Week 7: Fantasy Footbal In-Review - a podcast by Jonny and Donny

from 2011-10-27T01:52

:: ::

ALL HAIL DEMARCO MURRAY!!! WE ARE NOT WORTHY!!!

These were my exact thoughts on Sunday as I watched DeMarco Murray's (253 YDS, 1 TD) stats jump off the page in his first career start for the Dallas Cowboys against the once-again pathetic St. Louis Rams. Just to warn you, I am positive, just like last week, there will be much more DeMarco Murray talk throughout this blog. Stay tuned.

Now that we have that beast of a performance out of the way, I could not help but notice that other than an obvious day at the office for Aaron Rodger (24 COMP, 335 YDS, 3 TD's) and Drew Brees (31 COMP, 325, 5 TD's) beating the snot out of the Colts, for the second week in a row, it seemed to be somewhat of a quiet week from the fantasy aspect of the game. This is however comparing to what we were treated to at the beginning of the season. It seems as if the defenses are starting to wake up and find ways to stop quarterbacks from absolutely torching them week-in and week-out. Well, the Colts have decided to abort that strategy but hey, to each is his/her own (#sadColtsfan).

However, there is one man that was able to keep the excitement and debates alive on the weekend. Care to guess who? Yes, you guessed correctly, none other than Tim Tebow (13 COMP, 161 YDS, 2 TD's, 65 RU YDS, 2PT CONV). First and foremost, I am NOT a Tim Tebow fan nor have I ever been or will be. If I was jammed for a quarterback one week in fantasy and he was available, I most definitely would snatch him up hoping for those always wonderful rushing stats and touchdowns from my quarterback. That being said, as a fan of football, I cannot stand Tim Tebow (Just to get things straight, I am not meaning to start a "crap"-storm here, just my thoughts on Tebow as a quarterback and a fantasy asset). This week only solidified my feelings about the Broncos "saviour". Tebow was garbage the whole game against arguably the worst team in the league in the Miami Dolphins. Up until the fourth quarter with 5:23 left in the game, Tim Tebow's stat line read 4-14 passing for 40 yards, 19 rush yards, zero touchdowns, sacked 6 times and Denver as a team lead by Tebow was 0-10 on third down conversions (Thank-you to Yahoo! Sports for these stats). Yes in the end Tebow led the team to two touchdowns and converted a rushing 2-point conversion, but that does not take anything away from his BRUTAL game for the first 55 minutes of the game. And it was not Tebow who kicked and recovered the onside kick for nice field positioning, it was not Tebow who held the Miami offense from scoring in overtime, nor was it Tim Tebow kicking the 52-yard game-winning field goal in overtime. Matt Prater did not get near as much credit as deserved but was overshadowed by Tebows "heroics". Now I am probably sounding extremely irritating like a lot of other Tebow haters here, but from what I saw this weekend, Tim Tebow is nothing more than an average quarterback that can run like a fullback. I am not hating on the guy, I just do not see it in him like others do and will continue to think that way until consistently proven elsewise. This week will be quite the test against what is normally a very tough San Diego defense (Until Plaxico Burress found, or, put holes in their defense). Oh, did I mention beneath all the talk of his "AMAZING" comeback and great late-game play, it was against the Miami Dolphins?

For those Tebow fans, I apologize. Had to get it off my chest. Moving along. In the leagues I am currently participating in there was plenty of victories to go around as witnessed victories in all three leagues. Starting off with our con-joined ESPN league; it was our third win in a row and we won this one with authority. We picked up an 85-49 victory and it was all thanks to the one they call, DeMarco Murray. Murray racked up 31 points was our obvious team-points leader. The next behind him, John Kasay with 15 points. Kasay was a fill in pick-up for the injured Sebastian Janikowski and boy did that one pay off for us. Other than those two it was a pretty ugly week but hey, whatever captures the 'W' right? Side question: When does Reggie Wayne become droppable?

In our Yahoo! league Jon and myself were both able to jump back on the winning train and did in an emphatic way winning our match-up by 32 and 54 points respectively. Once again I recieved an amazing output from DeMarco Murray leading the way for my banged up group of running backs (McFadden-foot, Wells-knee). Plaxico Burress also decided to show up for me this weekend and did it with a BANG catching 4 balls for 25 yards and 3 touchdowns. The win was also a divisional win against Thomas (@Imtherealdougie), giving me the edge later down the road. This week half of my team is either on the bye (Sanchez, Burress, Keller, McFadden, Starks, GB DST) or hurt (McFadden, Wells). I have a couple fill-in guys playing this week but  with some very favorable match-ups. Moving my record to 7-1 would put me in a very good position to clinch a playoff spot much sooner than expected. RUN DEMARCO RUN!!!

Jon's playoff hopes on the other hand are in serious jeopardy but the win he picked up in week 7 over Jordan (@jbeckham723) is a positive step towards that goal. Jon received a very solid and balanced amount of points from his team which was inevitably lead by Adrian Peterson's (1 REC, 175 TOTAL YDS, 1 TD) 24 points. With the good there does come some bad and Jon will be without Santana Moss for up to 6 weeks with a broken hand. He did however scoop up Michael Jenkins a couple weeks back for the FA pool and that is a guy I believe will have a very good second half with Christian Ponder at the quarterback position for Minnesota. All Jon needs now is for me to tack on a loss to his brothers record. Yes Jon, I am more than willing to help you out.

Moving on to the Booms, Bums and Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 8...

BOOMS:
DEMARCO MURRAY (DAL-RB): 253 rushing yards and 1 touchdown in his first career start, amazing. I had this guy wired last week but I will tell you, I was not expecting this. I did not think the Rams run defense was this bad. Either way, Murray was unstoppable and although I doubt he repeats or even comes close to repeating this performance against the often poor Eagles run defense, it has all the makings in world for another MONSTER of a game this coming weekend.

DREW BREES (NO-QB): I am sure Jared (@JPDClinton) will like this one. In our Yahoo! league Drew Brees put up 52.50 fantasy points and 62 real points against the Colts. Not that you could not of seen this one coming, it is incredibly remarkable nonetheless. The Saints play the Rams this weekend. The Rams have the second-least amount of fantasy points (In Yahoo! leagues) in the league. My advice: keep Drew Brees and any other significant Saint you own active with confidence this week.

Honorable Mentions: Arian Foster (Hou-RB), Matt Forte (Chi-RB), Ben Roethlisberger (Pit-QB)

BUMS:
CHRIS JOHNSON (TEN-RB): This was a guy that more often than not was drafted within the top 5 of most drafts and potentially even taken first overall. Chris Johnson (6 REC, 45 TOTAL YDS) is the definition of a BUM this year. This incredibly awful production has been a re-occurring theme for him all year long and I honestly believe that if he does not tear up the Colts defense this weekend, that is it for him. His value will drop to Ryan Torain level. You can also forget about a 1st or 2nd round pick next year, not even close to being worth that at this point. It is now or never for Chris Johnson. Start looking at Jamie Harper and Javon Ringer for some significant carries down the stretch whether you are a Chris Johnson owner or not.

MILES AUSTIN (DAL-WR): Choosing Miles Austin (2 REC, 16 YDS) for this section is a little unfair considering the game DeMarco Murray had. That being said, Murray's dominance on the ground should have paved way for more than 2 catches and 16 yards for what I believe is an elite wide receiver in this league. I doubt this will continue for Austin and the Cowboys especially now that teams know what Murray is capable of and are essentially forced to stack the box and give Austin the chance to burn single coverages for some big yardage and several touchdowns throughout the remainder of the Cowboys games.

Honorable Mentions: Ray Rice (Bal-RB), Rashard Mendenhall (Pit-RB), Daniel Thomas (Mia-RB) (Should have TORCHED Denver's defense)

WAIVER WIRE PICKUPS:
MICHAEL JENKINS (MIN-WR): As previously mentioned I think Michael Jenkins (3 REC, 111 YDS, 1 TD) can see a significant rise in production with Christian Ponder now throwing him the ball. McNabb's bounce passes were just not doing Jenkins any favors. He has shown in the past that he is capable of being a reliable receiver when he was with Atlanta. I do not want to compare him to Brandon Lloyd of last year but I think you could see somewhat of the same thing out of Jenkins with the Vikings and Ponder.

FRED DAVIS (WAS-TE): I think we could be looking at the next elite tight end in the game in Fred Davis. This week the Redskins placed Chris Cooley on the IR which finally paves way for Fred Davis to get all the targets he can handle. Not only is Santana Moss out for a significant amount of time but Washington's game also took a hit with Tim Hightower going down for the year (Not that that makes any difference to Mike Shanahan). Washington's offense is nothing to write home about but I think Fred Davis can become a serious fantasy asset and a serious keeper pick for those in leagues with more than 2 keepers. Go grab this guy, potential starter status.

Honorable Mentions: Ryan Torain (Was-RB), Roy Helu (Was-RB), Jerome Simpson (Cin-WR)

And this is where the fun ends. Only to start back up on Sunday. I sure do hope Beanie Wells can play this weekend because I think he could be a very sneaky play against Baltimore. Call me crazy but I think Baltimore's performance against the "'Move Like' Jaguars" (@dannysuperstar) puts a serious damper on their confidence. I like Philip Rivers to finally show up this week against fraudulent Kansas City defense, Calvin Johnson should MURDER the Broncos secondary, with or without Matthew Stafford and Stevie Johnson should come off the bye running circles around the Washington defense putting up some very nice numbers. And for all you Chris Johnson owners, if you refuse to sit him, please, for your own sake, trade him before it is too late.

Don't forget to set your lineups

Further episodes of The Sports Reps Talk

Further podcasts by Jonny and Donny

Website of Jonny and Donny