A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
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Every Sunday morning starting at 10:00 CT (11:00 ET) we are here to answer your last minute start/sit questions.
Zach will be manning the live chat for the second week in a row, while I will be hosting a live call-in show for those of you who don’t feel like typing. The call-in show will begin promptly at 10:00 CT and last until about 11:30.
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Letdowns and surprises have been the theme over the first two weeks of the season, but that’s just because it has only been two weeks. Now is when we see who the real fantasy stars are as outlier 33-point games from Chad Henne are brought back down to earth.
The Chiefs team as a whole gets a lot of attention this week due mainly to the injury of Jamaal Charles, which opens up some opportunities for other guys on that squad.
The game itself is changing with the way teams throw the ball. Yes running backs are still important but QBs and WRs are becoming the high scorers week in and week out. Don’t be late to the party.
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My fantasy team is about as good as the Bears’ O-Line against the Saints. Yeah…0-2, baby. But that doesn’t mean we can’t turn it around!
Let’s take a look at the fantasy football-relevant injuries going into week 3, including Peyton Hillis, Tony Romo, and Beanie Wells.
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Week Three is here, and hopefully you aren’t 0-2. Don’t worry, it’s still not panic time…but it very well could be time to shake some things up. As always, let’s recap last week’s predictions before looking ahead.
Because we at MSF try our best to get you our Start Em, Sit Em picks before everyone else, we have to take a few chances. One of the downsides to coming out with these picks on Tuesday is that we won’t know all of the injury updates that come out later in the week. We answer your questions and update our predictions accordingly as more information comes out.
However, a few predictions didn’t pan out this week because of injuries (either during the game, or because guys with nagging injuries didn’t end up suiting up on Sunday)…so out of fairness to me, we are going to throw out Michael Vick, Felix Jones, and Dez Bryant.
So besides those guys who caught the injury bug, I went 29 out of 46 overall…a little under 65%. I improved from week one…and that’s exactly what you should try to do from week to week in fantasy.
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Two weeks into the season and the Minnesota Vikings look like the best first half team in the league and the Detroit Lions look like one of the best full game teams in the NFC. This game has the potential to be the most exciting first half of football in this short 2011 season.
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The first two weeks of fantasy football have passed, and there have been some surprises thus far. Cam Newton has been the biggest surprise of the year, with Bills running back Fred Jackson being another major surprise.
If you have some last minute lineup questions, here are a few suggestions:
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This game seemed far more intriguing when it was originally scheduled.
Not only are the Colts missing Peyton Manning, but Kerry Collins is now nursing a shoulder injury. He is expected to play, but he will not be at full strength.
The Colts are bad, and everyone knows it. They are a completely different team without Manning at the helm, and it is unfair for their fans to expect a playoff team this season. That is, unless Peyton makes a miraculous comeback before their record is too bad.
The game will certainly feature countless mentions of how Peyton Manning is hurt, and his effect on the team. What should be talked about is how well the Steelers played in their last game against Seattle, in which they shutout the Seahawks.
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Tonight’s matchup features the University of Central Florida and Brigham Young University in the mountains at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah.
Both of these teams are coming of disappointing losses and will be looking to get back to their winning ways. This primetime game is important for BYU to show a national audience that they can reemerge as a dominant football program like they were years past. UCF thinks that they are the next non-AQ school on the rise that can make it on to the national scene.
Both of these teams have a lot to prove and this should shape up to be a very good game. [Read more...]
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The obvious answer to this question is, “Well, most schools aren’t in the Big Ten.”
One could just as easily ask, “Why isn’t Cincinnati in the Big Ten,” or, “Why isn’t Ball State in the Big Ten?” (Actually, don’t be surprised when you see my “Why isn’t Iowa State in the Big Ten?” article.)
But Notre Dame is different.
Not only is Notre Dame situated near the center of the Big Ten’s geographical footprint, but it also has existing football rivalries with Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue.
Notre Dame is third on the list of the all-time winningest college football program, joining Big Ten schools Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State in the top ten. (I’m focusing on football because football was largely responsible for the formation of the major athletic conferences and because football continues to drive conference expansion and realignment today.)
The Big Ten, more than any other major conference, cherishes and guards its academic reputation. And Notre Dame, by almost any measure, is an academically elite institution.
More significantly, the Big Ten wants Notre Dame.
The richest conference in America—a league that dominates the region in which Notre Dame resides and whose members get to be part of a prestigious collective of top-flight research universities—has been courting Notre Dame for two decades, and America’s favorite Catholic football-playing university has consistently responded, “No thanks. We’re good.”
Why?
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As you may know, New Era has had a rather humorous series of web commercials this season featuring Red Sox fan John Krasinski and Yankees fan Alec Baldwin.
According to today’s Hot Clicks, the series has now come to an end, and the final installment may be the best one in the series.
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On Monday, Andy Bottoms told you which players you should be targeting on the waiver wire. Then on Tuesday, Jon Washburn informed you which players you should start and which ones you should sit in Week 3. And then on yesterday, in between talking to live callers, I pointed out where I agreed and disagreed with both.
Now today our Week 3 fantasy football analysis continues.
I just posted the consensus Week 3 player rankings, and now I am going to highlight several sleepers hiding on the waiver wire or on your bench who you need to consider putting in your lineups for Week 3.
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I have been busy tinkering with our new features like live call-in shows plus answering fantasy questions in the comment sections and on Twitter, and Jon has been answering questions as well while also preparing to head to Chicago for the Packers-Bears game…and so here we are on Thursday with no rankings posted for you yet.
I’d give us the old *tsk tsk* except that we found a way to make sure you’re covered, courtesy of our friends at PlayThisGuy.com, who just sent over their Fantasy Football Week 3 Rankings at QB, RB, WR, TE, K, and D/ST. Here they are:
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Update: After admitting that it was a mistake in the first place, the ad discussed in this post has been taken down by the NFL. Way to go blogosphere! More details at the end of this post.
Remember when Arian Foster lambasted fantasy football players for not caring about him as a person, but simply having interest in his health because of his expected role in their fictional football lineups?
Well I wonder what Foster thinks about NFL.com using a picture of an injured, distressed Jamaal Charles to promote their fantasy football game.
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Week 4 of college football in 2011 is upon us.
Last week we saw LSU narrowly beat Mississippi State, the Fighting Irish notched their first win of the season, and we got to enjoy a showdown between Oklahoma and Florida State. There are even more ranked teams playing ranked teams this week, so expect many more good games for your viewing pleasure as you settle in on Saturday.
Here are some of the marquee games to pay attention to this week (with additional spreads and picks here), then the entire college football TV schedule for week 4.
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I am going to veer WAY off the sports path here, but I’m hoping you’ll indulge me before we jump back into sports talk.
I’m just really curious to see what people think of an issue that is making headlines today, and the sheer absurdity (and, well, crassness) of the subject matter makes this particularly story an especially interesting one to use as a way to gauge peoples’ opinions of an issue that I deal with in my non-MSF work duties.
