Week 7
10/25/04
Lots of ups, lots of downs and lots of mail this week, and...Krueger
started Derrick Blaylock?!?
Groin Shot of the Week Candidates
Priest Holmes (180 Yd, 4 TD) -
Who's the king of fantasy football? Is there any doubt. Holmes now
has 11 TD on the year, 10 rushing, or 1 every 14.8 carries. Interesting
to note that during the Minnesota game the commentators mentioned
the Vikings offensive line is tired of pass blocking and were chomping
at the bit to pound in a rushing TD. Coach Mike Tice promised them
during the week of practice they would get some opportunities on
Sunday. Dick Vermeil doesn't have to make any such promises. His
offensive line is happier then...well...Priest Holmes owners for
the third straight year. That is pretty damn happy.
Derrick Blaylock (136 Yd, 4 TD)
- I have Blaylock as a backup RB on a couple of my fantasy teams.
Now, I knew the Chiefs scored 56 points, I knew Holmes had 4 TD
and I knew Trent Green did not have a passing TD. All that said,
perusing the live scoring last night I was sure it was an error
showing Blaylock with 4 TD. They must have input Holmes' stats,
right? Wrong. Typically, there is no way Blaylock makes this list
because no one in their right mind would ever start him this week.
Its seems our esteemed FF Today host, Mike Krueger, was
not in his right mind this week with Clinton Portis on bye and
an otherwise injury riddled backfield. Ah, you've got to love desperation.
Donovan McNabb (376 PaYd, 4 TD)
- A lot of decent but not overwhelming candidates for the number
3 spot...unless we get into the clowns who grossly disappointed
this week. There were a lot of those to choose from. How about McNabb,
doing his best Daunte Culpepper impersonation in a week where Daunte
is a little less Daunte-like. With Terrell Owens facing former and
oft-criticized teammate Jeff Garcia, it was a safe bet he was going
to go off, but Todd Pinkston with 100 yards? The Browns and their
atrocious receiving corps staying step-for-step with the Eagles?
Overtime to pad the stats? Nicely done Mr. McNabb.
Groin Candidate Write-In Votes
My vote for week 7 goes to freakin' Randy Moss. I
can understand being hurt. No problem. Just say you are hurt and
not playing! Don't make some big deal of playing like you are
playing and get (Chris) Mortensen to announce it on ESPN that
you are playing. Everybody scrambles around to put you in the
lineup and then you screw us all over. I bet thousands of games
were lost by this B.S. I know I lost a few. Damn!
- Mike
Yeah Mike, but how about that consecutive game streak? Pretty impressive, huh?
If I can have a write-in candidate for this week's
column, I'd like to nominate Trent Green. I have him in one league,
and my wife has him in another. 56 points by the Chiefs! Finally,
Green had a big game! Er, no. Eight rushing TDs, no passing TDs.
If only Green played for Mike Tice...
- Kevin
In a standard performance league scoring
system, Blaylock just broke into the top 30 runners through 7 weeks.
Trent Green is barely hanging onto the top 20 amongst QB. Even with
this poor performance, he did outscore his pitiful week 1 and week
2 starts combined. Oh boy.
FF In The Groin Mailbag
Interesting tidbit - Quincy Morgan will have the
opportunity to be active for 17 regular season games as a result
of the trade. Dallas has already had their bye, Cleveland has
not.
- Joe
Thanks Joe. I guess that applies to Jerry Rice too.
The Saints came out after halftime and only trailed
21-14 and had the ball. Deuce was averaging nearly 6 yards a carry
and they should have pounded it at the Vikings. The problem is
that if you combine head coach, offensive coordinator, and QB,
the total I.Q. is still MORON.
- Mike (disgruntled Deuce McAllister owner from a week ago)
I had to publish this email just for the Moron line. What do you think this week Mike? The 2 TD are nice, but McAllister averaging less than 2 yards per carry can't be too comforting.
Comments From The Couch
- The FF Today Forums community has...uh, matured (ha! - let's say
evolved)...to the point it has its own language. We should almost
post a full glossary. One of my favorite terms is "craptastic" when
describing fantasy player or team performance. Here is your all-craptastic
fantasy team for week 7 (it's a doozy):
QB Steve McNair (or Trent
Green or Michael Vick)
RB Shaun Alexander
RB Brian Westbrook
WR
Randy Moss
WR Torry Holt
WR Santana Moss
TE Tony Gonzalez
By my
calculations, you would have needed 2 or 3 1st round picks, a 2nd,
couple 3rds and another early to mid-round pick to draft this team
back in late August.
- For those of you who check out the strength of schedule fantasy
stats, make sure to adjust the Atlanta Falcons run defense going
forward, because based on that one game they should rank dead
last from here on out after that massacre in Kansas City.
- Survivor pick'em pools: Who got the boot picking either the
Rams or Seahawks this week? What the begeezus was that? Talk
about making a case for the NFC West being the biggest pansy-ass
division in football.
- So Reggie Wayne gave Peyton Manning a little shove in the
chest on the sideline late in the Jaguars-Colts game, did he?
No one is really going to know what was said or who was out
of line, but I can't imagine it's a bowl of cherries all the
time playing with super intense Manning. Just ask the idiot
kicker.
- Could there be a peskier team then the Jaguars right now?
The Colts drop Byron Leftwich for a sack and 6 yard loss setting
up a 53 yard game winning FG for rookie Josh Scobee. He hits
it. I have to commend The Gut Check for his preseason
write up touting Leftwich as a potential top 10 QB. Leftwich
just hit top 5.
- And I'd also like to commend The Gut Check for deciding not
to pony up Steve McNair in a trade when I inquired about him.
Thanks Matt! Hey, you can't get them all right.
- On the topic of kickers, my opponent in one league this week
started Neil Rackers and Josh Scobee against me. From 20 of
22 total starters who played Sunday, this pair gave him 32 of
his 86.5 points. Now that is damn frustrating to face, especially
if I don't hold him off Monday night with Reuben Droughns and
a 10 point lead (mine) facing Rudi Johnson (his).
- One of the highlights I caught from the Eagles-Browns game
was a Terrell Owens TD, after which he ran over to and threw
the ball at a Browns fan's "T.O. has B.O." homemade sign. Ha
ha. Sometimes simple, immature humor is the best.
- In typical fashion I just traded away Michael Pittman last
week, who then responds with his best fantasy performance since
week 3 of last season. That happened to be the week before I
traded for him. I always get that buy high, sell low thing mixed
up.
- Kevin Jones scored! Kevin Jones scored! I don't believe it!
I knew that 4th round pick would pan out sooner or later. And
assuming he can start to perform as expected, I shouldn't need
to worry about the conditioning problem a lot of rookies face
from the longer NFL season compared to college since Jones has
done jack through the first 6 weeks.
- Finally Lovie Smith pulls the plug on Jonathan Quinn and
replaces him with Craig Krenzel. Not that I watched any of the
Bears-Bucs game (please), but statistically speaking, Quinn
was putting in his best performance to date, wasn't he? He completed
5 for 9, 47 yards plus had a 77 yard TD pass to Thomas Jones
called back due to a penalty on David Terrell. Just when you
thought he couldn't prove it anymore, Terrell continues to find
new ways to define the word "bust".
- When a team like the Titans historically relies on the TE
position a lot, but from one season to the next loses Frank
Wycheck to retirement, Erron Kinney to injury and Shad Meier
to injury, leaving them with only rookie Ben Troupe who didn't
"wow" them in training camp, the result is, apparently, an absolute
disaster.
- So I got a new TV a couple weeks ago and I've become an HD
snob. I can barely watch non-HD sports now. Might as well cancel
my Sunday Ticket package, which is not broadcast in HD. Had
it been the only HD selection, I might have even chosen to watch
the Chargers-Panthers game this week. Okay, maybe not.
- How is it I've gone 3 weeks and barely mentioned Mewelde
Moore's name? He is turning out to be an amazing waiver pickup
and the way things are going we might even be able to drop the
"temporary" tag from his starter spot on the depth chart. I
mean, how can they possibly pull this guy the way he is performing?
Plus I love his initials.
- Just when people were ready to write off Ahman Green with
reports of his strained Achilles' and lack of long runs, he
busts off a 90 yard TD run and finishes the day with 160+ and
2 TD. I wonder how many times he changed hands this week in
fantasy leagues, and what was the return?
- Oh my gosh there is a Jerry Porter sighting. And Kerry Collins
actually throws for 350 yards and more TD then interceptions
in a game. That Saints defense is certainly good for what ails
an offense. And the Bills have them on the schedule...(checking)...no.
Damn, we just can't catch a break.
- I'm not even going to mention the Bills debacle this week. I can't help but wonder who the Cowboys are going to select with "our" 1st round pick next year though.
And The Winner Is…
Well it ain't Blaylock just on the strength of Krueger pulling a
rabbit out of his hat and starting him, and it ain't McNabb because
4 passing TD is not as impressive as 4 rushing TD from a fantasy
standpoint. If the game wasn't so out of hand, and Holmes wasn't
knocked out of the game with an ankle injury, then one has to wonder
just how many of those 8 total TD would have been the Padre's. I
don't want to hear any complaining from Priest Holmes owners saying,
"oh, I just needed 1 or 2 more TD for the win". Four is plenty,
and enough for him to capture the groin award this week. |
