While two wins in a row can hardly be called a streak, considering the way I started in this whole DFS football madness, I’m on one heck of a run here! That’s right, folks…another cash game win. I won’t lie to you. It was touch-and-go for a little while but thanks to some bargain picks elsewhere, I was able to pay up for Le’Veon Bell who, with that final touchdown to win the game, helped me win mine.
OK, so maybe it wasn’t as dramatic as that. I moved into the top half of my $5 50/50 by the end of the Sunday night game thanks to a 29.74 point game from Eli Manning, but considering Bell was owned by nearly 60-percent of the field, if I didn’t have him, I was sunk, for sure. Josh Lambo was a nice pick but he wasn’t securing me anything. Let’s take a look at how it all went down.
I stayed within the general framework of the strategy I learned to employ over the first few weeks, but based on match-ups and other costs, I was actually able to pay up in a few areas I was unable to do so and, in turn, was saved by some studs when those bargains became flops. Rather than break it down by position as I’ve done in the past, let me go over how I constructed the lineup.
1. Owen Daniels, TE – I spent the first four weeks of the season using tight ends who faced the Raiders and wasn’t stopping now. I was locked in on Daniels from the moment I looked at this week’s match-ups. Unfortunately, he totally sucked and tried to ruin my whole day with five targets and zero catches, but on the bright side, his cost was super-low.
2. New York Giants, DEF – Obviously I knew that their pass defense was lacking, but the 49ers pass attack was garbage and the Giants were leading the league in takeaways. Given the match-up and the cost, they looked like a nice low-budget option. Unfortunately again, my move didn’t pan out but also didn’t hurt my overall spending.
3. Josh Lambo, K – Going with the assumption that the Monday Night game was set to be a high-scoring affair with the 45.5 over/under set, I went with the low-cost option here so I could pay up elsewhere. With the way kickers have been performing, paying up for one seems like the wrong move. Sure, Justin Tucker seems to be a relative lock, but I wanted to see if I could increase my QB budget a little given some of the match-ups.
4. Odell Beckham, WR – I pay up for receivers. That’s the formula. And believe it or not, Beckham was the top guy on my board based on the match-ups. Yes, even with Demaryius Thomas facing the Raiders. It worked out beautifully for me as his seven catches for 121 yards and a touchdown came before the hamstring tightness.
5. Leonard Hankerson, WR – I was a big fan of Hankerson and given the trouble the Redskins were having with their corners, I thought he was a rock-solid pick at a bargain price. While he came back into the game after missing time with an injury, he still failed to produce. I considered going with someone pricier, but I still wanted to pay up for one running back and then see if I could also pay up for a QB this week.
6. Le’Veon Bell, RB – If you’re going to pay up, you may as well go all the way, right? A great match-up and no Ben Roethlisberger meant lots of touches for our man here and he did not disappoint. The last-second TD was huge, but he was racking up points long before that anyway.
7. Justin Forsett, RB – I wasn’t going to use the Anthony Dixon bargain for a cash game, so I opted to go with Forsett. He was a little pricier than I had wanted to go, but given the rest of the similarly-priced running backs and their match-ups, kicking in a extra few hundred to get a solid pass-catching back who seems to have finally found his groove wasn’t such a bad choice. Not to mention the Browns run defense is awful. Another 100-plus yard day, a touchdown and four catches for 49 yards did me just fine.
8. Larry Fitzgerald, WR – I started eyeballing the quarterbacks first and was wavering between and Eli Manning/Larry Fitzgerald tandem or paying up even more for Tom Brady and going a little cheaper for my third wideout. Pretty sure I would have been able to pair him with Jordan Matthews who I liked this week. But remembering what I’ve learned over the last few weeks, I opted to keep spending on the receivers and went with Fitz. The yardage was lacking, but once he found the end zone, all was right with the DFS universe.
9. Eli Manning, QB – Obviously, I was all over this match-up from the word go. I paid up a little for Eli as I didn’t like a lot of the other options in the lower-priced tiers. I thought about Carson Palmer as well, but my gut told me to stick with the Giants quarterback and it paid immediate dividends.
Overall, I’m very happy with the way I played the cash games this week. I built a strong lineup based on both the numbers and what I’ve learned about lineup construction and ended up doubling my money. I was even so confident in this group that I actually went with the $5 50/50 rather than just the $2 one. Guess I was feeling my oats from last week’s win. Looks like my next step is to start playing in more than just the one cash game. It’s time to spread out and see about making a few extra bucks.
As for my tournament play, well, that was a tough one this week. I paid my $25 entrance fee to try and win the million dollar first place prize and then threw in $10 to do the Fantasy Alarm FanDuel tournament as well. I tried to get a little cute this week and ultimately, it bit me in the ass. Here’s a look at what could very well have been the worst lineup in both cash and GPP play.
I went the same route with the defense, kicker and tight end, but figured I’d take the shot at the Anthony Dixon breakout week. His cost was insanely deep, the talk of Dan Herron should have kept his ownership percentages down and all I really needed from him was about 30 yards and a touchdown to pay off. From there, I could pay up all over the place which I did. Unfortunately, I just didn’t pay up for the right guys.
I don’t need to rehash my anger and frustration with Matthews, Matt Ryan and Randall Cobb again. I vented like crazy on SiriusXM Radio both Sunday and Monday night, so even the thought of discussing how much they sucked this week, exhausts me. The bargains failed, the expensive guys failed and in the end, this lineup was just downright atrocious. I was better off using my cash game lineup, though that wouldn’t have landed me just 13 points shy of a money slot. Just looking at the lineup for the guy who won it all has me shaking my head. Some players like Devonta Freeman I considered. Other like Doug Martin, I did not. Really going to have to put some deeper thought into my tournament play moving forward.
Onwards and upwards to Week 6 we go.
Good luck and I’ll see you all in the money this year!