NBD - Week 6 Review A

I'm not sure if this happened everywhere, or only on the DirecTV service that was used at Off the Wagon, or even just at that bar, but there was a five-minute stretch yesterday where the feed from the Chiefs-Redskins game went out and our channel switched over the Ravens-Vikings game. Those five minutes were the happiest part of my Sunday.

As usual, a few NBD games have been decided even before tonight's contest between the Chargers and Broncos. Diving in...


Who Gonna Check Me Boo? (123) defeats Bartebly (79)
For those not familiar with the provenance of Colly's new team name (I am one of them, and I'm guessing just about everybody in the league is), I present this scene from "The Real Housewives of Atlanta":

Oh, reality TV. What is it about you that makes people so desperate to live up to stereotypes of themselves? Seriously, Real Housewife? "Pookie and them?" (And if you think those two are miserable, check out the related video "Who Gon Check Me BOO??" The Goofy hat is priceless.)
That said, the "Who gonna check me, boo?" line does seem to utterly shut down this clueless event planner, and Colly did a pretty thorough job of shutting down Ray-Ray this week. No one on the Bartelby side of things managed to exceed 15 points, and their high scorer was kicker Ryan Longwell. David Garrard (15), Cadillac Williams (14) and Greg Olsen (12) also had decent days, but ultimately there just wasn't enough firepower there for Bartelby to be competitive. It certainly didn't help that the Giants Defense scored a negative point. Such was not the case for the #1-power ranked Check Me squad, who got a plethora of points from a panoply of players (alliteration, bitches). Maurice Jones-Drew (34) stole the show, as he often does, with 178 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns. Marques Colston (22) would have been right there with him if he hadn't had a touchdown called back for not quite crossing the goal line, or if Drew Brees didn't have receiver ADD and throw touchdowns to whoever asks nicest in red zone huddles. Still, 166 receiving yards and a touchdown is a hell of a day. Owen Daniels (20) was also a key contributor in this victory, and last week's hero Roddy White (12) got the job done, if not as spectacularly as he did against the 49ers. Worth noting: In my power ranking summary of this team, I speculated that the "[b]iggest question mark is at QB, but a rotation of Ryan and Hasselbeck should get the job done from week to week." This week, Colly chose poorly (Hasselbeck's 2 points over Ryan's 14), but obviously it didn't hurt him. Against stronger opponents, it might.

The Death Panel (117+) defeats Wild Stallions (75+)
This game is not exactly over yet, but the probability of Nate Kaeding scoring 42 more points than the Broncos' Defense seems pretty low, so I'm gonna chalk it up as a victory for the Panel.  This week made me feel good and re-assured about my draft strategy. Heading into the second round, I had the choice of taking either a second running back ("behind" 5th-round keeper Matt Forte) or Drew Brees. I went with Brees, in the hopes that Ray Rice (my 14th-round keeper) would be able to hold down that RB2 position. Rice (31), went above and beyond that this week, and has generally been the best back on my team all season long. And Brees (31), after a few down weeks and facing a touch Giants defense, had his biggest day since Week 1, throwing for 369 yards and four touchdowns. The receivers did not kick in much in the way of TDs (only one amongst them), but solid yardage days for Andre Johnson (135 yds) and Chad Ochocinco (103 yds) were enough to sock this one away. DeYoung was highly excited about the emergence of Jeremy Maclin last week, but he (1 pt) and his Eagles teammates laid an egg against the woeful Raiders this week. Similarly, the three-headed rushing monster of Rashard Mendenhall, Pierre Thomas, and Willis McGahee that looked so promising a week ago was uninspiring this week (12, 7, and 0 on the bench, respectively). Another performance like this and the Stallions' power ranking could come crashing down to earth.

To watch tonight: Deuceburger needs about 15 points from Darren Sproles to overtake Smegma Amuse Bouche... Woody needs at least 21 from the combination of Brandon Marshall, Knowshon Moreno, and Antonio Gates to surpass Mental Errors.