Fantasy Playoffs

     I hate to change up the subject with this post, but what an amazing two weeks this has been in College Football. Bedlam today was an amazing game, and I must admit that before the game I did take Oklahoma State. I was very impressed with what Stoops did today. I felt like he coached to win today, and he took chances that set his team up for his success.

    Fantasy playoffs are beginning up in any leagues. This is the last week of the regular season in my South Side OKC league, and I feel like I have a large amount of momentum going into the playoffs. This week will determine what seed I have in the playoffs. If I win this week I will have the number one seed in the playoffs, and would get to face the four seed.

     I have a couple players who have been a surprise to my team going into the playoffs. Alshon Jeffery  (Chi-WR) and Michael Floyd (Ari-WR) have been fantastic additions to my teams. In the past six weeks Jeffery's has had over 15 points in five out of six weeks. Last week he had a season high of 48 points. I love Jeffery's upside with him playing opposite of Brandon Marshall. Floyd has also been a great pickup the last few weeks, and I plan on him having a big week this week as well. Larry Fitzgerald always has the top corner on him, and that allows Floyd to get less attention. I expect a big week for him against St. Louis.

Dirty Dealing

     My post this week will be a little different then normal. I would like to discuss a topic that gets brought up in many leagues. Many fantasy football leagues allows the members to be able to have the ability to veto trades. In some cases the league manager is able to make the decision to veto trades.

     I played in two different leagues this fall, and I regret playing in one of the leagues. Before I began working at the Sports Animal I worked at the Community College I was attending. The guys I worked around were awesome, and we would always do different sport challenges.

     This year we decided to do a cheap fantasy league for $10, and it was the biggest fantasy mistake of my life. I have had an okay team, and at this point I am challenging for a playoff spot. The kicker here is that many of the guys who aren't going to make the playoff are starting to trade their best players to their buddies who have good record.

     Not to mention the trades that been going through are jokes. An example of one of the trades was Jimmy Graham for Tony Gonzalez straight up. Are you kidding me!!!! In a standard league Jimmy Graham has scored double the amounts of point then Gonzalez!!!

     That type of move is such bush league. Not to mention I believe it is some what cheating as well. Why even do fantasy sports if your going to basically cheat your way to victory. You can't even brag at the end of the season. So enjoy cheating your way to a championship.

Week 10

            Well we're at the halfway point of the NFL season, and boy has it been a great one so far. There has been many surprises across the league this season. How about the Kansas City Chiefs? 9-0. Who would have thought at the beginning of the season that at week 10 of the NFL, Kansas City would still be unbeaten.

            I drafted Jamaal Charles with the eighth overall pick in my PPR Southside OKC league. Charles is the number one running back in a PPR league on ESPN, and is the third highest scorer overall. I have enjoyed having Charles as my number one running back, and as long as he stays healthy he should remain as the number one running back.

            Peyton Manning! What more do I have to say about that man at this point. Manning is the number one overall quarterback in fantasy so far this year. I was fortunate enough to play his owner on the week Manning was on a bye. Manning will be tested next Sunday when Kansas City visits Denver in by far the matchup of the year so far. Kansas City matches up well against Denver's offense, and it will be pivotal for Kansas City to jump out to an early lead.

            This week I have an interesting decision to make. I will not be starting Matt Ryan against the Seattle Seahawks, and it will come down to either Jay Cutler (who is probable)or Nick Foles. Cutler is going up against Detroit, and put up a solid 16 points against them week 4. I would be satisfied with Cutler if he could put up over 15 this week. Foles is coming off a week where he put up seven touchdown passes. This is the second time this season that a quarterback has put up seven touchdowns, and of course that man was Manning. And by Manning I mean Peyton Manning, not Eli. Eli this season would be known for putting up more like seven interceptions.

            At the end of the day I plan on starting Cutler if he plays. Foles is going up against Green Bay, and they have only allowed three touchdown passes the past three weeks. My gut feeling says to start Foles, but I feel like Cutler is the safe start. I have a solid team at every other position, so I need to start the safe quarterback. Jay Cutler will be that safe start if he plays.

Quarterbacks

                The quarterback position has been a frustrating position for me this fantasy season. Three weeks ago I picked up Jay Cutler off the waivers, and started him against the Giants, and he did an excellent job putting up 20 points. The next week I loved his matchup against Washington, but Cutler tore his groin in the first half. Matt Forte had an excellent game against Washington with three touchdowns.

                This week in my South OKC league I will be facing the individual who has the number one quarterback in the league, but I’m lucky enough to be facing him on the week he has a bye. Yes, Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos are on a bye week this week. I know this has to just hurt many fantasy owners across the world.

               This week my opponent will be forced to start Russell Wilson, but Wilson has had four straight weeks of over 15 points, but I like my chances against Wilson then having to face Manning. The main challenge I’m facing this week is whether I should start Emmanuel Sanders or Eddie Royal. Royal is going against Washington who ranks 29^th against Wide Receivers. Emmanuel Sanders is going against New England who ranks 5^th against Wide Receivers.

Week 7

     Week 7 is upon us, and the NFL is almost to the halfway point. October has always been an entertaining month when it comes to sports. October means playoff baseball, and both college football and the NFL are in mid-season form. October also brings us NBA training camps, which means that the Thunder season is almost upon us. 
      I found myself in an interesting fantasy predicament this last week. I've had issues all year with my quarterback situation with having both Matt Ryan and Michael Vick, but this week neither of these individuals started for my team. Ryan was on his bye week, and Vick was out with a hamstring injury that he suffered against the New York Giants. I had to go to the waivers, and I picked up Jay Cutler against the Giants.
      He threw for 262 yards with two touchdowns. Cutler will be going up against the Washington Redskins this weekend, and I plan on starting him over both Ryan and Vick. Washington ranks 24th against fantasy quarterbacks. The first three weeks their defense was torched by Michael Vick, Aaron Rodgers and Mathew Stafford. I like Cutler to have a big game against Washington this week.
     Alshon Jeffery is another player for the bears who might find a spot in my lineup this week due to bye weeks and injuries. Before this week, he had two straight weeks of over 20 points. Last week against the Giants he was held to only four points, but Brandon Marshall had an excellent game with 9 receptions for 87 yards. Marshall also hauled in two touchdowns as well. Jeffery seems to be a hit and miss type of guy, but I like him as a flex guy if he's filling in for one of your receivers on a bye week. Marshall will be gaining much of Washington's secondary attention, and DeAngelo Hall will have the task of guarding Marshall.  Washington ranks 27th in the league against wide receivers. I expect Jeffery to have 14 points in a ppr league.
     
  

Okie Funk

     "Okie Funk" is a local blog written by Kurt Hochenauer. Dr. Hochenauer is a English professor at the University of Central Oklahoma. This morning he visited our class to discuss his success with his blog. Dr.Hochenauer began being involved with writing about politics in 2000, and started his blog in 2004 which he named "Okie Funk." When Dr. Hochenauer began his blog he had 15,000 hits a month. Dr. Hochenaur post articles on his blog on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Dr. Hochenauer said the key to having a successful blog is to be a good writer.

       Dr. Hochenauer says that on average he receives 300 hits per month. He has been referenced in the "Dallas Morning News" and the "Washington Post." He has been on numerous radio shows as well for interviews. Dr. Hochenauer also stated that he had an individual from the Department of Justice email him telling him that he enjoyed his blog. He stated that blog classes will be a legitimate class for the next couple of years.

     

Week 4

   Another fantastic week of Fantasy Football is coming upon us. This past weekend was an interesting weekend in my South OKC money league. I was the second highest scorer in the league with 147 points.

 

   I was playing the individual in our league who has put up the least amount of points in our league. He only put up a total of 78 points. He knew it was going to be a rough week when Dwayne Bowe put up one point last Thursday night.

   I had a fantastic Thursday night with Jamaal Charles, LeSean McCoy and Michael Vick putting up a total of 67 points. It was a great way to start off the fantasy week. 

   The main question going into last week was should I start Vick over Ryan. I ended up starting Vick and they both ended up with 15 points apiece. 

   I haven't decided which quarterback I will be going with this weekend. Vick travels to Denver this weekend, and Ryan is going against a tough Patriot's secondary. 

   Another question in my lineup is will I be starting Andre Johnson. Johnson is going up against the Seattle Seahawks who have the best secondary in the league. Johnson has had some injury issues the past couple of weeks, but he's still a guy who is hard to sit. 

 

   I'm going to wait to see who I get off the waivers before I decide on what I'm going to do with Johnson. I fave the defending champ this weekend, and there's nothing more I'd like to do then to beat him. 

   I woke up to news that Nate Burleson had broken his arm in a car crash. I picked him up last week off the waivers, and he showed great potential in a ppr league. He will be having surgery today.

Quarterback Problems

   Last week I had another successful victory in my South OKC money league. I went into the Sunday Night Football game with my team finished, and my competitor had Marshawn Lynch. I was up by a solid 34 thinking that Lynch wasn't going to come close to that number due to the fact that they were playing the San Francisco 49ers. Boy was I wrong. Lynch came within three points of tying the lead. It was an impressive performance to say the least.

       Well another fantasy week is upon us, and I'm facing the team that has scored the least amount of points in the league. He has put up a total of 201 points compared to my total of 331. He's had some issues with running backs this season. He drafted Alfred Morris, C.J Spiller, David Wilson and Steven Ridley. Each one of these backs have come out of the gates with a slow start, but this week he will be starting Knowshon Moreno over David Wilson.

        I like my chances going into this week. The only lineup changes I made this week will be I will finally be starting Michael Vick at quarterback over Matt Ryan. I'm still uneasy about the situation, but Vick has the tools and offense to average 25 points a week. The Chip Kelly offense also allows him to have more opportunities to run more plays.

Photo Credit: APA

          Matt Ryan has been a consistent fantasy quarterback, but I love the upside of Vick. Going into each week I know what I'm going to get from Ryan, but I'm just not as confident in Vick.

Adopting Blogs

http://deadspin.comhttp:/-Deadspin
football.razzball.com- Razzball
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.comhttp://- Everyday should be Saturday
www.sbnation.com/blogs- SB Nation

Week 1

        This week was a success for my team in my PPR South OKC league. I was the second highest scorer in the league, and my lowest score for one of my skill players was Jimmy Graham with 12. Even Graham had an average week with a receiving touchdown and 4 receptions.

         How about the Philadelphia Eagles? I would say they quickly became the main story over the weekend. I know Peyton Manning throwing seven touchdown was a big story, but everyone had their eyes on the television on Monday Night Football to see how Chip Kelly's offense was going to run in the NFL. LeSean McCoy had an excellent game with 184 rushing yards on 31 attempts.
 
        The question that arrises for my team this week is whether or not to start Michael Vick at home against San Diego, or to start Matt Ryan at home against St. Louis. My gut feeling is for me to start Ryan. Ryan would be the safer pick, and he has been consistent for me over the past year considering he was my quarterback last season as well. The new Chip Kelly offense is intriguing to fantasy owners. Their fast pace offense allows them to ware down defenses, and the idea of the offense is to go as fast as possible and to run as many plays as possible.

        As much as I would love to start Vick due to these facts I have to watch this offense another week, and I have to see Vick be able to put up fantasy points on a consistent basis. He's been so injury prone over the years that it will be interesting to see if he will be able to stay healthy throughout the season. My guess is he will at least miss 2-3 week this season due to injury. There were times in the fourth quarter Monday night where he came up limping. Unless something dramatic happens before Sunday I would recommend to start Ryan over Vick.

Deadspin

     I recommend all of my readers that are interested in reading blogs to take the time to view http://deadspin.com. Deadspin is a blog with several writers who's goal is to inform their readers with sports news without access, favor, or discretion. Deadspin has numerous strengths to its' website, but I'm impressed with its' detailed investigative journalism. One of their recent pieces that was written by Timothy Burke was over Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel's family history. The article goes into great detail on how his family achieved their wealth in Texas over the past century. The article discusses his families involvement in the oil field and cock fighting. You can tell by reading it how much research and work Burke put into the article.

    Deadspin inspired me to become a better journalist when it comes to the research portion of an article. I want my readers to know that I spent the time to make each post as informative as possible. Readers can tell just how much time a journalist spent on their topic by how informative it is. At the end of each post I want each reader to know that I did my best to be able to give them the information they need. The only issue  I had with Deadspin is some of their post were meant for comedy. There was an article about Carrie Underwood's husband getting bit by a chipmunk while he was trying to get the chipmunk away from her. These type of post are humorous, but some of them can be pointless post.

10 Interesting Sports Blogs

Read This:

Deadspin-http://deadspin.com
Bleacher -Report-http://bleacherreport.com
SBNation-//www.sbnation.com
Biglead-http://thebiglead.com
Steel Curtain- http://technorati.com/blogs/www.behindthesteelcurtain.com
Blogging the Boys- http://www.bloggingtheboys.com
Rant Sports- http://technorati.com/blogs/www.rantsports.com
ESPN North-http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcsouth
The Only Colors-http://www.theonlycolors.com
Corn Nation-http://www.cornnation.com

My Team

It's almost that time of the year again. Football is just around the corner, and everyone is anticipating the upcoming fantasy year. This past weekend I participated in my annual fantasy football draft with a group of friends that I have known throughout my life. This will be the seventh year of existence for this league, but I have only participated in the league for a total of six years. The league is a point-per-reception league which I have become fond of. I enjoy the fact of how valuable receivers are, and how important it is to draft running backs who are able to catch a large amount of passes throughout the year. There is a total of eight teams in my league, and our draft consist of 20 rounds. We draw picks every two rounds of the draft which can benefit or hurt an individual's draft. For the first two rounds I drew the eighth pick. Here are the results of my draft in the order I drafted them.


Jamaal Charles (RB, KC), LeSean McCoy (RB, PHI), Jimmy Graham (TE, NO), Andre Johnson (WR, HOU), Reggie Wayne (WR, IND), Frank Gore (RB, SF), Jason Witten (TE, DAL), Matt Ryan (QB, ATL), Cecil Shorts (WR, JAC), Rashard Mendenhall (RB, ARI), Emmanual Sanders(WR, PIT), Shane Vereen (RB, NE), Michael Vick (QB, PHI), Johnathan Franklin (RB, GB), Michael Floyd (WR, ARI), Alshon Jeffery (WR, CHI), Lance Moore (WR, NO), Jermaine Gresham (TE, CIN), Broncos D/ST, Randy Bullock (K, HOU).

Like many individuals after their fantasy draft, I was pleased with my draft results. In a eight team league a majority of the time many of the teams have a large amount of talent. There were two individuals in our league that I talked to who weren't as confident about their draft results. One of the individuals made the mistake of drafting Percy Harvin in the fifth round not knowing that Harvin had recently gone through hip surgery. Harvin timetable for returning is unknown, and shouldn't have been drafted in an eight team league. The one pep peeve I tell people who are interested in participating in fantasy football is to be aware of what is going on around the NFL. People don't always have to study in-depth to end up with a talented team, but don't make the mistake of drafting a player who is injured for an extended amount of time because you were unaware of the injury. Save yourself the embarrassment, and be aware of hot topics around the NFL.

Be That Guy

The mission of this website is to help contribute to your fantasy football success this upcoming season, and to help you reach the ultimate fantasy goal, winning your league championship . Isn't that what it's all about? Taking home the gold and the bragging rights against your friends until the following year. This past weekend my fantasy league held our annual fantasy draft at the South OKC Hooters. Last year champion, who has been one of my dear friends for years, has been known to be a heavy trash talker when it comes to fantasy sports. Of course him winning last years championship has completely raised his ego even more. At times it felt like he was the king when he went to make his picks, and the rest of us were just his court of knights. But hey he was the champion last year and at the end of the day he took home all of our money. That's my goal for this site. I want to be able to provide you with the information that will allow you to be that cocky guy who knows that he has an edge against all of his competitors. Throughout the season I will be posting my two cents on what I believe you need to do to be able to take home your league championship. I will also be keeping you updated on my fantasy team throughout the season as well as my league standing. Most of my post will be done during the week due to the fact that I will be covering High School and College Football on the weekends for The Sports Animal. Looking forward to having you step into my locker room!!