We finally have a chance to have a winning record this week.  We dug out of a deep hole and find ourselves in a great spot. If we can beat the Bills this week and the Patriots lose to the Saints, next week sets up to be a battle for first place in the division. But before we can get ahead of ourselves we need to take care of these Bills.  They are falling apart but they played a lot better last week under a new coach.  They held Mo-Jo Drew to under 100 yards and TO had nearly a 200 yard game for them with Ryan Fitzpatrick replacing Trent Edwards. We can’t take this team lightly.  Should be a fun one.

Now, I hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving wherever you may have had it, but I hope you will be back in time.  I am in DC myself right now, but I will be taking a train first thing in the morning to get to Third & Long in time for the game.  I hope to see as many people out as we had last week, that was a fantastic experience. And to keep things interesting, check out this video of Dolphin great Kim Bokamper giving DolfansNYC a shout out from his restaurant in South Florida.  If you are in town for a game, you have to stop by Bokampers.

Go Dolphins!

Last Thursday was one of the craziest nights we have had. If you were there you know how packed it was. At the beginning of this clip I mention that we have interviews with 4 new DolfansNYC members… well it turned out we shot 5 videos and interviewed 7 people! You clearly have to check this video out because it includes a pretty amazing Dolphins tattoo. You have been warned.

I’m Sorry… There were no major screw-ups last week, and Ricky Williams even exceeded the 100 yards and two touchdowns I predicted.  So instead, I’ll use this space to apologize for the lack of video this week due to my incompetence with a video camera and without the assistance of Short Michelle.  Just imagine me reading the following notes, and fumble a name or two in your head to get the most realistic effect.  To make it up to you, I’ll list a few additional players in each category.

Players to Start: I’ve mentioned Matt Ryan as someone to bench several times this year, but after netting two TDs against the Giants last week, he gets to face the Tampa Bay Bucs, who give up the fourth-most fantasy points to quarterbacks.  Consider him a QB1 this week.

Just in case you’re thinking of being cute and benching Ray Rice against the Steelers, remember that he’s averaging over 120 total yards per game and that Pittsburgh has been burned by pass-catching running backs in recent weeks.

With Kyle Orton back healthy — I can’t believe I’m using this as a positive — Brandon Marshall goes back to being a WR1 against a susceptible Giants defense that has given up multiple TDs to wide receivers in four of the last five weeks.

Other Starters: Joe Flacco, Thomas Jones (pains me to write it, but he’s facing an awful Panthers defense), Michael Crabtree

Players to Bench: Despite his career game last week, Eli Manning should be on fantasy benches.  No quarterback has thrown for 300 yards against the Broncos, and only Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger have thrown more than one TD pass.

Pierre Thomas is continuing to split carries with Mike Bell, getting only 11 rushing attempts in each of the last two weeks.  Facing the Patriots, and with Reggie Bush likely back to steal goal line carries, Thomas should only be seen as a flex option.

Miles Austin’s numbers have taken a tumble in recent weeks as opposing defenses have made adjustments to cover him.  He’s barely reached 100 yards receiving in his last three weeks combined, and it won’t get much easier against the Raiders and Nnamdi Asomugha (and since it’s Thanksgiving and all, I’m thankful this isn’t recorded and I don’t have to pronounce his name).

Other Bench Warmers:  Brady Quinn (I’m willing to bet he won’t get four TDs during the rest of the season combined), Matt Forte, Steve Smith 1.0 and Steve Smith 2.0.

Players to Think About: If you have an extra spot on your roster, you might want to use it on everyone’s favorite party boy, Matt Leinart.  Kurt Warner is tentatively slated to start this week, but should the oft-injured QB miss any time, Leinart has the weapons (and ridiculously easy schedule) to be a viable fantasy starter.

Rock Cartwright is the newest starting RB in Washington after Ladell Betts was placed on IR.  He picked up 140 total yards against a tough Cowboys defense, making him, well, um, solid as a rock (note that we would’ve also accepted, “Can you smell what the Rock is cookin'” if this were 1998).

Brandon Gibson has caught 12 passes for 154 yards in the last two weeks, though unfortunately, he has Kyle Boller throwing to him this week.  And I’m using the word “throwing” very loosely.

Other Sleepers:  Vince Young, Fred Jackson (just not against Miami this week), Laveranues Coles

That’s it for this week.  Remember to keeping checking DolfansNYC.com for all of the latest Dolphins news, and send us an email if you’d like to be included in next week’s video.  If you’re in the New York area, stop by Third and Long on 35th Street and 3rd Avenue to watch the games with the rowdiest fans around.  Until next week, I’m Alex with “What’s Your Fantasy?”  Go Dolphins!

As I mentioned before in my pictures from Web Weekend, Michelle and I went down to Miami for a gathering of people who run Miami Dolphins websites. It’s great to see everyone every year, but this year we were missing someone.  Our friend Jim Miller had to miss this years event because he was overseas in Iraq. Michelle decided to make a tribute for him while we were down there and I am posting it in two parts below.

Now while a lot of this stuff is directed at Jim, there is tons of footage from our trip including shout outs from players, shots of Tony Sporano speaking to us, and pregame warm ups from the field.  I think you will want to watch it.  Also, if any of you have Dolphins fans overseas you might want to send them to them to let them know how much they mean to the Dolphins nation. And let’s bring em home soon.

Go Dolphins.

Wow, last Thursday was crazy. We packed that place.  This club has really become something.  When Ricky scored at the end of that game, I thought the place was going to come apart. It’s great to be back at 5 and 5 and with the Cincy, Pittsburgh and Denver all losing we are in pretty decent shape for the Wild Card. We still have games against Pittsburgh, Jacksonville & Houston and have a chance to put ourselves in good shape with wins in all three of those games.  Of course none of it will matter if we don’t take care of the division.  With Buffalo and New England coming up, this should be an exciting few weeks of football.

Anyway, check out all the pictures from last week below and please send positive thoughts towards Jake Grove’s ankle.  We really need him back.

[tylr-slidr userID=”” groupID=””]http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolfansnyc/sets/72157622865519458/[/tylr-slidr]

Matt Long, the owner of Third and Long and the founder of the I Will Foundation is going to be on Real Stories with Bryant Gumbel tomorrow night at 10 PM. Dolfans NYC has raised several hundred dollars for the I Will Foundation this year and will be doing another raffle at the New England game to support the charity.  We cannot thank Matt Long enough for him letting us use his bar for our events.  So if you get a chance, learn a little more about the man that makes our club possible.  Here is the description from HBO.com.

Completing an Ironman Triathlon takes athleticism, strength, conditioning and willpower, attributes New York City firefighter and triathlete Matthew Long has always had in abundance. But to cross the finish line at the 2009 Lake Placid Ironman this summer, Long needed even more – he needed a miracle. In Dec. 2005, the Brooklyn native was riding to work during a transit strike when he was run over by a bus and impaled on his own bicycle. After months in the hospital, 40 operations and years of physical therapy, Long has willed his way back to endurance competition. As correspondent Mary Carillo discovers, nothing can keep this 43-year-old down.

I just about to head down to Third & Long for the Thursday night game against the Carolina Panthers. This was a win on my calendar two weeks ago, but since then Carolina has pulled out two big wins.  Not to mention the horrible news of Ronnie Brown being out for the year. This could be a tough one.  We win this, we have 10 days to get healthy, a game against a falling apart Buffalo team, and then into New England.  If we can beat NE, we will own the tie breakers against them and the Jets in the event of a tie. These are some pretty big games.

Anyway, here is another video where you get to know members of DolfansNYC. Usually I introduce them, but since we only had a few of us down in Miami Michelle and I decided to interview ourselves as well.  I was going to get someone else to do the introduction, but we completely forgot.  So yeah, there is no introduction, just me awkwardly talking about why I am a Dolphins fan, and how this club began.  Enjoy.

Since I was in Miami last week, I clearly don’t have photos from the bar to post, but I do have pictures from my trip to Miami. Because short Michelle and I have run Dolphins fan sites for years the Dolphins invite us down to Miami every year for an event called Web Weekend. We get to tour the stadium, the team locker room, the practice bubble. We get to go to the Nat Moore tailgate party and meet alumni. We always have great seats and a pregame field pass. And all of that is awesome, but the highlight is when they bring us into the room where the Dolphins have their team meetings and sit us down and let us ask members of the organization questions. This year we had CEO Mike Dee, Jeff Ireland, Patrick Cobbs, Keith Byars and coach Tony Sporano. Michelle shot a lot of video of that, so I will leave what they had to say for another posting, but I have to tell you that Tony Sporano is so great to talk to. We have met with the coaches every year for 6 years and after getting yelled at by Nick Saban and befuddled by Cam Cameron, watching Tony at work is joy.

The whole event was amazing and Michelle and I played pool football against the Shed Dawgs, and while they may have won, I am pretty sure a few of them are still bleeding. Anyway, I am not posting the pictures to our Flickr this week because they aren’t DolfansNYC related, but I did post them on my personal site, and you can check them out by clicking on this link. Keep in mind, that because I occasionally do nude photography, my site might not be viewable from some work computers, but this gallery is of course completely safe for work. A few of my favorite shots below.

[Editors note, due to us not getting back from Miami till Monday night and the short week, we are running a bit behind. Photos and video coming soon!

Week 11 of the NFL season is here, and I’ve got another early edition to get your lineups set before tomorrow night’s big game against the Carolina Panthers. This week’s recommendations include starting everyone’s favorite Dolphin, benching a hated Jet, and hitting the waiver wire for three new starting running backs. As always, we’ve got plenty of music, photos, and jokes for your viewing pleasure. Go Fins!!

Hey guys.  After the insanely tough first half of our schedule things ease up a bit starting this week against the 1-7 Bucs. They did look a lot better last week with their new Rookie QB, but their defense is pretty terrible and I think we can get Henne some of the confidence he needs.
Michelle and I are down in Miami and will have a ton of pictures and video for the site when we get back, but we need you guys to hold the bar down while we are gone.
The game is at 1pm so I know you guys will be out in force.  All the regulars will be there and going crazy.
If you haven’t been to Third & Long yet, maybe this is your week!
And if any of you are in Miami right now, hit us up and maybe we can meet up before the game tomorrow.

Go Dolphins!