FanHouse Jeremy Maclin

The Big 12 North remains a ways from returning to the prominence it enjoyed when the conference first formed in the late 1990s, but if Saturday's matchup between Kansas State and Nebraska for the division title is any indication then better days are certainly on the horizon.

After years of struggles by the Kansas State Wildcats and the Nebraska Cornhuskers, which have coincided with a dip in the North's strength, the two meet Saturday in Lincoln for a winner-take-all showdown. Neither team has had quite the season it anticipated but each has won enough for the right to play for the Big 12 championship, likely against No. 2 Texas, Dec. 5.

"Certainly we've been in this position before, probably in different ways," said veteran Wildcats coach Bill Snyder, who broke out of a three-year retirement to return to the sidelines this season. "By the same token, I can't remember other than the very early years that playing against the Nebraska teams was not a great challenge and certainly key ball games were after those initial years after they beat us so soundly."

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?

Let's review my picks from last week and see how awful I did ...

PHILADELPHIA -- You don't think of the Eagles along with the Saints or the Colts or the Patriots in terms of the number, the variety and the explosiveness of their offensive playmakers. Teams like that set the standard, and the Eagles don't feel like they fit into that kind of conversation. And that's fine, because they're not there yet.

But if you watched the Eagles score on big play after big play Sunday afternoon against the Giants, you got the feel that they might very well be there soon. Andy Reid's Philadelphia offense remains a work in progress, but with the number of different weapons he has at his disposal on any given play, we could soon be talking about the Eagles as one of the most exciting and dynamic offensive teams in the league.

Next week there will be a game between the two best teams in the NFC East, and it's not going to involve the defending division champion New York Giants. In beating the Giants to a pulp Sunday, 40-17, the Eagles -- and the Dallas Cowboys, who beat Seattle at home -- have sent the G-Men back to third place. New York has now lost three straight games, while the Eagles won their second in a row after an embarrassing loss in Oakland.

Leading the way for the Eagles was Donovan McNabb, who barely broke a sweat in destroying the Giants' patchwork secondary. He completed 17-of-23 passes for 240 yards and three touchdowns. He continues to show a strong chemistry with DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin and Brent Celek, who combined for 11 catches, 186 yards and three scores.

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Fantasy FanHouse's "Bust a Move" segment provides quick-hitting insight on the most popular adds and drops across Fleaflicker fantasy leagues between Tuesday and Wednesday of each week. Knowing who is on the move during this 24-hour period often provides a valuable edge with regard to outperforming or underperforming players, injuries and depth chart shifts. So do as the man says, "Don't just stand there..."

The Adds

Laurence Maroney (RB, Patriots, 2,615 adds) - Proving yet again that fantasy football players are gluttons for punishment, Laurence Maroney leads the way as the most transacted player of the week. We already witnessed how this story goes with Fred Taylor and then Sammy Morris, so expect more of the same with Maroney. This backfield is just not reliable from a single-player perspective. On the positive side, both of those two previously mentioned runners suffered injuries, making Maroney's carries likely more consistent, but the Patriots also scored 59 points last week. Tom Brady threw five touchdown passes in a single quarter. Call it Seahawks vs. Jaguars 2.0 and look how the Seahawks followed that up this week. Anyway, Maroney's 123 yards and a touchdown effort may well have been a fluke. We can count on continued performance from Tom Brady, but if Maroney has showed us anything in the past three seasons, it's inconsistency.

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Sunday Evening Wrap checks out players who increased or decreased their value during the Sunday afternoon games.

Sunday's Top Riser: We've seen this Tom Brady before, and it was in 2007 when he threw for almost 5,000 yards and totaled 50 touchdown passes. So far in 2009, he'd been good, but not great. And we drafted Brady for great in fantasy football. Enter the Tennessee Titans and the worst pass defense in football. Brady, despite playing in a quasi-blizzard, completed 29-of-34 passes for 380 yards and six touchdowns. That's all he'll need to get that swagger back. Next week against Tampa Bay, he's going to put on a show across the pond in London's Wembley Stadium, and he's a bonafide top-three fantasy QB again -- you can take that to the bank.

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Fantasy FanHouse's "Bust a Move" segment provides quick-hitting insight on the most popular adds and drops across Fleaflicker fantasy leagues between Tuesday and Wednesday of each week. Knowing who is on the move during this 24-hour period often provides a valuable edge with regard to outperforming or underperforming players, injuries and depth chart shifts. So do as the man says, "Don't just stand there..."

The Adds

Miles Austin (WR, Cowboys, 4,629 adds) - What started with the Big Montana-sized numbers on Sunday just got bigger, as coach Wade Phillips reiterated that Miles Austin will continue to see roughly the same amount of playing time going forward with or without Roy Williams and demoted allegedly Patrick Crayton from the No. 2 spot.

Every Tuesday night, we'll give you an update on our FanHouse fantasy football league. Who hit on their sleepers? Who made the shrewd pickups? Who's practicing what they preach? In 'House Check, you'll find out.

There were many pickups in the FanHouse Challenge league in the days leading up to Week 5, so many that I won't even try to tackle all of them in this space The move that qualifies as the best was made by Chris Burke, who snatched up Austin Collie before Sunday night's game, cutting Justin Gage. Collie went straight into Burke's lineup, where he overcame Roy Williams' injury and Willis McGahee's lack of carries to lead his team to a win. Kudos to Chris for having the foresight to make the move (did he read the 4th and 26?).

Weeding through those unwieldy waiver wires requires a keen eye and a quick trigger. Thus, Waiver Wire Wonders provides a weekly snapshot of players worthy of consideration who should be available on a good portion of league waiver wires.

Rarely does the old waiver wire produce the type of numbers it did in Week 5. While a couple of Sunday's performers come as no big shock, the talk of the day comes with regard to the two monumental breakouts: a pair of receivers starting in place of injured teammates to the tune of 250 yards and 142 yards respectively, both with a pair of long touchdowns. Beyond that, we have the usual mix of old dogs coming back out to show they still have it and some sleepers to mark on the radar screen.

Donovan McNabb had been watching and waiting. After sustaining a broken rib in Week 1 against Carolina, McNabb watched Kevin Kolb become the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for over 300 yards in each of his first two starts. In Week 4, the Eagles had a bye and McNabb had to wait one more week before returning to action.

Jeremy Maclin had been watching and waiting. The rookie first-rounder from Missouri didn't even see action with McNabb in Week 1. He caught six passes for 45 yards in the next two weeks, though the Eagles racked up over 700 yards through the air. He had to have been antsy to get into the mix, especially watching second-year wideout DeSean Jackson put up big numbers.