Split Decision!!

For the first time since Week 6-2016 we have a shared top spot, with two teams tying for the Weekly High Score Prize.  In 2016 it was my Scottish Rebels tying with Jens’ “Joe Blows” at 111.  Prior to that there was a tie in Week 13 of 2012 with Jen’s BoomGoesTheDynamite tying American BadAss at 120.  Prior to that the only other instance of a tie for the Weekly High score I found was a crazy one back in Week 3-2008 when there was a three-way tie between Sofa King Good, American BadAss and Midnight Maulers at, get this, 88 points!  So ties at the top are not a common occurrence, and this week it’s Vandelay Industries tying me at 109!  Rob had a great performance from Lamar Jackson (32 points), along with Saints players coming in big (Michael Thomas 17 pts and Saints D 19 pts).  For my team, there was nice all-around scoring with 5 players posting double digits, led by D.J. Chark with 22 points and Christian McCaffrey with 19.  This mark’s Vandelay Industries first Weekly High score prize this season, and they become the 6th different team to take home a prize so far.  Nice work Rob!  This is my 1&halfth prize as I had the top spot in Week 5.

In league standings, it has become a three spot race as three of the playoff spots are already claimed by Attack of Mahomes, American BadAss and Vandelay Industries.  Joe’s Pats is the only team mathematically eliminated so far.  It leaves six teams competing for the final three spots in the playoffs.

One Win & In = Golf and Fishing; Just need to win one of the next two games to assure a playoff spot.  It appears likely even two losses would still result in a playoff berth depending on the outcome of other games and tie-breakers.

Two Wins & In = sprouts and Longshanks; Winning the next two games assures a playoff spot.  Splitting the next two games may still result in a playoff berth depending on the outcome of other games and tie-breakers.  Two losses will most likely result in elimination, although there is a slim chance.

Two Wins & Some Help = Coors Light Drunk Guys, Big Sack and Young Guns; Each of these teams needs to win both of their remaining games plus have two losses from either sprouts or Longshanks.  Not winning both of the final two games will result in elimination from playoff contention.

In running through the analysis this week, there were multiple scenarios where five teams finished with records of 6-7.  So I suspect it is highly likely we will be using multiple tiebreakers to determine the playoff spots. 

Remember that throughout the playoffs all teams are still eligible to win the Weekly High Score prize, so make sure to check your roster every week.  This week (Week 12) marks the last of the bye weeks, so that should help keep those rosters full. 

Just a short one this week, but it’s never complete without the…
BEST BENCH
There weren’t a whole lot of bench points out there this week, and several teams gave a valiant effort… Joe’s Pats had 27 and sprouts had 31, but none were better than this week’s winner… Young Guns!  With a half-roster swap, Young Guns could have improved by 38 points!  C. Hyde for D. Williams +12, Baltimore for Minnesota +8, D. Moore for J. Smith-Schuster +7 and T. Williams for T. McLaurin +2.  Young Guns joins three other teams, Attack of Mahomes, Longshanks and Joe’s Pats, as a two-time Best Bench winner this season.

These next two weeks will determine everything for the playoffs!  Get those waivers in and get ready for Week 12!

Attack of Mahomes back on top in Week 10!

The bar has been raised to new heights!  Attack of Mahomes went where no team has ever gone before with an unbelievable 160 point performance!  This beat the previous record of 158 points set by American BadAss last year in Week 10.  AoM’s line-up was something to behold… all players scored in double digits with four scoring in the twenties (Amari Cooper-20, Dalvin Cook-23, Aaron Jones-27), and the man himself, Patrick Mahomes getting back to his old ways and scoring 32 points!  Boo-freakin'-yah!  In the process, Timmy also set another record for the largest margin of victory with a 99-point drubbing of Big Sack.  (The previous record was a 96-point margin of victory, also set by Tim back in Week 6, 2013 when Channel 4 News Team defeated BoomGoesTheDynamite 140-44.  Something about Jens brings out the best in Tim’s teams.)  This is Attack of Mahomes 2nd Weekly High Score prize this season, and the victory puts their record at 9-1 and in firm control of the top spot in the league.  Well done Timmy!

For the rest of the league, standings really did not get any clearer this week as now only three other teams have winning records (American BadAss (7-3), Vandelay Industries (6-4) and Golf and Fishing (6-4)) and four teams sit at 5-5 or 4-6 (sprouts, Longshanks, Big Sack and Coors Light Drunk Guys).  That’s eight teams who are all still legitimately battling for a playoff spot.  Young Guns at 3-7 is probably still alive as well, as we have had teams qualify in year’s past with a 6-7 record.  More on the playoffs below along with a check in on this season’s ‘All Unwanteds’ and we have another first timer Best Bench to award.  Let’s go!

BIG TIME
-Derrick Henry, RB – Vandelay Industries – 33 pts – Following a 21-point performance last week, Henry went even bigger this week with 188 yards and 2 TD’s versus the Chiefs.  This moves him into being the 4th ranked runningback in fantasy this season.
-Lamar Jackson, QB – Vandelay Industries – 32 pts – Do you realize Lamar Jackson is currently the 11th ranked rusher in the NFL (with 702 yards) and is on pace to have over 1,200 yards for the season?! 
-Patrick Mahomes, QB – Attack of Mahomes – 32 pts – Back to his old tricks and putting up 446 yards and 3 TD’s. 
-Christian Kirk, WR – Golf and Fishing – 31 pts – In a single game, Kirk nearly doubled his point production for the season thus far.  Coming into Week 10, he had only 16 points and no TD’s, but he went off for 138 yards and 3 TD’s against the Bucs.
-Baltimore, DEF – Young Guns – 30 pts – Utter domination of the hapless Bengals… 2 sacks, 1 interception, 2 fumble recoveries and 2 defensive TD’s.

COME ON MAN
-Frank Gore, RB – American BadAss – 1 pt – Gore has not scored more than 6 points since Week 4 and is averaging just 1.6 ppg over the last three weeks.  Weak sauce.
-Vance McDonald, TE – Vandelay Industries – 1 pt – Not much for Mr. McDonald as he had just 3 catches for 11 yards.
-Cooper Kupp, WR – sprouts – 0 pts – Kupp had zero catches on just four targets.
-David Johnson, RB – Big Sack – -2 pts – Here’s a stat line to be forgotten:  5 rushes, 2 yards and a lost fumble.  Deleted.

ALL UNWANTEDS
Here is the best line-up I put together using only undrafted players:

Pos	Player	Team	Season Pts
QB	Matthew Stafford	Det	169
RB	Ronald Jones II	TB	76
RB	Jamaal Williams	GB	75
WR	DJ Chark Jr.	Jax	106
WR	DK Metcalf	Sea	83
TE	Darren Waller	Oak	74
K	Zane Gonzalez	Ari	97
DEF	San Francisco	SF	150
	Total		830

The fact that these players are the best of undrafted 10 weeks in, shows we did a pretty good job on drafting all of the productive players.  Matt Stafford is the 8th ranked quarterback, and DJ Chark is the 8th ranked wide receiver, but the runningbacks are ranked 25th and 27th.  The two brightest spots are the kicker and defense, as Zane Gonzalez and San Fran both currently rank 2nd in their respective positions.   

PLAYOFFS?  DON’T TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS!
Only three more regular season games, then it is playoff time!  Here is a quick refresher on playoff qualification:
-Top two teams in each division automatically qualify.  The top team in each division receives a first round bye.
-Next two highest ranked teams receive Wildcards.
-Wildcards are not division specific. Both can come from the same division.
-Teams that do not qualify for the playoffs are still eligible to win the Weekly High Score prize, but do not compete in head-to-head games
-Final standing at end of regular season determines the teams that finish in 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th place.
Divisional standing ranking
1 Overall record
2 Division record
3 Head-to-head record
4 Points scored
5 Coin flip

Wildcard standing ranking/tiebreakers
1 Overall record
2 Head-to-head record
3 Points scored
4 Coin flip
Next week I’ll have playoff scenarios worked out for each team, so you will know where you stand.

BEST BENCH
Under normal circumstances, the weekly Best Bench winner either would have won their game, or would have at least come pretty close had they had in their optimal line-up.  Under abnormal circumstances, the Best Bench winner would have still lost by 50 points.  This week fell into the latter category, as for the first time this season the Best Bench goes to… Big Sack!  Jens could have improved his score by 49 points with an unprecedented 6-player roster swap: R. Jones II for D. Johnson +15, J. Winston for A. Rodgers +12, J. Landry for T. Lockett +12, T. Cohen for T. Johnson +8, G. Everett for J. Graham +1 and A. Robinson II for C. Godwin +1.  With 49 more points, Big Sack would have still lost 110-160.  What do you know? ;-)

Playoffs just around the corner!  Get your waivers in and get ready for Week 11!

Midterms! (+1 week)

We are already nine weeks into this season!  Just four more weeks of the regular season until the playoffs begin!  Right now, there are two things I would bank on as it pertains to the playoffs:  1) Attack of Mahomes will most likely be in, and 2) Joe’s Pats most likely will not.  Other than that, everything else seems pretty wide open. 

Congratulations this week go to sprouts, collecting a third Weekly High Score Prize as the only team to break triple digits this week!  Russ had big games from Mike Evans (27 pts) and Kyler Murray (22 pts) along with a 15-point kicker (Brett Maher) to finish with 107 points.  This is the lowest high score this season (you get that? It was the lowest high score, in that it is the lowest score to win a high score prize this season), and the win ties Russ with Jason for the most Weekly High Score Prizes won this season.  Nice job sir!

Okay, I’ve teased it for about four weeks now, but at long last, and without further ado, I present the 2019 Midterm Grades.  I’ve added a new category this season, which I will get to in a second.  But the same process was used as before, where points are awarded in each of the eight categories below. The team with the highest overall score gets an A+, the team with the lowest overall score gets an F, and the rest of the teams fall in between.  Here is a description of each of the grading categories:

• Overall Record – Overall W/L record. Teams with better records get more points.  Attack of Mahomes (Timmy) leads this category with an 8-1 record.
• Points For – Total points scored.  Higher scoring teams get more points.  American BadAss is best in this category with 966 points scored this season.
• Points Against – Total points scored against.  Teams with more points scored against them get more points.  Joe’s Pats has the dubious honor of having had the most points scored against them with 922.
• Weekly High Scores – Number of Weekly High Score prizes won this season. Teams who have not won a high score prize receive no points in this category.  American BadAss and sprouts are tied for the lead with 3 a piece.
• Best Bench – Number of Best Benches won this season.  Teams with more Best Benches get fewer points.  So far this year, Longshanks, Attack of Mahomes and Joe’s Pats are tied for the most this year with 2.
• Waiver Moves – Total number of waiver moves this season.  Teams with more waiver moves get more points.  Young Guns has had the most waiver moves with 18, while Golf & Fishing has only had 3.
• Keeper Production – Total points scored by team’s keepers.  Teams with higher scoring keepers get more points.  Longshanks is first in this category (Christian McCaffrey 203 pts, Philip Lindsay 98 pts) and Big Sack is second (Tyler Lockett 118 pts, Aaron Rodgers 177 pts).
• Utilization – *New category*  This season I’ve been tracking the weekly bench improvements of every team.  The Utilization score looks at how close scores have been to an optimal lineup.  Golf & Fishing leads this category with a 91.8% utilization so far.

Factoring – The ‘Waivers’ and ‘Best Bench’ categories were weighted with half as many points available as the other categories.

Jason		Pts
Record:	6-3	8.5
Points For:	966	10
Pts Against:	785	6
High Scores:	3	9.5
Best Bench:	0	4.25
Waivers:	7	2
Keepers:	180	4
Utilization:	88.3%	9
Total Points:		53.25
Grade		A+

American BadAss – Gets a lot of points for being the highest scoring team, with 3 Weekly High Score prizes and an 88.3% Utilization rate.

Russ		Pts
Record:	5-4	6.5
Points For:	872	8
Pts Against:	793	7
High Scores:	3	9.5
Best Bench:	1	2.5
Waivers:	8	2.5
Keepers:	232	8
Utilization:	85.7%	7
Total Points:		51
Grade		A

sprouts – Good keeper production, 3 Weekly High Score prizes and 85.7% Utilization.

James		Pts
Record:	6-3	8.5
Points For:	795	6
Pts Against:	760	4
High Scores:	1	7
Best Bench:	0	4.25
Waivers:	3	0.5
Keepers:	186	6
Utilization:	91.8%	10
Total Points:		46.25
Grade		B+

Golf and Fishing – Top Utilization rate at 91.8%, plus a strong record.

Timmy		Pts
Record:	8-1	10
Points For:	896	9
Pts Against:	718	1
High Scores:	1	7
Best Bench:	2	1
Waivers:	5	1
Keepers:	226	7
Utilization:	82.2%	3
Total Points:		39
Grade		B

Attack of Mahomes – Have the fewest points scored against them so far this year, and have scored the 2^nd most points overall.

Jerry		Pts
Record:	4-5	4
Points For:	794	5
Pts Against:	745	2
High Scores:	1	7
Best Bench:	2	1
Waivers:	11	3.5
Keepers:	301	10
Utilization:	84.3%	5
Total Points:		37.5
Grade		C+

Longshanks – Top keeper production helps the score along with snagging 1 Weekly High Score Prize in Week 5.

Jens		Pts
Record:	4-5	4
Points For:	785	4
Pts Against:	773	5
High Scores:	0	0
Best Bench:	0	4.25
Waivers:	13	4
Keepers:	295	9
Utilization:	84.7%	6
Total Points:		36.25
Grade		C

Big Sack – Second best keeper production, and one of only four teams to not have a Best Bench in the first 9 weeks of the season.

Rob		Pts
Record:	5-4	6.5
Points For:	834	7
Pts Against:	900	9
High Scores:	0	0
Best Bench:	1	2.5
Waivers:	6	1.5
Keepers:	183	5
Utilization:	82.6%	4
Total Points:		35.5
Grade		D+

Vandelay Industries – Second most points scored against and rank as the 4^th highest scoring team, but lower on keeper production and Utilization.

Shawn		Pts
Record:	4-5	4
Points For:	705	2
Pts Against:	813	8
High Scores:	0	0
Best Bench:	0	4.25
Waivers:	10	3
Keepers:	133	2
Utilization:	88.2%	8
Total Points:		31.25
Grade		D

Coors Light Drunk Guys – Strong scores in Utilization and Pts Against, but weaker scores in Keeper Production and Points Scored.

Joe		Pts
Record:	1-8	1
Points For:	710	3
Pts Against:	922	10
High Scores:	0	0
Best Bench:	2	1
Waivers:	14	4.5
Keepers:	178	3
Utilization:	78.2%	1
Total Points:		23.5
Grade		F+

Joe’s Pats – It has been a rough go for the defending champ… Joe’s only bright spot is having the most points scored against him.  Other than that he’s got the worst record, tied for most Best Benches and is lowest on the Utilization rating. 

John		Pts
Record:	2-7	2
Points For:	603	1
Pts Against:	751	3
High Scores:	0	0
Best Bench:	1	2.5
Waivers:	18	5
Keepers:	126	1
Utilization:	79.9%	2
Total Points:		16.5
Grade		F

Young Guns – Well its not for lack of trying, as Young Guns leads the league in Waiver moves, but unfortunately has the lowest keeper production, and lowest point total for the season so far.

‘WHAT DO YOU KNOW?!?’ BOWL

Week 9, 2019 brought us the closest game ever in the history of the ‘What Do You Know?!?’ Bowl.  Some background – Matchups between Jens and Shawn have been dubbed the “What Do You Know?!? Bowl” due to Jens’ penchant for shouting said phrase and for Shawn’s extreme annoyance in said act.  I’ve tracked every fantasy game between those two since Week 13, 2007 until now.  There had never before been a 1-point game until Shawn won this past weekend 80-79.  This now puts the all-time record at 12-8 in favor of Jens.  But get this, through those 20 games total points are 1,639 to 1,628 with Jens holding only an 11 point lead.

BEST BENCH(ES)

Two Best Bench awards to give out this week.  Week 8 was a first timer Best Bench winner, and they only needed two roster moves to do it.  With a solid 43 point improvement possibility, the Week 8 Best Bench goes to… sprouts!  Russ needed only swap his running backs, T. Coleman for L. Bell +32 and D. Montgomery for N. Chubb +11.

Week 9’s Best Bench needed a half roster overhaul to get it done.  With a four-roster-spot-swap and 41 point improvement possibility, Week 9’s Best Bench goes to… Joe’s Pats!  Here is the laundry list of changes Joe needed:  M. Jones Jr. for A. Thielen +18, R. Tannehill for P. Rivers +11, E. Sanders for D. Hopkins +7 and J. White for M. Mack +5.

Hard to believe we are only two weeks away from me posting playoff scenarios, but yeah, here we are!  Get those waivers in, and get ready for Week 10!!