Fantasy Football Failure: Week 10

In my Week 9 match up, you're name had to be "C. Johnson" if you wanted to score any points. On my team, I had Chris Johnson, who went for 89 yards rushing with a touchdown and 72 yards receiving (21 points). Rebec had Chad Johnson, who only had 39 yards receiving, but had 2 touchdowns (15 points). No one else on either of our teams made it into double digits. Thankfully, my team still did consderable better than her's did; aside from Chad, her other 6 skill position players totaled 5 points, meaning Chris Johnson alone beat 7 of her players. After that, its not too hard to pull out the win. Final score for the week, 61-34.

I got the win and stayed in a tie for first place (with Down The Drain, at 7-2), but my relatively low-scoring week put me behind in total points scored, 723-700. Week 10 sees me up against Ralph's team (man, when was the last time we call him "Ralph"? 2000?), Beall Blockers. It appears that Ralph is another guy in our league that hasn't been paying much (if any) attention to his team.

QB: David Garrard vs. Derek Anderson
RB: Chris Johnson vs. Steven Jackson
RB: Kevin Faulk vs. Willis McGahee
RB/WR: Dwayne Bowe vs. LenDale White
WR: Reggie Wayne vs. Plaxico Burress
WR: Laveranues Coles vs. Hines Ward
TE: Zack Miller vs. Jeremey Shockey
D/ST: Jets vs. Titans
K: Jason Elam vs. Phil Dawson

QB: Sign #1 that Ralph may not be paying attention to his fantasy team- Derek Anderson is no longer a starting quarterback in the NFL. The Brady Quinn Era begins tonight in the Armpit of Ohio (otherwise known as Cleveland), so unless Quinn pull a Greg Oden and gets hurt in his first start, Anderson should register all of zero points. Eventhough there's no competition at this posision this wee, I still hope David Garrard can do better this week against the winles Lions than he did last week against the then-winless Bengals (we got a win, go us) because I need the point to overtake Loizeaux's Down The Drain team.

RB: Both Steven Jackson and Willis McGahee are listed as "questionable" this week, so who knows what to expect from them. Neither guy played last week, and while it looks like McGahee is good to go, there's no way he a)get the start over or b)gets more touches than Ray Rice. Jackson said he was ready last week and ended up being out at the last minute, so he's probably a game time again this week. So I don't know what to expect fantasy wise from these guys, but I'd bet it isn't much. On the other hand, I know exactly what to expect from LenDale White- he'll be stealing Chris Johnson's touchdowns. White has filled the void left by Mike Allstott's retirement as the league's top "touchdown vulture." Chris Johnson gets the yards, White gets the goalline carries. At least Johnson also gets a fair share of receiveing yards, so there's more opportunity for him to find the end zone.

WR/TE: Burress and Ward, I bet both go for 50 to 60 yards and a touchdown on Sunday. Not spectacular, not terrible. In fact, I think those will be the number for my receivers as well, Bowe, Wayne, and Coles. I'm actually up in the are about my receivers, especially Reggie Wayne, which is kind of shocking. He should be the best, most consistent of my receivers, but the Colts (and Peyton Manning) are struggling, and Wayne's numbers have suffered. I've got Vincent Jackson on the bench (who pretty much goes for 50 yards every week, and has a 50/50 chance of scoring a touchdown as well), so I may end up subing out Wayne for Jackson. I'll make the final decision Sunday morning. As for TE's, Shcckey's still working his way back from injury and Miller, in the Raiders pathetic office, will probably once again score 0 points.

DEF/K: I've made changes here, not that it matter much. I picked up the Jets D, hoping they can score some points against the still-kind-of-hapless Rams, but I'm up against the Titans D, which is the second highest scoring fantasy D in the league (and probably the best "actual" D). I've also decided to go back to Elam as my kicker because it looks like the Falcons offense is giving him more opportunities than the Denver offense was giving Matt Prater.

With Derek Anderson's zero points tonight to start off the football weekend, my hope is that Ralph also gets nothing (or next to nothing) from Steven Jackson, McGahee, and Shockey, thus leaving only 5 player that I have to worry about beating. Because of that, I am cautiously optimisitic about a sixth straight win and staying in first place.