AFL Quickplay Week 11
Andrew Nordmeier
Thursday May 22, 2014
Week 10 saw Aaron Garcia get off to a mediocre start for the KISS. The Spokane quarterbacks got roughed up in Arizona and several teams had low-scoring outings. It made for a rough week in fantasy as well.
Let’s see who was able to squeeze out points on Week 10. It was a rough week as exactly zero players broke the 200-point barrier. That somewhat evens out the week where we had players flirt with 300.
The winner of the week was Arenafan.com’s Tim Capper with 197 points. He used Marco Thomas (28 points) and Russ Michna (51) to lead his team to victory this week. RochRush came home second with 187 points and Team ROD took the third spot with 177 points. Skillet (169) and the Short Bus Kids (168) round out the top five for the week.
Our team, the Unemployed Punters, rolled up 153 points and that was good for 12th place despite a zero from Adron Tennell and four players each scoring four points or fewer.
For the season, The Short Bus Kids continue to roll along in the driver’s seat with 2114 points and a 101-point lead. RochRush stands second with 2013 points and Legnbaz (2011) is third. Those are the only three teams over the 2,000-point barrier thus far. The Phantom Furballs (1996) and PowerUp (1989) round out the top five.
Our team stands seventh for the season with 1980 points.
Week 11 is going to present a couple of challenges that make it a difficult week. The first one is that there is a Thursday night game with San Antonio visiting Portland (10:00 p.m. Eastern). That puts your roster deadline at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and 6:00 p.m. Pacific on Thursday night.
Don’t get burned by the Thursday game. We saw that happen in Week 4 this season and it probably cost many players a good number of points. It also doesn’t help that they are two of the bottom-feeder teams in the league right now and this game would fly under the radar any other day of the week.
Let’s see the rest of the schedule for Week 11 after the Thursday night game. All times Eastern. All teams are available.
Friday May 23rd
Philadelphia at Cleveland 7:00 p.m.
San Jose at Spokane 10:00 p.m.
Saturday May 24th
Jacksonville at Tampa Bay 7:30 p.m.
Pittsburgh at Orlando 7:30 p.m.
Iowa at New Orleans 8:00 p.m.
Sunday May 25th
Arizona at Los Angeles 8:00 p.m.
It is worth noting that two teams are on bye next week. Those teams are Jacksonville and Los Angeles and the next byes after that is Week 15 when San Jose and Portland are off. As long as we’re thinking about it, let’s point out the rest of the byes.
Week 16: San Antonio and Orlando.
Week 17: Arizona, Iowa, Tampa Bay and Spokane
Week 18: Pittsburgh and Philadelphia
Weeks 19 and 20 don’t have byes.
Some of you like to plan in advance so this might help with your lineup.
Let’s get back to this week and start to put together the lineup for Week 11 for the Unemployed Punters.
Western Division (Arizona, Los Angeles San Antonio)
This division could be wrapped up by Arizona in two weeks. The Rattlers are 9-0 while Los Angeles (2-7) and San Antonio (1-8) are in jeopardy of losing any chance to win the division. An Arizona win over Los Angeles would give them an unprecedented eight-game lead in the division with eight games to play. Arizona has knocked off San Antonio this season and would have a win over the KISS as well.
For all intents and purposes, an Arizona win this week clinches the Western Division for the fourth straight year for the Rattlers. And we’re not even in June! Wow!
Arizona will have plenty to play for even after they wrap up the division title and they still hold nice fantasy value as well. This week, we’re going to go with QB NICK DAVILA of Arizona. He threw for 175 yards and six touchdowns with two interceptions in the rout of an injury-riddled Spokane Shock team. Arizona built a 49-14 halftime lead on Spokane and looks to be unstoppable.
Maurice Purify missed Sunday’s win with a knee injury and Tysson Poots isn’t quite 100 percent. That leaves WR ROD WINDSOR as the man to own and we’ll roll with him again this week. He had 12 catches for 138 yards and four touchdowns in the win. Purify could play but Windsor is the sure thing and that’s why we take him this week. Keep your expectations in check as the KISS has allowed opponents to go over the 50-point barrier twice in nine games this season. This looks like it would be prime time for occurrence number three.
Los Angeles QB Aaron Garcia would make an okay sleeper pick against an Arizona defense that allows 50.6 points per game. The downside is the KISS averages less than 35 points per outing. They’ve put up 44 touchdowns in nine games which doesn’t cut in this league. Last week, Garcia hit 24-of-48 passes for 252 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions against Pittsburgh in his first game.
San Antonio shows no signs of life from a fantasy perspective. They lost to a New Orleans team that had one win coming into last week’s game. Quarterback Shane Boyd hit 14-of-31 passes for 130 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions. That is a ghastly stat line for a quarterback and it sinks the fantasy value of the entire team. We can’t recommend the Talons at this time and they only merit any consideration on Week 17 when Arizona is on bye.
Pacific Division (San Jose, Spokane, Portland)
Portland is in that Thursday game that has the potential to be a dud while San Jose takes on Spokane. The Thunder scored 59 points…in their last two games combined. The Thunder used both quarterbacks in their last game between Derron Thomas and Danny Southwick. Each of them threw two touchdown passes but neither broke 110 passing yards. Eric Rogers put up another solid game (10-104-2) and has sleeper value. The matchup with the Talons dampens our enthusiasm for playing him.
Spokane doesn’t seem much better as a fantasy option with Donovan Porterie’s rough outing in Arizona. He went 17-of-29 for 161 yards and two touchdowns with four interceptions. Adron Tennell was hurt and Brandon Thompkins was also out of the lineup. It leaves Mike Washington as the go-to-source for the Spokane offense and makes him another sleeper option for the week.
Spokane has traded for quarterback Brian Zybdniewski from Cleveland for future considerations. It’s another week with a new signal caller for the Shock which makes them prone to turnovers like they were last week in Arizona. It also makes us wonder how bad Erik Meyer’s injury is to bring a veteran like Zybdniewski on board.
San Jose looks to have the best chance to have a successful week in fantasy. They’ve scored 134 points in their last two outings and are looking to seize control of the division with a win. Our first choice from this division is K NICK PERTUIT of San Jose. Last week, he hit all eight of his extra points and both of his field goals. That’s the kind of stat line you don’t see too often out of that position so we like him this week. The Sabercats also lead the league at 8.9 points per game scored from the kicker position.
The second pick is a more difficult one to make. We’re going to go with San Jose QB RUSS MICHNA for the other selection in the division. This might sound odd but it makes sense. Last week, Michna threw for 150 yards and seven touchdowns before getting pulled in a blowout San Jose win over Portland. He rushed for an eighth score on the night as well.
Spokane looked awful against Arizona and was down by a ton at half time. They went through multiple quarterbacks and the San Jose defense has a chance to give Michna and the offense extra opportunities to pile up the points. Without Reggie Gray, San Jose has gone to a balanced passing attack which makes it difficult to cover and difficult to pick one of their receivers to run with week in, week out.
Southern Division (Orlando, Tampa Bay, New Orleans, Jacksonville)
This division has been hit with injuries and it impacts the fantasy value of the teams in it. Jason Boltus is out for Orlando and Bernard Morris is in. Morris threw seven touchdown passes last week but none of them went to Greg Carr, much to the disappointment of fantasy players.
The Sharks take on Tampa Bay and the Storm defense has been barely more than a drizzle as of late. They’ve dropped five in a row and have allowed at least 53 points in each of their last five outings. It makes us want to put QB RJ ARCHER on the roster so we will. We’ve had success with him in the last few weeks and we look for more out of him in this favorable matchup.
Our other pick from the division is New Orleans WR LJ CASTILLE. The VooDoo might not have a desirable win-loss record but Castille has been getting the job done lately. Against Philadelphia he scored five touchdowns…on six catches for 97 yards. Last time out, the VooDoo star wide receiver racked up 121 yards and three more touchdowns on seven catches. Things look better for him with Kurt Rocco under center for the VooDoo and we’ll take a shot on him here.
Carr is an iffy option since he got shut out from the end zone last week. Joe Hills of Tampa Bay has also been doing well lately (8-103-3 against the Soul) so he could make a good sleeper pick.
East Division (Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Iowa, Cleveland)
We’ll always run with FB DERRICK ROSS of the Soul like we always do. Picking him is like your favorite blanket. It’s safe, warm, secure and comforting.
Our other pick is going to be a wide receiver since it’s the last thing we need from the division. We’ve heard rumblings of a possible Prechae Rodriguez return to Pittsburgh but we’re going to go with the safe and secure here. Let’s add WR MARCO THOMAS of Iowa as the final player this week.
He’s been the most consistent threat all season for Iowa and takes on a New Orleans team that can potentially give up a bunch of points.
That’s Week 11 for you. Good luck to everyone.
Unemployed Punters Lineup
QB Nick Davila ARI
WR Rod Windsor ARI
K Nich Pertuit SJ
QB Russ Michna SJ
FB Derrick Ross PHI
WR Marco Thomas IOW
QB RJ Archer JAX
WR LJ Castille NOV
Andrew Nordmeier is a freelance sportswriter originally from Chicago. Andrew is a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and has won more than three dozen fantasy championships. He has written for local newspapers in the Phoenix area covering high school sports for the last seven years. Andrew also has done play-by-play in the USHL and on the Arizona Rattlers internet broadcast in 2011. He lives in Phoenix with his wife and two sons. You can find Andrew on Twitter @AndrewNordmeier.