Hello fellow fantasy fanatics - welcome back to Old Dog Learns New Tricks! I hope everyone had a prosperous weekend in the Daily Fantasy Sports space last week!
During Week 10, I managed to avoid the injury bug that plagued my Week 9 lineups at FanDuel, and that fact greatly improved my results - I placed in the money in my first attempt at a Triple-Up (which I'm going to lump in with my 50/50 results), and went 8-3 in the 50/50 category, with one finish in the money among my three big tournament entries (and just missed cashing in another finishing only 43 places out of the money). Taken all together I finished 9-5 (64%). This time, I was on the correct side of some big games with the correct players (like Marshawn Lynch's awesome 40.8 point performance!), rather than having my fantasy players on the bench being tended to by trainers. What a relief! Check out the three lineups at the end of the article for full details.
One of my favorite articles about fantasy football, released each week at Footballguys.com, is Matt Waldman's Gut Check. This week in particular I think his article Gut Check #324 has a high degree of relevance to the Daily Fantasy Sports space as Waldman has done a great job breaking down the prospects for Cleveland's Josh Gordon beginning Week 12 and going forwards. If you are considering inserting Gordon next week when he returns for action with Cleveland, this is a must read. You might as well get the jump on your competition!
As I have mentioned previously, I write the weekly rushing and passing matchups around here- one of my guideposts for DFS at FanDuel is to only consider players that do not have tough or bad matchups heading into Week 11. Looking at the matchups this week, two of the most favorable pairings I see are:
1. SD Rushing Attack vs. OAK Defense: The Raiders can't do much to stop opposing rushers this year, averaging 130.9 yards allowed per game in this phase, with nine rushing scores handed out so far during 2014. Ryan Mathews returns from injury, secure as the Chargers' bell-cow back, and he also has home field advantage at his back in this one - I've inserted Mathews in more than one of my DFS lineups for this weekend.
2. DEN Passing Attack at STL Defense: You gotta love the matchup against the Rams - their offense is inept and unlikely to improve with Shaun Hill back in action; the pass defense is one of the less aggressive units in the league (only four interceptions generated this year); and Manning loves to run up big statistics against weak opposition. I've got Manning paired with both Demaryius Thomas and Julius Thomas on several of my DFS lineups heading into the weekend - this should be a blowout win for the Broncos (probably of the ~42 - ~10 variety).
As I will be taking breaking news and updated injury reports into consideration while crafting my Week 11 DFS squads right up until kickoff on Sunday (I am putting my own money on the line here, after all), I will post my Week 11 results and lineups in next week's edition of Old Dog Learns New Tricks. I hope that you, the reader, will check back in to see how a fellow DFS beginner fared in the 11th week of the 2014 season, along with sharing some thoughts about DFS in Week 12.
Also, I hope that YOU win all YOUR leagues this week! Good Luck!
Roster 1
| Position | Player Name | Salary | % Owned | Points |
| QB | Ben Roethlisberger | $8,300 | 23.4 | 15.72 |
| RB | Marshawn Lynch | $8,300 | 11.4 | 40.8 |
| RB | Eddie Lacy | $7,900 | 6.3 | 19.3 |
| WR | Martavis Bryant | $6,100 | 22.6 | 22.3 |
| WR | Julio Jones | $8,000 | 25.3 | 15.9 |
| WR | Kenny Britt | $5,500 | 2 | 4.6 |
| TE | Mychal Rivera | $5,700 | 5.4 | 15.4 |
| K | Cody Parkey | $5,000 | 4.4 | 9 |
| D | Dallas Cowboys | $5,200 | 8.4 | 11 |
Roster 2
| Position | Player Name | Salary | % Owned | Points |
| QB | Mark Sanchez | $6,600 | 29 | 21.18 |
| RB | DeMarco Murray | $9,300 | 24 | 16.1 |
| RB | Justin Forsett | $6,500 | 30 | 23.2 |
| WR | Antonio Brown | $9,100 | 36 | 7.4 |
| WR | Kelvin Benjamin | $6,700 | 39 | 20.5 |
| WR | Roddy White | $6,600 | 16 | 16.2 |
| TE | Owen Daniels | $5,400 | 24 | 3 |
| K | Brandon McManus | $4,700 | 3 | 11 |
| D | Arizona Cardinals | $5,100 | 31 | 25 |
Roster 3
| Position | Player Name | Salary | % Owned | Points |
| QB | Matt Ryan | $7,800 | 15 | 15.66 |
| RB | LeSean McCoy | $7,700 | 38 | 8.2 |
| RB | Bobby Rainey | $6,700 | 9 | 7.6 |
| WR | Julio Jones | $8,000 | 39 | 15.9 |
| WR | Randall Cobb | $8,600 | 6 | 13.2 |
| WR | Martavis Bryant | $6,100 | 22 | 22.3 |
| TE | Mychal Rivera | $5,700 | 5 | 15.4 |
| K | Shaun Suisham | $4,700 | 3 | 9 |
| D | New Orleans | $4,600 | 3 | 6 |