This week presented a new scenario throughout the FFOC, as the H2H matches are over, and now it’s all about putting up the most points you can. Unfortunately, my team did not respond real well to this new concept - as I only managed to put up 80.92 points.
I had some BYE issues to deal with, but I also made some mistakes. I benched the Green Bay Packers defense in favor of the Houston Texans defense, causing my team an 18-point swing. I also benched Steve Breaston, and his 12.10 points would have been better than either Dwayne Bowe or Lee Evans. Also, Fred Taylor’s 9.70 points would have been an improvement over both Marshawn Lynch and Joseph Addai combined!
I’ve become a pro at second guessing myself every Tuesday morning after I see how my team performed!
As I said last week, because I lost a tiebreaker my team has been relegated to the Red Zone playoff bracket. The competition is going to be pretty stiff while my team is competing against the other teams that were in the bottom six of their leagues - there are 3,960 of us!!!
I think this was the first week of the season there weren’t any major upsets on the field. The closest we came to that was in the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Diego Chargers. It was a pretty exciting ending, but created some controversy over Coach Her Edwards’ decision to go for 2 after his team scored a late TD that brought the Chiefs to within one point of tying the game and sending it into overtime.
It’s the ultimate do or die situation for a coach. Naturally the safe way to play it is to kick the extra point and let things play out in overtime. But the one thing you always have to remember is that there are two things a team has going for it when it decides to go for a 2-point conversion. First the team HAS POSSESSION of the ball. Second, the team is on the 2 yard line. Add these two things together, and considering you may never get a better opportunity to win the game - especially when you have to play against LaDainian Tomlinson, Philip Rivers, and Antonio Gates in overtime — it was the right thing to do.
As a player, I can absolutely attest - you WANT your coach to give you the green light to go win the game. Of course, we all know that it backfired on Coach Edwards this past Sunday, but my guess is that put into the same situation over and over again…he wouldn’t change a thing - and I agree with
him.
I want to congratulate all of the FFOC League Champions from this past week. We are now officially going to start narrowing the field and get closer to finding out who will be hanging out with me at The Bellagio in Las Vegas.
See you next week.
Jerry
My game this past week went right down to the wire. I went into Monday Night Football trailing against “Stein Guzzlers” 101.86-95.66, but I still had Chris Cooley going as my TE. I needed to get 6.3 points from Cooley to secure two more Ws. A simple 3-yard TD catch, or 63 total yards and I win my game.The rest of us have to continue to try and play the best team that can help get us in one of the other playoff brackets.
As it turned out I was on the edge of my seat for the entire second half of the game - and for the second week in a row, it wasn’t until late in the 4th quarter that Cooley hauled in a pass that secured my victory. But wait! I could still lose if Cooley fumbled a ball. So now I’m talking to my television telling the Redskins to NOT call any more plays for Cooley. He ended up with 78 total yards and I defeated “Stein Guzzlers” 103.46-101.86. What a game!
So I finished my season at 10-8, above .500 which was very important for me. I finished the regular season tied for 4th in my league, but because of the tiebreaker it will be “Mean Dean” playing in the 1st and Goal bracket, and I will play out the rest of the season in the Red Zone playoff bracket.
After getting off to an 0-4 start to the season, I finished a very solid 10-4 the rest of the way. With all of the H2H out of the way, I now need to put up as many points as I can each week to try and post a high week 10-15 average.
In addition to Cooley, my team actually had another key performer this week. I told you in my last blog entry that I was finished starting Chad Ocho Cinco. A crazy thing happened as I was setting my line-up, and I suddenly had this hunch that he was finally going to break out. Now, of course I was telling myself that every week of the season, but I had a feeling that this WAS the week. So I made a crazy move: I took Brandon Marshall and his match-up against the Miami Dolphins out of my starting
lineup, and I inserted Ocho Cinco, who was playing the Jacksonville Jaguars. As all of you know
by now, this crazy maneuver worked out because Ocho Cinco had two TDs in the first quarter of the game - and Marshall only managed 27 total yards.
This upcoming week is obviously a huge one in the FFOC, as the top 2 teams from each league will be facing off in the league championship games for the right to advance to the Las Vegas Bracket and compete for the largest prize in the history of fantasy football. I want to wish all of those teams the best of luck in their games this weekend.
Good luck, and talk to you again next week.
Jerry
This past week was the closest I have come this fantasy season to calling my agent to discuss a possible return to the league. Going into the Monday night’s game between the Patriots and the Broncos I was trailing my opponent by a little less than 8 points. I had Brandon Marshall in my starting lineup and all I needed was 8 points to secure a victory in my H2H and finish 2nd overall in my league for the week. These were 2 W’s that I desperately needed to stay alive in my quest to qualify for my league championship game in week 10.
I was very confident that Marshall was going to come through for me. After all, 8 fantasy points didn’t seem like much. Well, let me tell you, I really had to sweat it out! It wasn’t until sometime in the 4th qtr that Marshall finally got me the points I needed. He finished with 8.7 points, barely enough for my team to prevail over “PardiTime” 115.12-114.08. I can’t tell you how many times during the game I kept thinking “If only I was out there myself!”
So after 7 weeks my record sits at 6-8. First place in my league is out of reach, but second place is not. It’s going to be tough, however, since with only 2 weeks left to play in the regular season the team I am trying to catch has a 10-4 record. Not only do I have to win out and put up some big points to help me in a tie-breaker - but I’m also going to need help from some of the other teams in my league as well.
I want to thank all of you for your advice and input to my questions about starting two players from the same team. I especially want to thank those of you who told me to stick with both Lee Evans and Marshawn Lynch together in the same starting lineup. That move really paid off for me because together they combined for over 30 points.
The NFL provided some great games this past weekend. One of the more dramatic moments came from my former teammate, Sebastien Janikowski. Sebas kicked a 57 yard FG in overtime to give the Raiders a win over the Jets. The Titans beat the Chiefs to remain the only undefeated team, and in a game that many thought was going to be a low scoring defensive battle, the Bears outlasted the Vikings in a 48-41 shoot out.
Off the field, two of the more prominent players on the defensive side of the ball - Champ Bailey and Rodney Harrison were hit with major injuries. My 49ers made Mike Nolan the third coaching casualty of a season that is just 7 games old. If Mike Singletary gets enough time, trust me, he’ll change the culture in the organization because he was one of the toughest competitors I ever faced.
Good luck to everybody in the FFOC with their games this week. I’m sure I’m not the only one that’s facing a must-win situation - so do your research and play your best lineup. Vegas is only two months away!
Jerry
I had a rough week with my fantasy team, losing my H2H by 17 points and finishing in the bottom half of my league. I caught a break in that my opponent for the week “H TWO O Cowboys” only put up 94.44 points, but with BYE week issues adding to some key injuries, my team only managed to put up 77.84 total points. I almost played the best possible lineup – leaving only 2 points on my bench – so it will have to go down as a week where my team didn’t play well enough.
It was my starting RB and starting OP positions that hurt me the most. Joseph Addai and Fred Taylor combined for a total of 1.30 points! While I’m not a seasoned veteran of fantasy football, I have learned enough to know that you’re not going to be very successful when you get that kind of production out of those two key positions.
Speaking of seasoned veterans of fantasy football, I’d like to thank those of you here in the FFOC that contributed your comments to the thread about starting two players from the same team. You gave me some pretty good information on some of the things I will be evaluating moving forward. Some of you said you could provide some additional insight if you knew my entire roster, so here it is:
QB
M.Hasselbeck, K.Orton, J.Kitna, B.Griese
RB
J.Addai, B.Jacobs, M.Lynch, F.Taylor, F.Jones, R.Johnson
WR
B.Marshall, C.Ocho Cinco, L.Evans, D.Bowe, R.Meachem, S.Breaston
TE
C.Cooley
TD/ST
Packers, Patriots
K
S.Suisham
I’ll wait and see what the official status of Addai is this week, but I think I’m going to end up starting Lynch and Evans again. With all of my injuries at QB I placed a bid to obtain Matt Ryan, but he has a BYE and won’t be able to help me until next week.
The decisions I make this week are going to be crucial because there are only 3 weeks remaining in the FFOC regular season. I’m in a league that incredibly still has an undefeated player, so my team is mathematically out of the running for 1st place. I do, however, still have a shot at 2nd place and a birth in the league championship, so I really need to come up with two wins this Sunday.
Lots of interesting news coming out of the NFL this week, and not surprisingly most of it is coming out of Dallas. The Cowboys have to deal with injuries to Tony Romo and Felix Jones, and the suspension of Adam Jones. I think San Diego is going to put together a string of victories over the next few weeks. Even without Tom Brady, that was a good New England team that the Chargers simply dominated on Sunday night.
With the Giants losing and the Rams winning, we are down to just one remaining undefeated and two winless teams. Unfortunately, both of the winless teams – Cincinnati and Detroit – are dealing with injuries at the QB position. I hate to say it, but the NFL is a QB league. Tennessee remains the final undefeated team, so I’ll be watching with interest to see if they can extend their win streak against Kansas City. It should be another great weekend of football!
Good luck with all of your games this week!
Jerry
My team bounced back nicely this week with 102.82 points – enough to win my H2H and barely sneak into the overall top 5 of the league to secure two huge W’s. I am now part of a 3-team log jam in my league standings and tied for 4th place. But the good news is I’m 4 wins out of second place and a birth into the league championship week 10.
I got some great games from my RBs this past week. Brandon Jacobs was a monster again, and Joseph Addai was very solid. Marshawn Lynch did not have his best week after a tough game in Arizona, but I still have confidence in him moving forward. I actually got a huge game from Lee Evans, who plays WR for the same team as Lynch, which makes me wonder whether I used the right strategy going into the game.
I will admit that I am not a seasoned veteran of Fantasy Football, and after this weekend I am starting to consider whether or not it’s a good idea to start a RB and WR from the same NFL team. Obviously it comes down to the potency of the NFL offense. I can remember lots of games that I played in where I got my TDs, and Roger Craig got his, too. But that was for one of the most prolific teams that ever played. Do any of you ‘veteran’ fantasy football players in the FFOC want to start a thread in the forum sharing your thoughts on starting a RB/WR combo from the same NFL team?
As for the NFL this past weekend, one of the games I found very interesting was the Monday night meeting between the Vikings and the Saints. Reggie Bush really seems to be finding his rhythm this season. The Saints are doing a great job of getting him the football in open space and he seems to be a threat every time he touches the ball. Add me to the list of people that knew he was going to return that second punt return, too! But the Vikings showed that anything can happen on ‘Any Given Monday’. It looked like the Saints were going to roll all over them. The Superdome is going crazy, and next thing you know a blocked FG for a TD and a sack/fumble recovery later, and it’s the Saints that are reeling!
In addition to trying to scrap out another couple of fantasy wins this Sunday, I’ll also be watching with interest to see how the Raiders and Rams react to their new coaches. I’m also going to be closely watching the Chargers and the Patriots renew their recent rivalry – it should be a great game even though both sides are somewhat hobbled by some significant injuries.
Good luck to everybody this week. There are only 4 weeks to go in the FFOC regular season so each and every fantasy point you score is going to be very important!
See you again next week,
Jerry
Week 4 was not the best for my fantasy football team. Facing the challenge of the season’s first BYE week, my team did not respond well at all. I lost my H2H against “Mean Deen”, and the 87.16 points that my team put up were nor enough to get me into the top 5 of my league. Unfortunately I left some points on my bench, and could have been victorious if I started Robert Meachem and Michael Bush. I was pretty close to making myself the 3rd coach that got fired this week!
The best thing for me is to put this week behind me and move on. After looking at the NFL schedule for my core players, its safe to say that this past weekend was definitely the toughest week my team was going to have with respect to BYE weeks. Now I can look forward to having Brandon Jacobs, Joseph Addai, and Matt Hasselbeck return to my starting line up. I think I can expect big games from the RBs that will be back this weekend; the suspension of Plaxico Burress should force the NY Giants to take their game plan to the ground a little more this Sunday, and over in Indianapolis Addai was just starting to rev it up before his week off. I’m also hearing that the week off may have been just enough time for the Seahawks to get some of their WRs healthy - and that should result in some solid production from my QB.
It was definitely an interesting week in the non-fantasy part of the game. Who would have guessed that Buffalo and Tennessee would still be amongst the unbeaten? How about Brett Favre throwing for SIX TDs? In that same game Kurt Warner nearly threw for 500 yards! And amazingly Josh Scobee kicked Jacksonville to victory for the second week in a row with a last second field goal. I think I’m going to check my league’s waiver wire and see if I can pick him up to be the kicker for my team!
Huge games coming up for all of us - when I write to you next week we will be past the halfway point of the FFOC regular season. There are still 10 wins out there for all of us to go get, and I think that still gives every team a chance to qualify for their league championship game week 10.
Good luck and talk to you next week!
Week 3 of the season was definitely much better for me than the previous two. Once again I was able to increase my team’s production, this time by over 15 points. The best part though is that unlike last week, this time it was enough for me to win my head to head match against “Diver Devs” - AND it was enough to finish in the top 5 and secure an additional “W”!!!
Just like that I climbed out of the basement of my league standings and into 7th place. My league has two undefeated teams at the top of the standings so I still have some tough work ahead for me to get to the top.
Things get interesting now because we are coming into the part of the season when various NFL teams will miss action due to BYE weeks. I’m sure you can all imagine just how much of a toll playing in the NFL can take out of you. It is such a physically demanding sport week in and week out. As a player, I really looked forward to my BYE week because it gave my body a chance to heal and rest up for the stretch run of the season.
I’m quickly realizing though, that these BYE weeks are not necessarily the best thing for my fantasy team. I just got things to where we are starting to roll - and now I’m going to lose my starting QB and two of my starting RB’s to BYE weeks. In terms of my RB’s, Joseph Addai was just starting to come out, and Brandon Jacobs has simply been a beast for my team. The last thing I wanted was for these guys to have to miss a week from my starting line-up.
As for my weekly comment about the best position in the NFL - yes, you know it - wide receiver; Brandon Marshall was just huge for me once again. He is making it look so easy right now. It’s obvious that he has tremendous chemistry and is in a tremendous groove with his QB Jay Cutler. The member of my WR corps that seems to be having trouble finding any chemistry with his QB right now is Chad Ocho Cinco. Last week you will recall I wrote that I was going to make him a game time decision. Fortunately leaving him in as a starter did not cost me the W’s - but I really need Chad to step up and start catching some balls if I’m going to make a run at my league championship.
Once again the injury bug hit some of the big stars of the game; Brian Westbrook, Donovan McNabb, Ben Roethlisberger, and Willie Parker all sustained injuries that could impact their ability to post big numbers this week. On the flip side, it was great to see a star like LaDanian Tomlinson bounce back with a 2-TD game.
Well good luck to all of you with your Week 4 games. Be sure to log on to the FFOC website for all of the recent news on your players, and double-check your rosters now that the BYE weeks are here. With one third of the FFOC’s regular season behind us, the time to start that march to the league championship is now!
See you next week!
Jerry
I managed to improve my team’s production by more than 28 points from last week - and it was still not enough! Once again I lost my head to head match, this time against “Nobody Likes These Guys 2″, and I finished 6th overall in my league by just 3.38 points. That means with two weeks now in the books, I am still looking for my first “W” in the FFOC.
Now I’m going to tell you what really stings from my loss this past week - and I’m sure that I’m not alone on this one… I lost my game because of the much talked about play calling at the end of the Chargers/Broncos game! Yes, that’s right, my opponent had Jay Cutler at QB, and that TD pass he threw after what should have been ruled a fumble gave my opponent 4 points - and the difference in our game was 3.48 points!!! If that play is ruled a Chargers fumble recovery, my team wins its head to head match-up, finishes in the top 5 of my league, and I get my first 2 “W’s” of the season! What can I say… what can I do? That’s the crazy world of Fantasy Football!
Last week I told you that I was going to start Brandon Marshall now that his suspension was over, and man did he ever have an immediate impact. I can remember playing in games when I felt that no matter what the other team tried to do against me I was still going to get open for a pass - when everything was going right and I was “in the zone” - simply unstoppable. Well it goes without saying that Brandon had one of those games this past Sunday. I remember a game against the Rams when I was “in the zone” and I ended up with 16 catches, which is the most that I ever had in one game. Brandon’s performance this past Sunday with 18 catches was amazing. Now if only he could have taken one more of those balls to the house, I would have won my fantasy game!
Well, enough about week 2. I have to put that behind me now and focus on getting my first win of the season this weekend. I’ve got my hands full because the team that I’m playing against features Donovan McNabb at QB, and Adrian Peterson at RB. The big decision I have to make is once again at my favorite position - WR. Chad Ocho Cinco has not produced for me two weeks in a row now, and I have two young kids in Dwayne Bowe and Robert Meachem sitting on my bench waiting to see their first action of the season. I’m leaning towards sticking with Chad for one more week because he is so talented and capable of having a huge game at anytime, but as Sunday gets closer I may be tempted to go with one of the young kids. I’m going to have to go with my gut instinct and make that call just before kickoff.
That’s all for this week. Good luck to all of you with your games this Sunday. For all of you that are in the same position as me with an 0-4 start…lets get some points on the board!.
Jerry
One week down ….. 14 more weeks to go to setting up the final 15 teams. That’s when we take this baby to Vegas!!!!
Week 1 was certainly one to remember. Brady, Burleson, Colston, Morris….maybe even Tomlinson. I can’t remember the last time so many high impact fantasy players went down after week 1. It goes without saying that the player that makes it to the FFOC bash in Vegas is going to have to react and make adjustments to their team leading up to Week 9.
As you might imagine its been quite hectic getting everything up and running for the launch of the FFOC. I hope that all of you enjoyed the first weekend of games, and I want to let you know that its great to have all of you be part of our first season - including those 660 teams that had Tom Brady! For those of you that don’t know, Brady was the first player selected in the first draft of the FFOC. I certainly hope that we did not start our own little version of “The Madden Curse”. At the same time, what are the chances that perhaps we started “The FFOC Blessing” ? You see, we did a sign-up promo in August where we gave away autographed photo’s of New York Giants RB Brandon Jacobs; and of course we are all aware that he just crushed in Week 1.
So now we know what to look for next season: Which player gets taken first overall in the first draft, and which player do we choose for the autograph photo promo? That’s my tip for starting next season 2-0.
Were planning on adding some new features to the site next week so look out for those. For those of you that are not regulars in the forums, I will be cleaning up the “No Drop List” and reducing it to 50 players for Tuesday morning.
Best of luck to all of you for week 2.
Stan
I hope that all of you had a great time launching the Fantasy Football Open
Championship with us. I am thrilled to have all of you with us for this
opening season, and I cant wait to see the 15 of you that make it all the way to
Las Vegas on December 22.
From a fantasy perspective, I didn’t get my season off to the start that I
was hoping for. I lost my head to head match against team “Dozer” in my
league, who got great games from Drew Brees, Thomas Jones, Nate Burleson,
and T.O. Going into our game, I thought I was going to have a huge week
because of my RBs. I started Joseph Addai, Marshawn Lynch and Brandon
Jacobs. It was my WRs that really let me down! While Lee Evans was decent,
Chad Ocho Cinco and my 49er boy Josh Morgan did not produce the numbers I
needed from them. After watching my WRs play this week, I thought about coming out of retirement. Jon Gruden are you listening?
For my game this week against “Nobody likes these guys 2”, I’m only going
to make one change. As much as I would love to stay loyal to my 49ers,
starting 0-2 forces me to get a little more serious, so I have to sit Josh Morgan this week in favor of Brandon Marshall. I’m sticking with Addai,Lynch, and Jacobs for another week, while giving all the rest of my starters from this past weekend another chance as well.
As for the non-fantasy part of week 1 – Seeing Tom Brady go down
like that was tough. You never want to see a star player and athlete like Tom Brady go down. He is such a tremendous athlete and one of the greatest competitors the game has ever seen. I’m going to miss watching him play this year. The Patriots will have to come
together as a team now and get past this. It’s not easy. I know because I
had to go thru injuries to Joe Montana, Steve Young, and Rich Gannon – ALL
NFL MVPs. You have to make adjustments, and every player has to focus that
much harder on taking care of their responsibilities on the field. Just
like so many of the teams that I played on, the Patriots have a nucleus of
great veteran players that know first hand what it takes to be a champion,
and I think they are going to respond.
Good luck to all of you with your games this weekend!
Jerry
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