Weekend Hot Routes

- Finally got off the snide last week in fantasy football after a hard-luck 0-2 start (after the 1st 2 weeks I had scored like the 6th most points but had the most points by far scored against me out of our 12 team league). Hopefully, I can draw my record back to 0.500 this week. I’m playing against my brother-in-law Nick’s team, and he just happens to have the highest projected point total out of everyone this week…so it looks like my trend of being one of the “unluckiest” teams (in case you haven’t figured it out by now, when I say “bad luck” in fantasy I normally am talking about repeatedly/consistently having the other team put up huge point totals against someone week after week…all fantasy is based somewhat on luck, but you have no control at all over whether the team you’re playing against in a particular week has their best scoring week of the season) will continue. The thing is though that I am actually projected to score the 2nd most points of any team in our league this week, so we might have a good ol’ fashioned shootout on our hands. I have had decent weeks so far despite my top pick (and the #1 overall pick in our league) Mike Vick having 3 games where he left a lot of fantasy points on the table, even getting knocked out of 2 of those games. As the week has gone on, the probability that his hand is healed-up and he’s going to be good to go Sunday seems more likely every day, and I think he’s due for 1 of those weeks where he goes bonkers and carries my team all by himself. If he played like the Michael Vick of last year through the 1st 3 weeks, I would be 2-1 at the worst right now. If he regains that form, my team could start looking downright scary. Currently, Mike Wallace, Fred Jackson, and Jermichael Finley are rated as the 3rd, 3rd, and 2nd best fantasy players at their respective positions. I have other options in the backfield also, as Tim Hightower, Ben Tate, and Felix Jones are all top 25 rated backs as well right now. If you really want to stretch out, James Starks gives me 5 of the league’s top 32 rated fantasy backs, and Starks and Tate could potentially improve their respective stocks if their teams’ backfields become a little less crowded due to injury. So, outside of Vick being somewhat disappointing this year my team’s main weakness is at receiver, where it gets a little bit thin once you get past Wallace. I like my receivers as a group (Julio Jones, Devery Henderson, Nate Washington, and Nate Burleson), but I don’t really have a 2nd guy to rely on week in and week out. My main hope is that Jones starts being more consistent and ends up being a rookie of the year type guy, but if that doesn’t happen I may have to use my backfield depth to get a 2nd receiver through a trade. Still, just as I said after the draft my season will rise and fall with Vick. If he can stay on the field and play a little more consistently, I really think I could go for back-to-back championships this year…but as the last 2 games have shown, those are big “ifs,” and as solid as the rest of my team is I don’t think I can be any better than mediocre this year without him stepping up in a big way.

Even dog lovers know Vick needs to stay upright for their fantasy teams to have a chance.

- If anyone ever stumbled upon this blog, they would clearly see the bench press has been the bane of my training existence for quite some time. Because of that, any small milestone is cause for jubilation to me. Yesterday, I was able to do 3 sets of 3 reps at 200 lb. on the flat bench (9 total reps for you non-math majors out there). This might seem pedestrian because a lot of people can bench 200 lb., and my 1 rep max is 215 lb. right now, but anytime I hit a new mark that is more than what I could bench back in college (my 1 rep max was 195 lb.) it always makes me feel (for lack of a better term) warm and fuzzy inside. In fact, I think the last time I did a post where I made mention of benching was also the last time I benched 195 lb…coincidence? Probably not…the other thing it does is tell me that I’m not that far away from my ultimate benching goal. Repping 200 lb. is not that far from maxing-out at 225 lb. really, is it? To be continued…

3 Yards and a Cloud of Dust

As a guy living on the East coast, count me as one of those who is not a fan of Monday Night Football games that include your favorite team. When I’m watching the Redskins play, it’s impossible for me to just watch casually. I am amped-up to the point where it’s almost at the same level as if I was playing in the game myself. Krissy says that I am so intense during Skins games that it actually is a little scary, and if they lose or play badly, Krissy is so sheepish (as if she had anything to do with it) that she can’t help but apologize repeatedly. All of that doesn’t bode well for me when the Skins are playing during primetime…by the time last night’s game ended it was close to midnight. I probably would have slept a little easier had they won, but losing in the fashion they did made me replay different moments throughout the game over and over in my head, and that just compounded the problem! It all adds up to a terrible night of sleep, and it has been like “Night of the Living Dead” for me at work today.

Anybody catch the game last night?

Woulda-shoulda-couldas are a dime a dozen in sports, but last night’s game really was a game the Redskins should have won. And in the great scheme of things it probably wasn’t a terrible loss (on the road against a divisional rival who is probably better than you on paper anyway). In fact, when rational Skins fans went through the regular season schedule back when the schedules were first made public for this season, most of them probably marked this game as a loss…but it was right there for the taking. Really, the Cowboys all but gift-wrapped this win and a 3-0 start for Washington. After a tough 2 game start, Dallas entered week 3 minus their best receiver in Miles Austin, and with a banged-up Dez Bryant, Felix Jones, and, most importantly, Tony Romo. Umm, along with tight end Jason Witten those are all of the Cowboys’ starting offensive skill position players. For most of the game at least, Jones showed little interest in running inside for tough yards with his dinged shoulder, and prior to a huge catch on a 3rd-and-a-mile play late in the 4th quarter, Bryant didn’t seem to get many balls thrown his way. On top of all that, Romo (who actually wasn’t roughed-up all that much from my point of view) winced in pain from his busted ribs anytime a Redskin defender even got close enough to breathe on him, and the Cowboys’ center kept trying to snap the ball to Romo when he wasn’t looking. (As it happened 3 or 4 times, it was one of the more bizarre things I can remember from watching an NFL game.)

The sad part is that I think the players actually played their butts off…well, except for “Me”-Angelo Hall, who continues to be overrated as a coverage guy, tackle like a girl, and then whined that it was his coordinator’s fault when he got beat in coverage 1-on-1.

Me-Angelo: still my least favorite Redskin of all time.

All the columns I read on ESPN.com and at The Washington Post website blamed Grossman, the offensive line’s play at the end of the game, the kicking woes, or the lack of a running game, but I didn’t read anyone blame the guy who I was cursing through the TV screen last night…Kyle Shanahan. No, the running game wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire last night. I mean, Dallas’ run D is pretty tough as it is, and it didn’t help that Hightower and Helu seemed to lose their footing on nearly every cutback they attempted. Washington finished the game with 65 rushing yards on 22 carries as a team…a little under 3 yards per carry. But that wasn’t much different than the per carry average they had against the Giants (74yards on 26 carries, 2.8 yards per clip). In that game though, the Skins controlled the clock (32:36 time of possession compared to 28:24 last night), shortened the game, and kept their defense off the field and fresh. Those couple more rushing attempts also gave the offense more manageable down and distance for the whole game, resulting in them being slightly better on 3rd down (5/14 in the opener compared to 3/12 last night) and Sexy Rexy looking better as well. Last night, Grossman threw more passes (37 to 34), completed a lower percentage (59% to 62%), and had a QB rating over 30 points lower (77.5 to 110.5) than week 1. Small differences I know, but the difference between winning and losing perhaps as well. So, the moral of the story: if you run the ball (even if you’re getting stuffed every other play), good things will happen. Even half-decent Madden players know this…why can’t a professional playcaller figure it out?

The numbers only tell half the story though, as it was the timing of the abandonment of the running game that really hurt. Midway through the 3rd quarter last night, the Skins drove 76 yards in 9 plays for their only touchdown of the game. The drive chewed up 5 and a half minutes, and 5 of the 9 plays were runs. They scored on a play action pass at the goal line to Hightower. The fast, yet smaller, Dallas defensive line seemed like they were getting worn down. The running game, which didn’t yield much in the 1st half, seemed to start taking its toll on Dallas’ D. So, what does the boy genius offensive coordinator dial up the next series (which started with about a minute left in the 3rd quarter and continued into the 4th)? 3 plays, 3 incomplete passes…3 and out. After punting the ball away, Washington’s D, which played great the whole night up to that point, forced Dallas to punt the ball back to the Redskins after a short drive stalled. This Skins drive started slightly more promising. A 1st down throw of 15 yards and then a run off tackle for 3 yards. For me, this was the first critical play of the game for the Skins. 2nd and 7…if they ran the ball again, even if they only got 2 or 3 yards, it would have set up a very makeable 3rd and 4 or 5. Instead, 2 incomplete passes…time to punt.

A young Bill Walsh you are not, sir.

After punting the ball back to Dallas, it’s clear that Washington’s D is starting to get fatigued. Everyone’s hands are on their hips. Brian Orakpo kept having to go in and out of the game to receive treatment for cramps. The offense hadn’t done the D any favors that last few drives; however, they bent but didn’t break, holding Dallas to just a field goal after a 9 play drive, and preserving the lead. The following drive also started out somewhat promising, as they used a screen pass to move the chains on 1st down, and then got another 1st down after 2 short passes. Good ol’ Kyle apparently decided to mix in 1 running play just for the heck of it, but it only gained 1 yard. This is where critical play of the game #2 happened…apparently infatuated with his ability to dial up a couple of “stupendous” passing plays in a row combined with gaining only 1 stinky yard on the 1 running play he had called in the past 6 offensive plays, Boy Genius called for another passing play. Grossman was subsequently sacked by DeMarcus Ware, lucky to have not fumbled the ball away… after failing to convert on 3rd down, it was time to punt again.

At this point, the Skins’ D is clearly gassed. After the ridiculous 3rd down conversion mentioned earlier, the D eventually yielded the go-ahead field goal. The offense still got the ball back with over 2 minutes left in the game, 2 timeouts remaining, and only needing a field goal to retake the lead...even in a hostile environment against a good defense, perfectly within the realm of possibilities. The game was effectively over after the sack-fumble of Grossman, but it never should have gotten to that point because if the Redskins had stuck to their running game in the 2nd half after it looked like it finally had started to work, they probably could have salted the game away (or at the very least allowed their D a precious few extra minutes to hit-up the oxygen masks). You could argue that it also should have never gotten to that point because the Skins botched the hold of a field goal earlier in the game and struggled to finish drives with touchdowns rather than field goals, but even after all that they had the lead at 16-9 midway through the 3rd quarter and momentum on their side. Stick to your guns, and you had the game in hand. Try to be a little too cute with your passing game, and, well…that happens. Sorry, dude…Rex Grossman is not John Elway. And that is not an indictment of Rexy in any way (I thought he played ok last night, good enough to win at least), but you (I’m talking to you Shanahan Junior) had an opportunity to put your team in the best position possible to win, and you blew it. 3-0 is a distant memory now…hello, 8-8…here we come.

Go Scratch

2 of my most miserable childhood memories were on 2 separate occasions that I got poison ivy. I could be way off base here, but I think most people’s poison ivy experiences can be summed up with a few patches of rashiness and some itchiness. My experiences with poison ivy were nuclear in comparison. One small rash of poison ivy would inevitably result in me being covered in an itchy, rashy, disgusting mess from head-to-toe. I would literally look like a miniature version of Thing from the Fantastic 4.

Is that Thing or poisy ivy-infested Chris?

As an 11 or 12 year old with little self-control refraining from scratching was nearly impossible, but there wasn’t enough Benodryl, anti-itch cream, oatmeal baths, or calamine lotion to keep me from swelling up like a blowfish. My face was so swollen that I started to look like an Asian guy with bubonic plague. Not to be too graphic here, but my “man region” experienced some swelling as well…and not in a good way (picture filling up a balloon with helium). The swelling was so bad that I actually would get prescribed some type of steroid from the doctor to try to counteract it. (That was actually the only upside of my poison ivy catastrophes…I could go back to school and tell everyone that I was on steroids over the summer!)

Unfortunately, I didn't come back looking like Big Poppa Pump.

Anyway, fast forward to this week when I somehow seemed to have contracted what looks like some type of poison ivy looking thing. It’s probably the first time in 14 or 15 years that I’ve had some kind of itchy rash like this. The most frustrating thing is that I don’t even know how I got this. I didn’t go hiking through the woods or anything. Fortunately for me, I have a little more restraint and possibly am slightly less allergic to poison ivy type stuff now, so the rashes are currently constrained to a small spot on my right forearm, a little line on my left hip, and some bumps in between my fingers…the ones on my fingers, much to my chagrin, are the worst. In an unscientific poll (actually just me), the most obnoxious place to have poison ivy is on your hands and fingers. Anything you grab, brush against, or bump into irritates it. Showers (between the hot water, shampooing, etc.) are a nightmare. Normally mundane tasks like tying your shoe laces or turning on your turn signal are nightmarish. Consequently, the rash can get irritated and spread without you ever even scratching anything at all. My way of trying to cope is bandaging or taping my fingers like an old school, pre-receiver gloves football player.

Calamine lotion is like stick-um to me

Anyway, I’m closing in on a week since I first noticed any rash, so hopefully in the next couple days this will start to wear off. Until then, I hope Krissy is prepared for me to be whiny, itchy, and basically a miserable person in general.

For Whatever Ails Ya

I was fired up about writing for a 2nd day in a row earlier, but my motivation has started to waver as the day has gone on so we’ll see how this goes…

A couple weeks ago when we were at the beach, Krissy’s brother Nick was showing us something that he had recently bought: one of those balance bands that supposedly improve your balance, strength, flexibility, and cure deadly diseases as well…ok, well maybe not the last one, but they are advertised as a cure for whatever ails you. The “science” behind these bands is that a holographic chip within each band helps to improve and regulate your body’s already naturally-occurring magnetism and frequencies. Nick ponied-up like $40 for his, but I have seen them priced anywhere from $20-$50 depending on what brand you buy…that’s right, there are multiple companies that are trying to peddle these things. Now, I was skeptical about whether they truly provide any benefits or not, but once she saw it Krissy immediately wanted one. In all honesty, I kind of wanted one too. I mean, I always thought the “style” or whatever you want to call it of wearing a little wristband was pretty “dope” as the kids are saying these days. When Kevin Garnett was a rookie and started just wearing a rubber band on his wrist during games, I was all over that (I must have been like 12 at the time). To this day, if I pick up a rubber band off the ground I will pick it up and put it on my wrist at least until the next time I get a chance to put it on my rubber band ball (sorry, getting a little too dorky here). I still have a drawer full of WWJD bracelets, Nike and Adidas baller bands, and LiveStrong bands in a drawer at home as well. So anyway, to say this product is catered to people like me in the 1st place is an understatement. I mean, even if the thing was a piece of crap and didn’t work at all I would probably wear it just because I think it looks cool. Still, $30-40 is a lot of money for a wristband, so I did a little research on it, and my skepticism was mostly confirmed.

From everything I read it seems like all these wristband companies are basically trying to do what people have tried to do for centuries: sell you some snake oil advertised as a magic cure-all. Anyway, there doesn’t appear to be any scientific backing for any of this kind of “technology.” There are no “double-blind” study results out there that detail these things as even mild successes. In fact, the only documented study that I came across that studied the effects of power band devices showed that, if anything, people not wearing the bracelets out-performed the ones that did wear them. So, why are these things as popular as they are? You see them everywhere, and there were as many as 3 or 4 different brands for sale in the last Eastbay catalog that I got alone. Well, that part isn’t that hard to figure out actually.

1st, there are people like me who would wear a rubber band or some other band that doesn’t even have any magic powers just because they like the way it looks. If they wear one that even has a chance of improving their physical performance, bonus! 2nd, people will believe what they want to believe. Call it what you will, but people tend to be superstitious. If a ballplayer thinks that not washing his lucky socks is the key to winning, he is going to wear the same decrepit socks every damn game. There is nothing like the power of the mind, and power bands can be a pretty effective placebo. 3rd, pro athletes vouch for these products (whether they actually do anything or not). Turn on a game one night, and you will see half the players on the court/field wearing them. If you go on the website for the “Power Balance Wristband,” you will find testimonials by guys like Derrick Rose and Matt Kemp. Now, how do we know these guys said these things on their own accord, or if the company simply paid them to be an advertiser of their product? The 4th reason is that the demonstrations for these bands are very effective (especially in person). Heck, usually the buyers (who are also believers) do the work for the salesmen. For example, Nick basically did the same demonstration to Krissy that the place he bought it from did to him. He told Krissy to do a series of balance and strength tests, then placed the band in her one hand and did the same series of tests. Amazingly, Krissy found them all much easier the 2nd time around with the band in her hand. To me, these demonstrations contain a lot of hand-waving and smoke and mirrors. A good salesman can probably manipulate you into thinking he’s doing the same thing he did to you before, only he really makes it just a tiny bit easier on you the 2nd time around. Also, anyone is obviously going to perform better on these little “tests” once they already know what’s coming. If I tell you to stand there, and then slap you in the face you probably won’t be ready the 1st time. If I try to do it a 2nd time, you probably aren’t going to let me slap you again. I think the 5th and final reason people fall for these may also be the most important reason of all. The advertised benefits for these bands are so vague and wide-ranging that you can point to improvement in almost anything and say, “Hey, that was because of my band.” In that way, the benefits of the bands become a self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, you might not see a change in your balance after wearing the bands, but what if you feel stronger? It’s got to be the band, right? Similarly, Nick showed the demonstration to one other guy, Tony, that we were staying at the beach with, and he wanted to get one right away. The next night at the boardwalk he found a store that sold them. The next morning Tony said his back, which had been bothering him for days, was pain free! It had to be the band, right?

The thing is that personally I do think that there is something to our bodies having an “optimum” frequency or something to that effect. I’m just not convinced (and apparently the scientific community isn’t either yet) that a wristband with a holographic chip inside it is what will tap into that…otherwise doctors would be prescribing balance bands to people like Tylenol. So, maybe one day soon a study will come out saying that these balance bands do in fact work, but until then I think I will just stick to my drawer full of wristbands and the rubber bands that I find on the ground. They look just as cool, and it will save me 40 bucks too.

The Most Wonderful Time...

...of the year!!!

It’s that time of year again! After months of anticipation the NFL is back, which means fantasy football is back as well. This season brings a feeling of unpredictability due to the lockout. A flurry of player movement took place in a very small window of time, and rookies weren’t given the same amount of time to get acclimated to the teams and systems they were drafted into. Consequently, no one really knows how exactly any new players are going to fit in to their respective teams, so this fantasy season could be just as unpredictable. For the 1st time in many years I don’t think there was even a consensus number 1 pick this year…so of course this was the year that I, for the 1st time ever, got my league’s number one pick.

This year was the perfect year to draft somewhere around 3rd, 4th, or 5th, where you can pretty much be gutless, see how the 1st couple picks play out, and take the best guy left over. Having the number 1 pick in a year where there is no clear-cut choice is a stomach ulcer waiting to happen. My boy from last year, Arian Foster, seems like he was the number 1 pick in most leagues this year, but he’s been battling a hamstring injury all preseason. Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson averaged being in the top 4 picks among all Yahoo drafts, and outside of being injured they are guaranteed to at the very least be solid number 1 backs this year. I like Jamaal Charles, but I just didn’t trust him enough to make him the number 1 overall pick. Ray Rice, Aaron Rodgers, and Andre Johnson rounded out the top 7 rated guys. To me, the “safe” (code word for “gutless” in this case) choice would have been to take Johnson, Foster, or Peterson. Even if any of them miss a couple games with injuries or have down years for them they are still probably good for 1,200+ yards and double digit TDs. But ESPN fantasy guru Matthew Berry said something on a Bill Simmons podcast that made me think…if you’re playing in a standard scoring league and you have the number 1 pick you should take Michael Vick. The big drawback with Vick is that because of his size and the way he plays he isn’t exactly a lock to keep from getting injured; however, Berry’s theory was that if he could stay on the field for 12-14 games and you pick competently for the rest of your draft he will singlehandedly win your league based on this: not only was he putting up great fantasy QB numbers last year, but he also would have been something like a top 15 RB last year (prorating his numbers for a 16 game season) if you took just his rushing stats as well. This also works with the idea that in today’s NFL, where not every team has 1 “workhorse” back anymore, you might even be better off getting one of the upper echelon QBs than RBs, and then you just try to grab as many RBs in the later rounds as you can hoping a couple of them stick. This also works because aside from Peterson most of the top fantasy backs from year-to-year basically come somewhat out of nowhere (Johnson in 2009, Foster/Charles/Hillis last year). Little did I know at the time I heard Berry’s theory that the number 1 pick would actually fall to me.

The logic behind it was sound though, and seeing as how I had never really made a bold early draft choice before I decided to bite the bullet and pick Vick. The risk involved will probably make it more fun to root for him to put up numbers anyway (although hopefully not during the 2 games they play the Redskins this year). If you look at the rest of my roster, it definitely will be a true test of this Michael Vick theory, as if he can’t actually stay on the field or for some reason underperforms, I’m shot. I like my picks, but it was almost as if the riskiness of taking Vick prompted me to make all risky picks! With my next three picks I decided to grab my number one RB, WR, and TE in order. Felix Jones (and a lot of Cowboys for that matter) could have huge offensive years, and he doesn’t have to share the backfield anymore, but he’s never actually put an entire season together before. Mike Wallace could be poised to put up monster numbers this year with a full season of Big Ben at QB, but he hasn’t shown that type of consistency to this point. Jermichael Finley looks like a beast and could supplant Antonio Gates as the next great unguardable TE, but there is no precedence him having a full season like that. After that my strategy was to not pick a single other QB or TE, and I left my defense and kicker for my last 2 picks. That meant a run of 8 WRs and RBs in a row. My plan of just drafting a bunch or those guys and lucking into at least 1 of them panning out worked last year with Foster (who I think was a 5th or 6th round pick), so I figured I might as well try it again this year. Maybe it is just some home cookin’, but I do think Tim Hightower could have a breakout year. Percy Harvin will at the very least be solid if he can avoid those migraines. Because of Phillip Rivers and the fact that San Diego loves to throw, every Charger WR looks good…so Malcolm Floyd could be a decent sleeper. No matter who else Buffalo brings in, Fred Jackson always seems to take the starting job by the end of the year. Also, he has been a good pick-up for me in the past. It’s possible Julio Jones could be a 1st round bust, but it’s also possible that he was worthy of the Falcons trading away like a gazillion picks to draft him, so I figured he was also worth a late round pick. Greg Little is another rookie WR that I’ve heard Berry and a couple other fantasy experts say great things about coming out of camp as a rookie. And James Starks and Ben Tate both back-up guys who have the potential to miss games due to injury. In the end, I think I could have a decent team this year, but it really does look like Michael Vick and a bunch of nobodies right now. Hopefully, Vick stays healthy and some of my late round sleepers end up looking like shrewd picks in the end, or else I might just end up looking foolish.