Not so great Week 8

Well, not so great for our ESPN Gurus. And definitely not great for Hokie fans. I think I'm finally dried out from the soaking I got in Blacksburg, so let's tackle Eric Karabell and Scott Engel's week 8 rankings.

The Grades
Karabell
QB: B (8.29)
RB: C+ (5.74)
WR: C (5.12)
TE: D (3.48)
K: D (3.48)
D/ST: B+ (5.6)
C

Engel
QB: B (8.34)
RB: C+ (5.71)
WR: D+ (4.93)
TE: D+ (3.72)
K: D+ (3.69)
D/ST: C+ (4.99)
C

Scott Engel seems to finally have jumped onto the Derek Anderson bandwagon. Anderson (6/3) has put up at least 13 fantasy points in each game he's started this season (remember he didn't start week 1), and put up 21 this week against the Rams. He's not a "name" QB like Manning, Palmer, or Brady, but he's legit. And his last six starts of the season are against Houston, Arizona, the Jets, Buffalo, Cincy and San Fran. Not exactly murderers row there of defenses, so Anderson should be primed to put up big numbers right as fantasy playoff season is going. He does have 3 tough games next against Seattle, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh, but he does have 380+ yards and 3 TDs against Baltimore and Pitt (limited action) this season.

Tom Brady (1/1) and the Patriots continued their assault on the NFL this week. Both gurus kept Brady ranked ahead of Peyton Manning (2/2), and Brady put up nearly twice the fantasy points as Manning. The real impact on the stats, though, were Brady's two rushing TDs. Always a nice boost, especially in a league where rushing TDs = 6 and passing TDs = 4.

Is Drew Brees (12/10) back, or did he just take advantage of a great matchup against my woeful Niners? At least 14 fantasy points each of the last three weeks. Keep an eye on him. Meanwhile, Eli Manning (4/4) seems to be floating along in mediocrity. Excluding his first-week explosion, he hasn't scored more than 14 fantasy points in any week this season. This week, playing the winless Dolphins, he managed to score the same amount of fantasy points as superhero QBs Quinn Grey, Cleo Lemon, JP Losman (didn't start), and Matt Casell (NE backup QB).

Toting the rock, LaDanian Tomlinson was again the #1 ranked RB by Karabell and Engel. But he couldn't follow up his four TD day with another huge outing, and managed only 9 fantasy points against Houston. Joseph Addai (3/4) was the high scorer among RBs this week, scoring three total TDs.

Former Hokie tailback Kevin Jones (16/12) continued his comeback from a tough ankle injury with 100 yards and a score against the Bears defense. Lendale White (13/15) had 133 yards against a strong Oakland defense in the Titans' win. Lawrence Maroney (19/22) owners are probably hating Tom Brady, Randy Moss, and Wes Welker right about now. Maroney had 100+ total yards, but no scores. Frank Gore (9/7) owners are probably not too happy either, as he managed only 4 fantasy points.

Owners who drafted Marques Colston (19/22) as their #1 WR finally had a week to be happy about - assuming they hadn't benched the NO wideout. Colston scored double-digit fantasy points for only the second time this season, torching the San Fran defense for three scores. As much as I'd love to fault Karabell and Engel for having Colston ranked so low, there's no way I can possibly do it. Keep an eye on him the rest of the season, maybe he'll avoid a sophomore slump.

At the top of their wideout rankings, Engel faired much better than Karabell. For their top 6 wideouts, Engel's averaged 12.75 TrueScore® points, while Karabell's averaged just 11.16. And Engel had Plexiglass Burress ranked #1 (Burress scored only 1 fantasy point ... Karabell had him ranked #3). The explosive Anderson-Braylon Edwards (6/3) connection added two more TDs to its tally. Reggie Wayne (2/4) had 168 yards and found the endzone. And T.J. Houshmanzilly (4/5) had a touchdown. When top players play like top players, it's easy to make gurus look good.

In addition to Colston, the bottom of the gurus' Top 25 WR rankings helped them out. Hines Ward (17/16) had two touchdowns, Lee Evans (24 in Engel's rankings, not in Karabell's top 25) had a huge 85-yard TD to seal the game for the Bills. Chris Chambers (18/21) had 9 points for his new team. And Mr. Monday Night - Greg Jennings - was only ranked by Karabell, who had him #22. 100+ yards and a TD helped out anyone who started Jennings this week.

The other pass catchers - tight ends - didn't do much to help Karabell and Engel this week. Only three tight ends in either guru's top 15 scored double-digit fantasy points. But only one tight end that wasn't in either top 15 scored double-digit points. Antonio Gates (1/1) lived upto the rankings, scoring 2 touchdowns on only 3 receptions. Only Engel had Vernon Davis in his top 15 (#9), but Davis had 71 yards and a score. And fellow first-round NFL pick Greg Olsen (7/8) scored a TD and added almost 60 yards receiving. Dallas Clark (3/2), Jeremy Shockey (4/4) and Heath Miller (6/5) were all highly ranked this week but all three under produced.

This week the Pats didn't only dominate on offense. Their D/ST (1/2) finished second among D/ST units in fantasy scoring this week. The Chargers (5/10) took advantage of 5 turnovers and held the Texans to only 10 points to lead all D/ST units. Engel and Karabell's misses this week? Tampa Bay (3/5) and Minnesota (6/6) - both produced 1 fantasy point. And the poor Redskins ... Engel had their D/ST unit ranked #13 this week. They responded with -7 points against the Pats.

And last but not least (well, maybe least) - the lonely kickers. Top-scoring fantasy kicker this week? Sebastian Janikowski. Didn't appear on either guru's top 15. Second leading scorer? Matt Bryant. Didn't appear on either guru's top 15. Third-leading scorer? Jason Hanson ... ranked at a whopping 11/7. Kickers are crap shoots.