A champion emerges! After a total of 70
head-to-head match-ups and 13,489 points scored this season, Joe's Pats showed that
they are the best of the best and have claimed the crown as the 2015 Sacred
Sundays Champion!!
Joe's dominance in the championship game began on
Thursday night with a 24-point performance from tight end Jordan Reed. It continued on Sunday with Brandon Marshall scoring
23, Brandin Cooks scoring 19 and Russell Wilson logging 18 points. All of this
added up to a final score of 122-91...Joe's Pats defeating my Scottish Rebels.
This is Joe's first ever Sacred Sundays championship, and this was the third time where the championship winning team also won the final Weekly High Score prize. Well done
Joe! You are the man!! (Side note - this marks the second year in a row where the champion drafted their team from Las Vegas... just saying...)
In the playoff for 3rd place, the Bubble
Craps Bandits fielded a team that harkened back to the Chief Dredd days, with five
of eight players on Timmy's active roster wearing the Kansas City red and white. Unfortunately for Timmy,
those five players only combined for 32 points, so American BadAss was able to pull
out a victory 74 - 61. The 3rd place finish for American BadAss marks
the 8th time Jason has finished in the Top 3. That is just pure dominance, as the
next closest team (Shawn Martin's Coors Light Drunk Guys) has four finishes
in the Top 3.
Here is an historical summary of the final standings in Sacred Sundays
history. (Note- This data includes Top Four finishes for 2008-2015, Top Three
finishes for 2005-2007, and only the Top Finisher for 2004. Unfortunately my early-year
record keeping was not as good as it is now.)
| Name | Total | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | |
| 1 | Jason Noble | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 2 | James Hand | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | Shawn Martin | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 4 | Timmy Hand | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 5 | Jens Bolleyer | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | Jerry Noble | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | Joe Whitehead | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 8 | Russ Nielsen | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Jamie George | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Louis Biad | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Jason Lowery | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Just a quick write-up this week to give final stats on team defenses, final prize money tallies and the final Best Bench of the season. Let's do this!
THAT IS NICE!
-Kirk Cousins, QB - SofaKingLucky - 35 pts - Cousins
is the highest scoring quarterback in the league over the last three games (and
it is not even close), having scored 21, 35 and 35 (91 pts) over that span. Next
closest is Blake Bortles who scored 79 pts over the same period.
-Arizona, DEF - Coors Light Drunk Guys - 33 pts - What
a game for the Cardinals, absolutely putting the smack down on the Green Bay Packers. In all they finished with 3 fumble recoveries,
1 interception, 2 touchdowns, 9 sacks (yes 9!!), and they only allowed 8 points.
So actually the Cardinals defense outscored the Packers offense. That is just crazy!
-Drew Brees, QB - Coors Light Drunk Guys - 31 pts - In spite of an injured foot, Brees threw for his second highest yardage total of
the season (412 yards) and tossed 3 TD's against the Jags.
-Blake Bortles, QB - sprouts - 31 pts - Bortles actually
would have outscored Brees in this one (368 passing yards, 4 TD's), had he not thrown two interceptions. Still a remarkable day nonetheless. And check out Bortles point totals
over the last five games… 22, 32, 25, 23 and 31. Are you aware that Blake Bortles
finished the year as the 4th ranked QB? If that doesn't blow your mind, nothing will.
-Tim Hightower, RB - Scottish Rebels - 28 pts - Not
a bad pickup off the street... Hightower finished with 122 yards (his first 100-yard
game in 5 years) and 2 TD's.
COME ON, MAN!
-Amari Cooper, WR - Bubble Craps Bandits - 1 pt - Cooper
couldn't get much going as he finished with only 10 yards on 2 catches. Big drop-off
from last week's 24-point effort.
-Spencer Ware, RB - Bubble Craps Bandits - 1 pt - Not
much opportunity for Ware, only getting 5 carries for 15 yards.
-Antonio Gates, TE - SofaKinglucky - 1 pt - Rivers threw
49 passes against the Raiders, but somehow only tossed Gates direction twice. That
just ain't right.
-Martavis Bryant, WR - SofaKinglucky - 0 pts - Big dud
here to finish out the season... Bryant only caught 1 of 3 balls thrown his way
for 6 yards.
-Benjamin Watson, TE - sprouts - 0 pts - Watson was
listed as questionable going in, but he did end up playing 42 snaps.
Unfortunately, during those snaps he only caught 1 ball for 5 yards.
-Richard Rodgers, TE - nextyearautodraft - 0 pts - Here
are Rodgers headlines from his last two games... Week 15: "Richard Rodgers
catches one pass in win". Week 16: "Richard Rodgers catches one pass
in loss". Ouch.
-James Starks, RB - SofaKinglucky - -1 pts - Yahoo!
labeled Starks something which no runningback ever wants: "Fumbling Machine".
He lost a fumble in the third quarter against Arizona and promptly got benched.
He had only managed 11 yards up to that point. That fumble was his 5th of the season
and 4th in his last four games. Yeah, "Fumbling Machine" sounds about
right...
THREE RANDOM FACTOIDS
-The only word in the English language that ends in
"mt'' is "dreamt".
-On a standard keyboard, the longest word that you can
type with only your left hand is 'stewardesses'. For the right hand, the longest
word is 'lollipop'.
-There are two words in the English language that have
all five vowels in order: 'abstemious' and 'facetious'.
DEFENSE (clap, clap) DEFENSE (clap, clap)
All season I have been tracking defenses to compare
their preseason ranking to their actual ranking. My hypothesis was 2 or 3 of
the top ranked defenses in the preseason would end up being actual top defenses
and the rest would be a big jumble. Here is the full preseason ranking of all 32
teams, along with how they actually finished for the year:
|
Pre-Rank
|
Defense
|
Actual Rank
|
Pre vs. Act
|
Note
|
|
1
|
Seattle Sea - DEF
|
4
|
(3)
|
IN LINE
|
|
2
|
Buffalo Buf - DEF
|
24
|
(22)
|
Worse
|
|
3
|
Houston Hou - DEF
|
14
|
(11)
|
Worse
|
|
4
|
Philadelphia Phi - DEF
|
13
|
(9)
|
Worse
|
|
5
|
St. Louis StL - DEF
|
6
|
(1)
|
IN LINE
|
|
6
|
Arizona Ari - DEF
|
1
|
5
|
Better
|
|
7
|
New England NE - DEF
|
8
|
(1)
|
IN LINE
|
|
8
|
Baltimore Bal - DEF
|
19
|
(11)
|
Worse
|
|
9
|
Green Bay GB - DEF
|
16
|
(7)
|
Worse
|
|
10
|
Kansas City KC - DEF
|
3
|
7
|
Better
|
|
11
|
San Francisco SF - DEF
|
32
|
(21)
|
Worse
|
|
12
|
Carolina Car - DEF
|
5
|
7
|
Better
|
|
13
|
Indianapolis Ind - DEF
|
16
|
(3)
|
IN LINE
|
|
14
|
Miami Mia - DEF
|
20
|
(6)
|
Worse
|
|
15
|
Detroit Det - DEF
|
23
|
(8)
|
Worse
|
|
16
|
Cleveland Cle - DEF
|
25
|
(9)
|
Worse
|
|
17
|
Denver Den - DEF
|
2
|
15
|
Better
|
|
18
|
Minnesota Min - DEF
|
10
|
8
|
Better
|
|
19
|
Dallas Dal - DEF
|
28
|
(9)
|
Worse
|
|
20
|
Cincinnati Cin - DEF
|
6
|
14
|
Better
|
|
21
|
Pittsburgh Pit - DEF
|
9
|
12
|
Better
|
|
22
|
New York NYG - DEF
|
12
|
10
|
Better
|
|
23
|
Tampa Bay TB - DEF
|
20
|
3
|
IN LINE
|
|
24
|
Chicago Chi - DEF
|
29
|
(5)
|
Worse
|
|
25
|
Jacksonville Jax - DEF
|
22
|
3
|
IN LINE
|
|
26
|
Atlanta Atl - DEF
|
26
|
0
|
IN LINE
|
|
27
|
San Diego SD - DEF
|
31
|
(4)
|
Worse
|
|
28
|
Tennessee Ten - DEF
|
27
|
1
|
IN LINE
|
|
29
|
New York NYJ - DEF
|
15
|
14
|
Better
|
|
30
|
New Orleans NO - DEF
|
30
|
0
|
IN LINE
|
|
31
|
Washington Was - DEF
|
11
|
20
|
Better
|
|
32
|
Oakland Oak - DEF
|
18
|
14
|
Better
|
Of the teams ranked in the Top 10 in the preseason,
five of those finished ranked in the Top 10. Two of those exceeded their preseason
ranking (Arizona and Kansas City). Buffalo, Houston and
Baltimore were major disappointments, while Denver, Carolina and Cincinnati were
pleasant surprises. Overall, I would say my hypothesis was a bit pessimistic, but
it wasn't too far off the mark.
The main reason I have been tracking this is to hopefully
help come draft time. Here is what I will take from this going into next season:
The best case scenario is to have a Top 5 defense
on your team. The Top 5 defenses for this season were ranked 6, 17, 10, 1 and 12
respectively in the preseason. Given that, if you want to try to score one of these
defenses it makes sense to draft a defense ranked in the Top 10 (since 3 of the
Top 5 defenses were ranked in Top 10), plus add at least one more defense with a
later round pick. I say ‘at least’ one more because of the fact that since the pool of defenses is so much
smaller than other positions (wide receivers, for instance), it could make sense
to actually draft a third (gasp!) defense. Think about it though—in the 12th round of this year's draft
l selected Nelson Agholor, a sleeper- pick who ended up being a real steaming pile of nothing (only 27 pts all season), and whom I ended up dropping in Week 3. Meanwhile I could have
selected Cincinnati (ranked 20th), who went undrafted but ended up as the 6th ranked defense.
Or Pittsburgh (ranked 21st), who also went undrafted, and ended up as the 9th ranked defense.
So rather than taking a flier on rookie wide receiver (one player plucked from a
pool of hundreds), the better move may be to snag another defense (one team plucked
from a pool of 32). Just playing the
odds. Don't be shocked if you see me load up on defenses in the next draft...
EVERYBODY NEEDS MONEY...THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT
MONEY
In all, 7 teams won a prize this season which is the
same number as last year. The big winner was Joe who pulled in four Weekly High
Score Prizes to go along with his Championship. Here is the final tally of prizes
won:
1) Joe's Pats - $425 = 4 Weekly High Scores @ $50 +
Championship ($225)
2) Scottish Rebels - $313 = 4 Weekly High Scores @ $50
+ Runner-up ($113)
3) nextyearautodraft - $150 = 3 Weekly High Scores
@ $50
4t) Coors Light Drunk Guys - $100 = 2 Weekly High
Scores @ $50
4t) Midnight Maulers - $100 = 2 Weekly High Scores
@ $50
6) Bubble Craps Bandits - $95 = 1 Weekly High Score
@ $50 + 4th Place ($45)
7) American BadAss - $67 = 3rd Place
($67)
Here are the final league standings, which will be used
to determine draft order:
1) Joe's Pats - Joe
2) Scottish Rebels - Jerry
3) American BadAss -Jason
4) Bubble Craps Bandits - Timmy
5) Coors Light Drunk Guys - Shawn
6) Midnight Maulers -Jamie
7) nextyearautodraft -Jens
8) SofaKinglucky-James
9) sprouts - Russ
10) Vandelay lndustries - Louis
Draft order will be the reverse of these standings,
so Louis-You are on the clock!
Keepers will need to be declared by one week after the
conclusion of the NFL draft which takes place at the end of April. I will send out reminder emails as that date draws
closer. Same keeper rules apply... Each team can declare up to two keepers from
their current roster for next season. Any kept player will count as a draft choice
in the same round they were drafted this season. Any players that were keepers this
season and who are being kept for next season will count as a first round draft
pick. If there are two players being kept whom both have the same round value, they
will count as picks in that round and the subsequent round (e.g. two first round
keepers will count as 1st and 2nd round picks). Players who were undrafted will count as 15th
round picks. I'll send out an email with
all final rosters and keeper values.
BEST BENCH
Early in the season, the Coors Light Drunk Guys
dominated the Best Bench taking home the award in 5 of the first 7 weeks. It had been a big drought for the Drunk Guys since then. But, Shawn made it a solid half dozen for the
season by taking home the final Best Bench! There was only a 29-point improvement to be
had this week… D. Brees for C. Palmer (+15), K. Rudolph for J. Witten (+10), D.
Woodhead for J. Hill (+4).
Alas, another season has come and gone in what felt
like the blink of an eye... It seems like only last week I was looking at the sweet
glow of lights from the Vegas strip through an airplane window. Ah, how time passes. I’m already pumped for next season!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and I wish
you all a very Happy New Year!!
I leave you with a toast...
