A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
It doesn’t get any better than what we just witnessed from the San Francisco 49ers and the New Orleans Saints.
How could it?
In an absolute instant classic thriller, the 49ers defeated the favored Saints 36-32, dealing the deciding blow on a 14-yard, 3rd down touchdown pass from Alex Smith to Vernon Davis with 0:09 left on the clock.
It was the perfect way for the perfect football game to end.
The NFC playoffs begin in New Orleans as the Saints will host the Lions tonight. The two teams have already met up once this season, which came in Week 13. The Saints won 31-17, in a game that saw Drew Brees dominate the Lions’ defense. Matthew Stafford threw for 408 yards, but Drew Brees just outmatched the Lions.
It should be a shootout this time around, as both quarterbacks threw for over 5,000 yards this season.
Thanksgiving is a football fan’s dream: plenty of good food and plenty of good football.
Even though some fantasy owners don’t like their guys playing so early, it could actually work in your favor if you are down a pretty big margin after the Thursday games have ended and taking a big risk is necessary.
No byes again this week, so getting a lucky matchup with your opposition missing Aaron Rodgers and Matt Forte are over.
Please, enjoy your holiday and this week’s Stock Report. (And find a replacement for Fred Jackson fast.)
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.
This has got to be one of the most confounding fantasy football weeks I can remember.
With some many teams rich in fantasy talent (Patriots, Giants, Eagles, Bills, plus the 49ers and Bengals) observing their bye this week, it means that we all are having to dig deep into our benches and even onto the waiver wire just to field complete lineups. During such weeks is when start/sit advice is its most valuable, and as always we have you covered here at MSF.
Is 2011 going to be the highest scoring fantasy season of all time? All signs indicate that it could be. Last season, seven players finished the season with more than 270 points (ESPN Standard Scoring). After four weeks this season, a staggering 18 players were on pace to beat that mark…and nine of them were QBs.
Like I said at the beginning of the season, gone are the days of fantasy rule by the RBs. Of those 18 players, only 5 are RBs…simply a staggering thought to anyone living in 2006 or before.
Injuries!
Andre Johnson is gone. Ben Roethlisberger is banged up. Miles Austin is on the mend. Marques Colston is back, but when will he get on track?
With the bye weeks now here, the time has come when fantasy leagues are truly won and lost. If you drafted well, and got a little lucky, you should be near the top of the standings. But nobody can ever completely escape the injury bug. Managing your lineup properly when byes and injuries attack is what separates the good owners from the great ones.
So let’s look at the Week Five games and decide who to start and who to sit this week.
When I was a little kid, I thought that Reggie Miller was the greatest basketball player in the world.
I saw him hit tons of three pointers. I met him and got his autograph. I remembered him scoring like 130 points in 3 seconds against the Knicks.
For my entire life, all I had known was Reggie. I was used to him. I loved him. To me, he was the best. It was only later, when I stood back and objectively looked at the facts, that I realized there were better players. I had to forget everything I thought I knew, and actually look at what was really going on.
Well, it’s time for us to all do that again, only with our fantasy football players.
I enjoyed Week 10.
Not only did I hit more than I missed with my start/sit picks and comment advice in Week 10, but my team in the P&G-sponsored Blogger Fantasy Football League also exploded for an easy and much-needed victory over the sublimely named Sweaty Ditkas.
What I loved best about my win in BFL2010 is that the two guys who carried me were unheralded players that I recommended to a lot of you in Week 10: Fred Jackson and Mike Thomas. There is nothing I love more than when I follow my own advice and it works out…because that means it’s working out for many of you too.
Just like these Week 11 start em, sit em picks will. (At least, that’s the gameplan…)
By Week 11, the bye weeks are over and the playoff picture is becoming clear in your league(s). You are either researching waiver wire sleepers because you a) need someone with upside to win a key Week 11 battle, or b) you are in the playoffs already and are looking down the road to guys who can help you win a championship.
So my goal with this week’s waiver wire sleeper column is to satisfy both searches.
LaDainian Tomlinson will play tonight for the San Diego Chargers against the Pittsburgh Steelers. As a byproduct, Darren Sproles will likely see a reduced role.
Last week, there were two nominees for the NFL Play of the Day from Sunday: Adrian Peterson’s stiff-arm romp against the Browns and Brandon Stokley’s improbable TD catch to lead Denver to victory over Cincinnati.
This week, I think it’s safe to say that there is only one.
While there were certainly plenty of highlights yesterday, as there always are on Sundays, no play was more impressive or important than Ray Lewis’ amazing 4th and 2 stop of Darren Sproles.
The stop sealed the road win for Baltimore over San Diego, which moved Baltimore to 2-0 on the season, and proved that Ray Lewis still has at least a little bit of gas left in the tank.
Something tells me that this was not the look on Philip Rivers’ face as Ray Lewis stuffed the Chargers’ chances of winning.
Follow the link to StubHub for great deals on all 2009 NFL tickets
.
The video is below.
Coming in a close second for Play of the Day has to be Jerry Jones, who dug hard but probably did not go deep enough to get what he was looking for (booger or victory, you decide).
Honestly, this video is not really all that big of a deal, and wouldn’t even merit a mention if it weren’t for Jerry Jones. For a guy who is so obsessively consumed with his own image, and that of the Cowboys, I can’t imagine he’ll be happy to see this video floating around.
Add in the fact that it came on perhaps his most important night as an owner — the opening of his immaculate shrine to himself (where the Cowboys will also play their home games) — and the irony makes it funny.
Hat tip to MoonDog for his video:
(Editor’s note: This story was written before the Chargers’ strong late season run came to an end in Pittsburgh against the Steelers.)
The San Diego Chargers have made an improbable run from a 4-8 start all the way to the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs. One of the team’s most valuable players during their five-game run, and unquestionably their most valuable player in the team’s first round win over the Indianapolis Colts, has been RB Darren Sproles.
Just as the Chargers have overcome intense odds to still be alive in the playoffs, Darren Sproles has overcome odds and challenges of his own to become one of the team’s leaders as they prepare to play the Pittsburgh Steelers. Sproles has overcome the death of his mother and a pervasive stuttering problem to become not only an outstanding professional football player, but most importantly, an inspiring role model for football fans and non-football fans alike.
Tomorrow afternoon at 4:45 the Pittsburgh Steelers will host the San Diego Chargers in the final game of the NFL’s Divisional Round Playoff weekend. The winner of Chargers-Steelers will face the winner of the Baltimore-Tennessee game today in next weekend’s AFC Championship game.
Here is a quick rundown of the particulars and some relevant links to get you ready for the game:
San Diego Chargers (9-8) at Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4)
- TV Schedule: 4:45 ET on CBS
- Announcer Pairing: Jim Nantz and Phil Simms
- Point Spread: Pittsburgh Steelers -6 1/2
- Over-Under: 38
- Chargers-Steelers Game Canter — (NFL.com)
- Spotlight could find Scifres, Sproles again in Pittsburgh — (Vic Carucci, NFL.com)
As any sports fan not living in a cave knows, Chargers superstar RB LaDainian Tomlinson has been hobbled by an injury that leaves his highly doubtful for Sunday game after limiting him to standing on the sideline during the Chargers’ wild card round victory over the Indianapolis Colts. In LT’s absence, Chargers backup RB Darren Sproles stepped in to produce one of the most impressive individual performances of 2008.
The diminutive and spritely Sproles, a former Kansas State Wildcat, exploded for 328 all-purpose yards, which is the third highest total in NFL playoff history. The Chargers will be counting on Sproles once again this weekend, as the team faces the unenviable task of trying to move the ball against the 2008 version of the Steel Curtain.
James Harrison, Troy Polamalu, and the rest of the Steelers’ outstanding defense will be gearing up to stop Darren Sproles in his swift and agile tracks; but it most likely won’t faze Sproles, who has made an ability to overcome odds and challenges one of his defining attributes.
The most immediately obvious challenge that Darren Sproles has overcome is his size. He is listed at 5’6, 181 pounds, but makes up for it with head-spinning speed and quickness. More importantly, Sproles has displayed heart and toughness throughout his football career, which has allowed him to plow through the roadblocks of questions about his size.
The following is a quick rundown of Darren Sproles’ most impressive football accomplishments. (To see a complete rundown, visit his player page at Chargers.com)
Not bad for a guy that was told at pretty much every level that he was too small to play, huh?
The amazing thing about Darren Sproles is that his football accomplishments pale in comparison to what he has accomplished and overcome off the field.
On April 25, 2004, Darren Sproles’ mom Annette passed away at the age of 41 after battling cancer for five years. Despite his top-5 finish in the Heisman voting, and the certainty of being drafted in the 2004 NFL draft, Sproles bypassed the 2004 Draft to honor his mother and return to Kansas State for his senior year. This allowed to him to complete his degree in speech pathology.
The beautiful irony of Darren Sproles’ degree in speech pathology is that Sproles has dealt with a stuttering problem his entire life. While at Kansas State, Sproles was uncomfortable doing media interviews because of his stuttering, and Kansas State officials arranged for him to work with a speech pathologist to help him more effectively deal with his stuttering and become more comfortable speaking publicly.
And Sproles has turned his challenge with stuttering into an opportunity to help and inspire others who are dealing with the same issue. An article at FanHouse by Ryan Wilson discusses a comment to a post about the Colts-Chargers game that was left by an inspired fan. Follow the link to view the complete comment, but here is an excerpt:
I have stuttered my entire life and I can not tell you how proud I am of Darren Sproles for not being afraid to speak his mind to others, no matter how the words come out. I watched his interview after he scored the winning touchdown at last week’s game – that was awesome by the way – and when I heard hiim speak, I almost lost my breath. It is not every day we see someone as successful as he is stuttering on TV and it was refreshing to see. He has no idea how many people he has inspired and how great of an example he is to the thousands of kids and teens who stutter who are afraid to speak because of their stutter.
–Cathy O, from comment at FanHouse
Below is the interview that Cathy O is talking about:
Like Wilson explains in his article, I also saw this interview immediately after the game and did not necessarily think a lot of it. I was peripherally familiar with the fact that Darren Sproles had dealt with stuttering, and honestly my first reaction was to be feel bad for him while being simultaneously impressed by willingness to at least do the interview.
But after reading Cathy O’s comment and some of the other stories about how Sproles has inspired other people who stutter, I realized that the last thing Darren Sproles needs or deserves from me is pity. What he does deserve is both admiration and exposure.
Darren Sproles is a shining beacon of hope and inspiration in so many different ways while playing in a league in which he gets overshadowed by players who run their mouths, feed their own egos, and get into trouble off the field. Something is wrong when Pacman Jones is more famous and exposed than Darren Sproles.
If the NFL is smart, it will do more to market that amazing stories of guys like Darren Sproles, while putting more safeguards in place to keep the Pacman Joneses out of the headlines.
While researching for this post, I came across an article about Darren Sproles on the website for the Stuttering Foundation, an organization with a simple goal: to help those who stutter. I do not know if Sproles has an official affiliation with the Stuttering Foundation, but the article includes quotes that provide insight into who inspired Sproles on his journey to overcome stuttering:
Sproles said he learned to take his time while answering questions during an interview. “I don’t have to be in a hurry to say something.â€
“I remember a long time ago my grandpa told me “don’t ever let anybody tell you that you can’t do anything because you stutter.†Sproles said. “I always remembered that and worked hard at improving my speech.â€
To read the entire article, and to find out other famous people who have dealt with stuttering problems (like Bill Walton, for instance), follow the link to the Stuttering Foundation article about Darren Sproles.
(Update: Just found this after posting, but the Stuttering Foundation also has a Q&A with Darren Sproles
on their website. Sproles was also featured on a poster distributed by the Stuttering Foundation during National Stuttering Awareness Week, May 12-18.)
If you read this site regularly, you know that I am a die-hard Cleveland Browns fan, and also root for the Miami Dolphins. Obviously the Browns fell flat on their faces this year, while the Dolphins’ magically surprising 2008 season came to end last weekend against Baltimore. I figured I would just be watching the remainder of the playoffs with the general interest of a football fan, hoping for good games but not really having a team to root for.
After deciding to sit down an explore this story as a post idea, and then writing this post, I can emphatically say that my mindset has changed. Not that I really needed more reason to root against the Steelers, but I will be a full-fledged San Diego Chargers fan this weekend and for as long as they are in the playoffs.
Stories like Darren Sproles are what make sports such a wonderful form of entertainment, and such a wonderful source of inspriation. The injury to LaDainian Tomlinson has allowed Darren Sproles to step onto a national stage and prove that neither size nor stuttering are challenges too difficult to overcome.
He has inspired me, and I’m sure many others; and I’m hoping that the journey of Darren Sproles continues to inspire football fans, athletes who face challenges because of their size, and people who struggle with stuttering, all the way to the biggest stage of them all: the Super Bowl.
I do think that the Chargers will get a step closer to the Super Bowl this weekend. The Steelers have a great defense, but their offense has struggled thanks to injuries to, and inconsistent play from, Ben Roethlisberger and Willie Parker. The Steelers O-line is going to have a hard time blocking a Chargers defense that harassed NFL MVP Peyton Manning all game long last week. With Philip Rivers playing the best football of his career, and Darren Sproles providing a multi-purpose threat in LT’s absence, the Chargers have what it takes to pull off the upset at Heinz Field.
I think they will.
Prediction: Chargers 24 | Steelers 20
What do you think?
Loading ...
