Guest Writer: Ryan Saunders "Super Bowl XLVI 2012"

Tomorrow millions of people will gather around TVs all over America to watch commercials and eat copious amounts of food.  There will also be a football game being played, the Super Bowl to be exact.  For many people this will be the first and only game they watch this season.   If you are one of these people who are attending a party but haven’t been paying attention to football this year and aren’t sure of things like which Manning brother will be playing, it’s the younger one Eli, or aren’t sure why Chris Canty’s helmet looks like supervillian then this article is for you.  I will briefly cover the teams and issues to get you caught up to speed and surprise the football enthusiast at your party with you knowledge.

First up are the Giants.  They have won 4 games in a row and are playing great football right now.  They had to win the last game of the regular season against the Dallas Cowboys just to get into the playoffs and now, playing every playoff game on the road, have reached the Super Bowl.  They have done this with a combination of a great defensive front four, arguably the best in football, and brilliant play from quarterback Eli Manning.  The defensive has amassed 9 sacks in 3 games and constantly harried the opponents’ qbs.  Eli Manning is playing the best ball of his career and has been brilliant on 3rd down.  The Giants are a staggering 44% on third down and Eli Manning has a Quarterback Rating of 103.1 in the postseason. 

The Patriots have Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.  That is all you really need to know.  They are the all-time winningest quarterback – head coach combo in NFL history.  They have won 3 Super Bowl’s together.  Bill Belichick is one of the greatest football minds ever; he is constantly getting guys that will play hard in his system and winning games with them.  This year his new offensive wrinkle is his two dynamic tight ends, Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez.  These two guys have given New England a unique and almost unstoppable offense this year.  The Patriots are averaging 419.5 yards of offense per playoff game this year, 2nd only to the New Orleans Saints and during the regular season averaged 428 yards per game, also 2nd to the Saints.

In order for the Giants to win tomorrow they must find a way to take away either Aaron Hernandez of Rob Gronkowski.  If they can find a way to take away one or both of these dynamic New England tight ends they can win.  Rob Gronkowski injured his ankle two weeks ago in the AFC Championship game against the Baltimore Ravens.  He claims that he will be fine but it will be impossible to know for sure until game time.  They can do this by putting pressure on Tom Brady and making him make poor decisions.  It will be difficult to fluster him but the Giants front four are capable of it.  For the Patriots to win, they must stop Eli Manning on 3rd down.  If they can’t get the Giants offense off the field then Tom Brady can’t score.  They can do this by forcing the Giants into 3rd and long situations and taking away his favorite targets of Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz.

In Super Bowl XVII these same two teams battled to an epic conclusion.  The undefeated New England Patriots fell to the scrappy underdog New York Giants.  An incredible play by Eli Manning and David Tyree helped to make the game one of the most memorable in Super Bowl history.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be just as epic.  This year’s game has the ability to be just as good.  The teams are very evenly matched and the Patriots are looking for revenge for Super Bowl XVII, the only Super Bowl Brady and Belichick have lost.  Seeing as how it is impossible to write or talk about the Super Bowl without making a prediction I will make mine here: New England Patriots 38 New York Giants 35.

  -- Ryan Saunders is a graduate student at Baylor University's illustrious Truett Seminary , he graduated from Gardner-Webb, he is aspiring to graduate from Truett with an MDiV with a concentration in sports ministry, his home town is Durham, North Carolina.

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    We hope you have a fantastic Super Bowl Sunday!

Love from your humble blogger,

It's Football Season! Guest Writer Steve Demmler

A Preliminary Philosophy of Fantasy Football Drafting

Thoughts on what I think makes one a successful fantasy footballer.
** These points are primarily directed at leagues where one can freely and limitlessly work the waiver wire.
(UPDATE: Feel free to leave your opinions in the comments section.)

• Never draft a kicker. The skill of the kicker matters relatively little when compared to potential points in each matchup. Kickers on teams with average to above average offense and a below average to poor red zone touchdown percentage are likely available every week on the wire. If you have two viable choices check the arenas and weather. Minnesota's Dome in November? - great. Chicago's Soldier Field in November - terrible choice. Of course, this strategy point requires diligence on your part; do not expect to see the man with the golden leg sitting unclaimed Saturday afternoon.
• Never draft a defense. Choosing a defense is trickier and every week in the NFL there is potential for a perennially poor offensive team or player to have a monster statistical game (I am sure the Browns have proven this at some point in history). But just like in poker when you just folded a 2-7 off-suit and 2-7-7 flops, you have to be satisfied with the high percentage choice. Most leagues spot the defense ten points to begin with, so the smart move on defense is the conservative move. The average defense against average offense is safe, sometimes holding onto a total point range between 8-12  will be the difference between win and loss. But if the rest of your team has favorable matches why not gamble, start whichever defense is playing against whoever is the starting quarterback in Seattle now. The point is whether you want to play it safe or gamble you will be able to find a solid choice without wasting a draft pick on a defense.
• If a player is the primary-whatever on their team they are more valuable than a more talented second-string or relief player. Example: LaDanian Tomlinson versus Mike Goodson of the Carolina panthers in 2010. Goodson saw less than 20 carries until week 10 that season he got a three game stint as starter; here's how those three weeks played out between them: LT-142/0TD - 134/0TD receiving and MG-275/1TD -  125/0TD receiving. Going by common point values (6 per td, 1 per 10 yards gained) the final tally is LT 27, MG 36. You have to take the point where you can get them. Oh, and if you want to argue that LT is old and MG is in his prime, all I will say by way of response is - c'mon.
• Who to draft in the first round? My feelings here are not steadfast. The overall quality of quarterback in the NFL is so high right now, it doesn't make sense to me to go QB in the first round. Especially when your league is likely filled with half non-obsessive football fans and no matter what Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and now Aaron Rogers will come off the board first. That leaves Matt Schaub, Matt Ryan, Big Ben (who passes more than you think and is always seems to add a few points via scramble), and oh yeah, the incredibly prolific Philip Rivers. I'm leaving out 4,000 yard and/or 25TD QB's here because I think my point is made.
  
  My preference is starting running backs, usually in rounds 1 and 2, but in more savvy leagues (read: leagues filled with more obsessive players) maybe 1 and 3 is better. If one gets injured you can pick up an average one and not be eliminated from contention. It's riskier to build a team around wide receivers because what do you do when you rely heavily on Sidney Rice and Brett Favre snaps his brittle bones into pieces? It is tougher to predict consistency in wide receivers from week to week than running backs; how many targets, is it windy, is the quarterback healthy, who is covering him. A running back is usually good for an expected minimum number of carries and if an important O-liner goes down, and the RB had been producing, then the rest of the line will probably manage to hold up well enough to not effect your man's point total too much. The offensive line is not successful because of one man, it's better or worse. Now imagine: Peyton Manning to Reggie Wayne, and now, Curtis Painter to Reggie Wayne.

           --- Steve Demmler
 For more articles by him follow his blog You Can't Mean That!

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     Hope everyone has a fantastic Labor Day. Enjoy yourselves and have epic cookouts!


        Love from your humble blogger,