Fantasy Focus: Week 11 Fantasy Football Rankings

Alright, it’s getting a little terrible. Josh has won 2 weeks in a row, and I received his fantasy rankings this week entitled, “The Three-peat Rankings” – Puke. Not only did I get dominated last week, I set an all time low for fantasy rankings on my own site, pulling home 4th in every single category. Heartache, pain, suffering – none of that, don’t worry – I’m just downright pissed off at my inability to see the entire board lately. But I’m destined to get back to my winning ways, so why not start this week? You’ve got to believe in your stuff, and confidence has never been an issue for me. Let the games begin! It’s about time someone else started winning Arse. If you three-peat, I’ll send you a present to the darkness!

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Elite Starters: Guys picked early that I love this week…

1. Maurice Jones Drew– The Bills allow more yards and touchdowns to running backs than any other team in the NFL. Yep.
2. Chris Johnson – I do actually think the Texans D will play better this time around, but so what, CJ will still do work.
3. Adrian Peterson – Big Backs kill Hawks – it’s very similarly proven to E=MC2.
4. Peyton Manning – I can’t see a better QB option this week, the Ravens secondary should prepare for the worst.
5. Ray Rice– If the Ravens want to beat the Colts for the first time in 7 games, they better feed it to Ray.

Solid Starters: Guys picked in middle rounds that should outplay their ranking/draft position this week…

1. Steve Smith (NYG) – The Giants SS is good to go this week, the Falcons secondary is porous.
2. Rashard Mendenhall – Mendenhall > Kansas City Chiefs.
3. DeSean Jackson – I’m loving DeSean against the Bears secondary. That kind of speed should torch them.
4. Ricky Williams –Ricky moves up from sleeper status because of Ronnie’s injury. I’d be starting him if I had him.
5. Sidney Rice –Tough to go against Rice right now, especially with Seattle in town.

Sleeper Starters: Guys ranked low, drafted low or not at all, but I still like them this week…

1. Justin Forsett – I don’t care if the Hawks are headed up against Minnesota, this kid can find yards if he gets carries.
2. Beanie Wells – Last week I called his best week of the season, I’m going for 2 in a row.
3. Jeremy Maclin –The Bears will see a lot of passes this Sunday Night, Maclin, like Jackson, has that painful speed.
4. LeSean McCoy– McCoy has a good match-up against the Bears, a defensive front that isn’t as scary as they insist.
5. Fred Jackson– It’s a deep trick shot, for sure, but Fred should see his highest touch numbers since Lynch returned.

Sit ‘Em Son: I don’t care where they were drafted, I don’t like these guys starting this week…

1. Joseph Addai– He burned me in the 4th quarter last week, but I think I’m right this time.
2. Derrick Mason– The Pats killed the Colts secondary, but I think the Ravens run too much this week.
3. Jay Cutler – He has the talent to bust out any week, but the Eagles will feast on his mistakes if he plays like Jay Cutler.
4. Roy Williams – The Cowboys won’t have time to mess with the whole #1 receiver game, the Skins have a tough secondary.
5. Matthew Stafford– Don’t start a bad player because of a supposed good match-up, plus the Browns D is better than you think.

***No more Bye weeks, but don’t get caught starting old man Clinton Portis or older man Brian Westbrook – both are definitely out this week, and there’s other’s too! Mind the Doctor!!!

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Week 11 Fantasy Rankings

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West Virginia Mountaineers vs Cincinnati Bearcats Pick

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West Virginia Mountaineers (+10) @ Cincinnati Bearcats Pick: The Bearcats have been awesome this season, rocking an undefeated record still as the season winds down. They’ve played awesome under two different quarterbacks, and didn’t have a real tight game until last week when they beat UCONN by a pair.

West Virginia has had their ups and downs, but they’ve mainly beaten the teams they were supposed to while losing to a team they weren’t expected to beat in Auburn and a very equal team in South Florida. But now they play the Bearcats.

It seems like it’s been West Virginia in this situation over the years. Undefeated, headed into a tough conference game against a team they are better than, but still is tough nonetheless. These Big East teams just seem to beat up on themselves, which allows morons to claim their conference weak despite good records against the “good-strong” conferences. But that’s a different article. What matters here is that this Mountaineer team gets to turn it around and play upset-underdog in Cincinnati this weekend. Sometimes it’s easier to be the hunter – I’m just saying.

What really has me taking West Virginia in this one is the quarterback controversy in Cincinnati. It may just be me, but it seems like any undefeated team that has some little mental hurdle late in the season seems to stumble. In this one, starting QB Tony Pike has been medically cleared to play, but the back-up, Zach Collaros, has been lights out in relief of Pike. And thought Pike has been called the starter “when he gets back”, it looks to me like he is back yet Zach is still the starter. Hmmm… It’s something little, but maybe Zach is looking over his shoulder in this one. It’s a short week to prepare for West Virginia, but a couple Bearcat mistakes and this should be close enough for West Virginia to cover.

Kentucky Wildcats vs Vanderbilt Commodores NCAAF Pick

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Kentucky Wildcats @ Vanderbilt Commodores (+3) NCAAF Pick: Oh, I love these games so much. You have a 2-8 team going up against a 5-4 team and they’re so close I’m going to go ahead and call them equal. Because of their records, and public perception of what those records mean, the Commodores are getting three points at their own place, even better! That being said, this spread isn’t big enough for people to stay away from a bad Kentucky team, nope, they are all over them thus far, 65% of the bets, just as I expected. I think Vegas realizes what’s going on here, the line hasn’t moved an inch. How can a 2-8 be equal to a 5-4 – let me dig in.

Well, for starters, both are 4-5 ATS, so they’re the same there. Second, just look at the brutality of Vandy’s schedule thus far, it’s a Quentin Tarantino film it’s so gory. Can you find an easy opponent they didn’t beat? Rice, got ’em, Western Carolina, got ’em! Maybe, just maybe Mississippi State and Army, so there’s a couple mediocre losses, but Vandy played tough in both those games. That’s right, as far as college football goes, the rest of their opponents have been beast-like. We’re talking Florida, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and LSU – lucky Vandy. So they’ve got 6 of their 8 losses against 6 teams that spent time in the Top 25 at some point this season – 4 have been in the Top 5.

Kentucky has 4 wins against Eastern Kentucky, Louisiana Monroe, Louisville, and Miami-Ohio – those teams are all terrible. There one decent win was against Auburn, and they’ve won 3 of their last 4, so they have some swag and mo going right now. But Vandy has played tough too. Over the last 3 they’ve played well above what people expected. The lost to SC by 4, were leading at half against Georgia Tech, and down just 1 going into the 4th quarter, and against Florida they were down just 13-3 midway through the 3rd quarter – their defense has had some solid performances lately.

That goes a long way with me, playing tough against good teams > beating up on bad teams.

Arizona Wildcats vs California Golden Bears Free Pick

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Arizona Wildcats (pk) @ California Golden Bears Free Pick: This game started where it should have been, Arizona favored at a Cal team that just isn’t nearly as good as the Cats – then it moved all the way to California being favored by 2 at home. Now this spread shouldn’t mean much in reality, I mean, 2 points, rarely do 2 points do anything at all – but it’s still ridiculous to me. I got them in the middle, at a pick-em. What has Cal shown against any worth-while team in the Nation, that makes them deserving of being favored against an Arizona team with just 1 Pac-10 loss? The answer, unquestionably, absolutely nothing.

The Bears have beaten college powerhouses like, Arizona State (by two), Washington State (doesn’t count), UCLA (worst record in the Pac 10), Minnesota (not even good in a bad Big 10), Eastern Washington (not even 1A), and Maryland (hiding in their shell all season long). Somehow, that got them ranked at some point. Then they were killed, take that back, embarrassed to the point of giving up against Oregon and USC. But then they had a stacked little schedule of mediocrity, and just like that they were ranked again. Then of course Oregon State made them look terrible again, because, well Oregon State is twice as good as Cal, and I’m guessing that’s the last time the Bears get ranked this season.

Then you have Arizona, beating Central Michigan (decent), losing by 10 to Iowa (9-1 on the season), beating Oregon State, beating Stanford, and running easily through UCLA and WSU of course. This Arizona team has beaten good teams, they’ve dominated bad teams, they are easily the better team here, but Cal has that name, and Arizona isn’t there yet.

Take full advantage, they may be 1-2 on the road, but Arizona is an easy pick here.

South Florida Bulls vs Rutgers Scarlet Knights Free Pick

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South Florida Bulls @ Rutgers Scarlet Knights (+1)Free Pick: These teams are pretty dang equal. Both are 6-2, both have lost to just Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, and both have played consistent football all season long, on the road, at home, everywhere. Neither team stuns you with their offensive attack, and while South Florida is a little faster on defense, they are a little smaller as well. Face it, these two teams are equal. But 54% like the road favorites (though favored by just a point).

The advantage that I see for Rutgers is the way they’ve played since Tom Savage took over at quarterback. The freshman gun slinger has been very efficient, made very few costly errors, and turned into a young leader or this football team. Since he started under center, the Knights are 6-1 with their loss being a 24-17 against 12th ranked Pittsburgh. The Scarlet Knights don’t throw interceptions, they don’t fumble the ball, and they control the clock. Sounds like a good bet to me.

South Florida might be the more talented team of the two, but they are known for their late season let-downs. Now, all they’ve done is lost to Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, so it’s not like they’ve crumbled to bad teams, and a win against West Virginia helped salvage the last few weeks, but this is a team that hasn’t played well down the stretch of their schedules over the years. B.J. Daniels, like Savage, took over at quarterback for start QB Matt Grothe when Grothe went down with a season ending injury. He’s played well, but the team hasn’t performed better like Rutgers has.

I think momentum is on Rutgers’ side. They are playing at home against an equal opponent. The value is with them.

Washington Huskies vs Oregon State Beavers Prediction

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Washington Huskies @ Oregon State Beavers (-11) Prediction: I got this game at 11, it has moved to 12, but the points shouldn’t matter here. Oregon brought it to the Dogs, smacking them around in fine 43-19 fashion (and it wasn’t that close) and I expect the Beavers to do something similar to that. Teams that fully commit to running the ball against UW just embarrass the Dawgs. I basically think the Beavers, in their home stadium, are the Huskies worst nightmare.

Jake Locker may get all the hype, and he may be the more elite pro prospect, but Sean Canfield has impressed me more this season. Jake is a physical freak, one of the more impressive athletes I’ve seen play the QB position, but Sean is super accurate, completing 70% of this passes on the season. He has a very calm pocket presence and hangs in to make the big throw. He doesn’t make mistakes, mainly because he’s so accurate, and is basically the ideal quarterback to lead a dominating running attack like OSU has. But I don’t even know if Canfield will matter much in this game – I truly think the Beavers could hand the ball off every single play and win by two touchdowns.

The Huskies have lost 5 of their last 6 games after beating USC. The Beavers have won 4 of their last 5 after losing by five to Arizona. The Beavers’ only losses have come against USC, Cincinnati (both in close games), and Arizona. But it’s not about who they’ve played, but how these two match-up. Like Oregon, the Beavers are a nearly impossible match-up for the Huskies.

Michigan Wolverines vs Wisconsin Badgers Football Pick

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Michigan Wolverines (+10) @ Wisconsin Badgers Football Pick: When you look at their most recent against a common opponent (Purdue), this game looks very scary. The Wolverines just barely lost to Purdue after falling apart in the second half, 36-38, while the Badgers smoked the Boilermakers 37-0. So all by itself, that looks scary. Then if you look at what Wisconsin has done lately, killing purdue after playing tough against Iowa, and then beating Indiana – they look even better. And then you have to look at Michigan lately, try 3 straight losses, including a 12-38 beatdown by Illinois, of all teams, and this game looks like a sure Wisconsin win. But wait, there’s more reasons to go against my pick – the Wolverines are 0-3 on the road this year. What am I doing here?

I’m looking at the bigger picture, that’s what. The Wolverines and Badgers are very equal teams. That’s right, look at it all and take it in. Both lost a close game to Iowa (besides Northwestern, who hasn’t lost a close game to Iowa?) – both got beat up by one of the best teams in the Big 10 (Wisconsin 13-31 vs Ohio State, Michigan 10-35 vs Penn State) – both played close with Michigan State (Wisconsin winning by a score, Michigan losing in overtime), both beat Indiana by 3, both have beaten up on a lesser team or two, and both have had their poor performances (Wisconsin struggled but won against Northern Illinois and Fresno State – Michigan got killed by Illinois) – I’m telling you, these teams are more equal than their records insist. Better yet, they’re more equal than a 10 point spread.

Michigan has struggled over the last 3 games, no doubt, but it’s hard for me to ignore their start to the season where they either won or played close to every team they went up against. I expect them to get back to respectability against an overrated Wisconsin team.

Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket vs Duke Blue Devils Pick

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Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (-10) @ Duke Blue Devils Pick: Listen Duke has played admirably so far this season, and Georgia Tech has stumbled (not lost, but had trouble with) against teams that can put the ball in the air with success (see Miami, Wake Forrest, Florida State, and Miami). But can your really put Duke in that category of teams? I can’t.

I know the Blue Devils are one of the top teams in the ACC (record-wise), but who have they beaten? Army in Week 2, North Carolina Central, NC State, Maryland, and Virginia. None of those teams are holding little yellow jacket jock straps.

The Jackets have won 7 straight games, covering the spread in 6 of the last 7. Aside from the Miami game, they’ve outrushed every single opponent they’ve played. Duke has lost the rushing attack battle in 9 of their last 10 games – including giving up nearly 200 yards rushing to Carolina, a team Georgia Tech out-rushed by 300 yards.

Against common opponents (though means little, but in this case it helps my argument so I’m going to share it as the grain of salt it is) Tech has looked like the much better team. GT beat Virginia 34-9 in a game that was never close, Duke battle the Cavaliers and won by 11. GT beat North Carolina 24-7, Duke lost to their Tar Heeled rivals 19-6. GT beat Virginia Tech, Duke lost by 12.

The only red flag is that the Yellow Jackets haven’t played awesome defensively against solid ACC passers. I just can’t see that one aspect adding up to a cover here. I’ll take Georgia Tech.

Bowling Green Falcons vs Miami-Ohio Redhawks Pick

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Bowling Green Falcons @ Miami-Ohio Redhawks (+3) Free NCAA Pick: This game is bound to be a shoot out, a real passing attack, the clock will probably stop every other play – and thus points will be scored, no doubt about it. Both teams pretty much rely solely on the passing game. While Bowling Green’s quarterbacks have been more efficient, the Redhawks are right up there in passing yards as well. To win this one, they’ll have to cut down on the turnovers.

Miami has played a lot better football over the past three weeks while Bowling Green has struggled a bit going 1-1 over their last couple games. The Falcons beat the Buffalo last week, but it wasn’t smooth sailing. The Falcons needed 14 unanswered fourth quarter points to beat the Bulls by a point. Watching that game didn’t scream Bowling Green to me. They were outplayed, out-rushed, out-gained and it took a touchdown pass with seconds on the clock to get a win. They shouldn’t have won that game.

That being said, it’s not as if Miami is more consistent. They’ve struggled much of the season, they’ve only won a single game all season long, so it makes sense that most people see them doing what they’ve done all year, and losing another football game. But that’s not always how it works.

Miami-Ohio has beaten Bowling Green each of the last 3 seasons, and 9 out of the last 10 times these two teams have met. They are 8-2 ATS in those 10 games, and each of the last 3 seasons they have beaten the Falcons as an underdog. History doesn’t mean much, but it means something.

Toledo Rockets vs Central Michigan Chippewas Free Pick

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Toledo Rockets (+16) @ Central Michigan Chippewas Free Pick: There was a type-o on my original selection in the Newsletter sent out Tuesday morning. I wrote that I picked the Rockets because the spread was way too inflated, but on the newsletter it highlighted the Chipps (+16) instead of Toledo (+16). This game has already moved to 17 in just about every book, 17.5 in a couple. But historically, that’s just way to high. Great value in the Rockets here.

Central Michigan have been favored by more than 16 points just once all season long, and they’ve played worse teams than Toledo. What does that tell you? Well, the cool-aid is wearing crazy Chippewa colors, and despite their solid start to the season, a win by two scores is still impressive, and I don’t expect much more from the Chipps.

The Rockets are 6-4 over Central Michigan over the last 10 seasons, but the Chipps are 4-0 in the last 4 years. Central Michigan has covered 4 out of the last 5 as well. Toledo is 3-1 O/U on the road this season. The Chipps are 2-1 O/U at home. Toledo is just 2-2 on the road, but have been in each of their 2 road losses late.

The one big question for me in this one is the health of #1 and 2 quarterbacks for Toledo. Both are questionable headed into Wednesday’s game, but they haven’t played in over 10 days, and the chances of one, if not both, being able to suit up on Wednesday Night is looking pretty good. I’ll gamble, I’m taking the Rockets.