JV Developmental League Week 9

Fantasy Perfection is a mere 4 weeks away after this weekend's games for Team Jeter. And, with 2 games separating No. 4 through No. 12, everyone still has a shot at playoff glory!

It looked the perfect season might slip away from Jeter and the Pats, but only briefly. After the first half of the Colts and Pats game, Brady was sucking and Welker put up a big doughnut. Then, the second half came, and with it, the perfect seasons for both Jeter and the Pats remained intact. Brady and Welker had off games, but had enough to beat a tough Team Keith. "Enough" in this case is the all-World, all-time, best performance ever by a running back, Adrian Petersen, who managed to make Shawn Merriman and the vaunted Chargers D look like a 5-6 Pop Warner team. His 50 points...yes 5-F'ing-0...points put Jeter ahead. Team Keith still had a shot, but Greg Jennings decided to catch another huge bomb from Brett Favre and add 22 points to Jeter's total. Oh....and Willis McGahee still has yet to play. Team Keith gave its all. Tony Romo outplayed Brady with 24 points, Reggie Bush had a big 23 point game, and Titans D scored 15, but it was just too much to overcome the Jeter Train. Team Keith loses in disappointing fashion with a 100 plus effort.

It was not a good week to be 4-4. The first .500 victim was Team Buckman. Going against Trojanville who's had a tough season, Team Bucks was the prohibitive favorite. However, the tag team of LenDale White, Lee Evans, and newly acquired Marques Colston combined for 53 points. The Quarterback position helped neither squad as Kurt Warner stumbled his way to 2 points while the inconsistent Phil Riv led San Diego and Bucks down the road of oblivion with an awful 5 points. LJ managed 22 points before hurting his ankle, and the Cowboys D playing a totally demoralized Philly squad racked up 10 points. Bucks was down by 30 going into Monday and looked dead in the water with only Santonio "Take Me" Holmes "Country Roads" left to play. With 2 big touchdown catches from Big Ben in the first half, it looked like Bucks might pull this one off. In the end, $$$tein was just too much, winning by 8.

dumpdorrell.com needed Willie Parker to have a Adrian Petersen type game on Monday to prevent Team Kat from rolling into next week's showdown with Team Jeter with an 8-1 record. Slogging through the mud, Big Willie Style couldn't gain traction and didn't add much to DDs. For Team Kat, Jon Kitna, Clinton Portis and Randy Moss rolled 20s, offsetting LT's "disappointing" 13. The revitalized Drew Brees was the only bright spot in what was a terrible weekend to be a Bruins fan, but a good weekend if you want to "dumpdorrell.com". No other player broke double digits for [link]http://dumpdorrell.com[/link] and neither the fantasy football coach or the coach of UCLA could get their respective squads up for their games this weekend.

Trojan Busters have been consistent this year. Consistently mediocre and scoring about 80 points a game. I follow this team and am biased, of course, but they have done just about not enough to be any good this year and joined the log jam at 4-5. Busters last chance to win came and went when the Steelers decided to score touchdowns without Hines Ward or kick field goals instead with Jeff Reed. In the battle of former college roommates (damn that was a LONG time ago), Cory's Soul Crush team had 6 of its players in double digits, with Joe Addai leading the way with 30. Matt Hasselbeck scored 19 in a game that I thought there was no way they were going to lose after going up 21-3 against the Brownies. They pulled defeat from the jaws of victory once again and somehow still lead the hapless NFC Worst Division ever. Soul Crush racked up 107 and should hold off the Busters. Busters had great games from Westbrook, Lynch, and Palmer, but not much else. Both teams are lagging at 4-5.

Big Giant Bunnies and Team Duggan had a good game going on into Monday, with Team Duggan taking a tenuous 2 point lead into Monday. Duggan appeared to be in trouble because they didn't start a kicker (Mason Crosby scored 17 on the bench). BGB had the Ravens D and almost a sure victory, right? Wrong! I originally wrote: "As long as the Ravens don't give up more than 27 points with no fumble recoveries, sacks or INTs, BGB should win." I should have said in the first half! Ravens D, with "help" from the Ravens Offense giving the Steelers 4 turnovers close to their end zone, gave up 38 points, giving BGB -7 points and a heartbreaking loss. I didn't see that one coming! Jay Cutler outright sucked for BGB, going out in the 2nd quarter with a leg injury. (Like it mattered in the Denver fiasco. How did the Lion's get good? Damn.) Marion Barber took up some of the slack for BGB. Team Duggan got zero from the QB position as well. However, Backup Joey Harrington got only 4 points so it wouldn't have matter too much any way. Duggan still gets the W.

It took an extra week, but the motivational asskicking that Ya Mo Be There 2 weeks ago finally took hold. There's been some smack talking back and forth between my two pledge class brothers, Cioffi and Shadic, and they certainly did not disappoint this week. Ya Mo took a 10 point lead into Monday and held on due to the Ravens anemic offense. Cioffi still had a chance with Derek "The Jar" Mason on Monday, but 2 points wasn't enough. Mortadella falls for the 2nd time in two weeks. Losing Ronnie Brown has killed the momentum for Mortadella. Jamal Lewis, Ernest "Goes to the Endzone" Graham, Peyton went big for Mortadella this week, but the rest of the team sat in the locker room. Team Ya Mo got surprising efforts from Justin "Circus Fargas, Circus Fargas" and Reggie Williams (not the disappointing ex-No. 1 Clippers draft pick in 1988), and the usual stud efforts from TO and T Gon.

With 4 weeks remaining, the lump in the middle of the JV Developmental League just got bigger, with 6 teams dropping/climbing to 4-5 (damn it stinks down here). Only 3 games separate No. 3 to No. 12 with 4 to go.

The big game this coming week is between the Fantasy Titans and 100% likely First round bye teams, Team Kat and Team Jeter. Team Jeter might be in trouble this week as both Brady and Welker, the core of the team for most of the season will be sitting this one out with byes at the worst possible time. Team Kat will come to play and will show no mercy. It should be a good one.

Cheers 'til next week,

Dave