Week 11 Fantasy Recap

Well, another week has passed by in the NFL -- and, more importantly, in fantasy football. I've decided to start logging how my week went, such as which decisions were good and which were bad. Don't expect me to cover everything that happens around the league ... I'll be focusing on my own fantasy team. And running back wise, my strategy is more of a breadth-over-depth system. I have 5 #2/#3 backs and no #1 (thanks a lot Ronnie Brown), so my problems deciding whom to start are typically pretty tough.

The Matchup
This week, my Destroyers (7-3) are playing the Supernova (7-3), and I'm the projected underdog, 130-125. Obviously it's unlikely that either team would score that many points, but it's possible that one could and this could be a blowout. He's pretty stacked all the way down the lineup, which is probably why he's 7-3. (I'm 7-3 because Randy Moss is great, and so was Ronnie Brown before he managed to injure himself.)

Interesting Matchup Note
I'm the underdog this week by 5 points, which is the smallest spread of the week. The largest spread is 63.8 points, in the matchup of the BraveGators (6-4) vs the FiveOFo SAINTS (1-9). I wouldn't want to be the SAINTS this week.

First, the Good Decisions (I figure I should start with these, since there will rarely be very many of them):

  1. Starting Brandon Jacobs (13 points) against the Detroit Lions
  2. Starting the Giants Defense (19 points) instead of the Vikings Defense (7 points)
    1. This decision was made about 15 minutes before the games started, and I'd been waffling on it all week. I really didn't know what to do, and decided to go with the Giants because they get a lot of sacks and the Lions give up a lot of sacks, and because I figure I can always trust the Vikings to crap out and give up a lot of points to poor offenses: they did.
  3. Keeping Kenton Keith (0 points) safely on the bench
    1. You know it's a bad week when this can be considered a good decision
And ... the Bad Decisions:
  1. Starting Marques Colston (11 points) instead of Dwayne Bowe (12 points)
  2. Starting Peyton Manning (4 points) instead of Derek Anderson (14 points)
    1. I wonder how many times this has to happen before I actually bench Manning ... probably an infinite number; I guess I just have to resign myself to this being a Bad Decision every week
  3. Starting Jesse Chatman (7 points) and LenDale White (4 points) instead of Ryan Grant (8 points), Justin Fargas (8 points), or Cedric Benson (14 points)
    1. Secondarily, it's a Bad Decision to have Cedric Benson on my team ... although the last couple of weeks are starting to make it look like he's worth upgrading from his "Perpetual Bench Player" status
  4. Keeping Kenton Keith on my team despite Joseph Addai continuing to stay healthy (and letting Ricky Williams go to my main competition for the championship)
Here are some Good Things That Happened without my having to make a decision:
  1. Chris Cooley (14 points) is a good tight end
  2. Randy Moss (36 points) is awesome at football
    1. If he hadn't had 4 down years in his prime, would he be chasing Jerry Rice for every record ever?
  3. Adam Vinatieri (5 points) missed 2 field goals, which helps me out (only because my opponent had him this week)
  4. Rob Bironas (10 points) hit a 56 yard field goal; that was worth 5 points right there
  5. The Steelers managed to lose to yet another bad team. Why is this good? Because my opponent had Roethlisberger and Willie Parker, both of whom had a very bad game (they combined for a mere 12 points)
What about the Bad Things That Happened?
  1. Torry Holt scored a touchdown
    1. When the opposing team has only one player who scored a touchdown, you can't really say anything bad happened to you (I don't consider Manning's performance a Bad Thing That Happened, because it was my bad decision to start him)
  2. The Patriots Defense (18 points) recovered a fumble and ran it back for a touchdown.
    1. My opponent started the Patriots Defense, so this hurt me because they scored more points
    2. When the defense scores, it takes the ball away from Randy Moss; I don't like that at all (he could have caught FIVE touchdowns ... I have a tendency to get greedy)

Amazing Things Unrelated to My Game
I was going to post something about Chester Taylor's awesome 35 point performance in place of Adrian Peterson, but then Terrell Owens comes along with a 41 point explosion. (4 TD receptions? Really?) But the truly amazing thing is that both players are owned by the same guy in my league (the aforementioned BraveGators, who are going to cover the spread this week). Fortunately for my status as the highest scoring team in the league, he didn't start Taylor this week. I guess Frank Gore (6 points) was a better option.

Amazing Thing #2 ... when was the last time 2 different players caught 4 TD passes in the same week? (Hint: NEVER!!!) I have the distinct feeling Tom Brady decided TO shouldn't be the only guy to catch 4 this week, so he went after Moss with everything he had.

The Result
Surprisingly, I came up with a big win here. With the lineup my opponent came into the game with, I thought I had little chance. But I guess the projections got the spread wrong, because the final score was 116-67 Destroyers, which brings me to 8-3 on the year. As usual, Randy Moss carried me to victory, and this time around was his best week of the season. He basically averaged out the fact that he got me 0 points last week on his bye.

TMR Recap
So to recap my post from Saturday, which claimed that TMR Is No Help, he thought I should bench Benson and that Jacobs, White, Chatman, Grant, and Fargas would all get over 10 fantasy points. I should have known that his hatred for Benson would give him that little extra push he needs to get him into the end zone. Dash it all ... and White, Chatman, Grant, and Fargas all failed to have a good week (and I managed to start the two who came up with the worse week of the four).

Posted by Sean Schulte at 2007-11-19 23:06:15

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