Week 7 Thoughts & Observations

[Tom Kessenich]

Here are some random thoughts and observations as I wonder if it's sunk in yet to Roger Goodell just how freaking moronic it is to consider an 18-game NFL season:

For one week at least the Next Man Up philosophy worked out all right in Green Bay.

Of course, it sure does help when Brandon Weeden is the opposing quarterback.

Every since the Trent Richardson trade Chris Ogbonnaya had caught at least four passes in every game he had played and was quietly generating some PPR Gold. Until the one week I strongly advocate him. Figures. Sorry everyone, I had no idea Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker was going to emerge out of nowhere and steal all of his snaps. Sometimes, this game is truly maddening.

Josh Gordon sure did an excellent job of lowering his trade value on Sunday.

So let me see if I got this straight, Jim Irsay took Peyton Manning to task last week for winning a lot in the regular season while essentially calling those types of victories meaningless. He then went on Twitter after Sunday night's game to rave about how wonderful it was that his Colts had just won a regular season game. I'm sure that all makes perfect sense to Jim Irsay.

I took a lot of heat on Twitter and on my Milwaukee radio show in the preseason for calling Andrew Luck an elite NFL quarterback. Funny how nobody has bothered to call me out on that lately.

Yeah he's good.

He's really really good.

Trent Richardson, though? Not so much.

Doug Martin. Reggie Wayne. Sam Bradford. Jermichael Finley. Jay Cutler. Not to mention Arian Foster too. That was a brutal Sunday.

Here's hoping for a speedy recovery, Jermichael Finley.

Sure does look like the change from Josh Freeman to Mike Glennon was the best thing that could've happened to Vincent Jackson's fantasy value. Glennon only has eyes for VJax. As a VJax owner, I'm totally fine with that.

Oh, VJax's 59-yard one-handed TD was as good a catch as any player will ever make in the NFL. That was a thing of beauty.

Julio and Roddy who? Sorry, I doubted you Matty Ice. I shall not do it again. That was damn impressive.

Hold on Peyton Manning just fluttered another pass well out of the reach of Demaryius Thomas.

Dear John Fox, when Peyton is trying to rally your team for a victory and the defense has no idea at all how to stop him trying to get cute and calling a running play at the 1-yard line for Ronnie Hillman is dumb. It's really really dumb. You know what's smart? Keeping the ball in the hands of the guy who's trying to bring you back.

You know what's really crazy about Peyton's game on Sunday night? He looked terrible for most of the night and still threw for nearly 400 yards with three touchdowns. The guy is amazing. He really is.

Last week on Twitter and on our Sirius Radio show I lost count of the number of people who seemed to have given up on Calvin Johnson. People wanted to bench him or trade him away for pennies on the dollar. I tried to tell them how foolish that was. He's Calvin Freakin Johnson. No way you give up on someone like that. On Sunday, Megatron returned and the defense rested. I hope all the folks were paying attention.

I have no idea how the Patriots lost to the Jets on Sunday. Up 21-10 at halftime and finally a healthy Gronk. That was an epic meltdown. Hats off to the Jets and Geno Smith for another late-game rally but I'm still dumbfounded by how the Patriots lost that game.

By the way, don't look now but Tom Brady has become a very pedestrian fantasy quarterback.

It took Mario Williams a little longer than the Bills hoped but he's finally making good on that rich free-agent contract.

The Cowboys and Eagles came into Sunday's game with two Top 5 offenses and two highly suspect defenses. So of course they combined for two touchdowns and 20 total points.

So much for Nick Foles being the Eagles' answer at quarterback. Ball's back in your court, Mike Vick.

Case Keenum and Jake Locker combined for three touchdown passes on Sunday. Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, Tony Romo and Nick Foles combined for two. Just like everyone predicted.

Robert Griffin III sure looked like himself on Sunday for the first time this season. It definitely helps that Jordan Reed is an ascending talent and the Redskins now have a potentially dynamic 1-2 punch with Alfred Morris and Roy Helu in the backfield.

Great line from Kenny Albert about the Redskins-Bears game: "Last team to score wins." I love those kinda games.

Jamaal Charles has scored in every game this season. I heart him.

Alex Smith's quarterback draw where he faked to no one and then sprinted into the end zone was a great play. I would've loved to have been in the meeting room when the Chiefs came up with that one.

Kendall Wright has 38 receptions in his last six games and has caught at least five passes in each of those games. That guy deserves a lot more love than he's been getting. I'm not sure anybody outside of Tennessee and fantasy circles knows just how good he is.

Remember when some people were frustrated that A.J. Green's numbers weren't more spectacular? It's a long season, my friends.

The Jaguars have scored a grand total of 11 points in three home games. They are the "home" team for the London game in Week 8. Is that our way of getting back at the Brits for Hugh Grant smacking down Billy Bob Thornton in "Love Actually?"

Barring injury, Eddie Lacy and Le'Veon Bell are going to be dominant figures for their respective teams for a long time to come. Those are two good-looking rookie running backs.

When Cam Newton is playing really well (like he has the last two games), my first thought is always how much better would he be if the Panthers gave him more legitimate weapons to utilize in the passing game?

And lastly, I'm not sure what I enjoyed more on Sunday morning - hearing that Brett Favre not only plays fantasy, that he has Aaron Rodgers on his fantasy team or that he "sucks at it." Probably all of the above.

[wiljiro]

Great as usual Tom, I look forward to this every week -

[mattjb]

This game is so bad I thought it was Thursday.

[BillyWaz]

This game is so bad I thought it was Thursday.

I thought the exact same thing, Matt. It's like a bad car accident, and I can't help but watch.

[CoMoHusker]

This game is so bad I thought it was Thursday.

I thought the exact same thing, Matt. It's like a bad car accident, and I can't help but watch.

I don't think it matters what day of the week these two teams play. Both are absolutely horrible.

[mattjb]

This game is so bad I thought it was Thursday.

I thought the exact same thing, Matt. It's like a bad car accident, and I can't help but watch.

I don't think it matters what day of the week these two teams play. Both are absolutely horrible.

It's getting worse.

[bald is beautiful]

This game is so bad I thought it was Thursday.

I thought the exact same thing, Matt. It's like a bad car accident, and I can't help but watch.

Not true for me. It was so bad I turned the channel in the 2nd quarter.

[BillyWaz]

This game is so bad I thought it was Thursday.

I thought the exact same thing, Matt. It's like a bad car accident, and I can't help but watch.

Not true for me. It was so bad I turned the channel in the 2nd quarter.

Smart man.....you missed the carnage. As atrocious as Freeman was, Manning wasn't much better.

[Tom Kessenich]

Greg and I started Freeman over Ryan in the FSTA Experts League because we thought Ryan would struggle without Julio and White and we wanted to roll the dice on Freeman's A-plus matchup.

Ooops.

Good news is we still won convincingly despite that rather horrific gaffe. Mucho gracias to VJax, Harry Douglas, Brandon Gibson and Jordan Reed.

[ForLoveOfTheGame]

I thought that game was awesome..... but only because I threw what felt like the biggest hail mary of my life in Peyton Hillis and he answered the call to keep my Chicago classic team undefeated (wouldnt have been necessary if my QB didnt die and give me negative points!). Gonna toss Hillis out there again this week with the byes, cant wait for that zero lol!

Tom, I'm to the point I'm going to bench Brady for about ANYONE so you can expect a MONSTER this coming week. I've lost SOOOO many head to head match ups this year because he couldnt score a few more points... SIGH... And can you not cool Ogbonnaya, some of us are so bad at RB we start him and need his catches... I'm not sure if I should lol or cry!