The Daily Spin – NFL Cash Game Selections – Week 11

I have returned from my pilgrimage to Jerry World and I must say that my football weekend was one of the most memorable of my lifetime. I took a four day trek through Texas that started in San Antonio for two nights, Austin for a night and then on to Dallas. Each year, I always look for a good excuse to travel for some football around the country. I have my annual PGA trip each January down to Torrey Pines and then usually make one or two stops in the fall. My first trip was back in September to Boulder to see my Air Force Falcons take on Colorado which was a fantastic trip and a great game so Texas had a lot to live up to.

There were two games that shaped the weekend for myself and a couple of my close friends from my days in the Air Force. Saturday morning, we pulled up to my buddy’s place just outside of San Antonio where he smoked the best brisket that I have ever tasted along with some jalapeno cheese sausage and all your favorites sides and we settled in on the patio in his backyard for the Penn State/Minnesota college game. If you know anything about Gopher football, you know that last Saturday was the biggest game in their history as an 8-0 team taking on another 8-0 team which was ranked 4th in the country.

I could write a full column, hell, a whole book on the heartbreaks of being a Gopher football fan since 1984 when Lou Holtz arrived to take over a struggling program. Year after year, this team has delivered some of the most crushing defeats imaginable as a sports fan. This is a team that has never been close to the Rose Bowl during my lifetime. They have lost nearly every big game and been dominated by the top teams in the Big Ten. How bad has it been? I can tell you every detail about where I was the three times the Gophers have beaten Michigan during my life as a fan as well as the one time when they beat Ohio State.

The Gophers have had a little more success against Penn State over the years, but it was never in a moment quite this big. When the Gophers came out and took the lead I started to prepare myself for the letdown. When Penn State drove down the field late in the game for what looked like the winning TD drive, it felt like so many times in the past when things had fallen apart. Yet somehow, this time, it did not happen. Penn State took a pass interference penalty and then threw and interception and then it was just a blur of us running around my friend’s backyard howling while his dogs chased after us barking at all the noise. I don’t know that the magic season will last much longer, but for one Saturday, Minnesotans got the chance to enjoy college football at the highest level.

After the excitement of Saturday, I had a hard time believing that Sunday could live up to the previous day. We rolled into Dallas in the middle of the afternoon and headed off to the AT&T Stadium, which has been on my bucket list of stadiums to visit and for good reason. While US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis is a fantastic venue, there is not really any area around the stadium to tailgate. There are plenty of bars and restaurants, but most of the former areas where you could set up a grill and hang out are long gone. This is not the case in Dallas where lots all around the stadium are filled with folks before and after the game. Given how well Minnesota fans travel, it was easy to find a big crowd of purple to eat, drink and dance with leading up to the game.

The stadium itself is incredible. Even though our seats were near the top of the upper deck, there really is not a bad seat in the stadium, especially with the massive video board. The dance show with the cheerleaders is everything you would expect and the concourses feel like a party with bars and DJs. When the game finally started, the atmosphere for a Sunday night game was electric as it felt like there were a ton of Vikings fans in the stands and with so many big plays for both sides, the energy never really had a chance to die down.

Much like the previous day, it looked like the game would slip away for my team as the Cowboys ripped down the field on a late drive and it was shaping up for a tough loss for the Vikes. However, the drive stalled and Zeke was stuffed and suddenly the Vikes had pulled it off and escaped with a big road win. What was great was that the Cowboy fans were really friendly before, during and after the game. Even as Vikings fans did the SKOL chant leaving the stadium, there was nothing but kindness from Dallas fans. Most were pretty engaging and wanted to talk about the game and the general outlook for each team and everyone wished us well and asked how we had enjoyed the experience. Overall, it was a great trip.

Of course, it would not have been a perfect football weekend if not for the fact that it was a great week for DFS results. Even though I landed on AJ Brown for the week, I still managed to survive my cash games so hopefully you all had a great result as well, with most of the featured recommendations paying off really well.

At QB, I focused on three players and all played well as Lamar Jackson crushed yet again. Jameis played well, though he left an even bigger game on the field and Kyler Murray had a big day on the other side of the Cards/Bucs game. It is so important to have success at the QB position so I really try to limit my risk there. There are times when the price is very low and the matchup is just right, but generally, I want to make sure that I get my 20 points and move on as most of the QBs are priced so closely together that you have plenty of good options to work with.

At RB, a situation developed on Sunday morning that came as a bit of a surprise. The Chiefs made LeSean McCoy inactive against the Titans, which thrust Damian Williams into a great spot. For weeks, the Chiefs have been splitting touches between the two RBs, but with McCoy on the bench, it opened up a potential 20 touch game for Williams at $4900 which made him someone I definitely wanted to get into my lineup. He did not score, but still managed to put up enough points to hit value.

For my other RBs, I was not going to get caught on the wrong side of CMC ownership again in a great spot against the Packers so I made sure to have the money available to get him in as my flex which worked out fine. For my other RB, I would have liked to use David Montgomery, but was coming up just a little short of dollars so had to drop down to Devin Singletary, which I was okay with. Surprisingly, neither played that well, but Montgomery was very heavily owned, so it was not a real hit. The other RB that I really liked was Ronald Jones who was very cheap and crushed his expectations as he had a huge roll in the passing game for the Bucs which was a little surprising given his lack of usage previously as a pass catcher.

At WR, I opted to avoid the decision of having to choose between Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and just paid a few extra dollars to get Michael Thomas, the featured option every week for the Saints. Thomas was heavily owned, but again put up massive numbers while the Bucs were balanced through the air and neither Godwin or Evans erupted. Of the other five WRs that I featured in the value range, four scored TDs including Jarvis Landry, Zach Pascal, Jamison Crowder and Christian Kirk. Kirk had a massive day going for 6/138/3. The only bust was AJ Brown, which was a surprise as we expected his volume would be a little higher with Corey Davis out.

TE was a tough spot all around. It was too tough for most builds to get up to Kelce who played really well. Hooper got into the end zone, but got hurt and left the game against the Saints early. OJ Howard had a nice day against a bad Cardinals defense. For me, I opted to just completely punt and dropped down to a minimum salary play in Rhett Ellison. Ellison started out well with 3 catches for 42 yards, but was knocked out of the game with a concussion. That was not a great number, but still nearly a 3x result. This position has been tricky all year with injuries and inconsistencies so escaping disaster always feels good.

On defense, the Matt Stafford news had me moving pieces around to get the Bears defense into my lineup. Of course, that took me off of the Steelers so not the result I was looking for, but I still think it was the correct play. The Ravens smashed the Bengals, though it was tricky to pay up for them and the Colts, despite losing to the Dolphins put up 8 points so it was an okay effort.

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