Thursday, December 22, 2011

My Championship Matchup

A little disappointed that I only made one Championship game this year, but that’s just the way it goes. Anyways, before the first game of the week kicks off tonight, I wanted to show you guys my lineup and the team that I am going up against to win it all.
My Team:
QB: Drew Brees
RB: Rashard Mendenhall
RB: Mike Tolbert
RB/WR: Marques Colston
WR: Darrius Heyward-Bey
WR: DeSean Jackson
WR/TE: Calvin Johnson
TE: Anthony Fasano
DEF: Houston Texans
Special Teams: Baltimore Ravens
Bench:
Joe Flacco
Kahlil Bell
Ryan Grant
Earl Bennett
Steve Breaston
Andre Caldwell
Eric Decker
Denver Broncos Defense

My Opponent:
Cam Newton
LeSean McCoy
Willis McGahee
Vincent Jackson
Steve Smith
Demaryius Thomas
Brandon Pettigrew
Jason Witten
Pittsburgh Steelers Defense
Cincinnati Bengals S/T

I feel that I’ve got him edged out a little bit at QB because of our scoring system.
He has me hands down at the RB position. I feel like I might need to gamble by taking Tolbert out and trying my luck with Kahlil Bell. Thoughts?
I think I have the advantage when it comes to receiver. Colston and Johnson have been pulling me through.
Both of his tight ends are better than mine.
And our defense and special teams are a draw.

This year, he has about 10 more points per game than me (in a league where 200-215 points is the norm). What do you think? Any moves I should make? Do I stand a chance? We both are coming in with some pretty damn good matchup. Could be a high scoring affair. Gonna come down to luck in my opinion. Just wish I had any luck at the RB position. Lost two guys to injury early in the year.

14 comments:

  1. Definitely a tough decision...if it was week 6, Bell over Tolbert would be a no brainer (depending on matchup) but this is the championship and it's nerve racking to get cute with a guy who's played one good week even though he could have more in him...green bay is less intimidating than Detroit but you know the lions will give up the big passes to get to the red zone for Tolbert...after all this, Tolbert might not get all the touches but they'll need him at the goal line against the big interior dline...Bell will get touches but still seeing barber as #1 on the depth chart is concerning and green bay could bottle up the whole offense with a new qb and no one to throw to...TL;DR lol

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  2. I say do it. Mike Tolbert isn't going to get you over 10 points, especially with Ryan Matthews playing pretty awesome. If you risk it with Kahlil Bell, he'll get you at least 5 points and you come out only losing around 5 points. I think the risk/reward is in your favor if you choose Kahlil. Of course Marion Barber could have a great game with all the carries and I could be wrong.

    haha good luck my man

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  3. Haha. My problem exactly... overthinking

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  4. I would play Bell - he seems to get more carries than Tolbert & they pass to him as well. I say it's a tossup b/t HOU & DEN defense. Good luck!

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  5. I think I'm going to. I don't like Bell that much. I think that Barber will get more carries, but Tolbert is only useful when he scores. The few weeks that Mathews was out were the best fantasy weeks of my life.

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  6. Thanks! Pretty sure that I will try Bell, just because Tolbert is a headache. I'm just hoping they don't give Barber a chance to redeem himself from a couple weeks ago. Hopefully they swing it all day to Bell.

    I like both DEFs, Denver spooked me last week though. Houston seems a bit more consistent and I've been rolling with them a lot this year.

    Thanks for the advice. I've got a bit of thinking to do still.

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  7. Hey man, so I made it to the finals and I give complete credit to this site (particularly your draft list). There's no way I'd be here without it (my first year of FFB).

    Anyway, here's my current lineup. Projections have me losing by 2 points as of now, and here's my roster.

    QB: Stafford
    RB: McCoy, McGahee
    WR:Megatron, Welker
    TE: V. Davis
    Flex: Gaffney
    D: Seattle
    K: Hanson

    Bench: Tebow, Thomas, Bell, Little, Det Def, Donald Brown

    Not sure if Gaffney is my best flex option. Also have Demaryius Thomas and Khalil Bell available to slot in. Whoever I put there will NEED to give me some points. I can see Gaffney and Thomas putting up similar yardage, but the question is who has a better shot of getting in the endzone? Also, I ran with a RB in my flex up until last week (lost Fred Jackson, then DeMarco Murray). I was able to scoop Bell up as insurance but is he a better play than either of the WR this week?

    Here's my opponent's team (I'm a little scared):

    QB: Manning
    RB: Foster, Spiller
    WR: White, Cruz
    TE: Gronkowski
    Flex: B Marshall
    D: Houston
    K: Kasay

    Bench: Lance Moore, Kevin Smith, Ten Def, Kendall Hunter, Forte(out), Best (IR)

    I'm particularly worried about the points White, Foster, and Gronkowski could put up, so I want to try my best to get some nice points from my Flex.

    Any advice about maximizing my roster for the championship is much, much appreciated! And for the final time this season, thanks a lot!

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  8. Hey football Gods... Made it through the first round of playoffs (ESPN standard 10-team 2-week playoff)
    My lineup is pretty solid everywhere except WR and D/ST please give input.

    QB- Vick
    RB- MJD, M. Bush, Mathews @ Flex (bench Blount &Barber)
    WR- Wallace, S. Moss (bench A. Brown & L. Robinson)
    TE- Gates (davis)
    D/ST- Bengals (Broncos)
    K- Gostkowski

    Would like your opinion on my WR choices I'm struggling with benching Brown because him and Wallace became my bread and butter this season but Wallace and Moss where my cheese and crackers for the first half of season (picked up Brown when Moss went down) and of course L. Rob... I know it'll be a shootout with Philly but there are soooo many weapons there and I don't trust Romo.
    Also Bengals seem to be a slight expert favorite but I think the Broncos D plays inspired after last week's loss. (please help

    Going against the #1 seed who's shuffling Cruz and Gaffney @ Flex but currently has J. Gaffney in there. So looks like this (his bench is awefule (Murray on IR, 2 Kickers and 3 TE's lol)
    QB- Rivers
    RB- Foster (ouch, but it's 2-week so MJD has his shot at Indy next week)
    RB- F. Jones
    Flex- J. Gaffney
    (He rides Foster and solid receivers now that he lost F. Jackson and D. Murray)
    WR- C. Johnson
    WR- M. Austin
    TE- Gonzalez
    D/ST- Ravens
    K- Akers

    GEAUX TIGERS! btw nice call on liking the Saints a little more than GB abt 2 weeks ago... GB suddenly looks human.

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  9. Glad that I could help you out this year. Hope to see you back next season after you take home the trophy!

    Lets do this.

    I think you really have the edge in every catagory but TE and Flex. TE, there isn't much you can do about it, just hope that Gronk has another tough week and that Davis can maybe get in the end zone.

    Looking at your bench, I agree that Gaffney is probably the safest choice. He is pretty much guaranteed to get you a certain amount of points each week. Thomas, on the other hand, can be hit or miss. He can have very good days, or very bad ones. So, really, who you play at Flex is all about how risky you are feeling.

    If you think you need the home run here, then I do think that Thomas has a higher upside, But as far as consistency goes, I think that Gaffney gives you a lot more confidence that your actually going to get some points on the board. Gaffney vs. the Vikings is the better matchup, but he has Moss to contend with. Thomas vs Bills isn’t a bad matchup, but tougher than Gaffney’s.

    If you feel that you need the homerun with the upside. I think you go Thomas here.

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  10. I'll start out with the easier one... I have both defenses in my top 8, back to back. I like the Bengals more, but they were crap last week. Broncos should be a bit pissed about their showing last week, so I would honestly rather play them.

    The tougher question is WR
    You really laid it all out nicely yourself. Fun part is that they all have great matchups, I think.

    Wallace and Brown against STL is nice. For both of them. Roeth is still an issue for me, but even hurt last week he was able to show some love to Wallace. I think that with the injury, he is going more toward the WR that he trusts more. Only one week to have tested that theory, but I do like Wallace over Brown this week.

    Laurent Robinson is the man. Scoring all the damn time. He is Romo’s favorite target in the redzone. He had 100+ yards and a score against them last time they met. And you know that Dez is going to be drawing Asomugha and Austin is going to be drawing Cromartie. Leaving Robinson against their 3rd corner or a safety. I understand the hesitation. He is getting fewer looks each week, but I have to have confidence in him still since he is not slowing down.

    Moss is against the Vikings. Pretty soft pass coverage. He is also coming into this game hot. Still no Fred Davis, so he is the number one target on the team.

    I like all four of them. And I’m honest when I say that any combination would be good here.

    Since it is a two week playoff, you have a couple strategies. You can play it safe this week and feel things out. In that case, I would play Wallace and Moss, like you have it. Or, since he already has a high score with Foster, you can be a bit riskier and play for upside.

    Again, any combo looks nice here in my opinion. I really like the shootout aspect from Robinson, but I think that I would go safer and consistent and go Wallace Moss.

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  11. Thanks for the advice. After doing some more research, I'm leaning towards Gaffney over Thomas. Thomas' first real big game (100+yds, 2 tds) came against the Vikings, so hopefully Washington can exploit them and Gaffney finds the endzone.

    I now have a new dilemma. My Defense. I surely don't want to start Detroit against SD so I have Seattle going against the Niners. But Washington's D is available to pick up. Are they a better play than Seattle? The only real threat is Peterson, but if they bottle him up and force Ponder to throw then there'll be some serious potential for turnovers and scores. Am I overthinking it, or should I make the swap and start them over Seattle?

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  12. Thank you for the insight. I really apreciate it, yall are so thorough when responding to every post on this site. It won't be long until someone name-drops GHL on ESPN Fantasy Football Now, the Herd (my fav sports show), or Sportsnation and hopefully go big time (quit the dayjobs and focus on your true calling in life). Would be awesome to see.

    But I have 2 questions for you:

    1) I was in my car about 2 hours after my initial post, listening to SVP when I heard breaking news: TOMLIN ANNOUNCES CHARLIE BATCH AS STARTER FOR THIS WEEK'S GAME. I honestly don't know what to make of this. I was initially optimistic thinking "great" a backup who can only make his first 2 progressions will favor Wallace and Brown, but then I beleive i heard he's an older veteran backup so I don't know what to think or how this changes my gameplan this week. What are your thoughts on Batch under center? Do i go L-Rob and Moss and stay away from this completely (I heard Ben may suit up and be available in case of emergency and I think it could favor these receivers because St. Louis will stack the box more and make Batch beat them. Just kinda lost on this one. Heard someone on TV refer to him as "serviceable." WTF, I don't want "serviceable" throwing to my receivers. T.J. Yates is "serviceable"

    -Also With Davis out do you think that hurts Moss to a degree putting the focus of the entire secondary on him, Gaffney and to a lesser extent armstrong? I know Davis was out last week too but I guess my question is HOW soft is this vikings pass defense?

    2) What happens to GHL during the offseason? I'd imagine some nice playoff opinions and commentary but after the Saints win the Superbowl does the site just hibernate? Or do yall start posting what yall had for breakfast and how bad the traffic was today on your way to work? This is my first year following the site and i've been curious what happens to GHL after the football season for a while now. Do yall gear up for fantasy basketball? ... if possible, a detailed breakdown of the BCS National Championship game would be really really cool.

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  13. I had the same thoughts as you when I was making my defense list. The only reason that Washington fell for me is that they arent as good a defense as SEA is. SEA just has most stats this year. Minnesota is definitely the more turnover-prone team though. I would have no problem starting Washington, especially with your rationalization.

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  14. With batch starting, I'm at a bit of a loss. The matchup is soft, so it is possible that his WRs will have decnet games. But I have to imagine that the main focus will be running the ball and drop down passes to Heath Miller and the RBs.

    I have no issues starting moss without Davis. Davis has been out for two weeks. Moss has been good without him. Better probably. Vikings are a pretty soft team. Bad thing is that the game is completely meaningless for both teams.

    You have all the reason in the world to bench the Steelers now. And Moss and Robinson are still both good calls.


    As for what I do in the offseason... nothing really. I'll write about the playoffs. Predictions and things like that. Advice for anyone that signs up for playoff leagues. And, at your request, I'll go ahead and make some BCS predictions next week. Mostly, it's a hibernation thing. I play fantasy basketball, but dont have the confidence to actually give advice abou it. I'm in talks with another writer to maybe add him on and talk about basketball. We'll see though.

    Thanks for all the kind words. Good luck to you this week. Hopefully there is a name drop at ESPN. Thats my dream.

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