Week 6 In Fantasy Was A Wild One

Week 6 was bound to give fantasy owners fits. A few of you will even be heading to Radio Shack to buy replacement television remotes for the one's you threw against the wall this Sunday. You know, when Ray Rice single-handedly sank your team this week with his monster game against the league's best run defense. That's when I threw mine. Or when Donovan McNabb forgot he was playing the lowly Oakland Raiders, and you benched Drew Brees against a stout Giants defense. Or perhaps when you played Sammy Morris as your flex RB, not realizing Bill Bellichick decided he'd go with phony Maroney this week instead. Those are just a few of the things my team's faced, and no doubt all of you reading this have had similar tales to tell and can identify with the frustrations of fantasy football. I am not immune to bad choices and second guessing myself. I benched Drew Brees in favor of Aaron Rodgers in one league, because I figured Rodgers to face a more favorable defense. This is where some of us who take this "game" too seriously need to remember that it is indeed a game, and find our inner calm. Besides we have week 7 to plan for.

This weekend was a fantasy explosion for all things New England Patriots. The team was up 59-0 in the third, before Brady left for a back-up QB. If you owned and played Tom Brady, Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Laurence Maroney or the team towel boy you probably won your game this week. If you had any Tennessee Titans (not named Chris Johnson) on your active roster, well, you get the picture. Brady threw 6 TD passes, and the team rushed for 3 more. So my advice this week is, Sell High! You've just seen the best any of these guys will do all season. Trade them for studs who already have their bye weeks in the rearview mirror. The biggest surprise here was Laurence Maroney rushing for 123 yards and a TD. Does this mean he's back to being the team's number one guy? What happened to Sammy Morris? Is Maroney even worth picking up? The honest answer to all these questions is, who the heck knows? No coach plays their cards closer to the vest than Bill Bellchick. In fact, I'd guess he has his cards sown to his chest. Perhaps the most intriguing plus of the day, was 5th string RB BenJarvis Green-Ellis who had 78 total yards of his own. What is known is Sammy Morris was carted off in the first quarter with a knee injury and did not return. Hence, Maroney got the ball. If Morris is not seriously hurt, he could be the team's go-to-guy again moving forward. So don't sell your soul trying to get Maroney.

Another game which held a few surprises was the Ravens/Vikings match-up. Ray Rice rushed 10 times for 77 yards and 2 touchdowns against the league's best rush defense. If that were not enough, he was also the team's leading receiver with 10 receptions for 117 yards. Talk about your fantasy jackpot. This game should have been huge for Todd Heap facing the league's worst protectors against the TE position, but he only had three catches. Meanwhile, the Ravens, who are excellent at covering tight ends, gave up four receptions to Vinsanthe Shiancoe, and two of them were for TDs. Even when you play the odds, you can get it wrong. For the second straight week, Willis McGahee was the invisible man. Vikings WR, Sidney Rice, led his team and the league with 176 receiving yards, but he never found the endzone. He is, however, looking more and more like Brett Favre's favorite target, much to the dismay of Bernard Berrian owners.

Other stud running backs finally getting into their groove this week: Jets RB, Thomas Jones ran for over 200 yards and a TD in an overtime loss to the Bills. The Panthers double-headed RB monster of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathon Stewart showed up with 3 rushing TDs against the defensively impaired Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Not surprisingly, Jaguars RB Maurice Jones-Drew laid up three scores on the St. Louis Rams. Finally, the Texans' Steve Slaton put up 102 yards and a score against the Cincinnati Bengals. Oh wait, that was receiving. He also had another 43 yards rushing.

After throwing four touchdown passes in his first game back from injury, Matt Hasselbeck threw a goose-egg against the defensively porous Arizona Cardinals secondary. It was a bad fantasy day all around for Seahawks owners. RB Julius Jones had 5 yards, and the team's leading receiver was TE John Carlson who had 2 catches. T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Nate Burleson were fantasy duds this week as well.

The Steelers/Browns game had a few fantasy notables as well. Pittsburgh wide-receivers Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes each eclipsed the 100 yard receiving mark with Ward cashing in once with a TD. Ben Roethlisberger passed for 417 yards, and TE Heath Miller had another big day with 80 yards and a score. Even third-string receiver Mike Wallace had 71 total yards. Rashard Mendenhall had a decent day rushing, and he scored, but the return of Willie Parker kept him from hitting 100 yards. For the Browns, the team's leading receiver was Mohamed Massaquoi with 83 yards and no score. The big surprise of the day for the Browns was how much they used WR Joshua Cribbs who threw two passes in the wild cat formation, had a kick-off return for a touchdown, and was the team's leading rusher with 45 yards. The one thing the receiver did not do was catch a pass.

In New Orleans, the Saints picked up right where they left off before the bye week, by dismantling the league's best defense, the New York Giants. Drew Brees found his mojo again and tossed four TDs to four different receivers. For the third straight week, WR Hakeem Nicks led the team in receiving yards, and once again scored. As mentioned last week, and proven again this week, RB Ahmad Bradshaw appears to be the team's top back, not Brandon Jacobs.

In the night game, both Bears' QB Jay Cutler, and Falcons' QB Matt Ryan threw two TD passes, and two interceptions. The difference in the game was RB Michael Turner's five-yard touchdown run. Turner only had 30 rushing yards all night, and his YPC was once again a lowly 2.3. He continues to wear my bust label proudly. Trade him now while owners are still having visions against the 49ers last week. For the Bears, the other first round draft bust, Matt Forte did even less. His own quarterback out-rushed him with 34 yards on three carries. Forte ran for 23 yards on 15 carries. That's 1.5 yards per carry. My mother-in-law's not even that ugly.

That brings us to the midway point of the regular fantasy season. By now you have a pretty good idea if you're in the mix for the play-offs or a lame duck. In rotisserie leagues, your season may already be over, but in head-to-head leagues, things can change in a hurry. So don't give up. Seldom do the best teams win. Keep making trades, work the waiver wire, and if nothing else, play the spoiler. See you Friday with the Week 7 Starts and Sits.

Written by Rustyn Rose