Calling Our Shots – Week Thirteen

Fantasy football can at times be a very funny place to seek help when you need it most. One week, a so called “expert” will tell you to start “Player A” because “Player A” is a “can’t miss” starter who will blow up that week. A week later, that expert will deny giving that advice to their readers or followers but will be more than happy to tell you to start “Player B” this week. It would be almost comical in some instances if it wasn’t so tragic for the people who take the advice of these charlatans.

As a staff member of DLF, I can tell you that everyone affiliated with this site both loathes and detests this behavior. Every staff member on the DLF team constantly tries to learn and better ourselves so we may be of better help to you. Part of that process is being accountable for our successes, as well as our failures. We’re doing that each and every week as we’re offering personalized lineup advice as part of our premium content. We’re answering every question posted in a timely manner and helping out as best we can – those answers are public knowledge and we’ll stand by them every week.

We’ve also decided to roll out this new series entitled, “Calling Our Shots.” The premise of this series is to get some predictions for the upcoming week. Some writer’s predictions are bold, some are solid, while others, well, we wouldn’t place too much money on them in Las Vegas!

When we’re right, we’ll share our successes. When we’re wrong, it should present a great way for our loyal readers to give us a good (and hopefully friendly) ribbing. The point is we don’t hide from the advice we give or the predictions we make.

We also want to give you the same chance.

Our community is an essential part of the success of DLF. This weekly series also asks YOU, the readers, to post your own shots in the comments below. We all have that coach in our league who says, “Yeah, I could have told you not to start that guy” and perhaps that’s even you who thinks that! Well, here’s your chance to make those bold predictions when they count - before the games are played. We invite everyone to blow up the comments section again today and make any player predictions you want for the week – this will give you a perfect opportunity to officially say, “I told you so,” or offer a brutally embarrassing piece of ammunition for your opponent to use against you next week. Either way, this is a great way for the community and the writers to have some good old fashioned fun each and every week!

Every person who is featured in subsequent weeks will be put into a drawing after week 17 for a free yearly membership or their renewal to our premium content and a free DLF T-shirt!

Welcome to Week 13! Either you’re in the playoffs currently, fighting for one of the remaining spots or you’re planning for next year. It’s hard to believe but in a few short weeks we’ll be crowning our fantasy champions and we’ll be going into that long stretch of time where we don’t play fantasy football. I like to call it my dark place. As for the actual players on the field we saw some nice quarterback performances on Thanksgiving Day which hopefully left some of you out there thankful for drafting Matthew Stafford or Tony Romo, both of whom threw for 441 yards in losing efforts. Stafford had two touchdown passes and zero interceptions while Romo had three touchdown passes and two interceptions. In the running back department we got to see what all of the hyper surrounding Bryce Brown was about as he rushed for 178 yards and two touchdowns in his first NFL start! We also saw Andre Johnson claim back-to-back wide receiver of the week honors with a 9 catch, 188 yard performance. All in all it was a very satisfying week.

Well this week the DLF staff didn’t do any better than last week, we also didn’t do any worse either, scoring 11 correct shots called. TheFFGhost, Andy Miley and Chris Rohrer all hit on two correct shots and share the title of Shot Caller of the Week. The DLF staff had the Monday night game pegged with three of the shots called correctly coming from that game alone. Let’s dive right into the correct shots called for Week 12:

Eric Olinger – Chicago D has at least two turnovers.

Chris Rohrer – BJGE finds the end zone.

Andy Miley – Steelers defense scores a touchdown.

Jaron Foster – Cleveland defense forces 3+ turnovers.

Chris Rohrer – Doug Martin finds the end zone twice.

Eric Hardter – Against all odds, Ryan Lindley throws for more yards than Sam Bradford.

TheFFGhost – Five different players will have a touchdown in this game.

Eric Hardter – Nicky finally re-asserts himself as the Giants’ wide receiver to own, getting more yards and receptions than Victor Cruz.

Eric Dickens – Cam Newton combines for 3+ TD’s.

TheFFGhost – Philly hardly notices McCoy is gone as Brown goes over 75 rushing yards and gets in the endzone.

Andy Miley – Bryce Brown gets 100 combined yards.

The DLF staff was able to count another 7 shots as very close. Here are those shots:

Eric Hardter – Brady Quinn is held to under 200 yards passing and 2+ turnovers.

Andy Miley – Russell Wilson outduels Ryan Tannehill in passing TDs (3), but Tanne throws for more yards 250+.

Eric Dickens – Kendall Wright has 6+ receptions on the day.

TheFFGhost – Chris Johnson goes over 100 total yards and scores.

Eric Hardter – Ray Rice finally breaks out of his slump with 130+ total yards and a score.

Eric Olinger – Beanie Wells leads the Cardinals in rushing, breaking the 50 yard mark in his return.

Andy Miley – Larry Fitzgerald does not go over 25 yards.

The crown of Reader Shot Caller of the Week is being awarded to C0dysseus who hit on five out of his seven shots called. C0dysseus had some very nice calls with some players who, let’s put it this way, aren’t the most consistent players in the world. However, C0dysseus seemed to have no problems with that and actually had a harder time guessing what more consistent players were going to do instead. A big congratulations to goes to C0dysseus from the DLF staff. We’re going to enter your name into our year end drawing as the week 12 representative.

 

Week 13 here we come:

 

Jacksonville @ Buffalo

Paymon Shokoohi – Henne and Fitzpatrick combine for 550 yards passing.

TheFFGhost – Cecil Shorts scores but Blackmon does not.

Jacob Feldman – Shorts leads the Jags in yards again this week.

Andy Miley – Stevie Johnson gets 6+ catches and 80+ yards.

Eric Hardter – Marcedes Lewis stays involved with 50+ yards and a TD.

Jaron Foster – Cecil Shorts with 2+ receptions over 40 yards and over 100 total yards.

 

Seattle @ Chicago

TheFFGhost – Marshall grabs two touchdowns.

Eric Olinger – Rough day for Wilson, less than 225 yards passing.

Jacob Feldman – Marshall has double digit targets yet again with 100+ yards.

Andy Miley – Brandon Marshall has 7+ catches and 90+ yards.

Eric Hardter – The Seahawks are on the road, so naturally they’ll all suffer.  I’ll go with under 75 rushing yards for Marshawn Lynch.

 

San Francisco @ St. Louis

Eric Dickens – Frank Gore gets 2 TD’s on the day.

TheFFGhost – Jacobs will make the most of his opportunities and will score at least once.

Eric Olinger – No tie here, Kaepernick scores 3 total TDs.

Jacob Feldman – Bradford struggles with under 250 yards of passing.

Andy Miley – Kappy goes over 300 yards in total offense and runs/passes for 3 total touchdowns.

Eric Hardter – San Fran’s defense stays hot, with at least five sacks of a rattled Sam Bradford.

Jaron Foster – Vernon Davis leads both teams in receiving yards.

 

New England @ Miami

TheFFGhost – Brady will pass for at least three touchdowns.

Eric Olinger – Welker and Edelman combine for 10+ catches.

Jacob Feldman – Hernandez comes on strong with 5+ catches and 70+ yards.

Andy Miley – Both quarterbakcs combine for 700+ yards and 5 touchdowns.

Eric Hardter – Wes Welker torches his former team for 8+ receptions and 120+ yards.

 

Arizona @ NY Jets

Eric Dickens – Bilal Powell takes the starting RB job from Greene w/ 75+ yards on split carries.

TheFFGhost – Kerley is targeted the most out of anyone in this game.

Eric Olinger – Beanie Wells rushes for 75+yards.

Jacob Feldman – 5+ turnovers in this game, mostly because the QBs are so bad.

Andy Miley – Both teams combine for less than 400 passing yards.

Eric Hardter – Mark Sanchez does something hilarious.  Oh wait, I should probably go out on a limb here:  Ryan Lindley has more passing yards than Sanchez (and doesn’t run into his lineman’s butt).

 

Indianapolis @ Detroit

TheFFGhost – Passing yard out number rushing yards in this game by at least a 4 to 1 ratio.

Eric Olinger – No running back on either team rushes for more than 70 yards.

Jacob Feldman – Calvin Johnson catches 6+ for 120+ yards and another score. That slow start is a distant memory.

Andy Miley – The quarterbacks combine for 750 passing yards and 7+ touchdowns.

Eric Hardter – Calvin Johnson and Reggie Wayne combine for over 300 receiving yards.

 

Minnesota @ Green Bay

Eric Dickens – Randall Cobb gets 110+ combo yards.

TheFFGhost – Rudolph will pull down at least five receptions.

Eric Olinger – Adrian Peterson rushes for 100 yards.

Jacob Feldman – Peterson tallies more yards than any other RB/WR.

Andy Miley – Greg Jennings gets 70+ yards and a touchdown after his long layoff.

Eric Hardter – Adrian Peterson makes the team bus on time and has another standard day at the office:  130+ total yards and a TD.

 

Houston @ Tennessee

TheFFGhost – Nate Washington has a nice 5+ catch day against a strong Houston defense.

Eric Olinger – Jake Locker has over 300 total yards.

Jacob Feldman – Cook stays involved and catches 5+ for 60+ yards.

Andy Miley – Andre goes over 150 yards again.

Eric Hardter – Jake Locker exploits a suddenly suspect Texans D with 230+ yards passing, 30+ yards rushing and at least three total TD’s.

 

Carolina @ Kansas City

Eric Dickens – Cam continues his multi-TD games with 3 combined versus the Chiefs.

TheFFGhost – Quinn gets sacked at least 4 times.

Eric Olinger – Brandon LaFell has at least 5 catches for 70 yards.

Jacob Feldman – Cam stays hot against a terrible defense. 250+ passing with 3+ total TDs.

Andy Miley – Charles goes over 125 combined and scores.

Eric Hardter – Even with Jonathan Stewart’s likely absence, DeAngelo Williams doesn’t top 60 rushing yards.

 

Tampa Bay @ Denver

Eric Dickens – Peyton has a field day with the poor Bucs passing defense, totaling 4 TD’s.

TheFFGhost – Manning will pass for over 350 yards.

Eric Olinger – There will be a defensive TD in this game.

Jacob Feldman – At least 4 players have 100+ yards receiving.

Andy Miley – The quarterbacks combine for over 800 yards and 8 touchdowns.

Eric Hardter – With Denver crowding the line of scrimmage, Doug Martin excels in the passing game, with 5+ receptions for 60+ yards.

 

Cleveland @ Oakland

TheFFGhost – Weeden has his best passing game of the year.

Eric Olinger – Josh Gordon scores a long touchdown.

Jacob Feldman – Reese leads the Raiders RB in yards gained and touches.

Andy Miley – Richardson goes over 150 combined and scores.

Eric Hardter – Denarius Moore does little to calm the fears of his fantasy owners, getting shut down by Joe Haden to the tune of under 40 receiving yards.

 

Cincinnati @ San Diego

Eric Dickens – The Bengals win by 14+ behind a huge 2 TD game by AJ Green.

TheFFGhost – Gresham looks great with at least 7 receptions.

Eric Olinger – Danario Alexander has 80 yards and a TD.

Jacob Feldman – AJ Green starts a new streak of TDs after having it snapped last week.

Andy Miley – Rivers throws a touchdown, gets picked twice, fumbles once, and gets sacked four times.

Eric Hardter – Andy Dalton finally throws another interception, but counteracts it with at least three touchdowns.

 

Pittsburgh @ Baltimore

TheFFGhost – Batch throws at least three interceptions and is sacked at least four times.

Eric Olinger – Flacco throws 2+ interceptions because he remembers he a pathetic bum.

Jacob Feldman – No Steeler gets 80+ yards of receiving.

Andy Miley – Dwyer rushes for 100 yards and scores w/zero fumbles.

Eric Hardter – Anquan Boldin leads both teams in receiving yards.

 

Philadelphia @ Dallas

TheFFGhost – Witten grabs at least eight receptions.

Eric Olinger – Bryce Brown totals over 100 yards.

Jacob Feldman – Dez stays hot with 7+ catches and 100+ yards.

Eric Hardter – Tony Romo continues his hot streak, scorching the Eagles for over 320 passing yards and two scores.

 

NY Giants @ Washington

TheFFGhost – Bradshaw finishes with a better stat line than Morris.

Eric Olinger – Ahmad Bradshaw rushes for over 100 yards.

Jacob Feldman – RG3 struggles with under 300 total yards and only 1 TD.

Eric Hardter – Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz each have over 100 receiving yards.

 

Will 13 be your lucky number with Week 13 upon us? Can you beat the DLF staff and your fellow readers with your shots? Talk is cheap, let’s see it! We’ve only got five more weeks left in the contest so make sure you get your entry in for our year end drawing where the winner will take home a full year of DLF Premium and a cool DLF t-shirt to wear around town. As always we’d like to close with a congratulations to our weekly winner, C0dysseus, great job! Have a great week everyone and keep coming back to DLF to help you march through your fantasy playoffs or two make sure you make the playoffs next year!

Don’t forget, if we select your entry we’ll enter you into a drawing for a full year of DLF premium content and a free DLF t-shirt!