JFL Week 5 Preview: Benched QBs Galore

This is a theme this week, you'll see what I mean.

The NFL is getting pushed around and Major League Baseball is being the bully.

MLB and the Orioles wouldn't move a regular-season game time up to accommodate a potential Thursday opener at the home of the reigning Super Bowl champ Baltimore Ravens.

Instead, they had to open on the road at Denver.

Now, because MLB and the Athletics would not move up a game time on Saturday, the Raiders game on Sunday was moved from 4:05 p.m. EST to 11:35 p.m.

Ridiculous for any NFL fan in the Eastern or Central time zones. For the Mountain and Pacific time zones, they'll finally get a taste of what it's like to be an East Coaster.

For once, the West Coaster will have a game that starts at 8:35 p.m. local time and not end till midnight or later. They'll finally have that tired feeling the next day at work.

The kind of feeling we have every Friday, Monday and Tuesday if we East Coasters watch all the games that start at 8 local time, 5 Pacific.

It's why I have started picking and choosing which night games are worth watching.

It's why this past Thursday, I didn't bother watching the Browns-Bills. Based on prior matchups, it was destined for a score like 9-6.

And then, I saw Tweets and NFL.com headlines about both starting QBs being knocked out. It had to be an awful game.

Nope. Browns 37, Bills 24.

Even worse, I log on to fantasy today to see the matchups and I see I'm already losing to Houserville 21.3-2.

"Who the hell did he start from the Browns-Bills game?" I shouted.

Scroll, click, scroll, "Son of a bitch."

He had the Browns defense. Two TDs and four sacks, totaling 21.3 points.

It was a good start for Houserville, who is one of six 2-2 teams looking to take the step forward into winning record land. Once Jimmy Graham scores his weekly 20-some points, he'll pretty much solidify that step.

Both the Chinese Organ Thieves (3-1) and Dottsville Toasters (3-1) are in that territory and leading their respective NFC divisions.

Today, they match up against each other in a game that could be critical to playoff positioning later in the season if the two hold their course.

Unfortunately for the Toasters, this is his "white flag" week. RGIII and Alfred Morris make up a large part of his team and the Redskins are on the bye.

That's why it's a good thing to prepare in the draft by picking up a viable backup QB.

You know, like Brandon Weeden. ... What? Yeah, the Toasters' draft magic was short-lived. Weeden has already been shipped out and in his stead is Terrelle Pryor.

A Penn State fan relying on an Ohio State alum, he must be desperate. Pryor has had a pair of good weeks sandwiched around an 11-point flop — and that 11-point debacle came in a game against the Jaguars. If your QB only has 11 points against the Jags, you can't predict what he'll do on a week to week basis.

He also was injured and missed last week's game, adding to the mystery of what to expect in Week 5.

The Organ Thieves have no such issues. Peyton Manning is averaging 42.5 points per game and he's projected to have another 43.1 today. And he's definitely not going to score just 11 points against the Jaguars next week.

The Toasters do catch a break in that Adrian Peterson is on the bye week, so the Thieves are forced to start long-time Toaster Chris Johnson, who continues to struggle. (Thankfully, I chose Dez Bryant over Chris Johnson in the first round).

Nevertheless, the Thieves should get enough points to push the Toasters to 3-2, which means it's time for the T-Money to make his move.

At 3-1 and tied for first with the Toasters in the NFC East, he's got the chance to play against a 1-3 Jawz Attack who needs a big win to get back into the AFC East race.

Both teams are making the move to their backup QBs and I'm not sure I agree with either one of the moves.

The Attack is benching Russell Wilson in favor of Alex Smith, and although Smith plays the Titans, I think the explosiveness of Wilson has to be considered here. Wilson is playing in Indy, who is rated No. 1 against the pass, but they've "stopped" Terrelle Pryor, Ryan Tannehill, Colin Kaepernick and whoever Jacksonville started last week (not worth looking up, either Henne or Gabbert or both).

Kaepernick stands out as the biggest scoring threat and I'm not really sold on him anyway, so to bench Wilson because the Colts defense has stopped QBs is a rash overreaction.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Wilson throw up 30, 35 fantasy points today. Smith may get into the 20s, but in a matchup where points will be at a premium, I'd hate to give up 10 to 15 points because I started the wrong QB.

T-Money benched Tony Romo for Eli Manning again, and yes, Manning is playing Philly and Romo is playing Denver, but I'm thinking about the team that will be in a shootout, and that's Dallas. We know Peyton Manning is going to throw all over so Romo is going to have to toss the ball around all day, likely battling from behind. Give him 400 yards and three TDs today. Eli? Maybe 300 with two TDs.

Outside of the QBs, I give the slight edge to T-Money. For Jawz to pull off the win today, he'll need Richardson to somehow crack the Seattle defense for a goal line score — that would require the Colts to get to the goal line — and he'll need Dwayne Bowe to have a big week vs. the Titans and catch a few of the TDs that Alex Smith will throw.

While we are talking about benching QBs, let's talk about the Spacklers, tossing long-time franchise QB Tom Brady to the side for Philip Rivers. This may be a good choice considering that in Cincinnati today there may be a river on the field with the 2-4 inches of rain that is expected to fall, so the safer choice for points may be Rivers against Oakland. We won't know until about 3 a.m., and I doubt any of us will actually find out if it was the right decision until 6 a.m. or later because none of us are watching that game.

I love the NFL, but not that much.

Boyer will also have Danny Woodhead going in that game, so the Channel 4 News Team, who has all eight starters finishing before Sunday's NBC game, will have to hope that while he sleeps, the Spacklers do not rack up an insane number of points.

I think he'll be safe.

I wish I could say the same for Fear and Loathing but he's benching franchise QB Andrew Luck for Mr. Five Interception Joe Flacco. His matchup against the Slackers will not be decided until Monday night, and it all depends on which Drew Brees shows up this week — 20-point Drew Brees who went 0-2 or 40-point Drew Brees who is 2-0.

I should have never let the Slackers get him in the expansion draft in 2009.

Now, he's got a 2-game winning streak battling back from 0-2 to be at .500.

He's not the only team to do that. The Noise did it, too, and they'll go for a third straight win this weekend against the Generals, and I like his chances.

DeMarco Murray may have some tough sledding in a potential shootout, so he'll have to get involved early to remain involved late.

But this matchup will be won at the WR position where I think the Noise will get some serious points from Tavon Austin, DeSean Jackson and Wes Welker. And I'm sure Julius Thomas will get into the action, too. So by the time Monday night rolls around and Matt Ryan drops 30-some points on the Jets.

And that was going to be my last sentence, but it's 11:38 a.m. and NFL Network just announced that the Lions have made Calvin Johnson inactive. Ouch. That hurts the Toasters big time, and it affects the value of Matthew Stafford for me, so guess what, it's Vick time.

When the Browns score 21 points and my QB loses his top threat, it's time to do what a large number of JFL owners did, bench my starter and go with the backup.

Funny how that worked out after writing all of this.