Evans World 2010 - Week 8

Well, that short winning streak was fun while it lasted. Once again my church work kept me from seeing the games this weekend so you'll forgive me if there's a lot of info I don't have. However, from all I've seen and read it sounds like it was a pretty boring weekend of NFL football. I think that's reflected somewhat in our team scores. But, as always, I've got things to say about this weekend's results. As if there was a doubt! May the day never come when the well of my wisdom dries up.

U DIRTY RAT
Congrats, Nathan, on soundly reminding me that my team's awesomeness is not assured each week. Still nervous about your team? But don't worry about me, friends. I have already forgotten this lesson and renew my allegiance to the Church of Utterly Indifferent and look forward to destroying Kevin this week and reminding you all just how awesome my team is. If nothing else I can take comfort that my team in my other FF league was up 130 to 50 points after the first set of games yesterday.

ANGI CLEANS HOUSE
A lot of activity on the waiver wire and trades last week. Always fun to see. One thing that struck me most was Angi dumping four of her players. I checked. Only two of the players were originally drafted by Kevin. The other two were recent pickups. So, aside from Will Power's 3-5 record, Kevin's drafted team is still fairly untarnished. Although, I think if you had asked Angi on draft day that she'd be juggling Detroit QB's this far into the season, she's probably throw her drink in your face (Why do women like to do that anyway? What a waste of a perfectly good drink!) I think she wishes now she'd stuck with Stafford and benefited from his 4 TD's this week. Even still, Angi's efforts this past week (more to come on that) got her a win against Mike, boosted her back up in the points rankings and hopefully set her up for a massive rally to make the playoffs. Something tells me that Stafford just might come back to her team in the next day or two ...

SPEAKING OF THE PLAYOFFS
Looking at the current standings of our league, there are 5 regular season games left and only 3 teams above .500. That to me is just absolutely amazing and stressful at the same time (particularly since I'm one of the teams sitting AT .500). Make no mistake folks ... EVERY POINT COUNTS. Take note of that, Tom. I've got a feeling there will be at least 3 or 4 teams with identical records by the time we reach Week 13, and that means that the points will determine who moves on. Sure, winning matchups is very important, but don't get hurt in your point total at the same time. Follow Nathan and drop/add players that will increase your point totals if you need to. As for those teams farther beneath .500, time is running out. If Gary or Jason lose their matchups this week, I think you can put a fork in them. Despite strong drafts and Jason's bad luck, I don't see either team picking up enough points or wins to make it into contention. Tom and Angi have an uphill battle but not one as difficult as you'd think. Considering both teams meet or beat the average score most weeks, the key will be in winning their matchups. Unfortunately, both of them are facing some of the current top 5 teams in the coming weeks, so no guarantees. Everything is still very much in the air, my friends, and how can that be a bad thing and when was the last time our league was this close? I love it.

MIKE'S WINNING YEAR TAKES A BAD TURN
Gotta feel for Mike after scoring so few points this week. I had thought it was because of the sting of the bye week, but it really was his star players having an off week. Even still, Mike is one of the three teams above .500 so I think he can live with one bad week, but no more. Nathan's got an eye on the #3 spot in Week 9. You know what's really sad about Mike's week? His team that has played so well this season barely scored more points than Tom who had three of his starters on bye this week. Ouch.

TIME TO MOCK TOM
Rest assured friends, between Nathan, Kevin and myself, we've beaten Tom down enough for failing to start 3 positions last week. I think we'd all agree that we in this league are serious enough FF players that we want to avoid starting any players who are on bye or injury, and that includes Tom. He just had a busy week and forgot to check it. That's fine by me. But for the rest of the season he's going to be verbally and digitally harassed by me to make sure he doesn't do that again. I invite you all to assist. Tom regrets failing to complete his lineup, but I think we can all work together to remind him that FF is more important than work. That's why we do all of our checking, research and transactions from our work computers, after all! Would Tom have beaten Gary even if he'd filled his roster? Probably not. But the taste of victory for Gary would have been much sweeter. Tom, only one other word of advice ... never bench Mendenhall. He's a guaranteed 10 points each week. Felix Jones will go up and down and drive you crazy. Put him in the W/R slot only when you have to.

KEVIN IS SURGING (that's what she said)
Kevin had a very good week this week, and I've got the feeling his players are starting a late-season rally for him. The Danny Woodhead Experiment is turning out much better than I thought it would, and Darren Sproles finally pays off a little. Did anyone notice Michael Crabtree sitting on the bench with a ton of points too? Am I nervous about my matchup with him in Week 9? Hell, no! My team faces some of the worst defenses in the league! I should have a huge week and crush him completely. But, the rest of you ... worry.

WEEKLY AWARDS
MVP - This week it goes to Calvin Johnson for Gary. Thanks to Tom sitting three players (gotta mock you a little more, Tom), Johnson alone almost earned as many points as Tom and Mike this week. Even as a Packer fan, I love what I'm seeing coming out of Detroit this season. Watching Suh get better and better each week is a real treat. Peter King said it best. Detroit may be 2-5, but they're playing like a 5-2 team, and Johnson is a big reason for that. With Stafford back in the lineup, I see Johnson continuing to earn 10+ points each week ... an NFC Andre Johnson, if you will. Gary, don't bench him.
Honorable Mention - If there is one huge FF find this year, it's got to be Dan Carpenter for Nathan. While one player doesn't really re-write the book on the FF value of the kicker, Carpenter has been a massive FF stud for most of the season. 19 points from a kicker this week for Nathan. 19 POINTS! That's more than practically all of the first-round picks performance this past week. Will he keep it up? Yeah, I've got a feeling Carpenter is probably the best FF kicker out there right now and will be for the rest of the season.
Best Owner Move/Choice - Without question, Angi picking up LaGarrett Blout. 18.45 points in his first big FF week. Did Angi know he would have such a huge game, and if so, how??? I'm dying to know, Ang. Please comment and tell us! Big time congrats on probably the best FF move this season so far.
Unfortunate Bench - No real biggies this week since so many players were on bye. You can definitely call this a tie between me (for Green-Ellis) and Jason (for Mike Williams). Even still, neither of them would have helped us win our matchups, so just fuck it.
Lawrence Phillips Award - Looking back over the years, Randy Moss has been the winner of the Lawrence Phillip Award many times. When he ran over the traffic cop. When he dropped passes for Oakland and New England. Pretty much every time he held a press conference. I really should have given it to him weeks ago when he was traded by the Patriots. I was all prepared to give him this award Monday morning after his childish and unprofessional press conference Sunday night where he interviewed himself. But then he got dumped by the Vikings Monday afternoon. Randy Moss is probably the greatest WR to play in the NFC North since I became a Packer fan 14 years ago. With great skill comes great ego, apparently. Moss needs to learn a few lessons from T.O. who is still with a team and playing good football: Shut up. Focus on making the team better. Play hard on every down. Forget about the money, you have enough. Win games. I don't think he's capable of any of that. The chip on his shoulder is so huge. I pity the team that picks him up next, which will probably be the Cowboys. (They're just that desperate.) If nothing else, Moss has forgotten the impact his stupidity has on thousands of FF owners, including Jason, who used a first or second-round draft pick on the douche.
Average Score - 77.8. The real clincher, and this is something that would require more number crunching than I'm capable of on a Tuesday morning, is how consistently teams are close to this average, leading to so many teams hovering around .500. Like I said, good times!

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON WEEK 8
- I like the trade activity this week. I think Gary could have gotten more from Nathan for Maclin, but we'll see. The Mike-Jason trade was way more in favor of Jason. Of course, if McCoy comes out next week and produces huge for Mike, I'll be happy to have a helping of fries with my double-crow burger.
- For the past 3 weeks, Wes Welker has not scored above 10 points. Are defenses swarming on him? Is the offense focusing more on the TE and RB now? I haven't seen enough games to know, but I turned down several trade requests for Welker a few weeks ago because I thought he would be a sure 10+ points most weeks. Now I'm questioning that.
- Poor Tony ... Kenny Britt was going to be a sure bet to get him back into contention.
- Something tells me that Sydney Rice should be back for the Vikes soon. I can understand Childress releasing Moss for the poison he is for the team, but I have to think he'd do it as quickly as he did because he knows Rice will be back this or next week. We all know Nathan will be keeping a close eye on it.
- Speaking of the Vikes, I'd put a fork in their chances of making the playoffs. What I wouldn't do though is rule them out from spoiling other teams' chances. They still have games against the Packers and Bears whose records are towards the top of the NFC. They still have A.P. and a sturdy defense and a desire to prove their relevancy. Any NFC team they play the rest of the season should take them very seriously.
- Dallas should have fired Phillips this week. He's not the man to fix that team, now or in the future. Send a message to the players ... you don't get to phone in games at this level like you did on Sunday.
- Norv Turner's inconsistency drives me nuts. For years I've been wondering is the Chargers are good or not. I stil don't know.
- What a year to be a Chiefs fan! But 13 points against the Bills??? Come on!
- Still have no idea who's going to the Super Bowl yet. And that's fine.
- Congrats, Rob, on finding a way to crawl back out of the depths of the league and reclaim a top spot. The rest of your season is pretty light. I'd say you've got a solid spot on the playoffs.
- Berk is still #1 people! Tom, let's see some of your dumb FF luck this weekend and take him down a notch.
- Chris, your team hasn't impressed me much the past few weeks. Come on. Dazzle me.
- You too, Tony.
- The first quarter of the Missouri-Nebraska game was the best football I've seen the Huskers play all year. The remaining 3 quarters need a lot of work, but we still won. I'm very happy to give a big "I told you so" for believing we'd win this week. Even if we had lost, that first quarter was a thing of beauty and should be reviewed by them weekly to remind them how good they could be.
- Don Banks quoted a stat that I just love. Mack Brown has lost more home games this season (3) than Bob Stoops has his entire career at Oklahoma (2). I love watching Texas lose.

I hope you all had a great Halloween! Judging from a lot of pics on Facebook you did. Just two more weeks of byes and then the big push for playoff spots. Set your lineups (Tom), choose your best players, and don't make it easy for me to award the Unfortunate Bench award the rest of the season. Good luck to all!

Kevin, beer bet this week? ;)