Re: 2NFL - ESPN Insider Writeups, etc. 4 New Articles Added 10/6/06)
Re: 2NFL - ESPN Insider Writeups, etc. 4 New Articles Added 10/6/06)
McNabb, and everyone else
posted: Monday, October 9, 2006 | Feedback | Print Entry
filed under: Fantasy NFL
How low scoring was Week 5 in fantasy football? Well, let's just say there are going to be a lot of close, low scoring games in fantasy football this week. It's possible the Monday night game could provide big numbers, but the Ravens are involved. Really, what are the chances? Can you see
Steve McNair throwing for 300 yards? Or<!--##FRONTSTOP##-->
Jake Plummer?
How bad was it in comparison to other weeks?
In Week 1, five players had 22 or more points, led by
Frank Gore.
In Week 2, 10 players and a defense had 22 or more points, seven of them quarterbacks.
In Week 3, seven players scored 22 or more, with
Brian Westbrook getting 35.
And in Week 4, seven players and a defense scored 24 or more, and two of them reached 35.
So that's 29 players in four weeks to reach at least 22 points, and some topped 30. This week? Um, well, there's Donovan McNabb and the Jaguars defense and that's it. McNabb scored 28 fantasy points with his big day against the Cowboys, and the Jags got a shutout. Third place? Um, there's
Fred Taylor and another defense, then future Hall of Famers
Damon Huard,
Robbie Gould and
Hank Baskett. I'm not making this up. Win this week 56-52, and that's OK. Last week with all the points I had a team score 122 points, and it lost. It happens.
The win is the important thing, and I think there's some irony in that all week long, all the attention was on
Terrell Owens and the Philly fans, how would he be treated, what would T.O. do after he scored, etc. It's nuts. And then we fast forward to the fourth quarter and see Owens yelling at his coaches and teammates, and there's McNabb scoring all the points and getting the win. Just get the win.
Let's go through the games, starting with the big one, since after that there's not a ton of fantasy scoring to discuss.
Eagles 38, Cowboys 24: The big story in fantasy was not Owens or McNabb leading into the game, but whether Brian Westbrook would or would not play. He did play, but didn't look like himself, which isn't surprising. He missed last week, and as soon as the win was secure, there was immediate (and, according to Westbrook himself unsubstantiated) conjecture that Westbrook would have his troublesome knee scoped this week and sit the next three games, then return in Week 10. It makes sense, if it happens. Can Westbrook go on like this all season, not practicing and playing in pain? The Eagles are 4-1, not a safe 4-1, but the way McNabb is playing, maybe it's wise to get Westbrook fixed for December. More on this story to come in the next few days.
MVP: Not only was McNabb the MVP of this game, he's the MVP of the season in the NFL so far. Who else? Sure, the Colts and Bears haven't lost, but you think
Peyton Manning or
Rex Grossman are more valuable? Manning doesn't have the numbers. Grossman has the best defense. It's McNabb. He entered the week a startling 26 fantasy points ahead of anyone else, and best I can tell with quick math, that lead will now be 39 points over the next guy, Grossman. If you have McNabb, you'd better be 4-1, at least.
LVP: Well, this isn't personal, but for all the pregame talk, Owens caught only three passes, and dropped plenty more.
Drew Bledsoe was no prize either with three interceptions, but at least he ran for a score. Nothing to worry about here, as Dallas can clearly move the ball effectively and Bledsoe, 100-yard rusher
Julius Jones, a pair of receivers and tight end
Jason Witten all have significant fantasy value.
Interesting:
Donte' Stallworth was inactive again, but at least fantasy owners had enough of a hint that would happen going in. Who's this Hank Baskett fella? It's a great story, but in reality the Philly wide receiver crew is a shared situation. Baskett caught the 87-yard touchdown, but last week
Greg Lewis scored twice and next week there might be another hero. Philly wide receivers are much like New England's, you shouldn't depend on them in fantasy, yet the team wins. I could write yet again that McNabb was a top five fantasy quarterback for years before Owens showed up, but you know this already, right? Right?!?
Chiefs 23, Cardinals 20: Solid effort for newbie
Matt Leinart, who completed his first six passes, two for touchdowns, and drove the team to what could have been a game-tying field goal in the final seconds. Can't blame Leinart for this and if you haven't cut
Kurt Warner yet, do it this week. He's not getting this job back. Maybe the Redskins end up trading for him, who knows.
MVP: Damon Huard continues to be very effective in not only the short game, but the entire game. This week he had only 12 incompletions and only McNabb threw for more yards. Impressive. I've been saying for more than a week that it wouldn't surprise me if the Chiefs aren't rushing
Trent Green back, but everyone in the know tells me that's crazy, that the minute Green is cleared to return, he starts. Huard has played pretty well, hasn't he? Of course the schedule gets tougher the next few weeks, and nobody wants Green to have a setback, but don't ignore Huard on your waiver wire if the reason is because you think he's lose the job any week now. Might not happen.
LVP:
Tony Gonzalez owners are angry yet again, as their difference making tight end is making no difference at all. One catch? One stinkin' catch? C'mon,
Ernie Conwell and
Visanthe Shiancoe had more catches. Who? Exactly. If Huard was bad, which he's clearly not, then he would be leaning more heavily on Gonzalez. But that's not happening. Gonzalez isn't even a guaranteed start any more. Sad.
Interesting: Check out the starting running backs here and it's odd but,
Edgerrin James is the one who did OK, and
Larry Johnson did not, even though Johnson had more points. Johnson's expectations remain through the roof, but without the offensive line's help, he's just not the same running back. Last week he needed 30 carries to get to 101 yards in a blowout win, and this week he gets 2.3 yards per carry, with none reaching 10 yards. And there's no indication he's hurt. He did break a 78-yard reception and, on a separate play, catch a touchdown. Great. Now he's
Reggie Bush? Can't deal him, just gotta wait. And Edge did exactly what we expect, but to reach double digit fantasy points, his owners aren't angry. Odd.
49ers 34, Raiders 20: I'm pleased
Alex Smith bounced back with a nice game. No, his yards don't knock you out, but he threw only four incompletions and had three touchdowns, impressive numbers. He didn't over-rely on
Antonio Bryant, either. Nice game. He's making strides, and Week 4 looks like a blip. As for the Oakland quarterbacks, do you think
Aaron Brooks even wants to come back and play?
MVP: Frank Gore had some impressive numbers in this one. The most impressive? The number zero, for the fumbles. He rushed for 134 yards and caught the ball, and
Michael Robinson offered little, including at the goal line.
LVP: What Raiders would you pick here? The quarterbacks? Who, in their right mind, would have used a Raider QB?
LaMont Jordan did OK with 71 yards on too few carries.
Randy Moss scored again. It's probably Bryant, Robinson and
Eric Johnson from the San Fran side.
Interesting: Before you get any ideas about using the 49ers defense in fantasy, since they did have four interceptions Sunday, note that this was the last ranked fantasy defense entering the week, having not picked off any passes and having allowed the most points in the NFL.
Jaguars 41, Jets 0: OK, I was wrong. I don't know why the Jets played right with the Colts through and through, but the Colts handled the Jags, and then the Jets couldn't even score at Jacksonville. And it was ugly.
Chad Pennington threw three interceptions. Fred Taylor looked like Jim Brown. How could the Jets have been so competitive, maybe surprisingly so, then done this? Were they Yankees fans?
MVP: Taylor rushed for 111 yards and scored, and similar to the situation in New England, the older guy is going to keep getting the carries.
Maurice Jones-Drew scored twice on short runs, but there's room for both guys in fantasy lineups.
LVP: This is the second time this season a dominating defensive effort in a shutout still featured the losing team having a surprise 100-yard rusher. The first time was Week 1 when
Ahman Green did it on the Bears. But for
Leon Washington to do it, what does that say about
Kevan Barlow? And just when so many fantasy owners were convinced that Barlow was worth playing, since he had scored four touchdowns in the first four games. Nobody had more. Now it looks like Barlow, who was really Mr. Negative with four carries for minus one yard and one reception for another minus yard, is bench material for the Jets, and you. Go get Washington.
Interesting: I had
Byron Leftwich in a league and while the two touchdowns are nice, man, I needed more than 140 yards. I find irony in Leftwich and
Tom Brady each throwing for the same amount of yards and touchdowns. Every so often Leftwich has a big game, like Brady, but more often than not it's just about the victory.
OK, and now to the 1 p.m. ET games.
Bears 40, Bills 7: OK, this one was pretty bad, so why I thought the Bills would make this competitive, I don't know. I thought
J.P. Losman had shown improvement this season. The Bills defense had done a good job. But the Bears steamrolled them. It was embarrassing, 40-0 until the final minute. And that just angered those with the Bears D in fantasy. Oooh, that shutout would have been sweet.
MVP: Can someone give this Robbie Gould guy some credit? I checked the fantasy leaderboard after the early games and it was led by the Vikings defense and a kicker, Gould. Ol' Robbie is now 17-for-17 in field goal attempts after nailing four more Sunday. Remember
Neil Rackers from last year? Gould's gonna smash those numbers. It's either Gould or the defense for MVP honors; Rex Grossman, who I finally called a weekly play a few days ago, didn't need to do much, but sprinkled two touchdowns in with his 182 yards.
LVP: I didn't expect much more from
Willis McGahee, so his 50 yards is no big disappointment (it is nice to see the four receptions). It's gotta be Losman, who had a negative fantasy day until the touchdown pass to
Lee Evans. But it's impossible to judge Losman based on the opponent. Who would have played Losman anyway in this one?
Interesting:
Thomas Jones owners need not worry than
Cedric Benson had more fantasy points; Jones did all the heavy lifting and topped 100 yards rushing for the first time, looking very good. Then the sophomore got the second-half carries and his second touchdown (he also scored in the second quarter). This is still Jones' job. And don't bet against the Bears at home, where they have outscored opponents 111-20.
Rams 23, Packers 20: Finally, it's an intermediate day for
Brett Favre, after two very good games with identical stats of 340 yards and three scores, and two miserable efforts against good defenses in which the Packers didn't score a touchdown. Here Favre got 220 yards and a score, perfectly mediocre. It's about time! What did we learn? Nothing. Favre's worth it under the right circumstances, that's about it.
MVP: Rather than pick another kicker, which is the reasonable thing to do (
Jeff Wilkins entered the day with more points than Gould, and had 11 points in this one), let's focus on
Marc Bulger. He had the same amount of yards as Favre, but a pair of touchdowns. Most people expected more, actually. But kudos to Bulger for still not throwing an interception. Not a one all season. Who would have guessed that?
LVP: Once fantasy owners knew that Ahman Green wasn't going to play,
Vernand Morency became the hot replacement. And why not? All he did was rush for 99 yards on Monday night football a week ago. But Morency fumbled on the first drive, and then it became the
Noah Herron show, with the third-string back topping 100 yards on the day and earning a first-quarter touchdown. Keep an eye on Green, because if he doesn't play, it sure appears Herron is the option. Morency was started by too many people, and managed 15 yards.
Interesting: Last week Bulger managed to find both of his main wide receivers enough to get
Torry Holt and
Isaac Bruce over 100 yards receiving. This week he throws his 18 completions to nine different receivers, with nobody topping three, and the only guy topping 40 yards receiving being
Tony Fisher. Yuck.
Colts 14, Titans 13: Pathetic. Give credit to Tennessee for not only making this a game, but a game they could have won.
Vince Young rushes for an early score and it's 10-0 at the half. A winless team on the road beating the undefeated Colts? Hard to believe. Maybe this defense is better than people thought. Should we reevaluate
Daunte Culpepper after the Titans shut him down? Um, no.
MVP: I don't know when the Titans will settle on a starting running back, but it sure looks like
Travis Henry is having a better season than
Chris Brown, who didn't even dress for the game. Henry ran for 123 yards and looks like a legit flex running back, at worst, if we know he's the starter. Is it me or doesn't it seem like teams are running on the Colts at will? The Jags went wild on them two weeks ago as well.
LVP: It's a disappointing game for just about every Colt to some degree, but at least the top wide receivers scored, and the running backs had some yards.
Dominic Rhodes ran for 84 yards,
Joseph Addai 62. Other backs did worse. But for Peyton Manning to only get 166 yards, that's far lower than expected. Chalk it up to a bad day or next time your fantasy stars play Tennessee do we have to remember the Titans?
Interesting: You say Vince Young had a big game? Well, there wasn't much doubt he could run. But 68 yards passing doesn't get it done. If it was 168 yards, maybe the Titans would have won. Young is not a good fantasy play, still.
Vikings 26, Lions 17: The final score is certainly misleading, as it was 17-3 Lions into the final quarter, and 17-16 with only a few minutes left. Then
Jon Kitna got back to his old tricks sharing the ball and the score got out of hand. The Lions just aren't real good.
MVP: The Vikings defense ended up a nice play, with 20 points in ESPN leagues thanks to Kitna fumbling a ball on his own one and then the late interception return for a score. But Kitna did deliver two touchdowns, so he was worth playing, more so than
Brad Johnson was (depending on how you count interceptions).
LVP: Raise your hand if you played
Kevin Jones? Ten carries for eight yards? Kitna ran for eight yards on his lone carry! Looks like Jones is firmly back in the fantasy doghouse. In fairness, he did leave with a concussion, but ultimately it's tough to trust him.
Interesting: Even when they were trailing, the Vikings were able to do what they want to do with
Chester Taylor, and he finished with 26 carries and a season-high 123 yards. That's ball control. But the passing game has to be more of a threat for times when sure-handed QBs are the opposition.
Patriots 20, Dolphins 10: In reality, the Dolphins didn't fare any better without Daunte Culpepper than they did with him playing poorly.
Joey Harrington threw 41 times, which is only two more times than Culpepper did last week. Now what happens to the quarterback situation next game? It's Culpepper, assuming he's healthy. But the Dolphins didn't lose because of Harrington.
MVP: Sticking with the running theme of the fantasy day, few players had outstanding statistical games. The Pats scored two touchdowns, but we can't present
Troy Brown or
Heath Evans with awards. Tom Brady gets 140 yards? Yawn. We've gotta leave this blank.
LVP: After last week, when he rushed for 125 yards and two scores, most
Laurence Maroney owners had him in the lineup. That was a mistake. Hey, I would have played him as well, but Maroney did little, needing an 11-yard run on his final carry just to average more than two yards per carry. Sure,
Corey Dillon only rushed for 45 yards, but Maroney was treated like a fantasy superstar this week. Ah, the life of fantasy rookies.
Interesting:
Ronnie Brown continues to anger his fantasy owners who made him a first round pick. Just 39 yards? At least he got into the end zone, which is more than the New England backs managed.
Saints 24, Buccaneers 21: What did Reggie Bush do differently in this game? He got the ball thrown his way more times, ultimately ending up with 11 catches. He wasn't a factor rushing the ball. Oh yeah, he broke a punt return for a score to win the game. That's what we expected from Reggie Bush. One play, late in the game resulted in his first pro touchdown, and now fantasy owners are happy. But in reality, it was the same Bush. If you think you can live with that in your lineup, what would have been 80 total yards and no scores until late, keep him active.
MVP:
Deuce McAllister is the star of the game statistically with his 123 yards, 57 coming on one play early on, and a 24-yard TD scamper. Still, McAllister only got 15 carries, which is about his average. Can you believe the Saints are 4-1?
LVP: Rookie
Marques Colston entered the day with 51 fantasy points, only four behind the leader among wide receivers,
Santana Moss. Colston doesn't get any closer with this game, three catches for 38 yards. Really,
Drew Brees had a very short passing game, averaging only five yards per completion.
Joe Horn wasn't much better.
Interesting: So that
Bruce Gradkowski performance wasn't nearly as bad as you thought, was it? Look, the kid was drafted, he obviously has some ability. He's an NFL quarterback. I had to play him in one league, and I did the research, I thought he'd be OK, which he was with 225 yards and two touchdowns.
Joey Galloway caught a touchdown early and later a 52-yarder for another 100-yard day. He appears all or nothing, but as I said a week ago, Gradkowski will help his stats. Even
Carnell Williams had a big day with 111 rushing yards. How did Tampa lose this game? Oh that's right, on a punt return by some rookie.
Giants 19, Redskins 3: I saw every wobbly
Mark Brunell pass in this one, and it was painful. Even my kids started asking who the Redskins backup was. No turnovers in this game by either team, and the Giants held the ball for so much longer, it was methodical, and boring. Just the type of game the Giants needed.
MVP: Again, I don't want to pick a kicker. And
Jay Feely could have done more.
Eli Manning played smart, accumulating 256 yards and hitting
Plaxico Burress on a touchdown pass. No turnovers. Smart. And no quarterback in the early games had within 20 passing yards of Eli.
LVP: Brunell was terrible. But more people played Santana Moss, who had only three receptions for 39 yards. Other than the big Moss game with three scores, he's been, well,
Mark Clayton. Not good.
Interesting:
Tiki Barber rushed for 123 yards. In Weeks 2 and 3 against the Eagles and Seahawks, he ran for a total of 115 yards. Not that it matters, he's never going to be on a fantasy bench anyway, right? Right?!?
Panthers 20, Browns 12: Yet another game devoid of statistical goodies. One offensive touchdown. That's it. What is there to say about this game? The Browns defense is clearly better than we expected a month ago. But all
Charlie Frye could do was get
Phil Dawson four field goals.
MVP:
Keyshawn Johnson had more yards than
Steve Smith, and scored the game's offensive touchdown. That's all it takes. Don't read much into this, Smith was healthy and still remains a top notch fantasy receiver. He did drop three passes, including one in the end zone, however.
LVP: I expected more from the combo of Frye and
Braylon Edwards.
Kellen Winslow caught eight passes, so he didn't disappoint.
Interesting:
DeShaun Foster owners remained cool on playing him, even after last week's 105 yards, which followed up an 82-yard performance. Why fall in love with the guy for fantasy if
DeAngelo Williams is just going to overtake him? Well, Williams left early with an ankle injury, and Foster ended up with season highs in carries and yards (106 yards). Foster's looking underrated. More on Tuesday from the Chargers-Steelers game and Monday night.