With their victory over the Dolphins yesterday, the Patriots are now one win from reaching that undefeated mark. One game!!! Tom Brady is two touchdowns from breaking Peyton Manning's single season record of 49, while Randy Moss is two scores from breaking Jerry Rice's single season record of 22 grabs. If all of these records are broken in that last game, that will be pretty badass, I must say.

But let's get to the real stuff here...fantasy football league championships. Did you win? While there's still one game left this week, with pretty big fantasy football implications, you probably have a pretty good idea where you stand right now. For example, in one of my league's I need Brandon Marshall to outscore Antonio Gates by about 40 points, so that's probably NOT going to happen, but I can always hope! Anyways, congratulations if you're poised to be taking home the trophy this season. We can only hope that some advice from this site helped you get there. Let's give a final recap of the key player performances that may have helped you get there...or may have prevented you from achieving greatness...

Quarterbacks

Kurt Warner (ARI): 361 passing yards, 3 TD
Father time just keeps getting it done

Peyton Manning (IND): 311 passing yards, 3 TD
Maybe he could donate some of his touchdown passes to his brother

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Willie Parker (RB-PIT): 1 carry, -1 yards, 1 broken leg

Were you hoping Willie Parker would lead your team to the promise land? If so, you're team just started off the weekend with a severe disadvantage. While I'm not in a championship, I am playing for pride in a third place game...and Parker did his best to ensure that my pride takes a beating this weekend. However, if you were really weak at running back and decided to throw Najeh Davenport in your RB2 or flex spot...you're probably doing cartwheels right now...while myself and other fantasy owners are hating you.

For all of you that made your league's championship game this weekend, tonight begins your last match of the season, so good luck! Hopefully we can answer some last minute questions to get you that trophy.

Patrick asks: In week 16 do I start Marshawn Lynch (RB-BUF) versus the Giants or Kolby Smith (RB-KC) at Detroit?

Brandon's take: Patrick, I'd go with Kolby Smith for a few reasons: (a) Smith is not splitting carries, while Lynch is (with Fred Jackson), (b) the Lions run defense is not as good as the Giants run defense (by about 16 yards/game and 8 touchdowns), plus they just got torched by the Chargers for over 260 yards and 4 touchdowns on the ground, so they're looking mightly vulnerable at this point. And (c), the Lions field is indoors, so weather won't be an issue, while the same can't be said for Giants Stadium.

Matt's take: I have nothing to add. This one's a no-brainer.

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Nothing's more devastating in fantasy football than watching your stud player sit out a late-season game because his coach chose to rest him up for the playoffs. It's as if they have no idea there are fantasy championships on the line, or that - unimaginable as it seems - they don't really care. Peyton Manning sat out most of the week 16 game in '05, and many owners still have yet to forgive him.

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Wow...I must say that last weekend did not exactly go according to plan. I promised everyone that my picks would be near perfect, but I guess I pulled an Anthony Smith in that regard, posting my worst record of the season. However, I can't be completely to blame, as bad weather conditions in certain venues ruined the fantasy production of several players, such as Derek Anderson, while other players just seemed to take a vacation (Antonio Gates). I will take credit for a few picks though, such as suggesting Adrian Peterson would rebound with a big game and that Kurt Warner would also have a big day against the Saints. Kellen Clemens and Chris Redman also helped the cause with pretty poor performances (although I doubt anyone considered starting them in the first place). Anyways, with that anomaly of a week out of my (and hopefully the NFL's) system, let's get to the studs and duds of week 16...most likely the championship week in your league (hopefully you're still in contention!)

Studs

Ryan Grant (GB): Grant has been a machine this season since getting the start in week 6. He's got four 100+ yard games under his belt and 6 touchdowns since then. Do you really think the Bears '07 defense is going to slow him down all that much?

Fred Taylor / Maurice Jones-Drew (JAX): Last weekend I hated on the Jaguars running game and they made me pay for it, especially Taylor who went for 147 yards and a score. This week I'm changing my tune a bit though as they play against what the Raiders claim is a run defense, but in all reality is just a bunch of guys standing there hoping a running back will run into them. Oakland has allowed 21 rushing touchdowns this season so far, which is the worst in the NFL...in case you were interested.

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If you're not interested in my personal fantasy football situation, skip this post. Brandon's got some info you can actually use in his waiver wire report for week 16. I find it easiest to get a handle on a fantasy situation I'm in when I explain it to someone else, and hey, what luck - I've got a blog on fantasy football! Crazy how these things work out sometimes. Details on my finals matchup after the jump.

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I can't speak for everyone else out there, but the poor play of numerous fantasy stars (i.e. Antonio Gates) combined with the unexpected play of a few others (Anthony Gonzalez, Aaron Stecker, etc) has knocked me out of both of my semi-final games this past weekend. The best I can hope for now is a couple of third place finishes...not quite what I was hoping for going into the season, but the great part about fantasy football is that there's always next year.

Anyways, enough of that depressing talk, as I'm sure there are a number of you who survived this past weekend's battle and are on to the champion ship game this week. Before I go into this weeks suggestions though, I just wanted to give a quick warning to owners who may have players playing in wintry conditions...don't start any kicker in the snow (Rian Lindell), and think twice before starting a border line receiver in freezing conditions (Jabar Gaffney)! For those of you whom it still matters, here are your waiver wire suggestions for week 16...most likely the last game of the fantasy football season...

Domanic Rhodes (RB-OAK): Did you get to the champion ship game in part due to riding the coattails of your week 9 waiver pickup Justin Fargas? If so, you're probably searching frantically to patch up that hole in your lineup, as Fargas is expected to miss a game or so due to a knee injury. It appears that Rhodes was the guy they went to in Fargas' absence this weekend, and he should get the start this weekend. I'm sure the team wants to see what they have in Rhodes before deciding what to do with their running back situation in the off-season, so he should get the majority of the carries over LaMont Jordan. Keep in mind though that Rhodes has a pretty tough matchup against Jacksonville this weekend.

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...and the big question is, do the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrate? Or do they sink further into depression as the only winless team in NFL history? In other news, the Patriots won again (although not in the blow-out fashion that all the analysts expected) to move to 14-0. Only two more wins to reach that undefeated mark (fingers crossed)!

In fantasy world though, the weekend was actually pretty slow in terms of stats. Consider this...in one of my league's scoring formats, some of the players that made the top 10 list in fantasy points for their position include Cleo Lemon, Shaun Hill, Greg Camarillo, Roydell Williams, Aaron Stecker and Darren Sproles! Besides Stecker and maybe Williams, I challenge anyone to admit to starting any of those players at any point in the season. On the other hand, Tom Brady, Tony Romo, Antonio Gates and Terrel Owens had very poor games, which probably didn't help anyone's playoff hopes (unless they were playing against them). Anyways, let's get to the top fantasy scores of the week...

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...that make you tear your hair out. I'm in a second-round playoff matchup, and I've been dwelling over my WR3 spot for the last half an hour. OK... probably more like an hour. Reading everything I can find about the two guys I'm thinking about filling it with. Pounding coffee to fend off the hangover from the three large glasses of Jack I had to drink last night in order to restore my sanity after seven unbearable hours of Christmas shopping. Knowing that no matter what I do, the guy I bench will score at least two touchdowns. It's just been one of those seasons for me.

I've already had to stomach Rudi Johnson lighting up my flex spot with a whopping two points. I hate him with all my soul.

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As the fantasy football season is quickly drawing to a close, I just wanted to say a quick thank-you to our readers who have made our first season of blogging a whole lot of fun. When we started this blog, we didn't know if anyone would care about what we had to say, and we definitely had no idea that we'd wind up with thousands of readers every week. Your participation and feedback in the comments and the Ask the Geeks columns have made this a whole lot of fun.

If you like the blog, are into betting on sports, and are feeling in the holiday spirit, we'd be really pumped if you signed up with one of our new sports betting affiliates. They've got some nice bonuses for new clients, and they give us an affiliate fee if you sign up after clicking on one of the offers below. So if you're thinking about betting on the Super Bowl or something anyway, it would be awesome if you helped support our blog along the way. We've also got one for poker thrown in there for good measure.

If you're still live in your playoffs, best of luck. If not - well... happy holidays! Thanks again for visiting. We'll be posting throughout the rest of the fantasy playoffs, and we're planning on posting regularly with news and updates during the offseason as well.

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