Phillip McDonald Wins Week 8 Prize

[Tom Kessenich]

It’s been a season of adjustments. That much is certain. Make the right adjustments and it will be an enjoyable drive to work on Monday morning. Make the wrong ones and you’ll spend the rest of the week grumbling about what might have been.

Phillip McDonald wasn’t sure what to expect last week in the NFFC. With Edgerrin James and Dwayne Bowe out on byes, that forced him to play DeShaun Foster and Arnaz Battle. An injury to Ben Watson thrust Jeff King into his starting lineup.

It was definitely a week that could have gone wrong. But fortunately for McDonald, it didn’t go wrong at all. In fact, it went very, very right.

Foster and King delivered and that was part of a strong week of performances that helped his Big Mac Attack team in Chicago League 5 finish first in the NFFC last week with 192.50 points.

Another huge week from Tom Brady (45.7 points) led the way. Braylon Edwards (31.7), Joseph Addai (29.9) and Joey Galloway (23.5) also had strong weeks.

“I felt like my lineup was on stable ground, but I was nervous about my running back, wide receiver and tight end starts for the week,” McDonald said. “With the emergence of Kenton Keith, would my No. 1 pick, Joseph Addai, get 20-plus carries, and more importantly scoring opportunities at the goal line? And how would Chris Chambers, near the top
every week in wide receiver touches, be integrated into the San Diego offense?

“Of course, as it turned out, most things turned out well for me this week. I was watching the Carolina/Indy game since both of my starting running backs were involved. Addai had a great game and Foster scored a TD, putting my running back concerns at ease. And the Carolina offense resorted to the five-yard dumpoff to Jeff King strategy in the second half. No arguments from me.

“Coupled with what has become regular, outstanding production from Braylon Edwards and Tom Brady, the points kept rolling. With the exception of Arnaz Battle, all of my skill position players scored in double digits.”

There’s no question Brady has been a critical component of McDonald’s season so far. McDonald landed Brady in the third round, a pick he was hardly thrilled about at the time.

“My intention was to go with the 3 running back/3 wide receiver strategy for the first six rounds and waiting to get an upside quarterback, such as Philip Rivers, later in the draft,” he said. “Apparently my leaguemates read me like a book because with the two picks right before me in the third round, the last running back and wide receiver that I would have taken were snatched off the board (Ronnie Brown and Javon Walker).

“A little irritated, I did the one thing I never expected to do at the draft which was take a quarterback in the early rounds. I grudgingly took Tom Brady.

“The rest of the draft I felt the need to play catch up at wide receiver. I ended up taking three wide receivers with the next three picks and four more toward the end of the draft. Now, the wide receivers look solid (Edwards, Chambers, Galloway, Bowe, etc), but at the time I felt it was definitely my weak area that could end up costing me.”

McDonald is single and lives in Huntsville, Ala. For finishing first last week he wins a Bo Jackson Autographed 'Transition' Photo Collage courtesy of Upper Deck Authenticated, a prize that has added meaning.

“He was one of my favorite players growing up,” Phillip said. “I still have the Classic Baseball card with him in his Auburn football gear, swinging a baseball bat; it’s the best card ever. Also, residing in Alabama, I have a feeling people around here will be very envious of this prize.”