You're Lucky to Know What I Think: What I Think about Week 5 2015

Let me begin today by talking about something that may be on your minds this week as well, especially if you lost or are one of the 1-4 teams in FF so far this season. Mindi and I attended the Wisconsin-Nebraska game last Saturday. It was a beautiful day for football. We yelled as loud as we could (and helped cause 2 false starts, thank you very much). We cheered with each success, cringed at each deep ball, almost burst into tears when their FG bounced off the upright and then felt the crushing blow of defeat at the end of the game. It took hours for the pain to subside, but even today as I write this it still hasn't completely gone. Why is that? Why/how do we feel so much hurt and anguish over something as trivial as a game, fantasy football or real? Mike and his Chiefs. Our Huskers. Marshall and his FF team.

The simple answer is because we let it. But the better answer is because we love it so much. We love our Huskers, and we always want them to do well. We love playing Fantasy Football, and we always want our teams to win. We don't love it for the money or the championships or the bragging rights. We love it because it is one of our passions, something that we invest our personal time, emotion and perhaps a small sliver of our happiness into, and all we ask in return is that sweet taste of victory at the end. So when we achieve victory, we want it again and again. We want to win. It makes every victory that much sweeter, but also every defeat that much more painful. It is our passion that makes us hurt and happy. Losses from this past weekend hurt, for some beyond even words to express. Our hope for the future can be weakened, perhaps shattered, but it will continue. Husker and Chiefs football will continue. Fantasy football will continue. There will be highs and lows, and when you're in the middle of the lows the passion can be hard to find. I hope you agree with me, whether you are feeling the highs or the lows today. I wish I had the words of wisdom or the hope to impart to you and remind you that things will get better. I'm having trouble finding them for myself. I only hope you realize you're not alone at this moment, and that can be a comfort for you. Your frustrations with the Huskers and/or your FF team may be great, but great things can still await us if we persevere. I hope so, and hope is all I can offer at this point.

So that being said, on to Week 5 and all it's glory...

So, are Nathan/Matthew beatable? Hard to say that they can be defeated considering the only team to beat them so far is now sitting at the bottom of the standings. Hard to say that since they have a 80.53-point advantage over the next highest scoring team in the league (Kevin, sitting at #5 in the standings). And now we get to thank Berk for making the strongest team even stronger by pairing up Tom Brady with Edelman and Lewis when the Patriots are playing some of their best FF we've seen since 2007. It's going to get ugly folks, and it starts this weekend when Nathan/Matthew clash against Rich and his 5-0 Icicles. Even after the trouncing that Rich gave me this past week, I'm not sure he's got the juice this week to beat the Evanses. Nathan/Matthew could find themselves at the top of the heap and stay there for a long time. Stay tuned.
Speaking of Rich, some great waiver wire pickups for him last week to seal the victory over me. Rodgers at TE and Snead were both well-researched and implemented. Nicely done.
Speaking of waiver wire pickups, nice pickup by Barry for Theo Riddick. I know he needed a RB to replace Lynch this week, and he called a good one there. Nicely done. Sadly, Eifert and his points stayed on the bench, not that you needed them to push Tom down under you (where I heard you like it).
Going back to Berk, I don't get it. I know you needed to get out of the gutter, but LeSean McCoy? Who isn't going to play for another 3-4 weeks at best? A.J. Green was a win for you, sure, but I think you got the really bad end of that trade and gave the Evans more ammo against the rest of us.
Speaking of Berk, he's got to be loving Doug Martin's performance this season. I only hope he's as stunned as the rest of us how a team as bad as the Bucs can be so good in FF. I'm sure Tony feels the same way about Sims.
Great effort by Marshall this week against his brothers. Sadly, for the third week this season Marshall's best games have come at the same time as his opponents' best games. Marshall's 1-4 record has got to hurt today, perhaps just as much as that Husker loss must have hurt on Saturday. Keep your head up, Marshall. You never know what will happen, and you have a solid lineup. But just remember, you wouldn't be the first FF owner to bench Peyton Manning. Don't hesitate to do it. It's unfortunate, but he isn't playing at 100% this season. Hell, I wouldn't say he's playing at 75% of his potential. Sad, but true.
With the new flex spot available in the lineup this season, it would be really hard for any team to break a record for lowest scoring team in EW History. But I have to admit I thought Tom had a good chance of doing it this past week. Ouch. Of course, I only scored 7.5 points more than he did this past week, so maybe I shouldn't be too quick to judge ... nah ... fuck it. It's my blog, and my job to diss on my brother, so judge I shall. I do hope Tom is still having fun researching and setting his lineup each week.
Mike is on a 3-game winning streak that will end this weekend against me. But, I'm calling it here ... it's going to be a very, very, very close matchup between us.
I know this is kind of a downer blog post this week. Losing in both leagues will do that for me (well, it was fun being #1 in a league for 1 week at least). But I think the losses that so many teams experienced this weekend brought the energy of the football season down a bit for many of us. Even my 5-0 Packers don't get the juices flowing today. Hopefully next week will be better.

NFL MEMES FOR THE WEEK