Monthly Archives: December 2012

Fantasy Football is Over (and Everybody Hurts)

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If you’re anything like me, over the last two days, you’ve sat around wondering what hell you were going to do with yourself without the weekly tasks of running a fantasy football team occupying your time.  I’ve sat at work and instinctively opened both of my league pages, footballguys.com, fantasypros, and the NFL schedule a couple of times each yesterday and today.

In other words, outside of it being holiday time, it’s pretty depressing this time of year.  With a full winter of “what-if’s” and “why not’s” to drive us crazy before a spring and summer of NFL Draft and 2013 fantasy prep, I decided that I should sum up my feelings with a song.  Hopefully it’s a distraction (albeit a short one) from one of the dullest sports weeks of the year. Please enjoy.

General Mismanagement – NFL Week 16

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First of all, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and/or Happy whatever-else-they-celebrated. Mrs. FnB and I were in Pittsburgh for the weekend with my family and flew back to Orlando on Christmas morning to spend time with hers. Travel tip for anyone who hates lines or people: fly somewhere at 7:40am on Christmas morning. It’s spectacularly easy.

While in the ‘Burgh, I went to a bar near Heinz Field to take in the Steeler game among many fellow yinzers. The disappointment in watching this year’s edition of the black and gold is possibly unparalleled in my time as a Steeler fan. A small part of that disappointment is Mike Tomlin, whose decision making has been questionable at best and amazingly stupid at worst. As you’ll recall, I debuted this new feature last week and will continue it here, beginning with the Super Bowl of Bad Coaching between Mr. Tomlin and Marvin Lewis.

Cincinnati at Pittsburgh, Part I
The Situation
13:16 remaining, 2nd quarter; Cincinnati has a 2nd-and-2 at its own 28
Andy Dalton completes a short pass to A.J. Green near the left sideline. It appears that Green steps out of bounds prior to reaching for a first down but is granted the first down spot.

The Tomlin-Lewis Battle of Wits Continues

Week 16: For All the Glory

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Wow, Week 16 is here. It feels like yesterday that I was reading between the lines (and sometimes just flat-out guessing) on running back situations like Washington, Atlanta, and Buffalo. This week, though, isn’t for 10, 12, or more teams in each league. Unless you play in a foolish league that uses Week 17, this week is for two teams only – the best of the best and/or the luckiest of the lucky.

I enjoyed my format from last week when I broke out which players are STUDS (fully matchup-proof, no getting cute), which players could be benched only if your team was loaded (great players with bad matchups), and which players would need help from the fantasy gods (“FLEX” types).

Some hits were calling Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, C.J. Spiller, Calvin Johnson, and Aaron Hernandez STUDS (which I realize is obviously not a stretch, but all produced significant numbers in a week where many players laid eggs). Some misses were having Stevan Ridley and Danario Alexander in the “only bench if your team is loaded” and Russell Wilson in the “help from the fantasy gods” category (maybe it should have been called “help from a defense that has given up because they’re playing a game in front of a lifeless crowd”).

With that, let’s go on to the calls, shall we?

Bring home the title with the advice below

General Mismanagement – A New Recurring Post

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Welcome to a new feature I’m beginning here at FnB – one that I’ve already created a new category and menu for (under “Thoughts” on the main header). If you’re reading this blog, I’m going to assume you’re all astute football watchers like me. Since you are, you probably often find yourself asking questions in the form of, “why would [insert coach’s name here] do [insert dumb action here] when he clearly should have done [insert logical action here]?”

If this does indeed describe you, this new series is right up your alley. In this space, I’m going to highlight the dumb things coaches and teams do when there’s a perfectly logical alternative option. I’ll try to avoid playcalling issues because I’m not in the film room all week creating a strategy so who am I to question a play call?

What I will highlight is poor timeout usage, poor clock management, poor game management, bad challenges, and basically anything else Andy Reid or Romeo Crennel would do. You’ll get the idea.

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Fantasy Semi’s – Who Gets You to the ‘Ship?

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So you’ve made it this far, congrats. But your work is only beginning. Decisions made this week and next (if you get there) are the ones everyone will remember – or the ones you’ll wish you could forget. Lets take a look at who’s going to take you to the promised and who will have you praying for a fantasy miracle. Teaser alert: one of these decisions is an exact situation that I have, so we’ll flip the script and I’ll ask YOU what I should do.

Matchup-Proof, Don’t-Even-Think-of-Benching-Them STUDS
Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady – Despite facing tough D’s in Chicago and San Francisco, respectively (as if this had to even be said)
C.J. Spiller – Despite facing a tough Seattle D
Calvin Johnson – Despite being shadowed by Patrick Peterson all game long
Aaron Hernandez – Despite the amazing SF line backing corps

Only Benching if You Have a REALLY Loaded Team (+ examples of players I’d rank ahead of them)
Matt Ryan (Josh Freeman, Brady, Rodgers, Cam Newton, Drew Brees)
Stevan Ridley (David Wilson if Bradshaw is out, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Frank Gore)
Danario Alexander (Reggie Wayne, Wes Welker, any starting WR in the NYG-ATL game)
Jason Witten (Tony Gonzalez, Hernandez, Jimmy Graham)

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