This week's best divisional round line-up

Are you competing in any fantasy football playoff challenges this weekend? Looking for some tips? Chances are you have a lot of good players to choose from. The trick in a playoff challenge is that since you're managing the cream-of-the-crop then you must consider the matchup first and player talent second. Below are my personal top picks for fantasy performers in the divisional round.

QB - Aaron Rodgers
There a lot of good quarterbacks playing this weekend but Aaron is at home against a so-so NYG pass defense and the Pack are not going to mess around. Rodgers will throw all over the place and I doubt that GB's running game will be the main thing. Brees at SF will have a tougher challenge. The Patriots are likely to mix in more of their running game; they usually do in the playoffs.

WRs - Jordy Nelson, Victor Cruz & Demaryius Thomas
Greg Jennings should be back but he'll be rusty. His biggest contribution will be drawing the defense from Nelson who has become Rodgers #1 target and these two will connect. The Cruz and Eli Manning relationship is one of the main stories of the season. GBs DEF won't keep up and Victor will do plenty of work. The unsung hero of the Broncos, DT, is a matchup problem for NE. Belichick focused on the DEF during the bye and they will step up but won't be able to shut-out DEN. It's likely that the Pats will end up with a large lead in this game and I expect DEN to continue to play hard to score and not let the hype die down too much.

RBs - Ray Rice & Frank Gore
BAL will go to Rice all day. HOU is a great DEF but tougher against the WRs. It's Ray's house and he'll do the scoring here. Gore gets a rest and plays at home against a so-so NO run DEF. I like SF's chances to set the pace of this game. There will be points but I see this game staying even until the 4th qtr. Arian Forster is good for plenty of yards and a possible TD but the upside in the BAL/HOU game is that the Ravens dominate and protect the house. It could be a low-scoring departure for the Texans.

TE - Rob Gronkowski or Aaron Hernandez
NE's TEs are a cut above the rest. They are targeted more than the WRs. I noticed a lot of zone DEF by DEN in the game vs PIT last week, which I think is smart but it did leave Heath Miller open for some big plays, rare for him. I think the Bronco's will play the same way tonight, which will result in even production from these two. Each is guaranteed to score. Flip a coin on these guys. Jimmy Graham is a big part of NO's offense but I think the upside here is Jim Harbaugh's respect for the big guy and he'll go with bracket coverage, which could stop Graham from getting a TD.

K - John Kasay
The team that scores a lot of points and who will face a tough DEF on the road and may have to settle for feild goals is NO. Their K is John Kasay, who was very reliable during the season. Nuff said.

DEF - Ravens
HOU starts a third-string rookie QB at BAL in the playoffs against a rested Ravens DEF, "No, no, no!" says Terrell Suggs. This is the moment Ravens fans have been waiting for. The likely upside here is that the Ravens DEF dominates. I like them for multiple takeaways and a TD. "Hello Ed Reed. Where've ya been?" The 12th man in BAL will show up and be loud, "Oh, oh, aah, oh, oh, oh, oooooh!" All-in-all, this could be the biggest blow-out in the divisional round. You want the DEF that's gonna have the feild-day and that's the Ravens.

If this is your line-up then your chances of going to the next round are good, very good!

BFFG 2011 Team Owners Report

Let's end the fantasy football season with a summary of each team owner in the BFFG. As commish, I'm very happy with the level of play from all you guys. Each of you had you're own set of challenges and did your best all-the-way to the very end. Kudos to you and I hope to see you back again next season.

10th place: RubberballsAndLiquor
Owner: Lou Sichette
Record: 3-11-0

Lou wasn't expecting much out of his first ever fantasy football team, "I know I'm gonna lose but oh well." He was right on the money, finishing in last place, but doing so with the right attitude. Lou was just as interested in other's matchups as he was his own showing determination to learn, come back next season and kick someone in their 'rubberballs'.

MVP: TE Rob Gronkowski (broke record for rec TDs by TE-17)
Key loss: RB Tim Hightower (torn ACL in wk7)

9th place: Wasbi Warriors
Owner: Brian Sklar
Record: 4-10-0

The 2009-10 BFFG champion has had better seasons. This was Sklar's first time not making the playoffs. To his credit, this was a hard team to manage. He had a lot of great players that were just too inconsistent this year: Matt Ryan, Dwayne Bowe, LaGarrette Blount and Brandon Jacobs to name a few. He did end the season well by beating Baltimore Smasher 118-86 and keeping himself out of the last spot in the standings.

MVP: RB Ray Rice (2088 AP yards)
Honorable mention: K Sebastian Janikowski (7 FGs of +50 yards)
Key loss: RB Knownson Moreno (torn ACL-mid season)

8th place: Baltimore Smasher
Owner: Bob Ahlfeldt
Record: 5-9-0

Bob's season was up and down but the four game losing streak from week 9 to 12 kept his playoff hopes out of reach. He had one of the strangest W/L turn-arounds I've ever seen, losing to me by a point in week 12 followed by a win by a point over Nipocolypse the next week, which spoiled Jim's playoff chances. Bob is pretty keen on the waivers. He picked up Willis McGahee, Victor Cruz and gave a home to Darren Sproles who should have never been out there in the first place.

MVP: RB Darren Sproles (1383 ret yards)
Honorable mention: WR Victor Cruz (1536 rec yards)

7th place: Nipocolypse
Owner: Jim "Nips" Colhouer
Record: 6-7-1

In case you haven't picked this up already, Jim's teams are always named 'Nip' something. And when it comes to playoff appearances, for Jim, it's often quite 'nippy' out. He made third place in 2005 then second place in 2006 and hasn't been back to the top since. But you can't sleep on Nips. He won key matchups against teams who finished in the top half of the league, including his last matchup against me and the runner-up Mad Ravens. Jim was right there down the stretch just falling out of playoff reach by a game and a half and 41 points.

MVP: QB Tom Brady (5235 passing yards)
Key pickup: WR Torrey Smith (rookie)
Needed to trade: WR Anquan Boldin (for a non-BAL WR)

6th place: Discard After Use
Owner: Chris Trotter
Record: 6-7-1

The runner-up from last season couldn't get into the playoffs this time. Chris manages his team very well. The right line-ups were in, it just didn't pan-out. Inconsistencies from Philip Rivers and  Ryan Fitzpatrick made his team difficult to manage, not to mention losing Jamaal Charles right in the beginning. Ouch! Chris also drafts very well, and to see his draft from this year, you wonder how he didn't end up winning the whole thing.

MVP: TE Jimmy Graham (1310 rec yards)
Honorable Mention: QB Philip Rivers (4624 passing yards)
Key loss: RB Jamaal Charles (torn ACL in week 2)

5th place: Red Riders
Owner: Mark Fey
Record: 6-8-0

This was my uncle Mark's first season in the BFFG but by no means his first at fantasy football. He is a vet. Mark's style is a bit different compared to others in the league. He is exceptionally keen on rookies, from watching a lot of NCAA, and players climbing up the depth charts. You better do your homework, if you're facing him, or you'll find that you've been blown-out by players you never heard of.

MVP: QB Cam Newton (rookie-drafted in 3rd rd)
Key injury: RB Darren McFadden (out many games-foot)
Total bust: TE Dallas Clark (8th rd pick)

4th place: ChelseaFC
Owner: Tyler Ahlfeldt
Record: 11-3-0

Tyler is another long-time vet in the BFFG. When he's on a roll, his team is dangerous. If he beat you, it was probably by twenty or so points. Tyler beat me out for the #1 seed in the playoffs in the last week of the regular season, and by a weird twist of fate, it worked out better for me and not so good for him. Tyler's season was a cruel one but by no means his fault. He managed his team very well but unfortunately his worst week came at the absolute worst time.

MVPs: QB Aaron Rodgers (45 passing TDs) RB Maurice Jones-Drew (lead NFL in rushing)
Key loss: RB Matt Forte (knee)

3rd place: Dang Gurl!
Owner: Dave Schneider
Record: 9-5-0

Dave is another long-time vet of the BFFG. Known for auto-picking his players on draft day, he usually ends up with a top-notch team. He only had 10 moves on the season, showing a very conservative approach. My most memorable matchup was against Dang Gurl in the first round of the playoffs this season. A leaping penalty erased a killer feild goal from David Akers and replaced it with a PAT. That scenario allowed me to win by a point where the feild goal would have Dave winning by one. For me it was the luckiest matchup of my life; for Dave it was the, "someone 's gotta be f*cking with me" moment.

MVP: RB LeSean McCoy (20 TDs only 1 fumble lost)
Honorable mentions: QB Matt Stafford (5038 passing yards) K David Akers (192 fantasy points)
Key loss: WR Kenny Britt (torn ACL wk3)

2nd place: Mad Ravens
Owner: Joe Russo
Record: 8-6-0

This was Joe's first season in the BFFG and I believe he is also new to fantasy football. He made it all-the-way to the championship game. Is it beginner's luck? I'd say Joe's season was hardly a fluke. Joe did an excellent job of watching added and dropped players. He only made 18 moves and usually started the same guys, showing a conservative approach. He had a very memorable championship matchup against me, going in with Drew Brees who beat Dan Marino's passing yards record that final Monday night. He had decent players in place to give him a shot at winning the whole thing, just needed a bit more luck to keep my guys out of the endzone.

MVP: QB Drew Brees (5476 passing yards, 46 passing TDs)
Honorable mention: RB Marshawn Lynch (1416 AP yards)
Key injury: WR Andre Johnson (out several games-hamstring)

League Champion: SvvashBucklers
Owner: Jan-Ryder Hilton
Record: 11-3-0 (started 8-0)

My tenth season as BFFG commissioner and team owner was my best. I was going for a perfect season but then lost to Dang Gurl in week nine. No, I didn't purposely lose the final game to ChelseaFC, so that he would take the #1 seed and lose to his brother-in-law Joe (Mad Ravens), and I would face Dave (Dang Gurl) on a bad week in the first round of the playoffs. There's no way to predict all of that! I had a good team and I got lucky at times. That's usually the person who wins.

I've been doing this fantasy football thing for a while now and getting pretty good. My main strengths are player matchup stat checking, waiver watching and roster management. My only weakness may be drafting but that is very slight. If you are facing me this week then it is your Superbowl. You will need to do some research and stat checking. Willie-nillie-ing it will most likely not work for you. I am a beast. Be prepared.

MVP: WR Megatron (1681 reception yards, 16 TDs)
Honorable mention: WR A.J. Green (rookie)
Key Pickup: WR Julio Jones (17 points in championship game)
Key loss: RB Fred Jackson (broken leg-week 11, drafted in 16th rd)
Total Bust: QB Peyton Manning (drafted 7th rd)




    

Another Fantasy Football Season in the Books



And guess who's the remaining champ? That's right, moi. I've squeezed out another championship. Can you say, "dynasty?" I ask, "Who's dat who can make chump-meat outta tha maestro? Nobody. Nobody."

Ok let me stop there.

But really it was a great season for me. The three main things factored into my repeat ring: stat-tracking, gut instinct and luck. I believe each of these shares an equal part in fantasy football success.

When it comes to stat-tracking, crunching numbers or following rankings it's all right there for you on the Web. You just need to know where to look. I mostly stuck with Yahoo on this, which is also the host site for the BFFG. They provide very good fantasy advice and breakdowns. Right on your team roster page is a link for "Gameday Decision" and "Fantasy Matchups" where each player is given a star rating and a written blurb for their weekly matchup projection. It's really a great resource. I find that it seldom lets you down. There is also the "Research" link, which provides composite rankings and stats and compares other valuable information with active Yahoo leagues. And last I'll mention Yahoo's top analysts: Brandon Funston, Brad Evans, Matt Buser and Michael Salfino. These guys know their stuff and can usually point you in the right direction.

Gut instinct comes from watching football games and nothing else. The best resource for this is NFL Red Zone. I've subscribed to RZ for the past two years. It is the best way to watch football. They do all the channel surfing for you by going right to the game that matters. They also use split screen to show multiple games at once. You typically get to see every touchdown as it happens, a real bonus. Watching a lot of RZ will lead you to understand the pace of a football game and how it's all about momentum and clock management. You will get to know who the 'go-to' players are in the league.

And lastly there's luck. It's crazy how some games and situations turn out. No doubt, football is chaos. You don't know if the ball will bounce in your favor. It has for me. I must say. It's a strange but good feeling. It has me question fate, destiny, spirtuality and such, all things that I typicaly don't believe in. Regardless of luck you must always set your best line-up and never quit until the last game 'cause you just never know. The ball could bounce your way.

Me = satisfied ;-)

Coming soon: BFFG 2011 Team Manager Reports

Once again, the feast is mine!

Last Wednesday was a pretty good night in baseball world. My home team, the O's, knocked the Red Sox out of the playoffs and I won the "Thank God The Steelers Lost" fantasy baseball championship. Talk about payback innuendos. It may be the first time that I've ever been this interested in baseball late in the season. For a fantasy sports fanatic and O's fan, this is about as good as it gets.

Thanks to James who was commissioner of TGTSL. He did a pretty good job setting up the league and recruiting. It was a fun and challenging season.

Here are a few of the major components that contributed to my champoinship.

Landing first pick in the randomized draft order
I took Albert Pujols #1 overall and it paid off. he started off the season on the cold side but heated up in September when it really counted. Albert finished in 9th place for batters in the TGTSL.

Adding Strasburg in August
It was assumed that Stephen Strasburg would miss the entire season for Tommy John Surgery. But news reports informed that he was looking good, participated in minor league baseball and was available for the Nationals in September. Strasburg pitched on the last game of the season and scored 35 points. He basically solidified my win on the last day.

Here is my fantasy squad.

• Carlos Santana, Cle C, 1B   
• Albert Pujols, StL 1B   
• Dustin Pedroia, Bos 2B  
• Mark Reynolds, Bal 3B, 1B    
• J.J. Hardy, Bal SS    
• Lance Berkman, StL 1B, LF, RF, DH    
• Josh Hamilton, Tex CF, LF 
• Nelson Cruz, Tex RF, LF
• Adam Jones, Bal CF 
• Alfonso Soriano, ChC LF  
• Derek Jeter, NYY SS, DH 
• Curtis Granderson, NYY CF
• Jered Weaver, LAA SP 
• Stephen Strasburg, Wsh SP  
• Rick Porcello, Det SP  
• Clayton Kershaw, LAD SP    
• Ubaldo Jimenez, Cle SP   
• James Shields, TB SP  
• Daniel Hudson, Ari SP   
• Kyle Lohse, StL SP
• Heath Bell, SD RP    
• Joel Hanrahan, Pit RP  
• Neftali Feliz 

The Buffalo Wild Wings draft party blew-up in my face

Buffalo Wild Wings' commercial suggests if you want to stay longer all you need to do is let the bartender know and at a push of a button the game goes into overtime. Or if your boss is nagging you to come back from your lunch break. No problem. [Bartender pulls a lever] there's a hurricane in the area! "Guess we have to hang back and ride this thing out."

This advanced technical prowess couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, they don't know how to reset a wireless router.

The BFFG 2011 draft party fell apart. Nobody could get online. I asked for help but the BWW staff was way too busy to deal with me and my 'reserved' draft party. I explained to one employee that all they needed to do was turn the router off then back on and she thought I meant to kill the power to the whole place. Duh! Jim's remark was the best. "They probably don't have a clue where the router is dude." Agreed.

The manager came out, as we were all leaving, and her appearance only added to the overall let-down. I was too upset to even say anything. Thankfully the girls had my back. Erin said to the manager, "That's ok mam. We're gonna leave now and not pay for any of this [drinks]." Leslie followed up with a nice email complaint to BWW headquarters. Who knows if their email works.

Luckily I can reset the draft in Yahoo without a glitch. We'll try again on Wednesday evening at 5:15.

Two new stats added to the BFFG

Each year, Yahoo adds new features and customizations to its fantasy football. I spend a good amount of time thinking over all the new stuff. As commissioner, I'm very cautious to make any changes to a system that already works so well. Usually things are kept ass-is, however; this year Yahoo made some new stat categories available that I believe will contribute to the overall balance and intrigue in the league's competitive scoring system.

The pick-six is -1
For the most part, the BFFG sticks to the Yahoo default scoring system, which is the mainstream standard. One of the few categories that is different is the passing touchdown. In the Yahoo default it is four points but in the BFFG it is six. This choice is popular with most members in the BFFG. The consensus is, "a touchdown is a touchdown" and a touchdown, of course, is six points. As a result of this the top scorers in the BFFG tend to be all quarterbacks. There have only been a few exceptions where an elite running-back has wedged himself in-between the top fifteen or twenty who are mostly passers. This labels the BFFG as a quarterback heavy league, which is not a bad thing but I would like to level it out a bit.

The pick-six, or interception for a touchdown, is a major game changer. I believe this momentum swing should translate somehow in to fantasy scoring. Currently, an interception in the BFFG counts as negative one point. A pick-six is totally different than a regular interception and should cost more points. Adding an additional negative point, for a total of negative two, will complete this translation from the real game to fantasy and also balance out the overwhelming quarterback scoring edge.

Extreme fantasy factor
Imagine the opposing quarterback in your weekly match-up is blowing it up. You were up thirty points before the Monday Night Football game. Now you're down by one! The opposing quarterback finds himself in the red zone again. Your blood is boiling. You receive a text from your opponent, "say goodnight buddy." You're about to text back, "lucky bastard" when you hear, "and it's picked off!" The defense has intercepted the ball and taken it all the way. Now you're up one point with a few seconds left on the clock. The kickoff leads to a mediocre return. A couple of hail-Mary's with no chance and the game is finally over. You text back to your opponent, "put that in your pipe an smoke it." 


A defensive fourth down stop is +1
Team defenses get point for defensive stuff only in the BFFG. There is no mix with special teams points and team defense. This setting is popular in the BFFG. The consensus is, "why should a defense get points for an offensive player's return?" Instead the individual player gets points for their returning effort. The only thing that is missed is if a individual defensive player makes the return then there is no way to gain that production. Individual defense players can't be placed on a roster in the BFFG. This does, however; take a lot of solidarity out of defensive scoring. The other factor is that special defensive plays like sacks, interceptions and fumble recoveries, which all count as one point, are hard to come by. Adding another special stat category for team defense will boost it's value a bit.

A defensive stop on fourth down can be a big game changer. This huge momentum swing should translate into fantasy football as well. A defensive stop on fourth down will count as one point.

Extreme fantasy factor
The defense you started in your weekly match-up is getting killed. What was supposed to be a low scoring meeting between two division rivals has turned into a shoot-out. Your defense has scrapped together only four points so far and the game just won't end. Once again your defense finds itself in the red zone against its opponent who is down by a touchdown in the real game. They go for it on fourth down. Stuffed! Game over! Your defense ends the night with five points. Your opponent for that week had the kicker on the same team who never got a field goal chance, only four PATs. You win by one. Kicker jokes are in order and you text a good one to the loser. 

It's on paper now: the NFL Lockout is over

In case you were waiting for the fat lady to sing. Here you go. The lockout is over. "Zurück vom Ring!"

Now you can exhale

Players have approved

The vote is unanimous