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DeMarco Murray is no longer on pace to break the single season record for rushing yards. He is, however, on pace to finish the season with 1,973 yards on the ground. To do so he will have to maintain his average of 123 yards per game. Dallas's remaining opponents are NYG, PHI, CHI, PHI, IND and WAS. The only team that isn't giving up at least 100 rushing yards per game in that list are the Colts who fall just below at 98.1 yards per game. The New York Football Giants are ranked the worst in the league giving up a league high 144.7 yards per game. These remaining teams combined are allowing 696.2 yards per game. That's an average of 116 yards. I don't see Murray maintaing the 123 yards per game pace, but I could definitely see him averaging 85. That would close him out for the season with 1743 yards which would be the 2nd most in a season in the last 5 years behind Adrian Peterson who racked up 2097 yards in 2012. His current pace has him at 390 carries for the season. That number concerns me...
The injury bug strikes again, and this time it’s a quarterback who takes the beating. Philadelphia will be without the services of quarterback Nick Foles for several weeks after breaking his collarbone in Sunday’s game against Houston. Mark Sanchez, yes he’s still in the league, came in and helped the Eagles the rest of the way to a win over the Texans. So who can you turn to now? Six teams have a bye this week in Houston, Indianapolis, Minnesota, New England, San Diego and Washington. There’s a ton of talent to replace and that’s before we jump into injuries. Let’s get into it and see who you can pick up this week to help your team out...
I mean, you do have the Arizona Cardinals with the best record in the NFL. The Miami Dolphins suddenly look like they can be competent for certain stretches of time. One of those times including a game against my Chargers. Both the Colts and Eagles (depending on Nick Foles' status) seem competent enough to being contenders. Even the Steelers have figured a few things out behind Ben Roethlisberger treating the last two games like he met them in a dive bar bathroom. But I think it's fair to say that the Broncos and Patriots, fulfilling a narrative wet dream on a continual basis, had to have been considered the two best teams. At least until the Patriots destroyed the Broncos yesterday afternoon. While I'm a constant palm-facer when it comes to Peyton Manning's "cold-weather" narrative, it seems that his "can't beat the Patriots" narrative may have something to it. Also, there are way too many narratives. Please no more narratives. That being said, despite having their own problems early in the season, the Patriots have seemingly maintained their status as one of the top teams in the NFL, if not
the top team. Now that you've figured that part out, for the love of god, can you give the ball to Shane Vereen more? Is that too much to ask?
Writing the Start 'Em and Sit 'Em is usually pretty easy, if I'm being honest. You never want to say to start DeMarco Murray and bench Geno Smith, because that's too obvious. Even still, there are enough options based on matchups that make for a pretty easy article. Not this week, though. No, it's the return of Bye-Mageddon, Bye-Nado or whatever clever name you want to give it. There are six, yes six, teams on bye this week. The Bears, Titans, Packers, Lions, Falcons and Bills are off, and all of the aforementioned teams except the Titans are loaded with fantasy relevant players.
With so many viable options on bye, it's hard to suggest that you bench anyone. But alas, the show must go on.
2014 In-Season Accuracy: 59.3% (4th out of 22 Experts, 62.3% Highest, 42.6% Lowest).
In this space we typically just talk defense, and for good reason. Offensive players are covered ad nauseam on literally every other page on the Internet. I try to provide a safe haven for IDP owners to come and rejoice in the beauty of the solo tackle, and mourn the losses of beloved friends like Derrick Johnson and Paul Pozluszny. But IDP fantasy football doesn't exist in a silo, and in order to maximize your lineup's potential, we occasionally need to think about the other side of the ball.
Early on in the season, playing matchups is a bit of a fool's errand. Teams are still struggling to establish their identity, starting lineups can be fluid, and one game can have an outsized impact on stat lines. But now that we're two months into the season, using matchups to help inform lineup decisions can be a valuable tool.
With that in mind, let's take a look at teams that have been the best (and worst) matchups for each IDP position.
While the game as a whole was a close scoring affair that went into overtime, looking at it from the micro view, the first half was entirely forgettable. In fact, I had a hard time not throwing an unsportsmanlike penalty flag having been forced to watch those two quarters. To put it succinctly, the Cowboys did practically everything wrong and were still only down by three. The game suddenly became entertaining in the second half, until Romo went down from a sack and headed back to the locker room until late in the fourth quarter. They said he passed through the stadium bar, so I'm assuming some shots were in order. For a while, it was Brandon Weeden facing off against Colt McCoy, and I had to Google to make sure I wasn't watching a preseason game. Suffice it to say, McCoy found a way to win in overtime, because heart, or something, and while Romo returned to a standing ovation, begging for a Romonobyl so powerful, Godzilla would awaken, we were treated to a spinning incomplete pass to end the game on downs. Not exactly the aphrodisiac I was expecting. But with a surprising win, Washington finds itself 3-5 with a chance at 8-8, and if Romo's back takes a turn for the worst, we now know how Dallas will finish 8-8, unfortunately leaving the suspense out how they were going to do it.
Don't worry, I'm not going to recommend that you listen to the Run DMC cover of the classic Aerosmith song in your Adidas jump suit this weekend [Jay's Note: Awww, I'm already dressed up for it!], but I'm going to recommend that you start Raiders' running back, Darren McFadden.
It's disgusting to read, I get it. How many times have we bought into McFadden only to be let down in the past? If you can tally up the times, please let me know. However, the matchup this week against the Browns is too good to pass up. Since Tony Sparano has taken over as head coach of the Raiders, he's made it a point to run the ball with McFadden. McFadden has a total of 34 touches (six catches) for 141 yards and one touchdown in his two games under Sparano.
Meanwhile, Maurice Jones-Drew has just seven carries in those contests, so there's no feeling that he'll vulture McFadden. The Browns, for whatever reason, are horrible against the run. On the year, they've given up seven touchdowns to running backs, and they are coming off a game in which they were gashed by Denard Robinson. Yes, they made a Jaguars running back actually look good.
You can't trust McFadden to stay healthy for the entire season, but his matchup against the Browns is as good as it gets, and he's our start of the week for Week 8.
Those of you in your 30’s shouldn't have a hard time remembering George Michael’s Sports Machine. Running from 1984 to about 2007, and airing on Sunday nights, it was a 30-minute television show dedicated to providing the highlights of the past week’s sporting events. I did a quick search on Ancestry.com, and it turns out the Sports Machine and Stats Machine are very distant relatives. I hope George’s estate doesn’t sue me. Now that I have cleared that up, let’s move on.
Well, wasn't that something. The game was, well, close for the most part. And by close, you have to consider context, as they Seahawks didn't score 45 points in the first quarter, which certainly exceeded my expectations. But it's no surprise that Jim Haslett was implementing his no cover defensive scheme throughout the game, and Jay Gruden's sh*tty play design was certainly well masked by the players poor execution of it. But if there's one takeaway here, it's that the game was closer than it ever had a right to be, though, it is fair to say, the outcome was really never in doubt. So Washington hung in there..., bravo. That's definitely worth something. Well, I mean, it's worth a loss. So yeah, I guess that sucks.
Well, well, well, here we are again, my lovelies, creeping up on Week 5 of the 2014 NFL season. Did I say “creeping”? I meant hobbling, limping, gimping, crawling, and generally just dragging our sad, broken and battered remnants of the rosters we once drafted through another week. Heading into Week 5, my Black Widow Curse is still in full swing, and there continues to be plenty of man souls for me to feast upon, or to adorn in my glass trophy case. One of these days I will learn to pick off your rosters, instead of my own, but hey, curses aren’t an exact science, and as I said before, a girl’s gotta eat. Hell, even the stalker in the bushes outside of my house has started to abide by the fifty yards stipulated in the restraining order, for fear that the curse will hit him and he’ll blow out a knee or tear a hammy. [Jay's Note: Baby steps J-FOH... baby steps.]
If you are in the same position as I am, and many of you are, judging by the comments you left on my last week’s article, we are now rostering many waiver wire players to fill in the gaps. Heck, even Keanu Reeves would be impressed with The Replacements we have going on. But, much like that bomb of a movie, our rosters are also bombing, as we are forced to start the best of the worst. So, I am here again to drop some fantasy football advice, give you a chance to fill in those gaps, break up with some of those rostered deadbeats who aren’t pulling their weight, and hopefully, just maybe, escape my Black Widow Curse for one week. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, Hit it or Quit it: Week 5.
So, that actually was about the most predictable outcome, if we're basing it off of the complete 2014 Thursday Night Football catalog thus far. Needless to say, there were some takeaways from last night's game that I want to share with you. FedEx field continues to look as solid as RG3's knee. I have no idea how much longer Tom Coughlin can look that constipated, but 11 years is a magical feat. Get that man some prune juice, stat. Competent Eli Manning? First sign of the Apocalypse. Everyone okay with Jesus? Oh, and Kirk Cousins. Yeah... that happened. And by that, I mean four interceptions and a fumble. Let me tell you, I've heard of kissing cousins, but sh*tting the bed Cousins? That's a new one. Well, like the old saying goes-- “When Jermaine McBride gets an interception, the game is over”.
As if the injuries weren’t bad enough, now we get to add in bye weeks to the train wreck known as Fantasy Football in 2014. This week, you’re missing Arizona, St. Louis, Seattle, Denver, Cleveland and Cincinnati to pile on with the problems. Let’s dive in and see who can help your team out on a bumpy Week 4.
