Fantasy files: Playoff narcissicm

It's time for an overdue Zach on Sports narcissistic rant about my fantasy playoff teams. What good are playoff teams without a little bit of self-congratulation?
In my local keeper league, I played a team that had not made a roster move all year. He started Carson Palmer, Antonio Gates, Randy Moss, and Percy Harvin. You could say that I won comfortably. It's just an ego thing when you lead the league in scoring during the regular season. When get the top overall score in the playoffs, you feel like a championship could be upcoming.

This week I play a division rival. I had two waiver selections. One was Alex Smith to take Brett Favre's place. I had high hopes for Favre and only started him once. I thought he'd be a big scorer against the Lions and he put up 11 points or so. Good riddance. My other pickup was a guy who burned me two weeks ago. I picked up Vincent Jackson in a key matchup against the same guy I'm playing this week. He left after three plays and my hopes for a comeback victory were dashed.

Here are the matchups:

QB: Eli Manning versus Philip Rivers; I'll be lucky if Manning gets half the 28 points that Rivers scored. I'm seriously considering starting Kerry Collins instead.

RB: Knowshon Moreno and Darren McFadden versus Ray Rice and Danny Woodhead; I don't expect 42 points for McFadden again. I'll lobby to have Denver/Oakland as the full-time game on TV for the 4 p.m. games since that's the only game with fantasy relevance. Rice isn't scoring touchdowns this year. Woodhead is.

WR: Miles Austin, Vincent Jackson, and Hakeem Nicks versus Wes Welker, Roddy White, and Lance Moore; Jackson obviously paid off. I'd like a couple of "double touchdowns" between Nicks and Eli. Miles Austin has fallen off big-time since Jon Kitna took over. Welker's a PPR machine. I'll be watching Sunday night's game and probably crying the entire time. Roddy White has been a monster but he has not scored a TD in four weeks. I bet the streak ends this week. Lance Moore just scores touchdowns. If anyone gets single digits, as this is a PPR league, that's trouble.

TE: Vernon Davis versus Kellen Winslow II; I wave the white flag on this one. I'm not sure how Davis got one catch but to me that's the singular reason why the 49ers lost on Thursday night. That and their inability to notice that Vincent Jackson was the only viable receiver on the Chargers' roster.

K: Dan Carpenter versus Garrett Hartley; Both guys will play in the elements. I don't know; we're talking kickers here.

D: Ravens versus Giants; For all of the suckage the Ravens displayed last week, they did score two defensive/special teams touchdowns. The Giants will get more sacks.

The CBS "projections" give me a slight edge. They also tell me that Vernon Davis will score 16 and Vincent Jackson will score 13. That's a total of 29 and I got 35. I'm ahead of the curve.

I'm also in my Zealots 17 semifinal against a team that scored 190 points last week. 190 points in a Zealots league is pretty good. He has Brady, although I bet a lot of teams have Brady this week. Actually in this game and in my local keeper league it's Brady versus Manning. This is as it should be.

Peyton Manning is my no-duh starter. So are Michael Turner and Adrian Peterson. My crisis is among wide receivers. I have Dwayne Bowe, Greg Jennings, Percy Harvin, Reggie Wayne, Mike Williams (Bucs) and Mike Wallace. Four can start. Jennings and Bowe have possible backup QBs playing. I'm starting Wayne, Jennings, and Bowe for sure. Yeah, Bowe has one catch for three yards the past two weeks. I'm playing the studs. Harvin has a rookie QB. Wallace has a tough matchup and an injured QB. I'm going to try Mike Williams.

You know what? Scratch that. I can start two tight ends. I'm going with Owen Daniels and Jacob Tamme. The Titans can't cover the TE and Tamme's been solid since taking over for Dallas Clark.

I'm benching Jared Allen at DE. I've done so for most of the second half of the year. I'm going with Charles Johnson and Trent Cole. Patrick Willis already played. I have to keep Cameron Wake in my lineup. I'm taking Desmond Bishop over Lance Briggs as my LB3. Bishop should be on the field a lot.

Atogwe, Chung, and Delmas are my three DBs. Due to injuries and the Thursday night game, those are my only three options.

Double championship game? That would be nice.