Welcome to another edition of Heroes and Goats, where we highlight (and lowlight) some of the best (and worst) performances of Week 15. Needless to say, we’re in crunch time now, as most leagues are holding their semifinals this week. So now is the time for studs to play like studs. Let’s see who did, and who didn’t…

HEROES

Michael Vick
Vick did next to nothing in the first half, as the Giants defense kept him contained for the first two quarters. But he had a monster second half, finishing with three pass TDs and rushing for another (along with 130 rushing yards). I had a comfortable lead in one league and Vick single-handedly erased it in the second half. Grrr.

Ray Rice
Big things were expected of Rice this week, but I don’t think his owners saw 233 total yards and two TDs coming. He ran over, around and through the Saints defense this week and is going to send more than a few fantasy teams to the finals next week.

Jason Witten
Witten owners have to be loving him right now. He caught 10 passes for 140 yards and a TD in a time where TE production has been severely lacking. He has 32 catches and four TDs in his last four games.

Santana Moss
Moss was a really iffy start this week with Rex Grossman under center, but he seemed to thrive with ‘Sexy Rexy,’ catching eight passes for 72 yards and two scores. I was fortunate that I plugged him in for Danny Woodhead just before kickoff.

Austin Collie
I doubt we’re going to see Collie again this season after he took another hard hit in the middle of the field. But boy was he good before he was knocked out. He racked up eight catches for 82 yards and two TDs.

Jamaal Charles*
I had Charles ranked #12 this week thanks to Matt Cassel’s iffy status, but with an 80-yard run late in the game, Charles sealed his status as an elite RB1 option. He finished with 153 total yards and a TD.

Brandon Marshall
Marshall has been really spotty this season and wasn’t an elite option heading into Week 15, but he caught 11 passes for 106 yards and a TD against the Bills and came up big for those fantasy owners that kept the faith.

Mario Manningham
Jeremy Maclin*
Overshadowed on their own teams, both Manningham (8-113-2) and Maclin (7-59-2) came up big for their respective teams. Manningham did have a bad fumble that helped to fuel Philly’s comeback, so Vick and Maclin owners should thank him.

Rashard Mendenhall*
In a terrible matchup, Mendy racked up 100 yards and a score, so owners who were forced to start him should be happy. This is a case where the player’s talent overcame a tough rush defense.

* Players who were goats last week

GOATS

Peyton Hillis
Really? 82 yards and zero TDs against the Bengals? The yardage was okay, but Hillis owners were expecting a TD or two from their stud this week. After running roughshod over the league this season, Hillis failed to find the endzone in the last three weeks.

Terrell Owens
He had a great matchup, but left the game without a catch with a torn meniscus. Season over.

Arian Foster
He was shaken up in the second half, but wasn’t getting much done when he was playing. He finished with 61 total yards and failed to score.

Maurice Jones-Drew
He has been on a tear of late, gaining 100+ yards in six straight games, so of course he’d have a big game against the Colts, who always struggle against the run, right? Wrong. He posted just 68 total yards without a score. Sigh.

LeSean McCoy
Ahmad Bradshaw
Given the way these two were playing recently, fantasy owners had to be expecting more than 157 total yards and zero TDs combined from this duo.

Tim Hightower
My deepest apologies to anyone who started Timmy on my advice this week. (I had him at #19 or #20 for most of the week.) He got a ton of carries last week and had a great matchup with the Panthers’ defense, but only saw nine touches all day.

Knowshon Moreno
Moreno had a great matchup and looked like he was primed for a big day, but left the game early with an injury to his side. Ugh.

Since they vote for offensive and defensive rookies, lets’ change it up this week…

Offensive rookie of the year power rankings

1. Sam Bradford, St. Louis Rams—We’ll let the New Orleans game slide. For now.

2. Aaron Hernandez/Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots—You shut one out, and the other will burn you. Or, of course, will Deion Branch and Wes Welker.

3. Mike Williams, Tampa Bay Bucs—Was almost shut out by Redskins, but like Bradford, we’ll let it slide because he’s had such as great season on a promising young team.

4. Colt McCoy, Cleveland Browns—He will get the start Sunday against Cincinnati after missing a few games with an ankle injury. Let’s see if it makes a difference, because McCoy has sparked the Browns before.

5. Dez Bryant, Dallas Cowboys—The Cowboys sure missed him against the Eagles.

Defensive rookie of the year power rankings

1. Ndamukong Suh, Detroit Lions—Is anyone really surprised at the ease the big fella transitioned into the NFL?

2. Devin McCourty, New England Patriots—6 picks leads all rookies.

3. Earl Thomas, Seattle Seahawks—Quiet the last few weeks, but who wants to throw in his direction?

4. Eric Berry, Kansas City Chiefs—Berry’s interception against the Chargers was the only good play of the game for his team, and it was a thing of beauty.

5. Joe Haden, Cleveland Browns—His five picks is right behind Thomas, and his overall play has been stellar.

Getting down to the wire, like when talking heads on NFL Network, etc. actually start pontificating about what we’ve been writing all season…..

1. Bill Belichick, New England Patriots—Now we’ve seen everything. Running the score up against the Bears during a Chicago blizzard, while holding them to one special teams TD? Did this team actually lose to the Browns a month ago?

2. Andy Reid, Philadelphia Eagles—Won a critical division game in Dallas, and the Eagles can make a statement against the Giants Sunday. What happens may determine if Reid stays right here or drops a few notches, but he’s still brilliant for how he handled the whole QB situation this year.

3. Mike Smith, Atlanta Falcons—He’s running a well-oiled machine, but that doesn’t happen by accident.

4. Steve Spagnuolo, St. Louis Rams—Nobody is complaining that his Rams lost to the Saints, but they my get a rematch, in St. Louis, in the playoffs.

5. Todd Haley, Kansas City Chiefs—Now the Chargers are breathing down his neck; but hey, he probably feels good that Josh McDaniels is watching games from his couch now.

6. Tom Coughlin, New York Giants—From the hot seat to the cold seat to the warm seat and back to the cold seat. And now the Giants have shot to take over the NFC East, while at times conjuring up visions of the 2007 team that won it all.

7. Jack Del Rio, Jacksonville Jaguars—Winning the AFC South when many thought they’d finish last could turn out to be a top storyline this year. But there are still three games left, including a big one this Sunday in Indy.

8. Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers—What a great season this has turned out to be for the Steelers, and look no further than the guy in charge for much of that.

9. Raheem Morris, Tampa Bay Bucs—No matter how they finish, the Bucs have well exceeded expectations this season.

10. Lovie Smith, Chicago Bears—Big hiccup at home against New England, and now they get to play OUTDOORS on Monday night in Minneapolis. Yikes.

Honorable mention: Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints—Did you know the Saints were 10-3? Neither did anyone else, but Mike Smith has reason to worry.

Now, I feel like I knew what I was talking about by moving Tom Brady up to #1. The man is simply a man possessed this year to win a title. I mean, it’s been, what? Five years since his Pats did win. Yep. Those guys are in a zone. Here are the weekly power rankings…..

1. Tom Brady, New England Patriots—In a blizzard, Brady completed 27 of 40 passes (67.5%) for 369 yards, 2 TDs and zero picks. Against the Bears’ defense. Someone needs to check to see if Brady actually IS human.

2. Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles—He’s only played 10 full games, but his overall numbers are sick—averaging 251 yards per game passing, and another 48 yards per game rushing, with 17 passing TDs and 7 more rushing, with only 4 interceptions.

3. Matt Cassel, Kansas City Chiefs—The fact that the Chiefs didn’t have Cassel available last Sunday and got blown out in San Diego is the pure definition of MVP.

4. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints—At what point do we start paying attention to Brees and his Saints?

5. Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers—Here come the Chargers. Sorry, Todd Haley, they are gonna find a way to spoil your postseason aspirations.

6. Matt Ryan/Roddy White/Michael Turner, Atlanta Falcons—Sure, they have the best record in the NFC, but Ryan’s numbers aren’t quite backing up MVP vote consideration, so I thought it made sense to group these three together for now.

7. Arian Foster, Houston Texans—Leads in rushing yards (1330), rushing scores (13), and is right behind LeSean McCoy in receiving yards for running backs (504) with 2 more TDs. Just sick, and it’s only too bad the Texans can’t play defense.

8. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers—He leaves the game, the Packers lose to the Lions. See # 3—Cassel, Matt. Same situation.

9. Trent Cole, Philadelphia Eagles—Leads all DE’s in solo tackles (46) and has 9 sacks, but for some reason he doesn’t get much love.

10. Justin Tuck/Osi Umenyiora, New York Giants—Tuck leads all DE’s with 46 total tackles and has 9 sacks; Osi has 40 tackles and 10 sacks. No wonder these guys have been knocking quarterbacks silly.

Ah, Week 14…

In most leagues, this is the week where all the teams good enough to make the playoffs but not good enough to get a bye duke it out in the first round of the playoffs. There’s generally no room for error due to the quality of the competition so every surprise performance and every disappointing outing is magnified.

Here’s a look at a few heroes and a few goats from Sunday’s action.

HEROES

Darren McFadden
In a must win game? How does 209 total yards and three TDs suit you? DMC went absolutely nuts against Jacksonville, scoring on a 67-yard pass, and runs of 51- and 36-yards. And believe it or not, the Jags were playing well enough of late for this to be considered a bad matchup. With the Broncos and Colts on deck at home over the next two weeks, McFadden is primed for a BIG finish.

Tom Brady
Deion Branch
Last week, I had a 30-point lead with just Brady to go against a pretty good Jets defense and lost because Brady scored 32. This week, in another league, I figured Brady might have a mediocre game in wintry Chicago conditions in another bad matchup. Yeah…no…369 yards, two TDs. Nothing can stop Brady right now, not even a blizzard. As for Branch, do you think he’s happy being out of Seattle. The guy is on fire right now — he has four TDs in the last three weeks.

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This race is getting to be as exciting as the Heismann race. Well, maybe.

1. Sam Bradford, St. Louis Rams—Is everyone comparing this kid to Troy Aikman because of how he plays and leads his team calmly? Or because he’s lanky and wears #8? We’ll go with the former, for now.

2. Ndamukong Suh, Detroit Lions—Leads all DTs with 8 sacks, and is third in total tackles among inside guys with 49.

3. Devin McCourty, New England Patriots—Leads the NFL with 6 interceptions

4. Earl Thomas, Seattle Seahawks—Wow, it’s turning out to be a monster DB class, isn’t it?

5. Joe Haden, Cleveland Browns—Like I said…..

6. Aaron Hernandez/Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots—Really, the numbers are astounding from this dynamic TE duo: 65 catches, 835 yards, 10 TDs

7. Mike Williams, Tampa Bay Bucs—On pace for 68 catches, 1025 yards and 9 scores. Not bad for a rookie.

8. Colt McCoy, Cleveland Browns—Well, yeah, it’s not like he had to play that great to keep the job from Jake Delhomme, but he went and got injured.

9. Dez Bryant, Dallas Cowboys—Another bummer of a season-ending injury.

10. Eric Berry, Kansas City Chiefs—His 69 tackles and 2 picks don’t tell the story about how QBs fear this kid

There was a bit of a Peyton Manning sighting last night, as well as a Chris Johnson sighting. But not enough to jump on board here.

1. Tom Brady, New England Patriots—With all due respect to Michael Vick, the dude with the long hair made a mockery out of one of the league’s top defenses on Monday night and has a 109.5 QB rating through 12 games.

2. Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles—With two games against an improved Dallas team, one against the Giants and one against Minnesota, it will determine both Philly’s season and Vick’s MVP status.

3. Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons—His numbers don’t rank him near Brady, Rivers or Manning, but he is Matty Ice for a reason, and his team is 10-2 for a reason.

4. Roddy White, Atlanta Falcons—A mini scoring drought has dropped Mr. White a few spots

5. Arian Foster, Houston Texans—He’s got MJD, CJ2K, JMC and AP chasing him. What is this, Star Wars? No worries, AF1 will hang on for the rushing title these next few weeks.

6. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints—Lately, you get the feeling the Saints can just score at will when they need to. They did it late against the Cowboys and the Bengals, led by this guy.

7. Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers—Something’s afoot in San Diego, dude.

8. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers—3243 yards, 23 TDs, 9 picks. If the Pack was better than 8-4, Rodgers would be up higher on this list.

9. Matt Cassel, Kansas City Chiefs—The “other” Matty Ice

10. Trent Cole, Philadelphia Eagles—Leads all DE’s in solo tackles (46) and has 9 sacks, but for some reason he doesn’t get much love.

Four weeks to go….who will stay on this list and who will drop off. Also, who will be the first coach to get fired? Maybe that’s for another list. For now, here are the best coaches/biggest surprises for 2010 thus far….

1. Todd Haley, Kansas City Chiefs—A two-game lead on the Chargers is nice when you face them in December. Let’s see where this dude sits next week.

2. Steve Spagnuolo, St. Louis Rams—6-6 looks much better than 5-6, doesn’t it? At least it makes the Packers (8-4) and Bucs (7-5) feel better that they’re currently out of the playoffs based on standings.

3. Andy Reid, Philadelphia Eagles—A tough schedule to finish, but that has never scared Big Andy before, and it shouldn’t when Michael Vick is at the helm.

4. Bill Belichick, New England Patriots—If you put up 39 points on the Steelers and 45 on the Jets, you’re doing something right.

5. Mike Smith, Atlanta Falcons—The best record in the NFL should be good for something

6. Lovie Smith, Chicago Bears—9-3, and everyone is STILL waiting for the other shoe to drop.

7. Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers—Let’s not forget the current AFC North leaders started the first quarter of the season without Big Ben

8. Tom Coughlin, New York Giants—Since being on the hot seat, Coughlin’s Giants have gone 7-2 and have won the last two games despite not having Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, and more than half of their starting O-line.

9. Jack Del Rio, Jacksonville Jaguars—Still in the lead for the AFC South in a year when most expected him to be fired

10. Raheem Morris, Tampa Bay Bucs—Much improved despite having trouble beating some of the better teams

Honorable mention: Tom Cable, Oakland Raiders—Bonus points for beating the Chargers so soundly in San Diego last Sunday

I suspect that Week 13 will go down as one of the most frustrating weeks of the season. Not only did several so-called studs put up goat-like numbers, but many leagues were in the final week of their regular seasons so there were more than a few owners in must-win situations. Let’s hope that they didn’t have one (or more) of the guys on this list:

Dwayne Bowe (0-0)
78 points. That was the total of the first matchup between these two teams and, on Sunday, they combined for a measly 16 points. The biggest goat of the game was Bowe, who somehow failed to register a catch against one of the worst pass defenses in the league after posting an average of 7.0-105-1.9 over his last seven games. That is a mind-boggling drop in production for a guy who was the top fantasy wideout over the last two months.

Brandon Lloyd (2-31)
Kyle Orton (117 yards, 0 TD)
Last time he faced the Chiefs, Lloyd caught six passes for 90 yards and two TDs. In his last four games he racked up 413 yards and six TDs. Lloyd reminded the fantasy community why he was one of the most frustrating fantasy players of the mid-00s. Meanwhile, Orton looked dreadful, missing on 19 of his 28 pass attempts and failing to find the endzone. Thanks for that, Kyle.

Chris Johnson (67 total yards, 0 TD)
Over the first 10 weeks, Johnson averaged 107 total yards and 0.9 TDs. We wrote off last week’s miserable outing against the Texans due to the Titans’ problems at QB, but with Kerry Collins back under center, Johnson would get back to normal, right? WRONG. Chris Johnson looked more like Larry Johnson circa 2009. This was not what owners were expecting when they drafted him #1 overall this summer.

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It’s turning out to be a pretty awesome rookie class.

1. Sam Bradford, St. Louis Rams—Turning out to be a very strong rookie campaign—on pace for 3586 yards, 25 TDs and 13 picks. And the upstart Rams are now in a tie for first with the Seahawks.

2. Ndamukong Suh, Detroit Lions—Suh is like Albert Haynesworth—doesn’t put up huge numbers, but teams have to game plan around him. Just think how good he’s going to be in five years.

3. Earl Thomas, Seattle Seahawks—Leads all NFL safeties with 5 picks, and averaging 6 tackles a game.

4. Colt McCoy, Cleveland Browns—Averaging almost 200 yards a game and has a stunning 63.8 completion percentage. If only he didn’t get hurt, we would be putting him up there with Bradford.

5. Dez Bryant, Dallas Cowboys—Let’s see if Jon Kitna gets him the ball a bit more today.

6. Devin McCourty, New England Patriots—Funny how Bill Belichick manages to lose guys like Asante Samuel and replaces them with rookies.

7. Mike Williams, Tampa Bay Bucs—Strong start and will hopefully finish strong and move up. He has the talent.

8. Eric Berry, Kansas City Chiefs—Numbers are fading, but that might be because no one is throwing in his direction.

9. Jermaine Gresham, Cincinnati Bengals—Give him a couple of years, he’s going to be a star.

10 (tie). Aaron Hernandez/Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots—Combined, here are their numbers—61 catches, 772 yards, 9 TDs.