Fantasy Football Friday: Week 5

By Jim Ingram

Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Ok, it happens to everyone, right? I was certainly hit or miss last week, but this week will prove much better for all of us. If you listened to me and played San Fran's defense last week, than you most likely won your game just on that play. If you listened to me and didn't play David Garrard, than you have the right to slap me in the face the next time you see me. Now, let's remind everyone who's on the bye this week. The week 5 byes are: The Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints & San Diego Chargers.

Week 5 best match ups:

1. Steelers @ Lions: Willie Parker still has turf toe, and will most likely sit, so make sure to start Rashard Mendenhall if you have him. He looked fantastic against the Chargers last week, and I am betting he looks pretty much the same against a Lions defense who gives up an average 5.2 yards per carry. The obvious plays for this game will be Ben Roethlisburger, Santonio Holmes and Pittsburgh Defense.

2. Texans @ Cardinals: This should be an absolute shootout and fantastic fantasy game for both offenses. The Cardinals are coming off a bye and should come out swinging with Kurt Warner distributing the ball to Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin. Those are the obvious plays. What you need to do is watch out for the Houston Texans. The Cardinals are 30th in pass defense allowing 280 yards per game through the air. That should mean big things for Matt Schaub, Andre Johnson and Kevin Walter.

3. Buccaneers @ Eagles: Speaking of teams coming off a bye, Donovan McNabb and the Eagles are poised for a big day. McNabb is back and will start the game. He's a sure fire fantasy start this week. The Eagles are sharing time right now with Brian Westbrook and LeSean McCoy. They're both producing, but neither of them should be a fantasy starter right now unless you have a flex position to fill. DeSean Jackson however is turning into a go to fantasy guy. There are only two fantasy worthy players on Tampa Bay right now. Carnell Williams and Antonio Bryant.

Make em' Ride the Bench:

QB - Eli Manning, Matt Hasselback, Mark Sanchez

The first two on this list have more to do with the uncertainty surrounding injuries. Even if Eli starts against the Raiders, they should have such an early lead that he sees more time on the sideline as a precaution.

RB - Cedric Benson, Jamal Lewis, Steven Jackson

Benson is hurt and will most likely not play. Same thing with Lewis. Even if Jamal Lewis can go, Jerome Harrison had such a good game last week that he deserves the bulk of carries. If you have another option at running back I'd suggest sitting Jackson. The Rams offense is so bad, and the Vikings run defense so good, that Jackson should see 8 in the box all day.

WR - Roy Williams, Braylon Edwards, Torry Holt

Roy Williams is still not on the same page as Tony Romo. I don't care if the Chiefs are 28th against the pass. You still need to be able to run correct routes to catch passes. Don't expect much from Edwards the next few weeks, maybe even most of the season. Just look at difficulty Roy Williams has had with the Cowboys. Mike Sims-Walker has emerged as the #1 receiver for the Jaguars, so Torry Holt is a marginal #3 fantasy player at best right now.

TE - Zach Miller, Tony Scheffler, Kevin Boss

Zach Miller has JaMarcus Russell as his quarterback. That should be reason enough, but this weekend they face the Giants Defense. The Patriots have been very good against tight ends this season, so now is not the time to start Scheffler. Kevin Boss is hurt, so now is a good time to give him some rest against the Raiders.

DEF - Titans, Bengals, Cowboys

The Titans are facing Peyton Manning, enough said. I like the Bengals defense, but are facing a very motivated Ravens offense looking to put up a win after losing to the past weekend. I hate the Cowboys defense, and this will be the week Matt Cassel and the Chiefs offense looks OK.

Put em' in the lineup:

QB - Matt Cassell, David Garrard, Donovan McNabb

Cassel will have a good fantasy day against a bad Cowboys defense. So, I was completely wrong about Garrard last week. I will not make that mistake this week against the Seahawks. McNabb has a flack jacket and will be slinging the ball this weekend.

RB - Jerome Harrison, Glen Coffee, Bernard Scott

Harrison had a great game last week, and should get the start regardless of Jamal Lewis's status. Glen Coffee had a pretty good game last week, and should improve on those numbers against the Falcons. It looks like Cedric Benson will not play this week. Bernard Scott had 42 yards on 9 carries last week.

WR - Mike Sims-Walker, Pierre Garcon, Nate Washington

Sims-Walker is the undisputed #1 reciever on the Jags. Garcon, the french wonder, has emerged as the Colts #2 and is a solid fantasy start each week with the play of Peyton Manning. Nate Washington has also emerged as the #1 receiver for the Titans.

TE - Brandon Pettigrew, Brett Celek, Sean Ryan

As long as Stafford plays, he'll continue to target Pettigrew. I like him as a long term TE prospect for fantasy. Brett Celek is now a fantasy starter at tight end, and McNabb loves him as a target. Sean Ryan? Yes, Sean Ryan. He leads the Chiefs in receptions and has built good chemistry with Matt Cassel.

K - David Akers, Neil Rackers

I like kickers coming off a bye week. What can I say. At least you won't need to replace them the rest of the year.

DEF - Steelers, Patriots, Vikings

OK, the Steelers and Vikings are obvious because they play the Lions and Rams. I love the Pats this weekend. They have no reason to fear Kyle Orton, so they can stack 8 in the box and shut down the Broncos running game.

Good luck in week 5!

Red's Rants: Auburn has its man...let's be colorblind and let it go, please

By Brendan Hall
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Tuned into Outside the Lines yesterday afternoon to find a segment that was particularly frustrating to watch.

Let's be honest, ever since the show went to a daily afternoon slot, they've been stretched thin for ideas. That's why you see them doing features on Bobby Reid transferring, why Rick Barry can't get a job, and the guy Danny Almonte struck out for his perfect game "getting redemption" (huh?). But this one struck a nerve with me a little bit, and not just because Paul Finebaum (Luv Ya Blue!) was a panelist in its ensuing roundtable discussion.

OK, so last December, Auburn University forced Tommy Tuberville outta the head post after a turbulent season. They had the choice of hiring Turner Gill, a guy with an excellent track record as an assistant at Nebraska and who turned Buffalo from a Division 1 afterthought to a MAC champion; or Gene Chizik, who had back-to-back undefeated teams as defensive coordinator (Auburn 2004, national champ Texas 2005) but went just 5-19 in two seasons at Iowa State -- an admittedly tough place to win.

Auburn went with the latter, sparking national outrage about potential racial undertones. Gill had been denied a year earlier at his alma mater, Nebraska, over Bo Pelini, who is 15-5 midway through his second season at the helm and has put fear back in the famed "Blackshirts" defense. Charles Barkley at the time called the school racist, and in this segment the Buffalo athletic director thinks Gill was screwed. ESPN's Mark Schlabach at the time went on air and suggest -- through his head coach sources, of course -- that Gill was not hired because he's married to a white woman.

(OK, call me a hypocrite if you must...I contributed research to a Bob Hohler report in the Globe back in 2006 on minority coaching hires in college football. I'm just calling this how I see it)

I understood the hire -- there's no question Gill could do a great job, but they went with the safety -- but at the same time questioned it. Would his familarity with the south in recruiting help him pull together a strong enough recruiting class in just two months? He's went out and proven us wrong, putting together a Top 20 class on signing day and sparking the Tigers off to a 5-0 start.

Could Gill have done the same? Sure. But that's not the point of this column.

Why, ten months later, are we still pointing fingers and playing the race card? Why, Mr. Finebaum, are you suggesting looking into Nebraska's "racist" hire? Why is race still an issue here?

Or how bout Kevin Blackistone suggesting that the track records of DeWayne Walker (1-4 at NM St.) and Mike Locksley (2-3 at New Mexico) will work against future minority candidates? That's the most racist crap I've ever heard. Sorry Mr. Gill, New Mexico State sucked this year, so we don't think you're the right fit at Notre Dame.

I don't get it.

I'm sorry, I thought in this age of Obama we were supposed to be colorblind in our discussion of race. And by colorblind, I don't mean "bitterly play the race card after somebody loses out on a tough call". What if Ray Lewis played the race card after all the questionable calls the Ravens got in their loss Sunday? Would we be lauding him for his "boldness", or lambasting him? Something tells me the latter.

Let's all do ourselves a favor and put this one to rest, before it gets REAL ugly.

***

So this is the "Blackshirt" defense Pelini was brought in to revive. Have you ever seen such a quick twist of fate than the Huskers' 27-point fourth quarter rally? And how about Ndamukong Suh for top five NFL Draft pick next spring?

On Suh...the ESPN announcers pronounced him as "Mr. Suh" a handful of times last night. Get it right, people, it's N-D-A-M-U-K-O-N-G. Duh.

***

Baylor over Oklahoma this week. Period.

Nothing better than postseason baseball

By Chad Garner

Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Well, it's already been a wild start to the beginning of the MLB playoff season.

We had a Detroit-Minnesota play-in game to determine the final playoff spot, a ninth-inning thrilling win by the Los Angeles Dodgers and outstanding pitching from a host a starters.

It's October and there's a reason why it's the greatest month of the year -- well, besides my birthday falling on this month -- because of the MLB playoffs.

Some observations from the postseason so far:

* Are Red Sox fans nervous yet? It's only one game, don't hit the panic button yet Red Sox Nation. Big-game ace Josh Beckett is on the mound tonight, no worries, right? I'll call it now, if Beckett gets the win tonight, the Sox wins this series vs. the Angles. If not, then bye-bye.

Boy, John Lackey was great last night for the Angels. If he pitched at Fenway, he would have been yanked after 5. One mistake by Jon Lester -- he looked fine since getting drilled on the leg with a line drive by New York's Melky Cabrera -- a Tori Hunter 3-run blast, cost him.

* So CC Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez are suppose to be choking dogs in the playoffs, but not Wednesday against the Twins. Sabathia allowed only one earned run in 6-2/3 innings, while A-Hole was 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs. At least for one night, the stage wasn't too big.

Does it surprise anyone that Derek Jeter is so good? His two-run HR got the Yankees back even at 2-2 and the team fed off that emotion later in the game. He's a captain and best leader in MLB for a reason.

* I think that Colorado-Philladelphia series is boring, perhaps because I think NL baseball is a snoozer. But Cliff Lee is nasty. He showed that by going the distance in Game 1 for the Phillies. Shows you how important a legit ace is worth in the playoffs.

* Even the biggest of Dodgers fans were writing off their boys against the Cards. They said, based on history, that there was no way that the Dodgers would beat St. Louis in a five-game series, but that tune might change real quick after the Dodgers now lead the series 2-0.

Los Angels beat St. Louis ace Chris Carpenter in Game 1 -- who would have called that one? -- and now they can send St. Louis left fielder Matt Holliday a Christmas card after his bonehead play in the ninth gave the Dodgers life.

Holliday, who the Cards traded for during the season, totally gaffed a liner off the bat of James Loney which would have been the final out, and led to LA's dramatic two-run, game-winning rally in the ninth with big RBI hits by Ronnie Belliard and Mark Loretta.

Yes, Holliday is claiming he didn't see the ball, and St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright complained after the game about Dodger fans waiving white towels which is why Holliday missed the ball.

He suggested blue towels and didn't think it was fair that they can waive white ones. Cry me a river. Shut up and deal with it. Your outfielder had the boner play of the game. Be a man and deal with it. Good luck trying to win three straight now. It's not going to happen.