I had Antonio Brown and Julio Jones on my bench ... and won

Well, if you saw my post last week about Antonio Brown being on my bench, you might be wondering how it went.

I hate Thursday night games, so I benched Brown, believing he wouldn't go off against the Browns' top pass defense. I also thought Rashard Mendenhall would get a heavy workload, minimizing the chances for Brown.

Well, I was wrong.

Brown had a 30-plus point day, keeping the curse of Thursday night games alive, at least for me.

I still had a good team, so I wasn't completely in panic mode.

Santana Moss was on waivers, so I could have picked him up.

Instead, I was looking a Julio Jones and Mike Tolbert.

Of course, I went with Tolbert, who had a nice matchup against the Bills, instead of Jones, who scored 30-plus points himself in my league's PPR scoring.

Tolbert at least vultured a TD from Ryan Mathews and helped me win by four points.

Next week, however, I doubt Tolbert will be in my flex. His touches are down and Brown and Jones are looking good.

Antonio Brown's big game was on my bench

Up until 11 p.m. Thursday night, I was feeling OK with my decision to bench Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown in the first round of my fantasy football playoffs.

Then, he clinched the game for the Steelers on a 79-yard TD reception.

Ugh.

Well, here's why I did it.

Brown would have been in my flex spot. However, I thought the matchup against the Browns, who were strong against the pass this season, favored a lot of running by Rashard Mendenhall.

That, in addition to my bad luck starting Thursday night players this season, made me gun shy.

I also had Mike Tolbert (vs. the Bills) and Julio Jones as other options as my flex.

Tolbert's there, but I don't expect 30-plus points from him. I am expecting a good game.

We'll see how it goes on Sunday.

After 11 weeks in fantasy football, here's where we stand

We're getting down to crunch time in fantasy football. Many leagues have just two weeks left before the playoffs begin.

Here's a quick look at my four teams and where they stand:

One-player keeper. I'm tied for the best record at 8-3 and have the second-most points scored. If the season ended today, I'd be the top seed and have a first-round bye. Mike Vick has crushed me the past three weeks. I actually picked up and started Vince Young this past week. He didn't do much, but I squeezed out a win thanks to the Pats' defense. I'm relying heavily on Calvin Johnson, Vincent Jackson and Julio Jones. I have Antonio Brown as a backup at WR. At RB, I'm hurting. I'm mixing and matching with Shonn Greene, Willis McGahee, Mike Tolbert and Brandon Jacobs.

Seven-player keeper. I'm at 9-2, good enough for a one-game lead for tops overall. My team's been scoring at a pretty good clip, I'm first overall, 150 points more than second place. I took at hit at QB with Matt Schaub. I put in Ryan Fitzpatrick last week and have to scramble at that position. My real strength is running back where I have Arian Foster, LeSean McCoy and Matt Forte. At WR, I have Megatron and Roddy White, with Vincent Jackson as a matchup fill-in.

Redraft league. This team is interesting. I'm 6-4-1, which is third overall. I'm third in scoring but I'm first in points allowed. My tie came on a scoring change and I have two one-point losses. I've had Matt Stafford all season at QB, I picked up DeMarco Murray and have put him in the lineup faithfully and have gotten a lot out of LeSean McCoy. At receiver, I have DeSean Jackson and Hakeem Nicks, so it's been a bumpy ride there. I have the Texans defense and picked up the Patriots defense last week while the Texans were on a bye. We have just a four-player bench and I might keep both defenses the rest of the way.


Auto-pick league. This league drafted offline based on my pre-draft rankings. I'm in second place but first overall in scoring. I had Phil Rivers at QB but went away from him weeks ago in favor of Cam Newton. I have Ray Rice and Fred Jackson at RB, but I have Frank Gore and Ryan Mathews backing them up. I'll need to watch Jackson's injury.

Overall my teams have had success, but I know it can be short-lived. Everyone should still be working the waiver wire, as I will.

Good luck down the stretch. I'll post some thoughts on the week coming up later.

What I'm doing in Week 2

In four leagues, I went 4-0 last week. Maybe that'll be the best it gets for me. Maybe not.

What was fun last week was the performances I had in the four leagues. I had the highest point total for the week in three leagues. In another, I was second overall.

What might be unusual is I have different players in many of the key positions, so it's not like I had Mike Tolbert, Wes Welker and Tom Brady in all of the leagues. In fact, I think I only have Tolbert in one league. I don't own Welker or Brady in any other league.

Anyway, all-in-all, it was a pretty darn good week.

I'm not sure I can beat it.

I'll give it a try anyway.

I'm rolling out Shonn Greene in one league. Yes, I was disappointed in his performance against the Cowboys on Sunday night. But I'm sticking with him, plus I like the matchup with the Jags, who did stop Chris Johnson. I'd go with Greene over Cedric Benson, Frank Gore and Mike Tolbert.

Speaking of Mike Tolbert, I have him in the same league as Greene. The matchup with the Pats worries me, plus he's coming off a knee injury.

Felix Jones surprised me against the Jets, so he's earning my trust. I'd start him over Greene, Ryan Mathews, Ahmad Bradshaw and Jhavid Best.

I have Nate Burleson penciled in my flex spot ahead of Julio Jones and Willis McGahee. If Knowshon Moreno is out, I'd bump up McGahee into that spot on Sunday.

Hakeem Nicks' injury has me nervous. I'm still starting him if he plays, but I'm not expecting a whole lot. And if he's out, I'd downgrade every player on the Giants.

I made one trade, I gave up Tim Hightower for Jay Cutler. I had Matt Stafford as my starter with no clear backup, so I really wanted to have an option beyond Stafford. Hightower was a stiff price, but I'm banking on Roy Helu to eat into Hightower's workload.

That's an early version of my thoughts on Week 2. If you have any questions or opinions, post a comment and I'll reply.

Ryan Mathews: Too much hype or is there hope?

Like many fantasy owners, I drank the Ryan Mathews Kool-Aid last season.

I spent an early pick on him, hoping to find a future keeper.

Instead, I got burned.

Luckily, I was able to salvage something from my season with the acquisition of Mike Tolbert.

But with keeper lists due soon, Mathews' name has come up again.

In my one dynasty league, we have pretty deep benches, so I never cut Mathews. Now, with five keepers due in a couple weeks, I have a tough decision.

Do I believe in Mathews, or do I cut my losses at last season?

I was leaning towards keeping Mathews, just for another season. Then I saw an article on chargers.com that gave me pause. San Diego might be looking at a two-back system this season.

Mathews reportedly didn't pass his conditioning test at the start of camp, which also is a red flag.

If keepers were due today, I'd pass on Mathews and let someone else worry about his situation. In his place, I'd go with Felix Jones or Shonn Greene.

But there's still time for Mathews to show me something.