Lord Lucan
Footballguy
This is turning into a weekly thread, I know, but for those who haven't yet caught on, Nnamdi Asomugha is continuing to terrorise opposing offensive co-ordinators into throwing anywhere but his way.
His way, of course, is usually on the offense's left side as he lines up on the defense's right almost all of the time. Last week it was comical watching the Jets, who had shown a bias towards throwing towards the left prior to facing Oakland; Favre basically didn't even bother looking towards his left hand side on most plays.
Here are the week-by-week stats of where passes have been directed against the Raiders this season, from week 1 onwards.
Denver 7 left, 3 middle, 14 right
Kansas 11 left, 13 middle, 15 right
Buffalo 10 left, 11 middle, 19 right
San Diego 6 left, 7 middle, 13 right
New Orleans 6 left, 7 middle, 19 right
NY Jets 6 left, 13 middle, 19 right
season so far 46 left, 54 middle, 99 right
The trend is growing, if anything. and what's more quite a few of the passes to the left have been screen passes to the RBs.
What this means for FF is that if we can identify a WR who lines up more on the right than the left, then we have a good chance to see plenty of targets. This is trickier, as most WRs spend plenty of time on both sides, but there are definitely some who seem to line up more on one side than the other.
Happily for us, Derek Mason fits the bill this week. I had a look through his targets and 28 have come on the right hand side, compared with 16 on the left, and 4 over the middle. It therefore seems a fair assumption that the Ravens will be targetting him early and often this week, and I'd have him as one of my top 5 WRs this week.
If you think this seems obvious, here are a couple of articles I found from big-name organisations (yeah, I know) where the author seems not to have clicked...
from the Sporting News...
Derrick Mason, WR, Ravens. Mason has five catches or more in each of Baltimore's last four games, and he finally reached the end zone in Week 7. Mason is Joe Flacco's unquestioned go-to guy, but the veteran receiver will get a day full of Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha in Week 8. This week you have to sit Mason.
from ESPN...
Week 8 Players I Hate:
(...) Derrick Mason, WR, Ravens: I expect the Raiders to stick Nnamdi Asomugha on Mason
Unless these guys have some information that the Raiders are going to abandon their defensive strategy of keeping Nnamdi on that one side, I reckon they're flat out wrong.
I note that Mason missed practice on Thursday due to illness, but assuming he's good to go on Sunday, I'll be starting him with confidence as I reckon he'll get a bunch of targets.
His way, of course, is usually on the offense's left side as he lines up on the defense's right almost all of the time. Last week it was comical watching the Jets, who had shown a bias towards throwing towards the left prior to facing Oakland; Favre basically didn't even bother looking towards his left hand side on most plays.
Here are the week-by-week stats of where passes have been directed against the Raiders this season, from week 1 onwards.
Denver 7 left, 3 middle, 14 right
Kansas 11 left, 13 middle, 15 right
Buffalo 10 left, 11 middle, 19 right
San Diego 6 left, 7 middle, 13 right
New Orleans 6 left, 7 middle, 19 right
NY Jets 6 left, 13 middle, 19 right
season so far 46 left, 54 middle, 99 right
The trend is growing, if anything. and what's more quite a few of the passes to the left have been screen passes to the RBs.
What this means for FF is that if we can identify a WR who lines up more on the right than the left, then we have a good chance to see plenty of targets. This is trickier, as most WRs spend plenty of time on both sides, but there are definitely some who seem to line up more on one side than the other.
Happily for us, Derek Mason fits the bill this week. I had a look through his targets and 28 have come on the right hand side, compared with 16 on the left, and 4 over the middle. It therefore seems a fair assumption that the Ravens will be targetting him early and often this week, and I'd have him as one of my top 5 WRs this week.
If you think this seems obvious, here are a couple of articles I found from big-name organisations (yeah, I know) where the author seems not to have clicked...
from the Sporting News...
Derrick Mason, WR, Ravens. Mason has five catches or more in each of Baltimore's last four games, and he finally reached the end zone in Week 7. Mason is Joe Flacco's unquestioned go-to guy, but the veteran receiver will get a day full of Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha in Week 8. This week you have to sit Mason.
from ESPN...
Week 8 Players I Hate:
(...) Derrick Mason, WR, Ravens: I expect the Raiders to stick Nnamdi Asomugha on Mason
Unless these guys have some information that the Raiders are going to abandon their defensive strategy of keeping Nnamdi on that one side, I reckon they're flat out wrong.
I note that Mason missed practice on Thursday due to illness, but assuming he's good to go on Sunday, I'll be starting him with confidence as I reckon he'll get a bunch of targets.
