Monday Reality Check: Humbling Week Serves Up a Reminder

Yeah, we were right about Tony Romo, Terrell Owens, Matt Forte, Warrick Dunn, Anquan Boldin, Brian Westbrook, the Bears D/ST, and a bevy of others. I also nailed my hail mary running back pick of Darren McFadden. The reading public doesn't love that, though. It's not popular. As Joe Posnanski pointed out recently, the internet police come out in full forces to "get you" when you make mistakes. Being a fantasy football analyst carries significant risk, because it's such an unpredictable beast in nature. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves of that fact.

Yesterday was a particularly rough day, personally. In a comment on my kicker rankings someone called me a "loser." It stung, but not because of the specific intent. I couldn't care less if someone wants to ex post facto get on the rankings and try to make themselves feel better by firing a cowardly internet shot. Furthermore, coming after me for a kicker ranking, upon which I made a sound argument? C'mon.

The reason it stung was the timing. We missed on a lot this weekend. Let's sort through the biggest offenders, and see what was real and what was an aberration.

Matt Cassel - In last week's writeup, I said he is not a stud. I was wrong. I'm fully jumping aboard the Cassel bandwagon. Two straight weeks with over 400 yards passing against worthy defenses sold me. Pittsburgh is a steep test this weekend, but Cassel's a no-brainer fantasy starter down the stretch against Seattle, Oakland, and Arizona. I'm talking QB1 in all leagues.

The Jets offense - Shame on us for trusting the Titans defense at home, huh? Brett Favre, Thomas Jones, Laveranues Coles, and Leon Washington made some owners pay for benching them. Don't make that mistake again, because the upcoming schedule is Charmin soft. The Jets offense equals a fantasy paradise at this point.

Randy Moss - Ok, Randy, I get it. You have been disrespected. I'll put you back in the elite echelon of wideouts.

Jake Delhomme and Steve Smith - When you have two straight weeks of crap against subpar defenses, you tend to lose my trust. I'm not even slighty apologetic for recommending to sit Delhomme. I wouldn't trust these two much moving forward, with the possibe exception of Week 15 against the Broncos. The only thing is, you can gash Denver via the run, and that's really how Carolina wants to beat you. So, yeah, I think this was an aberration.

LaDanian Tomlinson - Colts defense without Bob Sanders, and Tomlinson doesn't go for 30+ fantasy points? Welcome to 2008. He's no longer in the discussion for the top fantasy player. Not even close.

Reggie Wayne - While he's been quite inconsistent this year, he's too good a player in a good offense facing some bad defenses coming up. Seriously, keep playing him. Do you really want to bench Reggie freaking Wayne against the Browns, Lions, or Bengals? I thought not.

Trent Edwards - Yeah, everyone saw that coming (I really hope you noted the sarcasm). The only thing he had going for him was an awful opposing defense -- but he had that last week and sucked.

Michael Turner - We actually didn't think he was a bad start. There were lots of worse options. Of course, we didn't think he was gonna go all Al Bundy against a team that had only allowed five rushing touchdowns all season.

Chad Pennington - Four total touchdowns against the Patriots was nice. Facing the Rams, Bills, Niners, and Chiefs the rest of the fantasy season is nicer. Get ahold of him if you still can.

Jason Witten - He's obviously still hurt, so hopefully you have alternative options.

Jamal Lewis - I'm about ready to just give up on all Browns. When you can't muster any offense against the Houston Texans, well, that is just plain embarrassing.

Panthers D/ST - Did someone say embarrassing? Wow.

Finally, Tom Herrera and I would like to apologize to Lynn in Lafayette for urging her to start Ronnie Brown over DeAngelo Williams. We owe you something, Lynn. Not sure what, though.