God bless Matt Forte
Like any Matt Forte owner, I wanted to puke last night around 11PM. The fourth quarter started, Forte had gained twenty yards all evening, and the other Adrian Peterson played the two previous series for Chicago. It looked like Forte may be done for the evening, but there was no injury update. Where was Suzy Kolber when you needed her?
My wife, calling on her way out of work, sagely assured me Forte would be fine: He always finds a way. I should have known. There are better running backs in the NFL and there were more valuable fantasy assets, but no one was more consistent than Matt Forte in his rookie season.
Forte re-entered the game and kickstarted the pathetic Chicago offense with a 14-yard screen pass. He finished with 81 fourth quarter yards, a touchdown, and helped saved the Bears season for another week. I suspect his final touchdown plunge, aided by a favorable spot on a fourth-down before it, decided a lot of championships.
In standard leagues, Forte scored at least 10 fantasy points in every week but one - he had eight against the Eagles. In a league full of committees, Forte has reached 363 touches. His season started on the national stage with a huge performance against the Colts, and finished the same way against the Packers. He showed up every week in between. That's the stuff of championships.
Comments
down 13 PPR pts and with only forte left to go, its safe to assume i was cussing constantly at the tv. "why are they using freaking adrian peterson!! where are the plays to forte!! why no forte all freaking game!! friends and well wishers took cover. then, like an oscar robinson montage, forte comes trotting onto the field and promptly puts up a long gainer, a forth down success, and the fantasy win clinching touchdown. forte, forte, forte, the drive was all forte. thank god for matt forte
Posted by: scott c | December 23, 2008 01:01 PM
I'm glad someone made it to the end happy... I needed 27 from Aaron Rodgers for my title and he came up short, scoring 19. Oh well... It didn't help that I had 4 TDs dumped on me by D. Williams for the 2nd time this season. Yup, I got the receiving end of both of those! Thanks Giants D, you were a big help!
Like any FF player, I'm dealing with my post loss "if only" thoughts. I scraped RBs together with Gore and Addai out. I played Rhodes and then played D. Foster, leaving Sammy Morris and Derrick Ward on the bench. Benching Ward made sense with Jacobs back. I benched Morris because of the bad weather and the fear of Jordan stealing a lot of carries. That left Foster getting all the carries against the Rams D! It made sense at the time. Ugh...
Posted by: Mike R | December 23, 2008 01:20 PM
And that, Mike, is why the match-up system of fantasy football sucks donkey balls. Whether you win or lose often has more to do with the luck of the draw than how your team actually performs.
So my league does it a bit differently: every week, you match up against every other team. If you have the top score, you go 9-0. Second highest score goes 8-1, 3rd = 7-2, 4th = 6-3, and so on. The playoffs we do the same way for 2 or 3 weeks, but we split into 2 brackets, with the top 4 teams playing for the big prize. The winner of the bottom bracket gets the first pick in next years draft, so the bottom bracket still has something to play for.
Posted by: mrboma | December 23, 2008 03:04 PM
Nice scott. good to hear. Mrobama - i like that format a lot too. definitely takes the luck out.
one argument for luck and matchups: it's how real football works too.
Posted by: Gregg | December 23, 2008 05:46 PM
... another argument is that D.Foster is not a real football player.
Posted by: scott c | December 24, 2008 12:20 PM
LOL, re: D. Foster is not a real football player. He certainly wasn't the ideal option but he did put up 100 total yards against Miami the week before. I figured he could do that again against the lowly Rams.
I suppose he could have if Hill hadn't turned the ball over so much. That didn't help his cause any!
Posted by: Mike R | December 26, 2008 04:04 PM
The final in my league came down with my squad down 13+ pts headed into the Packers/Bears matchup with D. Driver and R. Gould left to play for my squad. I was down 3 pts in the 4th quarter when Orton threw an interception with 9:00 left that put my chances for a win in jeopardy. Forte's TD to tie the game allowed for a surreal finish that just couldn't be scripted. The gap managed to close to .3 pts (we play in the fractional pt league) when Crosby attempted the game-winner at the end of regulation and when Alex Brown's block sent the game into OT. Talk about getting a second life. Gould's game-winner sealed the deal in later in OT for my squad and bragging rights for the year. My props go to Matt Forte and Alex Brown in this championship even though neither are on my roster. Couldn't have done it without you.
Posted by: Steven C | December 27, 2008 01:14 AM