Friday, September 30, 2011

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…

No comments:

Post a Comment