Although I got word that Chad Ochocinco has stopped using the phrase “Child Please”, I will continue on as I believe there are still many of those moments out there every week. So please enjoy…..

Pink says Child Please to Breast Cancer – The NFL involvement in support the fight against breast cancer was great, as all teams wore some type of pink, including: hats, cleats, towels, gloves and any other outerwear. Kudos goes out to all involved. However I thought my TV was messed up when I saw the Broncos game and they were wearing pink gloves. Child Please.

Brandon Marshall says Child Please to Terrance Newman – When the Broncos needed a play Marshall came up big. Terrance Newman had great coverage on Marshall but Marshall jumped up and snatched the ball from over Newman’s head and took off down the field. He then reversed direction and continued on for a 51 yard touchdown. Child Please.

Denver Broncos Defense says Child Please to all non-believers – I was a non-believer but they are starting to get my attention. The D is back in Denver. They have been very impressive. The Cowboys scored the most against the Denver defensive unit. 10 points. Child Please.

Brett Favre says Child Please to all NFL teams – What a great game against the Pack as Favre literally led his team to victory over his old team. Favre has effectively beat every single NFL team in his career, with the Packers being the last. Right now if you think Favre is washed up. Child Please.

Aqib Talib says Child Please to Jason Campbell – It’s one thing to throw 3 interceptions in one game, but to throw 3 interceptions to the same person is just a bad bad day. The only bright spot for the Bucs right now could be those 3 picks by Talib because Washington still pulled off the win. Child Please.

Darrelle Revis says Child Please to all number one receivers –Andre Johnson, Randy Moss, and now Marques Colston all have been shut down by Revis (Tennessee doesn’t have an outstanding #1). Colston was held to just 2 catches for 33 yards. Next is Miami, which he will effectively shut down any of their receivers. If you think Ted Ginn, or any of those receivers will be able to have a big day against Revis. Child Please.

Saints Defense says Child Please to Mark Sanchez – Hmmmm. I believe I mentioned that the Jets defense would say child please to Drew Brees, but it seems like it was the other way around. Sanchez finally showed that he was a rookie, while the Saints defense showed that they are pretty darn good. They had two defensive touchdowns and gave Sanchez his worst game of the season. Sanchez threw for just 138 yards, 0 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Child Please.

Rashard Mendenhall says Child Please to Willie Parker…..for good – After the Sunday Night performance, Mendenhall might have taken the torch from FWP for good. He had an amazing game and ran with the toughness that Coach Tomlin likes. What did he do? Just ran for 165 yards and 2 touchdowns. Child Please.

Playoff history says Child Please to the Tennessee Titans – Coming in as one of the top in their division, the Titans are a longshot even for a wild card spot. The only team in NFL history to recover from a 0 – 4 start and make the playoffs are the 1992 San Diego Chargers. Guess who they play the next two weeks. Indianapolis and New England. Child Please.

Completion percentage says Child Please to JaMarcus Russell – There has to be a better option anywhere in the league. Any second string, third string, anybody….Russell completed just 12 of 33 passes against the Texans. Which means he was completing passes just 36% of the time. I’m starting to think Heyward-Bey just got the short end of the stick. Also remember that Houston has one of the worst defenses in the league, but managed to bottle up McFadden and Russell. Child Please.

Rant of the Week

Before we get into the Child Please moments I have to
mention a couple things. I read Peter King’s Monday Morning
Quarterback every week and I absolutely hate two thing about
it. (Everything else I like). The first thing is that he
writes about politics, even though he gave his word that he
would never put politics in his article again, after fans
told him they do not appreciate him doing it. So much for
his word.

Second is he can not stop putting baseball in his column.
His article is called Monday Morning Quarterback. Honestly
if he wants to talk about baseball become a baseball writer.
He will do anything to include baseball in his article every
week. I guess I will file this under Factoid that will only
interest me. End of Rant.

Child Please Moments of Week 3

The Lions say Child Please to the Loss Column – After 19
straight losses the Lions should us that they did not forget
what winning was and topped the Redskins 14 to 19.
The Lions held the ball 22 of the first 30 minutes of the
game and converted 9 of 12 3rd downs. Controlling the game
helped them put the Redskins away. You think the Lions care
about Jim Zorn’s job security. Child Please.

Greg Lewis says Child Please to the Patriots – Greg Lewis
caught the game winning touchdown on a play that he wasn’t
even supposed to be in on. That was supposed to be Percy
Harvin, but he was too tired to go in. Well Lewis made an
amazing catch and managed to get both feet in. He stepped up
when needed. Brett Favre didn’t even know who he was before
that play. The Patriots are probably kicking themselves for
cutting Lewis earlier this month. Now they are stuck with
Joey Galloway. Child Please.

Mark Sanchez says Child Please to the Titans goal-line
defense – Sanchez became the 1st rookie QB to win his 1st 3
NFL games since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. He also scored
his first rushing touchdown on a 14 yard play where he met
the defender head on, bounced off of him and ended in the
end zone. No defender was going to stop him on that play.
Child Please.

Injuries say Child Please to Frank Gore – Gore seemed to be
picking it up after the 207 yard, 2 touchdown day last week.
However, injuries will always stop someone from performing.
It is stated that Frank gore has a high ankle sprain and
probably won’t be back until after the bye week in week 6.
Those who were riding the Gore train better pick up Glen
Coffee, and if he is not available, that owner picked him up
before you just said Child Please.

The 49ers say Child Please to Adrian Peterson – AD has been
a fantasy beast as expected for the 1st two weeks of the
season. He has had 4 touchdowns in the first 2 weeks.
Normally you would expect him to do well against the 49ers,
but the much improved unit kept Peterson to under 100 yards
rushing and no touchdowns. Child Please.

Pierre Thomas says Child Please to the passing game – If you
thought the Saints could only win if they air it out, I
guess Thomas proved us wrong. He came back with vengeance, I
guess he might have been mad that Mike Bell temporarily took
the spotlight. He had 126 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns.
All well Brees had a very normal day, many fantasy owners
are mad about that. Did I mention Thomas didn’t get any
carries until the second half. Child Please.

Pierre Garcon says Child Please to Marvin Harrison and
Anthony Gonzalez – Another Pierre is making some noise.
People thought the Colts would take a hit when Harrison was
released, but they had a good replacement with Anthony
Gonzalez. After Gonzalez went down they thought for sure
Manning and Co. would have problems. However, Garcon has
stepped up and is showing that he might be the better
option. Don’t hurry back Anthony. Child Please.

The ball says Child Please to Kerry Collins – Kerry Collins
tried to bring the Titans back but ended the game with 13
consecutive incompletions. Child Please.

Willis McGahee says Child Please to everyone – Many peeople
wrote off McGahee and went for the high potential Ray Rice.
Even McClain had more value in many fans eyes. Well McGahee
has a league leading 6 touchdowns and he doesn’t even start.
Child Please.

Trent Edwards says Child Please to Terrell Owens and Lee
Evans – Not that this is on purpose but Edwards is killing
the value of Owens and Evans. Both are big play threats, but
Edwards can’t seem to get it to them down the field. He has
to stick with the short dump off type routes, which in turn
is pretty much saying. This could cause problems if the
Bills can not get the ball to Owens. In which he might be
saying. Child Please.

Potential Week 4 Child Please Moments

The Jets D might say Child Please to Drew Brees – Brees will
get his first tough match-up. Jets are for real. Colston
better watch out for Revis.

The NFL Schedule might say Child Please to the Broncos –
What is given can be taken away. The Broncos enjoyed their
cupcakes early and got off to a 3-0 start. I have to give
them some credit. However their next opponents – Dallas, New
England, San Diego, Bye, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh. Child
Please.

Brett Favre could say Child Please to The Pack, or the other
way around – Either way neither one of them are missing the
other.

Winning and Losing Line-ups

You probably won with this surprising line-up

Kevin Kolb – 327 Pass Yds, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, 1 Rush TD – We can
wait, McNabb
Willie Parker – 95 Rush Yds, 2 Rec, 36 Yds, 1 TD – He does
exist
Julius Jones – 98 Rush Yds, 0 TDs, 3 Rec, 38 Yds, 1 TD
Santana Moss – 10 Rec, 178 Yds, 1 TD – He exists too
Derrick Mason – 5 Rec, 118 Yds, 1 TD – Bounce back from
retirement
Vernon Davis – 7 Rec, 96 Yds, 2 TDs – Its about time

You probably lost with this star studded line-up

Drew Brees – 172 Pass Yds, 0 TDs, 0 INTs, 1 FL – He’s not
superman
Clinton Portis – 42 Rush Yds, 0 TDs, 1 Rec, 6 Yds – Hope you
chose the other Cane
Darren McFadden – 45 Rush Yds, 0 TDs, 2 Rec, 3 Yds, 1 FL –
Broncos run D, much better
Terrell Owens – 0 catches – Here comes the meltdown
Roddy White – 4 Rec, 24 Yds, 0 TDs
Tony Gonzalez – 1 Rec, 16 Yds, 0 TDs

 This week’s Child Please Moments are a little more interesting since players were dominating more things than just other players and teams. There was no shortage however. Before we get started I had a Child Please Moment of my own. This past week my fantasy football line-up had:

Philip Rivers - (55 pts)

Chris Johnson - (66 pts), along with Steven Jackson, Reggie Wayne, Terrell Owens, Tony Gonzalez, Ryan Longwell, and Steelers D.

Do you think I lost. Child Please. I scored the most points in my league last week…Anyway here we go.

Darrelle Revis says Child Please to all the top NFL
Receivers – So far Revis has shut down Andre Johnson ( 4
rec. 34 yards) and Randy Moss ( 4 rec. 24 yards) The weeks
they have not played the Jets, Johnson and Mosee both had
spectacular days. At this point if a top receiver thinks he
will post big stats on Revis. Child Please.

The Endzone says Child Please to the Cleveland Browns – The
Broncos have an improved defense but nothing too special,
but the Browns still could not stick it in the endzone. The
Browns have scored just one touchdown is 32 consecutive
quarters. Child Please.
The NFL Scheduling committee says Child Please to the Kansas
City Chiefs – The NFL must dislike the Chiefs or really like
the Broncos, because the Chiefs have a tough schedule coming
up. They have lost 25 of its 27 past games, but no mercy.
They get Philadelphia, NY Giants and Dallas for their next
three games. Child Please.

Chris Johnson says Child Please to all track stars around
the world – Who needs goalline carries if you just keep
scoring for 50+ yards out. Not a single person can catch
him. He scored from 91, 57 and 69 yards out, with amazing
speed. Not to mention he has a helmet and shoulder pads
holding him down. Put Usain Bolt in pads. Child Please.

Ray Lewis says Child Please to Darren Sproles – Sproles has
been playing very well so far this season but it looks like
experience can trump youthfulness. The Chargers were on
their way to another comeback with a 4th and 2 on the Ravens
15. Sproles got the ball but Lewis shot the gap and held
Sproles to a 4 yard loss. Sproles has amazing quickness but
Lewis ended any chance of the Chargers being 2-0. Child
Please.
Kurt Warner and Brett Favre says Child Please to age – Maybe
their arm strength is not as good as it was in their younger
days but Warner was 24 of 26 with a 92% completion rating.
Favre went 23 of 27. This is compared to the much younger
JaMarcus Russel going 7 of 24. Child Please.

Frank Gore, Carson Palmer, Andre Johnson, Matt Shaub and
Jake Delhomme all say Child Please to week one – All of
these players had trouble in week one and made many fantasy
owners doubt them in week two. Well they all responded and
put some doubt to rest. Shaub and Johnson had trouble in
week one but exploded for 357 yards and 4 touchdowns (Shaub)
and 10 catches for 149 and 2 touchdowns (Johnson). Gore did
score 2 times in week 1 but had 22 rushes for 30 yards and a
fumble. That is a 1.4 YPA. Horrible. He came back with 207
rushing yards and two touchdowns and five catches for 39
yards. Palmer had 4 touchdowns this week, after a bad outing
against Denver. Lastly Delhomme showed he was still alive
with 308 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. If you doubted them in week
two. Child Please.

Fred Jackson says Child Please to Marshawn Lynch – Fred who?
Sometimes you just need an opportunity to porve what you
got, and Jackson is definitely taking advantage. He is
making the Bills forget about Lynch with two great weeks. He
rushed for 163 yards and caught 6 passes for 25 yards. Lynch
we are ready for you. Child Please.

Jay Cutler says Child Please to Brandon Marshall – Cutler
showed that he no longer needs Brandon Marshall to be
successful, since he has his new target, Johnny Knox…..Yes
Johnny Knox. He had 6 catches for 70 yards and a touchdown.
Meanwhile, Marshall had 3 rec. for 34 yards. Child Please.

Child Please moments are when a player or team makes a great play to embarrass or dominate another player or team. They might have even played better than another teammate. Here are this week’s moments.

Drew Brees says Child Please to the whole Detroit Lions defense – Drew Brees shredded the Detroit Lions defense with 6 touchdown passes. He ended up with 385 yards passing. This is the first quaterback in NFL history to open the season with 6 touchdown passes. He even threw two touchdowns to MIA Jeremy Shockey. Child Please.

Al Harris says Child Please to Jay Cutler – On the last comeback attempt for Cutler and the Bears, Cutler attempted to throw a stop route to one of his receivers and Al Harris stepped in front to pick it off and ended any chance of a comeback. That was Cuter’s 4^th interception of the night. Child Please.

Atlanta’s D says Child Please to the Miami’s Wildcat offense – With Pat White and Ronnie Brown, you already knew the Dolphins would try out their Wildcat against the Falcons. Well they did, and it resulted in 3 plays for 4 yards. Child Please.

Adrian Peterson says Child Please to the Cleveland Browns defense – Peterson continues to amaze everyone when he breaks a long run to the zone. This time it was a 64 yard scamper, where he literally grabbed a defender with his right hand and threw him off of him on his way to a score. He ended up with 180 yards on 25 carries. He gets the Lions next week. Child Please.

Brandon Stokley says Child Please to the Bengals – Although it was a miracle, Stokley made a very smart play by being in the right position for a tipped ball. The ball was tipped and Stokley caught it and ran for the TD. On top of that he burned 5 seconds off the clock at the one yard line before scoring. The only person trying to chase him down was linebacker Dhani Jones. Child Please.

Mike Bell says Child Please to Reggie Bush – With Pierre Thomas out, Reggie Bush seemed like the man to go to. Well that was not the case. Mike Bell ended up rushing for 143 yards, 1 of 5 backs to go over 100 yards in week 1. As for Reggie Bush? 7 rushes for 14 yards, and 55 receiving yards. Child Please.

Madden Curse says Child Please to Troy Polamalu – The streak continues as Polamalu made a Madden cover appearance just to get a sprained knee in week 1. If you think you can avoid the madden curse, Child Please.

Tequila says Child Please to LenDale White – LenDale White supposedly gave up Tequila, which should improve his on field performance. Week 1 stats – 28 rush yards, 1 rec. 5 yards. Child Please.

Winning and Losing Line-ups

You probably won your league game with this surprising line-up

Joe Flacco – 307 Pass Tds, 3 TDs, 1 INT, 18 Rush Yds

Willis McGahee – 44 Rush Yds, 1 TD, 4 Rec, 31 Yds, 1 TD

Thomas Jones – 107 Rush Yds, 2 TDs

Patrick Crayton – 4 Rec, 135 Yds, 1 TD

Devery Henderson –5 Rec, 103 Yds, 1 TD

John Carlson – 6 Rec, 95 Yds, 2 TDs

You probably lost your league game with this star studded line-up

Jay Cutler – 277 Yds, 1 TD, 4 INTs, 16 Rush Yds

Michael Turner – 65 Rush Yds, 0 TDs

Steve Slaton – 17 Rush Yds, 0 TDs, 3 Rec, 35 Yds, 1 FL
Anquan Boldin – 2 Rec, 19 Yds, 0 TDs

Andre Johnson – 4 Rec, 35 Yds, 0 TDs

Greg Olsen – 1 Rec, 8 Yds, 0 TDs

So it is football season and along with that is fantasy football. Every year people try to think of the funniest and most cleaver team names. Lots have a play on a NFL player, so those are the ones I included. Here are some that I have found and some I came up with….

Flawless Vick-tory

FarveDollarFootlongs

Vicktoria’s Secret

Kibbles and Vick

White Cassell

RomoSexual

Ice Ice Brady

The Great LenWhales

Boldin the Beautiful

Overpaid ConVicks

Corn on the Shaub

Snakes on Reggie Wayne

Ginn and Juice

WD-Forte

Pacman’s Rain

Saving Matt Ryan

Brees Nuts

Forgetting Brandon Marshall

Orton Hears a Who

Burrested Development

Its Farve from over

Well there are many out there, but I’ll stop there. Til next time……

 You probably won your league playoff game with this team:

 QB - Tarvaris Jackson – 163 Yds, 4 TDs, 0 INTs

RB - Dominic Rhodes – 86 Rush Yds, 2 TDs, 4 Rec, 30 Yds

RB - Tashard Choice – 91 Rush Yds, 1 TD, 4 Rec, 52 Yds

WR - Dennis Northcutt – 5 Rec, 127 Yds, 1 TD

WR - Antonio Bryant –8 Rec, 108 Yds, 1 TD

TE - David Martin – 2 Rec, 66 Yds, 1 TD 

You probably lost your league playoff game with this team 

QB - Eli Manning – 191 Yds, 0 TDs, 2 INTs

RB - Marion Barber – 2 Rush Yds, 2 Rec, 24 Yds, 0 TDs

RB - LenDale White – 26 Rush Yds, 0 TDs

WR - Anquan Boldin – 6 Rec, 34 Yds, 0 TDs, 1 FL

WR - T.J. Houshmandzadeh – 3 Rec, 19 Yds, 0 TDs

TE - Tony Scheffler – 0 Rec, 0 Yds  

Just like how the 71’ Dolphins are always brought back to protect their undefeated season when a current team gets close to breaking the record the Lions might be the same in protecting their winless season. 10 years from now, the Bengals might be 0-15 and we will have Sportscenter specials and will bring back Calvin Johnson. Johnson will state how there is no way the Bengals will share the title that the Lions will hold forever and that is being the only team to be winless in an entire season.

Take that Mercury Morris.

Tavaris Jackson scored a touchdown on Sunday for every 4.25 attempts. Before that it was a touchdown every 34.2 attempts. He had 4 touchdowns, and Adrian Peterson had 0. Talk about stealing the show.

If I was a playoff team in the NFC, I would be hoping to meet Arizona, and in the AFC I hope that I go up against the Broncos.

The tough call in the Steelers game makes you wonder how we have gone so long without replay. It is almost like wondering how we lived without cell phones. I wonder how many blown calls were made undetected before replay was implemented. All I know is I do not want to be a ref.

I believe that the Titan’s loss had more to do with how hot the Texans have been playing than the Titans just giving up a game. The Texans are improving drastically and their offense is starting to become very scary.

Jeff Fisher stated that the wind was a factor, in his decision to go for it on 4^th and 3 instead of kicking the field goal while being down 12 – 13. Although I don’t think a fade down the sideline is a good decision either.

Could Leon Washington and Darren Sproles be starting backs for a NFL team? They have tremendous talent.

What an amazing finish in the Chargers and Chiefs game. First the Chargers are going to lose, then they are going to win, now they might lose, but then they end up winning. Did you catch all of that? Santa came early when the Chiefs gift wrapped the win, with a missed field goal that would’ve put them up for good.

Talk about gifts, J.P. Losman was King Santa Clause if there was such a thing. With the Bills holding a 3 point lead, he dropped back to pass for some odd reason and fumbled the ball. The Jets went to take it into the end zone. The Bills got it back twice after that with Losman throwing some picks to end the game. Remember the article about drafting the worst players for the best score, Losman is the waiver pick up of the week.

Lets take a look at the possible running back candidates for the Pro Bowl. First the AFC is clear. Thomas Jones, Steve Slaton and Chris Johnson should be in. Amazing that 2 rookies top the list. Now who is the alternate……..Ladanian Tomlinson…Yuck. Yes, he is actually 4^th in the AFC in rushing yards, with nobody in the rearview mirror. MJD could make a good argument, but how LT is that high nobody knows.

The NFC running back situation is stacked. Adrian Peterson and Michael Turner may be a lock for the Pro Bowl, but after that it becomes unclear. How about DeAngelo Williams who has exploded as of late, or it has to be Clinton Portis who was a MVP candidate. You can not count out the trusty Westbrook or even Brandon Jacobs.

It is going to be hard for people to give LT a chance in next year’s draft. Sure one season will not negate his legacy but we only remember what people have done for us lately and LT has dropped faster than the stock market.

With the fantasy football playoffs going on for the next 3 to 4 weeks many owners know that this is not the time to lose any of their match-ups. You need your quarterback to produce a “Drew Brees” like 300 yard game, or your running back to produce a “DeAngelo Williams” 4 touchdown performance. The consequences are even greater than the Alabama loss to Florida in the college football world. Alabama winds up playing Utah in their bowl game. No. Your loss is could be much worse. A playoff loss will wind you up moneyless, and hoping that somehow next year everyone will go brain-dead and Adrian Peterson will drop to you at the 9th pick. What a horrible scenario. While you ponder that, check out this week’s notes:

You might have won your fantasy football playoff game with this team

QB - Seneca Wallace – 212 Yds, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, 47 Rush Yds, 1 FL
RB - Pierre Thomas – 102 Rush Yds, 1 TD, 1 Rec, 7 Yds, 1 TD
RB - Ryan Grant – 104 Rush Yds, 1 TD, 1 Rec, 8 Yds
WR - Deion Branch – 4 Rec, 88 Yds, 2 TDs
WR - Kevin Walter – 6 Rec, 146 Yds, 1 TD
TE - Visanthe Shiancoe – 5 Rec, 65 Yds, 1 TD

You might have lost your fantasy football playoff game with this team

QB - Tony Romo – 210 Yds, 1 TD, 3 INTs, 1 FL
RB - Clinton Portis – 32 Rush Yds, 3 Rec, 14 Yds, 0 TDs, 1 FL
RB - Marshawn Lynch – 31 Rush Yds, 1 Rec, 4 Yds, 0 TDs
WR - Hines Ward – 1 Rec, 2 Yds, 0 TDs
WR - DeSean Jackson – 0 Rec, 0 Yds, -9 Rush Yds
TE - Chris Cooley – 1 Rec, 12 Yds, 0 TDs

Trivia – Who has the most touchdowns for the Saints: Reggie Bush, Deuce McCalister, or Pierre Thomas?

Yes, Pierre Thomas, with 9 overall. Mercy, beau coup!

Greatest collapse – Bills or Jets?

J.P. Losman is the new Rex Grossman

Next week Baltimore will play Pittsburgh. If it was possible, this score would yield negative points. These two teams are defensive juggernauts.

Dallas’ next three games: Giants, Ravens, Eagles……See you next year…

How important is running back depth in fantasy football. In one league I had Marion Barber, Frank Gore, Matt Forte and Ronnie Brown. In a matter of 2 weeks, I am without Barber and Gore for the playoffs. My strongest part of my team is now my weakest. I kind of feel like the Broncos. They have injuries to Michael Pittman, Selvin Young and Peyton Hillis. Luckily, I don’t think I need to bring on Tatum Bell.

Look at this scenario. The Atlanta Falcons let Matt Shaub go to the Houston Texans. Michael Vick goes to jail for doggie charges. Then they draft Matt Ryan, who has been stellar as current Falcons QB. In the end the Falcons, Texans, and Roddy White all win, Vick and all dogs across America lose.

Welcome back, Deion Branch.

LT is human, but Westbrook is might be super-human. Tomlison has struggled with a toe injury all year and has posted career lows and mediocre play. Meanwhile, Westbrook has had to deal with rib, knee and ankle injuries and maybe arm, wrist, back, foot or any other type of injury that is possible………It doesn’t matter, Westbrook continues to produce. We all thought he was not able to do much in week 14 against the Giants, but he rushes for 131 yards, 1 td and 72 receiving yards and 1 td.

Tavaris Jackson was benched as the starter in favor of Gus Frerotte, but when Frerotte got injured Jackson had his chance to make a difference. We all learned something from last Sunday. You can be a low-quality quarterback, such as Jackson, and still beat the Lions. Ouch.

Between 2003 – 2007 the Lions have drafted four receivers in Charles Rodgers, Roy Williams, Mike Williams, and Calvin Johnson. With the Lions on their way to their next number 1 pick, please, oh please do not draft Michael Crabtree. Please.

Attention. The Browns have not scored a touchdown in 12 quarters. That is all.

The Patriots barely beat a lowly Seattle team 24 – 21. If this was last year, they would have beat them 56 – 10 and would be going for 80 yard touchdown bombs on 4th and 1, while up by 28 points. How quickly things change, when your most important player is lost for the season.

You probably won your league game with this team:

QB - Tyler Thigpen – 266 Yds, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, 26 Rush Yds

RB - Willis McGahee – 112 Rush Yds, 2 TDs, 1 Rec, 9 Yds

RB - Thomas Jones – 149 Rush Yds, 3 TDs

WR - Kevin Walter – 4 Rec, 85 Yds, 1 TD

WR - Mark Bradley – 9 Rec, 81 Yds, 1 TD

TE - Dustin Keller – 6 Rec, 107 Yds, 1 TD

You probably lost your league game with this team:

QB - Jake Delhomme – 72 Yds, 1 TD, 4 INTs

RB - Marshawn Lynch – 46 Rush Yds, 0 TD

RB - Brian Westbrook – 26 Rush Yds, 0 TDs, 3 Rec, 33 Yds

WR - Steve Smith – 1 Rec, 9 Yds, 0 TDs

WR - Bernard Berrian – 0 Rec, 0 Yds

TE - Jeremy Shockey – 2 Rec, 16 Yds, 0 TDs

• The Bears made up their mind and decided to make Collins beat them through the air, by stacking 8 men in the box. Well, Collins did end up beating them through the air with a 289 – 2 touchdown performance. To give the Bears credit they did limit the two backs to just 22 yards rushing.
• Good ole Rex….Devin Hester had his man beat deep and Grossman over threw him. Yes, he managed to overthrow Hester, who had 4.2 speed.
• Titans can run or pass to beat you, dare I say the only way to stop the Titans is to allow Vince Young back in the game………
• This week coming up: Carolina plays Detroit, Philly plays Cincy, New Orleans Plays Kansas City. Just sayin…….
• LT continues to struggle to put up stellar numbers and against a weak defense at that. ( A team that gave up 332 rushing yards against the Titans in week 7) The Chiefs were riddled with injuries but managed to keep LT from having a big day.
• The Broncos had to add Tatum Bell this week, he comes with a lot of baggage, lets just hope none of them are Rudi Johnson’s.
• The Chiefs might have finally found their quarterback for the future. Good thing too, because their other choices were Brodie Croyle and Damon Huard.
• Speaking of the AFC West, only the Raiders can limit a quarterback to 7 of 27, with a 12.3 passer rating, and still lose the game by double-digits.
• The Lions must have thought that if they wore their throwbacks they could somehow forget how horrible they are and win a game with an alternate identity…….Lions are still winless.
• If the Chargers lost the game to the Chiefs on Sunday the standings would have been: San Diego 3 - 6 Kansas City 2 - 7

So here you are after week 5, your season is either really great, so-so, or a full blown disaster. If you’re doing great you should be looking to solidify your roster for the playoffs. If you’re doing so-so, you should ditch your under performers and find some better alternatives to strengthen your team. If you’re in the middle of a Chernobyl roster meltdown you better start your overhaul now to try and sneak into the playoffs. It aint over till it’s over as they say.

Let’s start by looking for coaches that like to run (lots of attempts) and are successful at running (lots of yards). This will help you identify players that might have potential on your fantasy team. The thinking is that if there are lots of attempts and yards, players may be able to get their share of yards and TDs.

So let’s look at the top 5 coaches that run the ball the most, based on rushing attempts. Using only 2008 data, weeks 1-5 you get the graph below.

This 2008 data shows that the top 5 coaches are extremely run happy, with a few others following them somewhat further behind with the remainder near or below average in rushing. The top 5, Jim Zorn, Lovie Smith, Mike Smith, Jeff Fisher, and John Fox have gone absolutely nuts and have some good players running the ball.

Jim Zorn has relied on the running game to give his offense the time to grow and learn. He was lucky to inherit a good running team from coach Gibbs and has taken full advantage of it. Lovie Smith is somewhat new to the rushing coaches list, since he’s been having problems with his running backs lately and have had to pass…even though that wasn’t much of a strength either. Mike Smith has the wonder Michael Turner who has torched the bad teams and only now is starting to put up good numbers against good opponents…even his backups are getting into the act. Mike Smith inherited a running tradition in Atlanta and has had to lean on it with a rookie quarterback. Jeff Fisher once again has a strong running game, but has gotten an added boost from his own rookie running back. John Fox has always been a smashmouth coach and his rookie RB is helping his veterans produce more than they have in a while. Interestingly missing are the two teams that people thought would be topping the list Minnesota and San Diego.

Ok it’s great to try to attempt to run, but which ones actually gain good rushing yardage. Using only 2008 data, weeks 1-5 you get the graph below.

The top 5 coaches that have the most rushing yardage are slightly different than the ones with the most attempts. The top 5 Mike Smith, Jim Zorn, Tom Coughlin, Jon Gruden, Lovie Smith are just above the next 5 coaches that are doing nearly well, with the next 5 again aboge average. So there are quite a good number of teams that more successful than average rushing the ball. With 2 or 3 huge runs from Michael Turner, Mike Smith has taken the clear lead as the rushing leader…there is a 170 yard lead over the next best coach Jim Zorn. Zorn’s rushing game is fairly mature as he inherited it from Gibbs and is just as successful. Tom Coughlin breaks into the top 5 from out of nowhere, with a series of long runs from his three headed rushing monster trio. Coughlin is traditionally a strong running coach even though he doesn’t get a lot of credit for it, so I’d expect his rushing attack to maintain it’s high level. Jon Gruden had a very powerful rushing attack last year and tried for more of a balanced approach this season, but he still maintains a good level of success with his rushing attack. Lovie Smith has gotten some good production out of his rookie. There are more good coaches to look at here, since their rushing performance is similar and could yield some good players under the radar.

So, now it is clear which coaches and teams you should be reviewing closely for sleeper running backs. Start with the better rushing teams, like Atlanta, Washington, New York Giants, Tampa Bay, Chicago, Tennessee, and Carolina and work your way down the list until you find some available players to put on your team. With SportsDataHub.com you can easily display the rushing attempts and yardage for players from these teams with just a couple of clicks. This is the time to act, whether your doing really great, so-so, or are a huge disaster. It aint over till YOU say it’s over.

See a short video on how we did this analysis using our tool by clicking HERE.

So here you are after week 5, your season is either really great, so-so, or a full blown disaster. If you’re doing great you should be looking to solidify your roster for the playoffs. If you’re doing so-so, you should ditch your under performers and find some better alternatives to strengthen your team. If you’re in the middle of a Chernobyl roster meltdown you better start your overhaul now to try and sneak into the playoffs. It aint over till it’s over as they say.

Let’s start by looking for coaches that like to pass (lots of attempts) and are successful at passing (lots of yards). This will help you identify players that might have potential on your fantasy team. The thinking is that if there are lots of attempts and yards, players may be able to get their share of catches, yards, and TDs.

So let’s look at the top 5 coaches that pass the ball the most, based on passing attempts. Using only 2008 data, weeks 1-5 you get the graph below.

This 2008 data shows that the top 5 coaches are extremely pass happy, with another group of 5 following them somewhat further behind with the remainder near or below average in passing. The top 5, Jon Gruden, Sean Payton, Mike Shanahan, Ken Whisenhunt, and Andy Reid have gone absolutely nuts with passing and are likely to have some good players throwing and catching the ball.
Jon Gruden has started several quarterbacks but his focus this season has been to pass a lot. Greise had a single game with 50+ passing attempts alone. Sean Payton is consistently the most pass happy coach in the league, in all situations and conditions. It is no surprise that he’s near the top. Mike Shanahan has been known more for his rushing attack in later years, but now that Jay Cutler is emerging, things may start to look more like the good ol’ Elway days. Ken Whisenhunt is finally putting up the passing attack that he’s always wanted…with a 38 year old QB at the helm and a great set of receivers. Likewise, Andy Reid is almost always near the top due to his West Coast passing attack that uses short passes instead of traditional short runs. With Westbrook in the back field he can’t help himself with oodles of screen passes and outlet drop offs.

Ok it’s great to try to attempt to pass, but which ones actually connect and gain good passing yardage. Using only 2008 data, weeks 1-5 you get the graph below.

The top 5 coaches that have the most passing yardage are slightly different than the ones with the most attempts. The top 5, Sean Payton, Ken Whisenhunt, Mike Shanihan, Wade Phillips, Randy Reid are most definitely above the rest, with Mike McCarthy just a bit behind. The remaining teams quickly fall to around average passing yardage. It’s no surprise that Sean Payton is at the top, not only do they attempt to pass a lot, but they pile up the passing yards. It’s a similar story for Ken Whisenhunt, with successful passing, but he does not have the track record Sean Payton does. Mike Shanahan is still in the top 5 showing some passing success. Wade Philips jumps up into the top 5 when looking at yardage mainly because of some of the long bomb passes Dallas has thrown to T.O. Without some of those passes, it’s likely he’d slip down to 6th or 7th. Of course Andy Reid fills out the top 5 with his easy, safe, and short passing attack. It is interesting to note that Jon Gruden slips 8 spots, showing that while they pass a lot, they are not very successful yet at converting those attempts into receptions and yards.

So, now it is clear which coaches and teams you should be reviewing closely for sleeper quarterbacks, wide receivers, tight ends, and running backs. Start with the better teams, like New Orleans, Arizona, Denver, Dallas, Philadelphia, and work your way down the list until you find some available players. Using SportsDataHub.com you can easily display the passing receptions and yardage for players from these teams with just a couple of clicks. This is the time to act, whether your doing really great, so-so, or are a huge disaster. It aint over till YOU say it’s over.

See a short video on how we did this analysis using our tool by clicking HERE.