Wednesday, December 12, 2012

NFL Week 14 Fantasy Football High Fives, Brofists, and Bombs

     Week 14 started the playoffs in my league and I had a bye the first round. I figured I would still do the weekly recap on how my players performed, since they did play. My team was projected to score 143.88 fantasy points, but came up a little short at 130.96. Here are my awards for the week:


                                                              High Fives

 If a player exceeded his projections, he gets the ultimate celebratory affirmation of one's prowess, the high five.


RB#2 Alfred Morris- Morris ran for 122 yards, 1 touchdown, and a fumble on Sunday vs. the Ravens. Overall, another impressive performance for the rookie, despite the fumble. Morris has rushed for over 100 yards for 3 straight weeks and has been instrumental in the Redskin's recent success. He was projected to get me 9.93 fantasy points and he came up with 16.93.

Defense San Diego Chargers- The Chargers D had another good week for me, this time against Pittsburgh. San Diego sacked Big Ben twice, recovered a fumble and scored a touchdown. I got lazy with changing defenses every week earlier in the season, but surprisingly it has worked out for me. San Diego was projected at 8.52 fantasy points, they brought me home 12.

Flex Demarco Murray- I had a feeling Murray would beat his projections this week and I like running backs in my flex spot, so I stuck with him. Murray only had 52 yards rushing vs. the Bengals on Sunday, but he made up for it by getting a touchdown. He also had 4 catches for 22 yards. Murray was projected to score 15.31 fantasy points and ended up with 17.50.

WR#2 Eric Decker- This one was a surprise to me. I didn't expect much from Decker, who had underachieved in his last 4 starts, even if the matchup vs. Oakland was a good one. If I wasn't on a bye this week I probably wouldn't have started him. Decker, who was projected to score 14.75 fantasy points, had 8 catches for 88 yards totaling 16.80 points. I'm still not convinced Decker's resurgence will be sustained. His targets increased only when Demaryius Thomas left the game for awhile with a shoulder injury. I have a tough decision to make on whether to bench Decker this week vs. the Ravens.


                                                              Brofists
If a player meets or comes near to meeting his projections, he gets the modern day version of the ass smack, the brofist.

 

QB Matthew Stafford- Stafford has met or beat his projections for the last 3 weeks. He has struggled at times this year, but that seems to have settled down lately. Stafford threw for 264 yards with one passing and one rushing touchdown this Sunday vs. the Packers. He did have an interception and a really bad fumble. The fumble probably cost the Lions the game, but considering that it was snowing, all in all not a bad day fantasy wise.

RB#1 Doug Martin- Muscle Hamster came up big again this week against Philly, Martin ran for 128 yards, 1 touchdown, and had 4 receptions. Unfortunately his effort was in vain, Tampa Bay gave up a touchdown pass from rookie quarterback Nick Foles in the final seconds of the game. Martin is the third highest scoring fantasy running back in the league right now, behind Adrian Peterson and Arian Foster.

                                                               Bombs
If a player does not come any where near his projections, he gets nuked...

WR#1 AJ Green- Green just had a horrible game on Sunday, I guess even the greats bomb some days. I'm not sure if it was the fact that Green's QB, Andy Dalton, struggled or if he was not fully recovered from the illness he had earlier in the week. It could be a little of both. He was projected to score 20.07 points in my Yahoo league, but only came up with 7.40. Green is having a great year and I don't see this one bad performance as something that will trend.

WR#3 TY Hilton- Unfortunately Hilton was a victim of the Colts offense this week. The Colts like to spread the offense out, giving rookie QB Andrew Luck lots of targets. They were also able to get the running game going a bit on Sunday. All this led to limited targets for Hilton this week, who had only 2 receptions for 50 yards. Hilton was short of his projection by 5 fantasy points.

TE Jimmy Graham- Graham has really been struggling lately and I'm a little concerned. Graham was my first round pick and he hasn't really lived up to it. Graham and QB Drew Brees, who hasn't been himself lately either, don't seem to be on the same page. Often it seems like either Brees makes an inaccurate throw to Graham or Graham just flat out drops a catchable ball. Graham has scored below his projections in the last 4 weeks. This week he was projected at 14.94 fantasy points, but only brought 10.60 home. Hopefully Graham and Drew Brees can get it going vs. Tampa Bay or it may be a short run in the playoffs for me.

K Shayne Graham- This game was an embarrassment for the Texan organization. Tom Brady made Houston defense look like a bunch of high school kids trying to play with the big boys. The offense couldn't get it going either and as a result, Graham's opportunities were limited. He made his two extra points, but those were his only chance to score. Graham was 5 points short of his projected total.

                                                       My Bad Brah
The My Bad Brah award goes to the player or players who had exceptional performances but were on my bench.

WR Andrew Hawkins- Hawkins has seen an increase in targets lately because of injuries in the Bengal receiver corps.. He had 6 receptions for 44 yards and a touchdown on Sunday vs. Dallas. I am still apprehensive about plugging him in to my starting lineup because I think his upside is limited. Hawkins scored 16.40 fantasy points vs. Dallas, he was only projected to score 6.74.

     Moving forward, I am a concerned with my team's production in Week 14. I will need to score a lot of points in my playoff matchup for week 15 and having your team underachieve the week before is worrisome. The rule in my league is that rosters lock for the playoffs, so my options to improve are limited. I am going up against the team with the second highest point total in the league (my team was #1, but only by 50 points). Makes me wish that playoff seeding was based on overall point totals and not record. My opponent was second in scoring, but is the 4th seed because of his record. As the #1 seed I would prefer to play the team with the lowest point totals. I could care less about his record. Such is life I guess! Good luck to everybody trying to advance in the playoffs this week.

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