The Diary of a Fantasy Virgin - Week 9 Nov 4, 2008 | More

Happy November everybody! Go on a 10-day excursion to the House of the Mouse in Orlando and October flies by. Hey. Where did it go? Now this is a Presidential election year (like you haven’t heard?) so please vote. As long as all of us vote, something like us will exist for our children and our children’s children. But the most important thing to realize after the election is that all by weeks officially end in Week 10. Everyone say yay! I lucked out and had my bye weeks end in Week 9. The fantasy football season ends for us at week 14. My bye weeks have had capable backups but it’s going to go down to the wire.

Does The Steelers Defense Have What It Takes?

I am 14 points out of victory with the Steel curtain going up against the Redskins just outside the nation’s capital on Monday Night. Five out of the seven weeks that the Steelers have played defense, they have tallied more that 14 points. What does this mean, you say? It means I have a better than 50/50 statistical chance at winning which is really good when you are missing the Saints’ QB and WR.   

In the end, the result was a defensive gem (six PA, 221 yards, 2 INT, seven sacks), and I stole a fantasy game with a 25-point effort from my defense. Luck is a four letter word I will gladly take most days but the four letter word that won me this game was the sack. Most of my points came on the seven sacks and two interceptions.

The Real Fantasy Season Begins Now

There will be countless articles written after Week 7 stating it is the halfway point of the fantasy football season. That is correct but it all means nothing. Only after the last bye week for all your players does the season stretch begin. If you can get it over one week earlier all the better. What makes this work is that once you have all your guns and replacement guns (just ask Romo/Brady/Orton owners), you bring your team to the end with victories that will result in the fantasy football championship. Ideally you just need to be within a game of first place and you have a shot at the whole she-bang. So smarten up your team with capable players and pray that they are playing against Oakland/Detroit/Cincinnati in Week 14 of your championship game.

To help fantasy owners looking that far ahead, here is that schedule. Oakland is at San Diego (LT goes crazy?). Minnesota is at Detroit (AP goes nuts?). Cincinnati is at Indianapolis (Manning goes wild?). Just look for any offensive players on these teams and Denver (they are hosting the Chiefs) and you will be served well.

Master D.

Tim can now be reached at tdavoll@fantasysharks.com and welcomes your opinions on the Diary of a Fantasy Virgin Articles .