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- Reviewing Week 14 in the NFL

Chris Pokorny December 12, 2006
Chris Pokorny
PFC Owner & Writer

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You know how there's always that team in your fantasy football league that never updates their roster anymore, probably because they missed the draft before Week 1 and simply don't care anymore? That is the same guy who usually has the worst record in the league, but perhaps they've squeaked by with a win or two, because as we all no, nothing is for certain in the NFL. However, this late in the season, if the owner of that team never updates their roster, there is a good chance that most of their players would be on the injured reserve, or no longer a starter. Unfortunately, for some individuals, they could've been facing one of the most low-key, but deadliest fantasy team in history this past week. Let's take a look at what a roster could've been for a team that never updates their roster:

QB: Rex Grossman There's a pretty good chance that no one really wanted to pick Grossman as their quarterback before the season started, so he fell to the guy who didn't show up in the draft. Now, if you had been facing Grossman this week, you would've been delighted heading into the Rams game. "He'll be benched by half time!" or "He may actually put negative points on the board!" may have been some thoughts that popped into your head. Well, instead, Grossman may have saved his job with an average performance. He threw for 200 yards exactly and two touchdowns, and rushed for exactly 20 yards. That gives him a total of 17 fantasy points.

RB: Artose Pinner Heading into the week, Pinner had barely played all season for the Vikings. Then, with Chester Taylor out with an injury, the team was scheduled to give the ball to Ciatrick Fason. "Pfft...Pinner sucked with the Lions, no way he'll get revenge like Harrington did, especially since he's probably still the third stringer with Taylor out." Think again, because after he took advantage of some early carries, the Vikings kept handing him the ball. Pinner recorded 125 yards on the ground, caught three touchdowns, and fumbled it once. 22 points on the board for Pinner, which spells trouble unless LaDainian Tomlinson is on your team.

RB: Mike Karney "What is this idiot doing with a fullback on his team? He's never even scored a touchdown!" That changed Sunday night, because once the Saints found a weakness against the Cowboys, they exploited it for the hat trick. Karney put up numbers that far surpassed the totals of his three-year career, running 3 times for 14 yards and a touchdown. He also caught 5 passes for 39 yards and two touchdowns. The career day for Karney earned him 19 fantasy points.

WR: Ruvell Martin If you study football a little, you may have known where the three men above played. However, even I didn't know who Martin was before the San Francisco 49ers left him wide open in the end zone on Sunday. "This guy wasn't even drafted, and now he's scoring on me!" would be an appropriate fantasy reaction. Although it was only a two-catch day for Martin, his 42 yards and his touchdown gave him 8 fantasy points, which is nothing to sneeze at for the wide receiver position.

WR: Jamal Jones Even with Joe Horn out, Marques Colston was returning for the Saints Sunday night, so Jones would have no shot at playing, right? And, like Martin, I'm sure no one knew who this guy was. Ironically, he got his chance when Colston left the game for a little bit to a cramp, and Jones caught a 27 yard touchdown pass. Add 7 more points to the fantasy board.

WR: Hines Ward Ok, this is a reality check time. All teams have at least someone good on their team, but unfortunately, this is where this fantasy owner falls victim to a player being injured for a couple of games.

TE: Tony Scheffler With the Broncos getting rid of Jeb Putzier in the offseason, the tight end wasn't really being utilized as much this year. Besides, heading into this game, Scheffler hadn't caught a touchdown all season, and rarely saw the ball come his way. Never underestimate a change in production under another quarterback though, because Scheffler caught three passes for 66 yards and two touchdowns. By my count, that gives the rookie tight end a whopping 15 points!

K: Mike Vanderjagt Well, similar to the Ward situation, Vanderjagt had no shot of earning fantasy points this week. Besides, did you really want me to try and look for an "underrated" kicker or something?

DEF: Atlanta Falcons Everyone should know just how important defenses are in fantasy football, because having a team like the Chicago Bears or the Miami Dolphins could post you an extra 20 points a week. The Falcons were getting torched pretty badly heading into this week, but it's amazing what a nice fumble return for six, a sack, and another fumble recovery can do for a team. Put 18 on the board for the Falcons defense.

Total: 106 points for a team that featured Grossman, Pinner, Karney, Martin, Jones, Ward, Scheffler, Vanderjagt, and the Falcons. If I was in need of a win to make the playoffs and lost to a team like this, I'd be shell-shocked right about now.

Anyway, that was just to show in a creative sort of way the fact that you never quite know what you'll get in the National Football League. Several rookies didn't do too bad on Sunday either, as several players made their cases towards being named the rookie of the year. Vince Young is certainly making a strong case due to his leadership skills after he has brought the Titans back from the dead to win four games in a row, all in dramatic fashion. Beating the Texans in Texas was bittersweet for him, and yet another kick in the stomach to the team's organization. Houston could've had Young, but instead they took defensive end Mario Williams, who isn't even close to being the defensive rookie of the year. That's not to say he's a bust, but it's not what the Texans needed.

Everyone knows that Marques Colston seemed to have the upper hand on Reggie Bush earlier in the season if it came down to one or the other, but the margin between them may be closing. Bush has taken some of the glory since Colston left with an injury, and over the past two games, Bush has started to find his groove with a total of five touchdowns. Without question though, Colston is still the best rookie wide receiver. Chad Jackson's numbers aren't even comparable to his, while Santonio Holmes and Nate Washington in Pittsburgh are average at best.

With Joseph Addai and Laurence Maroney not shining this past Sunday, Maurice Jones-Drew grabbed the spotlight with a career day against the Indianapolis Colts. He averaged over 11 yards a carry on 15 attempts, scoring two touchdowns on the ground. He also returned a touchdown on a kickoff return, further exposing the Colts poor tackling ability that has been poor all season. Believe it or not though, having Bob Sanders back in the secondary will be huge for the Colts. He is the leader of that unit, and is probably the team's best defensive player. One man can't improve a unit drastically, but he may be the guy that can turn a 76-yard run by Fred Taylor into only a gain of eight yards. That still seems bad, but a 2nd-and-2 is a lot better than a touchdown.

By my count, besides the Colts, four teams were truly "schooled" during Week 14. On Thursday, the Browns were run all over by Willie Parker, although it's worth mentioning that Cleveland quarterback Derek Anderson threw the football extremely well. That's not to say that he should replace Charlie Frye, but he'll probably get another look this Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens. The New England Patriots were shut out 21-0 against the Miami Dolphins, setting another occasional inconsistency developing in New England's offense this season. They are led well under Tom Brady to the point where they are managing to get it done, but several times this season, they've been exposed.

The other two teams that were beaten badly were the Denver Broncos and the Dallas Cowboys. It's still fine for the Cowboys in terms of the playoffs, but it's already panic mode for the Broncos. They are already 0-2 in the Jay Cutler era, a quarterback decision I did not approve of this late in the season. I'm not saying that Jake Plummer would've gotten them a win in either game, but a change at that point was not appropriate.

Here are some random football thoughts from Week 14:

a. The Steelers winning without their top two receivers or their top two safeties is impressive.

b. The Buccaneers probably want this season to be over with already. Their defense isn't awful, but it's clearly not what it used to be. Also, although Bruce Gradkowski had his moments earlier this season, he hasn't done anything as of late. The Buccaneers not only need an quarterback next season, they need an offense.

c. I was very surprised to see Trent Green lose his first game ever at Arrowhead in December. I think I need to start having more faith in the Baltimore Ravens defense, who can bring pressure on any offensive line in the league.

d. I can't believe that with how poorly the Vikings offense has been this season, and the fact that Brad Johnson is having a bad year, that this team is only a game out of the NFC wildcard race.

e. I think Chris Weinke, despite his 400+ yard effort, showed why Jake Delhomme is the Panthers starting quarterback.

f. The Eagles are still a good team under quarterback Jeff Garcia. That may turn out to be the best signing the Eagles made in the offseason.

g. Rally from 24 points down in the fourth quarter to beat the Giants. Kick a 60-yard field goal the next week to beat the Colts. Scramble for 39-yards in overtime the next week to beat the Texans. Has any team in the history of the league ever had a more dramatic three-week period than Tennessee fans are having?

h. At least for this season, the buzz on the 49ers has officially run out in terms of making the postseason. Brett Favre has won three games on the road, but only once at home.

i. After the Seahawks lost to the 49ers on the road a few weeks ago, I should've seen their loss to the Cardinals on the road coming.

j. LaDainian Tomlinson has the MVP locked up already. Unfortunately, when he tied Shaun Alexander's record, I changed the channel because I figured he wouldn't get another chance. Five minutes later, when I looked at the box score online, I could only laugh. He'll keep piling on the statistics too, because they haven't clinched the first seed yet.

k. The Saints' onside kick was executed perfectly. With the replays shown of how Dallas was positioned, it seemed as if the chances of the Saints converting that was around 99%. I have to wonder if we'll see that play from more teams soon.

l. Dante Hall is a thing of the past. Bring on Devin Hester.

If you haven't been to this site, Pro Football Critics before, make sure you bookmark us. And, if anyone is interested in writing for the site just to express your football views of the week, feel free to ask. Our Week 15 power rankings should be online tomorrow, and my Week 15 predictions will be here on PFC before the Thursday night game.


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