Folks, our playoff weeks are upon us and I assume that our loyal followers are doing well to come this far into Week No. 14.
There is no better feeling than to start prepping for the final stretch run and grab that elusive championship trophy.
It truly has been a wacky season full of unprecedented twists and turns but hopefully we can provide our audience with the
Final piece of wisdom on the path to victory!
Fantasy Tips for Playoff Week No. 1:
• Don’t start to get overly creative at this point. Play your “studs” as much as possible unless a matchup clearly is not favorable.
In that scenario, review other options such as the Points Allowed vs. RB’s, WR’s, TE’s and of course QB’s. Also look at additional factors
such as an injured, depleted defensive secondary (i.e. Jacksonville was just torched last night as they were down to their 2nd and 3rd CB’s).
• Don’t pick up players just for “name recognition”. Unless you are desperate, or a Matt Forte’ owner, I would steer clear form MBIII, otherwise
known as “Marian the Barbarian”. The thinking here is that Chicago’s offense is sinking quickly with Caleb Hanie at QB- opposing teams are stacking
“8 in a box” to stop the run and Hanie has not delivered the ball on a consistent basis to his outside receivers. At this point, MBIII is mostly a
Goal line back with limited upside. I would much rather start borderline RB2 Ahmad Bradshaw, Willis McGahee, or even Cedric Benson over Barber.
• Continue to play rising stars like RB Roy Helu and QB Tim Tebow. It is very rare that players like Helu surface this late in the season at a critical position
such as RB. However, plenty of championship rosters will have Helu’s name on them. Kudos to the owners for being aggressive on the waiver wire throughout
the season. Teams and players may take breaks during the season but Owners cannot afford to- that is why even now at this late juncture you should
peruse your transactions column to determine if any owners unloaded some valuable players maybe coming off of an injury or a bye week.
• Watch out for the tricky weather coming up in December especially in the Northeast and Midwest sections of the country. If you are carrying 2 kickers- go for the
Safer option in the friendly confines of a dome rather than facing blustery winds or driving rain. Try to take advantage of any variable over your opponent.
Generally speaking, coaches tend to be more conservative anyway in December by letting the “air out of the ball” and running 4 yards into a cloud of dust.
Running backs tend to be featured heavily in offenses moving forward especially in nasty cold environments where the forward pass is riskier.
Running QBs like Cam Newton, Aaron Rodgers and Michael Vick are more valuable than ever during this “Crunch Time” period.
• Don’t forget to play your defensive matchups this week. Teams like the Forty Niners and Baltimore are surging ahead but value can also be found with
Houston and Miami as of late. On the whole however, defenses have been very difficult to predict with any success due to the fickle nature of scoring.
• If you have exhausted all other avenues and still have 2 players of equal rank, review this week’s “Over/ Under” Total Points established by Vegas.
This will give you a glimpse and a relatively good forecaster of total points scored for your skill players. I am sure that the NYG-Dallas tilt should be a
high scoring game.
Good luck folks. Take care
JS
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 
