As you saw if you read the last comment on the last post, Rita is in my FFL, and her comment deals in part with the fact of our teams playing each other this week. It's interesting that Rita thought she had a good chance to have a great team, because I looked at my own team and the beginning and was very very pessimistic about my chances. First of all, I had no confidence in Jackson, (and still don't) and wasn't 100% satisfied with my #1 WR. I did pick up two players I wanted badly--Marshawn Lynch and TJ Housh...--but filled in the other RB slots with people I didn't care for. I was happy with my defense and kicker and TE, but only because I didn't listen to ESPN so much, but the book I bought at the start of this whole FFL experiment (the Pro Football Prospectus). I also wasn't convinced I had a good enough quarterback. Or back-up quarterback. Knock on wood.
Knock on wood, because Tony Romo's made me a believer. I am riding him to wins, every single damn week. If he has an off week (week 6, mayhap?), I'm screwed. Especially with the sucky crap that is Jackson. But I was proven right (so far, quarter way through) by Lynch and Housh and the Pitt defense. Now, I'm exceedingly happy that I was able to draft the way I wanted because it was slightly out of the ordinary, and some of my guys were left on the board long after I thought they would be, and I also picked some guys sooner than other people thought I might. That said, one-quarter of the way through, I've got a good thing going. I'm not injured (save the sucky Jackson), and my guys are playing with pretty favorable schedules.
The league, on the whole, is working well. Rita is 0-4, and I'm not sure her chances are good this week, and this is why: five of her starters this week are on 2 teams. One of the thing I was really, really careful about was spreading around my players. I knew that having three players on one badly playing team will kill you, every week. And if those three players have a good week, you've got a good chance to win, depending on the team you're playing, it's true. But there's too much of a risk to have three marquee players on the same team. I don't like the idea of my QB and my #1 WR being on the same team, because if one has an off-day, the other will too. In my opinion, the ONLY reason Rita hasn't won is because of this fact. Her team IS good, and does have good players. The talent just isn't spread around enough.
There are other teams in the league having problems. There are TONS of injuries right now; one girl in our league had 2 bench points last week. 2! That's crazy. She won her game, so she played the right players, but I think her low bench total has everything to do with the injuries that are plaguing her. Some teams are embarrassingly rich in players, players that maybe no one thought would be as great (Randy Moss springs to mind as an unknown quantity this year.) as they have. There've been some high scoring games to throw some games completely out of whack--that hugely scored Cleveland-Cincinnati game, the Eagles huge score--and skew things for some girls. And honestly, I've eked out wins by the skin of my teeth (and Romo's arm) the last two weeks. I don't think, in the end, this is skill on my part. It's luck, pure and simple, because if it wasn't, I'd not have Romo at all. I don't think skill is keeping Rita from winning either. Sure, it helps to have a sense of who is good and bad, who to play when. But it's pretty luck-driven, in the end.
All that said, I look forward highly to the rest of the season, because I think it'll be interesting to see how long I can keep riding Romo's ass to wins. (The question may be how long can the Pats go undefeated, but in my head, it's also, how long can I go undefeated.) I also want to keep doing this, and every few days I say a little prayer that there'll always be 10 girls I know who want to have a league. And I'm hoping we can get a family league going next year. I do like it. But then, I am one of the most competitive persons ever. (Rita, I'm so sorry to say this, but I hope to kick your ass this week. I hope to kick it good and hard. But if you're not playing me, good luck! I wish you all the wins in the world.)
When I was drafting, I did take into consideration the guys being on the same team. My rationale for that was that, in a head to head matchup, one bad week won't kill you, because you might lose that week, but it's just one loss. When they're consistently good, you win. In a total points set-up, having guys on one team matters more, because it affects your bottom line more drastically. What I didn't take into account was all the injuries. I had a pretty solid bench, and then those guys started getting hurt like crazy. I dumped Andre Johnson because I was sure that a PCL injury would put him out for the rest of the year. There were very few guys left, and now I have a ton of guys on the same team, and I'm forced to start a lot of them. When I was working on my draft, I did plan on spreading out my guys on different teams, but our draft went strangely, and not as I planned. Guys who I thought would be gone were still around, guys I thought for sure would stick around for a while were taken... I wasn't nearly as prepared as I thought I was, because the oddity of our draft really threw off my back-up plans.
At this point, I'm just hoping next year will go better. And I hope there will be enough chicks around for there to be a league next year.
Posted by: Rita | October 07, 2007 at 01:27 PM
Oh, no doubt about it, our draft was screwy as hell. I was actually kind of pissed (maybe irrationally), because I thought people were drafting sort of dumb, and it was screwing with my draft too. I couldn't possibly believe that someone would draft Palmer in the first round. I couldn't believe how early defenses were going. I did stick to my draft plan, though, as much as I possibly could. I ended up with sucky back-up RB's that way, but a pretty solid starting team. Knock on wood, though, because I haven't been injured at all, and that IS just luck.
In fact, I sort of let the craziness go on around me, and I didn't let it hurry me into picking a QB too early, or picking a D/ST way before they should be taken, and I think it was a good move on my part. For the most part, I won't alter my game plan next season.
Anyway, you can still beat me tonight. Romo could have an off-game, and Lynch is still all over the place in terms of points. You just never know.
Posted by: manogirl | October 08, 2007 at 10:40 AM
Um, about Mr. Romo....
Posted by: Tim | October 08, 2007 at 10:35 PM