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Hello fellow fantasy football fanatics - thanks for checking in to Old Dog Learns New Tricks, and thanks for playing along with me this week!
My Daily Fantasy Sports squads had some bad luck with injuries at FanDuel last week, as my favored passing matchup featured Nick Foles (though the Eagles posted a respectable total of 24/34 for 326 yards passing, three TDs and three interceptions, Foles only claimed 9/12 for 124 yards passing, one TD and one interception before exiting the game) and my favored rushing matchup had Lamar Miller (35/132/1 rushing as a team, but only 11/49/1 rushing and 1/8/0 receiving for Miller before leaving the game). The partial games cost my various DFS squads (as did Andrew Hawkins' thigh injury).
The lineup that didn't suffer injuries of note did well, winning all three of the 50/50 leagues that I entered. It was also boosted by Steven Hauschka's big day kicking for the Seahawks, which is why he is pictured above. Anyway, when it was all said and done I went 3-7 in 50/50 leagues and 0-2 in the big tournaments last weekend. Not a complete disaster, but not a great weekend either. One thing that is axiomatic about fantasy football - you can't anticipate injuries - bit me deeply last week, but I won't beat myself up over the offenses I chose to invest in (see lineups below). I was on the correct side of a lot of high-scoring contests.
Anyhow, in my search to achieve more victories at FanDuel during Week 10, I'm reviewing Matt Bitonti's Offensive Line Notes this week hand-in-glove with my running back selections for my DFS squads. I commend his work in this area to your attention, stalwart reader.
As I have mentioned previously, I write the weekly rushing and passing matchups around here - one of my guideposts for DFS at FanDuel is to only consider players that do not have tough or bad matchups heading into Week 9. Looking at the matchups this week, two of the most favorable pairings I see are:
DAL Rushing Offense at JAX Rushing Defense (Great Matchup): The Jacksonville Jaguars have given up 34/191/2 rushing to Cincinnati's backup Jeremy Hill and company, and 24/148/0 to Miami's stable of backs over the past two weeks - they are vulnerable in this phase of the game. Meanwhile, Murray is coming off a down game in which his string of 100+ yards-rushing performances was snapped at eight (19/79/0 rushing with 4/11/0 receiving). Look for Murray to bounce back big against the hapless Jaguars.
PIT Passing Offense at NYJ Passing Defense (Great Matchup): How bad is the Jets' secondary? Well, they've allowed a league-worst 24 passing scores to date, and are the only team with more than 20 given up so far, and they have a league-worst total of one interception this year. It's hard to see Roethlisberger having ANOTHER six-passing-TD day, but then again the Jets are actually worse at pass D than either Indianapolis or Baltimore. Especially in the TDs-allowed department. Sorry Jets' fans...
As I will be taking breaking news and updated injury reports into consideration while crafting my Week 10 DFS squads right up until kickoff on Sunday (I am putting my own money on the line here, after all), I will post my Week 10 results and lineups in next week's edition of Old Dog Learns New Tricks. I hope that you, the reader, will check back in to see how a fellow DFS beginner fared in the tenth week of the 2014 season, along with sharing some thoughts about DFS in Week 11.
Also, I hope that YOU win all YOUR leagues this week! Good Luck!
ROSTER 1
| Position | Player Name | Salary | % Owned | Points |
| QB | Carson Palmer | $7,800 | 9.0% | 20.76 |
| RB | Jeremy Hill | $5,200 | 46.0% | 28.8 |
| RB | Arian Foster | $9,400 | 1.0% | 18.9 |
| WR | John Brown | $6,400 | 2.0% | 1.7 |
| WR | Antonio Brown | $9,000 | 33.0% | 25.9 |
| WR | Allen Robinson | $6,500 | 3.0% | 5.5 |
| TE | Travis Kelce | $5,400 | 24.0% | 14.7 |
| K | Steven Hauschka | $5,000 | 8.0% | 13 |
| D | Kansas City | $5,300 | 17.0% | 7 |
ROSTER 2
| Position | Player Name | Salary | % Owned | Points |
| QB | Brian Hoyer | $6,200 | 3.0% | 17.9 |
| RB | Ronnie Hillman | $7,200 | 18.0% | 21.8 |
| RB | Ahmad Bradshaw | $7,500 | 12.0% | 9.4 |
| WR | Andrew Hawkins | $6,400 | 16.0% | 4.9 |
| WR | T.Y. Hilton | $8,100 | 38.0% | 14.6 |
| WR | Dwayne Bowe | $6,200 | 1.0% | 8.5 |
| TE | Rob Gronkowski | $7,900 | 34.0% | 21 |
| K | Chandler Catanzaro | $4,900 | 2.0% | 4 |
| D | Cincinnati Bengals | $5,800 | 13.0% | 8 |
ROSTER 3
| Position | Player Name | Salary | % Owned | Points |
| QB | Nick Foles | $8,400 | 5.0% | 8.06 |
| RB | Frank Gore | $7,200 | 2.0% | 6.3 |
| RB | Lamar Miller | $7,300 | 10.0% | 12.2 |
| WR | Jeremy Maclin | $8,400 | 22.0% | 30.8 |
| WR | Mohamed Sanu | $7,200 | 14.0% | 18.4 |
| WR | Andre Holmes | $6,500 | 1.0% | 3.8 |
| TE | Heath Miller | $5,400 | 5.0% | 1.9 |
| K | Randy Bullock | $4,800 | 8.0% | 3 |
| D | Washington | $4,800 | 1.0% | 1 |
