Lavonardo

John Chehade by Mike Wood (CC)

The season marches on, with the sixth Hakkapeliitat victory in a row.

The highest individual scorer this week was no single player, but the stingy Giants’ defense, that manhandled Detroit Lions with three picks, a forced fumble and a blocked kick as an added bonus.

Neither quarterback shone, chose Browns’ Anderson, and he came away with a slightly better output than his counterpart in the Saints. No thrown touchdowns, very decent yardage and a scrambled score for a surprise.

Atlanta’s offense was very subdued against Tampa Bay, and even the most prolific scorer, Eagles’ Brian Westbrook was held without a touchdown (partially explained by Donovan McNabb getting hurt before the halftime, which cut down on the passing game).

Thankfully the opponent had an off-kilter week as well. Especially Peyton Manning was subdued - the lone Colts TD was off the running game, and the victory was sealed by skillful clock management at the end. Titans’ Rob Bironas didn’t provide a kickfest on monday, and with Brandon Marshall evening the game scoring for the Broncos, the week’s margin remained the same as it was on sunday.

Bring on week twelve.

Andrew Davie by Tipsterhog (CC)

Hakkapeliitat have five straight victories now.

Last week’s game featured the largest margin of the season - where the duo of running backs outscored the opponent’s by no less than fifty points. Picked multi-year Hakkapeliitat veteran Warrick Dunn off the list of free agents just before the game and slotted him in instead of Maurice Jones-Drew, who was up against the supposedly tight Titans’ defense. Both of them scored, but Dunn picked up more yards. And Brian Westbrook continued almost single-handed demolition of Eagles’ opponents: with three scores and 180+ yards in total he was clearly the key to victory.

The quarterbacks fared equally well: Saints’ Brees engineered an almost successful comeback (marred by a muffed onside kick) after two interceptions in the first half, Browns’ Anderson threw less, but had no picks either. On the defense Dallas put on a good show in the fourth quarter against the Giants, rattling Eli Manning with multiple sacks.

In the league proper the biggest news was Colts’ second loss, following a remarkable rally from 23 points down in San Diego - Peyton Manning’s six interceptions and Adam Vinatieri’s miskicks guaranteed the loss to uneven Chargers. Rex Grossman returned to chair the Bears’ offense (and didn’t suck too bad) and Cincinnati kicked seven field goals. Patriots’ bye meant rest for the team that actually (due to an easy schedule) actually has a decent chance to be the first team in NFL to finish 16-0 (Miami Dolphins, famously undefeated in 1972, played a shorter season).

Bring on week eleven.

untitled by jacorbett70 (CC)

And the streak just got extended to four games in a row. And Hakkapeliitat is now above .500 for the first time this season.

Gambled on Drew Brees over Derek Anderson behind the line of scrimmage and it paid off - he threw the highest total of the week, and a trio of scores. None of which, sadly, to Marques Colston, but that’s not really a major concern. Brian Westbrook had yet another of his RB/WR-games, but earned a single touchdown - that on top of the 150 yards is just icing on the cake. Sadly return yards are not tallied - otherwise Maurice Jones-Drew’s record 100-yarder would have been a humongous play.

In the league itself Patriots outfoxed Colts in a likely preview of the AFC championship game in january. Probably in Foxboro, if Tom Brady’s offense remains as frightening they’ve been.

Bring on week ten.

Interception, I think
by Bethany L King (CC)

Hakkapeliitat was again victorious, for the third week in a row. After a loss-filled start of the season, things have turned seriously for the better lately.

Two outstanding games by guys that regularly have showed up (Brian Westbrook and Derek Anderson), and a formidable return to form by the Saints’ offensive duo that’s been almost quiet for the previous weeks (Drew Brees threw four scores, three of them to Marques Colston).

Eli Manning, the opponent’s QB was drenched in the London rain, and managed to nail a respectable score only with a scramble to the Miami endzone. The Jacksonville defense put up strong numbers as well, but that wasn’t much compared to San Diego cornerbacks, who picked the Texans’ passes with an alarming regularity, and converted them to multiple touchdowns.

Position in the standings is still low, but the victory percentage of teams ranking three to eight are the same. So the margin for error is nonexistent.

Next week features the game with highest expectations thus far - the unbeaten Indianapolis Colts face the equally unbeaten New England Patriots. The latter’s offense has been on a roll throughout the season, but a lot of that’s been at the expense of the teams with the worst pass defense.

Bring on week nine.

Running Back by flynnwynn (CC)

Last weekend’s game was the tightest of this year’s campaign.

The game against the thus far unbeaten team ended up in a victory, with a margin of a single point, with the last points from the monday night football game.

Maurice Jones-Drew who started the season slow proved his worth by scoring the lone Jaguars’ touchdown against the Colts. Houston’s defense, on the other hand, pretty much had an open doors policy in the endzone, but fortunately managed to score on a returned fumble.

Bring on week eight.

Prepping for a pass by eqqman (CC)

The second victory of the season is mine, all mine!

Good things: Jags’ Jones-Drew got his groove back (and netted 29 points), Browns’ Derek Anderson continues to be the most surprising QB of the season (topped three passing touchdowns with a scramble to the endzone).

Bad things: Redskins’ Santana Moss decommitting himself from the game after his first touch: a fumble. It’s not often that a player ends up in the minus column, but the DC wide receiver managed exactly that…

Bring on round seven, facing the leader of the league, one with a clean slate. Thus far. Too bad the Cleveland bomber has a bye this week.

It’s a monday - it’s a beatdown.

Drew Brees was an easy pick, on acoount of the Browns’ Derek Anderson facing the Patriots’ secondary. But it was not a good pick, mainly on account of bad luck, as the Saints had two TDs disqualified, and Brees left with none on the box score.

Hakkapeliitat lost again, and is now 1 for 4.

Patriots had a good week, and the loss was finalized by the opponen running Sammy Morris as the running back - in the absence of Lawrence Maroney he picked up just too much yardage to resist.

The new guys played well: Derek Anderson threw two scores, and Shaun McDonald caught one. Too bad the last week’s hero, Brian Westbrook, was inactive, and the Eagles suffered as a result, managing just a single field goal in the game.

Drafted a hockey team in Yahoo as well. Just a single finn in the catch, Jussi Jokinen. First pick was Marian Hossa, drafted tenth, which explains the loss of the big guns.

The Hakkapeliitat team took the first step towards recovery by actually winning a game.

Not with a large margin. And certainly not pretty.

Even with Brian Westbrook having an evening for the books (three scores, 110 yards running and 111 yards catching), the rest of the team wasn’t too comfortable on the field. Drew Brees at the QB position continues to struggle - at a ratio of one TD to seven picks, he’s now benched (and not only due to having a bye next week).

The new guys off the waiver played well, and certainly cemented the success. But the first substitutions were just a beginning - I so need reliable receivers, receivers that play for a team that actually scores touchdowns in the air.

0 for 2 in both leagues.

The Yahoo league was one quarterback selection away from a victory. But replacing Drew Brees with Matt Leinart didn’t seem like a too bright idea. And it still isn’t. Most worrisome fact: Maurice Jones-Drew, the second round pick hasn’t scored once, and the Jaguars’ offensive line seems very fragile indeed.

Next week: up against one of the 2-0 teams, a three-oh hole would be too big to climb out of, so on behalf of maintaining interest in the league, a victory’d sure taste sweet. Perhaps the team could learn from the Running Utes, who delivered a nice upset on sunday morning - beating the 11th ranked UCLA after two bad losses.

And the less said about the misdrafted ESPN team (yeah, the one with four quarterbacks), the better.

Both instances of Hakkapeliitat were soundly defeated this week.

The Yahoo team never recovered from its slow start, and sunk way below expectations.

The ESPN one fared a little better. But not nearly enough to put on a good game.

Team fixes shall have to wait until the third round - some of the guys may need a game or two to warm up properly.

Watched a bit of the Chiefs-Bears game, but a badly pixellated broadcast meant giving up early. Also noted that Subtv has started Friday Night Lights. On a friday night, even.

The first game of this season in NFL is done - the Colts maimed the Saints 41-10.

Yahoo!:
Good news: Drew Brees threw some reasonable yards against the Indy defense (albeit two picks also), and Marques Colston caught a lot of passes in an unfriendly secondary.

Bad news: Neither of the Hakkapeliitat stars scored. But the Indy core WRs did. Thrice. So the hole in the first game of Yahoo’s league is pretty deep already.

ESPN:
Good news: Peyton Manning threw three touchdowns.

Bad news: Reggie Wayne caught two of them.

Bring on the rest of the games.

Junior Quarterback by Greg Robbins (CC)

What do you call four top quarterbacks?

An overdraft.

Put together a team in ESPN’s fantasy league and ended up with no less than FOUR quarterbacks playing for Hakkapeliitat.

And top quarterbacks at that, since among the quartet are such gridiron heroes as Drew Brees, Marc Bulger and Carson Palmer. That is, in addition to Peyton Manning, my first pick.

As expected, the other picks brought in rather meager results, but with a quartet of playmakers like these, trading ought to present no difficulties.

(And yeah, the autopick-system should have avoided blindly picking players into the same positions - some of my co-coaches teams are bristling with extra receivers and running backs. Perhaps this is intentional, to push the players towards interaction, but I bet that this is just coincidental.)

Haagan Hakkapeliitat is back, once again, in the Yahoo! Fantasy Football, to claw their way to the bowl in december.

Drafted in the eighth position, which meant that the big guns (running backs, mostly) were long gone it was my turn to pick. Didn’t get Peyton Manning for the QB position (sadly downgraded in scoring), but Drew Brees put up formidable numbers in New Orleans last season and should not be a bad alternative.

On account of Finland moving to fully digitized television broadcasts, the biggest local cable operator attempts to attract customers with a free two-week period on all channels. This ought to include Viasat as well, who are the only source of NFL locally. Apart from the Superbowl, that is.

Been toying with the idea of running another team at ESPN’s fantasy section, but that’s by no means a certainty. A single team ought to be plenty to worry about already - there’s this hurting tight end to attend to right now…

Rest assured: regular updates of the season’s progress will be posted.

Haagan Hakkapeliitat are ready for yet another year in the violent world of virtual NFL, and hungry for success after the lowly 7th spot last year.

The game’s not the same - the scoring (to which I seem to have lost the link momentarily) has been significantly altered: thrown touchdowns have been downgraded to four points from six, not so subtly pushing the message that non-quarterbacks ought to be drafted first. I’ll keep LaDainian Tomlinson on the 1st spot in the draft list, obviously, but am not so sure that Peyton Manning deserves the massive downgrading he’s been subjected to…

For the first time in four years I did not lose the final game in Yahoo’s fantasy football league.

Seventh position in the league is no source of great joy, though. The team played way inconsistently - the offense was not reliable (on any front, be it the QB, running backs or the receiver corps), kicker stalled after a fabulous start, and the previously reliable defenses were continuously outplayed.

The season’s down in the league, but NFL barges onwards. Niners are out of playoffs despite flashes of brilliance from Alex Smith and very reliable footwork of Frank Gore. The Colts have taken the perfect season-jinx too seriously and dropped a few games - the very last and unexpected one to Texans. The elder Manning ought to get his troops in form for the playoffs, the margins are tiny at the top.

Lost the consolation placement game, and will be bravely fighting for spot #7 this weekend.

This time it was pretty much three factors that settled the loss: bad play by the receivers (across the board, bench fared no better), Giants scoring only on running plays (Eli Manning had very decent yards, but no touchdowns), and a great game by the opposing quarterback (Michael Vick scoring on no less than four throws).

Oh well, time to concentrate on the fantasy basketball and hockey leagues.

… it’s reality for the brave Hakkapeliitat.

The last game of the regular season was a defeat, and that means that a trip to the consolation row just began. On one hand it’s sad that the series of bowl appearances ground to a halt after four consecutive ones, on the other this was a long time coming.

Lost the last playoff spot by the smallest of margins, by placing fifth, after getting beaten by the team that finished fourth. The loss was entirely my own doing. Ran the wrong RBs - both guys on the bench reached the end zone, whereas Marion Barber, hero of two previous weeks with four TDs, ran a grand total of three carries. Picked up Vince Young for this round, and while he has the makings of a franchise quarterback, he wasn’t too productive this time around. Eli Manning, who had shown improvement the previous week was steady, but I misguidedly ran the Tennessee freshman instead.

So, at 7-7, it’s time to face the challenge of the consolation, and emerge at the top of that. Not as flashy as a bowl game, that’s for sure, but a decent goal nonetheless.

The Colts, who at one point looked like a sure thing were neatly trounced by the Jaguars, and they still haven’t clinched even their division yet. And Drew Brees sure has landed on his feet in New Orleans, showing with a five touchdown game that he’s not dependent on the top flight receivers he enjoyed working with in Chargers. Chargers, who are in scary form themselves, as LaDainian Tomlinson has already set a new record for regular season touchdowns - and there are still two games to go.

This week’s loss in yahoo’s fantasy football league was brought on by one man: the very same that almost single-handedly whupped the Broncos.

The conspicuously named LaDainian Tomlinson scored four touchdowns, and pushed Hakkapeliitat once again below .500.

The team was not helped by the sensationally well-playing rookie tight end Marques Colston spraining his ankle on the very first offensive play by the Saints, nor by both Packers and Rams being shut out by opponents.

And with the Bears having their hands surprisingly full with the Jets, and Rex Grossman only bringing home one thrown touchdown, the loss was certain.

Watched the first half of Dallas putting on a very good show against the reigning Colts - forcing three turnovers in the first quarter alone. Colts suffered their first loss of the season, but I’d long since climbed into bed.

Indeed, there’s finally NFL on television during the regular season. Viasat shows a good selection of games each weekend, most of them live, and I’m sorely tempted to continue the free two-week trial subscription. If they offer a decent rate until the superbowl, I’ll consider myself sold.

Had to check this week’s output from Hakkapeliitat before turning in.

Lost. By a wide margin.

Lost to the top team in the league. And despite a decent score racked up by Hakkapeliitat, the opponent just had piled on more points. Players such as Joey Galloway just seemed to have their lucky days, despite their teams picking up hefty losses, the players scored big on individual stats.

No second thoughts - wouldn’t have won even with optimal allocation/benching of players from the team.