sprouts hold strong!!

Congratulations sprouts!! One week after having the High Score prize stolen by Michael Vick, Russ shows that the sprouts are for real, and takes the High Score for Week 12 by posting 121 points! In the last two weeks, Russ has now scored 251 points! That, my friends, is how you play the game. Well done, Russ!

In other news, there are only two weeks left of the regular season until the playoffs begin! See below for the full playoff preview…who’s in, who’s out, who’s on the bubble, and who is going to win it all!!!

But before we get into it, a couple quick observations from Week 11…

IS GOOD, I LIKE!!

Greg Jennings, WR – Midnight Maulers – 36 pts – Jennings and Rodgers had an absolute love affair against the hapless Vikings. Jennings went off for 152 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Ben Roethlisberger, QB – Tailgate Approved – 34 pts – Oakland looked like Oakland again, and Big Ben shredded them. All told, Ben accounted for four touchdowns (3 passing, 1 rushing).

Steve Johnson, WR – Scottish Rebels – 31 pts – All week I was debating between Randy Moss and this guy… Uh, yeah, kinda made the wrong choice there.

Drew Brees, QB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 30 pts – Brees set a franchise record on Sunday for completions, breaking Archie Manning’s record of 1,849. More amazing is the fact that he did it in four seasons, while Manning did it in 11.

Aaron Rodgers, QB – American BadAss – 30 pts – Rodgers was almost laughing at times because it was so easy.. He finished with 301 yards passing and 4 TD’s!

NOT SO MUCH

Randy Moss, WR – Scottish Rebels – 0 pts – The Patriots rarely make a personnel mistake, so when they let Moss go, that should’ve been a hint to everyone.

Randy McMichael, TE – SOFA KING GOOD – 0 pts – I think we can safely say that Randy McMichael is no Antonio Gates.

Zach Miller, TE – American BadAss – 0 pts – Here is something as a fantasy owner you hate to see: 2 receptions, 9 yards. Come on man, can’t you get one more yard?

Dustin Keller, TE – Joe’s Pats – 0 pts – Here’s another one: 2 receptions, 7 yards. Yuck.

Visanthe Shiancoe, TE – Tailgate Approved – 0 pts – What is the deal with tight ends scoring zero points this week? This is getting ri-goddamn-diculous…

Dan Carpenter, K – Frito Pie – 0 pts – For an NFL team to post zero points is weak. Real weak.

Anquan Boldin, WR – Tailgate Approved – 0 pts – You think Boldin got shut out right? Nope, he actually did have 29 yards, but he lost a fumble.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW?!?!? BOWL

We had the second “What Do You Know?!?!? Bowl” this weekend, and it did not disappoint! Somehow Tailgate Approved overcame zero points from two players (Boldin & Shiancoe) to pull out a two-point victory, 93-91. So Jens takes round two to even the score this year to 1 – 1. Will we see a tiebreaker in the playoffs? Stop laughing, it could happen…

PLAYOFFS??! DON’T TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS!!

Two weeks to go in the season and the playoffs are far from settled… first here is a quick refresh on the playoff rules:

The top two teams in each division receive automatic bids. The next top two teams receive wild card bids. The top seed in each division receives a first round bye.

Divisional Rankings will be determined and ties will be broken in this manner:

1. Overall record

2. Division record

3. Head-to-Head record

4. Total points scored

5. Coin flip

Wild Card Rankings will be determined and ties will be broken in this manner:

1. Overall record

2. Head-to-Head record

3. Total points scored

4. Coin flip

Also remember that throughout the playoffs the Weekly High Score Prize will still be awarded, and all teams are eligible to win.

Now to the scenarios… bear in mind that the South Division is closer than it has ever been at this stage of the season, so there are still lots of possible scenarios for the playoff spots. In fact, only one team is in for sure, and only two have been mathematically eliminated.

Teams that are in:

SOFA KING GOOD - North Division Champ

Teams that are out:

Frito Pie and American BadAss

Teams in control of own destiny:

Lords of Lumberg – Two wins assure a playoff berth, one win probably does.

Joe’s Pats – Two wins assure a playoff berth, one win probably does.

sprouts – One win assures a playoff berth.

Scottish Rebels – Two wins assure a playoff berth, one win might.

Teams needing some help:

Midnight Maulers – Two wins PLUS losses by Scottish Rebels or Coors Light Drunk Guys or Tailgate Approved OR one win PLUS a whole lotta other stuff.

Coors Light Drunk Guys – Two wins PLUS losses by Lords of Lumberg and Joe’s Pats OR one win PLUS two Hail Mary’s and one Our Father.

Tailgate Approved – Two wins PLUS losses by Lords of Lumberg, Joe’s Pats, Coors Light Drunk Guys OR one win PLUS an act of God.

The South Division is still pretty much wide open. Two important games to watch, Tailgate Approved vs. Lords of Lumberg and Coors Light Drunk Guys vs. Joe’s Pats. If Jens and Shawn win those games, there will be four teams tied at 6 – 6 in the South Division. Amazing!!

BEST BENCH OF THE WEEK!

Joe’s Pats put on a pretty good showing this week leaving some points on the bench, but in the end, no one really came close to Yours Truly. With only one roster move, my Scottish Rebels could have improved their point total by 31 points! Steve Johnson for Randy Moss. 31 points.

Okay, only two more weeks until the playoffs!! We’re gonna know a lot more next week (hopefully)…

With a Rebel Yell!!!

It only took nine weeks for my Scottish Rebels to finally kick into gear, but boy did they ever, becoming the only team to break into triple digits this week with 108 points! Michael Vick is back and is as good as ever, and Arian Foster looks like LaDainian Tomlinson of 4 years ago! I don’t want to dash anyone’s hopes, but it looks like my team is going to be pretty much unstoppable from here on out, so you guys are really just playing for second place. Oh yeah!!

Last week (Week 8) belonged to SOFA KING GOOD… James had a great performance from Calvin Johnson (28 points) and all of his players except his kicker and defense scored in the double digits! Nice job Cap’n!! Week 8 also saw Frito Pie register their first victory of the season, mainly thanks to some great waiver wire pick-ups, and Tailgate Approved had a roster with scoring like I’ve never seen before… all of Jens’ players scored no less than 3 points and no more than 7 points. Truly unprecedented.

This week we’ll take a look at the money count so far, give out two (!) Best Bench awards, and marvel at the fact that it’s already time to start thinking about the playoffs. But first, some observations…

THAT’S SOME BIG TIME FOOTBALL

• Peyton Hillis, RB – sprouts – 34 pts – Hillis is 12^th in the NFL in rushing yards, and 3^rd in touchdowns scored with 7! Not bad for a second-string Denver reject…
• Arian Foster, RB – Scottish Rebels – 31 pts – Rookie of the year? Is there even competition?
• Aaron Rodgers, QB – American BadAss – 27 pts – This is what you call a perfect day for a quarterback: 27 for 34, 289 yards, 3 TD’s, 0 int’s, 131.5 Passer Rating. Mmm..yeah.
• Adrian Peterson, RB – Lords of Lumberg – 26 pts – Peterson has scored over 20 points in each of his last three games, and 5 times overall for the season.
• Terrell Owens, WR – Joe’s Pats – 26 pts – T.O. had 141 yards and 2 touches against the Steelers. Chad Ochocinco, meanwhile, only has two touchdowns for the whole year. Gotta figure he’s not real happy about that…

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS

Here is the money count thus far in the season:

• SOFA KING GOOD – James - $120 (Weeks 3, 4, 8)
• Lords of Lumberg – Timmy - $120 (Weeks 1, 2, 7)
• Tailgate Approved – Jens - $40 (Week 5)
• sprouts – Russ - $40 (Week 6)
• Scottish Rebels – Jerry - $40 (Week 9)

If any winners want a payout, email me and let me know and I will get a check sent.

YUCK

• Miles Austin, WR – Lords of Lumberg – 1 pt – Kitna’s vision extends about 2 yards down the field, so it is no surprise that Austin only had 2 catches for 16 yards.
• Felix Jones, RB – American BadAss – 1 pt – He has the same problem as Miles Austin…he’s a member of the Dallas Cowboys.
• Calvin Johnson, WR – SOFA KING GOOD – 1 pt – Over the last four weeks, Calvin Johnson was averaging 19.75 ppg, but Darrelle Revis and the Jets’ defense held him to only one catch for 13 yards.
• Benjarvus Green-Ellis, RB – sprouts – 1 pt – BGE was only able to gain 14 yards on 9 carries…an average of only 1.55 yards per carry. Against the Cleveland Browns.
• Steve Smith, WR – Midnight Maulers – 0 pts – I seriously thought that Steve Smith had been injured, but he actually played the whole game.
• Justin Forsett, RB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 0 pts – Forsett finished with only 4 total yards, -1 rushing and 5 receiving. That’s not just bad, that’s real bad.
• Seattle, D – Tailgate Approved – 0 pts – Remarkably, even after posting zero points this week, Seattle is still the 9^th rank defense in fantasy.

POLITICAL RANT

For this week’s political rant, I am going step aside and let Ronald Reagan take the lead. This is a link to a recording he made in 1961 railing against Socialism in general, but particularly socialized medicine. The most amazing thing about this clip is that you could change a couple of the names of legislators that he mentions and it would be perfectly relevant today. Take a listen…it’s only about 11 minutes long and is absolutely brilliant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYrlDlrLDSQ&feature=related

PLAYOFFS?! DON’T TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS!

Only four weeks left until it is playoff time!! Playoffs begin in Week 14, as usual, with the top 6 teams qualifying… the top two in each division get automatic bids and the next two highest ranked teams receive wildcards. Stay tuned for next week when I’ll run through playoff scenarios for each team.

BEST BENCH(ES)

Week 8 was interesting because of there being 6 NFL teams on byes, there were not a lot of points left on the bench. Well that is except for American Bad Ass… Jason blew away the competition for Best Bench where he could have improved his point total by 29 points with only two roster moves… D. Garrard for A. Rodgers (+24 pts) and M. Colston for D. Bryant (+5 pts). Don’t feel too bad though bro, you still would’ve lost by 21 points to the Lords of Lumberg.

Week 9 saw significantly more points on the bench, SOFA KING GOOD and the Lords of Lumberg both could’ve improved by 24 points, but none were better than Joe’s Pats. Joe could have improved his point total by a solid 32 points with two roster changes… T. Owens for P. Garcon (+25 pts) and E. Manning for T. Brady (+7 pts). But if we ever see Joe bench Tom Brady in favor of Eli Manning, I believe we can reasonably assume that terrorists have taken control of his team. Wait, that’s happening in Week 10?!? Someone call the authorities!!!

Get ready for Week 10 and the push to the playoffs!!!