The Internet's favorite fantasy football team found itself running to stand still, and in this case, that's not necessarily a good thing.
The People's Pigskin managed to score 108 points this past week in the NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge. That's 9 fewer points than we scored in the wild card round, despite having four players eligible for double points. The 225 total points leaves the Pigskin tied for 38,805th overall and tied for 14th in the 9beersfantasysportstavern league. Here is the breakdown.
Drew Brees, QB. The stats: 247 yards passing, 3 touchdowns and 21 fantasy points. Given the pinball numbers the New Orleans Saints compiled against the Arizona Cardinals, one would think Brees' statistics would be stronger than this.
Ray Rice, RB. The stats: 67 rushing yards, 60 receiving yards, 1 fumble and 24 fantasy points. Because he was in our lineup for the second straight week, Rice received double the points for his efforts. And even if the same had held true for the Baltimore Ravens as a team, it wouldn't have been enough to get them to the next round.
LaDainian Tomlinson, RB. The stats: 24 rushing yards and 2 fantasy points. There's plenty of speculation about whether Tomlinson will be with the San Diego Chargers next season. Certainly one place he won't be is in many starting fantasy lineups.
Miles Austin, WR. The stats: 34 rushing yards, 8 receiving yards and 3 fantasy points. It seems the only people reaping fantasy points from the Dallas Cowboys offensive drives played for the Minnesota Vikings defense.
Larry Fitzgerald, WR. The stats: 77 receiving yards and 14 fantasy points. Another player getting double the points for a team that even more help than that getting to the next round. (Maybe the Arizona Cardinals should have borrowed the Vikings defense.)
Jason Witten, TE. The stats: 98 receiving yards and 18 fantasy points. The point doubling made his stats look decent. Unfortunately, that's all they did.
Nate Kaeding, K. The stats: 0 for 3 on field goals, 2 for 2 on extra points and 2 fantasy points. In a word, augh. You'd think the San Diego Chargers had signed Lucy Van Pelt to be the holder.
New York Jets, D/ST. The stats: 2 interceptions, 14 points allowed, 344 yards allowed and 24 fantasy points. Unlike the three other players who reaped the benefit of point doubling, the Jets are still playing and still available to us for the conference championships.
Speaking of which, it's time for you, the Internet, to pick the lineup for Sunday's games between the Vikings and the Saints and between the Jets and the Colts. Brees is eligible for double the points, and the Jets defense/special teams are eligible for triple the points. Please vote accordingly, and please remember that you're voting for two running backs and two wide receivers. The lineup polls will close on Sunday.
Showing posts with label Miles Austin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miles Austin. Show all posts
Monday, January 18, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
The People's Choice - Division Round
Another week has come and gone, and you, the Internet, have spoken yet again. The votes are in for the lineup the People's Pigskin will field in week 2 of the NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge. Here are the results.
Quarterback. With Aaron Rodgers no longer available, you voted to give Drew Brees the starting spot. His New Orleans Saints take on the Arizona Cardinals in the Saturday afternoon game.
Running back. Everyone voted to keep Ray Rice in the lineup. He gets double the points this round, and his Baltimore Ravens visit the Indianapolis Colts Saturday night. For the other running back spot, it came down to a tie between Marion Barber and LaDainian Tomlinson. A coin was flipped, and the winner was Tomlinson. His San Diego Chargers face the New York Jets in the late Sunday afternoon game.
Wide receiver. There were two clear winners in this pool. One was Larry Fitzgerald, who gets double the points this round. His Arizona Cardinals face the Saint. The other clear winner was Miles Austin, whose Dallas Cowboys face the Minnesota Vikings in the early Sunday afternoon game.
Tight end. The voting produced a tie between Jason Witten and Dallas Clark. Since Witten is worth double the points this round, Witten gets the nod. His Cowboys visit the Vikings.
Kicker. Another position, another tie. This one pits Jay Feely against Nate Kaeding. Another coin was flipped, and the winner was Kaeding. His San Diego Chargers get the Jets.
Defense/special teams. There was a tie here between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Jets. Since the Jets will get double the points for making it to week 2, they get the nod here for their game against the Chargers.
Thanks for your votes. We have another poll up now that acknowledges that -- gasp! -- there's life after football season. We'd appreciate your vote there, too. The results from our lineup polls can be seen below.
[polldaddy poll=2515097] [polldaddy poll=2515125] [polldaddy poll=2515143] [polldaddy poll=2515164] [polldaddy poll=2515174] [polldaddy poll=2515184]
Quarterback. With Aaron Rodgers no longer available, you voted to give Drew Brees the starting spot. His New Orleans Saints take on the Arizona Cardinals in the Saturday afternoon game.
Running back. Everyone voted to keep Ray Rice in the lineup. He gets double the points this round, and his Baltimore Ravens visit the Indianapolis Colts Saturday night. For the other running back spot, it came down to a tie between Marion Barber and LaDainian Tomlinson. A coin was flipped, and the winner was Tomlinson. His San Diego Chargers face the New York Jets in the late Sunday afternoon game.
Wide receiver. There were two clear winners in this pool. One was Larry Fitzgerald, who gets double the points this round. His Arizona Cardinals face the Saint. The other clear winner was Miles Austin, whose Dallas Cowboys face the Minnesota Vikings in the early Sunday afternoon game.
Tight end. The voting produced a tie between Jason Witten and Dallas Clark. Since Witten is worth double the points this round, Witten gets the nod. His Cowboys visit the Vikings.
Kicker. Another position, another tie. This one pits Jay Feely against Nate Kaeding. Another coin was flipped, and the winner was Kaeding. His San Diego Chargers get the Jets.
Defense/special teams. There was a tie here between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Jets. Since the Jets will get double the points for making it to week 2, they get the nod here for their game against the Chargers.
Thanks for your votes. We have another poll up now that acknowledges that -- gasp! -- there's life after football season. We'd appreciate your vote there, too. The results from our lineup polls can be seen below.
[polldaddy poll=2515097] [polldaddy poll=2515125] [polldaddy poll=2515143] [polldaddy poll=2515164] [polldaddy poll=2515174] [polldaddy poll=2515184]
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Mixed Signals at CBS (and Others)
Most people who play fantasy football don't set their teams the way we do here with polls like this one. Instead, they turn to expert opinions from TV shows, magazines, and Web sites. In fact, the author of the blog Collegiatelivin asked me recently if there was a site I could recommend to help make lineup decisions.
My advice on that front is this: You shouldn't depend on a single site for your expert advice. Each one is as likely as the other to be right on any given call on any given Sunday. And sometime the site may not even agree with itself.
To illustrate what I mean, I'm going to describe the fantasy football site at CBS Sportsline. (And I could just as easily be discussing many other sites, so don't interpret this as a rant against CBS.) Each week CBS Sportsline assigns a "Guru" score for each player. What does that mean? I'll let CBS Sportsline itself answer that:
"The Guru is not a person, but rather our top-secret statistical formula that takes into account each player's past performance, injury status and upcoming NFL opponent to predict the number of fantasy points that player will score this week, based on your scoring system."
CBS Sportsline also offers "Fantasy Analysis" for each player from CBS Sports experts. And sometimes this analysis...well, it seems as if whoever's doing this analysis was not involved in coming up with the Guru score. The left hand of the Web site doesn't know what the right hand is doing.
In setting my lineup for a fantasy team in a CBS Sportsline league, I looked up three wide receivers available on the waiver wire at the time. Here's what the Guru and the Fantasy Analysis said about each one:
Sidney Rice, Minnesota Vikings. Guru score: 3 fantasy points this week. Fantasy Analysis: "He's definitely getting more and more comfortable with Favre throwing passes and who wouldn't? Rice is quickly becoming one of Favre's favorite targets and that should increase his Fantasy value heading into Week 5 at St. Louis."
Kenny Britt, Tennessee Titans. Guru score: 8. Fantasy Analysis: "The Titans host the Colts in Week 5, and Collins could be forced to throw the ball quite a bit in that game, so you could do worse than taking a shot with Britt as a flier flex option in deeper leagues."
Miles Austin, Dallas Cowboys. Guru score: 10. Fantasy Analysis: "Austin has some sleeper potential, but the Cowboys don't seem interested in making him an integral part of the passing attack. Until he finds some consistency, you can leave him on waivers."
Follow along with me here. The player becoming one of Brett Favre's favorite targets (and the one I added to my lineup this week) was predicted by the Guru to score 3 points, while the one who, according to CBS Sports experts, should be left alone (and the one who, as of Wednesday afternoon, was still available in my league) was predicted by the Guru to score 10.
No wonder fantasy football sometimes makes people want to do this.
Remember to vote on the waiver poll, which closes tonight.
My advice on that front is this: You shouldn't depend on a single site for your expert advice. Each one is as likely as the other to be right on any given call on any given Sunday. And sometime the site may not even agree with itself.
To illustrate what I mean, I'm going to describe the fantasy football site at CBS Sportsline. (And I could just as easily be discussing many other sites, so don't interpret this as a rant against CBS.) Each week CBS Sportsline assigns a "Guru" score for each player. What does that mean? I'll let CBS Sportsline itself answer that:
"The Guru is not a person, but rather our top-secret statistical formula that takes into account each player's past performance, injury status and upcoming NFL opponent to predict the number of fantasy points that player will score this week, based on your scoring system."
CBS Sportsline also offers "Fantasy Analysis" for each player from CBS Sports experts. And sometimes this analysis...well, it seems as if whoever's doing this analysis was not involved in coming up with the Guru score. The left hand of the Web site doesn't know what the right hand is doing.
In setting my lineup for a fantasy team in a CBS Sportsline league, I looked up three wide receivers available on the waiver wire at the time. Here's what the Guru and the Fantasy Analysis said about each one:
Sidney Rice, Minnesota Vikings. Guru score: 3 fantasy points this week. Fantasy Analysis: "He's definitely getting more and more comfortable with Favre throwing passes and who wouldn't? Rice is quickly becoming one of Favre's favorite targets and that should increase his Fantasy value heading into Week 5 at St. Louis."
Kenny Britt, Tennessee Titans. Guru score: 8. Fantasy Analysis: "The Titans host the Colts in Week 5, and Collins could be forced to throw the ball quite a bit in that game, so you could do worse than taking a shot with Britt as a flier flex option in deeper leagues."
Miles Austin, Dallas Cowboys. Guru score: 10. Fantasy Analysis: "Austin has some sleeper potential, but the Cowboys don't seem interested in making him an integral part of the passing attack. Until he finds some consistency, you can leave him on waivers."
Follow along with me here. The player becoming one of Brett Favre's favorite targets (and the one I added to my lineup this week) was predicted by the Guru to score 3 points, while the one who, according to CBS Sports experts, should be left alone (and the one who, as of Wednesday afternoon, was still available in my league) was predicted by the Guru to score 10.
No wonder fantasy football sometimes makes people want to do this.
Remember to vote on the waiver poll, which closes tonight.
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