Regular Season Review

Best draft picks:
Round 3 (pick 36) Brady has 84 more than the next player
Round 7 (pick 74) Romo #2 in points
Round 10 (pick 130) Ben Roethlisberger #5 in points
Round 4 (pick 43) Adrian Peterson #2 RB
Round 14 (pick 183) Wes Welker #6 WR
Round 4 (pick 52) Randy Moss #1 WR
Round 5 (pick 63) Braylon Edwards #3 WR
Round 7 (pick 95) Greg Jennings #7 WR
Round 13 (pick 175) Brandon Marshall #11 WR
Round 12 Dallas Clark #4 TE
Round 11 Viking D #1 DEF

Worst draft picks:
Pick 6 Shaun Alexander 39th RB
Pick 4 Larry Johnson 30th RB
Pick 3 Steven Jackson 23rd RB
Pick 7 Frank Gore 17th RB
Pick 14 Steve Smith #18 WR
Pick 15 Marvin Harrison #105 WR
Round 3 Adam Vinatieri #18 kicker
Round 2 Carson Palmer #9 QB only 2 games over 16 points
Round 5 Eli, Phillip Rivers, VY #11, #15, , #19
Round 6 Raven #24 DEF

Worst Fantasy Defense:
Homies may have had the toughest schedule with the opposition averaging almost 85 points against them, but at least they deserved to lose in their losses by scoring less than 70 in each of them.

Hillbillies had 4 games where they scored 80+ points and lost. Hello Kitty (ex-Reavers) had 3 such games.

Big Red and Ghostriders had 2 80+ point losses but one of those (for each team) was a 100+ point game where they lost. Clovis also lost a game where they scored 100+.

Best Waiver wire pickups:
Derek Anderson #4 QB
Earnest Graham #8 RB
Justin Fargas #22 RB
Crosby #1 kicker
Folk #2 kicker
Roddy White #16 WR
Viking D #1 Def
Seattle D #2 Def
Patrick Willis #1 D

Frustrating Starting Issues
(who do I START?!?!??!? Eeenie Meenie Minie .... I don't know.. Moe):

Kicker problems:
Hello Kitty - Started Reed & Vincent Jackson (4) instead of Kaeding and Branch (20) costing a win vs Harmony
Hello Kitty - Started Reed (3) instead of Kaeding (12) costing a win vs Ballin (the next week)
Hello Kitty - Started Kaeding (5) instead of Reed (8) costing a win vs Cushions (3 weeks later)

QB - not bringing up Clovis who never changed out Huard after he was yanked and VY had games of 17 and 18 on the bench or Straight Ballin' who had Favre/Cutler issues most of the year, but only cost him one game.

RB problems:
David! – Started MJD (2) instead of LenDale (9) cost win vs Cute Fluffy
David! – Started Bush (3) instead of DeAngelo Williams (13) cost a win vs Ballin (4 weeks later)
Ogres – Started Willie (4) instead of Andre Hall (14) cost a win vs Cushions
Ogres – Started Willie (1) instead of Morris (9) cost a win vs Cali the (next week)
Scuds – Started Maroney (1) instead of Watson (26) cost a win vs Big Red
Cute Fluffy – Started Jackson and Young (.4) instead of Jordan and Edge (25) cost a win vs Hello Kitty
Cute Fluffy – Started Cribbs and Young (1.5) instead of Calvin and Jordan (16) cost win vs Raiders
Woopiecushion - Started Rivers and Jamal (0) instead of Delhomme and AP (38) cost a win vs Cali
Woopiecushion - Started Jamal Lewis (0) instead of Grant (13) cost a win vs David!
Woopiecushion - Started AP (0) instead of Grant (15) cost another win vs Cali

Defense
Ghostriders – Buc and MJD (6) instead of Tennessee and Kevin Jones (23) cost a win vs Clovis
Ghostriders – Tennessee (-1) instead of Bucs (18) cost a win vs Homies (4 weeks later)
Ogres – Morrison (7) instead of Ryans (23!) cost a win vs Ballin'

Playoff Week 1 Preview

Playoffs start tonight and we have some good matchups to follow.

#1 Straight Ballin’ vs #4 Big Red.

This could be the ‘real’ Super Bowl as the 2 top scoring teams face off with many player having favorable matchups. It is rare that a #1 seed would be an underdog to a #4, but… Yahoo is projecting Big Red by almost 8 points.
Ballin’ has the advantage in QB with Favre, but since the Seahawks have become a pass first offense Hasselbeck has been on fire. Both QBs face bad defenses in the Rams and Panthers.
WRs slightly favor Ballin’ with Braylon, TO, and Fitzgerald, because Red’s Torry Holt is playing the Pack and may not have Bulger throwing.
RB’s greatly favor Big Red with Barber vs Philly and Addai at the porous Raiders. Gore should do well vs the Bengals for Ballin’, but Steven Jackson may have a tough time vs GB.
TE is a toss up with Cooley and Gonzalez. Cooley is a TD machine and Gonzalez gets the yards.
Kickers favor Ballin’ with Elam in Houston being more consistent this year than Rackers.
Defense heavily favors Big Red’s Pack playing the turnover happy Rams, while Ballin’ has the Steelers playing the Jags who make very few mistakes.
IDP also goes to Big Red with London Fletcher vs Ballin’s Ray Lewis. Both are playing offenses that turn the ball over quite a bit.

#2 Back to Cali2 (BOB) vs #3 Woopiecushions

Again, the #3 seed is projected to upset the #2 seed by 11. The Cushions had done an amazing job considering their first 2 picks were busts.
QB heavily favors Cali with Brady about to torch the Jets while Derek Anderson draws the average Bills.
WR is a draw on paper, but with Gaffney the new hot hands for the Pats and Welker both on the Cushions, it is hard to see them not getting more points than Coles, Rice and Roydell.
RB is a problem point for Cali as well. Rudi may run well vs the 49ers, but Wolfe may or may not get a lot of carries vs the VERY stout Viking run D. The Cushions should get another good game from Grant vs. the Rams and Jamal Lewis will be busy vs the Bills.
TE is Cali’s with Kellen Winslow vs the Bills compared with the Cushion’s revolving door that has Alex Smith as the pick of the week. Both teams have solid kicking situations with Stover vs the Dolphins for Cali and #2 kicker, Folk vs Philly
The Defenses are also close. Cali has the opportunistic #1 Vikings vs the Bears compared with the Pats facing the terrible Jets.
The Cushions #1 IDP Willis is a tackling machine and should fair well against Cali’s Urlacher.

Consolation bracket

The #5 seed Ogres are projected to win by almost 6 over renamed Hello Kitty. Both QBs have tough match ups vs the Bucs and Jags. Hello Kitty is gambling on the Raven D, taking them vs the hapless dolphins while the Ogres are hoping that Denver’s D last week was a trend and they find a way to stand up vs Houston. The fun will be watching the WRs. Ogres have the #7 WR with Greg Jennings, erratic Chad Johnson, and the explosive Steve Smith. Kitty has Lee Evens who could get one of those 200+ yard 3 TD games vs Cleveland, Branch on the now pass first Seahawks, and Roddy White who scored the last 3 weeks.

The #6 Raiders are a 10 point dog to the high scoring Ghostriders. The QB battle should be good with Peyton facing the Raiders for the Raiders (does that sound weird to you?) and Romo vs Philly. The WR favor the Ghostriders with TJ at SF and the now healthy Andre Johnson vs Denver. The Raiders start Battle (who is QB for SF?), McDonald in San Diego, and Vincent (absent) Jackson. For RB, Ghostrider has MJD and Kevin Jones with tough games vs. the Steelers and Charger Ds. The Raiders have it a good matchup with Stecker at home vs the Cards, but having to start Chris Brown in Arrowhead is tough. Gates gives the Raiders the TE advantage and Vinatieri has a better chance vs the Raiders (for the Raiders) than Gould in Minnesota. The Chargers D also favors A-Town, though Ghostriders Bucs are playing an Atlanta team in total disarray. James Harrison has a distinct advantage over Merriman since he will get playing time.

Week 14 Wrap - Up

Gordon thank for filling in for me and writing this week.

Whoppie eat words, kitties scratch but no bite - Big Red proves as menacing as Mother Russia.

A-Town Homies got doubled on by the Big Red - not to be confused with Pete Rose's World Series team or Cold War, Russia. Big Red poured it on with Hasselbeck leading the way with 4 players scoring in the 20s. A valiant effort was put up by the Homies with decent performances from Gerrard with 18points, E. Graham with 18 as well, but it was fruitless versus the scoring machine of Big Red.

Straight Ballin' put up another impressive roll with Jay Cutler airing it out for 29.98 points and getting great support from B Marshall. Hillbillies responded with another excellent performance from LT and the Seattle defense, but Carson Palmer stank the air with -.37 points. Ballin's performance should aid in rolling their momentum into the playoffs.

After a league boast, which brought about lightning from the Mount Spalding Pigskin, the FF Gods moved against Whoppie. Back to Cali pulled of an upset as the Cushions could only back up their boast with 19.85 points from the surprising J. Lewis, but Peterson looked very much rookie not even scoring a point. Back to Cali got another great performance from Tom Brady who threw down 33.18 with an exclamation point against the over-rated Smith defense. EAT YOUR WORDS happened to the critics of Brady and back to Cushions. The Viking defense proved to heat up strong for 22 for Cali to offset any fight from the Cushions.

Meanwhile in the battle of the cute feline league, it was a lot of scratching but not alot of bite as Hello Kitty trounced Cute Fluffy. Fluffy's Brees put up great numbers but left 18 points on the bench and it sounds very much like the season is down with the kitty litter as Kitty had almost 1/2 the team in double digits led by relative unknown Chris Redman.

Rounding off the rest of the league, Orgres got enough to beat the Scuds. It was a solid performance, but balanced. Scuds might have won if seven players scored more than 6 points each, the only redemption was by the late season turn on by Jacksonville.

Ghostriders was exactly that, vanished like specters as eight players put up only single digits. Romo led to save face, but it wasn't enough against David!'s consistent play of 7 players in double digit led by the revived defense of the Colts with 19 points.

Lastly, the Conicals must have decided to go with Elementary math as they mustered a small number of 36.11 points against the Raiders who had a predictable but expected performance by Peyton Manning leading with 28 points. Solid, but not great contributions provided again the theme of the week: BALANCED ATTACK wins games.

The play-off preview starts off with a clash of the Titans as Big Red takes on Straight Ballin. It's no-holds bar as the hype ends and it's as much buzz as UFC MMA!

Interesting matches will be the Riders' vs. the Raiders and the Ogres vs. the Kitty. The more interesting match up will be the Ogres vs the cute felines, but the edge might go to Ogres with Big Ben going to Jacksonsville, but a slide has hit the Steelers also. Dont' expect much from Redman or the Baltimore defense but it's a toss up.

Will the Cushions come back from their loss? Back to Cali sprang a surprise, but to pull it off again would be impressive.

Yep, the playoffs are here, and it's a one-shot deal, very much like Britney's video performance - once mistake and you are hosed and plastered on the grocery magazine rack. Big Red and Ballin's much vaunted power offense can putter out like air out of balloon with one loss.

Week 13: Not Much Left to Decide

Straight Ballin' didn't have to win anymore to be in the playoffs, but they didn't let up against the Conicals. Ballin' got off to a slow start with Favre scoring -2, but still managed 80 to win by 28. Steven Jackson has turned out to be a good acquisition leading the team along with T.O. and Braylon Edwards who each had 14. Gonzo also had 10 for Straight. Clovis' QB finally did play again since Brodie was injured. Leon Washington and Dallas Clark did some damage combining for 33, but nobody else got more than Hobbs' 5.2 in the Conical's 4th straight loss.

The Cushions held on to second place and secured their playoff spot in a tight game with the hard luck Hillbillies. AP was back with 19. Sebastian, Jamal Lewis and Derek Anderson combined for 35 and Patrick Willis was tackling out of his mind with 17 points to get 87 for the Woopiecushions. The Hillbillies put up quite a fight starting with Crayton's 14 on Thursday, then LT put up 22. The difference was Carson Palmer's TD pass to Chris Henry in the Steeler game which was ruled out of bounds and the Bengals had no timeouts left to challenge with. The 12+ points would have put Harmony over the top easily, but it was not to be.

Cali (BOB) pulled out a comeback to seal his playoff spot and send the Ogres to the consolation bracket. Urlacher, the Viking D, and Brady each had 15 for Cali. It was Brady's final TD pass that completed the come back and gave them the 2 point victory. Obispo got 18 from Big Ben in the rain. Ryan, Kris Brown, Chester and Jennings had 10-12, but only 1 from Fumble Willie Parker and the Denver D were heavy anchors that prevented the victory. Fumble Willie lost 2 of 3 fumbles. He had 2 more that were lost, but he was ruled (barely) down by contact to save him from losing 4 on the day. If you were watching, it was ugly.

Big Red backs into the playoffs (not quite mathematically sealed, but darn close) losing to the surging Raiders. Peyton Manning is back on track (28) and the Charger D looked like last year's team again with 20. Merriman also scored 14 for the Raiders who have finished their 3rd two game wining streak. They also had 3 two game losing streaks. Big Red got solid efforts from Wayne, Hasselbeck, and Holt, but that -2 from the Packer D was painful as was a combined 7 from RBs Addai, and Marion Barber. Of course the Raiders only got 2.3 from their backs.

Ghostriders defeated Reavers in a game that pretty much ensured the winner of being in the consolation bracket. Romo was insane with 29 to lead the white ones. Curtis finally had another solid game with 13 and Andre Johnson is back to his regularly scheduled season with 12. Portis and MJD combined for 18 as the Gostriders had 93, the top score of the week. Reavers by no means laid down, but Kitna has really taken a tumble not breaking 10 again. Roddy White was a nice start with 13 and Westbrook has his requisite 14. The Dolphin D had 12 (how did they do that and give up 40 points???) and Crowell also had a dozen.

The Scuds may make the consolation bracket as they down David! who is having another late season tumble with Eli. David! had 3 Toomer, LenDale White and Jon Beason (who???) have 9 and 10 points, but only 2 more over 5 was just not much. The Scuds on the other hand have really come around having won 5 of the last 6. Fargas (15) is solid weekly now as is Warner (13). The Ram D was a sneaky start with 11 and Justin Gage was a nice surprise with 10. Look out consolation bracket. Don't underestimate the PE teacher from Sacto. His missiles have been landing and doing damage. (Unlike Eli's passes.)

The Fighting Illini are finally Fighting again and the Homies... well... they didn't. Brees (16) showed up .....again as did Hines Ward (17). Packer Kicker booted 14 as well for the Chicago man to bring the team to 83 points in spite of sub-par games by the backs (9 points together). The Homies had Ernest Graham and the Bear D play well and leader Garrard has another solid game with 15, but Lineman Howard's 9 was the only other player to score more than 4 for A-town. The Illini can't escape the cellar unless they have an unreal game next week, but they have pretty much destroyed the Homies shot at the consolation bracket, so they can feel a sense of purpose. They might be able to do it again against Reavers next week.

Week 12: Ballin' goes Straight into the Playoffs

Ballin' is rollin' as they blow away #2 Big Red, 138 to 74. Tony Gonzalez and Ray Lewis were the only Ballin players under 9. Gore, Fitzgerald, and Favre were over 20 to ensure their hold on #1. Big Red was lack luster this week with Wayne, Barber, and Cooley the only players over 10, but not by much. Straight Ballin' is peaking at the right time, as they clinch the first playoff spot.

The Woopiecushions held on to their slim lead to hold off the surgin Ogres. Big Ben and Fast Willie were held to just 6 of the 16 that they needed to win. The Cushions were led by Derek Anderson, Jamal Lewis, Ryan Grant, the Pat's D and Folk each of whom were between 11 and 16 points. The Ogres got another solid game from Ryans, Chester Taylor, and Jennings, but the Surprise was Chad Johnson finally showing up with 24. The Ogres may have just lost their playoff spot with that one.

Cali's playoff spot is looking pretty secure as they lean on the Viking D to get them past David! Brady was human with 15 and Rudi and Winslow had a dime and a dozen, but the Vikings' 30 blew this game open for Cali. Unfortunately for David!, it was Eli who was the one giving those points to the Viking D, so the Giant heavy team didn't fair well, though Burress had 10. The Colt D also scored 10 for Davey. Watson had .85. Brady didn't throw to him as requested.

The Raiders held on to their lead against he Illini. Peyton was back in form with 21 and Gates had 2 TDs for 18 to lead the Raiders back to .500. The Illini had a fair game. McGee had 10, kicker Crosby had 13, Kevin Walter score a TD and as requested ...again... Brees showed up with 27. Young however was out and while Jordan's 6.2 from the bench would not have made the difference, it would have made Ray sweat.

Reavers stopped the Scuds winning streak and kept themselves in the consolation bracket hunt. Kolby Smith was the pickup of the week scoring 20 for Reavers (you don't know how much it pains me to write that). Branch and Westbrook also had 10 a piece, but only having 3 players under 6 points meant that everyone was getting in there. The Scuds got 16 from Warner's 400+ passing yards. Fargas had another good day with 14 and Morrison had 10+ in tackles, but 6 players with less than 6 was too big of and anchor to have a successful launch.

The Ghostrider's charge was halted by the Homies. Romo and Kevin Jones combined for 26 for the Ghostman, but MJD was the only other player over 5. The Homies were far from stellar, but the Bear D had 19 for them and Grahan and Gerrard another 22 as they totaled 69 in the victory.

Harmony won ugly against the Conicals who have not started a starting QB in a few weeks now. The Hillbillie's trade for Foster and Schaub cost them 21 point as they scored 12 in place of Fred Taylor and Carson Palmer's 33. No matter, the Seahawk D and Schaub did combine for 18 and both Daniels and Reggie Brown scored TDs to beat Clovis who had only Colston in double digits.