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I’ve never been a huge fan of playoff fantasy football. If real fantasy football is chess, playoff fantasy football is checkers. Or Candyland.
Nevertheless, sometimes you just aren’t ready to let the fantasy football season die. If that’s you, there are a few sites where you can get your fix. If I’m going to spend any time at all on one of these, there’d better be a decent payoff that I can pretend I might win, so I’ve listed the prizes for each here. (More …)
Here is the fantasy football “Team of the Week” for week thirteen, listing the players that scored the most points (using standard scoring) over the course of Sunday’s games. With the Monday Night Football game yet to take place (Baltimore @ Green Bay) this list may be a bit premature, but here is your team of the week nonetheless…
Pos. |
Player |
Stats |
| QB | Tony Romo (DAL) | 392 passing yards, 3 TD |
| RB | Brandon Jacobs (NYG) | 39 rushing yards, 74 receiving yards, 2 TD |
| RB | Jerome Harrison (CLE) | 35 rushing yards, 62 receiving yards, 2 TD |
| WR | Louis Murphy (OAK) | 128 receiving yards, 2 TD |
| WR | Devin Thomas (WAS) | 100 receiving yards, 2 TD |
| WR | Santonio Holmes (PIT) | 149 receiving yards, 1 TD |
| TE | Vernon Davis (SF) | 111 receiving yards, 1 TD |
| K | Matt Prater (DEN) | Kicks – 20-29 (0), 30-39 (2), 40-49 (1), 50+ (0), PAT (5) |
| DEF | Carolina Panthers | 6 points allowed, 2 sack, 5 interceptions |
I just felt like sharing a couple of my less-than-spectacular roster moves this week and give a forum to anyone else who felt like complaining…
In one of Matt and my “League of Champions”, where I have Steve Smith (CAR) as a receiver (so I was already at a disadvantage,) I had the awesome foresight to pick up Titans running back Chris Brown as a plug-in for the week. However, at the last minute I panicked and decided to leave in Jason Snelling instead. Snelling proceeded to score me an excellent -1.2 points! Adding insult to injury, I also had Felix Jones on my bench, but apparently thought the third-string Snelling was the smart play…awesome.
Similarly, in the Blogger League I picked up Bills running back Fred Jackson, but in the end decided to leave him and his two touchdowns on the bench (started Bernard Scott and Chad Ochocinco instead.) I also started Matt Ryan (0.6 points before his injury) in place of the concussed Ben Roethlisberger. Luckily this one didn’t matter much, as our opponent, [cough] Bruno Boys [cough], started Kurt Warner and Mike Wallace, amongst others.
Just read a funny post on Deadspin.com about fantasy football for the elderly. While their rules are a bit simpler than what we’re used to, I guess I have to support anything that gets more people involved with fantasy football!
In the Blogger League, I just accepted a trade, giving up Peyton Manning (gasp!) and Bernard Berrian for Ben Roethlisberger and Miles Austin. What does everyone think? I also have Matt Ryan as my backup quarterback, so I wasn’t too worried about depth there. My only real good receiver though was Chad Ochocinco, so now I have a solid duo there.
Anyways, good luck everyone this week!
I’m heading out to a 5.5 mile road race right now, so I won’t be able to respond to any more last minute line-up questions. If Matt signs on before game-time, maybe he can respond to some, but otherwise good luck and hopefully everyone makes the right choices!
…local radio stations are taking the time to record songs calling for his ouster, despite their complete inability to carry a tune.
Via Shutdown Corner… the only thing dumber than the spike was the coaching decision to put those players in the end zone in the first place. Are they coached by a Dick Jauron disciple?
[youtube N1JpJ53FbXg nolink]
UPDATE – Commenter nero noticed some malware coming from their site, so proceed with caution if you click on the link below.
Here’s my post from earlier today. And here’s RotoInfo’s post. Strikingly similar, eh?
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen another blog republish what we write without permission, but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen it happen on what appears to be a relatively large, established website. Generally speaking, “blog scrapers” don’t bother to set up a big complex website; they just quickly throw together a default-template Wordpress blog because they figure they’ll get caught sooner or later and then just move on to another web host and/or URL. RotoInfo seems to be in the content-stealing game for keeps, which is why I’m taking the time to call them out.
I just did a quick Google search and verified that they are indeed stealing all of our content, word for word, and it’s all coming up in Google right under our own listings.
Too bad he’s getting fine, because Sheldon Brown wearing a Jason mask before last week’s game is pretty awesome!
I literally can’t tell you how many fantasy football leagues I’ve participated in over the past few years. All I know is it was way too many – at least five each year. I was an addict, and I paid the price – it wasn’t as much fun. I missed the excitement of “owning” players in the sense that what they did really mattered to me. When you’re in a lot of leagues, every big play hurts you in some leagues and helps you in others. If it helps you in more leagues than it hurts – hooray? It’s just not the same as hanging on Peyton Manning’s every move because he’s your quarterback.
For the first time since 2003, I’m in just two leagues – the two core leagues that Brandon and I have been a part of for years. One redraft, one keeper. Both drafts are this weekend. I’m positively giddy for the season to start, and to spend Sunday afternoons the way I did back when I first started playing fantasy football, happily obsessing over what a handful of players – my players – are doing.
One of the most interesting things to watch during the preseason will be the newly svelte LenDale White. You have to wonder whether the weight loss will cost the Titans their potent smash-n-dash duo. Is a 30-pounds-lighter LenDale White going to be as good a complement to Chris Johnson as the battering ram that scored 15 touchdowns last year? Or will he prove to be no better at the goal line than Johnson, and thus irrelevant and relegated to backup status? If Johnson starts taking goal line opportunities from LenDale, he could easily be the top-scoring fantasy RB this year.
Of course, White still weighs in at 230, so while he’s no longer in Brandon Jacobs’ boxing division, he ain’t exactly a featherweight either. He might have focused enough on maintaining his lower-body strength in order to remain more effective at the goal line than Johnson. Hell, he might even steal some of Johnson’s regular between-the-20’s workload.
The most important takeaway here is that there are a whole lot of unknowns when it comes to taking Chris Johnson in the first round, and almost none of them have to do with Chris Johnson.
Has Brandon Marshall officially become the Ron Artest of the NFL, in that even when he stays out of trouble for a year or two, there’s still something unsettling about that look in his eyes? I mean, given that he’s definitely facing a suspension in ‘09, he’s wayyyy down on everyone’s cheat sheet this season, but what if he keeps the crazy under wraps for the rest of the season and has some monster games? Will you trust him enough to make him your WR1 in 2010?
(As an aside, given that my co-blogger Brandon’s last name is also Marshall, I love the way this guy’s career is heading. Keep it coming, man. May Plaxico be your guide.)
Obviously, Brandon and I have taken a much-needed break from any real posting for the past month or so. I definitely needed to get away from the fantasy football world for a little while.
I miss the NFL every time I turn on my TV. The NBA is balls ass boring these days, I don’t really care about hockey (unless we’re talking RIT hockey), and it’ll be a couple of weeks before I pay any attention to college basketball. I’d rather argue about whether the Lions should take Stafford with the top pick than sit through any NBA game that isn’t a Kobe-LeBron showdown, which is really the only compelling NBA storyline I can think of (and even that one’s a stretch).
Since there isn’t nearly as much to say this time of year (though it seems our pals the Hazean and the Librarian would beg to differ), we’ll probably be taking it fairly easy until the NFL draft is upon us. Just wanted to let y’all know that we haven’t gone anywhere – we’re just on sabbatical.
Vegas is giving Pittsburgh a 6.5-point edge in Super Bowl XLIII. Meanwhile, the only thing anyone seems to be talking about is Larry Fitzgerald – a damn fine receiver, no doubt, but that’s hardly a reason to think the Cards aren’t still significant underdogs in this one, right?
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Those of you who read this blog regularly might know that I’m a web developer by day (and Batman by night… wait, redact! Redact!). Brandon and I have been batting around a few ideas for making this site more informative and useful for fantasy football players, and we’re not necessarily limiting those ideas to the blog format.
The most important thing, of course, is for this website to continue to help its visitors become better-informed, more successful fantasy football players. Beyond that, the evolution of ffgeekblog.com could go in any number of directions. So I’m asking: What’s on your wish list for a fantasy football news/advice website? What haven’t you found on the Web that you wish someone would build? Brandon and I have always been open to suggestions for new types of blog posts, but maybe it’s time that we thought bigger than that. Or maybe not – perhaps the blog format is just perfect as is.
If you have any thoughts, I’d appreciate it if you left a comment on this post.
Oh, and thanks for a great 2008 season y’all. Our readership more than doubled from 2007, which makes running this blog double the fun.
I’ve never paid much attention to playoff fantasy leagues. They’re missing just about everything I love about fantasy football – trades, waivers, a three-hour draft that largely determines the team you have to live with for an entire season, and so on. I tried out NFL.com’s playoff challenge a couple of years back, forgot about my team after the first week, and that was pretty much that.
This year, I’m giving it another shot. The prizes up for grabs on a few websites are pretty enticing, which hopefully will keep me interested enough to remember to set my lineups each week. I’m only going to invest my time in the leagues with the best prizes, which means that SportingNews Playoff Fantasy Football, with a decidedly unexciting top prize of $500, is out. After scoping out the schwag being offered up around the Web, I wound up signing up for teams in three leagues: (More …)
Dear Antonio,
Heading into this week’s first-round playoff matchup, I was cautiously optimistic that you would break out of your three-game slump this week when your team hosted the Raiders, against whom you put up a perfectly acceptable 58 yards and one touchdown in week 4. I didn’t watch last night’s game, because frankly, I can think of better things to do than watch your comically poorly-coached team take on the Raiders, who for the last half-decade have come with their own laugh track. But since you’re relatively healthy and the matchup was good, I felt pretty sure that I’d wake up this morning and be pleased with your contribution to my playoff success.
Instead, here’s what I found staring back at me.
That last number on the right? The round one? That’s your fantasy point total. It also happens to be how many passes you caught out of the three that were thrown your way.
I’m the #2 seed. If I lose to the #7 team because of you, I will – to borrow the words of the great Michael G. Tyson – eat your children.
Sincerely,
Someone who will now be benching you against Kansas City next week. KANSAS… CITY.
Where some teachers would see a classroom full of students who have had difficulty learning math via traditional teaching methods, others see a great excuse to start a fantasy football league. The draft is handled basically the same way, but after that, the numbers are crunched much differently from the way lazy slobs like you and I do it. Instead of using a website to track their players’ performances, they look up the numbers in the newspaper and calculate it by hand. Screw something up in your multiplication, or forget to factor in a fumble, and your team is docked points. Seems like an awesome motivational tool to me.
NECN has the full story, which included the video you can find after the jump. To tell the truth, I don’t blame the first teacher’s principal for being skeptical of the idea at first – my first thought was that the teacher seemed like the kind of guy who was mostly motivated by the prospect of getting to play fantasy football at work (not that there’s anything wrong with that). But it seems like it’s a genuinely effective teaching tool. Wonder if they’ll expand it into other fantasy sports after the season.
And check out this website devoted to the use of fantasy sports for math education. Looks like this might really be catching on. There’s also a book for teachers and parents who want to give it a try. (More …)
