Thursday, December 19, 2013

Ready To Crown A King

Just when the pieces were falling into place for the playoffs, all Hell broke loose again. Denver, New England, New Orleans, Dallas, Philadelphia and Detroit all lost when they could have taken a big step forward. The few teams that delivered convincingly were the leaders in the NFC West; Seattle and San Francisco. Just a few years ago, that division couldn’t get above .500 and now they have the most dominate two teams in the league.

From a NFL fan and fantasy football participant perspective, week 16 was primarily very frustrating unless you owned/didn’t face the right few players or followed the right NFL teams. A few items to note:

  • Why was everyone talking about Jamaal Charles? He only had 20 yards rushing and 1 rushing TD. Hardly huge rushing numbers against a really bad Oakland defense.
  • Another fine outing for Elite QB, Eli Manning. Barely 150 yards and 5 picks. This is one area that you can’t bootstrap yourself into on your brother’s heels.
  • I LOVE to see the Cowboys struggle. Too bad Jerry Jones doesn’t get more air-time during that time. All the money in the world can’t buy you Smarts, Jerry.
  • The windiest moment in Chicago came from Marc Trestman when he exhaled following the Bears victory.
  • Maybe Mike Shanahan is expecting an offer from the Rams since he is doing his best Jason Garrett to get the Redskins a bunch of losses and increase the value of the draft pick owed to St. Louis.
  • I am shocked at how bad the Saints play away from home, even indoors. Hard to explain, but a loss this weekend to Carolina definitely dooms their Super Bowl chances.
  • Had Colin Kaepernick figured out how to click with Vernon Davis last year, they probably would have won the Super Bowl. They are on a mission to rectify that this year.
  • With A.P. and Toby Gerhart out last week, the Vikes ran Matt Asiata at the Eagles and he delivered 2 1/2 times more rushing yards yards than Jamaal Charles and posted three rushing TDs. Go figure.

The majority of head-to-head fantasy leagues are in their championship game this weekend. It would be surprising if a championship team is in need of a player right now, but, if so, or you are playing through Week 17, here are a few players to look at.

QB: Kirk Cousins (WASH) – Cousins found much more success in his receiving corps last weekend than RGIII had this season. Cousin gets another week of shaking the rust off and then has a very motivated Redskins unit behind him as they try to extinguish Dallas’ playoff hopes facing the worst defense that has ever been fielded by a playoff contender.

RB: DeAngelo Williams (CAR) – If a league member cast Williams aside when he injured his quad, this is a good time to pick him up. Though Mike Tolbert is a goal-line ballhog, Williams won’t be sharing carries with Jonathan Stewart. Expect the Panthers to pound the ball on the ground against a bad Saints defense versus the run in an effort to control the clock and repeat the Rams’ performance from last week.

RB: Jordan Todman (JAX) – With MoJo a scratch last weekend, Todman stepped up and has a nice day for the Jags with 153 total yards (109 rushing, 44 receiving). There is a very good chance that MoJo won’t play again this weekend or even this season. Todman has a nice home matchup against the second-worst defense versus the run in the Titans.

WR: Rod Streater (OAK) – Rod Streater has developed a nice relationship with Matt McGloin in his 5 games (25/423/2). I don’t think Denarius Moore’s return hurts at all, if fact, I believe it helps Streater.  He plays in San Diego in what should be a shootout this Sunday.

WR: Greg Jennings (MINN) – Speaking of building relationships, Jennings is far more productive with dropback passer, Matt Cassel, under center than he was with Christian Ponder madly scrambling about. He does play outdoors in a cool climate this weekend, but the Bengals are dinged up and have yielded 5 TDs to WRs in last 2 weeks.

TE: Delanie Walker (TENN) – Walker returned from a concussion he suffered 3 weeks ago and picked up right where he left off with Ryan Fitzpatrick (8/53/1). He visits the Jags and has a warm matchup against the 3rd worst D vs TEs.

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