Regular Season is Done...Playoff Time!

It's over! Finished! El finito! The regular season is done and six teams will now battle it out in the playoffs!  Here is the seeding:

#1 - Bubble Craps Bandits - Timmy
#2 - Scottish Rebels - Jerry
#3 - Coors Light Drunk Guys - Shawn
#4 - Midnight Maulers - Jamie
#5 - Joe's Pats - Joe
#6 - American BadAss – Jason

Game #1 of the first round matchups will be the Coors Light Drunk Guys vs. American BadAss and Game #2 will be the Midnight Maulers vs. Joe's Pats. The winner of Game #1 will face the Scottish Rebels, and the winner of Game #2 will face the Bubble Craps Bandits. Couple things to remember about the playoffs... first, the Weekly High Score Prize continues each week of the playoffs (Weeks 14, 15 and 16) and all teams are eligible to win. Second, there are no tie games in the playoffs.  If there is a tie in any game prior to the Championship game, the win goes to the higher seeded team.  If there is a tie in the Championship game, the following tie-breakers will be used: 1) Team with the highest scoring QB wins, 2) Team with the highest scoring RB wins, 3) Team with the highest scoring WR wins, 4) lf still tied at that point, co-champions will be declared.

Also, I should point out that the teams who did not make it in to the playoffs will be the first four teams to pick in next season's draft. The order will be: 1) Vandelay lndustries - Louis, 2) sprouts - Russ, 3) SofaKinglucky - James and 4) nextyearautodraft - Jens.  Yahoo! will create matchups next week between these four teams but the outcomes of those games will not affect draft order. The draft order for the playoff teams will be determined by their final standing at the conclusion of the playoffs.

What a way to finish the regular season with a Monday Night game between the Cowboys and Redskins with playoff implications on the line! Defending champion SofaKinglucky needed Darren McFadden to score 12 points, and through 9/10ths of the game he did jack crap. Then when the game appeared to be over (Cowboys just needed to sit on the ball to run the clock out before kicking a field goal), McFadden inexplicably ran in for a TD.  He left more than enough time for the Redskins to score a tying TD, which they did, and it appeared the game was heading to overtime.  Miraculously, the Cowboys managed to get a long kickoff return and kick the game winning field goal with just 6 seconds left. McFadden finished with only 7 points, so not enough to get James into the playoffs.  No repeat champion this year.  Would have been interesting to see what would have happened had the game gone into overtime.

It was a crazy scoring week with nine players posting 30 points or better.  The most players to accomplish that feat in any week prior was six. Somehow though, all of those high scoring players didn't translate to high scores in our league, as this week ranked as only 8th for most points scored this season. My Rebels climbed to the top of the heap for the third time this year with a solid 112-point performance!  It was looking tough without Gronk this week, but Cam Newton came through with 35 points, Antonio Brown had 30, and Javorius (Buck) Allen had 22.  In the process of winning my game and defeating the Coors Light Drunk Guys, I moved into the top spot in the North Division, which is a scenario I had not even considered. My overall record (7-4-2) gives me a win percentage of 0.61538 which ties the Drunk Guys (8-5 = 0.61538), and my divisional win-loss record was 5-3 which was better than Shawn at 3-4, so that put me at the top. What a fantastic week! Let's keep this mojo going!

Onward!

IS GOOD!
-Allen Robinson, WR - Midnight Maulers - 36 pts - With the other Allen out (Hurns) Robinson went nuts on the Titans weak secondary and finished with 153 yards and 3 TD's! Hard to believe, but Robinson has scored in double digits in his last 8 games! He is the 4th ranked wide receiver in fantasy. And he's a Jaguar.

-Ben Roethlisberger, QB - Midnight Maulers - 36 pts - Big Ben was a big man on Sunday night, throwing for 364 yards and 4 TD's plus adding a 2-point conversion. He is averaging nearly 23 ppg. over his last four games.

-Cam Newton, QB - Scottish Rebels - 35 pts - Cam's onslaught continues! He has now crossed the 30-point barrier three times in his last five games and is averaging 26.8 ppg. over that span. Tough matchups ahead as the Panthers play the Falcons twice in their last three games.

-Marcus Mariota, QB - Scottish Rebels - 35 pts - The play of the day was Mariota scrambling 87 yards for a touchdown.  Pretty cool when the fastest guy on the field is a quarterback.

-Russell Wilson, QB - Joe's Pats – 33 pts – Wilson is on an absolute tear!  This is two weeks in a row that he has exceeded 30 points, and he has moved up the rankings to #7 among all quarterbacks.

-Blake Bortles, QB - sprouts - 32 pts - Give it up for Blake Bortles joining the 5-TD club!  He had a great day against Tennessee, throwing for 322 yards, zero interceptions and, yes, 5!! touchdowns!

-Philadelphia, DEF - Midnight Maulers - 30 pts - Would never have predicted this one from the Philly defense playing AT NEW ENGLAND. Here is their final stat line: 4 sacks, 2 interceptions, 2 TD's, 1 blocked kick, plus 1 return TD! Amazing...

-Antonio Brown, WR - Scottish Rebels - 30 pts - Brown caught two TD passes, and ran back a punt for a TD to nearly match his best point total of the season. (He had 31 points in Week 9). With this week's game, Brown is now the #1 ranked wide receiver in fantasy.

-Tom Brady, QB - Bubble Craps Bandits - 30 pts - Pretty good that the Patriots can play their worst game of the season, yet Tom Brady still posts 30 points. He really is the Golden Boy. Timmy-lf you have Chris Drumm's contact info let him know that he is no longer the Golden Boy. Brady is always and forever, the Golden Boy.


MEH...
-Kyle Rudolph, TE - Coors Light Drunk Guys - 1 pt - Not much opportunity for anything as the Seahawks defense dominated the Vikings. Rudolph managed to catch 3 balls for just 13 yards.

-Emmanuel Sanders, WR - Vandelay lndustries - 1 pt - Sanders has shown flashes of brilliance (Week 2 - 20 pts), and flashes of not-much (like this week). Brock Osweiller is no Peyton Manning, but hey, maybe that will be a good thing.

-Adrian Peterson, RB - Joe's Pats - 1 pt - AP only carried the ball 8 times, and gained only 18 yards against the Seahawks. This from a guy who had scored 32 points the week before, and 30 points in Week 10. Maybe he was right when he said that the Vikings got outcoached in "so many ways". What were the coaches thinking? Eight carries?!

-Alfred Morris, RB - Vandelay lndustries - 1 pt - Morris has been a huge bust this season. He has only scored 10 or more points twice (12 pts in Week 2 and 10 pts in Week 10) and currently ranks as the 55th runningback. He got benched on MNF, which the coaches said was "game flow related".  That is coach-speak for "this guy sucks".

-Blair Walsh, K - sprouts- 1 pt - Ah kickers...

-Cairo Santos, K - Bubble Craps Bandits - 1 pt - Why must you be like this?

-Eddie Lacy, RB - nextyearautodraft - 0 pts - Eddie missed a team curfew the night before the Packers' game, so he didn't get to play much.

-Jarvis Landry, WR - American BadAss - 0 pts - Landry only caught 2 passes for 5 yards. Maybe he was out partying the night before with Lacy.

-Houston, DEF - Vandelay lndustries - 0 pts - After four respectable games (14.25 ppg average), the Texans reverted to their early-season ways with this dud. The only thing that saved them from negative points this week was that they managed to record one lonely sack. Yuck.

DEFENSE (clap clap) DEFENSE (clap clap)
My early season prediction about defenses is proving to be a bit too pessimistic.  My prediction was that only 2 or 3 of the top ranked defenses in the preseason would finish the year as top ranked defenses.  Here is how the top 10 preseason defenses ranked for Week 13:

			OVERALL
Rank	Defense/Special Teams	Week 13	RANK
1	Seattle Sea - DEF	Rk #10 - 11 pts	2
2	Buffalo Buf - DEF	Rk #24 - 6 pts	23
3	Houston Hou - DEF	Rk #31 - 0 pts	19
4	Philadelphia Phi - DEF	Rk #1 - 30 pts	8
5	St. Louis StL - DEF	Rk #26 - 5 pts	10
6	Arizona Ari - DEF	Rk #14 - 9 pts	5
7	New England NE - DEF	Rk #29 - 3 pts	17
8	Baltimore Bal - DEF	Rk #17 - 8 pts	15
9	Green Bay GB - DEF	Rk #22 - 6 pts	18
10	Kansas City KC - DEF	Rk #4 - 18 pts	3

The Seahawks continue to be a strong defense, currently ranked #2 overall, as well as the Chiefs (#3 overall), the Cardinals (#5 overall), the Eagles (#8 overall) and the Rams (#10 overall).  So basically half of the top 10 teams from the preseason are in the top 10 now.

This pic highlights the best thing to come out of the Browns season.

WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?
Okay, I know I said that the Browns update from a couple weeks ago would be the last, but I decided to go ahead and see how they finished out the regular season. The Browns are not a playoff team, fantasy-wise or in reality, so this will definitely be the final time we check in on them.

Here is how they did in Week 13:

Austin Davis Cle - QB	5
Isaiah Crowell Cle - RB	6
Duke Johnson Jr. Cle - RB	3
Brian Hartline Cle - WR	8
Darius Jennings Cle - WR	5
Gary Barnidge Cle - TE	5
Travis Coons Cle - K	4
Cleveland Cle - DEF	-1
Total	35

Week 13 was their lowest point total of the season, even including last week when there was only one Browns runningback to score any points.  Alas, the Browns finish the regular season having scored only 784 total points.  That is well below any team in our league this season.  Cleveland Browns – You are not very good at fantasy football.


BEST BENCH
There are some weeks when I am calculating the Best Bench where it just puts a smile on my face.  This is one of those weeks.  First let me tell you that if the winner of the Best Bench this week had put in their optimal lineup, they would have finished with 172 points.  The record for maximum optimal points is held by the Coors Light Drunk Guys, who last season in Week 8 could have scored 190 points (102 points scored with 88 points on the bench).  The record for Best Bench improvement is held by sprouts who had an 89-point improvement possibility in Week 2 of 2009.  This week’s winner came close to that with an 86-point improvement possibility!!  Without further adieu, the Week 13 Best Bench goes to…the Midnight Maulers!

Jamie needed five roster moves to double, yes I said double, his point total from 86 to 172… A. Robinson for A. Jeffery (+28), B. Roethlisberger for M. Stafford (+20), Eagles for Buccaneers (+23), F. Gore for C. Ivory (+10), D. Walker for G. Olsen (+5).


Nothing left now except the PLAYOFFS!!!!!