Fantasy Rumblings Week 4

Had another good week, this time going 4-1 in league play. Only loss was the Total Dynasty League in which I'm now 0-3. In every other league I'm 2-1 and off to a decent start. This week so far has been a drag, working nine hour days and going to bed early, thus missing football games I really wanted to watch, but sometimes it's a lot easier on the heart NOT to watch them, especially if your fantasy game is on the line.
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Icon Fantasy Football League Update

Defeated my old buddy Dave's Cincinnati Superstars in a low scoring, highly stressful affair: 31-27. Thank god I made a last minute change to my lineup and inserted LeSean McCoy for Felix Jones, otherwise I would have been a beaten man. And also thanks to Dave for changing his mind and NOT benching Kurt Warner for Joe Flacco. After having made my own QB blunder in Week 1, I can be a little sympathetic ............ oh who am I kidding? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! GOT YA DAVE!!

Unfortunately, even at 2-1 I'm 4TH in my division behind teams who have scored more points. I've got to gain some ground on these guys. This week I face my nemesis. A guy I've played with for many years, but have only beaten maybe twice. Dave's brother John Hatfield and his Green Bay Dynasty.



Shady lookin character aint he? Seriously though, my luck against him is horrible. Lost to him twice last year and his team this year is MUCH better. He's off to a 3-0 start, thanks to Peyton Manning's colossal numbers the first three weeks. He also has Reggie Wayne, Santonio Holmes, and possibly Marion Barber (if he plays). The Colts play the Seahawks, so I'm figuring on seeing more big numbers from Manning and Wayne. I'm going to need a big game from Carson Palmer and Chad Ochocinco to keep up.

My tentative lineup for the week:

TMQB Cincinnati (Carson Palmer) @Cleveland - Starting him over Romo again, but I can't turn down this matchup against the Browns. They've been throttled every week and Cincy should be able to follow suit.

RB Chris Johnson (Tenn) @Jacksonville - Hoping this is an UP week for my 1st Rounder.

WR Randy Moss (NE) vs. Baltimore - Moss has got to start scoring TDs SOMETIME.

WR Devin Hester (Chic) vs. Detroit - Great matchup, could have another long TD or two.

WR Chad Ochocinco (Cin) @Cleveland - See Palmer above.

WR Mario Manningham (NYG) @Kansas City - Another great matchup against a terrible Chief defense.

PK Ryan Longwell (Minn) vs. Green Bay - Longwell saved my butt last week and is the top scoring kicker early on. If I'm behind by less than 10 points going into Monday night, I'll be praying for some more FGs.

DST NY Jets @ New Orleans Not expecting to get any bonuses for points allowed, but there's always the chance of a Leon Washington kick return TD.

All of my players except Longwell and the Jets DST play in the 1:00 games so by 4:00 I'll have a pretty good idea how I did. My only other possible option this week because of byes would be McFadden against the Texans swiss cheese run defense. But the way the Raiders played this past week, and the three fumbles McFadden had, I'm not comfortable with starting him.

Okay John, let's see if I finally get a win against you. I've got the matchups to do it.
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Other Results

RapidDraft - Won 124-103 vs. Victoria
16 Man Fanatics Brawl League - Won 122.38-81.08 vs. bad runners
FFTwitter League - Won 93.82-59.58 vs. Greenbacks
Total Dynasty League - Lost 257.219-168.576 to the Carolina Panthers
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Predictions

Went 2 out of 3 last week, but the one that was wrong was REEEEEEEEEEEALLY wrong. Still can't believe how bad the Raiders played against the Broncos. Here's my forecast for Week 4.

- Both Matt Forte and Steve Slaton will score their first TDs of the season.

- Bret Favre will beat his former team the Green Bay Packers. (With Adrian Peterson's help.)

- The Cleveland Browns will score at TWO offensive TDs against the Bengals.
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Perturbed

For years now I've been picking up a USA Today Sports Weekly every Wednesday morning at one of the two local Speedways. But for the past month or so they have not gotten them. Come to find out they changed carriers here in town of the USA Todays. They are now distributed by our local paper The Marion Star ... a very unreliable carrier. It took them two weeks to even get the daily USA Todays to the stores. Now it's looking like they are not even going to bother distributing the Sports Weekly.

Having an apartment, I don't want to get a subscription because it likely would get stolen from time to time. But even if I did, I don't know if I'd even get it. It seems The Marion Star has total control of the USA Today distribution in town and from what I'm hearing, really didn't want to do it in the first place. The Star is a small town rag that has gone down in quality in recent years. I'll pick up a Columbus Dispatch before even considering getting a Star.

So, I'm left wanting. It sucks, I love the fantasy rankings and articles by Matt Pitzer. I love the game previews and the stats. Guess I'll just have to rely on the internet for all of that and take to reading The Dispatch at work everyday instead.

Week 3 Rumblings

Much better results in Week 2 for my teams. Chris Johnson being the catalyst for three victories. Huge wins for the Buckeyes, Raiders, and Bengals also helped to make this a happy football weekend. Went 3-2 in my five leagues this week but lost in the one league that held my lone Week 1 victory, so no undefeated season for me in any league this year. Not that I've EVER had an undefeated season before, but it would have been nice to at least chase that dream for more than two weeks into the season.

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Icon Fantasy Football League Update

Chris Johnson's 51 points spurred my Miami Waves to a 107-44 win over a strong Pimpdaddies team. Still smarting from the Week 1 gaff that saw me bench Tony Romo. I should be 2-0 and have knocked off two division opponents. But I won't dwell on it (much) unless it comes back to haunt me later in the season.

Next up is my old buddy Dave Hatfield and his Cincinnati Superstars. The 'Stars are 1-1 and have Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Steve Smith (Car), Housh, and Roy Williams as it's main weapons.

I'm going with a starting lineup that should look like this:

TMQB Dallas (Romo) vs. Carolina Can Romo bounce back on MNF?
RB Chris Johnson @NY Jets Tough matchup.
RB Felix Jones vs. Carolina Barber's out. Jones is gold.
WR Randy Moss vs. Atlanta Me likey!
WR Chad Ochocinco vs. Steelers May surprise against champs.
WR Mario Manningham @Tampa Bay Eli has a new playmaker.
K Ryan Longwell vs. San Francisco Dome kicker, must start.
DST NY Jets vs. Tennessee Very effective D so far.

My other options would be RB Darren McFadden vs. Denver, RB Beanie Wells vs. Indy, and WR Devin Hester @Seattle. All three could have success against their opponents this week. I lean towards Manningham however because of Tampa Bay's new trend of giving up big plays to WRs the first two weeks. (Five TDs by WRs of 32 yards or longer against them thus far.) Any opinions of my choices are most welcome.
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Other Results

FFTwitter League (Yahoo): Defeated TheOneThatGotAway 149.82 - 113.94 to go to 1-1. Jumped from dead last (12th) in the standings to fourth. Got strong performances from Johnson, Colston, Steve Smith (NYG), and Fred Jackson.

Fanatics Brawl League (Yahoo): Lost to Cleburne Gaelics 105.00 - 100.74, fell to 1-1. Made the mistake of benching Felix Jones for Michael Bush and it cost me the victory. Didn't help that Brady and Moss fell on their faces against the Jets.

RapidDraft: Beat Michael 154.50 - 142.00 After losing to Matt Pitzer by a half of a point in Week 1 I almost cried. Brees and Johnson helped me bounce back.

Total Dynasty League (MyFantasyLeague): Lost to the Arizona Cardinals 196.155 - 189.306 An 0-2 start is disappointing, but not surprising. Knew my roster wasn't very strong coming into the season. But both games have been close and if I had one big playmaker on my team I might have been 2-0.

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Rookie Wideouts

Darrius Heyward-Bey, Michael Crabtree, and Jeremy Maclin were the first three WRS taken in this year's NFL Draft but thus far none of them have had the impact you would have thought they might. Heyward-Bey has one catch for 18 yards in the first two Raiders contests and has been overshadowed by a fellow rookie teammate. Crabtree is not even signed yet and most likely will have minuscule fantasy value this year. Maclin only has 2 receptions for 12 yards for the Eagles. However, others taken afterwards have stepped up:

Percy Harvin (Min) (Taken 22nd overall) Harvin has been almost everything he was billed to be in the preseason. While he hasn't had HUGE gains, he's scored two TDs and handled the ball over a dozen times. Brett Favre seems to love him in the red zone.

Kenny Britt (Tenn) (Taken 30th overall) Six receptions for 107 yards in two games isn't bad. Had a big play against the Steelers on opening night.

Louis Murphy (Oak) (Taken 124th overall) Looks like DHB may be taking a backseat to the 4th round pick from Florida. Murphy's 6 catches for 113 yards and a long TD against the Chargers bodes well for Oakland's vertical passing game.

Johnny Knox (Chi) (Taken 140th overall) Knox leads all rookie WRs after two weeks with 8 catches for 152 yards and a TD. The small school prospect has already displayed a penchant for big plays. And everybody thought Earl Bennett was the sleeper WR for the Bears...

Julian Edelman (NE) (Taken 232nd overall) Edelman got extensive playing time against the Jets because of an injury to Wes Welker and had a Welker-ish game with 8 catches for 98 yards. The converted QB may not see touches like that again this year unless Welker or another NW wideout gets hurt again, but it's a promising sign.

It's still early and we might see some dropping off ... and others breaking out in the coming weeks. But it's nice to see guys who were considered fantasy afterthoughts getting good starts out of the gate to their careers.
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Predictions Of The Week

Well, I was wrong about Peterson getting 200 yards, but was right about Hasselbeck and HALF right about the Cardinals. Warner only threw two touchdowns but the Cards DID bounce back. I'll give myself 1.5 out of three. Let's try it again this week:

- QB Kyle Orton will have a horrible game against the Raiders. At least 2 Ints and no more than 1 TD pass. The Raiders defense has improved significantly and will harass Orton enough to rattle him into mistakes.

- The Baltimore Ravens offense will rack up over 400 yards against the Cleveland Browns. QB Flacco, RBS Rice and McGahee, WR Clayton, and TE Heap are all good starts.

- The Detroit Lions will get their first win since early 2007 over the Washington Redskins! WR Calvin Johnson will be the catalyst.
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Fantasy Rumblings Week 2

It was not a good weekend for me in fantasy OR reality football. Ohio State and the Raiders both lost games they were leading with only a minute left on the clock. And fantasy wise I went 1-4 in my leagues this week, winning only in the Fanatics Brawl League. Ouch. Hoping to bounce back in Week 2.
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Icon Fantasy Football League Report

I outsmarted myself. Friday night I made the decision to bench Tony Romo for Carson Palmer and Devin Hester for Felix Jones. The result was a embarrassing loss to the Buckeye Wrecking Crew 48-26. Had I stuck with Romo I would have easily opened the season with a big division win. With Romo and Hester I left 50 points on my bench. Not a good way to open a season. What really perturbed me was that 34 of the Wrecking Crew's points came in really one play ... the 50 yard bomb from Aaron Rodgers to Greg Jennings late Sunday night. Oh well, such is my own stupidity, believing the Bengals might actually have an offense that could give Denver a whipping. Lesson learned ... don't underestimate Tony Romo.



This week I dropped WR Mohammed Massaquoi for WR Mario Manningham. Figured I'd try a different sixth receiver with the same initials...

Week 2 sees my Miami Waves face the Pennsylvania Pimpdaddies, another division foe. The Pimps had the luck of having the first pick and thus have Adrian Peterons leading their charge. He also has RB DeAngelo Williams, WR Brandon Marshall, and WR Hines Ward among others. His matchups scare me greatly, (Peterson vs. Detroit? Marshall vs. Cleveland? YIKES!)

My lineup will look like this: (Barring anymore unseen stupid lineup changes.)

TMQB Dallas (Romo) vs. NY Giants
RB Chris Johnson (Tenn) vs. Houston
RB Darren McFadden (Oak) @ Kansas City
WR Randy Moss (NE) @ NY Jets
WR Chad Ochocinco (Cinn) @ Green Bay
WR DeSean Jackson (Phil) vs. New Orleans
PK Ryan Longwell (Minn) @ Detroit
DST NY Jets vs. New England

My RBS in this lineup both have good matchups and hopefully will cash in. Moss will have it a bit tougher this week against the Jets but should still be effective. Ocho vs. the Packers concerns me, especially with him declaring that he will do the Lambeau Leap if he scores in Green Bay. Don't think Al Harris and Charles Woodson want that to happen... DeSean against the Saints would look even better if McNabb were at the helm this week, but maybe Kolb can find him for a few long passes if I'm lucky.

My other options would be Felix Jones vs. the Giants, Beanie Wells vs. Jacksonville, Devin Hester vs. Pittsburgh, or Mario Manningham vs. Dallas. Going to give Hester another week on the bench, but if he scores against the Steelers, I'll be starting him over DeSean in the future.

If I lose this one I'm looking bad early with two division losses in a row. Would be my first 0-2 start in 5 years.
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Ohio State vs. USC


While the result of the game sucked (USC 18 Ohio State 15), the atmosphere and the game itself was phenomenal. My first night game at The Shoe was an experience I will never forget. I've been to a few big games at Ohio Stadium, but none were near as loud or exciting as this one. I screamed my head off and five days later am still a little froggy in the throat.












I've been to a few NFL games, but nothing compares to a Ohio State game. Especially against a huge opponent like USC or Michigan where the fans are on their feet constantly and shouting O-H-I-O!! It's practically a religious experience.



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Predictions Of The Week

1) Not going to go TOO far out on a limb here, but I've got Vikings RB Adrian Peterson down for a 200 yard rushing game and at least two scores against the Lions.

2) The Cardinals will rebound against the Jags this week. Kurt Warner should throw at least three TDs.

3) Matt Hasselbeck will not have much sucess against the 49ers. 1 TD maximum.
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