Fantasy Football Week 14: Get Fully Prepared and Be Ready for the Playoffs

There are many popular expressions that deal with a person being on either the "losing" or "winning" side of a conflict. My personal favorite comes from the classic (seriously) flick White Men Can't Jump:

"You either smoke, or you get smoked."

After the last two weeks of fantasy football, you should know what side of the line you fall on. In Week 12, I needed to win to sew up a playoff berth. And I got smoked. I ran into Beanie Wells, Cedric Benson and Marshawn Lynch. And some pretty good friends of theirs. Long story short, I scored the fourth-most points in my league (14-team) and lost.

So in Week 13 I once again needed to win to ensure a playoff berth. There were scenarios where I could lose and still make it, but who wants it to come to that? Plus playoff seeding was on the line. But I was up against the highest-scoring team in the league. Here are the highlights of his lineup:

QB: Drew Brees

RB: DeMarco Murray

RB: Frank Gore

WR: Wes Welker

WR: A.J. Green

WR: Victor Cruz

DST: Chicago Bears

I have to say, I wasn't optimistic about my chances. Then I started the Eagles DST (one point) on Thursday night. I was sure that my playoff chances were all but done.

But then it happened. Sidney Deane would say that "I smoked." For the first time all season, every offensive player on my team scored at least one TD. It was amazing. Of course I fell one point short of the one-week scoring record for my league this year. But who is complaining?

All good stories have a point or message, right? What I am trying to express here is exactly what makes fantasy football so much fun (the unpredictability) and what makes it so heartbreaking (the unpredictability and injuries). Fantasy football is unlike any other fantasy sport. You only get one game per week per player.

You know how many No. 1 seeds will lose their first game of the fantasy playoffs? Tons. Sometimes great players just don't have good statistical days; it happens all the time. Sometimes below-average players have great statistical days; it just happens.

The good news is that no matter how grim the odds, you always have a chance to win in fantasy football. Your squad of waiver-wire-level scrubs could catch fire and knock off a team with the No.1 player at every position. Two months ago, is there any chance we would be talking about Marshawn Lynch as a top-five RB option for the fantasy playoffs?

The bad news is that you're never assured of victory. Crazy performances happen all the time, for better or worse. Even with the best teams, sometimes it's just not your day. Nothing is more frustrating in fantasy than to lose to a team that you know (and can statistically prove) that you are better than. There will be teams in the playoffs that have scored hundreds more points this season than other teams in the same playoffs. But that won't matter anymore once the tournament starts.

Your job in the playoffs is to win. That might mean just keep doing what you are doing. It might mean making a bunch of waiver claims to block your playoff opponent from making key pickups. It might mean swinging for the fences with some "boom or bust" players. That's the beauty of the fantasy playoffs—they almost never play out the way you would expect and they never play out the same way twice.

As the week goes on I will talk more about individual moves you can make to increase your chances of winning both your Week 14 matchup and throughout the playoffs. But you have to be in the correct mindset. You can't believe that you have no chance to win—nor can you believe that you've already got this thing in the bag.

The fantasy playoffs are an entirely different season. It is truly "Win or Go Home" time. You have to treat it as such. You have to be prepared for a single player's performance to end your season or carry you to a league title. The only way to ensure victory is to score the most points of any team in your league each week. After that, sometimes it's better to be lucky than to be good.

Thanks for reading. Have anything to add to the discussion? Please use the comments feature below. Questions are welcome, but please be as specific and detailed as possible.

Good luck to all of your teams this week.

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