Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

A lot has gone on between the games that sometimes it's all anybody talks about. Let's figure out a few things that we learned ON the field on Sunday.

- Jay Cutler and the Bears have reminded us, once again, of the importance of winning the turnover battle. This week, only 3 teams that won had a turnover, and each of those three forced at least one turnover from the losing team. So no matter how favored you are against a team *coughninerscough*, you aren't going to win when you have 4 turnovers and don't force any of your own.

- J.J. Watt can do it all. He's appearing in commercials everywhere, on the SNF intro and now he's catching touchdowns. He currently has the same number of sacks as he has touchdowns. I think they should get him in there every game!

- No one is safe from injury. We saw a flood of injuries throw a stick in the spokes of fantasy football yesterday. Ryan Mathews, RG3, A.J. Green, Carson Palmer, Jamaal Charles, Doug Martin, DeSean Jackson, Vernon Davis were all guys who were fantasy starters, or almost in Palmer's case, who disappointed owners on Sunday. It's a long season guys, as long as I didn't recite your whole roster, you'll recover.

- Never count Aaron Rodgers out, especially at home. At one point in the second quarter, the Packers were trailing 21-3 and had only a 12.2% chance to win. After a beautifully executed two-minute drill to close the first half, he threw two more touchdowns in the second half on his way to being the leading QB of the week, throwing for 346 yards and 3 TD's. Rogers is the only QB to throw over 300 yards on Sunday.

- The Washington Redskins tied a franchise record with 10 sacks of Chad Henne on Sunday. Despite RG3's injury, Washington was able to put up 41 points and break a losing streak stretching way back into last year. My reason for directing your attention here is simple though. Blake Bortles will be starting in Jacksonville sooner, rather than later. Weel ahead of their week 11 bye.

- Arian Foster has shut up all of his draft doubters. After logging another 28 carries yesterday, he's at a league leading 55 carries, with 241 yards and 1 TD (4 rec for 29 yds as well). The Texans are sitting pretty at 2-0 with everything going their way early in the season. Reminds me of a recent season they've had, maybe 2013? While i don't think that Fitzpatrick is going to go on a crazy pick-six streak, don't think for a moment that people in Houston aren't thinking about last year a whole lot right now.

- There will be lots of good pickups on the waiver wire this week. Knile Davis, Bobby Rainey, Donald Brown and Kirk Cousins all performed very well when called upon this week and all, except maybe Rainey, are expected to get the start in week 3. In fact, rumors in Washington are that Coach Gruden prefers Kirk Cousins anyways. He's certainly looked better than Griffin over Washington's last 6 or so games.

- Marc Trestman seems to have a little Belichick in him. After rumors all week that Jeffery and Marshall would not play, including a very bleak outlook on Sunday morning, both of them were on the field to start the game on Sunday night. While Jeffery may have looked like a decoy, he still made a few important catches. Marshall, on the other hand, reeled in 3 TD catches(!) and is tied for the league lead. This is a game that the 49ers had a 98.7% chance to win at one point, definitely the best comeback of the week.

- Antonio Gates is apparently living like it's 2009. He's been targeted 17 times already, has 13 receptions for 177 yards and 3 TD's. As long as he stays healthy, he will be Philip Rivers' security blanket. He's moved firmly back into the higher end of Tight Ends, currently second among ALL TE's in the league. He's going to be a starter every week for the foreseeable future.

- Leaders so far - after two weeks, the leaders at rushing, receiving and passing yards are not surprises by any stretch, none of them are studs that were expected to take this role. Passing: Matt Ryan, 679 yds, Rushing: DeMarco Murray, 285 yds, Receiving: Jordy Nelson, 292 yds. The fantasy points leader is, of course, who we all expected it to be. Jay Cutler. WHAT?!?

Betting on sports can be a fun way to make watching sporting events even more exciting than they already are! When done correctly, it can also be a way to generate some extra pocket change. Occasionally I will place wagers on other sports, but my bread and butter has always been on the NFL. There are a couple of things I like to keep in mind when I'm wagering. First and most important is to stay within your means, it's no fun when you are gambling with money you need. Next don't chase a loss: if you make a losing wager it is tempting to just bet on the next game and catch up. Whenever this comes up for me it usually leads to making a bad play on a game I don't feel strongly about. And the last thing I like to do is try to avoid making parlay bets. Parlays are tempting because you can win a lot by wagering a little and there is a reason for that! In the coming weeks I will use this forum to share some plays I am making and offer some insight on the picks I make.

First, here is a little recap on plays I've made so far this season. I have made 4 total wagers so far and have hit on 3 out of the 4. The first play I made was on the Chargers +1 at Buffalo in week 3. The public's opinion on the Bills was inflated after their victories over the Bears and Dolphins so I jumped on San Diego. Generally speaking whenever a home team is favored by less than 3 points it means they really aren't favored. Next I won betting on the Lions -1 against the Jets. That one was pretty simple for me, the Jets can not score enough to beat the Lions. Then I made an error: I tried to run up my roll too quickly and decided to bet the Saints -3 in Dallas on Sunday Night Football (as it was the only game left to bet on the day). Generally I will try to avoid betting on a road team in a prime time game when there isn't a wide disparity in talent. Finally most recently I won on the Packers -10 Thursday night over the Vikings. That line opened at Packers -9, and when Christian Ponder was announced as the Vikings starter I knew I would have to bet the Packers at home and was willing to take on the extra point.

This week there are three games on my radar for placing a wager. I like the Bears to bounce back getting 3 points vs. the Panthers. I think they will win outright with the Panthers down to their 3rd running back. Matt Forte should be able to have a good day against the Panthers who haven't stopped the run yet this season. Next I've been told by a trustworthy source that the Eagles have an 82% chance to cover 6 points against the Rams at home. Currently the line is set at -7 so if I place a wager on this game I probably will buy one point. Lastly I think the Patriots getting 2 points at home on Monday night will be a good bet. The Bengals are good this year, but you can never count out the Pats. I think they will have a strong performance in prime time and silence some doubters.