FanHouse Sebastian Janikowski

After a physical beatdown of the reigning Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, the Cincinnati Bengals were riding high. "Just look at their next three opponents," observers proclaimed -- with good reason, as the Bengals were staring at the Raiders, Browns and Lions in succession on their schedule. The three teams had combined for four wins and 23 losses before Week 10, while the Bengals had won seven of eight since their fluky Week 1 loss.

Facing Bruce Gradkowski and the Raiders offense surely shouldn't be a problem for a team that held Ben Roethlisberger in check, right? Well, that's why they play the games.

What do you get when you have the league's fourth-highest scoring kicker squaring off -- in a dome, no less -- against the team who has allowed the most kicking points in the NFL? An easy No. 1 fantasy kicker ranking, that's what.

Ryan Longwell has only been outscored by three other kickers this season -- and one of them is on a bye this week. He's made 13 of 14 field goal attempts and all 29 extra points. The Lions have been on the receiving end of 27 extra points and 14 field goals thus far in 2009. Expecting double digit points from your kicker is rarely feasible -- due to the fickle nature of kickers -- but you can do so here, Longwell owners.

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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.

Week 9 brought us big games for POaYD sleepers Matt Cassel (262 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT), Bryant Johnson (35 yards and a TD) and the Falcons defense, as well as great games from deep-league 4th and 26 players Rashad Jennings (29 yards and a TD) and Josh Freeman (205 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT). I liked those guys so much, I decided to reach back into last week and bring forth a few sleepers (from both columns) that didn't quite get it going last week.

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 ...
Running game that needs help from the passing game. One thing is for sure, the Oakland Raiders can run the football. They finished 10th in the NFL last season in rushing offense. The problem is that they only had nine rushing touchdowns (only three teams had less), which we can attribute to the fact that the Raiders had the worst passing offense in the NFL.

If the Raiders can find a way to stretch the field and move the ball through the air, expect the rushing game to get even better.

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It doesn't matter your affiliation to a certain team, we can all admit that, during a sports year, athletes make just as many idiotic decisions on the field as they do off it. You have backward passes, premature celebrations, and rare "I'm not even sure what was supposed to be happening there" plays that can make you go bald from all the head scratching. This year was no different in the NFL, and here is what we came up with as the NFL's dumbest plays of 2008.

Dan Orlovsky's Phantom Safety -- Do you want to know how bad this play actually was? When bringing this idea up to the FanHouse football group, all I had to say about this play was, "Dan Orlovsky." Everyone knew which play I was talking about. The poor guy was thrown into a terrible situation in Detroit, and decided his legacy was going to be "running out of the back of the end zone without ever really knowing what went on." Running out of the end zone as a quarterback is one thing ... not knowing you did so and continuing the play is quite another. I can guarantee Orlovsky one thing -- his video will be shown by high-school coaches all around the nation as what not to do when stuffed back by your own end zone.

The Free Kick Attempt by Neil Rackers -- It sure wasn't the dumbest play of the year, but it was definitely the most confusing. With five seconds left in the first half against the Giants, Ken Whisenhunt actually made the decision to opt for a "free kick," even though nobody knew what in the world a free kick was. Rackers set the ball up on a tee, rared back his heavy leg and ... muffed it. Not only was it unsuccessful, but it gave the Giants a chance to return it. I guess the good news was that we learned what a free kick was and that Rackers has no 68-yard leg.

While doing my daily rounds through cyberspace yesterday morning, I stumbled across a stat on the fantasy sports site, Rotoworld, that I found just a little hard to believe. Apparently, the Oakland Raiders have scored only one touchdown in the first half of their games this season. One.

They didn't provide a link to confirm this embarrassing factoid, so I decided to look it up, just to make sure. And you know what? They were right. Sort of.

As it turns out, the Raiders have actually scored two first-half touchdowns this season, though, only one came with the offense on the field. During the Raiders' Week 4 loss to San Diego, tight end Zach Miller hauled in a 63-yard touchdown pass from JaMarcus Russell. Other than that? The only scoring done by the silver and black before the half this season has been from the foot of Sebastian Janikowski, or on an 89-yard punt return by Johnnie Lee Higgins.

Doesn't that get you excited for tonight's Raiders-Chargers tilt?

On a day where coaches around the National Football League were making ridiculous and absurd calls from the sidelines, defying all human logic and sound reasoning, Oakland head coach Tom Cable may have outdone them all.

Here's the situation: Oakland is facing a fourth-and-10 from the Kansas City 25-yard line in a 3-3 tie. Cable, naturally, sends out the special teams unit to attempt a 42-yard field goal. A successful kick would have given the Raiders a 6-3 lead early in the second quarter. Makes sense, and honestly, it should have been a routine play. Which is probably why the Raiders still managed to screw it up.

Instead of kicking, the Raiders called a fake field goal which resulted in punter Shane Lechler lateraling the ball under his legs, while Sebastian Janikowski, the team's 260-pound monster of a kicker, was, presumably, supposed to outrun the Chiefs special teams unit to the first down marker. On what planet is this a good idea?

As one would expect, everything went terribly wrong.

The San Jose Mercury News' Tim Kawakami must be having all sorts of fun with the Raiders' current predicament. In case you missed it, Kawakami had a contentious exchange with Davis lackey John Herrera following a Sept. press conference from then-head coach Lane Kiffin (who must also be having all sorts of fun right about now).

After the team's latest debaclement -- a 17-6 loss to the Panthers that included four Jake Delhomme interceptions -- Kawakami wonders why the Raiders chose to trot Sebastian Janikowski out for a end-of-game 58-yard field goal since, you know, they're only worth three points.

The Oakland Raiders nearly watched yet another fourth quarter lead turn into defeat, only to find a way to sneak out of Sunday's game with a 16-13 win over the New York Jets, giving Tom Cable his first win as Head Coach.

It had to a bad omen, or something, when Cable tried to ice Jets kicker Jay Feely at the end of regulation as Feely was lining up to kick a 52-yard field goal. Cable tried the "I'm going to call a timeout just before you snap it" trick, and was laughingly burned when Feely hit the upright on the kick that didn't count. Feely drilled the mulligan, of course, sending the game to overtime.

I figured this strategy would play its way out of the NFL after a few moments like that, yet here we are.

Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski mercifully ended a brutal overtime period -- personally, I was rooting for the tie -- when he crushed a 57-yard field goal with less than three minutes to play. The kick probably would have been good from about 65. Either way, it was the longest overtime field goal in NFL history.

Antonio Cromartie made a name for himself when he set the league record for longest play in NFL history, running a missed field goal 109.9 yards the other way for a touchdown. He was able to do this because he is quite fast.

In other words, if you're playing against the Chargers, you probably shouldn't attempt a frivolously long field goal, because there's the chance they will run it back on you.

And if you're Lane Kiffin and your job is still on the line and you need the ball to travel and NFL record (I believe) 76 yards in order to pick up three points and you are somehow already holding onto a double digit lead against your division rival, well, you definitely shouldn't do it.

But Kiffin missed that memo, apparently, sending Sebastian Janikowski out onto field with one second left to try and kick a 76 yard field goal. This would somehow be less ridiculous, I suppose, if Kiffin hadn't tried something like this last year, with similar results.

Of course, as MDS pointed out then, KOWSKI did have enough leg to donk it 70 yards, so maybe this wasn't that crazy. Or maybe it was -- the ball was fielded outside the goal line and could have resulted in six for the Chargers were it not for a tackle by the Raiders.

I like to gamble as much as the next person, but the Raiders were sitting on a 15 point lead at the time, and really, it was just unnecessary.