The Football Diaries: CFB Edition
This is going to be a weekly segment in which I break down a cash-game lineup I used. It’s an effort to show what my mindset was heading into the games and how those decisions ultimately turned out.
I believe the decision-making process is the most important thing in DFS and not necessarily the actual outcome. Hopefully reading this can help with roster construction in some way, either through my good rosters or even learning from my bad ones.
This week I am going to look at the CFB $1,000 Barn Burner on DraftKings.
My Team
Connor Cook – I felt like this was going to be a passing game for the Spartans. Plain and simple: I missed it. It was run heavy. I thought the rivalry would create a better contest, but Michigan State blew them out.
Paxton Lynch – He’s been pretty decent this year and had a matchup with SMU with a fair price attached to him. Unfortunately Memphis State was able to run the ball too easily, and so Lynch never got rolling.
James Conner – DK kind of gave everyone a freebie by having Conner at this salary.
Tevin Jones – Reached for a pairing with my QB Lynch. Jones was cheap. I needed the cap relief, as I felt this the pricing was really tight this week. Twelve points isn’t terrible for $3,700, but the roster spot was too valuable to waste on a below-average player.
Tony Lippett – This was an easy pick, as I already had Cook on my roster, and Lippett is one of the best WRs in the nation. He was decent with that 22-point game.
Kevin White – Here’s where mistakes were made. Forcing him in this tight cap made the rest of my team very weak. In addition to weakening the rest of the squad, he laid an egg with only 11.7 points for a skyrocketed $9,400 salary. My thought was that Oklahoma State had been burned by good WRs all year (Rashad Greene: 200+ yards, Josh Doctson: 225 yards), so I figured this was a great play. Of course someone finally decided to start double-covering White, and thus the poor performance.
Devin Funchess – Once again back to the rivalry game with Michigan State. I really thought this would be the last game this year where Michigan showed up, played big, and gave a good team a run for their money. I was wrong and Michigan State pretty much had their way with the Wolverines on the ground. On a side note: Devin Gardner is terrible. Just terrible.
Winning Team: EmpireMaker
Brett Hundley – When I looked and saw EmpireMaker started a QB who wasn’t playing, I really thought he didn’t have a chance. But, he had a great team around him and he pulled it off. It started with Hundley, who at 70% ownership was a popular play based on the great matchup and overall dominance in this offense.
Kevin Parks – This was a shrewd pick. I originally had Parks in my lineup, but then 10 minutes before lock I took him out. It was a great matchup, and he has been a solid player for over a year now.
Mario Alford – Here’s where the Kevin White production went. Alford torched a weak secondary that was preoccupied with covering White.
Kenny Bell – I played plenty of Kenny Bell on Saturday also, but I was shocked to see the high ownership. I suppose we were all thinking that Nebraska was going to pass on Rutgers and that Bell would be the #1 WR. However it was Ameer Abdullah that went off, and then Westercamp caught the passing TD. I’m avoiding this pass game moving forward.
Jordan Payton – This is the handcuff pairing you want with Hundley. He scored an early TD and then went quiet, but anytime you want to play a WR next to Brett, this is the guy you should be rostering.
Jeremy Langford – When you’re the only guy rostering a player and that guy goes off for 40 points, you are feeling pretty good about it. It seems that everyone chose a side in this game. Either you’re on the passing game of Michigan State or you’re on the running game. I chose wrong and Empire chose correct.