Week 11 - Comments and Complaints

Week 11 Comments and Complaints

The Lions are definitely the most inconsistent team in the league. This offense, without Kevin Jones seems lost. Kevin Jones, by the way, will be out Week 12 and should be questionable for Week 13. Kitna needs around 5 seconds to throw the ball without any pressure, or else he makes horrific throws, forces balls into double and triple coverage, takes sacks rather than throwing balls away, and throws rather than running for a first down when nobody’s near him. It’s things like this that have been killing this team in many close games. Roy Williams is a stud, but he needs to make those basic, wide-open catches in order to be perennial Pro Bowler. Mike Furrey is a more consistent receiver; Kitna looks to him in big situations…Williams just does more with the ball after the catch.

I know a lot of people were hurt big time when Marques Colston went down with an injury early in the game. However, from what I hear, Colston’s injury is not bad and he’s listed as day-to-day. Keep monitoring his status until game-time and make your decision. If the guy is healthy enough to play, give him the nod over all but the studs (Gates, Shockey, Crumpler, Heap, and Winslow).

The Niners have been shocking everyone this season, after that awful start with the Arizona loss and the massive blowout by KC. This team is for real and they’ve got the most improved offense in the league, in my opinion. Their defense is decent, but nothing special. Their offense is extremely talented, as long as Frank Gore is in the lineup. Gore is a fantasy stud. Alex Smith could use some talent at WR as Antonio Bryant was a stud early on, but has been shut down as of late. I don’t see Bryant doing a whole lot better this week against the Rams solid pass defense. Look for Gore to carry the load once again, as the Rams are pathetic against the rush and defending pass catching RBs.

Donovan McNabb going on IR with a knee injury is a shot to both Reggie Brown and Donte Stallworth’s fantasy values. Jeff Garcia has no arm whatsoever and will be lucky to find Stallworth or Brown deeper than 20 yards. Expect Bryan Westbrook and LJ Smith’s fantasy values to absolutely skyrocket now that Garcia is starting at QB.

Marc Bulger really let everyone down last week. I expected a big showing from the Rams offense, but Carolina really brought the pressure and made Bulger look awful. This week will be entirely different as the Rams stifle the hot Niners and Bulger has a monster day.

Jamal Lewis is NOT as good as his THREE TD day. Lewis hasn’t broken 100 yards in a single game this season and his three of his five total TDs came last week. The guy just isn’t good anymore. He’s benefiting from Billick feeding him the ball 22-25 times per game, which can help even Ki-Jana Carter rack up 90 yards. Lewis’ scores are coming from an easy

What happened to the early season Rex Grossman? He’s been looking terrible. 11/22 119 yards and 1 TD are terrible numbers. Some of that is due to Mushin Muhammad having no speed anymore and Bernard Berrian being out and teams realizing that when you rattle Rex and make him throw off his back foot, it’s easy to shut down a deep threat passing game (Bradley and Berrian). Luckily, the Bears (Thomas Jones) are getting back to their run-first philosophy and starting to dominate games that way. Granted, the Jets are terrible against the run, they still ran for over 170 yards. We’ll see how the Pats handle the Bears reinstated run game, this week. Keep Jones on the bench this week, as he’ll more than likely start dancing behind the line and struggle.

Travis Henry is a baller. The guy is explosive and tough. He had a couple weeks there where he failed to meet even bad expectations, but he proved that he can tear it up against some of the best teams. The Eagles have a solid rush defense, and Henry broke out for 143 yards on 18 carries. Henry is a solid start until he proves otherwise.

Did Ahman Green fail you too last week? Sure, he was a bench going into the week, but with injuries, I had to start him. Thanks for the whopping 28 yards on 13 carries. It’s not all Green’s fault, his OL is terrible and the play calling in Green Bay has stunk. I still can’t figure out how Green has a 4.2 ypc average the way he’s been running.

Don’t expect any more monster games from Lee Evans. He got lucky facing atrocious Houston coverage last week. Houston has a terrible pass defense, so this just goes to show that anyone facing Houston is a solid start. Evans is explosive, but JP Losman and the rest of the Bills offense is not. Losman wasn’t pressured at all during the game and he had time to throw the ball. I’m a believer that even if the worst QBs are given enough time to throw, they’ll make plays (see Joey Harrington in December 2005).

San Diego is not the best team in the league. That belongs to the Bears, in my opinion. San Diego is quite possibly the best team in the AFC, but I’d like to see how they stack up against the ever-dangerous Pats and the tough Baltimore defense. I like the fact that Philip Rivers can help carry the team if LT2 were taken out of the equation. Rivers has been under-using Antonio Gates, which has been surprising for owners. As well, Rivers is spreading the ball around to everyone, especially backups in goal line situations. With their defense giving up 41 points to a Cincinnati team that was slumping, I question their Super Bowl ability, big time.

Oh yeah, for good measure, Jake Plummer stinks. It’s Jay Cutler time already.