Tuesday Morning QB, Week 11

Tuesday Morning QB is weekly feature on The Full Court Press, reacting to the past week’s happenings in NFL Football.

Throw-back Trivia

If you watched the Green Bay Packers 53-20 thrashing of the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, you noticed they wore throwback jerseys.  That's nothing new. But what caught me off guard were the hats they wore on the sidelines:

Who are the Acme Packers?  When the team was founded in 1919, they received funding for their uniforms from the Indian Packing Company.  India Packing was taken over by the Acme Packing company in 1921, the same year the NFL granted Green Bay a franchise.  Over the years, the nickname "Packers" stuck.  Some cheese-eating Wisconsin native is probably rolling their eyes at my recent discovery, but for those of us in the country who did not have Packers history as part of our elementary school curriculum, I thought this was a fun fact!

Impish or Admirable?

This is a recap of teams that are either looking good, or need help. This is not a playoff projection. I call it impish or admirable.

Impish - Cleveland Browns.  Just one week after the Browns had sole possession of 1st place in the division this late in the season for the first time since the Clinton administration, they went and did something Cleveland-ish by dropping to last place in the AFC North.  To add insult to injury, the Houston Texans managed to win without Arian Foster, and scored a touchdown with J.J. Watt lined up at wide receiver.  The silver lining for the Browns: Josh Gordon's suspension is over.

Impish - Philadelphia Eagles.  Just to prove the week-to-week nature of "Impish or Admirable," here's a team that was one of my admirable's last week.  For a team that has made a name for itself off big defensive plays all season long, they looked very inept at stopping anything on Sunday.  We're enamored with big offensive numbers, but defense still wins championships.  If they keep trying to arm tackle their way to stops, they'll be in for a long Thanksgiving Day NFC East showdown with the Cowboys.

Admirable - Miami Dolphins.  With all the attention on a litany of other teams in the AFC, the Dolphins have been quietly plodding along in the AFC East.  Since his starting job was in danger after a poor week 4 performance, Ryan Tannehill has managed to assert himself in the top half of the league in passing yards, touchdowns and QB rating.  Despite two weak games recently, Mike Wallace is on track to surpass his disappointing numbers from his first season with Dolphins last year.  The aforementioned Eagles defense can take a few notes as well: the Dolphins are top-5 in the league in points and yards allowed per game.  Don't look now New England, but Miami is only 2 games back in the AFC East and won the first meeting between the teams.  They meet again in week 15, and should Miami complete the sweep, they'd own the tie-breaker in the event they end up with the same record at the end of the season.

Admirable - St Louis Rams.  What. The. Heck? 

 

Fantasy Watch

A look at players worth having on your fantasy football roster, who needs to be cut, and who has deceptive stats.

Like - Greg Zeurlein, St. Louis Rams K.  It's time to show some love for the kickers.  Initially, it may seem more reasonable to give him the "pyrite" label, as Zeurlein scored 20 of his 50 season points on Sunday alone.  While this St. Louis team is still struggling to find its identity on offense, they have shown flashes of potential in their last 3 freaky wins.  Don't be surprised in the coming weeks if the Rams string together some chain-moving drives that stall in the red zone - the ideal formula for a fantasy kicker.

Dislike - Vernon Davis, San Francisco 49ers TE.  Once the darling of fantasy tight ends, Davis has yet to post a respectable game since week one.  In addition to a myriad of nagging injuries, there are rumors floating that he hasn't been giving his best effort as of late (believable considering recent history).  Factor in that he is also on a San Francisco offense that is very vanilla right now, Davis has essentially played his way to the waiver wire in just about every fantasy league.

Pyrite - Jonas Gray, New England Patriots RB.  It's tempting.  He's easily the most popular waiver pick-up in all fantasy leagues right now.  But this is New England.  Next-man-up, flavor-of-the-week, running back-by-committee, the "whole is greater that the sum of its parts" New England.  I was clearly too hasty in my rationale when I labeled Shane Vereen as a "like" in week 7.  In fantasy terms, it's best to exercise caution when dealing with New England running backs.

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