A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
I am skipping an introduction this week because I’m too mad at fantasy football.
In my league of 14 teams, I finished right in the middle of the pack in terms of points…but because I had the third most points scored on me, I missed the playoffs…by a lot.
I finished second to last.
Lame.
Sometimes, fantasy football goes that way. I will spare you my three heart-breaking losses of the year because, quite frankly, we all have them…and nobody else cares.
I know what you’re thinking…
“I love the NFL, and I need my start/sit advice for Week 13, but I’m just SO pumped for the Big Ten Championship game this weekend that I can’t even think about it!”
You’re in luck!
Click here (or here for a work-friendly page) and comment, “I want tickets!!!!” in order to win FOUR free tickets to the Big game this weekend between Michigan St. and Wisconsin, courtesy of our friends at Verizon.
Seriously…that’s all you have to do. What have you got to lose? We’re even going to save you time by helping you out with your start em, sit em questions in this post and in the comment section!
Now on to week 13.
It’s go time.
The playoffs are dead ahead. Now, more than ever, it is vital that you start the right guys.
We already advised you on the waiver wire. We’ve already outlined who you should start and sit on Thanksgiving. We’ve also told you about a fun Thanksgiving-only fantasy challenge.
Heck, we’ve even outlined the complete history of Thanksgiving Day football for you.
Now it’s time to look at the rest of Week 12.
After 5 days of serious discussions about what has happened off the field in State College, Pennsylvania, it was nice to have two full days of actual games to take our minds off of more serious matters.
This week, I explain how a 1- or 2-loss team from a non-AQ league could realistically clinch a BCS bowl bid, why Oregon is more deserving than Alabama of a rematch with LSU, and why Major League Soccer needs to shift its schedule or risk losing casual fans.
But first things first.
Based on what they are being paid by their real life teams, and the production fantasy owners were expecting when they drafted them in the first two rounds, there have been no two bigger non-injury busts in fantasy football this season than Philip Rivers and Chris Johnson. (We’ll forgive Jamaal Charles and Peyton Manning for their season-ending injuries).
They are the stars of our latest photo story: “Bust Buddies”.
I’mmm baaaaaaccccckkkkk!
Did you miss me?
Jon has himself a busy schedule this week, so he texted me this morning and asked if I’d be up for reprising my role as the author of our weekly Start/Sit column here at MSF. I have to admit, as soon as I saw his text I was pretty pumped.
Doing these posts every week, week after week, can admittedly be a bit of a grind, as I learned over the last couple of years; so I was happy to let Jon take it over this year and focus my efforts in other areas. But I’ve missed the weekly challenge of poring over matchups and stats and trends to figure out which players to recommend to you as starts and sits.
So it’s good to be back in the saddle.
Anyway, It’s not like I’ve been totally absent. I still offer commentary on Jon’s posts, answer questions in the comment sections, and monitor the @FantasyMSF Twitter account. So I haven’t really given you a chance to miss me even if you wanted to. Now though, for the first time all year, I have to go on record with start and sit picks.
I’m ready. Let’s roll.
The Tinley children are on Fall Break, so we’re spending the week vacationing on Perdido Key. I was without Internet access until yesterday, when I successfully guessed the password for a wireless router in a neighboring condo. A word of advice: If you’re in Florida and your wireless password is “sunshine,” you’re inviting anyone who can pick up your signal to use your Internet.
Anyway, here are some things we learned this week:
Week Three is over, and you are probably wondering one thing: How is a guy that’s giving such great advice 0-3 in his own fantasy league?
I wish I knew…injuries have just killed me…and I’ve lost each week by an average of 1.2 points. Just heartbreaking.
Some of you are probably in the same boat as me. Even if you aren’t, it’s the time in the fantasy football season when leagues are won and lost. Now is when we have to start making the tough calls.
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.
Trying to forecast the early weeks of the NFL fantasy season is like…trying to pick a piece of hay out of a stack of needles. There is always going to be a breakout game from an unknown guy and a bad game from someone who is expected to have big games (Big Ben).
If there is one thing to know prior to Week 2 it is that you shouldn’t be excited one way or another about one specific game; but that doesn’t mean rest on your laurels. Fantasy football owners must be bold and we have some bold stock reports just for you.
The first week of fantasy football has passed, and many people watched their team do next to nothing even though it was filled with presumed stars. Players on teams such as the Chiefs, Browns, and Falcons had embarrassing performances, and did not live up to preseason expectations.
Many fantasy football owners still have lineup questions, so here are a few last minute lineup tips that may answer any lingering questions.
In two days, the kickoff to the 2011 NFL season will begin. I have been waiting for this day to come for what feels like an eternity. My fantasy team is drafted, and I’m ready to go.
Now let’s take a look at the questionable fantasy-relevant players and their expected injury status For Week 1.
You will never, ever hear me criticize an athlete for maximizing their earning potential. Never. I might criticize them after the fact if they sign a big contract and don’t produce, but I’ll never begrudge someone their right and their ability to play for the highest bidder.
As far as Chris Johnson’s case is concerned, I do not have a problem with him holding out for a new contract. I don’t particularly like it, but it’s the way business operates in the Machiavellian world of NFL football; and Johnson plays running back, the position with the most risk and least security of any other. Running backs have to use their leverage the few times they have it. Johnson has it, he’s using it. Fine.
With all of that said, after reading this tweet by Johnson, screencapped below, I’d like to echo his sentiments but boomerang them right back at him. you shut the fuck up Chris.
Everyone loves to draft a guy that he thinks is a sleeper. Why? Because it’s our way of proving to everyone else that, “Yes, I know more than you.” Beyond that, it’s simply quite fun to draft a guy that surprises everybody else.
Like I said before, it’s not that fun to draft Ichiro. You know exactly what you’re getting. (Or at least you used to know, before this season.) On the flip side, thinking about Jason Heyward’s upside gives us all visions of glory.
But when it comes to drafting running backs for your fantasy football team this year, save the “sleepers” for other positions.
Well friends, I am disappointed to say that I dropped another game in the P&G-sponsored Blogger Fantasy Football League*. The loss drops me to 6-6 on the season and two games out of the final playoff spot. I now need to win out and I need help. That is never a good position to be in.
So what went wrong in Week 12? It would be easy to look at the tight end position, where I chose Vernon Davis over Kevin Boss. Davis proceeded to score three points, and I lost by four. Since Kevin Boss had 70+ yards and a TD, the winning production was sitting on the bench at that one spot.
But, just like the Buffalo Bills’ loss in Week 12 cannot be totally blamed on Stevie Johnson dropping that wide open TD pass, there were other positions that could have picked up the slack. Adrian Peterson was running wild before getting hurt and having to leave the game. Vincent Jackson, who I foolishly started in his first game back*, got hurt after two plays. Neither Mike Wallace nor Mike Thomas came anywhere close to the production they’d been getting recently.
* – One of my most trusted fantasy football principles has always been that I don’t start guys who are playing in their first game back after a long layoff. I prefer to wait for them to prove on the field that they are back, even it takes two or three weeks. I like seeing before I believe. Yet, here we are in Week 12, crunch time for all of us, and I recommend Sidney Rice as my WR start ‘em and then go with Vincent Jackson in the most critical week of my season in the Blogger Fantasy League. I failed myself and I failed you. I’m sorry. This is a great example of why having principles and sticking to them is so important. In Week 12, I was a doofus, and I cost us all.
Add it all up, and most of what could go wrong did go wrong, save for Eli, BenJarvus, and Dan Carpenter coming through huge. The real surprise is that I only lost by three points with this confluence of crap that occurred.
And with that, Week 12 is over. Thanks for letting me vent. It is time to turn our attention towards Week 13, and as I did last week, I will enlist your help later this week in setting my Week 13 roster.
