Sunday Observations - Week 14

In My Fason!
When monitoring the Vikings offensive woes early in the week, most of the focus was on the quarterback situation. Will it be Johnson or Jackson. We all waited with baited breath at this decision, so we could bench/release both. The other issue out of Winter Park this week was whether or not Chester Taylor would play. We ALL assumed that if the Chetster was unable to go, his replacement would be Ciatrick Fason, who ripped up and gashed the vaunted Bears defense, when Taylor got injured last week. WOW! Did Brad Childress make his best play to leap into level of coaches that fantasy players love to hate. This group of course includes, Mike Shannahan, and the recently inducted Gary Kubiak. The Dark Sith Lord of Fantasy Football, and his evil apprentice. Brad Johnson ended up starting, and played good enough to not warrant fantasy consideration next week. The real hum-dinger, was when Artrose Pinner came in and lit up the fantasy world. He had 125 yards and THREE touchdowns. All accross the country I was hearing people who started Fason scream "ARTROSE WHO!!??!!" every time Pinner marched across the goal line against his former squad. I know I was one of those players that was celebrating the fact that Taylor was down, because I had grabbed Fason early in the week and was licking my chops at the prospects of him ripping up the lions. I even benched Tiki Barber in one league for Fason. So with that, IN MY FASON!

The Colts are EXPOSED! Children, avert your eyes.
Of all the things I didn't expect to see this weekend, the Jacksonville rushing attack against the Colts was definitely one of them. I knew that Taylor and Jones-Drew would be decent plays against a weak Colts rushing defense, but 297 yards between those two was completely unexpected. It was a great game plan by Jacksonville. They basically eliminated the passing game. Jacksonville almost seemed to go out of their way to prove that the Colts have less coverage up the middle than Brittany Spears when she goes out clubbing. After the game the Jaguars players gave a lot of the credit to Mike Tice, their embattled assistant head-coach, who got in trouble for scalping Super-Bowl Tickets. If their running game can play like this every week until the end of the season, ole Ticey might need to keep those Super Bowl tickets for his family this year.

Tony Who?
"In the last four games, Tony Romo has six touchdown passes and five interceptions. All but one of those touchdowns (and none of the picks) came on Thanksgiving. Since his next game is on NFL Network, which nobody will see, his mythical status will likely continue even if he lays an egg for the fourth time in five weeks."

One of the more disgusting developments this year was the love-fest heaped upon one Tony Romo. I'm proud to say I was one of the few that never bought into the long term success of this flash in the pan Dallas QB. First off, if he had any real talent, he wouldn't have to be a 4th year rookie. Secondly, It's the way the NFL works when it comes to new quarterbacks in the league. There have been at least 5 examples of 'new' quarterbacks that have started hotter than a pistol, and then after 5 games have flamed out and have looked very ordinary, if not awful. This list includes phenoms like Rex Grossman, Damon Huard, Bruce Gradkowski, Matt Leinart, and to a lesser extent Seneca Wallace. All these QBs had about 4-5 games where they looked GREAT, and then once teams got some film on them to figure the QBs out they look ordinary. The same thing is happening to Romo. He came in against the Giants at halftime, and looked abysmal. Then he gets another week of work with the first team, plays a terrible team, and then looks like the next big thing. Repeat for 3 weeks, and suddenly he's a Top5 Fantasy QB into next year. Now after Thanksgiving he plays the Giants again, gets beat up, plays awful. Makes one throw at the end of the game to Witten to save the game, and everyone forgets the two ints. Now he laid an egg against the Saints, and people still think he's good. I don't get it. We'll see how good people think he is when Jeff Garcia leads the Eagles to the NFC East division title.

Sweet Brees Blowin'
Five TDs last week against the supposedly good Dallas Defense? Brees has thrown for 300+ yards for more than any other QB in the league this year. He's making Peyton Manning look like Eli. Drew wasn't good enough to stay in San Diego. Now he's in New Orleans, as the only real competition to his former running back for the league MVP. When you factor in the complete turn around that team has done this year, I'm more inclined to give the MVP to Brees than LT. Brees has been a great fantasy QB all year, and looks to be a great fantasy QB for years to come with all those great young receivers he has in Colston, Henderson, and even Terrance Copper. Reggie Bush will be a star for Brees in the future (what was Houston THINKING!). All that's left for New Orleans to do is rebuild their line, and they will be tough for the next few years.

I'm already on record as saying this years Super Bowl will be New Orleans v. San Diego. Get your tickets now. Ticey? Got some for sale?

Write that Record in Pencil
This last weekend Ladanian Tomlinson broke the venerable one year old 'Touchdowns in a Season' record, set by Shaun Alexander. Alexander broke the record set one or two years before by Priest Holmes.

How long until LT's record is broken, and by who? Well considering the season isn't over yet, and there are three games left for him to add to his total, that may skew the chances of breaking the record. If LT goes even nuttier and bumps his total to 40TDs that could limit the chances of breaking the record three years in a row. It will also virtually guarantee that every fantasy team with Tomlinson on it will win its Championship. Forget TJ Houshmandzadeh, LT is the Championship.

My early guess at 2007, and who has the best shot at breaking the TD record? This all depends on if Tiki Barber follows through with his threat on retirement, but my early money is on Brandon Jacobs. He will have the size and power to get all the goal line carries. He will also have the speed and ability to bust some long runs as well. We can only hope that Tom Coughlin gets fired, and the Giants get a coach that focuses on the run as well.