Fantasy Football Failure: Week 15

And he lives to fight another day.

Despite the best efforts of Vincent Jackson (20 points sitting on my bench) and Laveranues Coles (second straight 0 point week), I managed to prevail over Eh!Steve 68-58, returning the favor from last year when he knocked me out of the playoffs (it also helped that Eh!Steve left Jonathan Stewart and his 23 fantasy points on the bench). So onward to the semi-finals, where I matchup against the #1 seed Down The Drain, a team I lost to 74-82 back in Week 4 (where I left 63 points among 3 players on my bench- good times!). Loizeaux's team's pretty solid, so this should be a tough week.

QB: Tyler Thigpen vs. Kerry Collins
RB: Chris Johnson vs. Adrian Peterson
RB: Kevin Faulk vs. Ronnie Brown
RB/WR: Vincent Jackson vs. Maurice Jones-Drew
WR: Reggie Wayne vs. Greg Jennings
WR: Dwayne Bowe vs. Steve Smith
TE: Zach Miller vs. Greg Olsen
D/ST: Jets vs. Colts
K: Jason Elam vs. Neil Rackers

QB: Desipte Tennessee's 12-1 record, Collins hasn't exactly been lighting up the fantasy scoreboard. Sure, he's had a few weeks with some good numbers, but he's an 8 to 10 fantasy points guy. Tennessee's a running team (hello Chris Johnson!), so I think Thigpen can outscore Collins here. San Diego has a miserable pass defense, so think Thigpen will have good day (he just needs to find Dwayne Bowe).

RB: I've got issues here. Adrian Peterson (arguably the best running back in the league), Ronnie Brown (not scoring 5 TD each week, but solid none the less), and MJD (the top receiving RB in the league) is a hell of a lineup. I'm going to need another huge week from Chris Johnson (and when I don't I need that?) to keep pace. And as for Kevin Faulk... well, what I need is for Marion Barber to play and play pissed because Jerry Jones had the stones to call out his toughness (that's Marion Barber, of the "Marion the Barbarian" nickname). If he can't go, I picked up Tashard Choice, who had a fine week (15 points) starting in place of Barber going against the tough Steelers defense. Barber's a game time decision. Problem is, game time is 8:15, so I'm going to limited in my moves. Luckly, the Pats play at 4:15, so I'll have a little more time to decide to replace Faulk or not.

WR/TE: Where have you gone, Reggie Wayne? One double-digit fantasy point week in the past eight? You have Detroit this week. Detroit, of the 0-13 record. At least 70 yards and a TD or I'm never owning Reggie Wayne again. I've already mentioned Kansas City's passing game against San Diego's bad pass defense; Dwayne Bowe, time to step up big. Thigpen really only looks for two guys- Bowe and Tony Gonzalez; hopefully he looks for Bowe in the red zone. Despite his widely inconsistent year, I've got Vincent Jackson in there over Coles because, frankly, Coles sucks. Since his 4 TD game back in Week 4 (when I had him on the bench), he's scored only twice more, so no more Coles for the rest of the year. Greg Jennings is a solid receiver, and it looks like Aaron Rodgers is looking to him more than Donald Driver. And Steve Smith is Steve Smith- he's going to get a ton of yards regardless if he finds the end zone or not. As for the TE's, while Zach Miller has only found the end zone once this year (hey, he plays for Oakland), he has been getting good yardage lately (50-60 yards), and I expect that to continue (though a TD would be nice as well). As for the other side, Olsen did manage to find the end zone last week, but that was coming off of back to back 0 point weeks, which is more of what I expect him to put up.

DEF/K: Just no negative points, that all I'm asking for now from my DEF. The Jets have seemingly decided that they don't want to be an elite team anymore, but they've got Buffalo at home this week, so its time to get healthy. It looks like J.P. Losman should get his second straight start for the Bills, which means plenty of opportunites for interceptions for the Jets secondary. And I'll need it since Loizeaux's got the Colts DEF against the hapless Lions. As for the kickers, while Jason Elam's been solid the past few weeks, Neil Rackers has been on fire. He's been in double digits 5 of the past 6 weeks, which is crazy for a kicker. Man, I'd hate to lose because my opponent's kicker went off on a career day. That would just suck.

So where do I think I stand? Honestly, I think it comes down to my RB's. I don't have a lot of faith in Kevin Faulk or Tashard Choice, so I really, really need Marion Barber to play and have monster game. Loizeaux's finished the year at #1 for a reason, so it'll be tough to beat him. Got a shot, but not feeling all the confident.