Saturday, October 17, 2009

College Football Picks



#6 So Cal(-400) vs. #25 Notre Dame(+300)

USC was victim to an upset from Washington three weeks ago, but I don't see the Trojans dropping this game. USC has owned the Irish in there previous seven meeting going 7-0. Freshman QB Matt Barkley will have the offense scoring early and often, and the Trojans won't look back.

Cal Golden Bears (-160) vs. UCLA Bruins( +140)

Im going with the upset and picking the Bruins. College football can be very streaky and Cal does not seem to be in rhythm offensively lately. Scoring six points in the past two games, has me leaning towards UCLA in a close game.

# 4 Virginia Tech Hokies( -160) vs. # 19 Georgia Tech ( +140)

This is a battle for ACC supremacy, a meeting between two 5-1 teams. The ACC is a tough conference to pick but that being said Virginia Tech is an all around better team than Georgia Tech. Wins against Miami(FL), Nebraska and Boston College have me jumping on the Hokies' bandwagon.

# 22 South Carolina Gamecocks vs. #2 Alabama Crimson Tide (under 44 points) odds -110

I like Alabama to win this game but I feel that this will be far from a shootout. Steve Spurrier will have his defense fired up in this SEC showdown. I saw what Carolina's defense did to Ole Miss star QB Jevin Snead, and this unit just seems to be confident. I see this as a 17-10 Alabama win.




Thursday, October 15, 2009

Has the Chad Henne era begun?


I'll be the first to say that Chad Henne's performance last Monday Night was quite impressive, but its hard to completely jump on the bandwagon (although I want to). Since the days of Dan Marino, the starting quarterback job has been a revolving door for the Dolphins. The likes of Ray Lucas, Sage Rosenfels, Brian Griese, Jay Fielder, Damon Huard, Daunte Culpepper, Joey Harrington and Cleo Lemon have been under center. Previous drafts have not helped either, i.e. John Beck. Dolphins fans desperately need Henne to continue to shine.

In his second year, he has stepped in for injured Chad Pennington and is so far 2-0. What is more impressive is that Henne has beat two division rivals in the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets. The Bills game was a blowout and therefore not much was asked from the passing game. Against the Jets however, when Henne needed to step up and make the throws, he did. He threw a beautiful deep touchdown pass to Ted Ginn Jr., and orchestrated a game winning drive that lead to a Ronnie Brown touchdown with six seconds left. He outshined fellow rookie Mark Sanchez and more importantly brought the Dolphins to within one game of the division lead. Sure Henne may not be asked to throw the ball a whole lot, with the dynamic tandem of Ronnie and Ricky, but knowing he can produce could really open this offense up. Not to mention he showed the poise of a crafty veteran. There is a tough road ahead, vs. Saints, at Jets and at New England, but I can't help but be excited about what this rookie has to offer.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Fantasy Follow-up: Things Leaned from Monday Night


After a bit of a hiatus the blog is back and in full swing.

After a long day, one thing was sure. I was most definitely ready for some football. It turned out to be quite a showing and some interesting storylines emerged throughout the divisional showdown. For starters, Braylon Edwards is one of a small handful of offensive players in the last 40 years to start for one team one week and another the next, a feat he not only accomplished, but did in style, snatching 5 catches 64 yards and a touchdown (almost 2). The Jets and Browns have similar systems and similar terminology, which enabled Braylon to crack the starting line up only 2 days after joining the team. He made an absolutely acrobatic catch on that 34 yard reception that reminded fantasy owners of his 2007 campaign. I was unaware that Edwards was also an acting major at Michigan, after dropping a huge reception he was able to draw a bogus pass interference call on the fins 5 yard line. This play enabled the Jets to go ahead with about 5 minutes left in the game. Overall he had a great game and it was remarkable how quickly he was able to do so.

Probably an even bigger story line was the emergence of
Chad Henne. He was a solid 4 year starter at Michigan, though he never lived up to the potential he flashed during his freshman campaign. A second round draft pick only in his second year, Henne has been thrown into the starting position due to the injury of veteran Chad Pennington. In Henne's previous start he looked shaky at best. The dolphins did not seem to trust him either, favoring the wild cat and the two headed monster that Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams have become. However tonight, against a strong Jets team, the fins knew they would have to open it up a little with their neophyte quarterback. Henne shined tonight. He found open receivers, he was accurate (20/26...and 241 yards 2 tds), he got Ted Ginn Jr. involved on that long play. Anthony Fasano looked like a new man. It was a great day to be a Dolphins fan after seeing their offense so far this year.

There were some other players of note involved in tonights matchup:

1. Ronnie Brown- 74 yrds rushing, 2 tds, 14 yrds receiving (and 23 passing). Kid is a beast. Each week is proving why he should be considered part of that top tier of running backs. He looked good spearheading the wildcat attack, and came up huge on that touchdown in the final seconds of the game. He has shown he is still going to get his touches, and is definitely a must start fantasy running back. On a forum that i post on, somebody asked if they should start Braylon Edwards over Ronnie Brown....are you joking people...top 5 running back or wr that has just switched teams 2.5 days ago (it turned out that braylon put up some numbers, but ronnie was just too real).

2. Ricky Williams - 138 total yards- prior to the season i doubted the legitimacy of Ricky Williams as a fantasy player. He has definitely proven me wrong. He's a good weekly option in flex or 3 rb leagues. And he could spot start during your stars' bye weeks without much drop off. Despite Henne's performance i still expect the dolphins to be mostly a run oriented team. Look for Ricky and Ronnie (or Rail Road as i like to call them) to continue their success.

3. Ted Ginn Jr.- 2 rec 57 yds td...not the greatest game, but he finally got on the map after posting back to back miserable performances. I still do not know how confident i am in him becoming Henne's number 1 target, he is available in 35% of ESPN leagues, i would go ahead and pick him up if you can, and monitor how he does in the coming weeks as Henne continues to grow as a quarterback.

4.
Mark Sanchez- 12/24 172 td....solid performance for the rookie. Do not expect too much out of him fantasy wise even though he has a new toy in Braylon Edwards. He can probably fill in for bye week quarterbacks most weeks, just avoid starting him starting him in tough matchups (ie. week 11 against @ the pats)

5.
Thomas Jones- 42 yards 2 tds...not a flashy game by the veteran, but he got 13 touches including the goal line ones, and was able to find the promised land not once but twice. He has continued to put up decent numbers and could be a pretty consistent flex start (just avoid him in bad match ups as well, you saw how he did against the titans run D, 15 carries, 20 yards)


thats it for now, thanks all

Special thanks to and written by Jacob Alley