If you are playing in your fantasy football league’s Super Bowl this holiday weekend, using Rex Grossman as your quarterback does not sound as laughable as it did a week ago.
Fantasy football owners had to be shocked to see how well Washington’s Grossman, Denver’s Tim Tebow, and Green Bay’s Matt Flynn played in their respective starts this past week. All of them put up more fantasy points than any pundit could have predicted, and they all did their damage on the road. Most fantasy owners probably shied away from starting any member of the trio unless their other quarterbacks were injured, or because they were forced to at gunpoint by maniacal, win-at-all-costs fantasy opponents .
Flynn is back on Gatorade duty now that Aaron Rodgers in unconcussed, but Grossman and Tebow are still slated to start. So if you are a fantasy owner who is one game away from a league championship and hundreds of dollars in prize money, would you trust Grossman or Tebow in the biggest of big spots? Here is my take on what both QBs will put up numbers-wise this week and you can make your own judgment.
Rex Grossman, Washington Redskins
“Sexy Rexy”’s stats were sexier last weekend than Miranda Kerr in a Victoria’s Secret commercial. He ripped the Dallas Cowboys – and how bad are Cowboys corners Terence Newman and Mike Jenkins? – to shreds for 322 yards and four touchdowns, a better fantasy day than Tom Brady, Drew Brees or Peyton Manning had.
Now before you get too giddy about Grossman’s Joe Montana impersonation, please remember that this is what he is known for. One week he will throw for 300 yards and three scores, then the next week he throws for 30 yards and three interceptions. This is his M.O. So he has set another trap for gullible fantasy fans to fall into.
Grossman does not throw a tighter spiral, nor does he have the arm strength or have the scrambling ability that Donovan McNabb has, yet McNabb did not have a three-TD game this season, let alone a four-TD game.
Grossman is away from home against the Jacksonville Jaguars this week. This Jaguars team may be gritty and gutty, but they are not gritty, gutty, and good at covering receivers. This is why they rank 27th against the pass. Grossman might be due for a stinker before season’s end, but bank on that coming in Week 17 against the New York Giants, not this week.
Fantasy prediction – Grossman is not as sharp and stat-crazy as he was against Dallas, but he will pile on some passing yards, especially in the fourth quarter. 265 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions.
Tim Tebow, Denver Broncos
Denver’s head coaching job just became a little more attractive to Urban Meyer. That is because Tebow did not fall flat on his face – or his rear – in his first NFL start in a tough game against the Oakland Raiders.
Tebow barreled down the middle of the field like Brandon Jacobs for a 40-yard touchdown run and added a miraculous 33-yard touchdown toss to Brandon Lloyd. That’s the good news. The bad news is he did not do much more on the ground or through the air besides those two big plays and finished with 138 yards passing and 78 yards rushing.
Tebow gets his first home start against the Houston Texans. This should remind him of the times his Florida Gators would schedule a game against The Citadel in the middle of a string of rough SEC contests. Houston is dead last in the league in pass defense, which means even Tebow should probably be able to throw for 200 yards against them.
Fantasy prediction – Tebow lifts Broncos fans to their feet with a dazzling array of seven-yard-passes and four-yard-runs, and a Texans botched coverage or missed tackle leads to a 50-yard Lloyd score as Lloyd makes his case for Fantasy WR of the Year. Tebow ends up with 210 passing yards with one touchdown, 55 rushing yards with one touchdown, and earns one more start.
Run and Shoot
Let the politicking begin for the Most Valuable Player in Fantasy Football award. Here is another reason to vote for Michael Vick: David Akers has been the best kicker in fantasy football this season thanks to the additional scoring opportunities supplied by Vick.
Akers has had the second-most extra point attempts and the third-most field goal attempts, and while Akers deserves more credit for connecting on most of his tries, he would not be the top-rated fantasy kicker if Vick was not getting the Eagles into the red zone multiple times every game.
If you want to see a fantasy owner cry like Oprah Winfrey did when Barbara Walters asked about BFF Gayle King, just bring up Denver’s Knowshon Moreno or Cincinnati’s Terrell Owens. How many fantasy owners do you think lost playoff games because these guys were in their lineups and got injured early in their games and put up Flozell Adams fat zeroes?
I am sure the Aaron Rodgers owners are also griping, but at least they knew ahead of time that he was taking the week off. This is why you have to take your results in head-to-head formats with a grain of salt. All you can do is put the best starting lineup out there you can. If a couple of your guys put up zeroes because they get injured or get double-covered constantly (like San Francisco’s Vernon Davis last week), there is nothing you can do but hope your fantasy playoff opponent has a low score – or that Vick is on your squad.
Lauren Bush Lauren Conrad Lauren German LeAnn Rimes Leeann Tweeden
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