Tag Archives: NFL Football Analysis

theRUNDOWN Review: Week 14

Posted on by

165 points from my starters this week – not too shabby – check out all my work from top to bottom! 

QB: Matt Cassel vs. Seattle: Matt was tied for 11th overall amongst quarterbacks – should have gone with the Peyton Manning match-up – dang. Still 19 points isn’t bad. 

RB: Adrian Peterson vs. Detroit: 102 yards and 1 catch for 15 yards – he was good for just 12 points against the Lions – come on. 

RB: Matt Forte vs. Jacksonville: 69 yards rushing against the Jags? Ouch. Still, Forte’s catching ability gave him 5 grabs for 37 yards and while he didn’t score a TD, he still managed 14 fantasy points. 

FLEX: LT vs. Oakland: He scored and rushed for 91 yards, but it took him 25 carries – against the Raiders of all teams. I’m interested to see where LT gets drafted in fantasy circles next season. 16 points for LT2. 

WR: Roddy White vs. New Orleans: 10 grabs for 164 yards, but no TDs for Roddy. Still, White did work. He was 4th amongst WRs, and I needed it – him and Marshall made this week respectable for me. 26.

WR: Brandon Marshall vs. Kansas City: Brandon had 11 grabs for just 91 yards, but he took two of those catches to the house. He was 2nd amongst WRs and 4th overall in fantasy land. 32 for the big receiver. 

TE: Tony Gonzalez vs. Denver: 5 catches for 73 yards and a touchdown – Tony is as good as it gets, even though he’s old. 2nd TE overall. 18 fantasy points. 

K: Ryan Longwell vs. Detroit: 2 Forty-yarders and 2 extra points – I wanted one more field goal attempt – but 10 points is decent here. He was the 5th rated kicker this week. 

D: Tennessee Titans vs. Cleveland: 17 points from the Titans – the Browns didn’t take many chances, but Tennessee shut them down all day long. 

PAPA’S Week 14 SLEEPERS

Tyler Thigpen: 16 fantasy points – not the biggest day ever, but he’s worth playing once again. B

Daunte Culpepper: He did toss for 220 yards, but got just one touchdown. Still, 14 points isn’t bad. B

JaMarcus Russell: Ugh. F

Pierre Thomas: 4th overall amongst running backs – and he’s still the best running back in New Orleans. A+ 

Cedric Benson: 57 yards and 1 catch against the Colts – not good enough. 6 points. D-

Domenick Hixon: Hix dropped a sure thing 60+ yard reception, and it looked like he would have scored – as is, he didn’t do much. I missed, but by just that much. 3 grabs for 30 yards. Maybe I was wrong about Plax’s absence? D-

Devin Hester: 5 catches for 80 yards – could you imagine this guy playing a slot roll for the Patriots… Dirty. Anyway, he’ll be a solid receiver in Chicago for years to come. B+

Zach Miller: 8 grabs for 64 yards made him the 4th TE overall – he’s a must start. Even on the Raiders. A

Arizona Cardinals: 3rd defense this week. How do you like me now? A+

Papa’S Week 14 Splinter-Butts (bench him, son)

Marc Bulger: 220 a TD and a pick – better than I thought, but still, there were 17 guys better than Marc – Shaun HIll, Tyler Thigpen, Kerry Collins, Culpepper, Orton, Seneca Wallace, and Jeff Garcia were 7 of them. 

DeAngelo Williams: Can I miss more? TB killed me in many ways this week, and it all started with giving up 300+ rushing yards to the Panthers.  

MeWelde Moore/Willie Parker: These guys didn’t do anything in a Pittsburgh win. Dallas’s D came to play. 

Kevin Walter: Yikes! Kevin Walter killed me this week. Well, he was on just about everyone’s bench, but still – he was no player to sit. Not when Matt Schaub torched the Packers secondary for a win in GB and 400+ yards. Walter was his #1 target. 

Three for Thursday

Posted on by

Here are some interesting numbers I found while rummaging around the NFL’s elite and, well, not so elite teams…

1. The Chiefs give up how many rushing yards per game? Oh, just 182.4 yards per contest – on the ground. Good lord, you’d think that this team would be better than that after adding Glenn Dorsey, but that’s just not the case. I guess they did lose one of the best defensive ends in football, but this is getting downright piss poor. To put that into perspective, The Ravens allow almost 1/3 of that offensive rushing total. Not only do the Chiefs give up 180+ per game, but they allow 5.4 yards per rush, which is amazing. That’s .3 yards per run more than the TERRIBLE Denver Broncos attack. LaDAINIAN TOMLINSON!!! Come on down… The Chargers play KC this week, and LT is just starting to look healthy. 

2. There are three defenses allowing 3.1 yards per carry or less – and that’s unheard of. The Ravens (2.8), the Vikings (3.0), the Steelers (2.9), and the Jets (3.1), have all been doing work this year against opposing defense. It’s pretty amazing when defenses don’t give up a first down (based on yardage) for every three rushing attempts by their opponents. I woudl still rank these defenses Steelers, Ravens, Vikings, Jets – and this is why. The Ravens have given up one rushing score this season… ONE. That’s tied with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – and better than everyone else in the league. Not only that, but the Ravens are also 4th against the pass, and have just as many interceptions (10) as they have touchdowns given up – that said, they have given up just 11 offensive scores this year. And while that is awesome, it is slightly less impressive than the Steelers. You’ve seen Big Ben and the Steelers offense struggle this year, getting sacked early and often, and getting their fair share of three and outs – but that’s okay because the Steel Curtain is back. Pittsburgh has allowed 3 rushing touchdowns and 6 passing scores – that’s 9. Pittsburgh is 6-2. That’s just over 1 score per game. Not only that, but because of their impossible schedule (well not so impossible for them) they have had more defensive snaps than the Ravens. Giving up just 14.5 points per game, the Steelers are the real deal, and ranked 1st overall in pass defense – and a sacking machine. As for the Vikings over the Jets, run defense might give the Vikes a slight edge, but they are a little better against the pass as well. The Vikes get a bad wrap for their shoddy secondary play, but the Jets have allowed more yards and more scores – interesting. 

3. Here’s a few more interesting numbers from around the league: the Titans have more than three times as many interceptions as they’ve allowed passing touchdowns – 13 picks and only 4 TDs and they also allow a league low 12.9 points per contest. Stingy. The Cardinals have allowed 16 passing touchdowns this year (6 to Brett Favre, sure, but even without Brett’s historic game the Cards would have allowed more touchdowns through the air than 12 other teams). The leagues most stingy scoring defense? The Colts – they’ve given up just 2 passing scores this year – but then again, that might be because teams just run the ball on them (146 yards per game and 10 rushing scores this year). The Oakland Raiders convert on 3rd down less than 25% of the time – only one other team is below 30% (the Lions at 28%) – Three and OUT here we come! Is this stat telling? The Titans have a league best +10 turnover ration – the Denver Broncos have one of the easiest schedules in the league, and are really stumbling lately – they are -11. The Titans are the best and the Broncos are the worst. Keep throwing the rock Splinter!!! Idiot. Which team has more pass completions than any other? Arizona? Nope – tied with another team for 2nd with 210, but nope. New Orleans? Drew has been great, but not quite – they have 210 as well. Try the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – I know I never would have thought. Everything being considered though, the Bucs are on bye while the Saints and Cardinals will pass them up this week. Last, but not least – the Giants have the best yard per carry average in the league, and are the only team getting more than 4.7 yards per rush – that being said, they average half a yard more per carry than any other team in the league. 5.2 yards per tote. Amazing. What else? They do it with consistency. Their longest rush is 44 yards, over half the league has broken one longer than that.