BRING ON FOOTBALL!!!

Since moving to Mesa in May of this year I’ve spent most of my time adapting to the new lifestyle, making friends with my neighbors, driving Whinnie and enjoying the greater Phoenix metro area. My focus has not been as dialed in on College and the NFL Football as in years past because of the protest nonsense last season. Hopefully the NFL gets a handle on it this year. Given that, I'm excited about the upcoming season, if they get it cleaned up. 

I'm also pumped up for the NFL Fantasy Football season. I’m into the 16 consecutive year of the league I host on Yahoo. I haven't won the darn thing since 2009, maybe this is my year.

The Denver Broncos and the Wyoming Cowboys is and will always be my 2 favorite football teams but this season I’ll be keeping my eyes on the Arizona Cardinals and especially the Buffalo Bills and the development of Josh Allen.

Allen was sacked 5 times in the Bengals preseason game.

Allen was sacked 5 times in the Bills 3^rd preseason game against the Bengals. I watched the highlights and it was clear that Allen was not getting rid of the ball fast enough and the speed of game and the Bengals D was overwhelming him. The Bills OL wasn’t doing a great job either. I worry that like many Rookie QB’s Allen will get put through the meatgrinder early, get hurt and lose his confidence. Like no other Wyoming Cowboys Alumni ever, Allen has the potential to be a superstar if he’s brought along slowly. Once he develops the game between his ears he’ll be unstoppable with his physical skill set. If… he can survive the beatings he’s likely to face early in his career.

It was disappointing to see the Wyoming Cowboys D just totally collapsed in the 2^nd half of their home opener against Washington State last Saturday. The Corners and Safeties for the Cowboys have been the worst part of their team for years. They can’t cover and are very poor tacklers. There was plenty of blame to go around for the loss but until the Cowboys can play D for 4 quarters they could be in for long year in Laramie.

Red-shirt freshman QB Tyler Vander Waal couldn’t elevate his game either. He had less than 100 yards passing. Again, the Cowboys O in the second half was a total train wreck but I hope he picks up his game soon. He’s a tall kid at 6-4 and a light 210 pounds but he's no Carson Wentz or Josh Allen just yet, that’s clear.

 

Cardinals uni I bought David for Xmas in 1980.

As for the Cardinals, which has been my favorite NFC since their days in St. Louis in the early 70’s, I hope their team makes advances too. My kid Brother David, also a Cardinals fan, called me the day the NFL schedule was released in April and told me he wanted to come to Phoenix to watch the Broncos/Cardinals game on Oct. 18^th. So, I look forward to seeing that game with him, but I’ll have to root for my Broncos even though I’m an official Arizonian now.

Since I’m only a 6 ½ hours from Albuquerque my other football adventure this season will be to travel to watch the Cowboys/Lobos game on Nov. 24^th.

So… bring on football and end the protests! GO BRONCOS! GO WYOMING COWBOYS! GO CARDINALS!

Manning 172.10 minus Spiller 25.45 = Epic Fail!

A big goose egg for wins and 4 losses in the Fantasy Money League I play in every year. The $700 payday for 1st place is slipping away from me fast. To think I had the opportunity and passed up Peyton Manning for CJ Spiller with the 5th pick in the 1st round of the draft is really haunting me. 

Going into the fantasy season Aaron Rodgers was the QB that was projected to be the first QB drafted and not until late in the 2nd round. Manning was going in the 3rd round on most draft boards I researched. If you’re keeping score at home Manning has 172.10 fantasy points and Spiller has a whooping 25.45 in the scoring format we use in our money league. Ugh! I have to get my mind around the idea that the NFL is a QB driven league and is in fantasy football too. The old school formula was always to draft RB's early and often, not anymore, at least not early this fantasy season.  

Another big mistake that I made and should have known better not to do was draft Rookies at the RB position. I took Eddie Lacy and Montee Ball, both have 11.65 points respectively in our scoring system. I really believed both would be starters on opening day and both would score big as the season progressed. Ball has been the odd man out in the 3 RB rotation that the Broncos employ and then Lacy fumbled his way out as a starter, and then gets a concussion.

I took CJ Spiller with my 1st pick, Eddie Lacy was my #2 pick and I took Russell Wilson as my QB in the 3rd round. The way he scored at the end of last season I thought Wilson was a great sleeper pick and could explode, instead he's imploded, through 4 games he has only 64.58 points. My backup QB is Andrew Luck. I sat Wilson in week in week 4 and Luck did get a few more points (Season total of 82.32 points) but not near enough to compensate for my under performing RB's

Maybe Lacy and Ball will emerge by mid-season but the lesson to be learned here is don’t draft Rookies high, they may not contribute anything until you're buried at the bottom of the standings.  

I’ll keep battling and hope I put enough wins together to make a run for the 4th and final playoff spot but right now I just hoping I can win at least one freaking game. Hey CJ, thanks Buddy you’re my Fantasy Hero.