) Alge Crumpler TE
13. (102) Pittsburgh DEF
14. (107) Josh Brown K

I outright cut Brees, Walker, Johnson, Graham, Jackson, Branch, Crumpler, Jones, Brown. I traded Braylon Edwards (free agent) and Philip Rivers for Manning and Randle El (cut). I traded Dallas Clark (free agent) and Cedric Benson (free agent) for Antonio Gates and Donte Sallworth. I had Matt Schaub, Vernon Davis, Tatum Bell, Santonio Holmes off waivers for a week or two also.

I’m thinking that aside for probably subbing Seattle/Betts for other bye week fill-ins and potential injuries, I will keep this team together. At least for a week.

Packers are 3-0 and in 1st place?

Great win by the Pack today, fantastic performance by Favre, and not a bad job by the defense who held the Chargers when it mattered.  I really feel for all those people who drafted Tomlinson #1 in their fantasy leagues and are getting burnt right now.   Oh wait, no I don’t, because my fantasy team has a win 90% locked up, partially because I’m playing Tomlinson this week and he only got  about half of the ~30 points Yahoo predicted for him today.

3rd Place?

I lost my playoff game by 2 points.  I had 80 points sitting on the bench.  Now I’m not sure how I feel.  I’m doing next years draft based on your finish this year… so I can’t get a #1 pick and I can’t win the league, what’s the point?!  haha

Fantasy Playoffs

Back for a brief moment to say that trading Carson Palmer to get Shaun Alexander was a dumb move.  Seems every week I start the wrong QB.  Between Brady and Rivers, neither can have back to back decent performances.  Last week I started Brady and he got mauled by the Dolphins.  This week I start Rivers and he does nothing but hand the ball off to Tomlinson.

It’s the 1st round of the playoffs right now.  I’m the 4 seed playing the #1 guy.  I’m down 15 points with Reggie Wayne and Vinatieri left to play.  Opponent still has Chad Johnson.  That 15 points is exactly what Brady scored over Rivers yesterday.

Damnit all to hell.

Fantasy Football Trades

I almost had it… Almost got a team of Larry Johnson, Shaun Alexander and Frank Gore.  The guy in 1st was willing to deal Gore for a top notch WR.  I originally offered Javon Walker and Thomas Jones for Gore and Greg Jennings.  He countered with a deal to get Larry Fitzgerald and Marques Colston from me… no thanks.  I offered Reggie Wayne and Jones for the original duo.  Still didn’t bite.  So he ended up essentially trading Gore for Chad Johnson.  Not only that, but it was to the guy in 3rd place, who is tied in record with me and ahead by less than 20 points!  DOH!

I’m trying to work out a trade to get another top notch RB anyway.  I’ve got 2 great ones and 3 great receivers, but great receivers are rarely as good as great RBs.  Hopefully I can put it together for the playoff run.  I’ve got my last two games of the year against the 5th and 6th place teams.  I need wins in both games to get out of 4th place and avoid playing the 1st place guy in round 1 of the playoffs.  If I can do that, I’ll have a good chance of winning it all, or at least making it to the Super Bowl.  Here’s hoping.

Packers, etc

Well, the Packers had a shot at beating the Seahawks tonight.  They should probably be down 3 points now with 16 seconds left in the game… were it not for another bad call in the NFL’s continual effort to baby the QB, a touchdown drive would’ve turned into a punt and who knows how the game might have ended.  Oh well, it wasn’t the Packers night.

Wasn’t my night for Fantasy Football either.  Once again, I started the wrong QB (Rivers instead of Brady) and simply went up against the wrong team.  I played the 1st place team, who has Bulger, Tomlinson, Gore and Stephen Jackson.  Alexander and LJ had decent games, but wasn’t enough to make up for bad weeks by Rivers, Javon Walker, Dallas Clark and Mike Bell… along with great weeks by the opponent.  Had I started Tom Brady and Larry Fitzgerald (like I originally had), I could’ve only lost by 7 points instead of 40.  Had my TE made it through the whole game, who knows.  It wasn’t an impossible week to win, just some bad last minute changes by me once again.  I’ve got to move up 1-2 spots in the last 2 weeks to avoid playing the 1st place guy again in round 1 of the playoffs.  I play the 5th and 6th place teams in the last weeks… so here’s hoping.

Fantasy Football – ARGH!!!

I had a chance today… to move into 2nd place.  The guy I gave Carson Palmer to finally got good play out of a QB (45 points for Palmer), but is still going to lose his game (agains the 2nd place guy).  Oh well.  Despite my best efforts, I won my game.  I left about 35 points on the bench today.  I switched QBs at the last minute and put Brady instead of Rivers in.  Brady got 27 points, Rivers got 40.  I also picked up Mike Furrey and started him ahead of Muhammed.  Furrey got a whopping 2 points to Muhammed’s 22 and counting.  Still, the guy I’m playing against has Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison and nobody else.  So, it will end up being a comfortable enough win.

Next week I play the guy in 4th place.  He’s got Drew Brees and Steve Smith, but the rest of his team is up in the air.  He’s got McGahee, who is obviously not playing too soon (or maybe the rest of the year).  He’s got Addai, who is going to be up and down all year.  He’s got Chad Johnson, who up until this week had been doing nothing.  Oh yeah, he had Johnson on the bench today.  Whoops.

Here’s how my team did today:

Too busy to care about football before Sunday

Damn this week went by way too fast.  I’m sure the weekend will be over before I know it as well.  I am in 3rd place in my fantasy league.  I must crush my competition and feast on their brains.  Shaun Alexander still isn’t playing.   I’m hoping he plays next week and can dominate the rest of the season for me.  Hoping.  He might just be my deadly weapon in the playoffs (along with LJ).

My Madden team won the Super Bowl (Packers, of course).  Took until the 3rd year (this season being the 1st year).  I fired Mike McCarthy.  Benched Aaron Rogers mid-season in favor of a rookie and finished 2nd in the NFC.  Made it in on the strength of defense and a little luck.  In my title defense, I’m 2-0, still managing to survive under the cap with some star players by making a lot of tough cuts and trades, almost Patriots style management.  My young QB is getting better, but gets hurt easiy, which scares me a bit.  Reggie Bush is dominating so far, toward the end of last season he proved to finally be worth all the players and picks I tossed to get him.

Anyway, I don’t have time to do elaborate football picks this week.  I’m taking all the favorites aside for Cinci, KC, GB, San Fran.

Fantasy Football – Week 8

Moved up 2 spots to 3rd place (tied for 1st by record) this week. I was the first team in the league to put up 200 points in a game (won 213-114). Not only that, but I beat the 1st place guy who has been just crushing teams. Well, that was in great part because the poor guy has his entire team riding on the Eagles. He’s got McNabb, Westbrook and the Eagles D. Makes it tough when they all get shut down. For me, Larry Johnson and 4TDs, Colston and 2 TDs, Reggie Wayne and 3TDs… hard to lose. I also snagged Tom Brady from free agency. Wish I had started him, he scored 46 points in my league. Not like it mattered, but there’s nothing wrong with running up the scoreboard.

Next week I play the guy in 7th place. He’s the one who I gave Carson Palmer to. Too bad Alexander won’t be playing in week 9… but I think my team is stacked enough for now. I’ve got Muhammad and Thomas Jones against the Dolphins, Rivers agains the Browns, LJ against the Saints, Colston vs the Bucs, and Walker against the Steelers… Minny D is playing the 9ers. Those should be pretty favorable matchups. I’m too iffy about that Colts-Pats game to be very confident in Tom Brady… although I might change my mind.

Also, the new 1st place guy is playing 4th place, who also has a tough team. I’m hoping for an upset. 2nd place is against last place, so I’d need a huge upset there.

Pulled it Off

I made either a brilliant trade or just gave up a great player for nothing. The other guy accepted the Palmer for Alexander move. So now my running backs consist of Larry Johnson, Shaun Alexander, Thomas Jones and Lawrence Maroney. Not too bad, eh? Alexander hopes to play this week, which would rock so very very much. That means I’ll have a potential starting lineup of Phillip Rivers at QB, Shaun Alexander and Larry Johnson at RB, Reggie Wayne and either Muhsin Muhammad or possibly Larry Fitzgerald (he might be back from his hamstring injury) at WR, Marques Colston at TE (bless Yahoo for putting him at tight end!) and probably Thomas Jones at the “flex” spot. My defense just got a little shaky though, with San Diego likely being out both their outside linebackers for 4 weeks. So I nabbed the Vikings defense as a little insurance. Too bad they play the Patriots this week.

Either way, 2-3 weeks from now when Seattle and Kansas City hopefully have their offenses in high gear, I should have a juggernaut of scoring. I wish it could come sooner, as I play the 1st place team this week. Hopefully McNabb can actually not score 5,000 fantasy points in the next Eagles collapse.

Screwy Sunday

Well I’ve got one interesting offer on the table. Shaun Alexander for Carson Palmer. Alexander will likely play not next week, but the week after. That would be week 9 against Oakland. Assuming he comes back by that date (docs say he’s doing great and pain is gone), it would be a fairly easy schedule for the last 9 games. I’d have favorable matchups against the Raiders, two vs the 49ers, another against Green Bay and one against Arizona. The rest of the games are hit or miss depending on how the team is doing. Whereas Palmer has a horrible schedule all year. The biggest question is whether Alexander will come back strong and soon. Palmer has been slowly finding a rhythm, but has been irratic for the most part. He could be strong the rest of the year, he could be up and down. Either way, I’ve got a strong backup in Rivers and Leinart is hopefully going to improve every week. The only way it’s a bust is if Alexander hurts himself again.

Speaking of my backup QB’s… what the hell?!? I start Leinart, figuring that even the pathetic Cardinals can run up the score on the Raiders. Pfft, so much for that. 203 yards and 2 INTs equals a big 12 points. Rivers and Palmer scored 27 and 29 points respectively. Still, I am up by 50 points at the end of the day thanks to big games from Larry Johnson and Reggie Wayne. Honorable mention goes to Javon Walker and Chris Cooley. Lawrence Maroney was a total bust. I hope the Pats don’t start going back to Dillon… I have a feeling there’s going to be a dreaded 3 man comittee the rest of the year. The Alexander trade will hopefully resurect that, and I’ll have Thomas Jones to play the #2 RB spot next week. Anyway, my opponent still has Eli and Tiki. I’m praying that Dallas can get their act together and shut down those two. I suppose that Eli could throw for 2 TDs and Tiki could run for one, as long as they don’t combine for 600 yards, I should still pull out the win. I’m hoping for a low scoring game for MNF.

PS – Anyone see the Eagles game? Another last second field goal… and a hell of a boot at that. I know a lot of guys who can’t knock a KICKOFF 62 yards. McNabb had another hell of a 3rd quarter. For fantasy purposes, you should be able to start somebody else in the 1st half and switch for the 2nd half. Actually… that would really suck for anyone who doesn’t have McNabb. He scored 41 points in my league, by the way, probably all but 5 points of it was 3rd/4th quarter. Insane. Either way, Eagles lost. It’s going to be another tough day for them against the Jags next week.

Monday Night Crazy

So I went into Monday night down by 18 points in my fantasy game. I still had Thomas Jones and Robbie Gould to play, but the other guy had Rex Grossman. Kind of a tough situation, because it’s hard for my guys to do well without Rex getting points. Right?

Funny thing about that… 4 INTs and 2 fumbles. Under 150 yards and no TDs. Total points for Grossman? -7.

Barely any points for Jones, but a few catches and some yards on the ground are enough to turn the Grossman thing into a 11 point swing.

I still figured I had no chance in Hell… seems logical enough, right? I mean, Chicago is getting spanked going into the end of the game, it’s hard for a Kicker to get a lot of points unless the QB is driving down the field. One field goal isn’t going to be enough.
All the sudden Chicago runs a TD back, on defense. There’s an extra point for my kicker. Then they run back another fumble. Another extra point. Then they run back a kick. Another extra point. It’s not much, but it’s still 3 points by my kicker without the offense being on the field.

So going into the final 2 minutes, I’m down by 1.5 points. Chicago has a 1 point lead and the Cardinals have the ball. Seems bleek unless the Bears can get the ball back and either Grossman can do something stupid or they can just hand off to Jones to run some clock. The only fear is that Arizona might score. Which would mean one of two things, either Chicago starts driving down the field for a last second chance (which could always mean another INT for Grossman) or there will be no time left.

58 seconds left on the clock and Arizona has a 3rd and 1 at the Chicago 22. They aren’t quite in a lock spot for Rackers to kick a game winner, and Chicago still has 2 time outs left. They have to push for a score. So what happens? Denny Green calls another stupid run up the middle and the Bears stuff it. Rackers misses the field goal. 48 seconds left.

What now? Cardinals have 2 time outs, but Chicago can still kneel down and run it out. The only catch, knee down is a slight loss of yards, which is a slight loss of fantasy points. Don’t know if it’s enough. He’d have to probably lose 5 yards on 3rd down to give me a chance. 2 yard loss on 1st down. 4 yard loss on 2nd down.

1 yard loss on 3rd down….

I lost by 1 point.

All I can do is hope for a last second scoring correction, but I doubt that will happen. It was fun while it lasted.

Fantasy Football – Week 5

Won my game this week. By 10 points. Pretty ugly game, but managed on a big receiving day by Larry Johnson, a ton of kicks by Gould and a decent outing by the Chargers D. I’ll take it though, I’m at 3-2 and in 5th place (because of points)
This week might be a tough one. Guy I’m going up against is 2-3 and lost by only 2 points last week. He doesn’t have a terribly strong team, but he’s got Grossman going up against the Cardinals, Santana Moss against the Titans, Rudi Johnson and Housyomama against Tampa as well as Turner and gates playing the niners. Some good matchups. I’m hoping Carson Palmer will come off the bye strong for me and pass a lot… but not to TJ or Rudi. I’m playing Javon Walker against the Raiders. Even Jake the Snake can pass for 400 yards against those jokers. Sadly, the Broncos probably won’t have to pass much. Larry Johnson is playing the Steelers, who aren’t giving up much for rush yards, but Edwards says he’s going to pound the ball on the ground this week. Here’s hoping. Thomas Jones against the Cardinals should be a safe bet. Lovie better not pull him out in the red zone this week. The Colts have a bye, so I’m down a tight end and receiver. Plus Larry Fitzgerald is hurt. So I picked up Daniel Wilcox (dropped Dallas Clark) which is probably a waste with McNair throwing the ball. I dumped Mike Bell (since Tatum is apparantly going to keep starting) and picked up Leon Washington. He did well last week and is playing the Dolphins, who are hoping for a turnaround with Joey Harrington calling the shots (insert snickering here). I dropped the Bengals D (since the Chargers are better anyway) and nabbed Mike Furrey. Seems like a swanky move… he knows Martz’s crazy offense from his days with the Rams, he’s the only WR on the Lions who actually works hard, he was NOT drafted by Millen and he’s done alright so far. Combine all that with a potential shootout against the Bills and it could make me a happy guy. Or he could get 3 catches for 24 yards and no scores and get cut next week.

In other news, the 1st and 3rd place teams are going against each other this week. The 1st place guy is the only 4-1 team. The 1st place team also has McNabb. Here’s the problem, he’s riding Westbrook and Portis. Westbrook’s knee is going to go any second now. Mine hurts just thinking about it. Portis is week to week… who knows what that shoulder will bring. He might struggle, he might end up on the IR. On the other hand, the 3rd place team has a pretty tough combination of LT, Bulger and Steven Jackson. Those guys should be pretty solid all year.

2nd place is playing 7th place and 4th place is playing last place. So unless there is an upset or I score a TON of points (or a combination of both), it will be tough to move up in the rankings this week. I’ve gotta keep creeping up there though. The last place guy is 0-5… he’s gotta get a win eventually right? How about this week. If the standings don’t change this week, I’m going against 4th place next week… so if anything I’ll have a chance then. I don’t want to wait that long.