Preparing for Week 13

This is my lineup for week 13 as of now. Sources tell me that the Patriots might do a lot of run plays on Sunday, but Eli is still too unreliable so Brady will be my starting quarterback. Vereen is injured, and I think even if he wasn't I would probably still bench him, considering Blount is back and Gray will be getting balls too. Robinson will take place as first running back and Anderson has moved up to second running back. Benjamin is back after bye week, taking Edelman's place as wide receiver. Sanu is moved to the flex position, meaning that I will start three wide receivers this week, with Beckham continuing as a starter. Olsen is also back and I picked up Walker and dropped Fleener. I will probably start Olsen as my tight end though. I started the Eagles as my defense and they played pretty well in the thanksgiving thursday game.

It will be an exciting week, but I think my lineup looks pretty good.

This Is Awesome

In case you haven't seen it yet. This catch is just amazing. Beckham Jr for NY Giants.

Week 12 Afterthoughts

What a game! I'm still hyped about it. Biggest players this week was Beckham Jr and C.J. Anderson, and wow what a week they had. Beckham got 26.4 points (including an amazing touchdown) and Anderson got 25.5. I got my record points, 123.76, and that's really exciting. There are a few weeks left, but I could have a shot at a league win if I continue starting the right players and they continue to have good matches with lots of opportunity. The coming weeks will be intense.

Brady and Sanu both did pretty good, I'm glad Sanu seems to back on track and catching some balls. Vereen did okay but Robinson was a little disappointing with 5.2 points. The Eagles defense and Gostkowski both did good. My biggest disappointment was Fleener, who only got 2.8 points. I might let him go and pick up Titans' Walker for next week, since he's back from his concussion.

As for the bench, Eli did pretty good. I could have started him instead of Brady and gotten 3.5 points more. The Giants offense really worked well, if only they would play this good every week. I do wish I had started Eli, not that it would have mattered but just for the sake of it. I don't know if I get that chance again.

Edelman was on the field for most of the game, got a lot of balls and didn't seem to be disturbed by his injury. I could have played him, but both my wide receivers still did better than him so I think I made a good choice.

Lineup for Week 12

My lineup for week 12 is set. I decided to pick up Anderson and leave Edelman on the bench. I have higher trust in Brady than Eli, so Brady will stay as starting quarterback. Sanu has had two bad weeks but I hope he will be back on track in todays game against Texans. Fleener is stand in for Olsen who has bye week, will be interesting to see how he does, and finally Robinson is back after a bye week. I feel pretty good about the team, but you never know. Fingers crossed.

Who am I?

Thought it could be a good idea to write a little about me and my relation to football, for any interested readers. I'm 23 years old and I live in Sweden. I'm a girl, or woman, depending on how you view it. Currently studying and working part time.

The story of how I "found" American football started with my boyfriend. He and a friend wanted to start following a football team, and picked the New England Patriots. When it got closer to Christmas my boyfriend wanted me to watch a game with him, and he taught me the rules (and also who Brady is). We watched a few games that season, and this season we've watched most games together. Then when this seasoned started he found the Manning brothers' DirectTv ad, Fantasy Football Fantasy, which introduced me to fantasy football. I got interested and created an NFL account and joined a league. When it was time for the draft I knew basically no players outside of Patriots, apart from a few like Eli and Peyton. My starting team was probably a disaster, but I was blissfully unaware. I have switched out most of my players since then, I think I only have three players still that I picked at the time. I have the most moves by far in my league. But I'm learning, every day and every week. I'm currently at second place in the league, but there are quite a few weeks left, so we'll see where I end up.

I have now access to NFL Game Pass so I try to watch as many games as I can, learning more and I make a point of actually seeing "my" players in action. So in short, I'm a beginner in the world of football, and very much a beginner in the world of fantasy football. But everyone has to start somewhere, right?

An unexpected twist

This is what's so fun with fantasy football, every week and every day something changes. Someone has bye week, another has an injury and the third has a really bad matchup ahead. You always have to rethink your options, look for new players and move around in your team. It's also annoying, but it's part of the game so you have to take it as a challenge.

As this week goes, my wide receiver Edelman had a limited practice on Wednesday. I'm not very worried that he won't play, but it's possible that he won't be on the field as much or not being able to do as well as when he's healthy. Which puts me in a tricky position, start him or not start him? I won't decide now because I want to see if we get more news about his injury, but I'll have to think about it until Sunday. I'm considering picking up Broncos' running back Anderson, because several of the offensive top players in Broncos are injured, so it's a good possibility that he will get more yards and already his points have been going up. In that case I could start him instead of Edelman. We'll see how the end of the week unfolds.

Preparing for week 12

Two of my players are on bye this week, Benjamin and Olsen. It's too bad, because Bejamin is one of my best players, and I'm not sure who should take his place. I have Sanu, but he's had two bad weeks, I wonder if that will continue or if he will do better against Texans.

Robinson is back from bye week and took West's place as second running back. I brought in Colts' Fleener as my tight end for the week, I'm hoping he will continue to produce as many points as he has the past two weeks. For him I dropped Dolphins defense, and I'm now trying to decide if I should start Patriots or Eagles. Projection-wise they are just one point from each other, so it seems I can go with either.

Another thing is that Eli Manning is said to be a good start against the Cowboys, since he's usually good against them. I wonder if that could be a good move. If Brady will do a lot of running games again against Lions on Sunday, it could be worth starting Eli. Though on the other hand, Eli had five interceptions last week. It will probably not be that bad this week but how much better is it going to be?

That's all for now, I will think about wide receiver, which quarterback and which defense I will start during the week.

Week 11 afterthoughts

Week 11 has ended. I won my matchup with a total of 77.38 points but it was a close one, only 4 points difference. I'm very glad I brought in the Dolphins defense, they got 8 points, while my other defenses, Eagles and Patriots, got -3 and 4 points, respectively. West from Browns made the lowest score in my team, but I knew he had a risk of producing very little, so I wasn't that surprised. My biggest disappointment was probably Brady, not because he did very badly, he got 15 points, but the Patriots played a great game on Sunday. They won the game 42-20 and made 6 touchdowns. Sadly, most of them were made by running back Gray, so Brady didn't benefit from those.

Beckham started slow but caught up towards the end, and so did Benjamin who continues to produce steady, good scores. Olsen, Vereen and Edelman all did okay. The kicker Gostkowski was a little disappointing too, since he didn't get to kick one single field goal in the game, so the points stayed pretty low with only the points after touchdowns.

My decision in choosing to start Edelman instead of Bengals' Sanu proved a smart one. Sanu only made 2.3 while Edelman made 8.1. All in all, not that great of a week point-wise, but right decisions on who to start was made and that feels good.

The Issue of Eli Manning

I saw this tweet from Andrew Siciliano and wanted to comment on it. I keep a pretty close watch on Eli because he's in my fantasy team, though on the bench since the Giants bye week. It was a hard game to watch this weekend with all those interceptions. Would've been even harder if he'd been my starting quarterback. As soon as he started to up the yards he would throw an interception, and get minus points. 

I didn't follow other teams last year so I don't know what the situation was then, but I think it happened now because Eli is pressured at almost all times. The Giants o-line isn't protecting him well enough, so he has to throw it fast not to get sacked. He doesn't have a lot of time to consider where he should throw the ball and what's the best timing to do it. He just has to get the ball away fast to avoid sacks. That's when interceptions happens. Eli also seems to have some miscommunication with his wide receivers and tight end, with them going different ways than the balls, another reason for the many interceptions. The Giants have some work to do in their team.

Eli is not bad, but at this point he's very uneven and hard to rely on making enough fantasy points.