Fantasy Football

If you actually sat through last night’s game and it wasn’t redeemed by either the outcome or fantasy success for you (we can’t imagine anyone with any of these players were feeling good about aspect of the game), rest assure that neither of these teams should make the playoffs. And if Chicago does manage to qualify for the post-season (needing a win against Houston and a Vikings loss against the Giants), then you can take comfort in the fact that they won’t make it out of the wild card round.

Maybe I was still embittered from my fantasy football catastrophe the night before, and maybe since we only watched the second half of the game we never fully settled in with this matchup. Whatever it was, we were bored as shit watching an overtime game between the two oldest rivals in the NFL. I think the fact that we had such high hopes for Green Bay and the fact that they have been such a tremendous letdown probably factors into why we were so turned off while watching this last night. When you publicly state that a team is destined for competitiveness and they turn around on you and lose to the 2008 Jacksonville Jaguars, it can result in some pretty strange reactions. Mine is to loathe every game this team plays from here on out.

Really, I can’t tell if it would be more depressing for Detroit or Green Bay to lose next week. Detroit, on one hand, is facing massive layoffs in the face of the economic crisis and their team is on the verge of going 0-16, not to mention they are the first ever 0-15 team in the history of the league. Rob Marinelli looks about ready to breakdown crying every time he is interviewed and now he’s being ridiculed at press conferences for nepotism that probably isn’t helping matters.

Alright, it’s probably the Lions. But can you imagine the Green Bay faithful if they lose to the sob story described above. They haven’t lost to the Lions at home since 1991, they’ve lost five straight games to give them a current 5-10 record and they no longer have the Good ‘ol boy to validate themselves. Things could get ugly. I’m almost rooting for the Packers to win just because they’re the home team. And trust me, if Green Bay hinged on a single industry that is about a year away from total collapse, I probably would. But we’ve done a complete 180 from yesterday. We’ve gone from considering this game must see television to regarding it as one of the more depressing sporting events of the past decade. There are no winners in this race.

I still think going 0-16 would be an appropriate end to the Millen era.

Anyhow, nice job Packers. You’ve become such a sad sack yourself that we can’t root against you in a game with an 0-15 team. How is this even remotely possible? If you’re looking for a coach that deserves to be fired, it is probably Mike McCarthy and whoever their defensive coordinator is. Because for the most part, Aaron Rodgers, the guy everyone was so hesitant to give the keys to the engine to o in the first place, has not been the problem. In fact he’s the 8th highest rated passer in the league. That’s a higher rating than either their running game or any aspect of their defense. So yeah, feel free to can Mike McCarthy. You will hear no self-righteousness from this website.

Anyhow, as hinted at before, the fantasy aspect of this game was pretty fucking terrible. Unless you had Robbie Gould or Greg Olsen (and maybe Aaron Rodgers), you were probably hoping for more. And even then, Olsen caught 5 catches for 49 yards, but one was for a touchdown so it’s a redeemable performance for a tight end. Of course, if you’re starting Greg Olsen as your tight end then you’re obsolete to the rest of your league anyways. Gould is a kicker and put up a minimum of 8 points in most leagues, which is stellar for a kicker. Aaron Rodgers threw for 2 touchdowns and 260 yards with one interception to boot.

Actually, upon further review, Ryan Grant finally came through for his owners with a receiving touchdown and about 100 yards of total offense. Congratulations, to all of you who drafted him in the second round. You probably didn’t even start him do to prolonged ineptitude this season and because they were playing the Bears, but if you had the stomach (or lack of options) for it, he finally came produced like you expected in week 16. And he averaged 2.4 ypc to do so.

In other words, unless you were in a close game to begin with, this contest provided virtually no satisfaction. I like Aaron Rodgers and the Packers offense, but he completed 24 passes to ten different people. This is a nightmare for fantasy owners. It’s basically the receiving version of run-by-committee started by the Broncos after Clinton Portis left town.

Luckily the Packers aren’t a playoff team. Otherwise this might be the new trend that bucks conventional wisdom in the NFL. You know, like putting the ball in the hands of your best playmakers is a winning proposition. Not to say it isn’t the best option for Green Bay to spread the ball around. With all due respect to Greg Jennings, he isn’t exactly Jerry Rice. But there are too many game changers in the league at receiver and tight end for this to make fantasy football an even more luck based endeavor than it already is. Just because the Packers do not have any doesn’t mean no one else does.

Oh, now that all the games are wrapped up (and we forgot to do so yesterday), we have to present the Tim Hightower Talking Fantasy Football Award winner from week 16. This person we’ve never heard of before, most likely because he plays for the Raiders and sports three names to his resume. He went to school at UTEP and managed to net three receptions for one touchdown and return one more on a kickoff. Your Tim Hightower Award winner for week 16 is none other than Johnny Lee Higgins. Congrats, Johnny, on rising from the depths of obscurity to make a name for yourself in a meaningless week 16 game and for pissing off Ronald Curry owners everywhere.

Back with five letdown performances either later today or early tomorrow.