** The loss was the Eagles fourth at home this season, ensuring they won’t have a winning record at home in 2013. They haven’t been above .500 in Philly since 2009.
** Not only have they dropped 10 in a row, but the Eagles have also lost 16 of their last 23 games at home (including the playoffs).
** The NFL record for home losses is 14, held by the 1988-1989 Cowboys and the 2008-2010 Rams. The Eagles could tie that in December.
** The faithful Philly season ticket holders have paid, on average, $930 to see their team not win any games during the streak.
On the plus side, the team is 4-6 in its last 10 road games. Maybe they should just stay out of Pennsylvania for a while.
QB: Drew Brees, 43.18 pts -- started by AntWR: Marvin Jones, 40.13 pts -- on the wire
RB: Andre Ellington, 23.93 pts -- started by Jo
TE: Jimmy Graham, 17.47 pts -- started by Dad
K: Josh Brown, 18.00 pts -- started by Joel
DEF: Cincinnati, 26.00 pts -- started by Jim
D: DeAngelo Hall, 13.50 pts -- started by Ant
Yes, you read that right. On a week where Detroit WR Calvin Johnson catches 14 passes for 329 yards, he misses out on being the top wideout of the week because Cincinnati’s Jones catches 8 passes for 122 yards and 4 TDs. He beat Johnson by 0.2 pts. If only Johnson had just picked up 4 more receiving yards…
Jones also prevented the league from starting all the top players for the first time this season. So, damn him to hell.
3rd place: Buffalo, -2.00 pts -- on the wire
2nd place: New York Jets, -3.00 pts -- on the wire
1st place:Jacksonville, -4.00 pts -- on the wire
Remember that Giants defense, that was worth a whopping 15 pts on the year coming into Sunday’s game? They scored 20 off the completely inept Eagles, which lifted them out of last place in the fantasy standings.
Now the worst defense in all of fantasy football belongs to the Jacksonville Jaguars (fitting, since they’re also the worst offense and worst team). According to Yahoo, the Jags defense is owned in 0 percent of fantasy football leagues. Zero. As in none. No one wants to touch them. Somewhere, there’s a 16-team AFC only fantasy league, and even there one manager has decided to leave his defense empty rather than start Jacksonville. And it’s not a bad call.
I read fantasy football player rankings this week, and it was by far the stupidest thing I could have done.
My other fantasy team is loaded with mediocre running backs: LeSean McCoy, Darren McFadden, Steven Jackson, Fred Jackson, Andre Ellington and Joique Bell (don’t worry, my WRs suck). I can only start three, and it’s always a tough call. So, this week, I decided to lean on the fantasy experts at NFL.com for help choosing which to start.
Here’s how they ranked them:
McCoy, Fred Jackson, McFadden, Steven Jackson, Ellington, Bell.
Here’s how ESPN ranked them:
McCoy, Fred Jackson, McFadden, Ellington, Steven Jackson, Bell.
None of these were a close call, according to the experts. The top three were considered top 15 plays among RBs this week. The bottom three were outside the top 25.
Here’s how they fared:
Ellington, McFadden, Fred Jackson, Bell, McCoy, Steven Jackson
The difference between Jackson and Bell was negligible. The difference between Ellington and McCoy was about 100 yards and a TD. If I had started the bottom three RBs on their lists, I would have gotten about 38 pts. By starting the three RBs that both sets of experts recommended, I scored 38 pts. If I started the “right” three, I would have scored 55 pts.
Look, I know these guys aren’t able to see the future. Anyone can have a fluke game. But, really, taking their recommendations or taking the complete opposite made no difference to my team. And somehow, providing no information -- good or bad -- employs dozens and dozens of sports staffers who spend countless hours sifting through statistics. And they come up with nothing.
What I’m saying is, I’ll do the same work for half of whatever you’re paying them.
** Chris Berman: Instead of saying “trick or treat,” grunt and shriek a lot.
** Eli Manning: Put on a #7 jersey and a Dopey dwarf mask.
** Mike Vick: Instead of collecting candy, give away a football at each house you visit.
** Tony Romo: Trick or treat for about 50 minutes, then choke on your candy for the last 10.
** Tim Tebow: Walk around in rags like an unemployed bum.
** Andy Reid: Put on a fat suit, ruin a football team, then go coach a different one with a stacked defense.
On Sunday, in the midst of another fourth-quarter choke job, Cowboys WR Dez Bryant had an absolute meltdown on the sidelines, yelling at his QB, fellow wideouts, and coaching staff. Pundits have speculated for the last two days that, despite the 31-30 outcome, this could help rally the team. Of course, our anagram expertise show them once again to be shallow fools:
Dallas Cowboys wideout Dez Bryant screams
** Zero listen to bum’s words. Away, dye-clad scab!
For the record, “one-point Cowboys loss” anagrams quite nicely into “oops, insolent Cowboys!” Just saying.
** Dad and I split our picks for the week, so I’m still 8 back. If I can pick up one game a week, I can still win this thing.** Remember way back when the Eagles had LeSean McCoy on the roster? He has one rushing TD in his last five games. Ugh.
** FYI, the Ohio State football team has a chance to go undefeated two years in a row and not have a shot at the national championship. Seriously. Every team we follow here at Fort Awesome is failing.
Week 8 standings 1 -- the american way (Sam) -- 1252.49 pts
2 -- III-time Champion (Capt. Awesome) -- 1175.17 pts
3 -- Sheldon Cooper (Dad) -- 1151.74 pts
4 -- I Mildly Like WRs (Paul) -- 1124.90 pts
5 -- Blue Collar Killers (Jeff) -- 1095.94 pts
6 -- Bad like Congress (Jim) -- 1005.34 pts
7 -- Cheatstrong (ChampMike) -- 985.09 pts
8 -- Gettin' Chippy (Jo) -- 955.11 pts
9 -- Show Me Your TDs (Ant) -- 936.10 pts
10 -- The Maltese Falcons (Bobert) -- 929.95 pts
11 -- Timmy and The Jets (Joel) -- 863.16 pts
For the record, the Yahoo pre-season projections had Sam in seventh place. Seventh! And look at what he has done so far. Of course, the projections also had Joel in first place. So maybe they weren’t that reliable.
Also, the only change in the standings was that Mike and Jim switched spots. Let’s try and be a little more interesting next week.
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