This was close. Really close. Week 2 of this young NFL season nearly bestowed upon me the typical disaster that has marked my 10+ years of fantasy football.
Sunday started off great. It was a thing of beauty, watching Michael Turner destroy the Arizona defense. 75 yards on only 9 carries. Are you kidding me? I was looking at putting up near triple digits. My man, Jay Cutler, was carving up the Cowboys, I had Antonio Gates and Ryan Matthews in the afternoon. It was gonna be a good, good day.
Then it stopped. Turner stopped getting the ball. All I saw was Jason Snelling, Snelling, Snelling to the tune of 186 total yards and 3 TD's. Panic set in. I began checking twitter constantly, looking for an update. There it was: tightness in the groin. WHAT!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Here we go again.
Well, at least I still have rookie stud Ryan Matthews.
FAIL.
After getting over the shock of watching Jason Snelling take all my guys caries and touchdowns, I get word Matthews sprained his ankle and his return is questionable. I threw a towel at my TV. I think my wife was scared. Could this really be happening? The two guys I had to have this year, both hurt in week 2. I was still fantasy-cursed. In another league, the upstart and fantastic PFFL http://pffl2010.blogspot.com/ I left Jahvid Best and his 33 fantasy points on the bench. Things had gotten real ugly, real fast.
Well, that is how things usually work out for me. If it's inevitable, I might as well just enjoy it, right.
But something happened: a festivus, miracle if you will: I won my game. Narrowly, but I'll take it. Victories like this don't happen to me. I went 1-13 last year; the culture of winning is not something I'm used to. So I started thinking maybe my team is not so bad after all this year. 2-0 for the first time....ever, I think. Granted I had guys like Jay Cutler (stud), Antonio Gates (super stud), Jeremy Maclin (2 TD's in two weeks ain't bad), and Darren McFadden (surprisingly serviceable) helping pick up the slack. In fact, looking at the big picture I went 2-1 across my fantasy landscape, and ended the weekend a combined 5-1 in all leagues combined. Perhaps I've learned from all my losing over the past few years. Or it could be one of the most important aspects of fantasy sports was on my side: the schedule.
I'll argue the most important aspect of a fantasy season is your match-up's. Sure, you need to draft a decent team, based on projections and a crystal ball. But a "virtual defense" is so important, yet the most difficult position to draft (because you can't). This week I faced Tom Brady as he faced the Jets. Yes he had a couple scores, but it was nothing like the week before where he went off against the Bengals. Had he duplicated the performance, I'd be singing a very different tune. Over the past few years, I've routinely lead the league in "most points against", not a stat you want to lead a league in. Chris Johnson vs. the Raiders (21pts) is very different than Chris Johnson vs. the Steelers (2pts). A bad "virtual defense" can make you pull the trigger on bad trades, bad free agent pickups, and give you a bad disposition. Just remember, the "VD" is something you simply can't control; just make good, logical decisions and don't panic if your 0-2 because you were matched up with Arian Foster in week one then got Jahvid Best in week two. Make good trades, good free agent picks, and you should be fine.
The situation improved Monday as word came down that Turner and Matthews would both be fine for this Sunday. But....the injuries have started. Once you tweak an ankle or a groin, do things ever really get better without a couple weeks rest? I know these guys have access to some of the best medical care in the world, but the fact remains these guys aren't from Saturn and need time to heal, just like you and me.
I'm going to be adding a few things to the site. Look for Hot Free Agent recommendations and lists my projections for the upcoming week. Look at it this way: my track record is not great over the past few years, so you can think of it as a "list of players to avoid".
As we would say in 12W, Have A Nice Night!
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