Evans World 2010 - Week 9

Another great week of FF, another shift of the standings. Take a look for a moment. Aside from Rob, most of us have had an up/down couple of weeks. Tom's winning streak is a distant memory, as is Tony's strong start. It's gotta be frustrating for some teams with 800+ points seeing teams with far fewer points above them in the standings. With four regular season games left a lot of things are clearer this week, for better and worse. We'll get to that later. But first ...

THUS ENDETH THE SURGE O' KEVIN
A great matchup this week between me and Kevin. Kevin's wins this season have hovered around 100 points, and it's unfortunate that the big score this week didn't pay off as it should. The good news is that it keeps Kevin at the top of the sub-500 crowd with a strong lead as we enter the stretch. Still a good chance Kevin makes the playoffs and scores 100+ points there. For now, I'll take the win. What bugs me the most is the lowest scorer on my team: Wes Welker. I have to actually look to bench Welker next week against my own Steelers DEF. Kevin definitely is cashing in on the Patriots changing to the younger folks on their team. So strange, but true. Not like it's the first time they've started a young kid or two and ended up winners.

SO, BRAD, WHO'S GOING TO THE PLAYOFFS?
At this point, a couple of things are pretty clear:
- Berk and Rob are in.
- Jason, Gary and Angi are all but done at this point. They're matched up with some of the top teams in the league from here on. I just don't see the numbers falling their way in the matchups. I predict Jason will still finish in the top 5 in terms of total points. I wish I could say that Tom was done too, but he's won matchups he had no business winning, and as long as Philip Rivers continues to be a FF stud Tom has a shot.
- Looking at the sub-500 teams of Kevin, Tony and Chris, all of them are in a dead heat, must-win situation. All of them play at least 1 of the top teams in the next 4 weeks. I think with so many teams above them, it'll only take 1 loss to knock them out.
- The rest of the teams (Mike, me and Nathan) aren't guarantees by any means, but I think each of us could have 1 loss and still end up in the playoffs. 2 losses ... fuhgettaboutit. I think I've got the best shot facing Gary and Tom in the last two weeks. It's only too bad that we won't be playing each other any of those weeks to really decide our own fate.
- Isn't that really what defines the next 4 weeks? No one except for Berk and Rob control their own fate! Basically, you want to win your matchups and have anyone ranked above you to lose, pure and simple. Sure, that's true every week, but doesn't it just mean a little more in the final stretch of the regular season? Yeah, I agree.

UH, WASN'T ROB LOSING AT ONE POINT?
Back in Week 5 when Rob lost to Tom, I figured that was it. Rob would end up in the middle with the rest of us, at best. After a huge week this week where he more than doubled Tony's team score, I'm pretty worried going into my matchup with him next week. I do enjoy the fact the lowest scoring player on his team was a Chicago Bear. Rob sits alone at the #2 spot in the standings and must feel pretty good about how his team is doing. Yes, you can blame me for inviting him back. Need I remind you that the only other year he played in our league he won? Well, last week I wrote how Kevin was surging and then I beat him this week. Hey! Look everyone! Rob is surging!

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE
I'm happy for Gary enjoying a 2-game winning streak. It's too bad that it's not enough to get out of the basement. Considering his next game is against league-leader Berk, it could be a while before he gets out of there, if ever. It's a good thing he had Carson Palmer this week or Angi probably would have caught up to him with T.O. I think at this point Gary would sell his soul for the 6-7 season he had back in 2006. Don't ever give up, Gary. I also don't think Angi will be missing a draft again. Don't worry, babe ... I'm a unified communications expert ... we'll find a way to get you in next year. If you can't talk, we'll get a TTD system to you. That's how much I love ya.

WEEKLY AWARDS
MVP - Hard to pick this week since I've mentioned the big players elsewhere. Gotta give it to Brandon Jackson to keep me in the race against Kevin this week. Without his strong, errorless play Kevin probably would have had me. Gotta give kudos to T.O. too, although it wasn't enough to get Angi the win.
Honorable Mention - Gotta give this one to the Packers DEF. Not that Rob needed their help, they nailed the lid to the coffin right through Tony's heart. Truthfully, it just gives me a chance to mock Rob for getting so much from the Packers and to point out the huge week it was for FF DEF. Count them: 9 out of 12 starting DEF scored double digits. I love a week when the DEF has a big week. One other thing I like about the Pack this week? In the fourth quarter they could have gone for the field goal and run the score up. Instead they respected Dallas enough to accept a turnover on downs. Go Pack Go!
Best Owner Move/Choice - Pretty easy pick this week with Nathan picking up Tamme for the Colts. One would think that it was Dallas Clark who made the TE position valuable to the Colts, but Tamme proved in one week it's more the game plan than the man. Probably how receivers like Collie could do so much better than Wayne each week. Great pickup and play, Nathan!
Unfortunate Bench - Another light week with mentions to Tony Gonzalez for Chris and Braylon Edwards for me. But, gotta give this one to Tony for keeping Ronnie Brown on the bench. Brown hasn't been as explosive as he was last season, but against the Ravens DEF I can understand Tony benching him. But I think it was pretty clear that he was a better pick over Michael Bush when McFadden would certainly get the bulk of the carries.
Lawrence Phillip Award - There are days when I think about changing the name of this award to the Randy Moss Award, but until he runs over kids playing football in the park instead of parking cops, I'll keep this as is. I think I've got to give the LPA award this week to Pat McAfee, the Colts punter. I don't know if any of you heard of this story, but during the Colts bye week, McAfee decided it would be a good idea to get drunk and go swimming in an Indianapolis canal. Temperature of the water? 39 degrees. Now, I love skinny dipping as much as the next person (and shouldn't we all be doing it more often), but I'm not sure it's a great idea to do it in so public a place and during the NFL season. He was suspended one game and not really missed, but still, not a story you expect to hear about in November.
Average Score - 93.6.

RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT WEEK 9
- Suh just missing the extra point. I hope they let him try again. Jason Hanson's been kicking field goals since before Nathan was born. Weird to see him go out like that. Suh's a lock for the Defensive Rookie of the Year. Are there any other rookies who are coming close to his performance?
- Don't believe the Lions have turned things around? They scored more points on the Jets than the Packers did.
- Moss to the Titans. I don't think that makes Jason feel much better. Vince Young is only making 60% of his passes so far, and is more likely to tuck the ball and run himself while the secondary is running after Moss.
- Jerry Jones read my blog during the game Sunday night and THEN decided to let Phillips go.
- It's worth noting that the Cowboys without Phillips probably won't improve much since the poor play of the last two games has to have come from the coordinators who are now running the team. But, if Childress were fired in Minnesota, nothing would change. I'd bet good money that Favre only listens to Darrell Bevell and that the defense plays for Leslie Frazier, not Childress. I personally am tired of the man. Show him the door. Don't give him a hug.
- Gotta love the trick play the Browns ran against the Pats. Reminds me of the trick play Berk posted on Facebook this week. They deliberately pretended to be confused and got into the end zone. Love it.
- I'm wondering if the league isn't over-compensating for their fines for hits. I wrote a few weeks ago they can't let huge hits slide, but now any hit that involves the helmet seems to be up for a fine. $50K to Collins for his hit Sunday night seems excessive to me. Even still, you want to force discipline on players ... suspend them. They can afford the fines. BTW, what does the NFL do with the fine $$$ anyway?
- Doesn't it amaze you that Favre has only passed for over 400 yards a handful of times in his career? Seems like he and Peyton Manning always seemed to throw for 400 and more all the time. Wow.

Let me take this moment to officially thank all the veterans for their service. I was thinking of you when I voted last week and I'll think of you this Thursday. That includes my dad. :)

Good luck to all in Week 10! Watch out for the Thursday night game! Not only do you need to make sure your lineups are in, you've got to strengthen your stomach to withstand the NFL Network cover team. I swear, put Kevin, Marshall and me in the booth with some booze, Nathan on stats and Berk as the spotter, we'd be the best cover team EVER! Chris, you can pretend to be Erin Andrews wandering the sidelines. I'd add Gary in there but he'd just hog the mic and never stop talking.