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Yeah, there weren't very many other gimmie games out there. That certainly was one of the top three. The other two that would have got consideration were Pittsburgh over Cleveland, and Green Bay over Detroit. The only thing that would lead me to conclude that Pittsburgh and Green Bay may have got a little more play is that they were home teams. The strategy in those pools is pick bad teams that are also on the road. Oakland was at home.

We didn't do a pool like that at work this year. We called it the elimination pool, because as soon as you get a team wrong, you're out. The thing that makes those pools difficult is that once you pick a team, you cannot pick them again. So what you invariably do is you pick against a team every week. You look at who is playing Detroit, Cleveland, and Oakland, and pick those teams (since they're different every week).

 

I would ad TB to that list. They are the most undisciplined team in the NFL and their talent level is pretty bad as well.

 

Typically yes, against the Panthers (who only had one win on the year going into yesterday's game), not so much. I agree that Tampa deserves to be on the pick a bad team on the road list 90% of the time.

 

Ugh, Matt Schaub and DeAngelo Williams brutalized me to the tone of about 65 points between them and I was done. Also it doesn't help when the opponents TE, K, and DST combine for 45+ between them.

3-3.

 

I’m looking over next week’s matchups, and I have fewer questions than normal. Owing to bye weeks, one of my leagues only has one realistic roster configuration that makes sense, so the starters there are pretty automatic.

In the next league, I’m definitely starting DeAngelo Williams and Steve Slaton at RB, and my best three WRs are definitely Colston, Driver and Breaston. The question is what to do with my flex spot. I have Sidney Rice on my bench, with the other option being Jonathan Stewart. Stewart was invisible for much of the early part of the year, but he did have over 100 yards and a TD last week (on my bench). Then again, Rice was very good last week with well over 100 receiving yards. Stewart is home against Buffalo, and Rice is at Pittsburgh, so neither are terrible matchups (the Steelers pass defense this year has been average).

The tough decision is the last league. The Clark trade has given me a ton of flexibility here, and I have a lot of ways I can configure this roster. We start two RBs, two WRs, and one flex. Here are my options:

At RB (pick up to 3):

Forte (@CIN)
Westbrook (@WAS)
Barber (vs. ATL)
Slaton (vs. SF)

None are particularly great or poor matchups. I never thought I’d have to consider this at the beginning of the season, but do I actually bench a healthy Westbrook?

Assuming I go with three RBs, I need two of these WRs:

Colston (@MIA)
Driver (@CLE)
Smith (vs.ARI)
(Housh and Kenny Britt on BYE)

I actually like all three of these matchups. Miami’s pass defense is poor, and Cleveland and Arizona can definitely be thrown on. I’m actually considering starting all three of these guys, but that means I have to bench two of my RBs. What do you think here?

 

Dude, it's nice to have options like that at RB and WR! I would always start Westbrook, he is a huge part of Philly's offense and an option at the goal line, on 3rd down, or any play. He's scores alot for them. Especially after last week, The Eagles will come up firing. Cincy's D is looking good, so I'm not sure on Forte. When Barber is healthy, he is an animal. Slaton is also a hit or miss pick. SF looks good, then they play Atlanta and get destroyed. So, who knows?

At WR, I like Driver and Colston. Though Smith wouldn't hurt either. You should crush your opponent this week!

 

Yeah, it's a good problem to have!

To further point out the awsomeness of my RBs, we get a 1/2 point per reception in this league!

While I'm just 4-2 in this league, it's because I've been unlucky two weeks and got big numbers dropped on me, but this team is set. It's bye-proof. It's even pretty injury-proof. (In the sense that even a season-ending injury to one of my RBs or WRs would not cripple this team.)

Despite all this depth, there aren't even any trades that would help me out much. I'm content with Celek as my TE, and my QB is Schaub, who is 4th in total points among QBs, behind Manning, Brees and Brady. So the only better QBs out there are guys owners would never give up in a trade anyway. Other than selecting a Defense and Kicker flavor of the week, I do not foresee me needing to make ANY roster moves for the rest of the year.

 

Well, This is what I'm looking at this week.

QB - Brees

RB - LT, Mendenhall - other options are LJ, J.Stewart or Parker.

WR - Chad, Driver, S.Moss. Boldin is doubtful, wouldn't play him even if he does play, bum ankle usually means no TDs.

TE - TG of course.

Flex - Olsen will be in my Flex spot, otherwise, its LJ or Stewart... not sure yet on this one.

K - Grotkowski

Def - CHI or DAL. I like CHI, Palmer throws picks for TDs. Ryan doesn't.

 

I actually like Stewart in the flex spot over Olsen. Over the first few weeks of the season you didn't get the player you thought you drafted with Stewart, but these past two weeks his playing time has increased. In fact, while I wouldn't do it this weekend because of the matchup, you may even want to consider starting Parker as your flex player. LJ had a pretty good game this past week, but I just cannot trust him.

Looking back at my decisions for that third league, I think the guy I should sit is Barber out of the four. It's 1/2 point per reception, and he has the fewest catches of those four guys.

And the more I think about it, I think I agree with you on Smith. I don't have any real reason to dislike the matchup - it's just more of a hunch. Then again, Colston has the worst matchup, and his numbers are historically much better at home, and this game is at Miami.

 

I still haven't finalized all my decisions for this week. I've been scouring fantasy sites, looking at rankings. There does seem to be consensus that the best two plays among my four wide receivers are Colston and Smith (so Driver gets benched).

The RBs are not so simple. Virtually every site has my 4 RB choices in a different order, and there certainly is no choice that everyone thinks is clearly inferior.

The only thing that I have deduced is that I definitely should start Westbrook. I have yet to find a rankings list that has him as the 4th best of my four RBs. Since there is consensus on him as at least one of my top 3, he'll get the starting nod.

Also, of the seven ranking lists I've reviewed, only one of them has Forte as the worst of the 4 options, so I'm willing to go with him as a near-consensus pick.

That leaves Barber and Slaton, and of the seven lists, they each are ranked as the 4th best option on 3 of them. At this point, I'm leaning towards starting Slaton and sitting Barber, for two main reasons: 1) Barber loses more carries to Tashard Choice than Slaton loses to Chris Brown and 2) Slaton is more of a pass catching threat, and we get 1/2 point per recption. However, I'm still not convinced of this decision. The counterargument in favor of Barber is that Chris Brown has been used as Houston's goal line back at times this season, and he's already vultured a TD or two from Slaton this year. Barber would get any goal line carries for Dallas, and thus he would be more likely to score a TD.

 

Well, you could flip a coin or roll a die over your choices, they are that close. Neither option should hurt you.

Pitt annopunced that Mendenhall will start, so Parker is not an option this week. Yeah, your right, after a little more research, I am likng Stewart in the flex spot. I just hope D.Williams doesn't find his game.

 

The Buffalo run defense is pretty poor actually. Most rank lists have Williams as a top 3 fantasy RB option this week. However, with Stewart getting somewhere around half as many touches as Williams, he should be a solid flex option. Most rank lists have Stewart ranked as around the 20th best RB option this week. In a standard 10-team league, the top 20 are starters, and the 21st-30th ranked players are solid flex options.

 

Down 6 with McNabb and Boldin against my opponents Breaston and Santana Moss... I like my odds if the Eagles can actually do something this week.

 

So, Brees threw 3 TDs and 3 interceptions as well... is that good or bad for whoever has him? I mean, how bad are interceptions for your rating (at least in fantasy football)?

 

In my league interceptions really don't hurt that much. 1pt for every 25 yards passing, 6 for a TD... -2 for INT or fumble. So his TD's greatly outweigh the INTs.

 

Yeah, that's pretty standard scoring. Brees had a excellent game by almost any measure this past week. Unless Westbrook screws up big time, I should win all three of my leagues this week.

 

Well, I have Brees. But in the league I play in, there are Negative points for Int(-2), fumbles lost(-2), fumbles (-1) and Sacks(-2). I hate that sacks are included, especially at (-2) when it is not always the fault of the QB. So Brees wasn't that big this week for me. Alot of negatives, I ended up with just 10 pts from him. As my opponent was the top scorer ing the league AGAIN, I was used like a two-bit whore this week. My opponent started Palmer, Benson, Ricky Williams and had the Saints Defense. He also used Percy Harvin, Cincy's kicker, Dallas Clark and Andre Johnson. I was murderized! My opponents started scoring massive points against me weekly starting in week 3. I used the Smack Talk option that week. It is a curse, don't use it! I literally have over 200 more points scored against me than the next highest team in the league. Talk about bad luck!

 

Westbrook screwed me in the butt last night. I needed 4 stinkin' points from him to win, and I got one. It's only a concussion - suck it up and get back out on the field.

 

That was a nice shot to the head from Fletcher's knee though. And since Washington was looking so bad, why risk him when you have a nice lead with McCoy running? I know, it sucks for the Fantasy owners...

 

I think he was joking...

You know, with concussions being serious and all.