I am always inspired by the clip of Winston Churchill at the beginning of "Aces High" by Iron Maiden. When I am fighting through an obstacle in my life I find it worth remembering that many men and women in the U.S. and U.K. (and many other places) faced much, much worse within living memory.
That said, my Week 7 foray into DFS resembled many of the plane crashes seen in the video for "Aces High" linked above. It was a weekend of big ups and down, as I roared out of the gates with a stack of Randall Cobb and Jordy Nelson, actually leading several contests at halftime of the 1 PM games.
Then the hammer fell. Green Bay pulled their starters early as they were destroying Carolina. The rest of the afternoon's games were a complete fiasco for my squads - somehow, Derek Carr went from throwing four TDs to throwing zero, despite facing one of the worst pass defenses in the league. Kirk Cousins managed to get himself benched at halftime, setting up a return of Colt McCoy to the ranks of starting quarterbacks.
In short, if it could go wrong, it did (aside from Green Bay's receivers). Murphy was King of me last week. Yup, another 0-fer.
I consoled myself with reading through the Week 7 Game Recap of Arizona at Oakland - though Carr's numbers were terrible, it is apparent that the Raiders' offensive philosophy remains aggressive and full of fantasy potential. It just happened that Carr was unable to complete his long bombs on last Sunday. I commend the Game Recaps to Daily Fantasy Fanatics as it is useful to get another person's perspective on games that are difficult to watch/that disappointed you personally.
I think of this past weekend as my "Never Surrender" moment - though I am tired of having rough weekends, I refuse to quit. So, having beat myself up enough for last week, I move on to Week 8. It started out with an exciting AFC West matchup, and will feature plenty of other dramatic action.
As I have mentioned previously, I write the weekly rushing and passing matchups around here - so one of my guideposts for DFS at FanDuel is to only consider players that do not have tough or bad matchups heading into Week 6. Looking at the matchups this week, the two most favorable pairings I see are:
1. BAL Passing Offense vs. CIN Pass D: The Bengals' defense has fallen apart due to injuries, while the Ravens' entire team has gotten on a roll since they lost to CIN in Week 1. Joe Flacco threw for 345 yards and one TD in the first tilt between these two teams - an even bigger day is potentially in the cards for Flacco and company.
2. K.C. Rushing Offense vs. STL Rush D: Jamaal Charles isn't being forgotten by Andy Reid of late, and he should trample the Rams 28th-ranked rush D, currently averaging 145.0 rushing yards allowed per game, with five rushing scores surrendered this year. It may be a blustery autumnal afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, which will only increase the number of times Charles is handed the football.
As I will be taking breaking news and updated injury reports into consideration while crafting my Week 8 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 8 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 eighth week of the 2014 season, along with sharing some thoughts about DFS in Week 9.
Good Luck everyone, I hope you win ALL your leagues this year!
Roster 1 (this was my GPP roster for the giant contests)
Position | Player Name | Salary | % Owned | Points |
QB | Derek Carr | $6,800.00 | 2.80% | 7.12 |
RB | Branden Oliver | $7,400.00 | 15.10% | 8.8 |
RB | Justin Forsett | $6,200.00 | 33.10% | 9.5 |
WR | Andre Holmes | $6,000.00 | 9.70% | 4.9 |
WR | Jordy Nelson | $8,900.00 | 18.00% | 16 |
WR | Antonio Brown | $8,700.00 | 12.90% | 17.62 |
TE | Dwayne Allen | $5,700.00 | 4.00% | 12.7 |
K | Adam Vinatieri | $5,300.00 | 5.60% | 11 |
D | Buffalo Bills | $5,000.00 | 25.00% | 10 |
Roster 1B
Position | Player Name | Salary | % Owned | Points |
QB | Derek Carr | $6,800.00 | 2.80% | 7.12 |
RB | Ben Tate | $7,300.00 | 19.00% | 3.9 |
RB | Justin Forsett | $6,200.00 | 33.10% | 9.5 |
WR | T.Y. Hilton | $7,600.00 | 10.00% | 14.2 |
WR | Jordy Nelson | $8,900.00 | 18.00% | 16 |
WR | Randall Cobb | $8,200.00 | 7.00% | 21.3 |
TE | Brandon Pettigrew | $4,600.00 | 2.00% | 4.8 |
K | Mason Crosby | $5,000.00 | 1.00% | 8 |
D | Cleveland Browns | $5,200.00 | 10.00% | 8 |
Roster 2
Position | Player Name | Salary | % Owned | Points |
QB | Kirk Cousins | $7,200 | 6% | 2.56 |
RB | Matt Forte | $9,300 | 10% | 25.9 |
RB | Antone Smith | $6,200 | 2% | 1.9 |
WR | DeSean Jackson | $8,000 | 7% | 6.4 |
WR | Dez Bryant | $8,600 | 9% | 19.6 |
WR | Davante Adams | $5,200 | 7% | 8.6 |
TE | Jordan Reed | $5,400 | 39% | 7.9 |
K | Kai Forbath | $5,000 | 1% | 13 |
D | Dallas Cowboys | $4,600 | 14% | 4 |
Roster 3
Position | Player Name | Salary | % Owned | Points |
QB | Joe Flacco | $7,700 | 10% | 16.2 |
RB | Branden Oliver | $7,400 | 12% | 8.8 |
RB | Marshawn Lynch | $8,800 | 7% | 8.1 |
WR | Torrey Smith | $6,100 | 5% | 15.6 |
WR | Steve Smith | $7,700 | 11% | 8.2 |
WR | Andre Holmes | $6,000 | 10% | 6.9 |
TE | Jordan Cameron | $6,100 | 10% | 1 |
K | Matt Prater | $5,100 | 4% | 6 |
D | Buffalo Bills | $5,000 | 42% | 10 |