Miles Austin decided to come back the week I had him on my bench

After an amazing start with five touchdowns in his first three games, the last three weeks have been horrible.

In Week 9, Austin managed one reception for 49 yards, but it was for a touchdown that gave the Cowboys the win over the Eagles in the Sunday Night Football matchup.

In Week 10, Austin had 4 catches for 20 yards against Green Bay

In Week 11, Austin had 4 catches for 47 yards against the Redskins.

And, I get it, those are pretty tough match-ups. Asante Samuel is a beast of a cornerback and shut down Austin most of that game.

Green Bay has Charles Woodson who also took care of business against Ausitn

And the Skins’ have been shutting down wideouts all season long.

So naturally, I decided to bench Austin this week on my fantasy football team because the Cowboys offense had been struggling as of late and they were up against the Raiders.

The Raiders have one of the best shut-down cornerbacks in the NFL in Nnamdi Asomugha and I figured that Austin would again put up lackluster numbers.

But that was not the case, he put up 7 catches, 145 yards, and a touchdown, equal to 22.25 fantasy points. I put in Mario Manningham for him, who managed to get me 6.05 fantasy points in a week where I’m playing the first place team.

I’m starting you next week Austin, against the Giants. Don’t fuck me over.

With the breaking news that Big Ben Roethlisberger is sitting out for Sunday Night’s game against the Ravens, this turns a must-win game into a better-win game.

There will be no excuse for the Baltimore Ravens not to come out on top in this game with the Steelers’ third string quarterback, Dennis Dixon starting for them.

Dennis Dixon gets his first career regular season start, too bad for him it's against the Ravens

This kid from Oregon is in his 2nd year and has had one career pass in the NFL.

Our defense needs to keep the pressure on him, don’t play all this prevent shit like we always do and let him gain his confidence.

Pressure, pressure, pressure, that is the key to winning this game and we need to do it early.

Also, I think that we need to let Flacco get comfortable in the pocket early. Lately, we’ve been opening the game up by running the ball, notoriously, but I really think that Flacco has lost some confidence. And I think we need to come out throwing the ball and gain momentum early and score quick.

Maybe even throw a bomb to Mason first play of the game because Polamalu is out and the Steelers’ secondary has been shaky ever since.

Bottom line is that if we score early, we can try to take the running game away from the Steelers and force the kid to beat us. Not that Mendenhall will probably do anything against Ray and our run D, but we don’t want to even give him the opportunity to do so.

But this week I am up against the first place team who is 10-1, mind you, his first loss was this past week where he lost to an 0-10 team, it was music to my ears.

10-0 loses to 0-10, he won’t be living that one down, but now he’s playing me.

1st vs. 2nd

Here’s the lineups

Me:
QB – Aaron Rodgers – 33.90 from Thursday
WR – Roddy White
WR – Derrick Mason
WR – Mario Manningham – 6.05 points from Thursday
RB – Chris Johnson
RB – Will decide on Sunday. If Turner sits, I’m starting Snelling…If Turner plays, Benson sits, I’m starting Bernard Scott…If Turner plays, Benson plays, Julius Jones sit, I’m starting Forsett. If all 3 play, I start Addai
TE – Vernon Davis
K – Mason Crosby – 10 points from Thursday
DEF – Colts

Him:
QB – Peyton Manning
WR – Steve Smith (NYG) – 8.85 points from Thursday
WR – Sidney Rice
WR – Lee Evans
RB – Adrian Peterson
RB – Thomas Jones
TE – Kevin Boss – 2.70 points from Thursday
K – David Akers
DEF – Vikings

I’m feeling confident, but you never know

The first place team is 10-0, which is bullshit because I have over 200 more points than him in the season, I’ve just had shitty matchups, but anyways, this is a must win because there are 5 other 6-4 teams right now and only 6 of the 12 teams will make the playoffs.

Here are the lineups:

Me:
QB – Aaron Rodgers vs. SF
WR – Roddy White at NYG
WR – Miles Austin vs. WAS
WR – Derrick Mason vs. IND
RB – Chris Johnson at HOU
RB – Joseph Addai at BAL
TE – Vernon Davis at GB
K – Mason Crosby vs. SF
DEF – Detroit vs. CLE

Him:
QB – Jay Cutler vs. PHI
WR – Steve Smith vs. MIA – Already posted 16.45 points
WR – Donald Driver vs. SF
WR – Anquan Boldin at STL
RB – Ladell Betts at DAL
RB – Brandon Jacobs vs. ATL
TE – Jeremy Shockey at TB
K – Neil Rackers at STL
DEF – Atlanta at NYG

Must win, we’ll see what happens

After suffering two concussions in three weeks, Westbrook needs to rest and sit out for the season

They both said that they expected a full recovery from Westbrook and would re-evaluate him in two to three weeks.

But I don’t think that this re-evaluation should decide whether Westbrook sits out for the rest of the season, because the bottom line is that he NEEDS to.

Concussions aren’t something that you fuck around with, Troy Aikman, Steve Young, and especially Bill Romanowski will tell you that.

Romanowski estimated that over the course of his NFL career he suffered 8-20 concussions, not exactly something that we want Westbrook to go through.

Westbrook should just sit out the rest of the season and let the kid, McCoy get his reps, and then come back next season fully healed and ready to lead the Eagles to the Super Bowl in 2010.

Me (6-2):
QB – Aaron Rodgers vs. DAL
WR – Roddy White at CAR
WR – Miles Austin at GB
WR – Derrick Mason at CLE
RB – Chris Johnson vs. BUF
RB – Joseph Addai vs. NE
TE – Vernon Davis vs. CHI
K – Mason Crosby vs. DAL
DEF – Carolina vs. ATL

Gonzo (5-4):
QB – Kurt Warner vs. SEA
WR – Chad Ochocinco at PIT
WR – Dwayne Bowe at OAK
WR – Bernard Berrian vs. DET
RB – Maurice Jones-Drew at NYJ
RB – LaDainian Tomlinson vs. PHI
TE – John Carlson at ARI
K – Stephen Gostowski at IND
DEF – Green Bay vs. DAL

I’m “projected” to win by 18 points, but we all know that doesn’t ever work out. We’ll see what happens tonight with Vernon Davis, hopefully he can start me out on a good note.

But we’ll just say this…Roddy White didn’t show up, Derrick Mason didn’t show up, and Aaron Rodgers threw 3 picks.

Fuck you Santonio Holmes

I was winning however by 6 points heading into Monday Night’s Steelers/Broncos matchup, but alas my lady foe had Santonio Holmes, who managed to get her 10 points, what a dick.

And the sickest part about it was she was sitting there the entire game, rooting for the Steelers! Who the hell does that in Baltimore?

That’s why I always make a decision before my fantasy football draft that I will not take any Steelers player, ever.

But, nevertheless I am now sitting at 6-3, still in 2nd place, but the gap has widened as the guy in first place is 9-0. My best friend who I help with fantasy football every year. The guy that told me he was going to take Matt Forte with the first pick in the draft.

I told him he was crazy and that he better take Adrian Peterson, he did, and now he’s 9-0. Fuck him.

Brian Westbrook will be key if the Eagles want to beat the Cowboys and take the NFC East crown.

So the Eagles play the Cowboys this Sunday night, and you have to wonder if it’s going to be the Philadelphia Eagles that beat the shit out of the Giants last week, or is it going to be the team that couldn’t score more than 6 points on the fucking Raiders!

I tend to think that it’s going to be the former. This is a big week, winner of this game takes first place in the NFC East, which is arguably the toughest division in the NFL. And the Eagles are going to come into this game focused.

A lot of NFL players claim that they don’t look at lesser teams, like the Raiders, and think that they automatically have a win wrapped up, but that’s the way that it looked in Oakland three weeks ago, and that’s the reason I think that they lost. Well that and Andy Reid doesn’t know how to run the ball.

But the Eagles get Brian Westbrook back this week, and although McCoy didn’t do a bad job filling in for him with 82 rushing yards and a touchdown last week at New York, he still isn’t as versatile as Westbrook out of the backfield and he can’t block as well. Not to mention the fact that 82 of McCoy’s rushing yards came on a 66 yard scamper for that touchdown that he had.

The Eagles need Westbrook and they need to get him involved in the offense if they want to win this one.

I think that the defense is really going to put the pressure on Romo and he will throw at least two interceptions, and keying in on Miles Austin is also going to be big. Normally, Asante Samuel will match up on the #1 receiver on a team, but I think in this case, Hobbs can take care of the big baby Roy Williams and let Samuel take care of the explosive Austin.

We’ll see on Sunday, ladies and gentlemen.

Mason was held without a catch in the Ravens/Bengals last meeting, not this time.

The Ravens get the Bengals again this week after a huge win against the Broncos on Sunday. And I’ve got to say I’m feeling confident about it (when am I not?) But come on, we took it to the Broncos, and the it’s only a matter of time before the Bengals start to lose ground.

Let’s face it, the Bengals aren’t a playoff caliber team, they won’t get there and they are going to stumble sooner or later, it might as well be this week against the Ravens, whose defense started to look like the Ravens defense again.

The key reason why we have the upper hand this week is the Bengals loss of Antwan Odom. Last time when we played them, he had constant pressure on Joe Flacco, making him release the ball a lot sooner then he wanted to, resulting in a lot of underneath passes to Ray Rice and Todd Heap.

But Odom has since been put on injury reserve. He’s done for the season and that only means good things for the Ravens. I think this Sunday Flacco gets a lot more time in the pocket and is able to make those downfield throws to Derrick Mason, who was held without a catch in their last meeting, and also to Mark Clayton.

Rodgers is the #1 Fantasy Quarterback right now

QB – Aaron Rodgers – 287 passing yards, 3 TDs, 52 rushing yards – 37.55 points
WR – Roddy White – 4 receptions, 108 receiving yards, 1 TD – 17.80 points
WR – Miles Austin – 5 receptions, 61 receiving yards, 1 TD, 11 rushing yards – 14.45 points
WR – Dennis Northcutt – 0 receptions – 0 points….bad prediction on that one, should have just played Mason
RB – Chris Johnson – 228 rushing yards, 2 TDs, 2 receptions, 11 receiving yards – 36.40 points
RB – Joseph Addai – 62 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 4 receiving yards, 22 passing yards, 1 TD – 14.20 points
TE – Owen Daniels – 1 reception, 22 receiving yards – 2.45 points…sucks he went down, but that’s why I have Vernon Davis on my roster.
K – Mason Crosby – 2 FGs, 2 XPs – 8 points
DEF – Indianapolis – 14 points allowed, 4 sacks, 1 INT, 1 FR – 9 points

Final Score: 139.85
Opponents Final Score: 104.10

I moved to 6-2