Back in the Saddle again...for now

I'm finally writing a post again. Wohoo!!! It has been way to long since my last post. I would like to personally blame all professors at Winona State University for making me do academic things when I clearly have more important things to do, like this. Nevertheless, I'm back...for now (finals week is coming up which may mean another week without posts). I've unfortunately missed a lot in the last couple weeks, so I'll try to get through some my favorite and most important things that have happened. First of all, I totally called that win last Thursday by the Raiders. I'm telling you guys, the dumbest possible outcome each week keeps happening...watch out Bengals. Secondly, Tom hasn't lost since my last post, so I haven't missed the losing picture posting, which is always a good thing. In fact, he has put himself in a position where if he gets some help, he could possibly make it into the playoffs on a tie-breaker. Then again I'm not sure how the tie-breaker between more than two teams works out so I really have no idea. He could already be mathematically eliminated for all I know. This whole playoff situation will be very interesting to watch heading into tomorrow's games (its Saturday right now, for those of you who won't see this till Monday). Zach's Rolling Meadows Mustangs and Josh's Bombers are the only teams guaranteed a playoff spot at the moment, with T, Gunnar, and John all controlling their own fate. In fact, the I'm Ball Murray vs. T's Mustangs match up will most likely be a win and your in, lose and you fall out of the ass crack of the league and into the toilet bowl consolation bracket game.

Breaking away from the important fantasy stuff that has happened over the past couple weeks, I want to focus on a couple things that have happened in the real games. The first thing is the RG III situation in Washington. It seems as though things have gone from bad to worse to awful to seriously can it get any worse to apparently it can to holy fuck how did this happen. After trading away the future for RG III back in 2012, the Redskins went to the playoffs and the trade seemed somewhat justified. That is till Griffin broke his self. Ever since tearing his ACL against Seattle in the playoffs that year, RG III has seemingly regressed with every game. IT has now gotten to the point where he doesn't even know when he should be taking 3 step drops or 5 step drops. His timing and accuracy are so far off he makes Tim Tebow look like an all-pro quarterback. To top things off, Griffin keeps calling out his teammates and saying that the whole team is bad and not just him. Well, reports are coming out that the whole team sucks because of him. Apparently he is a pretty boy that doesn't like to put in the work in practice. Does that really surprise anyone? I love that now even the Redskins coach, Jay Gruden, has publicly called him out and even benched him. I think if the Redskins want to get anything out of this situation, they need to trade RG III before his value drops to nothing. My twitter tells me that NFL execs say RG III could bring back a mid- round draft pick to Washington. Take it! Remember what happened the last time you didn't trade high on a "potential star quarterback". I believe his name was Captain Kirk Cousins, and that didn't turn out so well. It's time for the 'skins to cut their loses and trade RG III to the highest bidder and draft a new quarterback this year, preferably not named Marcus Mariota because he is just the second coming of RG III.

The other thing I found very interesting over the last couple weeks is the resurgence of the Seattle Seahawks defense. Thursday night their defense was as good as ever when they destroyed San Francisco, holding them to only 164 total yards. All year there have been stories coming out about how the Seahawks locker room is dysfunctional and that players don't get along anymore. Whether that is true or not is yet to be determined, but the fact is this defense is hitting it's stride at the right time. The way they were able to hold both Arizona and San Francisco to 3 points each makes me believe this defense is back to normal. It will be interesting to see how their defense matches up against the Eagles offense next week. If Seattle's defense plays well in that game, every team and fan base in the NFL should be worried. Having to play a professional football team (especially with the amount of talent that Seattle has) who has been written off for most of the season should and would be a scary thought for anybody come January.

Weekend Review: What are the Cleveland Browns?

So about a month ago I spouted off that the Browns were a good football team with an easy stretch of games in front of them. What happened? They lost to the Jaguars. So I wrote them off as being the same old Browns, but then they came back and won three in a row including a stomping of the Bengals two Thursdays ago. I thought they were back to being the good Browns again... NOPE! Just when I thought I had them figured out they come out on Sunday and get embarrassed by the Houston Texans (who somehow are only 1 game back of the Colts for the AFC South lead) at home.  Now I have no idea what to expect going forward from this team as they get back Josh Gordon. They go up against the Falcons and Bills in the next two weeks before a tough matchup with the Indianapolis Colts. It would make sense that the Browns could win the first two games before most likely losing to the Colts. But then again, if this season has taught me anything its that something dumb will happen. Whats the dumbest thing that can happen...oh I don't know maybe the Browns lose both of their next two games then inexplicably beat the Colts. Let's face it, nobody knows who this Browns team really is and what they are capable of. At this point would anything they do surprise you?

Now what I just said about the dumb thing happening in the Browns games is actually something I have noticed that is occurring at least once a week throughout the league. The theme here is find the dumbest outcome that could possibly happen in a week. Then check back after the week is over and boom it happened. Let me just recap some of my favorites... week 4: Buccaneers win at Pittsburgh, week 6: DOUBLE DUMB BONUS! Carolina and Cincinnati tie and the Browns crush the Steelers, week 8 Redskins win at Dallas, week 10: Jets beat the red-hot Steelers (if your scoring at home that's a 3 in the dumb lose column for the Steelers), and finally this week as the Rams beat down the Broncos. Not to mention if the Steelers lose tonight against the Titans, we could have another double dumb bonus which would also mean the Steelers would have four dumb loses. I believe at that point they get relegated to the Arena League. Anyways, how the hell does the dumb thing keep happening nearly every week?? Their is no way for me to explain it other than to say that the Raiders should be favored this Thursday against the Chiefs. A winless team against a 7-3 team who just beat the defending Super Bowl champs, I can smell the dumbness already.

On to the weekly review of the NFC North where we now find two ties in the division. The Packers and Lions are tied atop the division where as the Bears and Vikings are tied for last in the division (or third if you really want to be optimistic). Starting at the top, the Lions went out to Arizona where they were shut down by, in my opinion, the leagues best defense. The Lions were only able to put up 6 points in the game, which is a huge concern because of how much talent is on that team. The fact that a backup quarterback (Drew Stanton) was able to beat the Lions previously number one defense has got to be a frightening thing for Lions fans. However, for Packers fans, it was sure nice to see the Lions finally lose a close game after pulling out ridiculous wins week after week. The Packers did a little winning of their own this week, as for the second week in a row they won easily. This time, however, they played a team that was coming in hot and was supposed to be one of the top contenders in the NFC...WRONG! I know it is only two weeks but it looks like the Mark Sanchez experiment has taken a turn for the worse, just like every single player in Oregon Trail. The Packers were able to dominate all three phases of the game by scoring 4 offensive touchdowns, 2 defensive touchdowns, and a special teams touchdown. As I've said, going forward the Packers have a lot easier schedule than the Lions so it gives me every reason to believe that The Pack will be division champs once again this year. Now when it comes to the Bears and Vikings, well they played a rather ugly game on Sunday. Sure the Bears won, but did that performance really leave you thinking like the Bears have figured anything out. I know I didn't feel that way. Cutler threw his usual terrible picks but was able to connect on a couple of deep throws which was enough to outscore the stagnant Vikings offense. The Vikings actually looked like they had a chance to win this game and get back to .500, but they never seemed to be able to get it going. Good thing they play the Packers next week who will be trying to become the first team to ever put up 50 points in three straight games.

This week in funny John Madden things I would like to bring to your attention an article written to Mr. Madden about his Madden video game. The article is written by Ethan Albright, who looks like Beavis, about how he is upset at the player ratings he received in the 2007 game (which was new at the time). If you haven't read the article I would suggest you read it in a place where laughing out loud is not frowned upon as it is rather hilarious. If you have read it, it's always a good re-read to help lift your mood. Here's the link: 

http://www.woosk.com/2010/05/ethan-albrights-letter-to-john-madden-about-being-the-lowest-rated-player-in-madden-football.html 

Week 11 Waiver Pick-ups: Deadline's Approaching

So before I get into the pick-ups this week I would like to remind you all that the trade deadline is this coming Wednesday (Nov. 19) at noon. If you want to make a trade it must be accepted by whoever you are trading with by this time in order for the trade to go through. This week saw a little pre-trade deadline dealing as there were two trades to go with 11 pick-ups off the wire.

Trade #1
Baghdad Bombers: receives Julian Edelman, Marques Colston, and Phil Dawson
Show Me Them TD's: receives Denard Robinson, Keenan Allen, and Brandon McManus

So last week I needed a running back who I could sub in for the injured Gio Bernard. After sending a few trades proposals to different owners, I finally found a willing trade partner. Unfortunately it was too late for the trade to process in time so that I could use Robinson for my game last week. However, I do have another running back on my team now to help out in case Gio doesn't come back this week, Jonathon Stewart doesn't play this week, or if I want to simply start him in the flex spot. I happily able to exchange Colston for Allen in the trade (which would probably be considered a wash but I really wanted him gone). Josh got a decent receiver in Edelman that he can use in the flex spot and maybe get a spot start out of in the playoffs if he makes it there. The best part of this trade was throwing in the kickers. Both of these kickers were our back-ups so I felt it was only necessary that we exchange kickers to boost this deal. As you will see throughout this post, Josh was only interested in Edelman in this trade, but can you really blame him?

Trade #2
Rolling Meadows Mustangs: receives Alshon Jeffrey
Team Mustangs: receives Odell Beckham Jr.

Oh the Brotherly Love! This trade caught me by surprise. Both of these receivers are expected to put up double digit point efforts each week so they are definitely fantasy starters, although both of them play in struggling offenses. I was very surprised that T was willing to cut offer up Jeffrey being that he is a Bears fan, but I'm sure Zach jumped at the opportunity. Overall, if I had to give the advantage in the trade to one team or the other I would give it to Team Mustangs for one reason. The reason is Odell Beckham Jr. is the primary receiver (and also unstoppable in NCAA Football games) in the Giants offense where as Jeffrey is the second option behind Brandon Marshall in the Bears offense. Other than that, these two seem to be even. I really hope that if these two teams meet up in the playoffs, this trade is the deciding factor.

Waiver Pick-ups:
Baghdad Bombers: add Micheal Crabtree, drop Phil Dawson

That didn't take long. After getting Dawson in the trade with me, Josh went and got a player who can actually contribute to his team (he already has a kicker). Crabtree had some big games early in the season but has seen a limited number of targets lately. He does, however, have a nice meeting with the Raiders during playoff time for this league, so the Bombers may just be storing him for that moment (that is if the Bombers make the playoffs).

Smokin Blounts N Drinkin FORTEs: add Mark Sanchez, drop Lorenzo Taliaferro

I don't know if I've ever seen a quarterback be so criticized and scrutinized while on one team and then go to a different team, play one game, and be anointed as a great quarterback quite like I have with Sanchez in the past week. I think it is a major over reaction, but hey what do I know. Sanchez will at least get to play in a high powered offense that is predicated on quick short plays. The drop of Taliaferro isn't surprising, as he has lost nearly all is carries to Justin Forsett. Tom's master plan of picking up both Ravens running backs to see which one will win the job looks like it has finally paid off.

Team Mustangs: add Blair Walsh, drop Mike Nugent

NO FUCKING CLUE!

I'm Ball Murray: add Vikings D/ST, drop Matt Bryant

The thought that the Vikings defense will be a decent fantasy defense going forward puts John right on the edge of falling into the crazy pool. Sure they had some good games recently, but those were against some of the worst teams in the league. I'm glad to see John at least kept the Dolphins as his starting defense, but why drop a backup kicker for a backup defense I have no idea. Oddly enough, Matt Bryant had a great game on Sunday, going 4-4 on field goals and making an extra point, but he is unneeded since I'm Ball Murray already has Cody Parkey (who has been surprisingly great this year).

Rolling Meadows Mustangs: add Bills D/ST, drop Joe Flacco

Now that Andrew Luck's bye week is over, Zach obviously doesn't feel the need to carry a backup quarterback anymore. Rarely do you see a QB dropped for a defense, but this isn't just any defense. The Bills lead the league in sacks (I think) and are playing the Dolphins as I am typing this. Zach chose to start the Bills defense over the Seahawks this week which was a bit surprising being that the Seahawks opponent is the offensively challenged Kansas City Chiefs. As of right now, though, the Bills D/ST has only allowed 3 points at the half and has scored 11 fantasy points thanks to a fumble and a sack.


Baghdad Bombers: add Robert Griffin III, drop Marques Colston

So apparently Josh didn't really want anyone but Edelman in our trade (no surprise there, in fact I begged him to take Colston in the deal). Colston has been a major disappointment in the Saints offense, but that's what you get when you take a receiver from a team who passes to anybody. Drew Brees would pass to the ushers (not Usher) at the stadium if he could. Wait, just imagine how awesome it would be to see Usher come out of the stands to catch a pass from Drew Brees and run to the end zone singing U Got It Bad. Anyways, back to the actual reasoning behind this pick-up. I'm guessing Josh picked up RG III because he is a long lost Bomber (if you recall Josh drafted RG III and started him until the injury). Josh just couldn't handle seeing him on any other team but his own.

MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard: add Graham Gano, drop Dan Bailey

I do have a clue on this one. Bailey is on bye, so Louie needed a kicker. And for those of you wondering, yes analyzing kicker swaps is the most ridiculous thing I do every week my favorite part of these posts.

Wisconsin ArcticCats: add Packers D/ST

This move is brought to you by the national federation of Gunnar have no clue how to use the waiver wire. On top of that the Packers play a strong offensive team in the Philadelphia Eagles, so this is a bit of a questionable pick-up. However, his other option would be starting the Panthers D/ST and after Monday night's game, just about any defense would be better than that.

Smokin Blounts N Drinkin FORTEs: add C.J. Anderson, drop Cam Newton

This just in, Cam Newton has been replaced by the kid in his NFL Play 60 commercial. At least that kid can be Mrs. Newton's favorite player, and Mr. Newton's (Cam's father) favorite player for that matter too, that is if he pays somewhere between $120,000-$180,000. Cam simply looked beat up on Monday night and I wouldn't be surprised if the Panthers pulled him off the field soon as this is starting to get out of control. Since coming into the league, Cam has been hit almost twice as much as any other quarterback. He is finally learning, or at least feeling, that just because he is big, it doesn't mean he can withstand being hit by defensive lineman over and over again. The pick-up of C.J. Anderson is interesting because he is the third string running back in Denver. However, with the current injuries to Hillman and Ball, Anderson will most likely get at least this week to put up some solid fantasy points.

Baghdad Bombers: add Steelers D/ST, drop Cowboys D/ST

This move was made because the Cowboys are on bye this week. The Steelers play the Titans, who are just above a pee wee team when it comes to offensive efficiency, so this should turn out to be a good pick-up.


Baghdad Bombers: add Mychal Rivera, drop Owen Daniels

Daniels is on bye, but the real issue here is who the hell is Mychal Rivera? My only guess is that its the girl from that Spanish soap opera that Joe Buck and Troy Aikman are doing advertisements for.

Week 10 Recaps: Top 5, Bottom 5

In this week's game, 4 of the 5 teams with the worse record ended up winning. The most notable outcome from this week was Zach losing his perfect season. That's where we will begin.

Baghdad Bombers 114
Rolling Meadows Mustangs 75

For the first time all season Zach lost a game. The sad part about this is that the reason Zach lost was because he had a ton of players on bye. Before getting into the stats of this game, I would like to congratulate Zach on his impressive run to start this year in defense of his title. Now when it comes to the game, Josh outscored Zach at every position outside of tight end. Every player, besides Owen Daniels, had between 11-18 points for the Bombers (Emmanuel Sanders was the player with 15). It was that kind of consistency that was too much to overcome for Zach, who only had 3 players in double digits, with the highest scorer on his team being Jared Cook with 14. As I mentioned Zach's team was crushed by the bye weeks this past weekend so there were no bench players that would have made much of a difference in this game. Going forward, Zach plays MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard next week in a game which he can be the first team to clinch a playoff spot. Josh, on the other hand, are tied for the 3rd playoff spot with the win and goes up against me next week. Even though my time actually played decent this week, he will probably win and get to shove the fact that he now has Phillip Rivers in my face.

How is Jordy always this open down field?

Show Me Them TD's 126
Kalamazoo Red Hawks 56

I said last week that I would be extremely upset if I lost to Chris because he isn't even paying attention to his team. Well thank God I won! Not only did I win but I won easily, thanks mostly to Jordy Nelson (27) and the Cardinals defense (25). I did get a zero from Terrance Williams, but Chris got one from Zac Stacy on top of starting two players who were on bye. On the benches, Chris has Ray Rice and no hope. I've come to the realization that Chris will no longer be in this league next year unless by some miraculous ray of magic he decides to be a competent owner. Anyways, heading into next week, Chris plays John and has two players on bye... so congrats on your win and improvement to 7-4 next week John. Meanwhile, I play Josh as I mentioned in the last post, so he will probably improve to 7-4 as well.

Multiple Scoregasms 102
MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard 89

Thanks to Jay Cutler, Larry Donnell, and Micheal Floyd having terrible games, MAJD BTSY lost this game to the last place Scoregasms and now falls into a three way tie for last place (do to tie breakers Jason is still in last, Louie is now in 9th, and I'm in 8th). The Scoregasms can thank Dez Bryant for this week's win as he put up 27 points to go along with 17 from Eddie Lacy and 15 from Anquan Boldin. Louie did have a huge game from the Eagles D/ST (31), but other than that there were no great performances on the team. When it comes to the benches of both of these teams, bye weeks ruled supreme. A combined 7 of the 14 bench players were on bye, along with Louie having a suspended Josh Gordon on his bench. Looking forward from here, Louie gets to play the team formally known as the undefeated reigning champ, who will have their full roster back... have fun with that. Jason, however, gets to play 6-4 Gunnar next week. To make matters worse for Jason, both Dez Bryant and Steve Smith Sr. will be on bye so he is going to need big games from backup receivers like DeSean Jackson and either Kennan Allen or Andre Johnson.

Forget losing by 41 points in real life, Brandon helped John win his game!
And that's all that really matters right?

I'm Ball Murray 89
Smokin Blounts N Drinkin FORTEs 82

In this epic battle of male partners, John successfully kept pace in the playoff race while also practically eliminating Tom's playoff chances. With the outcome of this game there are now only 5 teams that seem to have a shot at the 4 playoff spots, while the bottom 5 teams get to wait and see who joins us in the consultation/ toilet tournament. Back to what actually happened in this game, Tom actually had the top two performers in this game, Martavis Bryant (20) and Julius Thomas (18). However, John had more double digit scorers. The biggest difference in this matchup was the flex position where John started Brandon Marshall who scored 15, where as Tom started Ronnie Hillman who only scored 1 because he got hurt. The unfortunate aspect of this game for Tom was that he had a couple of good performances on his bench that would have won him this matchup (Justin Forsett had 23 points and Brandin Cooks had 15 points). Next week, Tom will try to ruin T's Mustangs playoffs chances with and upset, while John has as close to an automatic victory as their is in fantasy football against the Kalamazoo Red Hawks.

He went Beast Mode this week

Wisconsin ArcticCats 100
Team Mustangs 99

In what was obviously the closest game of the week, Gunnar pulled out a crucial win and now find himself back on top of the West division and in the 2nd seed. With the loss, T missed his opportunity to move one step closer to taking control of the division and clinching his playoff spot, now he will have to fight like hell for it for the last 3 weeks. The big story in this game was that Gunnar was able to over come a -6 spot from the Panthers defense and having a kicker on bye to win. If you recall, last week Gunnar had two players on bye and still beat John. I really want to be mad at Gunnar but as long as he keeps winning this way I can't be. He was lucky enough to get a 40 point performance from Marshawn Lynch to cover his ass this week. Looking at T's Mustangs, there were a lot of solid scores but the one decision that cost him the game was leaving the Ravens defense on the bench in favor for the Broncos defense. The Ravens D/ST scored 6 more points than the Broncos did which would have obviously propelled T to victory. However, T does get to face a couple 4-6 teams in the next couple weeks before his season ending showdown with John, which may be the game that decided who makes it into the playoffs and who falls to that unlucky 5th spot. The funny thing is, record-wise Gunnar has an even easier remaining schedule. he play two 4-6 teams and a 3-7 team. It looks like Gunnar is in a good position to run the table and win the West division, which means he would take the 2nd seed in the playoffs.

Weekend Review: Are the Cardinals Screwed?

So last week my boss called a meeting with my department to discuss the fact that our production is down because everyone has been spending time doing non-work things at work. Therefore he fired one person whose production was worse than awful and told the rest of us that he was going to be watching more closely at what we do and tracking our production, which is why I'm writing this post at 10 o'clock at night instead of at work. I will no longer be able to write the posts at work (you know, cause I'd like to keep my job) so there is no guarantee when the posts will be written but I will try to do them when I get home at night as long as I don't have a shit ton of homework. Anyways, now that I got that out of the way, on to the actual post.

Coming into this weekend, the Arizona Cardinals were thought of as one of the best teams in the NFL. Though they won, they lost the most important player on their team, Carson Palmer. Everyone know that quarterback is the most important position in football, especially in recent years. While Drew Stanton has enjoyed success early in the year, it's hard to believe that he will be able to lead this team deep in the playoffs. The Cardinals have a great defense that will win them some games but there will be games that require Stanton and the offense to put up 30 or more points and it's just not realistic to ask that from a guy who has only attempted 280 career passes, with 8 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. The most likely scenario is the Cardinals find a way to squeak into the playoffs as a wild card and lose the first round. The most unfortunate thing for the Cardinals is that if Palmer would have stayed healthy and they got the top seed, they could have had the unique opportunity of having home field advantage throughout the playoffs including the Super Bowl, which is hosted in Arizona this year. At least they gave him a $50 million contract extension last week.

Two other quick notes about the weekend before I get into the NFC North review, how the hell did the Jets beat the previously red hot Steelers and how are the Falcons, at 3-6 I may add, only one game out of first place in the NFC South. The Steelers looked like they were on their way to being a strong contender in the AFC after Ben Rapethisburger threw for 23854 touchdowns in two games, yet somehow they only had 6 points with about 3 minutes left in the game thanks to turnovers by Big Ben and Antonio Brown. They did score a crazy touchdown at the end to pull the game close before losing at the end because they were offsides when they recovered the onside kick. I wish I could have watched the whole game, because this makes absolutely no sense to me. Oh holy shit I just realized something, not only are we living in a world where the Detroit Lions are in sole possession of first place, but the Cleveland Browns are in first in their division two. This is a joke isn't it? Where are you Ashton? When it comes to the Falcons only being a game out, I don't even know what to say. They have looked like one of the worst teams in the league and it looked like their coach would for sure be fired at the end of the year. Now they have the chance to beat the Panthers this week, and if the Saints lose, the 4-6 Falcons would be leading the division. Seriously what the fuck!? I never thought I'd say this but I believe the NFC South is now without a doubt the worst division in the NFL.

So this was separation week in the NFC between the top two teams and the bottom two teams. Starting at the top, the Lions pulled off another comeback win over the Dolphins, making that three on the season (vs. Saints and Falcons as well). The Lions look like they are finally more disciplined and may be able to live up to their potential for the first time since 2011, when the made the playoffs and got smoked by the Saints. These come from behind wins are games that the old Lions would have lost, yet Jim Caldwell has this team believing they can win any game they are in. The scary thing is that the Lions are finally starting to get healthy (although Reggie Bush got hurt again on Sunday), so now their star filled roster will be even better. With only 7 games remaining for each team in the division, the Lions look to be in a race with only the Packers for the division, and it may just come down to their week 17 meeting in Lambeau. Speaking of the Packers, they destroyed the Bears on Sunday night in a game that was practically over halfway through the first quarter. Chicago’s defense was awful as always, and Jay Cutler was awful as always against the Packers. I’ve said it multiple times in these posts so I’m not going to spend too much time harping on it again, but Jay Cutler isn’t a competent quarterback. He has incredible talent around him and a supposed quarterback guru in Marc Trestman and yet he has not gotten any better, in fact he seems to be getting worse. Chicago simply looked like they quit after getting down 14 early and from then on it was just an embarrassment for them. The Packers, on the other hand, played a great game, although I would say a majority of the credit for this game goes to the Bears being awful. However, Rodgers did have two touchdown passes in the first half that only him and a handful of other quarterbacks can make to help give the Packers the lead from the start. Going forward the Packers have a schedule that works out very nicely compared to the Lions. The Pack have only 3 road games, at Buffalo, Minnesota, and Tampa Bay, none of which are terribly difficult games. They do have a few tough home games like this week against the Eagles, but any time they are in Lambeau they are expected to win. Whereas the Lions still have to go to Arizona, to New England, to Chicago (I’m imagining by week 16 they can’t be this terrible), and to Green bay on the last week of the season. I fan in me has every reason to believe that the Packers will end up winning the division and the Lions will end up in a wild card spot heading into the playoffs. The other team in the division, the Vikings, were on bye this week. As I’ve said before, they have a tough schedule going forward so unless they pull off some very surprising upsets, the Vikings will not be battle with the Packers and Lions for the division title. But hey, they might finish higher than the Bears, and who would’ve guessed that coming into the year?

This week in awesome John Madden things, I found some old quotes from him when he was broadcasting games. Here they are in no particular order of awesomeness:

“Now here’s a guy that can throw the ball to another guy and have him catch it sometimes.”

“Their either going to run the ball here or maybe pass.”

“The way to gain yards is to advance the ball down the field from the line of scrimmage.”

“There’s a lot of letters in LaDanian Tomlinson.”

“Ruben Brown made that play there… well I mean he missed the guy completely but he was able to create just enough room for Thomas Jones by whiffing. The air he created on the miss gave Jones enough space to score.”

And my personal favorite:

“Mark Brunell usually likes to soak his balls before a rainy game”

Week 10 Waiver Pick-ups: Holy Shit There's a Ton

Similar to what Louie said last week, when I took a look at the waiver pick-ups on Wednesday morning the first though that came to my mind was holy shit! Many teams made multiple moves, with Josh leading the way with 4 transactions. Here they are:

MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard: add Adrian Peterson, drop Brandon Oliver

Brandon Oliver was arguably the hottest pickup of the year in fantasy football a few weeks ago, but with the other Chargers backs getting healthy and going into a bye week this week it was apparently time for Louie to make a change. The pickup of AP is interesting because it is a total gamble because nobody knows if he will play again this year. But then again, that may not matter to Louie. Given his record, this may have simply been a move to add a player to have as a keeper. Taking a look at his roster, the only other player even close to keeper status is Demaryius Thomas, but even he probably wouldn't go till the 2nd or third round. When AP comes back he will be a top fantasy running back again, so this is without a doubt a solid move for the future.

Smokin Blunts N Drinkin FORTEs: add Martavis Bryant, drop Isiah Crowell

After missing the first 6 games of the season, Bryant has put up double digits in each of the following 3 weeks. Bryant has been the beneficiary of a few out this world performances by Big Ben. This week the Steelers play the traveling idiot show that is the Jets, who also have a terrible secondary, so there's every reason to believe another double digit performance is on the way. Crowell was an interesting add early in the year when the Browns backfield was a mess. However now that Ben Tate and Terrance West are back and have taken over the top two spots on the depth chart, there is no room for Crowell. Crowell may get 1 or 2 carries a game on a good day so there it makes perfect sense to drop him.

Baghdad Bombers: add Cowboys D/ST, drop Bengals D/ST

The Cowboys are playing the Jaguars this week, the end.

Wisconsin ArcticCats: add Shuan Suisham, drop Victor Cruz and Bernard Pierce

I'm still convinced Gunnar has no clue how to use the waiver wire system. Once again he dropped two players on Tuesday and only picked up 1 on Wednesday. At least both of the players he dropped won't be making a contribution to his team anyways. I was glad to see Victor Cruz finally get dropped because I was beginning to question whether Gunnar had fallen victim to Dr. Panda disease after last week where you keep players on your bench who won't play all year and start players who are on a bye. Thank God he hasn't, and with the pick up of Shaun Suisham, he will have a full starting roster once again.

Money, money, money....MONEY!

Team Mustangs: add Mike Evans, drop Andrew Hawkins

Both of these two players have been hot and cold all year after. Since being drafted 7th overall in this years NFL draft, Evans has been a decent 2nd option next to Vincent Jackson. However, last week he had a huge game, going off for 24 fantasy points, and Hawkins finally cooled off after he put up 25 points total in the previous two weeks. With the return of Calvin Johnson, T may not need Evans after this week (T.Y. Hilton is on bye for T) but a spot start for the 6' 5" receiver against a terrible Falcons pass defense may be just enough to propel his Mustangs to victory over the ArcticCats this week in what is being projected as a close game.

Rolling Meadows Mustangs: add Jared Cook, drop Robbie Gould

This move needed to be made for two reasons. First of all, Zach needed a tight end to fill in for Dwayne Allen who is on bye. Secondly, because he was carrying 2 kickers following Robbie Gould's bye week last week. It is notable that Zach is dropping Gould and sticking with Hauschka going forward after Zach had been rolling with Gould all year. It does, however, make sense because Hauschka is averaging 9 points a game, where as Gould is only averaging 5.5 points a game so far this season.

Smokin Blounts N Drinkin FORTEs: add Lions D/ST, drop Vikings D/ST

So this move was made based off the fact that the Vikings are on bye this week and, you know, the Lions have the best statistical defense in the league to this point. I wouldn't be surprised to see this pick-up end up being the every week defense for Tom going forward.

Baghdad Bombers: add Matt Asiata, drop Doug Martin

This one has to sting a little being that Josh drafted the muscle hamster in the second round this year. Unfortunately he has not been healthy, and even when he is healthy he splits time with Bobby Rainey. Matt Asiata on the other hand is a red zone machine. Usually, Asiata doesn't get a ton of carries throughout the game unless it's a short yard situation. However, stealing the red zone touches from Jerick McKinnon helps make Asiata valuable. Last week was a great example of this as he only had 10 carries for 26 yards, but he had 3 touchdowns which tallied up to 25 fantasy points. Asiata is on bye this week, but moving forward he could be a good fill in starter for the Bombers.

Team Mustangs: add Mike Nugent, drop Blair Walsh

Bye week = Kicker swap

Rolling Meadows Mustangs: add Odell Beckham Jr., drop Wes Welker

I don't know if he is afraid to go across the middle now, or if Peyton is just afraid to throw him the ball, but Wes Welker has been non-existent this year. Looking at the 6 games he has actually played in, he is averaging just over 4 points a game, a far cry from the player he used to be before all his concussion issues. Odell Beckham Jr has now become the best option for Eli Manning now that Victor Cruz is out for the season. He has put up double digits games in 3 of the last 4 games (he didn't play the first four weeks). This was not a pick-up of a guy that Zach needed to start, but instead it was simply a move to better his bench in case he has an injury or needs to insert a new receiver into his lineup. Smooth move by a guy on the path to perfection.

Baghdad Bombers: add Owen Daniels, drop Zach Ertz

Daniels was a beast for the Badgers

The production from Ertz has been continuously dropping over the past couple weeks and now with Nick Foles out, who knows what kind of numbers he will put up with Sanchize. The weird thing about this pick-up is that Owen Daniels has been equally as quite over the past few weeks. I'm not really sure what Josh is going for here outside of maybe looking at who each team plays this week (Daniels plays Tennessee, Ertz plays Carolina). Lucky for Josh, this will only matter for one week since he has Rob Gronkowski (bye week) sitting on his bench.

Baghdad Bombers: add Brandon McManus, drop Kendall Wright

McManus was the kicker and punter at Temple

Kendall Wright has been hot and cold over the last couple weeks, but I was surprised to see Josh drop him after he called me and said how great Wright had been playing just a couple weeks ago. Now he did need a kicker for this week since Adam Vinatieri is on bye, so that's why he picked up McManus. However, I believe it might have been a better move to drop Doug Baldwin instead of Wright. Either way, both of those receivers are close to equal and one had to go, so Josh becomes a little thinner at a position where he already had two solid starters. He should be fine, and maybe just maybe McManus will hit a couple bombs against Oakland and help Josh end Zach's perfect season.

Week 9 Recaps: He's Broken The Record

So throughout the last couple of weeks I have mentioned that Zach's incredible unbeaten streak is reaching towards record breaking. This week he finally broke the record. Outside of that game there were a lot o low scoring games. On to the recaps:

Rolling Meadows Mustangs  112
Show Me Them TD's 98

All Zach has done since winning the league title last year is start this season by going 9-0, which has now broken the record for best start to a season. The theme of his season has now changed from how many games until he reaches the record, to now counting down the games left in the season to see if he can complete the perfect 13-0 regular season. In this matchup, Zach got a huge game from Andrew Luck (30) last night in order to pull out the win. In fact, for a while on Sunday it looked like I was going to have a chance to end the streak and pull of one of the biggest upsets in league history. The part of this that really irritates me is that I would have won against ANY OTHER TEAM IN THE LEAGUE THIS WEEK!! But as Luck would have it, I played the highest scoring team. I had a few good performances from players this week, Julian Edelman (20), Alfred Morris (22), Carson Palmer (19), but Zach had six players in double figures. Along with the previously mentioned Luck, Zach also received 17 points from Arian Foster, before his injury which may becasue for concern for Zach's perfect season hopes, and 12 from both the Seahawks defense and Stevan Hauschka. Looking at my bench, if I would have started Marques Colston and Reggie Wayne over Kelvin Benjamin and Terrance Williams I would have tied Zach which would have mad me even more mad than losing to him. If he's going to go undefeated, I want it to be a true 13-0 (in the regular season) rather than 12-0-1. Zach had a nice game from Eric Decker (12) that was left on the bench in this one. This game practically eliminates me from playoff contention. I have no way to explain to you just how humiliating being 2-7 and out of the playoff hunt by the beginning of November is. It just flat out sucks. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that this is my 5th straight loss, so ya there's that streak too. Looking at the hope for perfection, Zach has probably his toughest test this coming week against Josh. RMHS has a lot of star player's on bye (Luck, Foster, Dwayne Allen) and once Josh, who also has a lot of guys on bye, puts his players in the Bomber's will be favored. In fact, Zach's undefeated mustangs are considered the underdog by ESPN in each of his last four games as of right now. Anyways, now that Zach is done playing me for the season, I am cheering for the perfect season for Zach and a possible playoff matchup against his twin brother which could be epic. Only 4 more regular season games to go...

Team Mustangs  96
MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard  88

This was the closest game of the week. T's Mustangs have retaken the lead in the West division and 2nd overall in the league with this win. He better be sending Mark Ingram a thank you letter for his game Thursday night, putting up 23 fantasy points, which was TM's best performance of the week. T also got some nice performances from his other two running backs (21 total points) and his tight end, Travis Kelce (12). Once again, T finds a way to win while the best player on his team (Calvin Johsnon) is out with an injury.Looking at the other side of this matchup, Louie got another good game from Tom Brady (27) and nice contributions from both receivers (29 total), however nobody else was able to crack double digits and help the team win what was a big game for Louie. With the lose, MAJD BTSY falls two games back of a playoff spot with 4 games to go so he is going to have to win out and get some help if he want to be competing for the title. When looking at Louie's bench, there was nobody that would have helped him win this matchup. Josh Gordon is still waiting on the bench for Louie, but by the time he comes back it most likely won't matter. Next week ,T will try to hold on to his 2nd overall spot in the league when he goes up against the 5-4 ArcticCats owned by Gunnar. Meanwhile, Louie has a winnable game against Jason's 2-7 Scoregasms, who still are in last place after their loss this week (thank god!).

Wisconsin ArcticCats  83
I'm Ball Murray  73

In the last recap I mentioned that T's Mustangs are in now in first place in the West division with their win. It was also thanks to I'm ball Murray losing to Gunnar's ArctcCats this week, which not only dropped John below T but also he fell below Gunnar now. With the lose, John went from being in 2nd in the league to 5th. The way Gunnar beat John this week was very odd. For starters, John only had two players put up double digit scores and he was hurt by the Nick Foles injury. In fact if Foles played the whole game John most likely would have won. he is also still holding on to hope that Cordarrelle Patterson will be a decent fantasy player again. Unfortunately for John, if the overthrown pass to Patterson I talked about yesterday was on target, it would have been at least 11 fantasy points and I'm Ball Murray would have pulled out the close victory. Now what makes this lose hard to fathom, is that Gunnar started two players who are on bye! Now normally I would complain about this and say that he needs to get his act together, but he won so I guess his strategy worked. But I will be watching this closely next week. For this week though, Gunnar was lucky that Antonio Brown, Marshawn Lynch, and Stephan Gostowkski all had huge games this week. Looking at John's bench, there was literally nothing he could have done to improve his score. All his players were either on bye or injured (that's impressive John, I don't know if I've ever seen that before). Next week, Gunnar has the previously mentioned matchup against T for a chance to take over 1st place in the West division. John on the other hand has an epic duel with his man partner Tom which if he won could put him in a tie for first (if Gunnar also wins over T) but  I'm sure more importantly to John, he could practically eliminate Tom from playoff contention.

Smokin Blunts N Drinkin FORTEs  95
Kalamazoo Red Hawks  69

Hurray! Tom doesn't have to see his embarrassing photo this week thanks to Chris' inability to be a competent fantasy football owner. Chris had one player in his starting lineup on bye and still has Ray Rice on his team so I'm not going to talk about him at all cause he sucks eggs. Tom on the other hand had the third highest point total of the week (behind Zach and I) because of big games from Andre Ellington (18), Ronnie Hillman (17), and Mohammed Sanu (15). In fact the only poor performance on Tom's team was Bandin Cooks' 3 point game against the Panthers last Thursday night. Next week Tom has the previously mentioned game against John. If Tom wins next week he would even the season series with John and also be tied with John for 3rd in the West division heading into the final three weeks of the season. Chris plays me this coming week...if he beats me with bye players and Ray Rice still on his team, I might go all Christohper McCandless and disappear, ever to be seen again.

Baghdad Bombers  80
Multiple Scoregasms  58

Josh got a nice -3 from Philip Rivers and was still able to beat Jason by 22 points. This game wasn't so much that Josh had a good game, but instead that Jason had a horrifically bad game. The Scoregasms got zero contribution from Knile Davis, and outside of DeSean Jackson's 18 points, the rest of the team was awful. When I clicked on the show bench button, I almost got sick. Jason had three huge performances left on the bench, the largest of which was Jeremy Hill's 27 points. Just moving Hill in for Davis would have won the game for Jason. The most notable benched player was on Josh's bench, where he sat Ben Rapethisburger. His 35 points would have been just a bit better than Rivers' already mentioned -3. All in all, i'm glad Jason continues to lose with me so that I'm not awful by myself. Looking forward I already talked about both of these teams games, Josh plays the undefeated reigning champ Zach while Jason plays the also struggling MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard.

Weekend Review: Bye Weeks Suck

I really hate bye weeks, especially when they wipe out 3/4 of the NFC North teams. Because of all the bye week teams, I found myself watching more of the Lauren Hill basketball game (which was incredible) than the noon games. The Vikings/ Redskins game wasn't very intriguing to me until the 4th quarter and the other game on my television was that awful beat down of the San Diego Chargers. To make matters worse, when the Chargers game got out of hand, CBS switched over to the Chiefs/ Jets game which was just as much of an embarrassment. Any team that has Matt Simms at quarterback deserves to be 1-8. In fact out of all the noon games, there were no "must watch" games like there normally are (if Romo was healthy, the Cardinals/ Cowboys game would have qualified).

Now when it came to the late games, I was interested in watching Manning/ Brady 16. Unfortunately, the game was practically over by halftime. Like most of their battles, Brady out-played Manning on his way to leading the Patriots to a big win. The Patriots now have the best record in the AFC and would own the tie breaker over the Broncos, who are considered to be their competition for that top seed. After that awful game against the Chiefs a month ago, the Patriots have looked like a totally different team, thanks in large part to Gronk finally being completely healthy. They still have a few tough games left on their schedule, especially an important game for playoff seeding against the Colts in two weeks, but right now the Patriots look like the Patriots of old, as much as I hate to say it. I hope you all enjoyed that one week of bash Tom Brady and the Patriots while it lasted. Another quick point about the late games was how close the other two games were. First, the Seahawks barely beat the winless Raiders at home. Though the Raiders are getting better, I think this shows that the Seahawks are struggling to find themselves after all the turmoil with Percy Harvin, Marshawn Lynch, and Russell Wilson. With the way the Arizona Cardinals are playing, it looks like the Seahawks will have to be a wild card team if they make the playoffs, which means they would have to do something they struggle mightily at. Play on the road. The other game, between two of the Seahawks division rivals, turned out to be, in my opinion, the best game of the day. I'm always a sucker for a good defensive battle, and this game was just that. Both the Rams and 49ers struggled to move the ball (the Rams didn't even get to 200 total yards). Yet the St. Louis Rams, in accompaniment with the officials and great winning voodoo of Austin Davis, found a way to win the game 13-10. They should send a thank you letter to Colin Kaepernick as well as the officials for how the end of the game went down. It was still fun to see the 49ers lose though, so it was fine by me.

It's tough to tell, but I think that's a touchdown.

When it comes to the weekly look at the NFC North, yesterday was the one Sunday this football season that I was absolutely dreading. The week the Packers, Lions, and Bears don't play. It didn't even feel like a football Sunday without them. Now the Vikings did play, so they are the only team I can really talk about this week. Once again they found a way to win a close game against an even opponent. Like last week, however, Teddy Bridgewater was rather underwhelming yesterday. He missed a few long passes, none worse than over throwing a wide open Cordaralle Patterson in the first quarter that would have been an easy touchdown. Bridgewater's final stats did end up looking fairly decent, 26/42 for 268 yards and a touchdown. The Vikings now head into a bye week at a surprising 4-5 on the year and for now, they are not in last in the division. The last 7 games for the Vikings look difficult, outside of playing the Jets' traveling idiot show in week 14, but if they can stay competitive in some of those games, it will help build experience for the future.

So I decided to add a small segment on the weekend review posts called funny John Madden things. This week I would like to draw your attention to these illustrations of plays drawn by Mr. Madden (who may or may not be the Cub's new manager's long lost brother).















And what the hell is going on here?