I received a tweet during the late-afternoon games that made me realize my fantasy football playoff situation really wasn’t all that awful.  From  @benjam227, a follower of mine, it read “Got killed today no thanks to Eli, Martin, D. Alexander, Myers & the Lions.”

They combined to score 1 point in that particular league.

I participated in five leagues this year. It wasn’t a whole lot (I know a lot of fantasy writers who play in eight or nine times the amount that I do), but I do know it would overwhelm plenty of people to have to keep up with five whole teams. I keep it simple because I like to play weekly games, and I want to focus my time and energy on doing things like writing this every week. Five is a good number for me.

I made it to the semi-finals in three of the five leagues. Given that fantasy football has an honest reliance on luck, and that the leagues I participated in were competitive, I was pleased with how things shaped up.

I now have the same amount of teams competing as @benjam227 had points from his five players this week.

And while just one-fifth of my fantasy squads are still active and competing for a championship, I know the reason is similar to what an abundance of people experienced this week: Things just went wrong.

Jamaal Charles’ 28-yard performance against one of the league’s worst rush defenses didn’t help me much. And neither did Victor Cruz’s stinker against Atlanta. It didn’t help that I faced Janikowski in both games I lost.

At least I didn’t get one point from five solid lineup plays. Eek.

Fantasy Projections are for losers anyway.

It was easily my worst week for fantasy predictions. Easily. I thought the Bills’ defense would continue to play above average against Russell Wilson, and I was convinced Bill Belichick would have Colin Kapernick figured out. I liked Josh Freeman’s juicy matchup against New Orleans, and didn’t think Matt Ryan would come through at home.

I still think my logic was solid, and that, at the end of the day, is what’s important. It’s easy for someone to say “Start X over Y”, but without reasoning, it’s difficult to say said person is making a sound choice. As always, the fantasy owner is making the choice, and writers, bloggers and experts are there to guide those choices. Sometimes it doesn’t go as predicted.

David Wilson disappoints.

I had high hopes for the rookie back after his performance against New Orleans, but all hope for a top-10 fantasy day fell short when it was evident that the Falcons came to play on Sunday. Wilson finished with just 12 carries for 55 yards, and caught one pass for 11 more.

The big story out of Atlanta yesterday was the play of the Falcons in every facet of the game. Matt Ryan looked like the quarterback he was at the beginning of the season, and Julio Jones got into the end zone – twice! Roddy White’s injury looked to slow him down, and Jones was the recipient of high production with White’s lack of production. I expect another solid game from Atlanta personnel next week in Detroit.

Aaron Rodgers loves James Jones.

If you started a J. Jones wide receiver, your fantasy day was probably pretty good. As I noted, Julio Jones got in the end zone twice, but Packers’ James Jones found the scoring area three times against Chicago. That brings up his total to 12, which is the most amongst receivers in the entire NFL.

I believe the reason we’re seeing this type of production out of James Jones is because he’s been the only consistent target – outside of Randall Cobb – that Rodgers has had the entire season. And, because Cobb plays more of a slot role in that offense, Jones has been the only true outside receiver that Rodgers has been able to target regularly this season. Jordy Nelson can’t stay healthy, and Greg Jennings has barely played.

If Jennings ends up leaving Green Bay after this season, Jones could have a bigger role in the offense next year. He’s been a top read for Rodgers in the red zone, and that could have positive fantasy implications in 2013.

Kirk Cousins finishes as a top-10 option.

Better than Ben Roethlisberger, Cam Newton, Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck and Matthew Stafford, Kirk Cousins susprised the country with his performance against an above average Cleveland defense on Sunday. What’s more impressive is that his performance was just one fantasy point shy of the highest total Cleveland has surrendered to an opposing fantasy signal caller.

RGIII will surely be the quarterback in Washington if and when healthy, but Cousins showed that Washington did the right thing this off-season when they selected him in the draft. Bravo.

Adrian Peterson should win everything.

The MVP award goes to the most important player on a particular team. It’s not stat-driven like the Offensive Player of the Year award, and because of this, quarterbacks tend to win the award.

In 2012, I’m all for Adrian Peterson winning the MVP, even if Minnesota fails to make the post-season. The team is 8-6 with one of the lower-tiered starting quarterbacks in the NFL, and they lost their other great offensive weapon for the season a few weeks ago. The easy-to-pinpoint winning factor is Adrian Peterson.

In the end, it will come down to Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and AP. Rodgers will be in the discussion (and maybe even JJ Watt), but the fact that Peterson is this close to an MVP award is nothing short of unbelievable. I think we’re all hoping he gets the single-season rushing record because we’re witnessing something that we may never see again.

Tampa Bay’s offense forgot there was a football game on Sunday.

Perhaps the Buccaneers had given up all hope after their dramatic loss to Philadelphia last week. All I know is the offense failed to show up against one of the league’s worst defenses, and many fantasy owners suffered a loss because of it.

Did you start Josh Freeman? I bet you’re weeping today. How about Doug Martin? Gone are the days where he rushes for 220 yards each time he hits the field. What looked to be great on paper ended up a disaster. That’s how fantasy football goes sometimes.

Denver’s defense gives up another big tight end day.

Of course the first week I don’t promote a tight end facing off against Denver, that tight end blows up. Denver has now allowed 11 touchdowns in their 15 games to tight ends. After playing quite well over the last few weeks against them, the Broncos let Dennis Pitta run wild in the second half of the blowout against Baltimore.

Needless to say, Ben Watson has a juicy matchup next week as the Browns fly to Denver. But after giving Watson a nice look as a sleeper yesterday, I’ll have a hard time starting him in Denver.

Elite Quarterbacks shine?

As Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees lit up the scoreboard with 7 touchdowns during the early-afternoon games, I began to take some heat on Twitter. It didn’t help that I was tweeting about how these performances would give many false hope for the fantasy future, I guess.

I’ve pinpointed many, many times in the past that fantasy football is a weekly game. In my upcoming version of The Late Round Quarterback, I’ll be digging into this concept even further. With elite quarterbacks (Rodgers, Brees, Brady) finishing 2nd, 3rd and 5th this week, people tend to think that I’ll all of a sudden make excuses.

No excuses need to be made. I think the play of elite quarterbacks, while they rank high, are still obviously replaceable. Brady, Brees and Rodgers were great yesterday, but comparatively, you could’ve started Kirk Cousins and only lost – at most – 8 points at the quarterback position.

I’ll say it again: Every quarterback is throwing the ball more and putting up monster numbers – not just the elite ones.

Russell Wilson is slowly becoming a fantasy must-have.

Since Week 8, Russell Wilson has averaged more fantasy points per week than Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers, and has had the same average as Peyton Manning. And while the small sample size average can be skewed by a couple of good performances, I think Wilson’s recent performance is telling as to what kind of fantasy quarterback he could potentially become.

My rookie of the year article didn’t feature Wilson because the hype surrounding the other two quarterbacks made the race seem two-sided only. With RGIII’s injury and Luck’s mediocre play against Houston, Wilson is slowly making a case to be part of that discussion. I mean a serious case. I think RGIII is still the best rookie – especially considering the award is typically stat-driven – but let’s give the short quarterback some props. Good work, Russell.

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