Fantasy Football Thoughts on Week 12

- J-E-T-S Jets! Jets! Jets!  The growth of rookie TE Dustin Keller continues for New York -- he's now averaging 6.7 catches and 79 rec yards per game over the past three games.  He has become a comfortable target for Favre
 
- Take away his big 24 yard scamper and the Titans' RB Chris Johnson finished with 9 rushes for 22 yards.  Rookie, meet wall.
 
- The Rams are terrible without Steven Jackson, though to be fair they're not any good with him either.  The Bears gave up 200 rushing yards to the Packers, then limit the Rams to 14 total rushing yards.
 
- Wow.  Matt Cassel.  Over the past two weeks he's 60 for 94, with 814 passing yards, 6 TDs and an interception.  And he ran for a touchdown.  I still don't know how much of these performances should be attributed to him and how much to the Patriots, but we're going to find out next season when some really bad team overpays for him as a free agent.  Some fantasy football owners next year will also overpay for him based on these numbers.
 
- Don't let Cassel overshadow the fact that Pennington had a superb 341 passing yd, 3 TD, 1 INT performance himself.    Pennington is a candidate for fantasy sleeper of the year.
 
- Having Trent Edwards on your fantasy bench (and it's very likely he was on your fantasy bench) is the type of thing that makes you want to quit Fantasy Football when you see him finish with two passing touchdowns AND two rushing touchdowns.  A quick check at Pro Football Reference reveals that even Michael Vick never had a game where he rushed for two AND threw for two.  Wow.
 
- While the Vikings had a solid win over the Jags, Gus Frerotte and the passing game is terrible.  There aren't many teams that can be beat with 120 passing yards and an interception.  Cassel more than tripled the number of passing yards Frerotte had.  Speaking of Cassel, he'd make a nice fit in Minnesota.
 
- Lions Win (the first quarter)!!  Ugh, what a mess.  From a fantasy football perspective, it's good to see that RB Kevin Smith (16 carries for 86 yards) is getting a lot of work though.
 
- Yeah, yeah, Tony Romo, Terrell Owens, happy fantasy owners.  It was the Forty Niners, it should've been that way.  The bigger story is the Cowboys defense coughing up 300+ passing yards to Shaun Hill.  Shaun Hill!   If your fantasy WRs are facing the Cowboys, things look much better.
 
- I just want to take Andre Johnson and Calvin Johnson and rescue them and put them in a good home with a good QB.  Maybe with the Jets or the Falcons.  They don't deserve to put up great fantasy performances week after week, year after year, only to miss the playoffs on really bad teams.  I feel bad for the guys.  They're the abandoned puppies of the NFL.
 
- My Dad's a big Eagles fan and every weekend we talk on the phone and the conversation invariably turns to how the Eagles did that day.   My Dad's comment this week was "At least the Phils won the World Series."  That about sums it up.
 
- There should be a league rule passed forbidding the Broncos from making the playoffs, I don't care if they win every single game left in the season.  Giving up 158 rushing yards to the Raiders?!   Having a 10-10 tie in the 3rd quarter and then giving up 21 unanswered points?  Bleah.  Imagine what will happen when they face the Jets next week.  If you have Leon Washington, start him!!
 
- In my money league, I've faced the team that has Michael Turner twice this season.  His combined totals for those two games against me are 337 rushing yards and six touchdowns.  I really hate that guy.