Fantasy

As we all know, my loyalty to my favorite player is as fickle as fantasy football itself. And as much as I loved Jeremy Langford two weeks ago, his moment in the limelight is over. He still scored nine points in week 11 and 10 points on the Thanksgiving Day return of Matt Forte. While that's not nothing, it's much less than the 29 points that made me fall in love with Langford, that big teddy bear. (Get it? Bear?)

The real star of my heart right now is Russell Wilson. In week 11, he had his first three-touchdown game of the season and threw for 260 yards. This all amounted to a 25-point week, his best of the season. I still lost to Team "the bo jacks" 69–62. So that was pretty funny.

Week 12 was very interesting. Seattle Seahawks versus Pittsburgh Steelers. Team Ya Gurl Gutie versus team Bofa Deez Nuts. Russell Wilson versus Ben Roethlisberger. And as fate and luck would have it, the Seahawks, Ya Gurl Gutie, and Russell Wilson came out on top. Roethlisberger may have scored 21 points, not bad, but my best friend and the love of my life Russell Wilson put up 34 points. Wilson actually scored a career-high five touchdowns. His spectacular game catapulted me and my team to the victory of Bofa Deez Nuts, 82–69.

This week, he's got a pretty tough match-up against the Vikings — ranked sixth in points allowed to opposing quarterbacks — which has undermined my confidence a little bit. My backup quarterback Matt Cassel also seems like a solid choice now that Tony Romo is out. I do worry that the Cowboys could have an awesome week, resulting in a disappointing bench-player-outscoring-starter mishap. But Wilson is on a roll. For now, I'll have to stay loyal — but just this once.

I also feel the need to send some love Eric Decker's way. So far this season he's scored a touchdown in eight out of his ten starts, and six of those have been double-digit performances. I was wary about him for a little while because he's had a knee injury since week three, but in spite of that he's continued to surprise and impress me. Decker has consistently carried my team, and for that I am forever grateful.

This week is the last regular season matchup before the playoffs. Unfortunately there is just no way I'll make it. Only the top four teams out of the league's 20 will advance, so the odds were difficult to begin with. Team M and "Church League Fistfight!!!" both have 11-1 records, snagging two of the playoff spots, and next in line are the three teams with 8-4 records. This week will decide which two get to advance. Still, I'm pretty proud of my 7–5 record. At least I'll finish the season above .500. And even if I won't win the Shiva, at least I won't win the Sacko.

On another positive note, it looks like I should be able to finish the season off with a victory. My opponent Team Harvey is still starting Joe Flacco, who tore his ACL two weeks ago. I feel pretty confident that I'll have the advantage at quarterback.

However, we are fairly evenly matched in everything else. At running back, I've got the dream team of LeGarette Blount and Jeremy Langford, who both have favorable match-ups. DeMarco Murray and Lamar Miller are better running backs, but they have harder match-ups. Hopefully this will even out the score to keep the deficit minimal.

At wide receiver, we both have one really good player — Decker for me and Jarvis Landry for Harvey — and one less reliable but sometimes awesome player — Dwayne Harris for me, and Devin Funchess for him. If I had known there was a player whose last name is Funchess, I definitely would have tried to draft him, so I'm slightly disappointed in myself. I ended up starting Harris over Pierre Garcon this week because, now that DeSean Jackson is back, Garcon just hasn't been as productive of a player.

I'm also getting the sense that tight ends just never score more than 10 points unless they're Rob Gronkowski. So I've just stopped being concerned about the five points Jared Cook may or may not score. It feels like a waste of my worry.

I do feel good about the D/ST match-up, Jets versus Ravens. ESPN Fantasy called the Raven's pass defense "porous" and while I don't know what that means, it sounds good for me and also makes me giggle. I don't know why. The Jets are facing the Giants in a New York brawl which might not be easy, but at least the Jets aren't porous.

Brandon McManus, who I used to adore, has continued to disappoint me, but I'll direct that blame toward the Broncos. Yet while they have been struggling recently, things could look up this week. They're playing the Chargers who are 3-8 for the season. That bodes well for opportunities for McManus to put up points. Team Harvey's kicker doesn't matter.

All I can do now is pray that he doesn't find a new quarterback by Sunday at 1 p.m., and I should be golden for one last fantasy hurrah.