It’s Thanksgiving week! Now, I love Thanksgiving. I mean, it’s an entire day devoted to eating, how can you not love that? And usually, there is so much food, it takes at least through the weekend to finish off the leftovers. On top of that, we get football! And nowadays we get three games on Thanksgiving, not just two like our fathers and grandfathers had to be content with. No measly two games for us! If that isn’t progress, I don’t know what is.
So, I would like to start this week off by listing some of the things I am thankful for both in the real world and in the world of fantasy football. I hope everybody takes the time to make their own list, and if you feel like it, go ahead and attach it as a comment here.
I’m going to save everybody a little bit of writing time by saying I am pretty sure all of us are thankful for our health. It’s a pretty rote answer, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
Another one that is pretty common, but even more so today, I am thankful for my job. With the economic climate the way it is, the fact that I still have a job that I enjoy doing, and I get paid to do it, is quite high on my list!
Finally for the most common reasons for giving thanks, family and friends. I have a fairly small immediate family, mother and father, two younger sisters, two nephews and a niece. No children of my own, oh yeah, no children of my own, thankful for that as well. I’ve also never been the kind of person who needs a whole bunch of people around him, so I have a pretty small, extremely tight group of friends, all of which I am thankful for.
I’m thankful for my best friend, Karen, who is also my attendant. I have muscular dystrophy and require help with a number of daily tasks, Karen helps me with all of those tasks as naturally as if I were doing them myself. She does so out of friendship, we were friends before she ever began assisting me and I can’t imagine what things would be like without her.
I am thankful that the Steelers are in first place in our division and that we are in control of our own destiny for the playoffs. I am thankful Ronnie Brown was available for me to pick up in the sixth round in so many leagues. I am thankful that all of my teams have been competitive this season, and while I will not make the playoffs in the LiveWorld league, I am thankful for every one of the points I have scored in this league. I am thankful that I am in good position to make the playoffs in my other three leagues, and in the running for points in all of them. I’m thankful for the patience I have learned over the course of the season watching Santonio Holmes consistently NOT score touchdowns. I am thankful for Matt Forte, Clinton Portis, the NFL network, Dan Rooney, Heinz field, Hines Ward (even though I do not own him in any of my leagues), James Harrison and all of the Pittsburgh linebackers, Big Ben, Merwelde Moore, Troy Polamalu and Mike Tomlin.
I am thankful that I did not have the first overall draft choice in any of my leagues and therefore was not tempted to draft Tomlinson this season. I am thankful for everybody who drafted Tom Brady in the first-round. I am thankful for touchdown only fantasy leagues, good trades, good single malt Scotch, people who THINK they can play Texas Hold’em and last but not least, everybody who has taken the time to read any of these blogs this season.
Now, let’s see if I have anything to be thankful for while reviewing how I did last week.
In quarterbacks I went with Big Brother Manning and Jay Cutler. Manning had over 250 total yards and two touchdowns, that should qualify as a good call/push combo. Cutler was a double bad call. Brevity, another reason to give thanks.
In running backs I went with Willie Parker and Warrick Dunn. I did warn against possible injury on Willie Parker, but I’m not going to take that out, so that’s a double bad call. Dunn had a touchdown and added 127 total yards, so that’s a double good call.
In receivers I went with T.O. and Reggie Wayne. Owens had a monster game, easily a double good call while Reggie was more than held in check, a double bad call.
That’s a total of 5-6-1, season total = 66-52-18. Time to get back to improving that record.
Going to go with good and bad selections this week and using the same criteria as last time except there will not be any doubles. We will use the same criteria for the bad selections as well, just reverse it.
Quarterbacks who will feast upon turducken.
Tony Romo. The golden boy, at-home, on Thanksgiving against Seattle, the announcers already can’t wait to give him player of the game.
Chad Pennington. I went with him earlier in the year and I think he burned me, but I’m going with him again this week against St. Louis
Quarterbacks who will try to make do with chicken
Donovan McNabb. Maybe Andy Reid really does know Donovan McNabb better than anybody else as he claims. As I’ve said before, Donovan has never struck me as a kind of guy who responds well to pressure (see the puking highlights from his Super Bowl). I think playing at home in front of the notoriously harsh Philadelphia fans (see the highlights of Santa Claus being pelted) is actually a detriment for him this week.
Matt Ryan. He has been playing a lot better than pretty much everybody predicted, but I think San Diego has a little bit of fight left in them and will be able to minimize his production
Running backs who will sop up the gravy.
Ronnie Brown. I gave thanks to him earlier, so I feel compelled to feature him here. Plus, you know, playing St. Louis
Chris Johnson. The rookie gets to play on Thanksgiving in his very first season, and he gets to do it against Detroit. Have you looked at Detroit’s schedule by the way? 0-16 is looking more possible.
Running backs who will just have a light salad with dressing on the side
Lendale White. This kid is an idiot. He’s got practically everything going for him, scoring touchdowns left and right, was unbeaten before last week, he has one game where he doesn’t get the ball a bunch (because he missed several practices), his team loses and what does he do? Starts crying and complaining and saying “I have no idea what was going on, I was paying attention. I don’t care”. I hope Jeff Fisher uses the national audience that they will have on Thanksgiving to set this kid down and not give him the spotlight. It’s a risky choice because they are going against Detroit, but I have faith the universe will make things right.
Anybody on Cincinnati. I am sure everybody in Cincinnati is giving thanks to Detroit for being the worst team in the NFL.
Wide receivers who see no reason in choosing between apple and pumpkin pie when you can have both
Wes Welker. I really hope I am wrong on this one as they are playing the Steelers, but the Pittsburgh secondary is pretty banged up and Wes is the kind of guy who finds the openings in the zone coverage.
Lee Evans. He has been having a decent but far from outstanding season, he might be able to have his first real breakout game of the year this week, at home against San Francisco.
Wide receiver who go with the fruit cup as desert
Randy Moss. He had a big game last week, most of that is because his quarterback had the time to go deep. I am hoping that they don’t have that much time against Pittsburgh.
TJ WhoseyourDaddy. The Cincinnati wide receiver has been the only guy on the team having a decent year, but he had a rough stretch with Pittsburgh last week and Baltimore this week. I would look for numbers similar to what he did against Pittsburgh rather than the rest of the year.
And now on to your power rankings.
http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/standings?leagueId=293451 1. size7 poopShooters. (1) that firm hold on all of the major titles slipped some this week. It doesn’t take long in fantasy football for things to switch up. All of a sudden they only have a 20 point lead in overall scoring, there is no guarantee they’re going to make the playoffs and the number one spot in the power rankings looks a lot closer than it did just a few days ago.
2. Dreaded Mercenaries. (3) they get back on the winning track, but it’s too late for the playoffs now. However, their performance this week moves them up the power rankings and the overall points title is within sight.
3. Damaged Denial.(2) they used their voodoo magic to juxtapose the loss/tie results from last week, but there was nothing they could do to remain unbeaten this week. They are in the playoffs, but anybody who has ever read Harry Potter knows that eventually those dark powers catch up with you. Is that what is starting to happen now
4. Evil Midnight Bombers.(7) they go absolutely crazy with points this week, shooting up the power rankings as well as the overall scoring standings. They have also locked themselves into the playoffs. The playoffs might be coming around at just the perfect time as right now I believe that the lineup of the Bombers can compete with anybody
5. Twittering Witty Wombats. (4) fantasy football is a strange world, most players know that. This week the Wombats win their game, but dropped from third to fifth in overall points, slide down the power rankings and are still out of the playoffs. Based upon this year, I believe they should change their team name to the Twilight Zone Shatners next season
6. Team Fenix. (8) they burst into the top half of the power rankings, locking up a playoff spot and are now just a little over 100 points out of first-place overall in scoring. If they perform the same way they did this past week, there’s not many rosters which could defeat them a majority of the time
7. Cowering Code Monkeys.(5) they have a bit of a poor performance this past week, but they should be locked into the playoffs now. Still, they slide down the power rankings as they lose ground in the overall scoring department.
8. The Flood. (9) I believe the Flood are now officially eliminated from the playoffs, assuming I understand the tie breaking scenarios. If so, there will definitely be a new Super Bowl champion this season! The Flood lose their game, but move up the overall power rankings and are forth in overall points.
9. San Hosers. (6) well, I moved them up last week and they totally tank this week, so they drop back down. I believe there might still be a scenario where they miss out on the playoffs. Either way, they need to perform better than they did this past week if they have any hope of going far into the postseason
10. The Bloodsuckers. (10) they have another good week of scoring and keep their playoff hopes alive. I think they are too far behind to make any kind of legitimate run at the overall scoring title, so they have to hope things fall appropriately for them to get into the postseason. They might still move a couple of notches up the power rankings as well, but I think that the bottom four teams in the power rankings are almost officially eliminated from any hope of getting the number one spot
11. Team Jackie. (11) one of two teams to not yet break 1000 points
12. Pavlov’s Altoids. (12) 527 points out a first-place.
Happy thanksgiving everybody!
Nov 29, 2008 04:38 PM
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