Evans World 2011–Week Deux

I’m trying really hard this week to remember why I enjoy Fantasy Football so much.  I think back to my first summer in 1999 setting up my first team, analyzing day after day how good my team was going to be, then watching it end up in the bottom half of my league that year.  I feel a repeat coming on.  In both of my FF leagues, I’m in the bottom 2 spots and the prospects for improvement diminish with each tick on the clock.  It sucks considering I was so happy with my drafts.  But, I have to remind myself that I deliberately took risks, taking players I expected to be on teams that would put up many FF points only to find two weeks in that I was very, very wrong.  There are two things I really hate in life: failure and being wrong.  As you can imagine, I’m pretty pissed off.

But, this blog is not a pity party, it’s an opportunity for me to mock and praise you for your own fucking luck, so let’s just get right down to it.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
What are my two favorite weeks of each FF season?  When Kevin and Gary are matched up against each other.  Seriously, each time it’s always a close race and tons of fun for me to watch both of them cringe at the prospect of losing to the other.  In that way, this past weekend was one of the finest.  Gary seemed unbeatable heading into the Sunday night game, and Kevin knew it.  He may not have thrown the towel in, but it was definitely in his hand and ready to be tossed.  Gary had an easy 30-point lead and Kevin had 3 players left to play, none of which was projected to get him the lead.  Then, as happened with Finley in that classic game a few years ago, Maclin and the Giants defense shot Kevin past Gary and to the top score for the week in the whole league.  I can’t imagine how Gary felt to watch his lead vanish Sunday night then be completely forgotten by the end of Monday night.  As usually happens with Gary, his score could have defeated most of the rest of the league, but he still loses to Kevin this week.  Can’t wait for the rematch in Week 13 when one or both of them are struggling to get into the playoffs!

TONYS ON TOP
While I love the fact that most of our league is sitting at .500, I do think that DC Tony’s team could very well dominate us throughout this season.  While a lot of projected NFL teams have failed to meet FF expectations (Chiefs, Colts), the members of DC Tony’s team look poised to have great weeks consistently all season, and his bench is solid.  New Tony too managed a good win over me this week, but showed the vulnerabilities of his lineup with a mediocre week 2 compared to most of the league.  The Tonys can enjoy being on top this week (and I heard that’s the way they like it), but something tells me that DC Tony will be riding high on that horse for some time to come.

IT SUCKS TO BE BROWN (NO OFFENSE, MIKE)
It’s a hard week to be a member of the Brown family.  Berk got screwed the most when the Broncos announced they would play Brandon Lloyd, then to the chagrin of thousands of FF owners (including Berk and Mindi), the Broncos reneged and they ended up with a fat goose egg.  Then Burress fails to get any points as well.  Berk’s bench wouldn’t have helped much, but who likes getting 0 points from two positions, particularly when it was announced they would play?  Ritchie got jack shit out of Antonio Gates, usually one of the most solid FF starts around.  Both Berks ended up losing but kept their place in the top 5.  Keep breathing, boys.

SILENT WINNER
Jason is off to a great start this season.  Sure, he lost in Week 1 but you can’t tell me that his 4 RB’s are poised to do well this season.  Will we see the first trade of the season come from Jason?  Possibly.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

• Why aren’t more people voting for the matchups each week?  Seriously, only Nathan, Kevin and myself do it regularly.  It only takes a few minutes to do it.  Just remember to vote for me.  It’s an opportunity for bragging rights few of us take advantage of.
• Hard to say that the loss of Jammal Charles will impact Tom too heavily considering he’s sitting at a strong 8th place.  Rob’s lousy week helped too.  Tom is on his way to having most of his team out for injury each week.  As he put it, Peyton should help make up the points that Charles lost.   Of course, Kevin and I had him convinced that Peyton had scored 5 TD’s this week.  Feel free to call/text Tom any time and play with his mind.  It’s fun!  I’ve got a feeling that Charles will get 5 TD’s next week … better start him, Tom.
• I know he lost in week 1, but this really could be Mike’s year if Stafford and Johnson continue to play as well as they have in 2 weeks.  I think it’s hard to say he’ll get enough consistent performance from Marshall or Jones to guarantee it, but I’ve got a feeling Mike will win matchups like this weekend at just the right time to get him to the playoffs.
• Anybody else a little confused and possibly freaked out by Mike’s new avatar?  Random.
• I never thought I’d say it, but the Lions defense scored a ton of points this weekend for Nathan.  I still can’t believe I’m saying this!  It’s a great year to be a Lions fan, and I know we’re all rooting for Suh.  It’s going to be fun watching that defense shred the Bears and Jay Cutler.
• Is Darren McFadden for real?  It’s so hard to admit that a Raiders RB could be one of the top 5 Fantasy RB of the season, but if things stay the same, he will be.  Can you imagine next year trying to decide who to draft first: Chris Johnson or McFadden?  Just … feels … wrong.
• I think Kevin got a diamond in the rough by drafting Jimmy Graham at TE in Round 10.  Hard to believe the guy only played 1 season of college ball the way he ran those routes this weekend.  I expect a huge year from him.
• Rob’s team definitely petered out this week.  Looking at his players though it’s hard to predict what might happen.  My best guess?  Rob will have really good weeks and really bad weeks, no middle ground.  Here’s hoping you play him on a down week like this week.
• Wow, the Chiefs suck.  Like I said earlier, I hate to be wrong, and on this one I was WAY off.  Even at the end of last season everything seemed in place for them to score huge.  They’ve now been outscored 87-10 in two games and lost 2 of their best players on offense.  I wouldn’t be calling for coaches’ heads just yet, but something’s gotta change there.  I think they need to start with Cassel. It’s sad when you’re losing so badly that CBS cuts away to the Raiders-Bills game.  Ouch.
• Is Cam Newton for real?  Hard to argue with a 400+ yard performance in his first two starts.  Probably why Mike is okay keeping 3 QB’s on his team; first time I’ve ever seen that happen in Evans World.
• Still don’t have a nickname for New Tony.  You guys suck at responding to blogs.

WEEKLY AWARDS

• Fantasy MVP – Got to make it a tie between Austin for DC Tony and V. Jackson for Jason.  Huge weeks for WR.  It’ll be interesting to see at the end of the season if WR’s have a bigger point total than the RB’s for a change.  Something tells me it just might.
• Honorable Mention – As I described earlier, Maclin came in huge for Kevin and kept him from giving up on the season.
• Best Owner Move/Change – I really like New Tony picking up Chandler.  Yeah, he beat me, but you’ve got to admire the foresight.  Kevin and I were talking about this on Sunday, it’s hard to figure out if the Bills are good, lucky or just playing well when it counts.  For Kevin to have to spend extra effort choosing between starting Romo or Fitzpatrick is something we wouldn’t have predicted at the draft.  Now it’s a real possibility. Kudos to New Tony for getting on the Bills bandwagon while it’s hot.
• Unfortunate Bench – All the signs pointed to the Tampa Bay running game sucking ass this week.  So, I benched Blount in both my leagues.  Blount was a TD machine for Angi last season and didn’t do squat for me last week, so I was happy to bench him.  Yeah, it’s made me question my entire system of deciding who to play each week because I don’t think I’ve ever been more off than making that call this week.  Dammit.
• Lawrence Phillips Award – Gotta agree with Kevin’s Facebook post this week and give the LPA to Dunta Robinson who has now tried to knock out 2 Eagles WR with illegal hits.  He should be suspended not just because of the hit, but because this is the second time and because he meant to do it.  Did you see his face as he walked away from Maclin?  He didn’t give a shit about what he’d done or even if Maclin was okay.  Fuck that.  There was no reason to hit Maclin or Jackson that way.  I think it’s only fitting that Maclin had such a huge night to make up for the lousy hit.  Yes, it’s a contact sport, but there was no discipline or concern in Robinson’s hit and that makes him Lawrence Phillips stupid.  On a lighter note, Tony Romo lost his LPA from last week by coming back into a game with a broken rib and collapsed lung and getting points for Kevin.  Jay Cutler, paying attention?  Speaking of Cutler, I do feel sorry for the guy.  After his fifth sack (and who knows how many hits) on Sunday, you could tell his “Come on, guys” look to his offensive line spoke volumes.  They’re the ones letting him get killed out there.  They need to step up.

Like I said, I hate being wrong.  But if all of my predictions this week fail to come true, our top teams will fall this weekend and my teams’ performance will improve.  So, here’s hoping I continue to be wrong!  We’ll see what happens in Week 3.  Good luck to all and have a great week!