A Championship Matchup Revisited

What a topsy turvy season!  In a year where we’ve seen crazy high team scores (158 from American BadAss in Week 10, 129 from Young Guns in Week 12), and a week where 6 teams score over 100 (Week 6), we go and have a week like this… only one team scored better than 80, and two teams didn’t even break 40!  The bottom 9 scoring teams averaged a paltry 64.5 points and all 10 teams scored only 691 total points which ranks as the 3rd lowest single week total in Sacred Sunday history.  But it wasn’t because of a bunch of injured or bench players still on active rosters…there were just not many points to be had.  For the NFL, Week 15 had the 2nd fewest fantasy points this season (2,056), behind only Week 9’s 1,972 points.  But Week 9 had six teams on byes!  There were zero teams on bye this last week.  If you look at total points for weeks with all 32 teams in action (Weeks 1, 2, 3, 13 & 14), the average coming into the week was 2,433 (~76 points per team), and the lowest score was Week 14 with 2,315 (~72 points per team).  Week 15 was miles behind those figures at only 64 points per team!  The most points scored in any week was 2,647 in Week 4 at that was even with two teams on bye.  Dang.  Week 15?  Oh no, try Weak 15!

The one respectable squad this week, and the recipient of this week’s big congratulations is Joe’s Pats!  Joe had huge games from DeAndre Hopkins (32), Marlon Mack (24) and Todd Gurley (23) en route to 110 points!  That easily took care of Longshanks, moving Joe’s Pats to the championship game for the second year in a row.  This marks Joe’s league-leading 5th Weekly High Score Prize this season, one shy of the record six he set last season.  Well done senor!

In the other semi-final game, Attack of Mahomes edged out Young Guns.  Alshon Jeffrey was the difference, scoring 19 points, and leading Attack of Mahomes to a 79-67 victory.  This puts Timmy back in the championship game for the second year in a row as well!  Nice work Tim-may!! 
The Yahoo! prediction right now has Joe’s Pats as a 101-90 favorite, so that should make for a close game.  If Joe wins, it will be only the second time there has been a repeat champion of Sacred Sundays.  If Timmy wins, it will be the first time a team wins the championship having not won a Weekly High Score Prize leading up to it.  Joe is going for his third title, Timmy going for his second.  Best of luck to both of you!

Just a reminder that all teams are still eligible to win the Weekly High Score Prize, so make sure you have your lineup set.  Recap on winnings: High Scores are worth $50, 4th place = $45, 3rd place = $67, 2nd place = $113 and 1st place = $225.  In the Championship game, in the event of a tie the following tiebreakers 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. If still tied at that point, Co-Champions will be declared.

My apologies for lack of recap last week… not sure what it is with me and water in this house, but I had another ‘incident’.  At about 4 a.m. Monday morning (last week) I got out of bed to check on a sound I thought was the ice maker.  There was a knocking and grinding sound which I attributed to our p.o.s. ice machine, but it just kept going and going, so I finally climbed out of bed to shut it off.  When I got into my kitchen, I realized the sound was not coming from the fridge but from the fish tank.  I thought, huh?..that's weird, why is the fish tank glass foggy?  And why IS THERE ONLY AN INCH OF WATER?!  OH MY F.  Apparently at some point after we had gone to bed the tank started leaking, nearly emptying itself out, and the noise was the filter running dry, rattling on the edge of the tank.  Somehow the fish were still alive, sort of flopping around in the little bit of water left, so my wife and I spent the next 45 minutes saving fish and cleaning up water.  By Tuesday the same company that had cleaned up and dried out my bathroom debacle came out to deal with my latest mess.  They had to remove approx. 4 square feet of flooring and subfloor and run fans and a dehumidifier for two and a half days, both in my kitchen and under my house.  This fish tank was only 10 gallons, but somehow it caused $846 worth of damage!  You believe that shieznits?!  F me! But in any event, this thing and two fans were running right next to my computer desk at a decibel level somewhere between "lawn mower" and "chain saw".

This picture is a lot quieter than the real thing.

Not the most conducive blog-posting atmosphere.  By Friday I had replaced the subfloor and I finished the flooring on Saturday.  Happy to report every single fish lived through the ordeal.  And because we are just idiots or just gluttons for punishment, we went with a 15 gallon tank as a replacement.  Yeah, what are we thinking right?  But this time I bought a $12 water sensor from Home Depot that will start squawking if it detects as much as 1/32” of an inch of water.  I hope I never have to hear it.

BEST BENCH
Wouldn’t be able to finish the write up this week without the Best Bench, and it’s a good one.  Going back to Week 14, there were two players who posted massive numbers—Derrick Henry 50 pts & Amari Cooper 42 pts—and both were on teams' benches.  Not the same bench…woah, that would’ve been even more amazing.  But if you take those two players as the starting point, you knew we would see a big number, and boy did we ever!  The winning team logged a season-high 66 point improvement possibility!  Now, if you’ve been keeping tabs on the Best Bench this season, you probably already know who it’s gonna be… that’s right, one more time for American BadAss!!  For his fourth Best Bench this year, Jason needed a big 5 player swap to get there:  A. Cooper for B. Cooks +40, C. Carson for D. Johnson +10, Seattle for Pittsburgh +9, W. Lutz for K. Fairbairn +5 (still with the two kickers...), and M. Ryan for J. Winston +2.

Week 15 was low scoring, as mentioned earlier, so there were not a whole lot of points to be found on the benches.  But one team still had a solid 49 point improvement possibility.  Collecting a 2nd Best Bench award, the Week 15 crown goes to… Young Guns!  John needed to swap four players:  M. Williams for A. Thielen +27, K. Gollady for J. Smith-Schuster +10, J. Howard for S. Barkley +8, and Miami for NYG +4.

It all comes down to this!  The Championship game!  This week's Monday Night game is Denver @ Oakland, which will have no bearing on Attack of Mahomes or Joe's Pats, so we will be crowning a champion on Sunday night.  Can't wait!!

Oh yeah, and hope Santa brings you everything you ask for...

The seeds are set...let the playoffs begin!

After all the scenarios and what-ifs, it came down to wins from Young Guns, Team I.R. & Holdout, and Longshanks!  In a win-to-get-in scenario, those three teams came through in the clutch!  Young Guns breezed to a 30 point win, Team I.R. & Holdout won by 8, and in an emphatic victory, my Longshanks boys posted a 47 point victory to punch a ticket to the playoffs!  It was a blessing in disguise to have Melvin Gordon out with an injury as Philip Lindsay filled in and went crazy for 30 points.  Plus Christian McCaffrey added 21 and Russell Wilson racked up 24 giving me 119 points, 1 single solitary point more than Attack of Mahomes!  This was the first time this season I've claimed a high score prize, and amazingly through 13 weeks the "J" streak has stayed alive.    

Here are a couple tidbits from this week:  

- Attack of Mahomes enters the playoffs as the #1 overall seed, by virtue of having the best record at 9-4, yet has not had a weekly high score.  

-Joe's Pats came into the week red hot, averaging 103.5 points per week, yet barely scored half that with a 56 point performance.

-sprouts finishes as the 5^th highest scoring team, with 1,222 points scored, yet misses the playoffs by one spot. 

So lets get to the playoffs, here is how the seeding breaks down:

#1 – Attack of Mahomes – Timmy (9-4)

                North Division Champion, best record overall.

#2 – Joe’s Pats – Joe (8-5)

                South Division Champion, best record in South Division.

#3 – American BadAss – Jason (7-6)

                South Division Runner-up, Division record of 5-2.

#4 – Team I.R. & Holdout – James (7-6)

                North Division Runner-up, Division record of 4-3.

#5 – Young Guns – John (7-6)

1^st Wildcard team, Head-to-head victory over Longshanks.

#6 – Longshanks – Jerry (7-6)

                2^nd Wildcard team.

Yahoo! has finally enabled playoff seeding, so the site has been adjusted to reflect these seedings.  Attack of Mahomes and Joe’s Pats have 1^st round byes, and matchups will pit American BadAss versus Longshanks and Team I.R. & Holdout versus Young Guns.  (Playoff game note - in the case of a tie game, the winner will be the higher seeded team.)

All teams remain eligible to win the Weekly High Score Prize.  The remaining standings are as follows:

#7 – sprouts – Russ (6-7) – Points scored 1,222.

#8 – Vandelay Industries – Rob (6-7) – Better record.

#9 – Big Sack – Jens (4-9) – Points scored 1,000.

#10 – Coors Light Drunk Guys – Shawn

These standings will determine the draft order for next year, so Shawn Martin, you are on the clock!  Labor Day Weekend!  Mark your calendars.

Back in Week 5 I made my annual playoff predictions, and I'm pleased to report I was correct on 5 of 6.  Long ago on October 10th, the teams predicted to make the playoffs were: Joe's Pats, American BadAss, Young Guns, Team I.R. & Holdout, sprouts and Attack of Mahomes.  So I only missed on sprouts... not bad.  I'll see if I can make it 6 for 6 next year!

Lastly, I leave you with this week's Best Bench, which is a special one because it is a league-leading THIRD time this team has won Best Bench this season.  With a solid 32-point improvement possibility, the Week 13 Best Bench goes to… American BadAss!!  Jason needed four roster moves to make it happen:  K. Fairbairn for W. Lutz +17 (serves you right for having two kickers on your team!), R. Woods for T. Hill +9, K. Rudolph for M. Lacosse (+3) and C. Carson for D. Johnson (+3).  

Now is the time to shine!  Playoffs baby!!

Yoohoo! One week until the playoffs!

Crazy week!  In a weird timing of matchups, the six highest scoring teams ended up matched up with each other across three games, while the bottom four teams faced off in the other two games.  This resulted in two winning teams with point totals of just 79 and 75 points.  Meanwhile, Joe’s Pats lost after scoring 98, Attack of Mahomes lost with 102 points and sprouts lost in spite of scoring 111!  In the last two weeks, sprouts has lost with scores of 100 and 111… brutal!  Scoring over 100 points has normally carried with it a fairly certain victory, but not so this season.  This year currently sports the lowest winning percentage for teams scoring over 100 points since 2007 (the first year I started tracking this).  Factoring in all years, including 2018, teams scoring over 100 have won 87.3% of the time.  (Coming into 2018, the winning percentage was 88.6%).  The best year was 2008 which saw 100% of teams scoring over 100 win, and the previous worst season was 2012, which had only 83.3% of 100-pt teams win.  This season, though, the win percentage for teams scoring over 100 is currently at only 76.7%!  Nearly 25% of teams scoring over 100 points have lost their game this year.  That is just crazy!!   The official record this season is 33-10, which ties 2011 for the most scores in excess of 100 in a season (43). 

Scoring has been huge this season, as we are on pace to destroy the record for most points scored in a season.  2011 holds the record as the highest scoring season when there were 14,166 points scored.  This works out to a weekly average of 885.4 points.  This season, through 12 weeks we have scored 10,937 points for a weekly average of 911.4 points!  At our current rate, we are on track to score 14,582 total points!  The lowest scoring season was 2009 which only saw 11,066 points scored… we’ll pass that milestone by the upcoming Thursday night game.

Speaking of big scores, the big congratulations this week go to Young Guns, who countered a pathetic 1-point performance from Jordan Howard by having 3 players score over 26 points!  Saquon Barkley (26 pts), JuJu Smith-Schuster (27 pts) and Deshaun Watson (29 pts) came through big time and led the Young Guns to an impressive 129 points!  This is the 2^nd highest single week score this season, and is John’s second Weekly High Score Prize!  Well done sir!

 In the playoff race, two more items became known…

1) American BadAss is in, joining Attack of Mahomes and Joe’s Pats.  

2) Big Sack is out, joining the Coors Light Drunk Guys.  WHAT DO YOU KNOW?! 

The remaining five teams are still alive.  Team IR & Holdout, Longshanks, Vandelay Industries and Young Guns are all in control of their own fate—win in Week 13 and they will make it in.  sprouts needs to win and have losses from Team IR & Holdout or Young Guns to force some tie-breakers.

Now, there are two scenarios where we could end up with the 5^th, 6^th, 7^th & 8^th ranked teams with records of 6-7.  (In Scenario A teams tied at 6-7 would be Team IR, sprouts, Vandelay and Young Guns, and in Scenario B teams tied at 6-7 would be Team IR, spouts, Longshanks and Young Guns).  This would trigger a whole series of tie-breakers to figure out who gets in.  I honestly started working on figuring it all out, and yeah, let’s just say we will cross that bridge if we get there.

As a reminder, here are the tie-breakers we will use:

Divisional standing ranking

Overall record

Division record

Head-to-head record

Points scored

Coin flip

Wildcard standing ranking/tiebreakers

Overall record

Head-to-head record

Points scored

Coin flip

Yahoo! doesn’t exactly follow these tie-breakers, so I will send out an email on Monday night with the official playoff seeding.  Good luck to everyone!

BEST BENCH

No week is complete without awarding the Best Bench, and this week we have a good one!  Not good in the sense of the point improvement but in the sense of the number of players involved.  This week’s winner could’ve swapped five (yes FIVE!) players to improve their point total by 37 points.  Collecting his second Best Bench this season, Week 12 goes to… Big Sack!  Here is the laundry list of player swaps:  S. Michel for M. Ingram +14, M. Mariota for A. Rodgers +11, D. Cook for J. White +5, J. Reed for A. Hooper +4 and D. Thomas for D. Adams +3.

Are we seriously only one week away from the playoffs?!  Let’s do this!!

Make it two in a row for BadAss (again!)

Monday night was insane!  Chiefs @ Rams went in with an over-under line of 63 which at the time seemed like a big number to beat.  I think they might’ve passed that by midway through the 2nd quarter!  They ended up beating the line by 42 points (54-51 final score), which is, ironically, the over-under line you’d expect to see on a normal game.  There were 14 touchdowns, 56 first downs and an incredible 291 fantasy points scored between the two teams.  This was more like an NFL Blitz game (“Nice catch Tony!!”) than an NFL game!

For the second week in a row, the big congratulations go to American BadAss, who was a big beneficiary of the aforementioned Blitz game, as he had Tyreek Hill and Brandin Cooks both playing.  Hill went crazy with 36 points, while Cooks added 10, and Jason also got solid performance from his runningbacks (Elliott 25 pts and Johnson 14 pts) to finish with 121 points!  This marks Jason’s 4th Weekly High Score Prize this season, and the 2nd time he’s won back-to-back weeks.  Nice work bro!

So the big question on everyone’s mind this week has to be, ‘Am I going to make it into the playoffs’?  Short answer… not likely (Shawn only).  For the rest of you, it may be a bit more complicated, but I’ve got it all worked out below.  So without further ado, let’s get to it!!


BIG TIME

• Patrick Mahomes, QB – Attack of Mahomes – 38 pts – It’s not often you’ll see a guy commit 5 turnovers and still lead all fantasy scorers that week.  In fact, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say this is the first time ever.  Mahomes got there by throwing an incredible 6 TD’s to go along with 478 passing yards, and 28 rushing yards.  He is far and away the highest scoring player this season having scored 47 more points than the next closest player.
• Jared Goff, QB – Joe’s Pats – 37 pts – Speaking of which, here is your 2nd highest scoring player in fantasy.  Goff had an amazing day as well, going for 413 yards and 4 TD’s through the air, plus he added a rushing TD.
• Tyreek Hill, WR – American BadAss – 36 pts – Hill was a major part of the shootout between the Chiefs and the Rams, catching 10 passes for 215 yards and 2 TD’s.  Third time this season Hill has scored over 30 points.
• Saquon Barkley, RB – Young Guns – 33 pts – Barkley’s best game of the season (142 yards and 2 TD’s) puts him in a tie for 4th highest scoring running back.
• Drew Brees, QB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 33 pts – If Mahomes wasn’t just destroying the NFL the way he is, there would be a lot more talk about Brees.  This was his third game over 30 points this year, and over the last 3 games, he is averaging 30.3 points per game.  That's just crazy!
• TY Hilton, WR – Joe’s Pats – 30 pts – Finally a breakout game for Tyrone’s Youngin’, hauling in 9 catches for 155 yards and 2 TD’s.

COME ON MAN

• Carson Wentz, QB – Longshanks – 0 pts – What in the flippin’ hell?  Wentz comes into the game averaging 21.4 ppg, and proceeds to throw 3 picks, 0 TD’s and only 153 yards.  Eat a damn dick.
• Dalvin Cook, RB – Big Sack – -1 pt – Jensy’s first round pick not living up to the hype.  Twelve yards and a lost fumble were all he could manage in this one.
• Tennessee, DEF – sprouts – -4 pts – The Titans only defensive stat… 35+ pts allowed.  Negative four points is the lowest single-week score so far this season, so there’s that.
• Graham Gano, K – Vandelay Industries – 0 pts – 1 PAT made, 1 PAT miss.  Yin and yang.
• Coors Light Drunk Guys – Four players scored zero points (Latavius Murray, Chris Thompson, Trey Burton and Stephen Gostkowski).  Come on Shawn, you're smarter than this!

HAIL TO THE CHIEFS!
All season I’ve been tracking weekly scoring by NFL team.  This week saw some crazy point totals.  A complete Colts roster would have scored 109 points…a complete Rams roster would have scored 122 points…a complete Saints roster would have scored 137 points… but none were better than a full Chiefs roster.  Check this out:
    QB Patrick Mahomes - 38
    WR Tyreek Hill - 36
    WR Chris Conley - 19
    RB Kareem Hunt - 17
    TE Travis Kelce - 18
    DEF Kansas City - 15
     K Harrison Butker - 8
Total                 151
That’s 151 points, plus you would still have an open roster spot for one more runningback!  All hail the Chiefs!


PLAYOFFS?!  DON’T TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS!
Two more regular season games to go and then it’s PLAYOFF time!  At this point, teams fall into one of five categories:  Already In, 1 Win & In, 2 Wins & In, 2 Wins & Some Help, and Eliminated.  Remarkably, with only 2 weeks to go, 9 teams are still in contention to make it into the playoffs.  Here are the categories and some additional scenarios.

Already In

• Joe’s Pats
• Attack of Mahomes

1 Win & In

• Vandelay Industries – Win 1 game.  Or, 2 losses plus 2 losses from American BadAss and 2 losses from sprouts.
• American BadAss – Win 1 game.  Or, 2 losses plus 2 losses from Vandelay Industries and 2 losses from sprouts.

2 Wins & In 

• Team I.R. & Holdout – Win 2 games.  Or, Win 1 game plus 2 losses from Vandelay Industries, 2 losses from Young Guns, and 1 loss from sprouts (will still come down to tie-breakers).
• Longshanks – Win 2 games.  Or, Win 1 game plus 2 losses from Team I.R. & Holdout and 2 losses from Young Guns.
• sprouts – Win 2 games.  Or, Win 1 game plus 2 losses from Team I.R. & Holdout and 2 losses from Young Guns.
• Young Guns – Win 2 games.  Or, Win 1 game plus 2 losses from Team I.R. & Holdout and 2 losses from sprouts.

2 Wins & Some Help

• Big Sack – Win 2 games, plus 2 losses from Team I.R. & Holdout, 2 losses from Longshanks and 2 losses from sprouts.

Mathematically Eliminated

• Coors Light Drunk Guys – No path to the playoffs exists.

As always, the above scenarios may not represent the only way for teams to get in, just one of the possible ways.  And there still may be some tiebreakers that come into effect.  The key games to watch this week are 'Team I.R. & Holdout vs. Vandelay Industries' and 'sprouts vs. Young Guns'.  The outcomes of those games will have a big impact on who gets in.


WHY IS ENGLISH SO WEIRD?
So these four words don’t rhyme:
   Cough
   Rough
   Though
   Through
But these two do:
   Pony
   Bologna
Uh…what?


BEST BENCH
Not a lot of points left idle this week, as this week’s Best Bench tied for the 3rd lowest Best Bench total this year.  Claiming a second Best Bench of the season, Week 11 goes to… Longshanks!  Yep, I needed just two roster moves to improve my point total by 28 points:  R. Wilson for C. Wentz +17 and P. Lindsay for C. McCaffrey +11.

Get those waivers in and get set for Week 12!  Last week of byes!

Record Setter

Now I don’t mean to alarm anyone, but there are literally only 3 weeks left of the regular season, which means we are only 4 weeks away from the start of the playoffs and only 7 short weeks away from crowning a champion!  Good lord this season is flying by!  Flying by so fast, in fact, that I haven’t finished a write-up in three weeks.  (There are two half-started Word docs saved on my computer...d'oh!)  So we’ve got a lot to get to this week.

Weeks 7, 8 and 9 belonged to Joe’s Pats with scores of 127, 114 and 121 claiming all three weeks in a row, bringing Joe’s total number of Weekly High Score Prizes to four!  Pulling off a triplet and winning three weeks in a row is a feat which has been only accomplished three previous times since 2010.  Here’s a couple throwbacks for you:  Jensy’s “Boom Goes The Dynamite” did it back in 2012 (Weeks 13, 14 & 15), Timmy’s “Ch. 4 News Team” did it in 2013 (Weeks 2, 3 & 4), and Joe also did it last season (Weeks 14, 15 & 16).  Nice work Joe!

In Week 10 we had two record-setting performances… sprouts had a phenomenal game with six players scoring in excess of 13 points, led by Nick Chubb’s 35 points, and finished with 138 points.  But not to be outdone, American BadAss had a game for the ages with seven players scoring in excess of 17 points (four of those greater than 20!), led by Ezekiel Elliott’s 33 points, and finished with 158 points!  The 158 points by BadAss is the highest single-week score in Sacred Sundays history, breaking the 150 point record held by the Midnight Maulers since Week 4, 2016.  Why did I bring up sprouts score?  Well the 138 points scored by Russ is the highest score ever to not win a Weekly High Score Prize.  Fortunately, sprouts and BadAss were not playing head-to-head because to lose when scoring 138 would be a tough one to swallow.  Well done bro, and nice game as well Russ! 

As mentioned earlier, we have only three weeks left of the regular season, so it’s time to start talking about playoff scenarios.  More on that below…. So let’s do this!!

BIG TIME BABY!

• Mitchell Trubisky, QB – sprouts – 38 pts – Trubisky threw for 355 yards and 3 TD’s, plus added a rushing TD, plus added a 2-pt conversion.  This is the second time this season Trubisky has led all scorers in a week, and he still owns the highest single-game score of this season with his 46 point performance in Week4.
• Ben Roethlisberger, QB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 35 pts – Big Ben is still getting it done, and currently ranks as the 4th highest scoring QB in fantasy.
• Nick Chubb, RB – sprouts – 35 pts – Quite the breakout game for Chubb, going for 176 yards on the ground, plus 33 yards through the air (over 200 yards of offense), plus added 2 TD’s. 
• Ezekiel Elliott, RB – American BadAss – 33 pts – Keep on feeding him!  151 yards on the ground and a TD, plus 33 yards receiving and a TD.  That’ll work.
• Christian McCaffrey, RB – Longshanks – 31 pts – Through his first six games, McCaffrey was averaging only 11.5 points per game.  In his last three, he’s averaging 24.7, with point totals of 17, 26 and 31.  Using Excel’s trending, he should score 39 points this week and 46 points in Week 12!  Bring it on!

COME ON MAN!

• Coors Light Drunk Guys – Starters included two players on byes (Latavius Murray and Houston Def) and one player on inactive list (Chris Thompson).  Set your roster Shawn!!  Come on man!
• David Njoku, TE – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 1 pt – Then you have your tight end only score 1 pt!  How did you only lose by 4 points??!
• OJ Howard, TE – Joe’s Pats – 1 pt – To his credit, he caught every ball thrown his way.  Unfortunately, that was 1 catch for 15 yards.
• Cody Parkey, K – Beats Shawn-not off! – 0 pts – Here’s a great stat line for a kicker:  2 PAT made, 2 PAT missed.  Wow.
• Jimmy Graham, TE – Young Guns – 1 pt – Another 1-for-1 guy… caught the only ball thrown to him for a meager 14 yards.
• New York Jets, DEF – Young Guns – 0 pts – In what looked like a sweet matchup for the Jets, playing at home against Buffalo, they got lit up for 41 points and managed only 1 sack on the day.

PLAYOFFS?!  DON’T TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS!
Before we get into any scenario discussion, a quick refresher on the playoff rules: 
Six teams qualify for the playoffs:  Top two teams in each division automatically qualify.  The next two highest ranked teams receive Wildcards.  (The top team in each division receives a first round bye.) 
Wildcards are not division specific…both can come from the same division.
For divisional rankings, the following criteria will be used (in order): Overall record, Division record, Head-to-head record, Points scored, Coin flip.
For Wildcard rankings, the following criteria will be used (in order): Overall record, Head-to-head record, Points scored, Coin flip.

During the playoffs, all teams are still eligible to win the Weekly High Score Prize.   The final standings at the end of the regular season determine team standings for 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th place.

Finally, in playoff matchups there are no tie games.  Ties in any game prior to the Championship Game will automatically go to the higher seeded team.  If there is a tie in the Championship game, the following tie-breakers will be used (in order): team with highest scoring QB, team with highest scoring RB, team with highest scoring WR, Co-champions if still tied.

Now onto this season.  The standings are remarkably tight and remarkably similar to last season.  Last season going into Week 11 there were two 7 win teams and one 3 win team.  This season we again have two 7 win teams and two 3 win teams.  Last season, among the playoff qualifying teams, three had only 7 wins and one had only 6 wins.  This means any team who can get to 8 wins will assure themselves of a playoff spot, so 8 wins is the goal at this point.  There are seven teams with the potential to make it to eight wins (Attack of Mahomes, Joe’s Pats, Vandelay Industries, Team IR and Holdout!, Longshanks, American BadAss and sprouts).  So all of those teams are well in control of their own destiny.

Young Guns can win out to still finish with 7 wins, which I gotta think would almost definitely secure a playoff spot, and the fact that a 6 win team made it in last year means the Coors Light Drunk Guys and Beats Shawn-not off! still have a shot to make it in. 
I’m going to make a prediction right here, right now, that any team who wins out from this point will make it into the playoffs. 
Next week I’ll have full playoff scenarios for each team.

Why does Kid Rock look like Dr. Phil dressed up as Kid Rock?

WEEKLY RANDOMNESS
I think I want a job cleaning mirrors.  It’s just something I could really see myself doing.

What’s orange and sounds like a parrot.  A carrot.

Why was six afraid of seven?  Because seven was a registered six offender.

Two fish are in a tank.  One is driving and the other is operating the gun.

What’s something that’s red and bad for your teeth?  A brick.

My grandpa has the heart of a lion, and a lifetime ban from the zoo.

A horse walks into a bar.  The bartender says, “Why the long face?”  The horse replies, “My alcoholism is destroying my family.”

ALL UNWANTEDS
It has been an up and down season for the All Unwanteds, but mostly down.  It appears there was good reason we steered clear of drafting many Cardinals, Dolphins or Jets.  Their last four weekly point totals have been 66 (Week 7), 77 (Week 8), 63 (Week 9) and 57 (Week 10).  In head-to-head matchups with every team in the league across those four weeks, it adds up to 7 wins and 33 losses.  Ouch! 
But there was one bright spot I wanted to highlight… Week 6 was a magical week for the AU’s, check out this roster:
QB Brock Osweiler Mia   28
RB Frank Gore Mia          11
RB Bilal Powell NYJ        5
WR Albert Wilson Mia     30
WR Terrelle Pryor NYJ     11
TE Chris Herndon NYJ    11
 K Jason Myers NYJ       27
DEF Arizona Ari       15
Total                           138
Osweiler 28 points(!), Albert Wilson 30 points(!!) and kicker Jason Myers spinning the scoreboard for 27!!!  Go All Unwanteds!!  The 138 points scored would have defeated all teams that week (Weekly High Score was 127).


BEST BENCH(ES)
We’ve got three Best Benches to give out this week…
Week 8 saw a lot of points scored in the games and just a 36 point improvement possibility for Best Bench, which ended up going to first time recipient… Attack of Mahomes!  Timmy needed only 3 roster moves to get there:  M. Jones Jr. for A. Jeffrey +20, S. Watkins for D. Jackson +10, and K. Drake for K. Hunt +6.

In Week 9 it was one of the lower point improvement possibilities to take the crown at only 28 points.  Needing just three roster moves to get there, Week 9’s Best Bench went to… Young Guns!  John’s first Best Bench this season:  Miami for NY Jets +18, C. Ridley for J. Smith-Schuster +6, R. Fitzpatrick for D. Watson +4.

This week there were several teams with some solid bench play, but Timmy loved it so much in Week 8 he wanted to do it again in Week 10!  This time it was a solid 44 point improvement with three roster moves:  E. Ebron for T. Kelce +20, A. Jones for D. Jackson +19 and S. Shepard for A. Jeffrey +5.


Get those waivers in and get your rosters set!  Final push to the playoffs!!

Midterms!!

We are a full eight weeks into the season, which means we have crossed the halfway point!  The Rams and the Chiefs look like the top teams in the league, which is fitting because they also lead the way in fantasy scoring.  The Chiefs are the top fantasy scoring team this season, with a weekly average of 101 points.  The Rams are a close second, averaging 99.1 points per week.  (Only the top scoring team in our league, Joe’s Pats, has a higher weekly average at 103.8 points per week.)  On the other end of the spectrum, the lowest scoring team is no longer the Arizona Cardinals… they have climbed out of the cellar and moved up one spot, knocking the Buffalo Bills down to the lowest scoring team in all of fantasy.  A team consisting of all Bills is averaging only 42.9 points per week, with a low of only 21 in Week 4.

The big double-congratulations this week go to the aforementioned Joe’s Pats who claimed their second Weekly High Score prize in a row, and third prize overall!  Joe has won the prize the last two weeks in emphatic fashion, notching the league's largest margin of victory in both weeks.  Last week, American BadAss was the victim, falling by 62 (127-65) and this week it was the Coors Light Drunk Guys who felt the hammer losing by 49 (114-65).  Well done Joe!!  It’s all gravy from here!

As I've been teasing for the last three weeks, it is finally time to dole out midterm grades!  How important are these grades you ask?  Well, the top two highest midterm grade recipients last year (Joe’s Pats and Bubble Craps Bandits) ended up finishing the season as champion and runner-up.  So there's that.  But also last year’s lowest midterm grade recipient (American BadAss) still ended up making the playoffs and finished in 6^th.

Teams were graded on seven categories, and ranked within each category.  Points were awarded in the reverse of the ranking (i.e. #1 ranked team in a category receives 10 pts, #2 team receives 9 pts and so on down to the last team receiving only 1 point.)  If teams are tied for the same ranking, the points for those positions are split equally (i.e. Two teams tied for 2^nd would receive 8.5 points each).  The categories are:

• Overall Record – The better the overall record, the more points awarded.  (Joe’s Pats and Attack of Mahomes are tied for the top spot here.)
• Points For – The more points scored, the more points awarded.  (Joe’s Pats and Attack of Mahomes take the top two spots here as well.)
• Points Against – The more points scored against, the more points awarded.  (Team IR & Holdout has had 811 points scored against them, and Young Guns is second with 776.)
• Weekly High Score Prizes – The more Weekly High Score Prizes, the more points awarded.  (Joe’s Pats leads the way with 3, while American BadAss has 2.)
• Best Bench – The fewer Best Benches awarded, the more points awarded.  (Four teams have yet to claim a Best Bench this season: sprouts, Young Guns, Team IR & Holdout and Joe’s Pats.  Two teams are tied for the most Best Benches with 2: American BadAss and Coors Light Drunk Guys.)
• Waiver Moves – The more waiver moves, the more points awarded.  (Young Guns leads in this category with 21 waiver claims this season, followed by Joe’s Pats (16) and Attack of Mahomes (15).)
• Keeper Production – The more points from keepers, the more points awarded.  (With Todd Gurley and DeAndre Hopkins as keepers, Joe’s Pats easily leads the way in this category with 321 points from keepers.  Next closest is Vandelay Industries, who have 233 points from Antonio Brown and Alvin Kamara.  Team IR & Holdout have gotten zero points from their keepers, Le’Veon Bell and Jerick McKinnon.  The name says it all.)

Now here are the team-by-team report cards and grades:

Joe’s Pats
Record:	6-2	9.5
Points For:	830	10
Pts Against:	664	2
High Scores:	3	10
Best Bench:	0	8.5
Waivers:	16	9
Keepers:	321	10
Total Points:		59
Grade		A+

Joe is literally first or tied for first in 5 of the 7 grading categories.  Joe’s Pats is Crème de la crème.

Young Guns
Record:	4-4	6
Points For:	738	6
Pts Against:	776	9
High Scores:	1	7
Best Bench:	0	8.5
Waivers:	21	10
Keepers:	231	8
Total Points:		54.5
Grade		A

John has been super active on the waiver wire, has one Weekly High Score Prize, has the third best keeper production, and has had the misfortune of the 2^nd most points scored against.

Team IR & Holdout
Record:	3-5	3
Points For:	757	8
Pts Against:	811	10
High Scores:	1	7
Best Bench:	0	8.5
Waivers:	11	7
Keepers:	0	1
Total Points:		44.5
Grade		B+

James has dealt with a double-whammy this year of a) getting zero production from his keepers, and b) having the most points scored against him.  In spite of that, he’s won a Weekly High Score Prize, has not had a Best Bench and is 3^rd in total points scored.

Attack of Mahomes
Record:	6-2	9.5
Points For:	785	9
Pts Against:	631	1
High Scores:	0	3
Best Bench:	1	4.5
Waivers:	15	8
Keepers:	223	7
Total Points:		42
Grade		B

Timmy having a strong season thus far… tied for best overall record, 2^nd in points scored, and 4^th in keeper production.

American BadAss
Record:	4-4	6
Points For:	746	7
Pts Against:	763	8
High Scores:	2	9
Best Bench:	2	1.5
Waivers:	6	2
Keepers:	183	6
Total Points:		39.5
Grade		C+

Jason gets a nice bump for claiming two Weekly High Score Prizes this season, plus has had the third most points scored against him. 

Vandelay Industries
Record:	5-3	8
Points For:	679	3
Pts Against:	712	5
High Scores:	0	3
Best Bench:	1	4.5
Waivers:	9	5
Keepers:	233	9
Total Points:		37.5
Grade		C

As the old saying goes, “C’s get degrees”.  Rob is doing well with the 3^rd best overall record, and has the second best keeper production.

sprouts
Record:	4-4	6
Points For:	714	4
Pts Against:	711	4
High Scores:	0	3
Best Bench:	0	8.5
Waivers:	9	5
Keepers:	101	2
Total Points:		32.5
Grade		D+

Russ ranks 7^th in both points scored and points against.  His keeper production was hurt badly by Leonard Fournette’s injury.

Longshanks
Record:	3-5	3
Points For:	718	5
Pts Against:	725	6
High Scores:	0	3
Best Bench:	1	4.5
Waivers:	8	3
Keepers:	179	5
Total Points:		29.5
Grade		D

Currently rank 6^th in total scoring, 6^th in keeper production, and 7^th in overall record.  All we need is a miracle.

Bye Week
Record:	2-6	1
Points For:	622	2
Pts Against:	680	3
High Scores:	1	7
Best Bench:	1	4.5
Waivers:	9	5
Keepers:	114	3
Total Points:		25.5
Grade		F+

Jens ranks 10^th in overall record, 9^th in points scored and 8^th in keeper production.  But, he does have a Weekly High Score to his credit.  How in the h did you pull that off Jensy?!

Coors Light Drunk Guys
Record:	3-5	3
Points For:	618	1
Pts Against:	733	7
High Scores:	0	3
Best Bench:	2	1.5
Waivers:	4	1
Keepers:	159	4
Total Points:		20.5
Grade		F

Shawn ranks 10^th in points scored, 10^th in waiver moves and 7^th in keeper production. Drunk Guys need a swift kick in the ass!

BEST BENCH(ES)

Two Best Benches to give out this week…  

Last week saw pretty decent all-around team management, with the exception of one team.  With the second highest improvement possibility this season, the Week 7 Best Bench goes to… Longshanks!  With four roster moves, I could have improved my point total by an impressive 47 points… P. Lindsay for M. Gordon +16, J. Landry for T. Boyd +13, G. Kittle for J. Reed +11, T. Coleman for C. McCaffrey +7.

Anyone keeping score in the midterm grades may have already figured out who got the Best Bench this week.  With just a 36-point improvement possibility, and needing only 3 roster moves, the Week 8 Best Bench goes to… Attack of Mahomes!  M. Jones Jr. for A. Jeffrey +20, S. Watkins for D. Jackson +10 and K. Drake for K. Hunt +6.  This is Timmy's first Best Bench this season.

Alrighty, well get those waivers in, and get ready for next week when we have our first “What Do You Know?!? Bowl” of the season!