Pyle of List

Every Monday, our very own DLamp will be taking a look at what just happened the day before in the NFL, and looking ahead to the Monday night game(s).

Fantasy football makes regular football better. Plain and simple.

I’ve been playing fantasy football for about 5 years now, and I absolutely love it. In those five years, I have definitely come across those people who do not love it. What is the proper response to those people by us fantasy lovers? Easy: “suck it!”.

People who don’t like fantasy, or think it’s hurting the game of football, are borderline mentally handicapped. In what way does it cheapen the game? Because now I have a reason to be invested in games I normally wouldn’t, tune into those games, drive up the ratings and thereby revenue dollars, and make the league more prolific? Yeah, how dare I.

Last night when Roddy White took a short pass, split two defenders and ran into the endzone, by buddy and I both jumped out, shouted, and high fived. And we don’t really care about either the Falcons or the Bears. But we both have White on a fantasy team and needed that TD. This is what fantasy does. It makes games more interesting, and brings people together.

So, in closing, suck it, haters.

Better team: Saints or Vikings?

There only sits two teams left unbeaten atop the NFC, the Vikings and the Saints. So let the debate begin about which team is better…and let it end as well. No question that the Saints are the better team. Besides looking at strength of schedule (Vikings opponents are a combined 11-21 while the Saints victims are 14-15) one only needs to look at how they are winning to know that the Saints are the stronger squad. The Saints have shown a surprising balance on offense mixing in a running game, and have made the defensive turnaround they’ve been hoping for for years. The Vikings have eked out wins over the only decent teams they’ve played (49ers and Ravens) and beaten up on some other truly awful ones.

Can we always put the bad teams against each other?

Listen, nobody wants to watch the truly terrible teams play each week. No one wins having to watch that. So I say, we continue to put them against each other, so the bad teams don’t clutter up my TV screen. Chiefs/Redskins? Rams/Jags? Panthers/Bucs? No thank you! But at least that leaves more games that are interesting for me to choose from.

Who would win in a knife fight: Brady or Brees?

Well, because of this country’s completely outdated view on human-on-human fights to the death, we’ll never know for sure. But, if we look at the way they quarterback, we might be able to infer. Brees would be a surgeon with that switchblade. He would constantly be analyzing Brady’s defenses and finding the holes and striking quickly. But I don’t think he would win. I think Brady has a little more of that killer instinct, and when he’s down (like he was this past week coming off a loss in Denver) he is just too dangerous. He would leave Brees like he left the Titans on Sunday; blood and beaten. And he wouldn’t even blink while doing it.

Will this weekend help or hurt the kickers of the league?

I’m not talking about what goes on on the field necessarily, I’m talking about off the field. Everyone knows that the kicker isn’t that cool. Fine, whatever. But maybe it’s that isolation that’s costing these guys to clam up so bad in crucial moments. When Baltimore’s  Steve Hauschka was lining up for the game winning kick in Minnesota yesterday, you think any of the cool kids told him they had his back? Probably not. And when Akers was lining up for one of the two misses he had (that ended up costing Philly the game) you think he could hear McNabb and Westbrook making fun of his bald spot on the sidelines? Well I’m here to say that the cool kids need to let the kickers sit at their lunch table from here on out, and I bet it will make them more relaxed in these pressure situations. Except for Hauschka of course, he was promptly stabbed by Ray Lewis following yesterday’s loss.

Did anyone want to win that Bills/Jets game yesterday?

Apparently not.

Fantasy Question of the Week

Why don’t people want to trade?

It’s an interesting phenomenon how fantasy owners cling to their players so desperately. I mean, at this point, we know what part(s) of our teams are solid and which need improvement. Yet, if I offer you my extra RB for your extra WR, you’re likely to be offended by the offer. I don’t know if it’s ego, or what, but people do not want to get rid of the guys on their team. Listen, if they were so good, would you really be sitting at 3-3 right now?

Un-Perfect Season Watch ‘09!

Each week we will hilight the lowliest of the NFL landscape. Why? Because it’s fun to laugh and point at other people’s misfortune.

Un-unbeaten teams: St. Louis Rams, Tampa Bay Bucs, Tennessee Titans

Bottom of the barrel (teams that failed to score an offensive TD in the past week):  Tennessee Titans, Kansas City Chiefs, Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Seahawks, Detroit Lions

Monday Night Sneak (Preview) Attack

Den @ SD -  I still can’t believe that Denver is unbeaten. It seems like every week we take a look at this team and think, well this is the week they’re exposed. But not me, and not this week. I like them to win this one on the road and basically lock the AFC West down.

2009 Sneak attack record: 5-1