Don't miss your chance for football betting at BetUS.com. As America's #1 sportsbook, BetUS offers the most up-to-date betting lines & odds for all your betting needs.
Keyboard Quarterback: It's Back!
Authored by Andrew Perna - 11th September, 2007 - 10:38 pm
With John Herrera standing to his right dressed in black and appearing not unlike an undertaker, Lane Kiffin sat down at the podium for Sunday's postgame news conference.
Baltimore wants Flacco to be their QB of the future. But the Ravens feel they have no choice but to start him now because Boller and Smith are unavailable. Wrong!
RealGM Search
After seven long months the NFL is now back in my life. With that, comes the return of the ‘Keyboard Quarterback’ something I know millions of people have been missing even more the pigskin itself.
I couldn’t wait to plop down in my favorite chair, strategically place my laptop at my side, and settle in for a full day of football. Ultimately, I didn’t enjoy the action in Week One as much as I could have because of the Eagles disappointing loss to the Packers. Other than that, I was happy to see Norv Turner get a win in his San Diego debut and to watch Matt Leinart and Alex Smith battle for a win in San Francisco.
Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this weeks’ installment. I’ve changed things around a little bit. There will be no more highs and lows, but there are still plenty of goodies for all you gridiron crazies.
The Downs The First Down…Big Ben Goes Off We knew the Steelers offense was going to be opened up by Mike Tomlin, but who knew Ben Roethlisberger would enjoy the open space so much? Big Ben threw four touchdowns en route to a rout of the Browns early Sunday afternoon. Just to put things in perspective: those four scores account for more than twenty percent of what he accomplished last season, when he threw for eighteen.
The Second Down…Pennington Hobbles Off If you’re a Jet fan you might want to scroll down a few lines before you resume reading. In the midst of getting manhandled by the Patriots, New York’s Chad Pennington somehow hobbled off the field under his own power after getting crunched in a gruesome collision with several New England defenders. At first I thought Chad might have been seriously hurt, but he somehow made his way back onto the field after reportedly spraining his ankle. Even though the injury didn’t turn out to be that serious I have to commend Pennington for his courageousness.
The Third Down…Peterson Bursts Out A lot of people wondered why the Minnesota Vikings took Adrian Peterson so early in the NFL draft, especially with a guy like Marshawn Lynch on the board and Peterson’s history of injury at Oklahoma. Adrian put all his critics to rest yesterday, excelling in the Vikings 24-3 drubbing of the hapless Atlanta Falcons. Peterson rushed for 103 yards and caught one pass from Tarvaris Jackson for 60 yards and a touchdown. He’s quickly become one of my favorite rookies; let’s hope he can keep up with the torrid pace he has set.
The Fourth Down…Kevin Everett I hate to end the first edition of ‘The Downs’ on such a low note, but I have to send out my prayers to the entire Everett and Buffalo family. The Bills’ reserve tight end sustained a severe neck injury in the team’s opener against the Broncos after absorbing a helmet-to-helmet hit from a Denver defender. After it was initially thought that Everett might never walk again, heartwarming news out of Buffalo late last night was that Kevin had regained voluntary movement of his arms and legs. It’ll still be a long road back to a somewhat normal life for Everett, and I hope all the best for the young tight end.
The ‘Who The Heck’ Statline of the Week… Jacksonville Jaguars receiver John Broussard: 2 Receptions, 55 yards and one touchdown.
The Keyboard Prediction for Week Two The Pats might beat the Chargers in their home opener this week, but LaDainian Tomlinson will run roughshod all over New England’s defense. Tomlinson has been waiting for this game ever since the final moments of their playoff defeat at the hands of the Pats last season. Bill Belichick is going to have to physically take L.T. off the field to keep him to entering the end zone multiple times this Sunday.
My Fantasy Diary… If you remember my exploits from last season, you know I compete in an embarrassing number of fantasy football leagues. Somehow I’ve gotten myself into thirteen leagues this year, after swearing that I’d scale down for the 2007 season. I think someone needs to create some kind of help group for guys like me, but I’m not getting cured anytime soon.
I’ve decided that it’s too confusing to focus on all of my thirteen teams, so I’ll just muse on the East Coast Pigskin League, the most important in my bakers dozen of my leagues. However, I will update you on my overall standing each and every week.
Week One pitted my Drew Crew against league commissioner, and division-rival, Paul and his Vipors. I got off to a great start on Opening Night as Joseph Addai combined for 143 total yards and a touchdown against the Saints. That was good enough for 23.3 points in ECP and a nice start to my fantasy season.
In the end Addai outscored a trio of Vipors name Shaun Alexander, Fred Taylor and Deion Branch, not too bad for a second-year running back. As expected my tight end, New England’s Benjamin Watson took a beating from Paul’s Antonio Gates (19.7 to 6.9), but it could have been much worse if Tom Brady didn’t hook up with Watson on a nine-yard touchdown (his only catch of the game).
With three games left on the schedule, Giants-Cowboys, Ravens-Bengals and Cardinals-49ers, The Drew Crew held a comfortable fifteen point lead over the Vipors.
NBC’s Sunday Night Football game starred Eli Manning, my starting quarterback, although not by choice. I waited too long to draft a quarterback leaving me to gamble on Eli, who I prefer to refer to as “Peyton’s Little Brother.” Well, I got more points out Peyton’s Little Brother than I thought I ever would out this week. I pegged Manning for an average of about ten points a week, predicting that he’d have a few good games mixed in with some real stinkers.
His 312-yard, four-touchdown performance gave me a huge 56.5 lead after Sunday’s games. I don’t expect another performance like that again this season, and after watching him stand on the sidelines after injuring his right shoulder I’ll take the ten points I expected in exchange for a healthy quarterback.
The first Monday Night of the season would be a vital one, even with a huge lead. I did not want to start the ECP season with a loss as I did in 2006 (three in-a-row to be exact).
The Vipors showcased their quarterback, Carson Palmer, in the first of Monday’s two games causing me to root for Baltimore’s defense harder than an Eagle fan ever should. However, even if Carson did enjoy a career night and gave the Vipors the lead, I’d still have Anquan Boldin in the late game to lead me to victory.
In the end Palmer had a decent game against Baltimore, but it wasn’t nearly enough to bring Paul’s Vipors close to The Drew Crew. My Drew Crew was 1-0 in the East Coast Pigskin league, but hurting. Eli Manning, my forty-point quarterback, separated his shoulder after throwing those four touchdown passes and is going to miss an undetermined amount of time.
Great.
For the second straight year the quarterback of The Drew Crew goes down with an injury. Last year it was Trent Green, this year it’s Peyton’s Little Brother. Not a problem. I’ll just start my second signal caller. Oh wait, I drafted the Jets’ Chad Pennington as my back-up quarterback.
Things just seem to get better.
I cruise over to the waiver wire to check out the top quarterbacks available. These are the names I see:
Josh McCown, David Garrard, Trent Green and Tarvaris Jackson.
I’m 1-0, but it’s going to be a looong season.
My Overall Fantasy Football Record for the 2007 Season: 8 wins and 4 losses.
