FanHouse Chester Taylor

For some reason, head coach Brad Childress thought letting Brett Favre and his 40-year-old arm sling the ball all over the yard gave the Vikings the best chance to win against the Steelers Sunday. He was so sure of this, in fact, that the Ole Gunslinger ended up doing it 51 times.

On two occasions in the fourth quarter that decision led directly to Steelers points. Defensive end Brett Keisel stripped Favre as he dropped back and linebacker LaMarr Woodley took the fumble to the house. And with just over a minute to play and Minnesota trailing by three, a Favre screen pass skipped off the hands of Chester Taylor, into the lap of linebacker Keyaron Fox, and 82 yards later, ball game.

Here's a question: why not give the ball to Adrian Peterson more than 18 times? Since, you know, he came into the game leading the league in rushing, and fresh off hanging 143 rushing yards on the Ravens. Didn't happen, and instead of seeing Purple Jesus tread defenders all afternoon, we only got to see it once.

Video hit-and-run after the jump.

Everyone loves fantasy football sleepers, but they change depending on league size and availability. We're here each and every week to give you a look at good plays for all types of leagues.

Usually I like to use this space to talk about some of the previous week's sleepers that paid off. And while we did nail some, like Nate Burleson and his 98-yard, two-TD performance, as well as the shutout posted by the Seahawks defense, there was one pick that most certainly did not come through: Derek Anderson.

The Browns showed signs of life in Week 4 -- then traded away Braylon Edwards. Throw in the awful winds in Buffalo on Sunday, and Anderson had as bad a week as possible for a starting QB, completing two passes in the win.

Brian Westbrook is going to enjoy himself as he returns to both the gridiron and the Top 5 in the FanHouse fantasy football running back rankings for Week 5.

In Week 3, Brian Westbrook had the pleasure of sitting out and watching his heir apparent run wild on a terrible Kansas City defense (who I like to call the Swiss Chiefs). In Week 4, the Eagles had a bye week, and Westbrook went ahead and got himself healthy. He's also likely a bit motivated to prove he's still the superior back in Philly, as he's always done after missing a game or two due to injury. In Week 5, the Eagles play the Buccaneers, who are even worse defensively than the Chiefs. The Bucs are allowing 4.8 yards per carry, over 170 rushing yards per game and 28 points per game.

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Here's how it works. We throw some intriguing matchups at the FanHouse staff and ask whether each player will be over or under a certain point total. The result? Fantasy Football Over/Under. Makes sense, right?

So you picked up some of the breakout Week 1 performers, and now you're wondering whether or not you should give them the start in Week 2. Earl Bennett, Mario Manningham, Chansi Stuckey ... the list goes on and on. Or you might be debating whether Matt Schaub and Steven Jackson can bounce back. The FanHouse staff weighed in on some of the more tricky matchups of Week 2 in this week's Over/Under.

This offseason, FanHouse and the Fantasy Football Cafe are getting together to do some mocking. We're bringing you a series of mock drafts to help you prepare for your fantasy football season. Because when it comes to your fantasy football draft, there's no such thing as being too prepared.

A few weeks ago, we came at you with a 10-team mock draft. Today, we'll check out the results of a recent 12-team mock draft completed by FanHouse writers and Cafe veterans on August 10. For our mock league, you must start one QB, two RBs, three WRs, one TE, one K, and one DEF, with six bench slots available for your discretion. The scoring rules: 20 passing yards per point, 4 points per passing TD, -2 points per interception, 10 rushing/receiving yards per point, 6 points per rushing/receiving TD, standard kicking and defensive points.

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For those who may use a different term or are new to fantasy football, "handcuff" is the term used when you own insurance for one of your players in the form of owning his real-life backup. It's usually a running back, but you could conceivably handcuff a quarterback. The theory is that some or all of the production is automatically replaced should you lose a high draft pick to injury, meaning you need to insure a high draft pick by grabbing his backup.

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With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.

Meet The ...
Dude we're sick of seeing on the cover of all the magazines. Well, that is until we land the first pick in our fantasy drafts. Adrian Peterson comes in as the entirely unanimous No. 1 in every league known to man. Unless you have a huge homer crush on Michael Turner, Maurice Jones-Drew or Matt Forte, Peterson is the best fantasy player in the game. But of course he could get injured, something he is known to do ...

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According to ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert, the Vikings are breaking out of their shell.

Minnesota's offense has been pretty predictable in the past couple of years--handoff to Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor a lot and hope they break a long run, run Bobby Wade over the middle and hope Tarvaris Jackson connects with him and then send Bernard Berrian deep.

With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call The Perfect Draft.

Minnesota made it back to the playoffs last year, only to watch Tarvaris Jackson lay an egg in a first-round loss to the Eagles. That forced the team to finally admit that Jackson may not be the answer, so in the offseason the Vikings have gone out and added a quarterback, just like the fans wanted. But by trading for Sage Rosenfels, Minnesota is hoping to prove they are smarter than the rest of the league, as Rosenfels was not looked as a playoff-caliber quarterback by other teams. So Minnesota heads into the draft with a similar situation to last year--a Super Bowl caliber team led by a less than Super Bowl caliber quarterback.

With attention spans dwindling, we forego full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. Click here to go back in time.

Saturday Games

Atlanta at Arizona (4:30 PM ET): I said a few days ago that I thought this was the perfect situation for Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan (rookie play-caller, first playoff game, up against a struggling team with a spotty defense). In reality, it is really a perfect match-up for both teams. Atlanta gets to go on the road against the only playoff team they'd want to play. And in the past six weeks, Arizona has defeated only two teams, who have a combined record of 6-26.

For the Cardinals, they are getting an inexperienced playoff team at home, where they always seem to play better. Think about it -- out of the Eagles, Falcons, Giants, Vikings, and Panthers, the Cards would have almost certainly picked Atlanta to face in in their first-ever home playoff game in Arizona.

Yet I think Atlanta pulls this one out. Not counting the passing explosion against the Seahawks in Week 17, Kurt Warner has been off lately, and now the Cardinals have to deal with all this Larry Fitzgerald off the field stuff. That actually brings me to an off topic: You know how we live in a country where you are innocent until proven guilty? If you're an athlete (or public figure), you are guilty as soon as anyone accuses you of something. It is rather ridiculous.

Pick: Atlanta