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.

I snuck into the playoffs with the final seed, #6 (the top two teams got a bye in the first round). Five weeks ago, I was counting this team out completely. My receivers stink (Lee Evans was the guy I so wisely went with as my #1 pick… and I’m the guy who claims he never lets a Buffalo bias affect his decision-making). Rudi Johnson was my #1 pick and he’s been a complete disaster. Laveraneus Coles was the second WR I went with and his injuries have made him one of the most difficult-to-predict players in the game.

I’ve been surviving on the great play of my tight end (Witten), the resurgence of Drew Brees, and most of all on the shockingly stellar late-season play of Jamal Lewis (my 5th round pick) and Earnest Graham (free agent pickup… of the year). If I win, this will not be looked back on as the team that drafted well and dominated the season; it’ll be remembered as the team that scrapped and bit and clawed its way to victory. Frankly, I’d prefer the former over the latter; it’d cut my Tums consumption in half.

The fantasy gods, perhaps finally taking pity on me, did me a huge favor in week 15: They allowed the #4 seed to knock the #1 seed out of the other side of the semis. I had zero interest in taking on that #1 seed, which had the scariest RB-RB-Flex trio in the league – LT, Barber III, and Ryan Grant. Oh, and Owens as his WR1. No thank you, I’ll pass.

So here’s my finals matchup as it stands:

My team His team
QB: Drew Brees Peyton Manning
WR: Dwayne Bowe Marques Colston
WR: Patrick Crayton T.J. Houshmadilly
WR: Lee Evans Braylon Edwards
RB: Jamal Lewis Kevin Jones
RB: Earnest Graham Aaron Stecker
RB/WR: Rudi Johnson Anthony Gonzalez
TE: Jason Witten Robert Royal
K: Matt Stover Shayne Graham
DEF: Tampa Bay New Orleans

His WR lineup is scary to say the least (especially in comparison to my lame crew), but his RBs strike very little fear in the hearts of men. I think my hopes lay most in the Cincy-Cleveland matchup. If it’s anything at all like the first one, and Rudi Johnson can do something vaguely competent, then I could get some massive points out of the Rudi/J-Lew combo. Of course, many of those points could be offset by Braylon Edwards. I could use another blizzard in Cincy this weekend. I’m not sure if I love or hate the fact that I have Brees and he has Colston… go David Patten go.

I do have D.J. Hackett on my bench, and I plan to sub him in for Evans if it looks like he’ll start. Because no way am I letting Evans screw me in the finals. He doesn’t deserve the start as it is.

If anyone actually read this far, I’d be interested to hear your take on my matchup in the comments. Please fill us in our your finals matchup if you’re in one as well.

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