Tuesday Gridiron (11/2009): Rusty tomato cans

Brian Westbrook did me a favor even as I dropped him from my roster.  I replaced him with Giants wideout Mario Manningham.  In the photo at the lower right, Manningham doesn't even have his pads on, which reflects the way I used him.  With AFC North WRs Santonio Homes, Mike Wallace and Laverneus Coles all facing tomato-can opposition, I felt comfortable leaving Manningham on the bench.

Some tomato cans Kansas City and Oakland turned out to be.

Leaving Manningham's 126 receiving yards on the bench was a mistake, but not as big as the one my opponent, Crown My Ass, made.  Playing Houston's Steve Slaton at running back would've given CMA an extra 37 yards -- the exact amount needed for a 0.04-point victory.  Instead, CMA benched Slaton for Buffalo's Fred Jackson, and Team Venture escaped with its fourth straight win, a 104.42-100.76 triumph.

At 5-6, I'm still just outside the playoff zone.  But with my league's longest winning streak and my strongest lineup all year, Team Venture could make a deep playoff run.

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The Victory Weighted NFL standings (at the bottom of the page) now show playoff positions. Teams that would advance to the postseason appear with their projected seeds in parentheses. Officially, Cincinnati would get the AFC's second seed; New Engalnd, its fourth. Victory Weighting reverses that, since one New England loss and one Cincinnati win each came in overtime.

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Tuesday Gridiron (10/2009)

This was supposed to be my week of reckoning.  I now faced my former brother-in-law, who three weeks ago had agreed to give me Brett Favre and LeSean McCoy for Tom Brady.  I fully expected to pay for the two wins that came from that trade, because I would now be facing Brady.

In that case, I might have lost a narrow decision, because I also managed to score only 69.26 points -- in the process, leaving more than 30 points on my bench.

• I started St. Louis return man Danny Amendola at wide receiver because, with New Orleans scoring so often, he'd be returning a lot of kickoffs.  This tactic has worked well since I got him, but this turned out to be the one week all season when the Rams didn't suck.  That meant that Amendola didn't get many touches.  Starting Dallas WR Roy Williams would've gotten me 10.8 desperately needed points.
• Instead of honoring my own instincts, I listened to the pundits at Yahoo! and ESPN, who all told me to start Minnesota's Chester Taylor instead of Seattle's Justin Forsett.  As a result, I lost another 19.5 points.
  

This snapshot of last Sunday's Lolcats Lions-Vikings game helps explain why I won, anyway.  Favre passed for 344 yards, and the Viking defense overpowered the lowly Lolcats Lions.  My Viking contingent account for almost half my scoring, but the rest of my team did more than enough to win.

Especially since my BIL had traded Brady to my nephew.

So despite all my mistakes, Team Venture picked up a 69.3-49.2 win.  We're now 3-0 since the trade, 4-6 overall and in the middle of the playoff hunt.  Right now, I like my chances.

The bad news is that with a second concussion, Brian Westbrook -- my first-round pick this year -- is out for the season, and I will have to drop him.  Weirdly enough, his troubles have improved my team dramatically.

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Tuesday Gridiron: More lemony goodness!

The concussion that's been plaguing running back Brian Westbrook (shown at the right) hasn't done any good for either him or his Philadelphia Eagles.  For my fantasy-football team, however, it's done wonders.  Last week's 50-rosaries trade for Westbrook's backup, LeSean McCoy worked spectacularly, and that should have ended the story.  Alas, the Minnesota Vikings had their bye this week, taking with quarterback Brett Favre, RB Chester Taylor and their defense.  Combined with Westbrook's continuing health issues, it forced me into another major roster makeover.

My three new additions, Seattle RB Justin Forsett, the Seahawk defense and Kansas City QB Matt Cassell, proved to be the correct ones, combining for 53 points as temporary starters.  With all my other players also performing well, Team Venture romped to its biggest win of the year, a comprehensive 122-66 thrashing of the Flying Hawaiians.  Team Venture improved to 3-6 and, incredibly enough, back into playoff contention.  The new guys will be staying on the squad, and Forsett -- who joined literally two minutes before kickoff -- may even start on a permanent basis.  Hoo-RAH!

Tuesday Gridiron: Lemons to lemonade

I was going to post a sad, sad fantasy-football story last week, but this week it got a happy sequel.

It started a week ago last night, when things were looking good. My team, named after the Venture Brothers, trailed by six points, but two players were set to play the Monday night game. If Philadelphia RB Brian Westbrook and Washington TE Chris Cooley could gain 60 yards between them, I would win the game. Since both Westbrook and Cooley both took spots in the NFL's top ten at their respective positions, this proposition looked like a sure bet. Before quarter-time, alas, Westbrook suffered a concussion and Cooley broke his leg. Their total yardage stopped at 35, sending my team crashing to 1-6.

Going into this week, things were already dicey. Besides Cooley, my quarterback and three of my four best receivers were all on a bye week.  I could replace Cooley, but that still left me with four starting spots to fill, and no good way to replace them.

In desperation, I traded for Minnesota QB Brett Favre (left) and and Lesean McCoy (center), Westbrook's backup. It wasn't cheap -- I had to send my starting QB, Tom Brady (right), packing -- but it worked spectacularly. Favre's four touchdown passes combined with a 66-yard McCoy touchdown run to power my team to victory. Despite having to play 8-on-9 (one of my backup receivers gained 0 yards), my Venture Brothers team pulled off the 87-83 upset win.

The unexpected triumph boosts me to 2-6 and out of the league cellar. Next week, Favre has a bye, so I've picked Kansas City QB Matt Cassell to relieve him. With my best receivers (and possibly Westbrook) back in action, I should have enough to make win my third game in four weeks. Go Team Venture!

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