Only one week left of the regular season, and we still cannot name either a Northern or Southern division champion. Plus only five of six playoff spots are settled, so there is still a lot up for grabs going into the final week of the regular season. Gotta love it! Full divisional and wildcard scenarios are listed out below.
But first the big congratulations go out this week to Joe's Pats for posting the 2nd highest score of the season, 134 points, and for being the first team to claim a third Weekly High Score Prize! Joe had great games from Russell Wilson (34 pts), Adrian Peterson (32 pts) and Brandon Marshall (25 pts). Not bad when the point total from just three of your players (91 pts) outscores all but two teams in the league. Well done sir!! By claiming his third Weekly High Score Prize, Joe is now 'in the money' for this season. Speaking of money, here is a reminder of the prize payouts for this season: Champion - $225, Runner-up - $113, 3rd Place - $67, 4th Place - $45, Weekly High Score Prizes - $50/week. As always, remember that the Weekly High Score Prizes continue through the playoffs and all teams are eligible to win.
Just a quick update this week so let's get to it!
BIG TIME
-Russell Wilson, QB -Joe's Pats - 34 pts - Russell poured it on the Steelers this week, finishing with 345 passing yards and a career-best 5 touchdown passes! He has scored 59 points over the last two weeks, and faces a weak Minnesota secondary this week. Can you say 'must start'?
-Matthew Stafford, QB - Midnight Maulers - 34 pts - Stafford had his best game of the season, and like Wilson, he also had a 5-touchdown game! His came against the floundering Eagles, where he finished with 337 passing yards.
-Doug Baldwin, WR - Free Agent - 32 pts - Coming into this game, Baldwin had only scored in double digits twice this season… in Week 2 and Week 10. He went above and beyond that in this game, hauling in 3 touchdown catches and racking up 145 yards.
-Adrian Peterson, RB - Joe's Pats - 32 pts - Don't look now, but AP is starting to look like AP... He has scored over 30 points twice in the last 3 weeks, and is averaging 22.5 ppg over the last four weeks. Tough tests await him in the next two weeks with Seattle and Arizona coming up.
-Sammy Watkins, WR - Scottish Rebels - 30 pts - Watkins is what you would call a bit 'streaky'. He scored 25 points three weeks ago versus Miami, then scored 1 point against the Jets, then 3 against New England and now 30! Based on that progression, Week 15 should be a big one!!
-Markus Wheaton, WR - Free Agent - 29 pts - Only once this season prior to this week has Wheaton scored in double digits (13 points in Week 5). Five times he has scored only 1 point, and three times he has been held to zero. Have to say he outperformed a little bit this week finishing with 201 yards and a touchdown.
-Ryan Fitzpatrick, QB - Free Agent - 29 pts - Four touchdown passes from Fitzy to go along with 277 passing yards and no interceptions. That'll get it done.
WHAT IN THE HEY?
-Pittsburgh, DEF - American BadAss - 2 pts - The Steelers' only productivity came in the form of 2 sacks and a blocked kick. They didn't do much else as they allowed the Seahawks to score 39 points, giving up 5 passing touchdowns in the process.
-Dez Bryant, WR – sprouts - 2pts – Bryant was a non-factor on Thanksgiving and only caught 2 of the passes thrown his way. And now with Romo out…well, don’t expect Dez to suddenly get better.
-LeGarrette Blount, RB - Bubble Craps Bandits - 2 pts - Blount didn't get many chances (9 carries), and didn't do much with them (27 yards). His success comes when he gets in the endzone, but he's only done that twice in his last six games.
-Lamar Miller, RB – Z German Overlords – 1 pt – Miller rushed five times for just 2 yards, and caught three passes for just 11 yards. That is a textbook definition of “non-factor”.
-Philadelphia, DEF - Midnight Maulers - -2 pts - Detroit made Philadelphia just look stupid on Thanksgiving. Philly's final stat line = 2 sacks, 0 Int, 0 Fum Rec, 0 Blk Kick, 0 Safety and 45 points allowed.
PLAYOFFS?! DON'T TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS!!
There is only one game left of the regular season and here is where we stand. Neither division is a runaway...both division titles (with the accompanying first round byes) are up for grabs. Five teams have already clinched a playoff spot: Coors Light Drunk Guys, Bubble Craps Bandits, Joe's Pats, Midnight Maulers and Scottish Rebels, and two teams are battling for the final wildcard spot: American BadAss and SofaKingLucky.
North Division - The Coors Light Drunk Guys can claim the Northern crown by either winning their game against the Scottish Rebels, or by Z German Overlords defeating Joe's Pats. If Joe's Pats win and the Coors Light Drunk Guys lose, Joe's Pats will win the crown by virtue of having one fewer loss. My Scottish Rebels can still finish 2nd in the division by winning the final game and having Z German Overlords defeat Joe's Pats.
South Division - The Division champ will be determined in the head-to-head match-up between the Bubble Craps Bandits and the Midnight Maulers. If the game happens to end in a tie, the Bubble Craps Bandits will take the top spot by virtue of having one fewer loss.
Wild Cards - One of the wildcard spots will go to either my Scottish Rebels or Joe's Pats depending on how the North Division finishes out. The other wildcard spot will be settled by the head-to-head matchup between American BadAss and SofaKingLucky. BadAss has the upper hand in this one, wherein if the game finishes in a tie, they will qualify for the playoffs. Z German Overlords have been eliminated from playoff contention, because even if they win their game and end up tied with American BadAss or SofaKinglucky, both of those teams hold the head-to-head tiebreaker versus the Overlords.
As I mentioned last week, Yahoo! uses different tiebreakers for playoff qualification and seeding, so whatever shows up on the website might not be completely accurate. At the conclusion of the Week 13 games, I will send out an email listing out the playoff seeds and matchups.
FLIP IT, FLIP IT FOR REAL
For the past 8 years I have been involved in this NFL pool where participants try to pick the winners of the games each week. The spreads in each game do not matter...only the winning team. In Week 1 my picks were superb, picking 13 of 16 games correctly and finishing just 1 game behind the winner that week. Since then it has gone bad. Real, real bad.
My overall record has fallen to 91-85 which is 26 games behind the leader. Just a horrendous record, especially considering how much football I watch.
But here's where I may have some hope... Because I am so far out of contention, I’m trying any method I can think of for picking games - picking all home teams, letting Wyatt pick, Magic 8-ball, etc. This last week I borrowed a coin from a buddy at work and let that do my picking. For each game I designated the home team as heads and the visiting team as tails, and whichever way it came up was the team I picked to win.
For Thanksgiving Day games, this method was 0-3. For Sunday morning games, this method was 0-9. For Sunday afternoon games, this method was 0-2. It wasn't until the Sunday night game, when the Broncos beat the Patriots, that this method got me my first correct pick. (And honestly the Patriots should have won that game...) On Monday night, the coin's pick was Baltimore, which was correct, but just barely. Alas, the coin's final record was 2-14.
Not a good record, but what if I just misinterpreted the information that the coin was giving me? Maybe the coin was picking the losers instead of the winners? If I had just switched that around, I would have finished the week 14-2 and would have won the week!
So guess what my method is going to be for this week? Oh yeah, you know it! The coin is still sitting in my desk drawer at work and on Wednesday I will use it to tell me which teams are going to lose the games, and will make my selections accordingly. Check back here next week for the results...
BEST BENCH
Going into this week there had been 6 different teams that have either won or tied for a Best Bench. The teams that have not carried this dubious distinction are: Z German Overlords, Bubble Crap Bandits, Vandelay Industries, and my Scottish Rebels. Well, that list shrinks by one this week as the Best Bench goes to... my Scottish Rebels.
My bench tied for the 3rd highest Best Bench total this season! With four roster moves, my point total would have improved by 52 points!... S. Watkins for A. Brown (+25 pts), S. Ware for D. Murray (+14 pts), J. Allen for C. Johnson (+12 pts) and M. Mariota for C. Newton (+1 pt).
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