With Week 14 in the books, the fantasy season is officially winding down. Top performances down the stretch prove crucial when playoff spots and championships come into play. For the second straight week Westbrook owners rejoiced as he turned in an MVP-worthy showing against the Giants in a rivalry game.

The Colts looked like the Colts of seasons past as they routed Cincinnati, and Brett Favre and the Jets fired a blank in a Week 14 loss to Mike Singletary’s revitalized 49ers. Read more »

Since 1970, only 10 teams have reached the 10-0 mark in the NFL. The most recent squad is this year’s Tennessee Titans.

Not much of the offensive juggernaut like last year’s record-breaking New England Patriots, Tennessee has relied on one of the game’s best defenses to keep its season perfect. While surprisingly not in the top five statistically in rushing, passing or even total defense, the Titans have given up only 131 points through 10 games. That’s about 13 points per game and tops in the league for those playing along at home. Read more »

Week 10 has come and gone. The Lions couldn’t pick up a win for the tenth straight week. We saw the return of Thursday Night Football with a primetime slugfest between the arms of Cutler and Quinn and the verbal diarrhea exhibited by Cutler, Brandon Marshall, and Cleveland’s Kellen Winslow.

Then, in another exciting rendition of NFL action on Sunday, Green Bay vs. Minnesota went down to the wire, two second-tier backs found paydirt thrice, and a one Tyler Thigpen played like he actually belonged in the NFL. Jake Delhomme did not however. Read more »

Small sample sizes can often mask what players are actually capable of doing, for better or worse. If a guy plays over his head for three games, fantasy owners go nuts and start drinking his Kool-Aid. If he struggles for three games, owners cut bait and offer him in trades for 50 cents on the dollar. After nine weeks of the NFL season, season numbers are starting to weed out imposters and exposing players for what they really are.

Just like in baseball, hot streaks don’t change who a player fundamentally is. DeAngelo Williams came out of nowhere to score three touchdowns in Week 5, but does that change a fact that he is undersized and incapable of shouldering a heavy work load? Willie Parker found paydirt three times in Week 1, but does that mean his touchdown-scoring woes are officially behind him? Read more »

So, Week 9 is in the books and it was boring.

A lot of sloppy offense. A lot of field goals. A lot of mediocrity across the board in the fantasy world. Two overtime games. Mike Shanahan shaking things up in the fantasy world as usual, and an 0-7 Bengals team erasing the goose-egg as it toppled the Jags.

But lucky for you, Big Bertha has sifted through the rubble of the Week 9 yawn fest to bring the best of Sunday’s standouts and blunders. This is your Week 9 hardware. Read more »

For those of you that weren’t watching a rainy Game 5 of the 2008 World Series, there was a football game on Monday night.

The Titans, in typical Tennessee fashion this season, won yet another game 31-21 over the Colts to extend their runaway lead to four games in the AFC South. The Indy loss gives Tennessee the largest lead over a second-place team in any division in football. Read more »

Seven Weeks down; ten to go. And the NFL class of 2008 is making its presence felt on Sundays (and Mondays for that matter). Big Week 7 performances from Chris Johnson and Matt Forte showed the fantasy world that these first year guys mean business.

John Carlson caught one for a score for the second straight game and Darren McFadden is still vying to touch the ball in Oakland. The Rams offense woke up in Week 7’s upset over Dallasm which could translate into good numbers for Donnie Avery, while the Jets demise to the Raiders in OT may mean it’s time to give up on Dustin Keller for the rest of ‘08. Read more »

Some new faces crack our top 101 rankings, but the list has the same distinct look to it with a virtually unaltered top 10. That could change next week, though, because Vikings running back Adrian Peterson is officially on probation as our top-ranked player. The only question standing in the way of a Week 6 demotion is, who else deserves the top spot?

LaDainian Tomlinson has issues of his own and comes off a lackluster Week 5 effort. Frank Gore is having a fine, fine season, but his game just doesn’t scream “best player in fantasy football.” Clinton Portis is ever-so-slowly inching his way there, but doesn’t have half the big-game explosion of Peterson. We knew going in that Peterson would be inconsistent, so he gets at least one more week to prove just how good he can be. Read more »

The NFL’s class of 2008 has made its presence felt through the first quarter of the season. Week 5 proved to be no different as many rookies found their way into the endzones and impacted fantasy games everywhere during a time when depth was huge due to bye weeks and injuries.

For the third straight week, Houston’s Steve Slaton looked great. It certainly doesn’t seem like he’s only started three games as a pro. And in Dallas, Felix Jones taught the Cowboys a valuable lesson by following up his zero-touch effort in Week 4 with an impressive showing of 96 yards on nine carries including a 33-yard touchdown scamper. Read more »

Consider player rankings in the same light as your typical college basketball or football rankings. Once the early adjustments are made to take care of teams and players we underestimated and overestimated, only big events should spur big changes. While a multitude of upsets took place last week in college football, there were far fewer landscape-altering events in fantasy football.

Brett Favre’s six-touchdown effort against Arizona was the closest thing to Oregon State’s shocking upset of USC last Thursday. With that outburst, Favre surged to the top of fantasy quarterback rankings and took the NFL lead with 12 touchdown passes. The big boys in our top 10 held down the fort, even Philadelphia’s Brian Westbrook, who has caused owners headaches with a nagging right ankle injury, and Dallas’ Marion Barber, who carried just eight times in a loss to the Redskins. Read more »