There are always a lot of obstacles to overcome to achieve
victory… you have to pick the right match ups, deal with player injuries,
manage around player bye weeks, and hope that the website hosting your league
isn’t down on Sunday morning when critical game-time decisions need to be
made. Shawn took an interesting
approach this week on dealing with byes, by merely acting as if they don’t
exist. And it paid off! In a rarely seen move, the Coors Light Drunk
Guys started two players on their bye week (the Packers Defense and Mason
Crosby) and still managed to pull out a victory! You must be doing some clean living, Mr. Martin!
The big congratulations this week go to Jamie George and
his Midnight Maulers, who smashed the competition, scoring 23 more points than
the nearest team and being the only team to break into the triple digits
this week with 118! This was also one
of those extra special high scores because it was done with an optimal lineup! Well done Jamie! Six different teams have now claimed a Weekly High Score Prize
this season…
This week we’ll start talking about the playoffs, see which
NFL team is in the lead in fantasy scoring, and I give a salute to one of the
greatest American athletes of all time.
But first, some player observations…
THAT IS WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!
-Denver, DEF – Scottish Rebels – 36 pts – Denver straight up
Chicagoed the Panthers. (That is the
new term for a defense that humiliates an opponent by scoring over 30
points). In all, Denver had 7 sacks, 2
interceptions (1 returned for a touchdown), plus a punt return touchdown and
169 return yards. Oh yeah, and just for
good measure they added a safety. Boo,
yah.
-Joe Flacco, QB – Midnight Maulers – 29 pts – Flacco put on a
show against the Raiders, throwing for 341 yards, 3 TD’s, and 1 int, and also
adding a 1-yard rushing touchdown.
Apparently he really loves playing at home this season where he has
scored 114 total points (22.8 ppg), versus on the road where he has scored only
32 total points (8 ppg).
-Matt Ryan, QB – Midnight Maulers – 29 pts – Good to get in a
shootout with the Saints! Ryan finished
with 411 yards and 3 touchdowns in the Falcons first loss.
-Adrian Peterson, RB – Scottish Rebels – 28 pts – Over the
last four weeks, AP is averaging 25.5 points per game, and is the current NFL
rushing leader with 1,128 yards.
-Dallas, DEF – Free Agent – 28 pts – This was just fun to
watch, wasn’t it?! Three defensive
touchdowns? You kidding me?! Oh yeah!!
Love it!! How ‘bout them
Cowboys?!?!
-Calvin Johnson, WR – SOFA KING GOOD – 27 pts – Nerve damage…concussion…knee problems… it doesn’t matter. Megatron looked like his old dominant self in this one.
-Calvin Johnson, WR – SOFA KING GOOD – 27 pts – Nerve damage…concussion…knee problems… it doesn’t matter. Megatron looked like his old dominant self in this one.
-Jimmy Graham, TE – SOFA KING GOOD – 26 pts – Graham went for
146 yards and two TD’s against an undefeated Atlanta team. Should be even easier next week going
against the Raiders defense. Look out!
COME ON, MAN!
-Rashad Jennings, RB – Scottish Rebels – 2 pts – I should
know better than to start a Jaguar on my team.
What has my ‘Fantasy vs. Reality’ analysis been showing all year? That freakin’ Jacksonville DOES NOT SCORE
POINTS! Do not forget this when setting
your own roster…
-Eli Manning, QB – SOFA KING GOOD – 2 pts – Not sure what is
going on with Eli and the Giants. He
has only scored 10 points over the last three weeks (with no touchdown passes).
-Victor Cruz, WR – SOFA KING GOOD – 2 pts – If Eli’s not
throwing touchdowns, Cruz ain’t catching them.
So yeah, the Giants are having some problems.
-Eric Decker, WR – sprouts – 1 pt – Quite a drop-off after
scoring 15, 16, and 21 points in the weeks leading up to this game. But with Peyton looking good, I would think
he’ll rebound nicely.
-Michael Bush, RB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 1 pt – I guess
scoring only one point shouldn’t be too much of a surprise considering the guy
hasn’t scored more than 4 points since Week 3 when he somehow scored 12.
-Michael Turner, RB – American BadAss – 1 pt – This looked
like a dream match up going in with New Orleans giving up the 3rd most points
to runningbacks, and Turner coming off a 16 point performance from the week
before. But he never got going in this
one, gaining a measly 15 yards on 13 carries, and even got stuffed from the
one-yard line on his only opportunity to score. Ouch.
-Reggie Bush, RB – Midnight Maulers – 0 pts – Reggie only got
four carries and was benched for fumbling.
Not a good development.
PLAYOFFS? DON’T TALK
ABOUT PLAYOFFS!
There are three regular season games left before playoffs
start. Four teams in the
South Division have 5 wins, and Gotham’s Reckoning is only one game behind
that. So, the South Division is wide
open. There are two inter-divisional
matchups in the South this week (BoomGoesTheDynamite vs. Midnight Maulers and
Gotham’s Reckoning vs. Coors Light Drunk Guys), so we should know a lot more
next week. But for now, I’m just going
to say that all teams in the South Division control their own fate to make it
in to the playoffs.
The North Division has the team with the league’s best
record (American BadAss, 7-2-1) and the league’s worst record (Scottish Rebels,
2-8). My Rebels have officially been
mathematically eliminated from making the playoffs, and it looks like American
BadAss should be in. For sure if
American BadAss gets one more victory in the next three games they will
definitely be in. The remaining three
teams in the North (sprouts, Joe’s Pats and SOFA KING GOOD) are all still alive
to make it in. Joe’s Pats and sprouts
control their own destiny, while SOFA KING GOOD will still need some help. I’ll have full scenarios for each team next
week.
Playoffs Note #1: Don’t forget, this season there is a $20
bonus to each team that qualifies for the playoffs.
Playoffs Note #2: I
just wanted to mention that in Week 6 the teams that I predicted to make the
playoffs were: Joe’s Pats, American BadAss, sprouts, SOFA KING GOOD, Frito Pie
and Gotham’s Reckoning. So it looks
like I’m on track to be 100% correct!
Playoffs Note #3: Round 2 of the “What Do You Know?! Bowl”
(BoomGoesTheDynamite vs. Coors Light Drunk Guys) will occur in the final week
of the regular season. How sweet will
that be if the winner of that game makes it in and the loser is out? What do YOU know!?!?!?
GREAT AMERICAN HERO
Lance Armstrong has been stripped of his Tour de France
titles because he allegedly used steroids or something. Frankly, I don’t care. I am so tired of athletes getting in trouble
for using “performance enhancing drugs”, when the drugs they are using are just
the most effective drugs. Every sporting
league has lists of “approved” drugs, and “non-approved” drugs, with the main
difference being how well the drug works.
But let’s take a look at the reality of the Lance Armstrong situation.
Now, let’s assume that he did go through some sort of doping
regiment throughout his recovery. If he
did, humanity better hope that he took extensive notes on exactly what he did,
because apparently he stumbled on the cure for cancer. Instead of crucifying him for cheating, we
should all be thanking him for his enormous gift to all of us. Every cancer patient should be following
whatever alleged regiment he was on, because that shit works. Thank you, Lance Armstrong. You are an outstanding human being, and I
will forever salute you.
I have the same sentiment for athletes like Roger Clemens
who ridiculously got called in front of Congress for using drugs. Once again, here is a guy who at age, what,
like 50 was able to pitch at the Major League level! I don’t give two craps about what he was on, how about we give
everyone some of that?! I mean, I can go out and play tennis for a couple hours
and still be sore three days later. And
I’m just playing against old white dudes, not young Cubans in their prime. The fact that Clemens was able to do that is
beyond remarkable. It’s time to stop
persecuting these athletes, and start revering them as pioneers in the science
of curing diseases and enhancing human peak performance.
FANTASY vs. REALITY
The top team remains unchanged in Fantasy and Reality, the
New England Patriots. They have scored
299 points in reality and 906 in fantasy.
The Denver Broncos have taken over the 2nd spot in reality scoring (271
points), and have moved up to 3rd in fantasy scoring with 848. The NY Giants are 3rd in reality (267 pts)
and 2nd in fantasy (855 pts). In fourth
place, surprisingly, is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with 260 reality points, but
they currently rank 9th in fantasy points with 765. In fifth place for reality is Baltimore (254 points, up from 12th
place last week), and they currently rank 7th in fantasy scoring with 784.
The bottom five teams in fantasy scoring are:
28th – Carolina Panthers – 579 pts (Reality= 27th)
29th – New York Jets – 568 pts (Reality= 24th)
30th – St. Louis Rams – 560 pts (Reality= 28th)
31st – Kansas City Chiefs – 527 pts (Reality=30th)
32nd – Jacksonville Jaguars – 466 pts (Reality= 32nd)
It is comical to have football players argue with refs or
rant after games about bad calls when they don’t even know the most basic rules
of the sport that they are playing.
Donovan McNabb made an idiot of himself in 2008 when he famously stated
that he didn’t know that games could end in a tie. You would think that after that, and after all the finagling that
has been done with overtime rules recently, that all players would know this by
now. But you would be wrong. At the conclusion of overtime on Sunday,
with San Francisco and St. Louis still tied, Niners’ safety Dashon Goldson
said, “I didn’t know you could tie.
When I saw both sides walking onto the field, I was like “Where’s
everybody going?” Same for Danny
Amendola (STL, WR), who was actually a member of the Eagles in 2008 when they
tied, he told Peter King after the game that he thought there was going to be a
second overtime. Hilarious.
Speaking of ties, here are the tiebreaker rules that will be
used in determining which teams qualify for the playoffs:
Division Champions and Runner-ups: (One Division Champ, and
one Runner-up from each division)
1) Overall record
2) Division record
3) Head-to-Head record
4) Points scored
5) Coin flip
Wild Cards: (Two wild card teams, regardless of division)
1) Overall record
2) Head-to-Head record
3) Points scored
4) Coin flip
Once we are in the playoffs, here are the tiebreakers that
will be used in the event of any tie game:
-In any round prior to the championship game, ties go to the
higher seeded team.
-In the championship game, if there is a tie, it will be
broken in the following manner:
-Team with the highest scoring
quarterback wins,
-Team
with the highest scoring runningback wins,
-Team
with the highest scoring wide receiver wins,
-If
still tied at that point, co-champions will be declared
BEST BENCH
When you can’t win high scores, or regular games for that
matter, it is nice to still win something!
So for the second week in a row, the Best Bench goes to…. my Scottish
Rebels! With a roster overhaul of over
half my players, I could have improved my point total by 41 this week. Broncos for Ravens (+14), A. Gates for O.
Daniels (+11), C. Palmer for C. Newton (+8), L. Moore for B. Lloyd (+5) and B.
Green-Ellis for R. Jennings (+3).
The playoff push is on!
Thursday night games continue, but this is the last week of byes…
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