I went with Schroeder, and I’m glad I did. 100yards and a TD. Bettis had another huge day (163 yards) but did not see the end zone. AGreen’s stats mentioned above. Of course, I cut Kris Brown after his dismal performance last week, and he comes back to kick 5 FGs this week. Steelers win :), bad call for the fantasy team :mad: I have the entire Raider passing offense to pull for (fantasy wise) tonight. Gannon, Brown and Rice.
I could have fantasy gotten goose eggs across the board, and I’d still be happy. Any day the Steelers beat the Cleveland Clowns (esp. in Cleveland) is a good day! In 1st place at 6-2!
Actually, it was in regulation. And only the second win on the road of any team in the NFC Central this season, and second only by virtue of the Packers/Bears game finishing earlier. And you did pick the Lions in the upset. I picked the my Bucs, but the way the season is going I expected them to lose. Apparently the key is to not watch the game. I shall stay away henceforth.
I’ve only got three games wrong today so far over in the Yahoo group – I picked Indy, Cinci, and San Diego to win, incorrectly. I got all the other games right, straightup.
My OMNI picks were rather pathetic, however. 2-2-1, I believe. The Giants won, though.
But, who cares. The Eagles won, and won big. Aren’t the Vikings supposed to be good?
Gazoo - Dude, the day I’m able to confidently pick five games against the spread is the day I consider buying an X-Box. I was serious when I said that claims like “some lazy commentator will say that they didn’t WIN it, the other team LOST it”. Personally, I find football a wildly unpredictable sport which produces at least one absolute screwball result every week (where the hell was Seattle’s crushing ground attack the first seven games??).
S’long as I’m here, though, I like to pose a couple of questions.
Number one, how did Pittsburgh get to be number one in their division when they have the most two-dimensional offense I’ve seen in years? Way too much was put on the shoulders of Jerome Bettis and the kicking game for the past two games (and I know going 1-5 on field goals is lousy, but it really should never have come down to that). The receivers dropped a number of easy passes, at least one of them in the end zone. I don’t like weak division leaders more than anyone else, and Pittsburgh, sad to say, is looking very much the part.
And two, what in the name of Erik the Red is up with the Vikings? Forget Dennis Green for a moment (who I suspect is just a strawman anyway) and take a look at what’s on the field. The offense just could not move the ball all day. And since when did Philadelphia “run up the score” on anybody? Rarely have I seen a team with so much talent and so much potential underachieve so horribly.
Say, you don’t suppose it’s those damned “high expectations” acting up again? Nah…who could have high expectations for the Vikings now?
Why have more than two dimensions if they are winning using them? Yes, a large portion of the running game is on Bettis. That’s because NO ONE CAN STOP HIM. Curtis Martin is leading the AFC in rushing, with 51 more yards than Bettis – but here’s the catch – he’s played an extra game, the Jets have not had a bye yet. Bettis will lead the NFL in rushing yards this season. Also, don’t forget that Zereoue and Kordell are both averaging over 5 yards per carry, and they each have ~ 50 carries (too many to call it a fluke). The Steelers have the #1 run game in the NFL, period. Until someone can stop that, why do anything else? Bettis is one of the most sure handed RBs in the NFL. So you can move the ball against anyone, and not turn it over.
Their passing game is mediocre at best, yes there are too many dropped balls. But the only thing we need to have a pass game at all for is to keep defenses honest against our run. Hines Ward is no Rod Smith, but he is a very good wide receiver and he always busts his ass. I think I’ve seen him drop two balls all year long. He is # 5 in the AFC in receptions, ahead of such names as Tim Brown, Tony Gonzales, and Qadry Ismail. Not too shabby.
You wanna call it “two dimensional”? I’ll call it successful. Weak division leaders? Give me a break. The only team in the AFC that worries me is the Raiders, and maybe Miami.
In one of my fantasy leagues we need to shore ourselves up at receiver and running back. Our backs are currently Anthony Thomas, Eddie George, Lamar Smith and Trung Canidate (who fills a “swing” position). Current thinking is to release George or Smith (we are leaning towards George) and try to pick up Dominic Rhodes*. Our transactions take place at a local bar right after the first quarter of the Monday Night game. For receiver we currently have Laveranues Coles, Troy Brown and David Terrell. We will drop Terrell and are shooting for a coming Wide Receiver. Chris Chambers (Mia) is available and my co-owner’s are interested in Kevin Poole in Denver now that he has been bumped up to the 2 spot. Willie Jackson is available, but we had him on our roster before and whenever we started him he was a dud.
Another possibility is a trade. The guy who owns Shawn Alexander is deep at RB (he has Faulk and Staley) and needs a WR, we could package Troy Brown with Terrell and George and possibly get him.
As further background, the scoring system in the league is pretty tight: 1 point for 50 yards rushing or receiving, but not combined, no fractional points. 1 point for every extra 25 yards. Touchdown are scored on a sliding scale, so the a deep threat at receiver can payout more than a guy who racks up a bunch of yards but scores from 5 yards out.
*Based on reports that Edge might be gone for the season.
I think it’s a very good idea to go after Rhodes, he was already taken in my league (by the Edge owner).
I would cut LSmith before I cut George. They are both stinking it up right now, but I see EGeorge as a stud having a bad year. LSmith is only about average IMO and is playing more true to his expected output now.
I would wait to get Shaun Alexander, when going after someone after they blow up, you usually give up too much. His owner will be looking to unload while their is still all the buzz about him. Don’t get me wrong, SAlexander is a great player, but if nobody gets him you can probably get him in a week or to for much less than you would have to give up for him tonight. It seems like you are wiping out your WRs to get him in hte offer you mentioned.
We are also considering D. Jackson (SEA), R. Gardner(WASH), J. Jurevicius (NYG). We’d like to find someone who is moving up the ranks, so we are leaning toward Chambers, Jackson or Poole. For some reason Redskins frighten us (we have a whole file on Michael Westbrook).
Also, there is a bidding process if two teams are interested in the same player. Everyone submits sealed bids. If two teams have a guy at the same choice, the bidding starts at $3. Maurice Smith went for the most this year, $71. We paid $54 for A. Thomas. The lucky stiff who has S. Alexander got him for $3, the same amount we paid for Tom Brady. People tend to bid up for players after good weeks or if a starter goes down for the season. Since we have three co-owners we can afford to bid up other teams at times.
Hold on to George, after this week, he has a favorable schedule. BUT, if you can package for Shaun Alexander, do it. Yes, his value is very high right now, but yesterday wasn’t his only awesome game. He’s for real.
As a side note, George and Lamar are not worthy to waive. Package them in trade offers. Someone (a Miami or Titan fan) values them, and as I said, I think George’s value will start to rise, talk that up.
Chambers is only a worthy grab in keeper leagues. He will be awesome (Boston’s size, Moss’ speed), he’s probably better than Terrell. Poole is useless, Kasper is a better bet at WR in DEN.
ON the Edge front, the front office has backed off the original “out for the year” and the best bet is at least 5 weeks.
While I’m talking fantasy, TDavis is out at least 2 weeks with a torn meniscus (and having had this injury twice I think he’s done for 6 weeks). Rob Johnson is out for at least 4 weeks and Alex VanPelt will QB in BUF. I think this helps Moulds.
Well, it’s not a keeper league, but we got Chambers anyway, for $11. One reason we took Chambers was that our opponent this weekend was bidding for him by proxy. So it couldn’t escalate beyond their authorized price. They are our archrivals so we couldn’t lose a bidding war to them when they weren’t even there (strange league politics). They drafted 3 positions ahead of us in the draft and actually took players only because they knew we wanted them.
We tried to grab Rhodes but lost the bidding war to Edge’s owner, I think he paid about $36 for him. We were going to drop Canidate to make room for him, which I was against since Faulk does get hurt occasionally. But I only get 1 vote of the three, and since I am the “new guy” on the team, I am often overruled. This doesn’t bother me to much since it is first and foremost a drinking on Monday nights league, so winning is only for money and bragging rights.
At least George has shown a little life tonight against the much vaunted Ravens D. We’ll see if he can earn his keep the rest of the year.
stuffinb had the best record in the ATS challenge, just a long Alexander run away from glory, but sadly is the only one out of the “stress” pool. I took the worst beating against the spread, proving that my mulligan last week was no fluke. I also got off lucky from last night’s strange finish to stay alive in that one, with St. Louis in my back pocket. Montfort also still has the Rams as a trump card.
FWIW only two favored teams lost this week, the Raiders and the Colts. So even my prediction of this being a tough week to predict was wrong, the only thing I got right was that Chicago would lose because I picked them.
