convergence

i supppose this is what i get for detailing the successes of my 'best' team. all of a sudden, i wake up and realize that roster has only exceeded 85 points once in the past 5 weeks. the dreadfully embarrassing team in the work league has exceeded 85 points once in the past 5 weeks. granted, that was the first time that team made it even as high as 85 all year long, and i'm not getting 21 points out of dallas clark every week. still, this is the moment in the season when i look at everything and realize i'm a lot more vulnerable than i'd thought, even where there's the perception of strength. another big surprise has been the emergence of valuable depth on the team that drafted 8 backup qbs in the auto-draft. at the time, my starting lineup looked fine and i had no bench at all. in this league, with some odd qb scoring, ppr, and 7 pts per touchdown (including passing), my bench now consists of:

rb - chris johnson, steve slaton, dominic rhodes

wr - desean jackson, devin hester

qb - kurt warner

truthfully, some of those guys are not 'bench' guys; i sat adrian peterson one week, which is easier to do in a ppr format. rhodes' value may have dipped significantly already, but the lesson here is that need can create some interesting opportunities. warner wasn't necessarily being touted as arizona's potential starter by aug 21, when our autodraft was held, and he didn't even make it to my first round of waiver picks. this is one league where i hated waiting for the post-draft waiver period to end. thanks to that weird autodraft glitch, i had jim sorgi and billy volek, among many others, sitting on my bench. most of my first round of pickups didn't yield long-term or even short-term results, but i knew i was vulnerable and i kept looking. to some extent, i was lucky; the bench guys i picked up here are better than people i start in that work league. such a sad statement. still, i think i might break 90 another couple times with that awful team, and i could even get back over 100 one week. i've got donnie avery now, darn it.

last minute changes

i knew i was leaving town friday and unlikely to be able to check my team over the weekend. i still took my computer and ipod, basically only to make sure that i could check my team if necessary. well, it was necessary. some am espn-watching revealed that santonio holmes got busted with marijuana. picked up nate washington where i could. actually dropped holmes where i had him; he'd been dropped before in that league, and i figure there's little room on my roster for a guy who's not playing this week. i was lucky to have him as a 4th receiver there, and i figured it should be nate washington and not holmes that gets that spot for now. fortunately, i also have desean jackson.

the one thing i can't figure out this week is what to do with steven jackson. i think i'm going to start earnest graham and jamal lewis instead. those guys are good enough, i hope.

it smells like pumpkins

I've been concerned with improving my best team for the playoff run, but the one big trade I did make (Romo/Hines Ward for Brees/SJax) has proven that you can't really plan ahead. I always thought that was a good deal, since I liked Bowe nearly as much as Ward for a 3rd receiver and Brees had better fantasy playoff potential than Romo based on matchups. What I didn't expect was that Romo would get injured. It could just as easily have been one of my guys who'd gone down, and made the trade look foolish or, more accurately, unlucky.

We start QB/RBx2/WRx3/TE/K/Def in this league. Playoffs for 4 teams; wk 15&16

My roster:

QB - Brees, Cutler

Two top-5 QBs...I can still deal one for value, though I want to stick with Brees and Cutler has been less amazing of late

RB - Barber, SJax, Forte, Earnest Graham

3 top 10 RBs is a bit much, but I would want insurance if I dealt one of them. Graham's a great 4th option to have at RB, but I haven't been able to deal him for anything. I may have been trying too hard to be cute and package him, but no one in the league seems interested in this guy.

WR - Wayne, Marshall, Bowe, Chambers, Antonio Bryant

Apparently two top-5 WRs is enough to get you somewhere if the rest of your team is good. Bowe's got QB problems but is solid, Chambers' injury has lingered, and Bryant is not that amazing. The lack of droppable RBs means Bryant is the first to hit waivers if something goes wrong, even though my depth here isn't great.

TE - Anthony Fasano

I avoided burning #2 waiver priority for Kevin Walter. I'd rather deal for a TE, but that's not necessarily likely at this point. Fasano obviously looked real good at the start of the season, but he was always splitting catches a bit with Martin. I think he can post a few big games still, but I'm not holding out for much here.

K - Prater, Gostkowski

Ok, so my #1 drop after this week will be a kicker. I don't know if Prater's going to be worth keeping around or not, but I had room to try it here.

DEF - Tennessee

Amazing how I'm not at all afraid of their matchup with the Colts. Remember when you used to think you'd need to pick up a different D when Indianapolis loomed on the schedule. That being said, Titans are the premiere fantasy defense thus far, so you have to stick with them against just about anyone.

new life

the undefeated team is once again undefeated, thanks to a mid-week stat correction that took 11 rushing yards away from marshawn lynch. my wk 5 opponent's score was thus reduced by a point, and we ended in a tie.

i somehow managed to breathe 'life' into my embarrassingly bad work league team, trading leron mcclain, deshaun jackson, and kellen winslow for jay cutler, dallas clark, and greg lewis. lewis is already back on waivers, as massive modifications to my team roster were necessary in order to attempt to make this trade work. jackson had been my highest-scoring receiver. i of course lost my week 6 matchup in typically awful fashion, falling to one and five. i've now anchored my lousy team to the same qb - cutler - who had brought 3 other teams to promising starts. it's a bit lame when your fortunes are linked so strongly to one guy, but cutler's owner had peyton, and preferred the colts qb.

ouch

sigh. i lost my undefeated streak and a matchup i thought i'd won. in one case, i lost by a point when i'd been up 17 with drew brees playing monday. the other guy had...minnesota's defense and kicker. they got him 31, brees got me 30, i lost by a point. that last-second interception he threw cost me the matchup.

i am glad baseball is over

9/28/08 was a great day for me. i was just glad to be done with baseball and be able to focus on football. i finished 2nd and 3rd, having resigned myself to losing in funston's league. i am still a little annoyed that i lost carlos lee, then carlos quentin, and had bj upton injured the entire week of the semi-finals in the other league, but i guess i have adjusted to that reality.

i was pretty annoyed to see what a lousy night adrian peterson is having. i had about 35 points' cushion plus peterson going against an opponent who's starting bush, brees, and the new orleans defense. there's some weird rules in the scoring system; all touchdowns are 7 points, completions are awarded fractional points and incompletions and sacks lead to negative points. on top of that, it's a point per reception league, which makes bush absolutely deadly and peterson much less of a premiere back than he would otherwise be. there is still plenty of time for him to shape up, but i think at this point he has to outscore bush and brees combined as they've really had a nice night thus far. oh well, at least i'll remain undefeated in one league...where i have cutler and brees. i still love that trade...even though it was like week 2 how could i hvae been so lucky as to have traded hines ward and romo for brees and steven jackson? don't trust early returns, i guess.