Bruno Boys Fantasy Football

Missed one of the preseason games this past week? Don’t worry about it. Instead take a look at our Preseason Week 3 Game-By-Game Recap in which we breakdown some of the best and worst performances in the NFL. Also, use this article to get a gauge on how some of the position battles are shaping up around the league.

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Missed one of the preseason games this past week? Don’t worry about it. Instead take a look at our Preseason Week 2 Game-By-Game Recap in which we breakdown some of the best and worst performances in the NFL. Also, use this article to get a gauge on how some of the position battles are shaping up around the league.

Buffalo Bills 34 vs. Indianapolis Colts 24

  * With all the preseason playing time belonging to him at the moment, C.J. Spiller rushed for 54 yards on 10 carries, including a 31-yard touchdown.

  * Trent Edwards hit Lee Evans on a 70-yard touchdown pass. You can expect Edwards to keep the starting job, at least for Week 1, despite Brian Brohm going 14-for-21 and 125 yards passing. Edwards finished 5-of-8 for 93 yards and the touchdown.

  * Peyton Manning led the Colts on two scoring drives in the five series he played. He connected with Jacob Tamme for a score and Joseph Addai rushed for the other TD.

  * Donald Brown had four rushes for 23 yards.

  * Anthony Gonzalez was the only top Colts’ receiver to make the stat sheet, totaling two catches for eight yards. Manning targeted Gonzalez on another pass that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown.

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Missed one of the preseason games this past week? Don’t worry about it. Instead take a look at our Preseason Week 1 Game-By-Game Recap in which we breakdown some of the best and worst performances in the NFL. Also, use this article to get a gauge on how some of the position battles are shaping up around the league.

New England Patriots 27 vs. New Orleans Saints 24

- Drew Brees was 9-for-13 for 55 yards, including a 20-play, 86-yard drive that lasted just over 10 minutes. That drive ended with a two-yard touchdown run by Reggie Bush.

- Tom Brady competed in the Patriots’ first two drives, going 5-for-8 for 67 yards.

- Wes Welker did not play, but is expected to suit up in the season opener. In his absence, Julian Edelman posted six catches for 90 yards. Edelman’s fantasy football value diminishes incredibly when Welker returns.

- Laurence Maroney, who at this time stands atop the Patriots’ running back depth chart, punched in two goaline scores.

- With Lynell Hamilton gone for the season, Pierre Thomas stepped in and rushed eight times for 27 yards and caught four passes for 26 yards.

- Robert Meacham didn’t play in the game, but he recently came off the PUP list.

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Who saw that one coming? Peyton Manning makes a critical mistake and gets intercepted for a pick-six. You can’t put all the blame on Peyton, though. You have to give credit to the other Payton - New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton. He made a brilliant call with the onside kick at the start of the second half, and that really turned the tide in the Super Bowl. The Saints won the Super Bowl, thus officially ending the 2009 season. It seems like only yesterday we were making our draft cheat sheets with Matt Forte in the top 3. How times have changed. Before too long it will be time to start making our cheat sheets for the 2010 draft.

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A lot of times going into the Super Bowl, people without teams to root for will simply wish to see a good game instead of picking one team over the other. That is, of course, unless that person has money on the game or if you’re still in the running for a championship in a fantasy football playoff challenge bracket. The Bruno Boys Playoff Challenge saw 308 entries try their hand at beating the Bruno Boys, and a lot of them succeeded, but only one can be the champion. From all of us at Bruno Boys we congratulate the entry Jints Do It by B. Higgins, as the winner of this year’s playoff challenge. That entry finished as the only one with more than 500 points, checking in at 502. Having to set the entry for the conference championship games and the Super Bowl at the same time, Jints Do It featured players exclusively from the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints, four of which registered double-digit points totals, racking up 99 points for the Super Bowl alone. Many were close though, so let’s take a look at how the top 10 finished.

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Super Bowl Sunday is a day filled with excitement for football fans all over the world. It is a day that we spend with family and friends watching the two remaining playoff teams trying to reach the pinnacle of their sport. It doesn’t happen every year, but this year we get to watch the two best teams in the NFL when the Peyton Manning led Indianapolis Colts face Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints.

These two teams dominated the 2009 NFL season. The Colts started the season 14-0, and there is a good chance they would have gone undefeated this season had head coach Jim Caldwell not decided that it was more important to rest his stars in order to get ready for the playoffs rather than trying to top the Miami Dolphins’ 17-0 season of 1972. The Saints also had a very good start to the year, as they won their first 13 games of the season before stumbling against the Dallas Cowboys’ in Week 15. These teams were the No. 1 seeds in the AFC and NFC playoffs respectively. They both have explosive offenses and it should make for a very entertaining Super Bowl.

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With the countdown to the Super Bowl continually winding down, the water cooler talk has picked up. From the die hard fans to the casual observers, everyone seems to have an opinion as to what’s going to happen come Super Bowl Sunday. Granted, some insight is a bit deeper than others. For the record, I do not think that the New Orleans Saints will come out on top because of a potential proposal from Reggie Bush to on-again, off-again girlfriend, Kim Kardaschian should they secure the win. But, hey it’s the Super Bowl and anything can happen. With that said, the Bruno Boys Staff shares with you our Super Bowl previews. And, we ask that you, Bruno Boys Nation, vote in our poll and share your predictions as well in the comment section below. Come the final whistle on Sunday, we’ll then see who was on the mark and who was way off.

Bruno Boy Whooley’s Super Bowl Prediction - Saints (27) – Colts (35)

The 62 total points may seem like a lot, but with the over / under currently sitting at 56.5, is it really that preposterous? Let’s not fool ourselves, these two teams are playing for the Lombardi Trophy not because of the smash mouth football they play, but because of the way they light up the scoreboard. In fact, in this post-season, both squads are averaging 25+ points per game, with the Colts posting 25 a contest and the Saints, a whopping 38.

With that said, I think it’s Peyton Manning and Co. that come out on top in this one. The Saints squeaked by in the NFC Championship Game despite giving up 475 total yards of offense to the Minnesota Vikings. The reason? The Vikings coughed the ball up a staggering five times. While it’s very likely the Colts near the Vikings’ 475 total yards, don’t expect them to bail out New Orleans with anything close to five turnovers. As such, Peyton will prove once again that he can win the big one.

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So this is it. It all comes down to this, the New Orleans Saints vs. the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl. For most of us fantasy owners, it’s finally a time to not worry about stats and fantasy rankings, and just sit back and watch the biggest sporting event in the nation. For some of us, we’re still playing for something in our playoff fantasy leagues. I hope you loaded up on Saints and Colts or you’re in serious trouble. Let’s take a look at how the Saints and the Colts made it to the grand stage.

Indianapolis Colts 30 vs. New York Jets 17
This one had upset city written all over it in the first half. The New York Jets, oddly enough, put together their best fantasy stat line in the game that they didn’t win. Both Braylon Edwards and Jerricho Cotchery went over 100 yards receiving, including an 80-yard bomb to Edwards from Mark Sanchez. OK, so Edwards only had two catches in the game, but when one of then is an 80-yard TD, that’s all you need. Dustin Keller hauled in another score to go with his 63 yards receiving. Where was this passing production in the regular season when fantasy owners needed it? Sanchez threw for two touchdowns and 257 yards passing with an interception. Not a bad day at all for a guy who was putting up horrendous fantasy numbers. Unfortunately for the Jets, and probably a big reason why they lost this game, but Thomas Jones and Shonn Greene just barely got over 40 yards rushing each. The running game was their bread and butter all season, but the bread went stale in this game. As for the victorious Colts, they didn’t need Reggie Wayne or Dallas Clark to get the job done in this one, although Clark did have one score. But it was the Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie show in this one. Garcon had 11 catches for 151 yards and a touchdown, while Collie had 123 yards receiving and a touchdown, as well. Wayne had three catches for 55 yards on “Revis Island.” Peyton Manning threw for 377 yards and three touchdowns to put together another solid fantasy day, but who would have expected anything else? Joseph Addai rushed for 80 yards, but couldn’t get in the endzone. He should be in line for a nice night in the Super Bowl after the day Adrian Peterson had against the Saints.

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The Conference Championships are over and done with as the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints, both the No. 1 seeds, will represent their respective conferences in the Super Bowl. As per usual, with football being played, another batch of story lines need to be examined. In Whooley’s Weekly Words, I, Bruno Boys Whooley, tackle just a few of the more interesting items to catch my eye from the weekend. This week, I’ll be discussing the legacies of two of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, Peyton Manning and Brett Favre.

Peyton Manning - A Football Savant

Tony Dungy’s departure from Indianapolis this off-season and all of the changes that resulted from it stirred up whispers among the NFL community as to whether the Colts could continue to play up to the Championship level that has come to be expected of them. Seeing as the team is currently finalizing plans for a trip to Miami and the Super Bowl, we think those whispers have been answered.

A big reason the Colts are still a Championship caliber club has to do with Peyton Manning. Manning earned an NFL record fourth MVP trophy this season. Yes, part of the reason the award was bestowed upon him had to do with his final stats as the QB threw for 4,500 yards, 33 TDs, and 16 INTs during the regular season; however, the bigger reason Manning took home the hardware is the fact that despite all the changes that occurred in Indy this past off-season, one thing stayed the same - he was the man behind the center, and that my friends is all the stability the Colts need. No player means as much to their team’s success than Manning does to the Colts. Take him out of the line-up, and there is no way we are discussing Indy as we head towards Super Bowl Sunday. In fact, without Manning, I’m not even sure we would have mentioned the Colts throughout the playoffs at all.

Manning is a special player with a God-given gift to read defenses much like Bobby Fisher was able to read chess boards. Sure, the Jets caused Manning some headaches and confusion during the first half of this past weekend’s AFC Championship Game, but as Manning has shown time and time again, it’s only a matter of time before he’s going to figure things out. And, that’s exactly what he did this past Sunday. With Darelle Revis blanketing stud wide out and Manning’s favorite target, Reggie Wayne, the Colts’ QB looked elsewhere to get the job done, leading to 100+ yard days for both rookie wide out, Austin Collie, and second-year man, Pierre Garcon and a 30 to 17 win for the Colts.

While it’s hard to feel sorry for anyone preparing for a trip to the Super Bowl, there is one man I wouldn’t want to be right now and that’s New Orleans Saints’ defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams. Because, really, at this point and time, is it even possible to shut Manning down?

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There are times when the NFL playoffs fail to deliver but the AFC and NFC conference championship games last weekend certainly didn’t fall into that category. In the early game we saw the New York Jets go up early on the road, only to see the Indianapolis Colts score the final 24 points of the game for the win. Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning was on point as he threw for 377 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. The second game of the day featured the New Orleans Saints and the Minnesota Vikings, and even though it felt like the fourth quarter lasted two hours the way the two teams went back and forth and all the key plays had us on the edges of our seats.

So the final round of the Fantasy Football Playoff Challenge encompasses the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, but we’re going to recap how the last two games went anyway. There’s two weeks until the Super Bowl kicks off anyway, so we’ve got to do something.

Here’s the top 10 following the conference championship games:

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