Welcome to our Week 11 Beast, Busts and Sleepers. In this feature we try to dig deep and look beyond the obvious. We look for players that may produce over their heads as our Beasts. We look for players who may underachieve as our Busts. We look for players who could surprise as our Sleepers.

THE CRITERIA

QB: 20 FP or more = Beast
RB/WR: 15 FP or more = Beast
TE/PK/DST: 10 FP or more = Beast

RECORD BY CATEGORY

Beasts: 47-43
Busts: 57-33
Sleepers: 22-55

THE BEASTS
Beyond the obvious:

QB: Ben Roethlisberger PIT at KC - Big Ben will get back on track against the Chiefs leaky pass defense.

QB: Eli Manning NYG vs ATL - Coming off their bye week, Manning & Co. will score early and often.

RB: LeSean McCoy PHI at CHI - The Bears have been horrible against the run and Westbrook is done.

RB: Kevin Smith DET vs CLE - Browns have packed it in. Smith will have his best game of the year.

WR: Andrea Johnson HOU vs TEN - AJ has 24 FP in his last three games and should match that total here.

WR: Marques Colston NO at TB - Colston will rebound against the Bucs after two very sub-par weeks.

TE: Tony Gonzalez ATL at NYG - Gonzo has been up and down all year. With Turner hurt, he steps up.

PK: Jason Hanson DET vs CLE - Hanson will get a lot of chances in a game the Lions should dominate.

DST: Steelers at Chiefs - With Dwayne Bowe suspended, this one will get out of hand early.

THE BUSTS
Studs to Duds:

QB: Matt Ryan ATL at NYG - With no concern for the run, the Giants will bring a heavy pass rush.

QB: Matt Hasselbeck SEA at MIN - The Vikings lead the league with 34 QB sacks. Hass is not fleet-footed.

RB: Lawrence Maroney NE vs NYJ - Maroney has not taken advantage of being the starting RB in NE.

RB: Ryan Grant GB vs SF - The 49ers rank 3rd against the run and the Packers will take to the air.

WR: Miles Austin DAL vs WAS - Austin is struggling against double coverage. Skins rank first in pass D.

WR: Brandon Marshall DEN vs SD - With or without Orton under center, Marshall will struggle in this one.

TE: Kellen Winslow TB vs NO - The Saints have not allowed a TD to the TE position all season.

PK: Orlindo Mare SEA at MIN - Not many chances in this one as the Seahawks will need touchdowns.

DST: Ravens vs Colts - Manning & Co. take to the air against the porous Ravens pass defense.

THE SLEEPERS:
Underachievers with a chance to shine:

QB: Matthew Stafford DET vs CLE - The Lions rookie has the best game of his young career in this one.

RB: Marion Barber DAL vs WAS - The Cowboys will test the Redskins 24th ranked run defense.

RB: Tim Hightower ARI vs STL - Don’t give up on Hightower yet, especially in a PPR scoring system.

WR: Hakeem Nicks NYG vs ATL - Smith will get double coverage and Nicks will burn the Falcons pass D.

WR: Pierre Garcon IND at BAL - With Gonzo still out Manning looks at Garcon after Wayne and Clark.

TE: John Carlson SEA at MIN - Hasselbeck will be running for his life and will need the dump off pass.

PK: Kris Brown HOU vs TEN - This should be a track meet with lots of scoring by both teams.

DST: Cowboys vs Redskins - The Boys will bounce back at home against the lowly Skins offense.

FANTASY FACTS:

The Colts/Patriots game produced 288 FP in Week 10. The Ravens/Browns (112 FP) and Bears/49ers (142 FP) scored a total of 254 FP in two games combined.

Peyton Manning (30.4 FP) and Tom Brady (30.1 FP), playing against each other, led all QB scoring in Week 10. With 218.4 FP, Brady now sits second overall behind GB QB Aaron Rodgers (228.1 FP). Manning is a close third with 216.4 FP.

RB Michael Turner, Brian Westbrook, Cedric Benson, Ronnie Brown and Julius Jones were all injured in Week 10. The Benson injury is the least serious of the five. Fantasy Owners will need to make adjustments for the other four in Week 11 and beyond.

Since returning from his Week 7 bye, Titans RB Chris Johnson has been unstoppable. Johnson has 113.1 FP in his last three games. That is the highest consecutive three-game run by any player in 2009. WR Miles Austin scored 100.3 FP from Week 7 through Week 9.

Randy Moss (38.9 FP) and Reggie Wayne (34.6 FP) were the top FP producers at the WR position playing against each other in Week 10. Wayne (203.9 FP) and Moss (191.1 FP) also sit first and second in WR overall FP scoring.

For the first time this season, a TE did not reach the 20 FP plateau. Bucs TE Kellen Winslow led all TE scorers with 17.2 FP. Winslow has been streaky all season. He has five games where he averaged 20.1 FP per game. In his other four games, he averaged 4.3 FP.

Making just his second start of the season, Bucs PK Conner Barth had 17.5 FP in Week 10. The Chiefs cut Barth because of a lack of accuracy but he hit on field goals from 50, 51 and 54 yards against the Dolphins.

The Titans D/ST have scored 18 FP two weeks in a row now. In their seven previous games, the Titans had scored just 37 total FP. The Seahawks scored 18 FP in Week 9 but they, along with the Falcons, scored zero FP in Week 10.

Fantasy owners watched in disbelief as Jaguars RB Maurice Jones-Drew surrendered a sure TD by taking a knee to keep the clock rolling against the Jets. The Jaguars then kicked a field goal to win the game. Jones-Drew apologized to Fantasy players everywhere after the game.

What Jones-Drew took away, Patriots HC Brian Belichick gave back when he gambled on 4th down late in the game. Manning and Wayne padded their stats when they got the ball on downs at the Patriots 28 yard line and then combined on the game winning TD.

FANTASY FACTOR:

The Fantasy Factor was a modest 9-6 in Week 10 and we currently sit with a 97-47 record. It looked like we were going to be 10-5 until Patriots coach Bill Belichick lost his mind late in the fourth quarter on Sunday Night Football. The Broncos are turning into the frauds we thought they were but we didn’t think they would lose to the Redskins. We simply missed on the Cowboys, Steelers, Jets, and the Bears.

Let’s take a look at Week 11.

A mismatch of Fantasy Beasts versus Fantasy Busts goes a long way to deciding the outcome of NFL games. If you wager on the outcome of games, especially on the Money Line, you need to consider the Fantasy Factor.

B: Bad Bet (17-21): These are not good games to select a winner from based on the Fantasy Factor. You should stay away from these games.

M: Middle Bet (33-15): These are decent games to select a winner from based on the Fantasy Factor. You should still consider all the facts before picking from these games.

E: Excellent Bet (47-10): These are excellent games to select a winner from based on the Fantasy Factor. Load up and enjoy!!!

	B	M	E			B	M	E			B	M	E
Dolphins @					49ers @					Colts @			X
Panthers	X				Packers		X			Ravens
	B	M	E			B	M	E			B	M	E
Titans @					Bills @					Redskins @
Texans	X				Jaguars		X			Cowboys			X
						B	M	E			B	M	E
					Falcons					Steelers @			X
					Giants		X			Chiefs
						B	M	E			B	M	E
					Chargers @		X			Seahawks @
					Broncos					Vikings			X
						B	M	E			B	M	E
					Jets @					Saints @			X
					Patriots		X			Bucs
						B	M	E			B	M	E
					Eagles @		X			Cardinals @			X
					Bears					Rams
						B	M	E			B	M	E
					Browns @					Bengals @			X
					Lions		X			Raiders

VFFP Crew

Photo Credit: lehighvalleylive.com/nick-fierro/index.ssf/2009/07/lesean_mccoy_making_presence_f.html