Hook’s Week 10 NFL Wrap-Up

Week 10 of the NFL season is all wrapped up after the 78 million dollar man got absolutely shown up by Michael Vick and the Filthadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football.  As much as I despise Philly teams and the people who root for them, you gotta give props to Vick for the most insane fantasy football performance in recent memory.  We’ll take a quick look at the most interesting games of Week 10, go over our studs and duds and who to look out for on the waiver wire for your fantasy squads.

Thursday night kicked off with Atlanta vs Baltimore in what ended up being Matt Ryan’s finest performance as an NFL Quarterback.  Matt Ice went 32/50 (his receivers dropped 7 or 8 very catchable balls) for 316 yards 3 TDs and a last minute game-winning drive.  Roddy White manned up and had 12 receptions for 138 yards 2 TDs.  On the other side of the field, Flacco threw for 3 TDs but no one else had a fantasy-relevant game for the Ravens.

NFL promoters made a bid deal about the Jets vs Browns matchup dubbed “The Ryan Bowl” as the twin brothers coached on opposing squads.  While it turned out to be an entertaining game, in reality the Jets are one of the best teams in the NFL and the Browns are one of the most inconsistent.  When this one went to overtime, you could just feel the Jets were going to win it.  The game ended with a Santonio Holmes scamper for a TD, as he is one of the fastest WR in the league. Holmes and The Sanchize finally seem to be on the same page.  Start Holmes as a solid WR2 or 3 in all fantasy formats.

Week 10’s upset special was the Dallas Cowboys finding life and taking it to the New York Giants.  With a new head coach and finally a sense of pride in Big D, the Cowboys played lights out football at the New Meadowlands.  Literally.  A power outage delayed this game for quite some time as the stadium waited in complete darkness.  When the lights came back on, Dallas continued to pour it on as Jon Kitna played like the QB I told you to pick up a few weeks ago.  327 yards, 3 TDs 1 INT including 104 yards and 1 TD for Dez Bryant (who had a 45 yard reception overturned, mind you) put an end to the G-Men’s winning streak and brought some respectability back to Dallas’ season.  From here on out, you can trust Kitna’s favorite target Dez Bryant as a WR2 who should be starting in all fantasy leagues.

Sunday Night Football featured a stellar matchup between the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Both teams are title contenders this year, but Big Justin Bieber Tom Brady has owned the Steelers historically.  History would repeat itself as Brady lead the Pats to a convincing 39-26 victory, connecting with rookie TE Rob Gronkowski for 3 TDs.  Gronkowski continues to be a red-zone favorite of Brady, as he has 6 TDs on 19 receptions for the year.  He’s available in almost all fantasy football leagues and should only be added in TD heavy formats, as you’re either going to get a goose egg or 8 or so points most weeks.  Ben Roethlisberger had a huge fantasy game throwing for 387 yards and 3 TDs (all in the 4^th quarter) as the Pats were so far ahead they basically stopped playing defense.

Monday afternoon the Washington Redskins did their best impression of Heath Ledger’s Joker and the burning money pile as they signed a fat, aging, performance declining McNabb to a 5 year $78 million contract with $40 million guaranteed.  A few hours later, Bad Newz Kennels entrepreneur Michael Vick showed the world a QB who actually deserves to get PAID.  To say Vick torched the Redskins is an understatement.  He went Madden 2002 on ‘em.  Vick was so good in that video game me and my roommates outlawed the Falcons.  After last night, the league wishes they could outlaw the Eagles as they are now the scariest team in the NFL.  In basically 3 quarters of work, Vick threw for 333 yards and 4 TDs, ran for 80 and 2 more TDs.  In most fantasy formats that amounts to at least 53.32 points.  Asinine.  Skins fans left the stadium after the first quarter.  Philly fans took time away from beating their wives and puking on cops to flood facebook mini-feeds with Eagles pride statuses.  It doesn’t matter how many dogs you kill. If you can play football like Michael Vick did last night, you’re in for a fat new contract.

All joking aside, it looks like Vick has turned his life around and finally started concentrating on football.  I hope young up-and-coming athletes take notice of his actions and learn from his mistakes.  While it may seem fun to do hoodrat things with your friends, eventually the negativity will catch up with you.  Vick, Plaxico Burress, Maurice Clarett… the list goes on.  It’s easy to throw away talent.  It ain’t easy to come all the way back like Vick has.  Respect.

With 13 QBs throwing for over 300 yards this week, we had plenty of fantasy studs.  Vick was the stud of all studs with this year’s most ridiculous performance of 333 yards, 4 TDs 80 rushing yards 2 rushing TDs all basically in the first 3 quarters.  Wow.  Other QBs who had stellar games include Matt Cassel and his huge 469 yard 4 TD game, Tom Brady 350 yards 3 TDs 1 rushing TD and Kyle Orton 296 yards 4 TDs.  Big Ben, Mark Sanchez, Matt Ryan, Jon Kitna and Jay Cutler all had 3 TDs (although Cutler threw 2 INTs).  As for WRs, Dwayne Bowe had a monster 186 yard 2 TD game, Roddy White 138 yards 2 TDs, Mike Wallace 136 yards 2 TDs and Brandon Lloyd 90 yards 2 TDs.  Mike Williams of Seattle hauled in 11 rec for 145 yards, Dez Bryant had 103 and a score, Andre Johnson 146 yards 1 TD and Megatron had 128 yards 1 TD.  Stud running backs were headlined by waiver wire fodder Keiland Williams (owned in 3% of Yahoo! leagues) who managed 139 total yards and 3 TD in Washington’s loss to the Eagles.  The 100+ yard rushers included Fred Jackson, MJD, Knowshon Moreno, Jerome Harrison and Chris Johnson.  While not a stud, shout-out to TSB’s great white hype at running back Peyton Hillis who tallied 109 total yards 1 TD 1 FL.  The guy oozes consistency and gutted out a solid game against a stellar Jets D.

After this week’s offensive explosion, we had less duds/grenades/landmines than usual.  Expectations were high yet again (at this point, they shouldn’t be) for Randy Moss who tallied 1 rec for 27 yards.  Peyton Manning put up a stinker with 185 yards 0 TDs including only 34 to Reggie Wayne.  Rashard Mendenhall managed only 55 total yards and Cedric Benson had 52 yards and 1 FL.  Rookie Jahvid Best seems to have slowed down considerably after a hot start tallying 39 total yards this week.  Rounding out our duds were Brandon Marshall, Michael Turner, Hines Ward (concussion early in the game) and Ryan Torain, who hurt himself in warmups and ended up sitting out the game.

That about wraps it up for Week 10.  Take a look at Hook’s Must Adds, Must Drops, and other players to keep an eye on going into Week 11

Must Add: Keiland Williams (RB WAS), Seyi Ajirotutu (WR SD)

Must Drop: Javarris James (RB IND, Addai and Hart should be back), CJ Spiller (RB BUF, stick a fork in him), Mike Goodson (RB CAR, like James, was only good for one week, son)

Keep an Eye on: Sidney Rice (WR MIN, season over if he’s not of the PUP list by Week 11), Jason Avant (WR PHI), Tyler Thigpen (QB MIA)