Fantasy football 2011 | Chinstrap Ninjas fantasy football contest Week 8 results, Week 9 lineups

The much-delayed contest for Week 9 has finally arrived.

We’ve scored 324 points here at the midway point of the 2011 season. This week we crown a new monthly champion and another player jumped into the 30-point club, giving us five teams all within 10 points of the overall lead.

As always, read on for contest news and skip to the comments to post your Week 9 fantasy lineups.

Despite a big disappointment at quarterback for most of the teams in the contest this week, we still posted a 31-point tally.

The disappointment, of course, was Drew Brees, who was started by more than half of the league this week. Brees’ TE Jimmy Graham, started by the same number of owners (55%) also disappointed. Disappointments mean the stars aligned for some other players.

Chickenheads&Pigeons won this week thanks to a tough-luck point from the Panthers’ Steve Smith. C&P paired up Smith and Cam Newton to earn six points, the team’s first points of the season, and rise to the top in Week 8.

LeSean McCoy, started by LOL Cats and Brandon, was our best running back. Calvin Johnson earned five-point performances for MoHawks and Dante Bruno. Rockchalk started the Panthers’ rookie signal caller to earn five points.

Super Friends, who started both Brees and Graham, did not score any points but was able to hold on to the October crown. That 25-point performance in Week 6 proved too much to overcome.

With the five-point performance in Week 8, MoHawks vaulted into third place in October and into a two-way tie for fourth place in the current overall standings.

Cartisimo and 69ers maintained their stronghold on second place with 36 points each.

Not a ton of off-the-wall starts this week, but there are some awesome notables. Dr. Zoidberg started Darren Sproles. Nice play with Mark Ingram ailing. Schizophrenic Smurfs started Cowboys rookie DeMarco Murray. If that game hadn’t gotten out of hand early, I wonder if he might not have contended for the top spot this week. In the receiver ranks, the most out there pick was Antonio Brown, started by Super Friends. Considering the comments from Ravens CB Lardarius Webb today — Webb said Brown is better than Mike Wallace — that’s not quote as out there as some might think.

No super surprises in the tight end ranks, unless one of the TE-Grahams was actually supposed to be Daniel Graham. That brings up a point: There are a lot of Smiths, Jacksons and Johnsons out there. Yes, in most cases we know which WR Johnson you are talking about, but I would appreciate it if everyone would use first initials (or player nicknames) just to so we can be clear. Thanks.

Top performers in Week 8:

Quarterbacks

Cam Newton led a trio of quarterback who scored at least 24 points this week despite two lost fumbles. Newton threw for 290 yards and three TDs and added 53 yards on the ground to score 24.9 points. Matthew Stafford didn’t rack up a ton of yards, but had a 21-yard run and threw three TD passes to score 24.8 points. Mike Vick was our third quarterback with more than 24 points, throwing a pair of TDs and rushing for 50 yards. He scored 24.2 points and finished six rushing yards from tying for some tough-luck goodness.

Running backs

How many times have we had LeSean McCoy‘s name on the running backs list this season? In Week 8, McCoy toted the rock 30 times, amassing 185 yards and a pair of scores. He also caught two passes for 15 yards. He finished with 32 points. Steven Jackson‘s Saints-breaking performance was our second best this week. He rushed 25 times for a buck-59 and scored two TDs. He caught four passes for 32 yards and finished with 31.1 points.

Wide receivers

Like McCoy, Calvin Johnson‘s name has been typed in this space a lot this season. This week he caught five passes for 125 yards and a TD to score 18.5 fantasy points. Steve Smith added a 12 yard run to go with his 100-yards-and-a-touchdown aerial show to finish as our tough-luck point-giver. He scored 17.2 fantasy points.

Tight ends

Remember Scott Chandler? He’s back to his TD-catching ways. He hauled in two passes for 35 yards but got into the end zone on both. He finished with 15.5 fantasy points, barely edging our No. 2 TE, Brent Celek. Celek caught seven passes for 94 yards and a touchdown to score 15.4 fantasy points.

Week 8 lineups and standings

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October final standings

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Regular season standings

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In the comments, post who you think will be the best quarterback, running back, wide receiver and tight end in Week 9. Remember, only the best player at each position is worth five points. But there are massive bonus points for getting more than one pick correct. Good luck.

To learn more about the contest, including scoring/lineup rules or to see Week 1′s lineups thread, go to the original post.

Week 1 results, Week 2 lineups

Week 2 results, Week 3 lineups

Week 3 results, Week 4 lineups (with September’s champions)

Week 4 results, Week 5 lineups

Week 5 results, Week 6 lineups

Week 6 results, Week 7 lineups

Week 7 results, Week 8 lineups