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.
Sooooo…yeah….
That’s probably how a lot of you felt after last week’s fantasy results. If you had a bad week, join the crowd.
It appears that certain defenses (the Cowboys, Titans, and others) may have finally caught up with certain offenses (Bills, Panthers, and others) after the long offseason, which led to some surprising and disappointing performances in Week 10.
But not for Aaron Rodgers owners. Never for Aaron Rodgers owners.
No worries. If you have a bad week, it’s not your fault; it was just one of those weeks. Good grief, the Chicago Bears’ DEFENSE was the number one fantasy player last week. Let’s just write it off as an off week and get back on the horse, ready for Week 11.
Rex Ryan has come out and said how his team needs a win in this AFC East battle between the Jets and Patriots Sunday night, and he is absolutely right.
Both teams currently have a 5-3 record, but a loss would give the Patriots both head-to-head wins, which gives them the tiebreaker if the teams ended the year with the same record. Both teams must also keep pace with the 5-3 Bills, who may or may not be for real this season.
I absolutely love the fact that there are no byes this week even though it makes things harder on my own team. How’s that for a contradiction?
As I stop with the filibuster lines, let’s discuss the injuries that have begun to rear their many ugly heads. And I’m not just talking about injuries to players on your roster. Something else to pay attention to is injuries to your players’ opponents. These can sometimes affect your guys greatly. For example, Johnathan Joseph will play this week against Tampa Bay, but his hamstring isn’t 100%.
As a matter of fact, in the NFL, after week 1 nobody is 100% anymore. This is a tough game we play we with tough decisions, and we highlight who is healthy enough and good enough to play in this week’s stock report.
There are many different factors that make fantasy football difficult: bye weeks; injuries; random lucky days for your opponent; and worst of all, Chris Johnson.
In my opinion though, the hardest thing is staying in the present.
What do I mean?
Mark Sanchez and the New York Jets won a pivotal AFC East battle against upstart Buffalo today. Actually, “won” is too tame of a verb. They vanquished the Bills, reminding Buffalo which team has been to two straight AFC title games and which team hasn’t made the playoffs since…since…well who the hell can remember back that far?
Buffalo dominated 27-11, and the game wasn’t really that close. The Jets ran relatively well, played outstanding defense, and followed Sanchez’s efficient 20-28, 230-yard, 1 TD day to victory.
Despite the W, however, Sanchez is likely to be one of Week 9′s biggest punchlines because of this play that occurred late in the 4th quarter.
How many teams would trade their current QB, right now, for Cam Newton?
This is a question I’ve been thinking about a lot over the past several weeks, as I continue to be more and more impressed (and surprised) by how well Cam Newton is transitioning to the NFL in his first season.
Every week in fantasy football there will be guys who seemingly come out of nowhere and stars who disappoint. Let’s take a look at some players who fit each of those descriptions.
Well, that was fast.
As soon as I opened up my big mouth and proclaimed that 2011 was going to be the most prolific fantasy year ever, scoring around the league plummets. No worries.
At least I had a great week on the predictions front, as I was right on nearly 80% of my picks.
As always, here is a quick look back at last week before we move on to week 7.
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It’s Week 6 and the Monday Night Football contenders this week have a combined number of wins of TWO. That’s right, two. Combined. The 2-3 Jets will host the 0-4 Dolphins on Monday night.
This game isn’t just a competition of who can play the best, no; it will be a vicious fight for a win between two teams desperate for Ws.
Let’s take a look at why the teams are where they are.
Oh byes.
We don’t like them, but the players do need their rest. With the rest periods starting now, there are some crucial decisions that need to be made regarding your roster.
Who is going to fill in for Ray Rice? Issac Redman can’t carry the load for an injured Mendenhall…can he? And so many more.
Now is the time that we want to highlight players who might be on your bench or floating around on waivers waiting to be picked up in hopes that he can provide that stopgap service. Everyone knows that Jason Witten is good for your health but how about Brandon Pettigrew?
There are questions galore to be answered in the Week 5 stock report.
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.
If you are 3-0 so far this year congrats! Truth is most people are not, but as they say “slow and steady wins the race” and that’s the theme for this week’s stock report.
Week One is finally here. You have done all the research (you know, the usual: waiver wire picks…injury updates…comparing QBs to Michael Jackson songs…), you have gone through your draft, and most importantly, you have started talking smack to everyone in your league.
You only have one job left to do: start the right guys.
Nothing could be worse than having an awesome team…on your bench.
Each and every one of us has a fantasy sob story or two, and it’s almost a guarantee that one of them revolves around sitting the wrong guy.
So who are you going to start this week?
When Super Bowl XLVI arrives in Indianapolis come February 2012, it will be 19 years since one of the most iconic moments in the history of America’s most popular sporting event: Michael Jackson’s epic 1993 halftime show.
Unfortunately, the eternal King of Pop is no longer with us (he would have turned 53 just a few days ago on August 29th), and he thus he will never be able to follow in the footsteps of Bruce Springsteen, The Who, John Mellencamp, and others who have taken to the Super Bowl stage as older musicians, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t weave the musical brilliance of Michael Jackson into a post about the National Football League.
So enjoy this homage to my favorite musician of all time, Michael Jackson, as we kick off our coverage of the 2011 NFL season. Here are all 32 Week One starting QBs in the NFL…as Michael Jackson songs.
