Evans World - Week 14

WEEK 14 - THE REVENGE OF TONY
Well, I'd beaten him soundly three times this season, I suppose my luck would run out at some point. Congrats on your win, Tony. Let's all go back in time to the draft. Brandon Marshall was a risky pick for Tony in the 7th round ... let me repeat that ... the 7TH ROUND. Need I remind you there was a 2-week period when it looked like Marshall wouldn't even PLAY this season! For most of the season, Marshall was a 3rd WR for Tony. And then, in the week when I'd predicted most of Tony's players would let him down, Marshall has an NFL-record setting weekend scoring alone almost half my total team points. Is it fate? Is it my own dumb luck? Is it the superior FF knowledge of Tony? Doesn't matter now. While I was hoping the Yahoo! interns would screw up the math again this week, they didn't, and now my streak of second-place finishes goes up in smoke. Tony, I'm debating whether or not to rescind my encouragement to have you return next season. Nah, just kidding. When you come back, I will have my revenge. This is swear, by the power of Odin, and nobody fucks with Odin.

BERK PRAYS FOR INJURY, GETS TURNOVERS
Make no mistake, Berk was hoping that Kurt Warner would wake up Monday morning with blurry vision. Warner's concussion was by no means fully healed on Monday, so with a slim 3-point margin, you can imagine Berk uttering unspeakable curses on the health and well-being of Kurt Warner. Warner only needed to complete a half-dozen passes for Angi to pass Berk and win her first playoff game. Alas, the Cardinals played probably the worst game of their decade and narrowly gave Berk the win. We can only hope that Berk sat on the couch nervous each time Arizona took the field and probably passed out in glee when the game was over. Great win, Berk. Angi, I'll see you next week for the coveted fifth place ... yeah, who cares, no money.

DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR?
You know what I want for Christmas? I want Angi to trash talk every week next season. Angi knew who she wanted on her team and made a league-low 4 transactions this season (Tom doesn't count). So, if you're that confident in your team, Angi, why not boast about it? Why not do everything you can to make Joel cry? Why not humble Tom and Gary into conceding the matchup to you by Thursday night? I know you have it in you, I've experienced it first hand. You are a wonderful, loving mother of two, but we've been drunk together too many times for me to forget that you can dish it out with the best of em. Don't be ashamed. As long as Will can't figure out your password, your family won't see what you post. Truthfully, I think you should brag it up whenever you can make my brother cry.

ANOTHER GREAT PICKUP BY BERK
Kudos to Berk for picking up and starting Quinton Ganther, a player his own coaches had to look up to see who he was. I doubt it was an act of desperation, just another good example of Berk keeping up with the FF World (Tom, are you paying attention?).

PREVIEW: TONY VS. KEVIN
This matchup, my friends, will be a great nailbiter. Yahoo! projections are a bit generous on both sides, but understandable considering the players. I've got a feeling that the matchup will be decided by the end of the evening on Sunday, but Kevin has had numerous matchups this year decided on a Monday night where he can barely take his eyes off the TV. In the end, I think Kevin's RB corps will have a better weekend than Tony's and the Jets defense will once more prove they're the DEF Fantasy MVP and give Kevin the win in a very, very, very close matchup. All I can say is ... Kevin, watch out for Brandon Marshall (fucker).

PREVIEW: BERK VS. NATHAN
At first glance of this matchup one might think that Berk has a very good chance to win this one. Most of his players face lower-ranked defenses but many of Nathan's players also face weaker teams. In the end, I think the thing that got Nathan to the top spot will lift him over Berk ... PPR. All three of his receivers face defenses that can be easily passed on. Berk can only hope that Walter, Fitzgerald and Moss get the passes ... but not very likely. Sorry, Berk, but I think Nathan has you on this one setting up the Championship Game between the #1 and #2 seeds for the second year in a row (remember the #2 seed won last year).

BRAD, WHO IS YOUR FANTASY MVP?
Can you pick one player that made a huge difference consistently? Yeah, it's hard, but I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't have an answer to my own question. It's plain to see that this season was definitely a year when underdogs came out of the woodworks and rewarded teams for late-round pickups. No one can question that Adrian Peterson was a great pick, but Peterson and D. Williams both dwarfed in performance to Ray Rice and Chris Johnson. And who can forget nobodies coming out and having huge impacts like Ricky Williams and Cedric Benson? It was definitely the year when PPR made the biggest difference in points, vaulting Nathan to what could be a league record regular season point total (if we kept track of that). QB's definitely showed themselves to be difficult to predict with greats like Brady and Manning (either) overshadowed often by Favre and Rivers, although Drew Brees makes a strong case for Fantasy and NFL MVP as the total point leader for the whole league.

So, I'm sure you're dying to know ... who was your Fantasy MVP, Brad? Well, I've thought about this long and hard (that's what she said) and there is really only one player that comes to mind as consistently providing excellent FF performance week after week ... Wes Welker. I said it in one of my earlier posts, why isn't he a #1 draft pick? Seriously. In a PPR league like this one, on a team so reliant on the pass, Welker guarantees an easy 12-15 points per week! I remember picking him up two years ago in the draft at Nathan's house. No one seemed to notice, but I knew he would be huge, and I was right. Next year, I don't see that changing (about Welker and my being right). If not for the 1-2 weeks he missed due to injury, he'd be much higher on the total point list. Now, do I think the #1 pick should NOT be a RB? I'm not ready to concede that just yet, particularly in a 12-team league, but I advise the #1 pick next season to take a good, long look at what made The U so successful this season and remember that Welker is worthy of a #1 pick.

WHO WAS THE FANTASY BUST?
T.O. is an easy bet, but I think that was predictable before the season started. Forte and Turner, definite candidates as well, but they weren't quite the deep pit of agony I'm thinking of. For me, the fantasy bust of this season was Matt Schaub. If you take injuries out of the equation (removing Portis, Westbrook and Slaton from consideration), no other player caused more grief and frustration for any team than Schaub. Surrounded by offensive weapons, you'd think the guy would be a top-5 QB. Instead, week after week, poor Mike never knew what he'd get. One week, a 20+ performance. The next, barely scraping 5 points. One nice thing about QB's in our league is they're fairly predictable in terms of the contribution they'll make each week. I think Kevin was the only player this year who had to spend time each week deciding how to put at QB, except for Mike. Sure, there were plenty of players who didn't meet expectations or do well at all, and you should consider them busts too. For me, I look at the hell Schaub put Mike through this season and question whether or not I'd draft him next season at all. That, my friends, is a real bust.

BTW, aren't you proud of me for making it through that entire paragraph, writing the word bust so many times and never once saying boobies, boobies, boobies, boobies, boobies? Ah, felt good to get that out. Boobies.

AND ON THE 15TH WEEK, HE RESTED
I think it's crap to rest your players too much before the playoffs. Need an example of why? Look to the Colts (who probably would have rested Peyton when I needed him in the Championship Game). In the past decade they have rested Peyton and their best players in the last 2 weeks of the season. In all but ONE of the years they did that, they lost early in the playoffs. The ONE year they didn't ... they won the Super Bowl. Let's face it, players need to play to stay fresh. Now, I recall the Chargers last season who played their best players all the way through and it cost them the playoff game since LT and so many players were dinged up. I bet if you asked the players on that Chargers team if they'd have wanted to rest up the last two games of the season, they'd have said no. They came to work each week to PLAY. As a FF player, I'm biased. I want players to play each week. But, I think the benefit of continued play and excellence on the field at the end of the regular season outweighs any risk of injury to key players. I would believe that even if Peyton got injured in Week 15 or 16.

THE LAWRENCE PHILIP AWARD
This week it goes to Heisman Trophy Award voters. The Heisman Trophy is meant to go to the player whose showed excellence in individual achievement. And yet, year after year, the committee votes for players on teams that are typically in the National Championship or a BCS bowl game ... oh yeah, and on the offense. To me, that's crap. It's likely saying that the hundreds of defensive players who fight, scratch and push harder than most players each play cannot contribute to the game to the same degree a QB, RB or WR can. Can you honestly say that Charles Woodson and Suh are the ONLY defensive players in the past 25 years worthy enough for that award? Like I said, it's crap. I'm not saying Suh should have won the Heisman last week, Ingram had a hell of a season. But his fourth place finish is a shame on the voters. They sent a strong message to college players from here on ... if you're not on offense and in the national spotlight (on a championship or BCS team), you don't have a chance. Shame on you, voters. The Heisman seems like less of an achievement to me now.

WHAT A WASTE OF AN ILLNESS
Saturday I was stranded in my house since I was too sick to move much. So, lying there on my couch, I struggled to find SOMETHING to watch on TV. Not a single football game worth watching. Bleh. I can't believe we're just weeks away from a world without football on the weekends. The seasons come and go far too quickly. Sniff, sniff. Angi, please come hold me.

Well, the playoffs continue next weekend. Remember there's a Thursday night game, folks. Good luck to all (even Angi, I love her too much not to wish her luck)! See you next week!