ROUGH RYDERS: Week Sixteen

And here we are...

The last four months have been leading directly to this weekend - the APFL Championship game pitting our beloved WINONA ROUGH RYDERS against the respected, but never feared, JUST ANOTHER TEAM (managed by Thee Fractioneer, Jeff)...And as you can see (by clicking to enlarge the above scorecard), I am heartbroken to announce that our beloved ROUGH RYDERS lost this weekend, thus finishing the season in second place...Runner-up to the champions...Silver medallist...Bridesmaid...Also-ran...

In previous posts I've mentioned my 50/50 Idiot:Genius Ratio™ , and this week I'm sad to report that the idiot half of that equation reared its ugly head again, and had direct and dire consequences towards the outcome of this championship matchup...

In a nutshell, I had my usual two positions to fret about - the WR3 position, and the W/R "flex" position, which can be filled by either a WR or RB...

In that WR3 position, I had a choice between Kevin Curtis, Bernard Berrian, Patrick Crayton, Lee Evans, and Calvin Johnson...Bernard Berrian, as good as he was for me on many weekends throughout the season at that WR3 position, was definitely not a contender anymore, not since Kyle Orton became starting QB in Chicago...Patrick Crayton wasn't in the running either, mostly because he's been amazingly inconsistent all year, but also because in the Dallas games I've seen this year, the dude's got questionable catching skills, which oddly enough are supremely important to wide receivers in the NFL...Add the idea that Tony Romo is head over heals in love with Jessica Simpson's boobs and playing with a head full of boobtastic distractions right now, benching Crayton yet again wasn't a hard decision...Then there's Kevin Curtis, who has proven himself to be an all or nothing kind of player - either having a huuuuuuuuge game, or sitting quietly by while Donovan McNabb is getting chased all over the backfield by ferocious linebackers...I decided not to take that chance...Which leaves Lee Evans and Calvin Johnson...

I had Lee Evans in that WR3 slot all week. He's a UW grad, first of all, and I'd argue that if he were on just about any other team, he'd be a bonafide NFL superstar right now. The problem is, he plays for the Buffalo Bills, who have a fairly crappy O-line and a revolving door of two QBs (Losman, Edwards) neither of whom are really quite good enough to start in the NFL...Considering all of this, I benched Evans about 15 minutes before game-time on Sunday, and started Calvin Johnson instead...

Ahhh, good ol' Megatron...The guy's a rookie, so there are always some tempered expectations...Yet I drafted him in the 8th round, and had him pencilled into my WR3 slot in the pre-season, expecting him to have a good rookie season as the #2 WR in Detroit behind Roy Williams, a guy I've had on the ROUGH RYDERS in a past season, and who I would consider a major disappointment, and not as good a player as most people think...Roy Williams drops way too many balls to ever be an elite receiver in the NFL...Anyways, at the last minute this weekend, I decided to start Calvin Johnson in my WR3 slot because of some sort of weak-willed draft-day nostalgia, and the fact that Roy Williams is injured and Megatron is ostensibly the #1 WR in a very pass-happy offense...Playing at home...In a dome...Against a pretty sucktacular KC Chief defense...

So, what happens? Megatron goes off for 2 catches for 47 yards, and 2 more rushing yards for a grand total of 6.9FP...Meanwhile, Lee Evans has 3 catches for 43 yards, but he does manage to make one of those three catches count, ending with 14.3 FP on my bench...

Joining him on my bench was Kevin Curtis - 6 catches, 76 yards and a TD, plus another fumble recovery for a TD = 25.8 FP...Patrick Crayton - 7 catches, 65 yards = 15.3 FP...Bernard Berrian - 1 catch, 4 yards = 2.7FP...

Essentially, I started all the wrong WRs this weekend, as my other two, Hines Ward and Chad Johnson, both had worse games than everybody but Berrian...In the end, what can I say? Ward and Johnson are starting no matter what...

But back to that Chiefs-Lions game, and my second decision of the week, that W/R "flex" position...Now, I've already mentioned all those receivers and their performances, and any of them could have been slotted in at W/R, plus RBs Marshawn Lynch and Kevin Jones were possible starters here...

Again, all week long I had Marshawn Lynch starting at W/R...He's much more consistent than any of my receivers this year, and as a rookie, has played well enough...Plus, he was my 6th round draft pick this year, slotted to be my RB2 for the season...But after two substandard performances in the previous two weeks, I opted to bench him 15 minutes before game time in favor of the Lions' Kevin Jones...Since acquiring him off waivers in Week Seven, Jones has absolutely alternated good and bad weeks, and this week he was scheduled to have a very good game, at home, in a dome, against a crappy Chiefs defense.

So what happens? Marshawn Lynch scores a touchdown and lights it up for 19.2 FP, while Kevin Jones tears his ACL sometime early in the 2nd quarter and finishes with a completely useless 4.1 FP...Worth noting is that TJ Duckett comes off the Lions' bench and rushes for 102 yards, a score, and 20.4 FP that likely would have been KJ's...Sigh...

So, did I make the wrong call here? With KJ going down early, who can say?

Elsewhere...

Tony Romo seemed slightly less distracted by his girlfriend's tits this week, but still only managed to throw one TD against a usually porous Carolina pass defense...12.87 FP...

Hines Ward caught six passes...Ben Roethlisberger threw three touchdowns...Neither of these two facts converged, leading our favorite Rough Ryder, Hines Ward, to a fairly tepid 11.9 FP...

Chad Johnson was a non-factor in a surprisingly low-scoring Bengals-Browns game...10 FP...

LaDainlian Tomlinson hit the sidelines early again this week when the Chargers' victory over the Broncos seemed assured...While a full game from LT may not have changed the outcome of the APFL Championship game, it does serve to illustrate once again how LT may have led my team in scoring for the season, but ultimately must be seen as a disappointment. He was the #1 pick in the entire draft, but was only marginally more productive than Romo (12th round pick), The Bears defense (5th round pick) and less productive than Ryan Grant once I grabbed him off Free Agency in Week Eleven. Long story short - it would have been nice if LT went off huge this week, for one last time, but instead only was allowed half a great game, and 19.4 FP from anybody else is good/great, but from The President is disappointing...

The Packers-Bears game figured somewhat heavily into our beloved Rough Ryders score this weekend...Lance Briggs was out with a hip injury, so I dropped him in favor of the Seahawks' Lofa Tatupu, who had a crappy game by his standards...3 FP, and that's all I'm gonna say...

Likewise, his teammate Marcus Trufant, who had a great game last week as a quick pickup starter, had an equally unimpressive 3 FP this week...Nuff said...

Back to the Packers - Atari Bigby was useless...2 FP against a Bears offense that relied heavily on the run...

Which meant, however, that Nick Barnett had another great, double-digit performance this week, ending with an impressive 11 FP...

Sadly, the Bears OWNED the Packers all day long, in every aspect of the game...Which was good and bad for our beloved Rough Ryders...The Bears intercepted two of Favre's passes, running one back for a TD, and blocked two Packer punts, running one back for a TD, which all helped me, as the Bears defense finished the game with 29.97 FP, which led my entire team...

Ryan Grant, my #2 RB, had the only Packer offensive highlight, tearing off a 66 yard TD run in the 2nd quarter, the Packers' only score of the game...Take that away, and his game was pretty crappy...In the end, his 17.9 FP was damn good (12.6 of 'em were on that one play though), and I'm certainly looking at him as a #2 draft pick next year...

And finally, cuz he's the kicker, and because the Packers offense sucked this Sunday, Mason Crosby had a lone PAT for a single, lousy 1 FP...Sigh...

So, what can be said on JUST ANOTHER TEAM's side of the matchup? Nothing much sticks out...

Anquan Boldin went HUUUUUGE for 41.2 FP on a weekend when he was supposedly still limping back from injury, and was expected to see limited action...This single performance might certainly be pointed at as the APFL Championship game-changer...Fuckin' Anquan...

Aaron Stecker has become an effective starter in New Orleans until Reggie Bush comes back, and likewise, Just Another Team Jeff (who has Bush on his team) wisely plugged him into his own lineup the past couple of weeks with great results...Like Bush, Stecker didn't have an outstanding game by any measure, but did plow ahead for two short yardage TDs early in the game, and finished with an excellent 24.4 FP...Once again, a Saint player on Just Another Team has mortally wounded me...To add insult to injury, I found myself using Aaron Stecker a couple of years ago when Deuce McCallister went down to injury, but Stecker never did much of anything that year, and I had to abandon him after 2-3 subpar performances on his part directly led to a couple of Rough Ryder losses...

Otherwise, nobody on Just Another Team had particularly outstanding performances, and Jeff himself made a couple of bad management decisions. Unfortunately for me, his mistakes weren't as costly in the end...

Which brings us to the end of this post, and the 2007 Winona Rough Ryders season. I may do another quick season recap in the near future, but for now, I am pleased to announce that:

Our beloved Winona Rough Ryders finished the 2007 APFL season with a record of 12-4, and after this sad, but not wholly unexpected, loss to JUST ANOTHER TEAM in the APFL Championship, I am excited and pleased to announce that OUR BELOVED WINONA ROUGH RYDERS finished 2nd in the APFL.

Congratulations to Thee Fractioneer (Jeff), and Just Another Team, this year's APFL Champions.

See ya in 2008!

Hotcha! Hank