Week 8 Thoughts

Arizona Cardinals - Warner threw up a disaster, key phrase here being threw up.  While he managed 2 TD passes, he almost offset those (and did in 4 point passing TD leagues) with 5 INTs.  It's worth repeating that Warner continues to not look right, and his inability to throw the ball down the field along with the Cardinals inability to run the ball is a poor match.  The Cardinals need to get Chris Wells more involved, but thanks to their need to get into pass-heavy situations, it's not possible.  Boldin got banged up yet again, and there's already rumors that he'll miss the next week.

Atlanta Falcons - Monday night game.

Baltimore Ravens - Flacco did the best he could in a defensive slugfest, and Ray Rice did the heavy lifting on the ground.  Gone are the times that Rice lost lots of carries to McGahee, but since there wasn't a goal line carry in this game, we don't know if Rice will get those carries as well moving forward.

Buffalo Bills - Back to earth for Ryan Fitzpatrick, and unfortunately Evans went down with him.  Owens showed plenty of burst and a second gear on his end-around for a TD, and in my mind, it proved that he hasn't lost it yet.  Evans and Owens are arguably one of the best WR duos in the NFL, but their values have been annihilated by the horrid QB play.  Lynch and Jackson split carries evenly in this one, but Lynch looked better with his.

Carolina Panthers - Carolina did exactly what they need to do going forward, lean on their great running game and reduce Jake Delhomme to a pure game manager.  Steve Smith owners don't want to hear this, but given Delhomme's horrid play this year, this has to happen.  Arizona had the #1 run D in football this year, but Carolina shredded them all game long.  DeAngelo Williams owners, despite another good yardage game, need to be aware that Stewart has been far more effective at the goal line this year.  There's a chance Stewart could take over that role full time.  Stewart could work himself into an RB2 if that happens, and Williams will lose even more value, although he'll likely still continue to receive more of the carries.

Cincinnati Bengals - Bye week.

Chicago Bears - This bi-polar offense continued it's recent downward trend.  Don't let the 30-6 score fool you as Cleveland's turnovers and offensive ineptitude were the reason Chicago scored that many points.  Jay Cutler again looks out of sync with his WRs, who simply aren't that good outside of Devin Hester.  Bennett and Knox have both shown potential, but they clearly are not consistent.  Matt Forte finally put some TDs on the board, but he turned in yet another poor YPC day against a bad defense.  The root of the problem, as I have mentioned before, is the offensive line.  Despite the upgrades made in the off-season, this unit looks out of sync in both forms of blocking.

Cleveland Browns - Fantasy wasteland.

Dallas Cowboys - Tony Romo loves him some Miles Austin.  While Austin didn't have a 3rd monster week in a row, he has completely made over this passing game with his ability to make big plays.  He allows all the other receivers to settle into doing what they do well, and it's made a huge different for Tony Romo.  Roy Williams continues to look like a turd despite the TD this week.  He's catching an abysmal percentage of his targets.  Barber looked healthier, and with the passing game clicking again, he's going to see more potential TDs moving forward.

Denver Broncos - Kyle Orton remained accurate against a swarming Baltimore defense, but he did not challenge them down the field, and he wound up with a horrific YPA.  Denver has to get him to throw the ball down the field more to open things up.  Moreno put up a workman-like effort against a tough D, and also tossed in a TD.  Thanks to their inability to sustain drives and necessity to play catch-up in the 2nd half, he didn't get many carries.

Detroit Lions - This offense welcomed Stafford back this week, but without Calvin Johnson, their passing game has no hope.  Bryant Johnson continues to not make plays and drop passes, and there's nobody else on this team that can do anything with the ball after catching it.  Kevin Smith has resumed struggling, and there's a chance he's going to start losing carries moving forward.  He's simply not making things happen right now, although his receiving contributions are saving his fantasy value.

Green Bay Packers - Aaron Rodgers spent most of the game on his back, but thanks to a monster 2nd half, he posted yet another great fantasy day.  The offensive line continues to be a real drain on this passing game as they aren't giving Rodgers the protection he needs to get the ball down field.  As such, Greg Jennings has been reduced to a possession receiver, although he did manage to finally score this week.  Ryan Grant was predictably eaten up by the MIN run defense.

Houston Texans - In a very unpredictable event, Matt Schaub took a back seat to the running game in this one, posting his worst game since week 1.  Furthermore, it wasn't Steve Slaton who dominated the rushing attack as he fumbled yet again on his first carry and was shown the bench.  Ryan Moats was the fantasy star in this one, leaving Slaton owners fuming while he carved up Buffalo's soft run defense.  This is a serious concern moving forward for Slaton.  I don't know what got into him last year, but he was a fumble machine in college, and that problem has re-surfaced.  It's hard to get too excited about Moats given the opponent, but he's earn carries moving forward until he proves otherwise.  Slaton still remains way too valuable in the passing game to be benched, and with the unfortunate season-ending injury to Owen Daniels, Houston needs someone to step up alongside Andre Johnson.

Indianapolis Colts - Manning was ravaged by SF's defense in the first half, but he settled in and put together another great performance despite not throwing for a TD.  His owners had to be irate after hearing Reggie Wayne had caught a TD...from Joseph Addai.  Wayne continues to dominate, and Collie has clearly passed Garcon to be the 3rd option in the passing game.  Addai got a big workload with Donald Brown out, but showed off his usual mediocre running.  The Colts should seriously consider a switch at RB when Brown gets healthy, at least in terms of their committee.  Brown needs to touch the ball more as the far more explosive runner.

Jacksonville Jaguars - Garrard sucks.  This was a weird day for MJD.  Let me show you Jacksonville's first 3 drive recaps: 1) 5 yard pass, incomplete pass, incomplete pass, punt.  2) 4 yard pass, sack/recovered own fumble, incomplete pass, punt.  3) Incomplete pass, WR end-around, interception.  Seriously.  On MJD's first carry on the fourth drive...80 yard TD run.  Jacksonville went back to normal on their last drive of the first half, and then MJD opened up the 2nd half with a 79 yard TD run.  After that, TEN dominated the game and Jacksonville fell way behind, necessitating a pass-heavy offense for most of the 2nd half.  Dirk Koetter's job should be on the line with MJD's inconsistent usage this year...he should be following what the Rams are doing with Steven Jackson.  Luckily MJD produced an outrageous day on only 8 carries, but feed him the damn ball.

Kansas City Chiefs - Bye week.

Miami Dolphins - There's not too much to say about Miami's offense this week as their defense and special teams accounted for 3 TDs, keeping New York's offense on the field quite a bit.  They were mostly ineffective when they were on the field as New York swarmed their rushing attack and kept both RBs in check.  Ricky Williams seemingly makes a play in the passing game every week, and it's an annoying drain on Ronnie Brown's value as he was previously one of the best 3rd down RBs in football.

Minnesota Vikings - I'm sick of hearing the name.  The QB that plays for the Vikings had a great outing, although he spread the ball around and Sidney Rice wasn't as dominant as he had been.  Percy Harvin continues to make plays and could eventually push Bernard Berrian to the bench, although Minnesota probably won't fix what isn't broken.  Adrian Peterson cranked out yet another great performance and continues to chug along as the best fantasy RB.

New England Patriots - Bye week.

New Orleans Saints - Monday night game.

New York Giants - Eli Manning is still struggling.  Given how great he looked up until the heel injury, we'll chalk up his continued problems to his nagging injury.  Even Tom Coughlin stated that he's not pushing off his foot on every pass like he should be.  The Giants are in a free-fall and need Eli to get healthy, as do Steve Smith owners.  Manningham sat out with a shoulder injury, so Nicks played the majority of the game and did as much as he could with his targets.  Jacobs dominated the ground work with Bradshaw taking more of a true backup roll in this one, and that could be a trend that continues moving forward given the uncertain nature of Bradshaw's foot injury.

New York Jets - Mark Sanchez had his best game in a long time, and there's two reasons for this.  First of all, Jericho Cotchery returned, and he deflected attention away from Braylon Edwards, which will benefit both of them going forward.  Edwards is still the more attractive fantasy property because he's great around the goal line.  Secondly, Miami started both of their rookie CBs, and having them go against 2 talented, veteran WRs was a mismatch.  I'd like to see Sanchez do more in a tougher match-up, but Cotchery's return is great news for the entire offense.  Thomas Jones also benefited greatly from Leon Washington's absence, racking up a huge day on 27 carries.  Shonn Greene is less of a threat for carries as he's more of a backup than a complement to Jones.

Oakland Raiders - I was going to say fantasy wasteland, but Justin Fargas has emerged as a reasonable RB2/3 while Darren McFadden is out.  With the current state of this team, McFadden probably won't return until he's 100%, and Michael Bush isn't challenging him for carries.  Zach Miller also continues to be a lower TE1 despite the miserable passing attack.

Philadelphia Eagles - McNabb rebounded from a very poor effort against the Redskins last week and shows why you need to stick with him through his bad games.  He torched the Giants before Philly started killing the clock.  DeSean Jackson is a walking big play, and Jeremy Maclin got on the board for the first time since his breakout game a couple weeks ago.  Brent Celek continues to impress, and he's very much a top 5 TE with Gates, Gonzalez, Clark...and Vernon Davis.  Maclin hasn't been putting up numbers, but he's looked pretty good on the field.  McCoy made up for a fairly lousy day with a huge 66 yard TD run in the 2nd half, making his fantasy owners happy they started him.

Pittsburgh Steelers - Bye week.

San Diego Chargers - Rivers looked solid again, although LT's resurgence around the goal line in this one took a few TDs away.  Vincent Jackson continues his breakthrough as his size and speed combination is just scary.  Speaking of LT, he looked more spry in this one despite the weak YPC.  He's no longer going to break big plays, but he has enough life left in his legs and a great surrounding offense to close strong.  He's not going to be great in yardage, but he should score a good amount as SD clearly still wants to use him in the red zone.

San Francisco 49ers - Alex Smith did an admirable job in such a tough match-up.  He only had one turn over and didn't force too many throws despite some heavy pressure.  Plus, much to the liking of Vernon Davis owners, he found him again for a score.  Michael Crabtree also posted his best yardage of the season and will have the ability to come on down the stretch as a WR3.  Thankfully Gore busted off another huge TD run as he did very little on his carries outside of that impressive effort.  Still, the new life of the passing game with Smith, Crabtree, and Davis is great news for Gore moving forward.

Seattle Seahawks - Hasselbeck posted a good fantasy day despite heavy pressure, but he's an injury waiting to happen at this point thanks to the state of his offensive line.  I would attempt to deal him to a QB-desperate owner after this if you can find someone willing to take him.  Outside of Burleson's solid yardage day (he lost a fumble to negate some of that), nobody did much of anything.

St. Louis Rams - The Rams rode the Steven Jackson train to their first win in 17 games, and he was about as excited as anyone after scoring his first TD of the season, a game winning 25 yard run with less than 2 minutes to go in the game.  There's nothing much else to say about this team other than how scary it is that Jackson is posting the numbers he is on such an awful team.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Bye week.

Tennessee Titans - Vince Young looked like an NFL QB again, although he was mostly a game manager thanks to the Chris Johnson show.  Young was accurate, although he didn't use his WRs much, and he made a few plays with his legs as well.  It's hard to draw anything from this given the good match-up he had, but it's a start.  Chris Johnson posted his 2nd insane game of the season, rushing for 220 yards and 2 TDs, both coming from 52 and 89 yards out.  Johnson has actually posted 90+ yards in 5/7 games, but all 5 of his TDs have come in the 2 insane games.

Washington Redskins - Bye week.