This modest blogger, humbled by first the Bears’ play, and then the Shadow’s predictions is looking forward to a fun day on Sunday. Two great offense teams with big play defenses will go at it, at it and at it.

You must admire both QBs and their head coaches. The Colts with Mr. Everthing at QB and the Saints with a guy who never quits trying and succeeding. Combine those pros with two winning head coaches and you have a Sunday feast.

Having been to New Orleans since Katrina, all I can say is that Drew Brees is what that city needed. A guy who says yes we can and delivers. A nice change of pace from others who say “yes we can”, but don’t deliver anything of value, except an unemployment check.

At San Diego, Brees never quit and hurt his arm trying to recover a fumble. The Chargers thought he was through; Miami didn’t want him and Sunday this gutsy guy takes the field, while the Dolfins and the Chargers watch. Good for you Mr. Brees!!!!

On the other side of the field comes The Great Mr. Peyton Manning. As a QB, he does just about everything right and with style. Truly a great field general and a master at his trade. Bravo Mr. Manning!!!!

Both teams have many skilled players, who do it in crucial times. Some goofy announcer will say, “so and so choked”. Cut the crap, these guys are all very good or they wouldn’t be there. They are also human, so mistakes are made, but both teams are loaded with winners and are led by two guys who never give in or give up.

The coaching staffs are top notch and deserve to be there. It should be a great Sunday.

Fantasy players still are very active, with many leagues’ championships still in the air.
In fact, there are still a few games where you pick your Super Bowl players based on salary cap considerations. I don’t know any with mock drafts, but I am sure they exist.

This week I say go with your hunches and have a great time. Sweetness has mixed emotions, but goes with the Colts 37-34.

Go Bears!!!! Why do I still say that?

Sweetness Uncategorized Sweetness

Well, the fantasy football wars are almost over. No more player rankings, mock drafts or anything else. Why? Because this is the weekend of SUPER BOWL. Yep, this is it (and a scoop for readers of this blog).

Finally, after several months of grinding the two best teams in the league get to play and one is the champ. Back in August, Fantasy Sports Optimizer rated Brees and Peyton as its two top QBs. They were ahead of all others in the FSO’s player rankings and by a good margin. So here we are…..

Of course, it takes more than a great QB to get you to the Super Bowl, but without a star at QB it is hard to do.

Other highly ranked players include Dallas Clark , Reggie Wayne and Marques Colston of the Saints. There are many other really good players in the Saints receiving corps, but they don’t do enough in fantasy terms to rate all that highly.

The runners were not that highly rated, mostly in the second or third tier.
Addai and Bush had the highest player ranks, and could be very important on Sunday.

The defenses were both midtier in the preseason and improved as the year went on. They are both capable of the big play and that is what is going to make this an exciting Super Bowl.

Braincase’s prediction is(drum roll)—-Colts 34, Saints 27.

Go Chargers!!!

Braincase Uncategorized Braincase

What we need for fantasy football fans is a road map on how to Optimize the time between early February and the summer when the drafts begin. Fantasy Sports Optimizer (FSO) will be deligently working on Data Sense, the live Cheat Sheet and the Optimizer products for the upcoming season, but what can the average fantasy football fan do.

Here are a few ideas:
-Review your season and ask what one thing could you have done differently that would have made a material difference in your league. Not silly answers, like better players, but a look at your stategy and weekly player selection from your bench.
-See if matchups really made any difference?
-Compare total points to consistent points. Which would have been better?
-Look at reasons why some of your big stars just didn’t perform. Was it injuries, a new offensive scheme, an off year or was it the end of the run, like LT.

For fantasy football players in keeper leagues, this is a great time to check your assumtions on who is staying on your roster.
I know that it hurts to let go of a great player who had an off year, but look carefully, because it is much better to move on too soon, rather than a year too late. This is especially true of RBs. Also look to see who should have a bounce back year and get set to pounce on them early in the draft. Many Falcons for example should have good years ahead of them, assuming the injury jinx moves on to another team.

Finally, for any fantasy football fan, remember that the organizations that are strong year in and year out give you a leg up. One year wonders can lead your astray.

You can be much better prepared for mock drafts, checking the reliability of Cheat Sheets and player rankings with some analytical looks at what you want to do before all the hype begins.

Go Bears!!!! Go somewhere and get some offensive linemen and defensive backs!!!!

Sweetness Uncategorized Sweetness

Now there is a silly idea, the Pro Bowl. It would be much better to take the two most disappointing teams, as voted on by the fans, and have them play. The winner gets to whoop it up while the loser must have a press conference to talk about how they “just didn’t step up” or some other silly cliches.

Fantasy football mock drafts for 2010 before the Saints-Cardinals game had Kurt Warner going high in the player rankings. Now he may retire and all those projections, cheat sheets and predictions go out the window.

As you can tell, there is not much to write about this week in the fantasy football world, but next week with the Super Bowl coming up, the gurus will abound.

I think that this week should be renamed the doldrums week and we should have reruns of last week’s exciting games.
I bet you could get good odds if you took the Vikings and two points. However, with the ability of hackers and techs, you could get a replay where AP takes the ball cleanly and runs into the endzone. No OT and an easy win for you.

Have fun on Sunday amd remember it is only seven more days until the Colts and Saints go at it.

Braincase Uncategorized

This weekend’s games are once again expected to be exciting as two totally diffenent matchups occur.

The early game pits the Jets against the Colts. It should be a Colt win. All the player rankings, mock draft positions, and analytical player tools point to the Colts. The big question is do the Jets know this?

If you did a mock draft for Sunday’s game, most of the players weariing a Jet uniform would be picked last. So here’s to Fantasy Sports Optimizer’s (FSO) fantasy football’s player rankings (Data Sense) and the hell with real football and we go with the Colts by two Touchdowns. This has nothing to do with me having Peyton, Addai, Clark and Reggie on my fantasy team!!!

The second matchup could be one of the highest scoring games in league championship history, a one sided match or a defensive battle. No one will know until late Sunday. Sweetness, being a Bear fan hates the Vikes. But then the Bears beat the Vikes in December, so there is a feeling in Chicago if they win, the Bears are just as good. Funny how reality can be put aside.

The player rankings at season’s end include many of the players in this game. How can you go wrong with Brees, Farve, AP, Rice, Colston, Meachem and maybe even Bush? This game is being viewed as the shoot out special, however, both teams have a defense that can do great things at times. Look what happened to the Cowboys and the Saints won many close games during the regular season due to defensive stands, along with the great performance against the Cardinals last week.

Sweetness has decided that the game will be a high scorer and that AP will score the winning TD late in the fourth quarter.

So now we know the SuperBowl matchup, so take your wife to the show this Sunday and not waste your time watching the games. Have fun and remember Funday Sunday will be blue Monday for two sets of fans. Let’s hope it is not you….or me!!!!

Sweetness Uncategorized Sweetness

I mentioned earlier in the year that I had season tickets to the Chargers. What a disappointment, as big as Forte in the season versus the early player rankings.

So much for history, now lets do a mock draft for this Sundays games. Who drafts whom? Farve or Brees, Peterson or Green, Sidney Rice or Reggie Wayne. Just fantasy football fun, and a little Jets magic. If they (the Jets) go to the Super Bowl, then I want a new cheat sheet for next year.

Speaking of cheat sheets, I see that the early mock drafts for 2010 have ranked the QBs much higher than in 2009. It will be interesting to see how the mock drafts proceed in the summer as the emotion of 2009 season will be over and the “Official Cheat Sheets” will be available.

I can’t wait to see Fantasy Sports Optimizer’s (FSO) new cheat sheets that will be able to be used in live drafts and will adjust as the draft proceeds and makes for an optimal team selection. Positional selection is the key to fantasy drafting success. Fantasy Sports Optimizer will do this by predicting actions of the other players as the draft proceeds combined with the best projections for players by position available  anywhere. FSO tells you the position to pick, gives you player rankings, but you still get to chose whom you want. All of this happens in real time. Sounds like a great custom analytical tool and fantasy football assistance to this blogger.

An Open letter to Peyton and the Colts. Stick to the Jets and put this fantasy football player back into the running in the leagues that I am in. I still have a chance for a couple of championships, if Farve and Manning face off in the Super Bowl.

Have fun and remember that Fantasy Football and all its playing and preparing ( player rankings, cheat sheets, mock drafts, etc.) is just a game and should be taken lightly. Who I am trying to convince? Woe is me….damn you San Diego Chargers for ruining my travel plans!!!!

Braincase Uncategorized

Last weekend saw that Shadow guy go 2 and 2. Of course, Sweetness was perfect, well at least I did not pick any losers.

Now onto what could be the fantasy feast of the year with the NFC games this weekend. Cheat sheets, player rankings, experts and common sense all point to two big scoring games that could end with more fantasy points in two games than we normally see in four. Wow! Brees versus Warner and Farve versus Romo. That is just the quarterback pairings.

Adrian Peterson versus the Cowboys trio of Runners and the Saints trio of runners versus the pair from Arizona. That is the fantasy players delema, who are the runners to pick. Maybe, we must look at the AFC for runners, a guy like Ray Rice or goal line specialists like Addai or LT., and the NFC for passers. Of course, Peyton is playing, but so are the Ravens tough defenders.

Receivers of both ilk this weekend include: Clark, Wayne, Colston, Miles, Rice, Fitz, Gates, Mason,Schiancoe and Witten. Many others are looking forward to this week’s matches and if Boldin can play and Harvin’s head is OK, it could be a shoot out and BIG, BIG points.

The D/ST are going to have to show up, though most wish they did not have too. How would you like to be the top ranked Ravens and Jets this weekend. Super corner Revis guards Jackson, so who is going to pick up Gates and LT coming out of the backfield. The Ravens are really tough, but what do you do to stop Manning, Clark, Wayne etc.

I wish we could have a mock draft for this weekend. Everyone would be going crazy with player rankings, Cheat sheets, and Four Leaf Clovers.

Here are the Shadow’s picks:
Cardinals 800, the Saints 794.
Vikes 45, the Cowboys 39.
Colts 31, Ravens 30.
Chargers 27, the Jets 16.

Have fun and may your gunslinger survive the shoot outs!!!

Sweetness Uncategorized Sweetness

The player rankings and those neat cheat sheets from August are not as important as the player rankings from week 16. Let’s look at Fantasy Sports Optimizer’s (FSO) year end player rankings and see how they did in the first round of the playoffs.

Kickers: Top four were Ackers, Crosby, G…ski and Feely. Two did well and two not so well. A note, rated low was Graham of the Bengals and he did miss two big kicks. G…ski missed one big one. So a very mixed bag at best.

QBs: Top rated were Brady, Romo and Rodgers. Right behind that group was the trio of McNabb, Flacco and some guy named Warner. Needless to say Rodgers and Romo did well, with Brady so,so. In the trio group, McNabb, so,so: Flacco not much and then Mr. Warner had more TDs than incompletes. Wow!! By the way, Palmer was rated 8th out of the Wildcard Weekend QBs. So a good indicator, though not perfect.

RBs: Top rated was Ray Rice. A bull’s eye. Also rated high were Grant, T.Jones and Benson. One not so hot and two outstanding performances. FSO’s player rankings gets an A here.

WRs: The top were Moss, Fitz, DeSean, Mason, Chad and Jennings. Two did super, two OK and two not much. So,so, but it is interesting that spreading the ball around was very prevalent last weekend, whatever that means.

TEs: top rated were Witten, Celek, Heap and Finley. Well Finley was outstanding and the others did a little more than just showup.

Team D/STs: The top two were Ravens and Jets; the third was the Pack. Well, Two were great and one wasn’t so hot.

In summary, as with all player rankings one game does not a season make, unless, of course, it is the playoffs and then for four teams last week, it was over. Never-the -less, the rankings do give a decent guide, but match ups and a great performance by an opponent can make a great performance by your highly rated player, just a one game wonder. If in doubt, ask Aaron Rodgers.

One foot note: Mock drafts are now occuring for 2010. Use FSO’s week 16 rankings to give you a leg up in the early fantasy football fun.

Braincase Uncategorized Braincase

Well, Sweetness has had a tough year as a big Bear fan, but the good news is that Lovey and Cutler are back. What more could a fan want, maybe an Offensive line, and a D that can stop someone? Enough!!!! On to predictions, I see good things for the Vikings, Packers, Chargers and Colts.

This weekend is always a fantasy nightmare, do you pick the teams, then the players? Of course, yell the fantasy gurus, but which teams? The matchup are terrific, let’s review them.

Packers at Cardinals. Which Cardinal team is going to show up? The one from last week or the one that made the Vikes look bad? Do what I did, pick many players from both and then next week you will have a step up with mucho scores from this week. Who knows???? The Shadow knows and is taking the Pack.

The Jets at the Bengals. Can the Bengals stop the RBs and make the Jets throw? That is the plan; the Jets have the same plan. What an interesting matchup as two of the weaker teams get to play and one lives into the second round. Nothing like scheduling luck to make you look better than you are. Fantasy logic says this is the year of the QB, so take Palmer’s team. Football experts say “defense wins championship”, so take the Jets. The Shadow takes the Jets.

The Eagles at the Cowboys. Now here is a potential fantasy feast, with one big downside. Both teams could fall flat, if the playoff bug-a boos hit the Cowboys and Westbrook gets hurt in the first quarter. This though should be an exciting game with a large crowd, a massive Jumbo-tron and those Cowboy cheerleaders. Even if the Cowboys lose, they should allow the Cowboy cheerleaders to be on the Jumbo-tron throughout the off season. When you got it, flaunt it!!!! That what Sweetness does!!!! By the way, the Shadow is rooting for the cheerleaders also and takes the Boys from Dallas.

Finally, the Ravens at the Pats. This was going to be revival of the Brady and Bellycheck, but then Welker got hurt!!! Now what? Once again, the gurus are all a dither and no one knows for sure about this game either. The Shadow goes with the Brady to Moss connection.

Wow, four potetial home field wins or losses or a mix or something.

Next week I will tell you who I actually picked this weekend, but it is a secret so that the Vegas boys have a chance.

Good luck!!!!!

Sweetness Uncategorized

Back in August, the talk was all about running backs and AP was the savior. Well, it turned out that AP had a good year and CJ a great year, but QBs in general were the stars. There are many scoring systems, but using ESPN’s let’s see how FSO did.

Top 5 actual scorers included CJ, Rodgers, Brees, Farve and Peyton. Our top 5 scorers as projected were all QBs,”very interesting”, they were: Peyton. Brees, Brady, Rivers and Warner. So a B for picks and an A for position. By the way, The Rodgers surge has led to an improvement in the algorithms that will be available next July. It was used at mid year in Data Sense and rated both CJ and Rodgers higher. However, it was not there in August.Regarding QBs alone, we over rated Cutler and Ryan, but did rate Big Ben and McNabb highly, both of whom had good years.

Regarding running backs, it was not very good. We had Forte, T. Jones, on top, with D.Williams, Portis, LT, Slaton, CJ, Westbrook, Jones-Drew and AP in our second tier. Jones, CJ, Jones-Drew and AP did well, but the rest did not measure up to top 10 ratings. We did rank RB as a position as #2, so an A there, but did not burn up the league in picking the top 10, a C-. Due to the unique risk factor in FSO’s predictor, we had Turner rated way lower than others, good show.

We rated WR as the #3, and that is where they turned out. An A for position. FSO’s top picks were Fitzgerald, A. Johnson, C.Johnson, Jennings, Bryant, Smith of Carolina, Wayne, Moss, White Ownes and Marshall. Of those, A.Johnson, Moss, Fitz, Wayne, White,and Marshall excelled. The disappointmentswere Bryant, Owens and Smith of Carolina, right name, just wrong team. We missed on Austin, rated #98 and on DeSean, though we rated him as #26. A “B”; for the players.

We rated top TEs, top D/ST and top PK about the same, with a slight edge to TEs, then Ds. This is the way that they turned out. Out top TEs included Tony G.,Witten, Dallas Clark, Carlson, Gates, Cooley, and Daniels. We missed on Carlson and did not forecast Vernon Davis big year, but overall did well. Injuries killed Daniels and Cooley, but an A- for players and an A for position.

D/ST was rated slightly higher than PKs and it turned out that way. So an “A” for position, let’s review the actual teams. We hit on 4 ot the top 8. FSO predicted good things from the Ravens, Jets, Eagles and Packers, but also from the Bears, Tampa, Cleveland, and the Titans. A C+ for team picking as our less than expected still finished in the lower middle third, not a complete bust. Many rated the Giants and Redskins, much higher, than did the August version of FSO. Glad we avoided them.

Kickers came in last in points, but were still important. An A for position, and here is how we did actually on the players. Our top kickers included Gostkowski, Akers, Longwell, Crosby, Elam and Kaeding.
Kaeding, Akers, Longwell finished 1-2-3. G—ski finished 6th. Damn good I say and an A is awarded.

So on positions, we hit the nail on the head, 7 out of 7. We averaged a B- on players with RBs the biggest disappointment. Next year with the improvements in the predictors on an individual basis, along with the improved mechanics on Live Cheet Sheets, we will be ready to roll for the draft leagues. For points leagues and rotisserie leagues The Optimizer will make it seem simple. Enjoy the playoffs and FSO looks forward to serving you in 2010.

Braincase Uncategorized