ROOMOFZEN Fantasy Football Update

Awards

The 2006 LaDanian Tomlinson Top Performing Team of the Week: Favre's Old Balls (136.42 points) took the week with 7 of 9 players earning double digit points and DeSean Jackson putting forth a monster effort.

The 2009 JaMarcus Russell/Derek Anderson Low Performing Team of the Week: Pitino Spamortion registered slightly more than 55 points. Strangely it was more about his guys under performing than anything else. Other than starting the Bears D instead of the Dolphins D, a move that cost him 16 points and given the match ups made a ton of sense, there's not much he could have done.

The Clutch Pick Up of the Week: It's all about the D. Buffalo's D gave Favre's Old Balls 14 points, narrowly edging the 13 Cincinnati put up for Move it up 5.

Owner of the Best Overall Player: Pitino Spamortion's Adrian Peterson threw up 18 points to hold down the top spot. It should be noted that Matt Schaub of Stan Mikita's Donuts had a similar week. In the process he moved up to #2 in the rankings and took the overall points lead. Can anyone knock Peterson out of that top spot?

Owner of the Worst Overall Player: Another back to back winner - LenDale White. And I only put him here again because he got the start in his bye week with a ranking of 1464. On the plus side he couldn't lose points in his bye week. I should note that I have a dangerous number of low ranked guys. They're on the bench, but it might be time to drop them regardless.

Call Out of the Week: This week brought up a question I never thought I'd ask - Is it better to start a player in his bye week or a player who recently had surgery and will not be on the field for several weeks? I tend to think the answer is neither and you should find someone else. But for whatever reason the latter continues to work for Stan Mikita's Donuts. Meanwhile, OBI WAN CANOLI and Rogue Trader decided to go 7 vs. 7 in week 7. Maybe it is better to have a blank roster spot instead of throwing Derek Andersen out there. Still I think it's bad for the competitive balance of the league. Of course writing a round up of a fantasy sports league is a sign that I may be taking this whole thing too seriously. So what do I know?

The 2007 Derek Anderson He's Ranked What? Award: He was frequently drafted somewhere around the 121st pick right after Laurence Maroney and Tim Hightower and well behind Beanie Wells, yet has risen to the 18th in the rankings. That's right Ricky Freaking Williams. And let the record show I never faulted Williams for walking away from an organization that seemed determined throughout the 2003 and 2004 seasons to prevent him from ever walking after his 40th birthday. Throw in his Texas carries and there's no way Williams is still around if he doesn't take some time off.

Matchup to Watch in Week 7: Once again That's a Tasty Burger gets the nod, sharing the spotlight with Rogue Trader this time around. They're tied at 5-2, battling for control of the league and as always they hate each other.

If the Season Ended Today...: Awkward Silences, That's a Tasty Burger, Rogue Trader and Bad Newz Kennels would make the playoffs. When it's all said and done I think Favre's Old Balls and Move it up 5 will bump those last 2.

ROOMOFZEN Fantasy Football Update

Awards

The 2006 LaDanian Tomlinson Top Performing Team of the Week: Flying Elvises hung up 108 points and grabbed a playoff spot for the time being.

The 2009 JaMarcus Russell Low Performing Team of the Week: We all have our down weeks. This week it just happened to be Rogue Trader's 65.26 points that stood out. That's good enough to lose every single matchup from week 6 with everyone else scoring at least an 80. And in typing this I'm heading for a solid 55 next week.

The Clutch Pick Up of the Week: Not a lot to choose from on this one. Put it this way - no one is praising my (Bad Newz Kennels) pick up of Mike Wallace. So I'm giving the hat tip to Movie It Up 5 for grabbing Nate Kaeding. That's 14 points and a comfortable victory. Had Move It Up 5 gone with Rod Bironas, as favre's old balls did, it would have netted him 0 points. Of course both those teams won their matchups and who thought the Titans would be that awful?

Owner of the Best Overall Player: I'm going with ranking instead of points. And the current leader is...Adrian Peterson of Pitino's Spamortion. Although it's worth noting that 5 QBs currently have more points over the course of the season than the former Sooner.

Owner of the Worst Overall Player: Initially I started with ranking instead of points. But I wanted to go with someone who had played in all his team's games to date and started for his fantasy squad in Week 6. That eliminated Chansi Stuckey (sat out the last 2 weeks), Josh Johnson (Byron Leftwich was the starter on opening day) and Davone Bess (bye week). Strangely all 3 of those guys are on Drugs Delaney's roster. But I digress. And the winner or loser is...LenDale White (ranked 1370) of OBI WAN CANOLI. Bonus points because White scored -.50 points and looked atrocious in New England. Of course if OBI WAN CANOLI had dropped him last week I would have swooped in and promoted White over Derrick Ward. As is Ward earned 0 points. So what do I know?

Call Out of the Week: I was all set to call out Nick (Stan Mikita's Donuts) for starting a player (Adam Vinatieri) in his bye week. But then Nick beat me. Now he looks like an evil genius - "Hey Weeks I only need 8 to beat your 9, a receiver (Wes Welker) from your favorite team will thrash you, I don't need Laurence Maroney's 19 points either, and I'll even taunt you with the best kicker in your team's history. Have the Pats won a Super Bowl since he left? What about in 2007?" I haven't seen someone this unnecessarily vengeful since *Rick James assaulted Eddie Murphy's Couch (NSFW). As a side note, I'm assuming that's a Wayne's World reference, but Stan Mikita was pretty cool. Long story short, I'm calling myself out for losing to an undermanned team.

The 2007 Derek Anderson He's Ranked What? Award: That's right Derek Anderson was ranked 9th in 2007. 9th! He's completed 11 of his last 41 passes and has as many yards in his last 2 games (145) as some QBs have had in quarters. Okay I'm too lazy to do the research on that one, but I assume Brady, Brees and possibly Peyton Manning have done it lately. I thought about Ray Rice (5th), but he's freaking awesome and is just coming into his own. I was tempted by Kyle Orton but he out dueled Brady, is 6-0 and once had this picture taken. Orton might have a mustache too. No the winner was drafted in 36% of Yahoo! leagues and usually went around 109th. That's right Cedric "I was cut by the Bears in June 2008" Benson. He's ranked 13th and plays for shotintheleg.

Matchup to Watch in Week 7: We're all looking forward to That's a Tasty Burger facing off against Flying Elvises. They're currently tied at 4-2 and separated by just under 15 points and one spot in the standings. For our purposes let's also pretend they hate each other.

If the Season Ended Today...: Pitino's Spamortion, Bad Newz Kennels, Awkward Silences, and Flying Elvises would make the cut. Of course there's a lot of season left.

Standings:
* It seems like all of those clips were remixes on YouTube.

Every Day I Do

Classic:




I don't like to put much stock in pre-season football games. As Ted Gilbert wisely told me one day "the pre-season makes good players look worse than they are and marginal players look better than they are." As much as I try to keep these words in mind, I can't help being excited about the way the Giants played in the first quarter tonight. Eli Manning looked great, and he did it without his normal receivers. Of course, Domenik Hixon might only score three touchdowns, his total from the first quarter of tonight's game, throughout the rest of the entire year. And, after the first quarter this game melted away into nothing. I'm also aware that if I'm going to argue to you that you should only take into account the first quarter, then I'm admitting that this means nothing.

The one thing I am sure of after watching pre-season football is that JaMarcus Russell is nasty. He performed exceptionally well. I could not have been more impressed with him, even if he was dialing up long TD bombs all night (because that would have had that "pre-season flukiness" feel to it). But, what he did showed that he has the foundations to be very successful for a long time. He moves well. Even when on the run, he squares his body up before he throws. He throws bullets despite a delivery that looks virtually effortless, and (at least from what we've seen) those passes are very accurate. The experts report that the Raiders (who averaged the most rushing attempts per game last season) will be looking to ease Russell into the offense during the early half of the year. This will allow him to work within his comfort zone and build his confidence, which should foster long-term success. Expecting him to bite off more than he can chew right now, which would be more typical of this Raiders franchise, would most likely lead to a lot of mistakes and interceptions.

I said in my AFC West preview that I believed Oakland would be a surprise team this year and finish second in the division. They could also slide into a wild card spot by virtue of the weakness of their division. I also wrote earlier this summer about why Al Davis may end up looking like a genius if the NFL's next Collective Bargaining Agreement does not include a salary cap (with the understanding that if it does include a salary cap, then he's been spending very irresponsibly this off-season).

Nevertheless, the point of all this Raiders talk is that after much deliberation, I've decided to choose Oakland as my franchise for Madden 09. This is not a decision that I take lightly, and I spend the better part of the day weighing my options and checking out the individual player ratings for this year. Just to give you an idea of my process, here are some examples of teams that I eliminated:

Giants: When it comes to playing franchise mode with your favorite team, people often feel very strongly one way or the other. I don't do it. I never have and I never will.

Patriots: Considering that both Tom Brady and Randy Moss are rated 99, New England was probably the best option. The only reason I even considered it as a possibility for any period of time (about half a second) was because Randy Moss is my favorite player. But, I just couldn't do it.

Cardinals: The Cardinals are a great Madden team because Fitzgerald and Boldin are both rated above 95, and Edge is a 92. But, there are two major problems. First, this was my 08 franchise, and I can't see the sense in starting all over in 09 with a team that I already took another decade ahead. Essentially, it would mean that all my hard work last season was for not. I already won the 09 super bowl with Arizona, and 2010, and 2111, you get the idea. Second, Anquan Boldin is still requesting a trade and I wouldn't feel right about throwing to him if that trade happens (I don't think it will, but Problem #1 renders Problem #2 meaningless anyway).

Cowboys, Eagles, and Redskins: Please.

Indy: Too easy

Minnesota: Adrian Peterson makes this attractive, but I like to throw a lot as well. Plus, I have a feeling that this is going to be everyone's pick.

San Diego: LaDainian is a 99, but this would make me want to lose on purpose.

New Orleans: Of all the teams in this game, the Saints might be the most fun on offense. But, the Shockey situation makes them off-limits. That's not my style.

Pittsburgh: I can't stand Ben Roethlisberger or Pittsburgh fans.

Anyways, you get the point. By the time everything was said and done, I had narrowed things down to two finalists: Cincinnati and Oakland.

The Bengals might have made more sense here, and I had essentially settled on them by early this afternoon. Their offense is incredibly explosive, and you'd think that their off the field issues and all of their yelling at each other on the sidelines last season wouldn't matter. You'd thing that right? You'd think that because it's a video game? Me too. But, apparently in the year 2009 video games take these things into account. Check out the morale ratings for some of the Bengals players. Rudi Johnson, 70. Levi Jones, 50. Carson Palmer, 75. Chad Johnson, 20. T.J. Houshmandzadeh, 30. Dexter Jackson, 70. I can't have low morale scores like that from my stars! I don't know exactly what type of impact it can have. But, it's part of the overall equation, and no other team has such low morale scores listed among all of their key players (except maybe Dallas, I didn't look them up because I never considered them). The Bengals are out.

And so it will be Oakland. I can tend to JaMarcus Russell and Darren McFadden and make sure that they are able to flourish and restore the pride of the Oakland faithful.

Commitment to Excellence:




The point of all of this is that it's that time again. We're not out of the woods yet, but we're preparing to get there. We're adjusting our views on pre-season football to fit exactly the way our teams perform. We're starting our Madden franchises. We're tinkering with our fantasy football draft boards. I've already checked out all the week 1 lines several times. It's hard to even think straight right now (I realize I still owe the readers 5 more players to watch in college football. It's coming). We're on the verge of greatness once again, and you need to be prepared.

And, if you're wondering, yes I did DVR women's volleyball against Brazil tonight. I know they won convincingly, but I'll still check it out once the Giants are over.

In honor of our site returning to its full-blown glory during football and basketball season, I give you these sick Baroness videos: