O'Malley's Tallies: Week 5 -- "Put Up" or "Shut Up"

Thanks to the Professor's hard-line stance against Matt from Stats this week, things were beginning to look contentious around SportsJudge.com. However, as people's expectations go up, sometimes you have to just put up, or shut up.

Matt from Stats put up this week -- albeit barely -- by calling the Arizona Cardinals win over the Rams to improve the 4-1 in survivor. Meanwhile, NFL teams like the Chicago Bears and San Diego Chargers -- both preseason favorites despite 1-3 starts -- also put up big with colossal wins, showing that they each are far from done.

On that note, here comes the week 5 Edition of “O.T’s” studs and duds…

STUDS

1. Kris Brown – I know, I know. Most of you think I’m crazy for putting a KICKER on this list. That is of course unless Kris Brown was active on your fantasy team yesterday! For the day, Brown connected on all five field goal attempts and an extra point, including three 50+ yard attempts (a 57 yard to win it with one second on the clock!) to rack up a huge day for fantasy owners and lead his team to a victory vs. who else, the Miami Dolphins..

2. Philip Rivers – After a few weeks in my dog house on the O.T’s “dud” list, P Riv finally stepped up a delivered a performance fantasy owners have been waiting for vs. the Broncos. With many critics beginning to discount the chances of the Chargers have a legitimate playoff chance anymore, Rivers silenced his doubters by throwing for 270 yards on only 13 completions (72% of his completions) and two touchdowns to lead the Bolts to a 41-3 beat down on division rival Denver.

3. Kenton Keith – No Joseph Addai, no problem!! After the former Bayou Bengal was declared inactive late Sunday afternoon, Kenton Keith made the most of his starting opportunity vs. the Bucs and made his fantasy owners (like myself!) extremely impressed. On the same day as his alma mater New Mexico State got drubbed by Boise State 58-0, Keith rushed for 121 yards, scored two touchdowns, and caught 5 balls to lead his team to a 33-14 victory going into the bye week. While Keith owners can expect him to go back into a backup role after the bye week, it is good to know that he can indeed carry the rock should something serious happen to Addai.

4. Jason Campbell – Coming out of the bye week, the Redskins had to have known they had a chance to do some good things through the air vs. a less than stellar Detroit Lion pass defense. With that being said, they certainly did not disappoint as Jason Campbell completed 79.8% of his passes and threw for 248 yards and two touchdowns to beat the topsy turvy Detroit Lions at home Sunday. Without much hype, Campbell quietly has his Skins at 3-1 heading into next week where they face off against the 3-1 Packers at Lambeau.

5. Larry Fitzgerald – Don’t look now, but the Arizona Cardinals are 3-2! In one of the highest scoring games of the day, Arizona receiver Larry Fitzgerald stole the show vs. the Rams on Sunday, catching 9 balls for 136 yards and 1 touchdown to help put his team over .500. On a day where the team lost QB Matt Leinart for an extended period of time with a broken collarbone, Fitzy stepped up big time with Anquan Boldin out and looks to be Kurt Warner’s favorite target going forward.

6. The Bills Defense -- Although the game is still going on at the time of publishing this article, the Bills had four first-half picks against Cowboys QB Tony Romo. This earns them an automatic spot on this list.

DUDS

1. Jon Kitna – After dropping 34 fourth quarter points against the Bears last week at home, one would think the Lions offense would have been in prime shape (including the return of Calvin Johnson) heading into Fed Ex Field on Sunday. In reality, however, this couldn’t have been further from the truth. On the day, Kitna completed 16-29 of his passes for only 106 yards to go along with two interceptions, obviously never finding that rhythm from the previous week. With much of a serious running game threat, it seems Kitna’s job won’t get much easier as the Lions go up against a stingy Bucs defense ready to show the country that Sunday’s performance vs. Indy was an anomaly.

2. Chad Pennington – With emotions running high in Sunday’s Big Apple showdown with the Jets vs. Giants, everyone knew the key to the Jets winning fell in the hands of QB Chad Pennington. Despite getting a touchdown from both his defense as well as his special teams, Pennington still could not hold the team’s lead and made some highly questionable throws in key situations. On the day, Pennington threw for 226 yards, 1 touchdown, and 3 interceptions as the Jets blew a ten point, third quarter lead to lose 35-24 to the cross town rivals. While arm strength has always been an issue for Chad, it never seemed to be as apparent as it was on Sunday.

3. Larry Johnson – As the weeks go by, that five year, $45 million extension for RB Larry Johnson is starting to look more and more shaky to those around the league and in fantasy. Just when it was safe to say it couldn’t get any worse, it definitely did on Sunday. Going against a stout Jacksonville front seven, Johnson carried the rock 9 times and amassed only 12 YARDS. While the argument can indeed be made this none of this year’s top picks are carrying their weight in fantasy (LT, S-Jax, Gore, etc), 12 yards for one of the highest paid players in the NFL is absolutely unacceptable.

4. The Entire Browns Offense – For those with a casual eye, a 34-17 defeat for the Cleveland Browns vs. the New England Patriots on Sunday looks about right. However, if anyone were to have watched that game, they know how many chances the Browns blew on Sunday. Whether it was stupid penalties moving them out of field goal range, fumbling the ball on their own 15 (which Randall Gay returned for a N.E. touchdown), or throwing an interception on the Patriot 5 yard line with momentum on the line, the Browns did everything they could to shoot themselves in the foot on Sunday. Although the team may be young and is expected to make mistakes, it is continued mishaps like this that may make Romeo Crennel unemployed come January.

Thank you all again for reading! Hope you all will check in next week for week six edition of “O.T’s”!

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