Attack of Mahomes = Champs!

What an unbelievable finish!  In the highest scoring championship game of all-time, we have a player post the most single-week points ever (55) and we have a 31-point comeback on Monday night… wow!  Down 90-120 going into Monday night, Attack of Mahomes had only Stefon Diggs left to play.  Diggs' best game up to that point was a 24-point performance back in Week 2, but he lit the Patriots defense on fire and went for 145 yards and 3 TD’s, finishing with 32 points and carrying Attack of Mahomes to the championship!  Tim also had 5 other players in double figures, finishing with a close 122-120 victory over sprouts.  Congratulations Timmy!! You are the 2020 Sacred Sundays Champion!!

This is Tim’s 2nd Championship (2009), and for Russ it is the 2nd time he has finished as Runner-up (2010).  In the matchup for 3rd/4th, Sofa King American got back to their winning ways and cleaned up with a 120-87 victory over Longshanks.  This is the 3rd time James has finished in 3rd place (most recently in 2017) and for Longshanks it marks the 3rd time I have finished in 4th place (most recently in 2018).

All these big scores this week and we haven’t even gotten to the Weekly High Score… riding TB12 and the Tampa Bucs for a total of 77 points, and claiming his second prize in as many weeks, big congratulations to Joe’s Pats!  Joe was able to post 123 points to take the final High Score Prize of the season.  He had huge games from Mike Evans (33 points) and Tom Brady (29 points), plus got 15 points from the Tampa Defense and 11 from his new favorite player, Darren Waller.  Well done sir!  Way to finish the season strong!

Just a few season highlights and other odds and ends to get to this week… Onward!

EVERYBODY NEEDS MONEY…THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT MONEY

Here is the final prize money breakdown for this season:

1) Sofa King American – James = $325 (5 WHSP’s, 3rd Place)

2) sprouts – Russ = $325 (4 WHSP’s, 2nd Place)

3) Attack of Mahomes – Timmy = $275 (1 WHSP, Champion)

4) Longshanks – Jerry = $125 (2 WHSP’s, 4th Place)

5) Joe’s Pats – Joe = $100 (2 WHSP’s)

6) Vandelay Industries – Rob = $50 (1 WHSP)

7) American BadAss – Jason = $50 (1 WHSP)

I will reach out in a separate email to the winners to arrange payout.

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS

Most points:  sprouts (Russ) – 1,630 points

Highest Single Week Score:  sprouts (Russ) Week 2 – 145

Best Utilization:  Sofa King American (James) – 89.9% (1,530 pts of a possible 1,701)

Largest Margin of Victory:  Week 12 - Sofa King American defeats American BadAss by 96.  (144-48)

Most Best Benches:  Young Guns (John) – 4.5 (Weeks 2(½) , 8, 9, 10 & 13)

Most Waiver Moves:  Attack of Mahomes (Timmy) – 44

LEGENDARY PERFORMANCE

Alvin Kamara had the greatest fantasy performance in Sacred Sundays history this week.  He amassed 155 yards rushing and 17 yards receiving to go along with an unheard of 6 rushing TD’s!  SIX!  This all added up to 55 points which beat the previous record by 1 point.

Doug Martin (Week 9-2012) and Jamaal Charles (Week 14-2013) are now tied for second highest score at 54 points, and only two other players have ever broken 50: Le’Veon Bell (50 pts, Week 14-2016) and Derrick Henry (50 pts, Week 14-2018).

JENS – YOU ARE ON THE CLOCK!

As always, the draft order for the 2021 season will be the reverse of standings this year.  Here is the draft order for 2021:

1) Jens – Big Sack No TDs

2) Shawn – Coors Light Drunk Guys

3) Jason – American BadAss

4) Rob – Vandelay Industries

5) John – Young Guns

6) Joe – Joe’s Pats

7) Jerry – Longshanks

8) James – Sofa King American

9) Russ – sprouts

10) Timmy – Attack of Mahomes

Also once again, each team can designate up to two players as keepers for next season.  Same rules apply:  These keepers will count as a draft pick for where they were drafted in 2020.  (A Keeper being re-kept will count as a 1st round pick.  Players who were not drafted in 2020 will count as a 15th round pick.)  I’ll send out a final roster sheet with draft values in the next couple days.  Keepers will be due one week prior to the 2021 draft.  Labor Day is on 9/6/2021, so we will target the draft date to be Sat, Sep. 4th.  Location TBD. ;-)

BEST BENCH

Two teams have made it through the 2020 season unscathed!  Vandelay Industries and Sofa King American both avoid the dubious distinction.  For Rob, he has not had a Best Bench since Week 5 of last season.  For James, it goes a ways further back.  Like five seasons ago.  It is hard to fathom but yes, James’ last Best Bench came in Week 8 of the 2015 season.  2015!  There have been 88 Best Bench recipients since then.  That sir, is some impressive team management!  Well done, MAJOR!!

The average Best Bench this season was 38.6 with the highest being 60 in Week 4 (Big Sack No TD's) and the lowest being 25 in Week 2 (tie between Joe's Pats & Young Guns).  The Best Bench for Week 16 came in right at the average, with a 40-point-improvement-possibility.  Needing a four player swap to get there, and for the second time this season, the final Best Bench of the season goes to... sprouts!  Here are the changes Russ needed to make:  B. Cooks for D. Hopkins +16, R. Gronkowski for M. Andrews +10, J. Smith-Schuster for J. Jefferson +7, and D. Montgomery for A. Jones +7.

Hard to believe another season has come and gone…  Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2021!

2020 Finale!

Just two teams remain!  Sprouts made quick work of my Longshanks boys with a dominating 127-62 victory.  Sprouts had big games from Kyler Murray (35 points), David Montgomery (27 points) and Deandre Hopkins (23 points).  In the other semifinal, aka ‘The Hand Bro Showdown’, Attack of Mahomes took care of Sofa King American 84-52.  The loss brought Sofa King’s 8-game winning streak to an end.  (Win streaks are not a stat I’ve kept track of, but 8 has to be one of the longest in league history).  

Attack of Mahomes and sprouts have played once this season… back in Week 6 with AoM pulling out a narrow 91-88 victory.  On the season, AoM is averaging 93 points per game while sprouts is averaging 101.  However, over the last three weeks it’s AoM averaging 102 per week with sprouts averaging 97.  Should be an even matchup…the Yahoo! projections has the game within 2 points.  Timmy finished 3rd last season and is going for his 2nd championship, as he last held the crown in 2009.  Russ finished in 9th last season, and is going for his first championship, with his best finish being 2nd in 2010.  Way to turn it around this season, Russ!  And congratulations to both teams for making it to the championship game!

The other big congrats this week go to Joe’s Pats, who finally, after 14 weeks of play managed to have everything come into alignment, much like the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn, and post 135 points to take the Weekly High Score prize!  Joe had 20+ point games from four different players (Tom Brady 26, Calvin Ridley 25, Darren Waller 24 and Melvin Gordon 20).  The 135 points posted is the fourth highest score we have seen all season. This is Joe’s first high score this season and marks the 7th different team to claim a high score prize this season.  Well done senor!  Better late than never!

BEST BENCH

Some Best Benches are impressive because of the number of improvement points, and some Best Benches are impressive because of the number of players involved in the improvement.  Then you have a Best Bench like this week which is impressive in both!  With a 52-point improvement possibility (3rd highest this season), and an incredible 5 player swap, the Best Bench for Week 15 goes to --- the Coors Light Drunk Guys!  Shawn could have more than doubled his point total this week with this laundry list of roster changes:  M. Jones Jr. for J. Jones +17, J.D. McKissic for T. Gurley +15, Cleveland for Houston +10, J. Landry for D. Metcalf +8 and D. Brees for A. Rodgers +2.  This is the 2nd Best Bench this season for the Drunk Guys.  Two teams have yet to have a Best Bench this season…will both make it through unscathed?

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas holiday and a Happy New Year!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

ATTACK!!!

Across 9 teams this week, the average score was 78, in a range of 62 to 103.  Then, in a different zip code, was this week’s high scoring team, Attack of Mahomes, with 132 points!   The 29-point margin between that and the second highest scoring team (Big Sack No TD’s) ties for the largest margin we’ve seen this season.  Timmy got there with big games from Patrick Mahomes (20 pts) and Travis Kelce (19 pts), of course, plus got 31 points from runningback Johnathan Taylor!  This is Tim’s 1st Weekly High Score Prize this season and marks the 6th different team to win a prize so far.  Well done Tim-may!!

In playoff matchups, Sofa King American continued his winning streak with a solid 91-81 victory over Joe’s Pats, and will now move on to face sprouts in the semis.  Should be a high scoring game, as both Sofa King and sprouts are averaging nearly 100 points per week.  In the other game, my Longshanks boys overcame a total of 3 points combined from my wide receivers and defense (DJ Chark, Corey Davis and the Ravens each scored just 1 friggin’ point a piece) to beat Young Guns 80-67.  I’ll now move on to face Attack of Mahomes.  It’s down to the top four seeds remaining!

BIG TIME

• Derrick Henry, RB – Vandelay Industries – 36 pts – Henry bulldozed through the Jags defense to a total of 212 yards and 2 TD’s.  I think he must have a fear of the number 13, because check out his scores the last 4 weeks:  Week 11 – 19 pts, Week 12 – 38 pts, Week 13 – 4 pts (??), Week 14 – 36 pts.  
• Lamar Jackson, QB – Vandelay Industries – 34 pts – Ho-hum day for Jackson passing—just 163 yards and 1 TD—but he went crazy on the ground for 124 yards and 2 TD’s!  He is now ranked 10th among QB’s with 247 points scored this year.  Thru Week 14-2019, Jackson had scored 338 points, so he is a bit off pace this season.
• Johnathan Taylor, RB – Attack of Mahomes – 31 pts – He had a solid day rushing for 150 yards and 2 TD’s.  Over his last three games, he has scored 61 points, and now ranks as the 11th highest scoring runningback in fantasy.
• Aaron Rodgers, QB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 30 pts – Who would have thought Aaron Rodgers could keep doing it all these years?  Shawn f-ing Martin, that’s who!!  Rodgers has been spectacular for the last 8 weeks where he has not scored less than 21 points, and is now the 3rd highest scoring player in all of fantasy.  Only Patrick Mahomes and Kyler Murray have scored more points this season. F-N-A

COME ON MAN

• D.J. Chark, WR – Longshanks – 1 pt – Just nothing…absolutely nothing.
• Corey Davis, WR – Longshanks – 1 pt – He was on track to deliver a whopping 3 points, until he lost a fumble.
• Baltimore, DEF – Longshanks – 1 pt – The Ravens were really bad against the Browns, and should have finished with -1 point, but on an idiotic final play somehow scored a safety and thus avoided the negative points.  They started the year averaging 15 points per week through the first 7 weeks, but are averaging half that (7.2) for the last 7 weeks. 
• James Conner, RB – Sofa King American – 1 pt – Tremendously ineffective and likely still suffering from his quad injury, Conner had 10 carries for just 18 yards.  Not hard to do the math on that to see that he pretty much sucked.
• Devontae Booker, RB – Vandelay Industries – 1 pt – Well, it wasn’t from a lack of opportunity… Booker rushed 4 times for just 8 yards and caught 3 passes for just 11 yards.  
• Trey Burton, TE – Vandelay Industries – 0 pts – Splitting time with Doyle and Alie-Cox does not leave much for Burton.  He wasn’t even targeted this week.

ALL UNWANTEDS

Those who shalln’t be drafted have had a remarkable finish to their season.  After starting the season 1-5, and hitting rock bottom with a low score of 56 points in Week 5, The Unwanteds scored no less than 71 points from Week 7 on and actually crossed triple digits four times (Weeks 7, 10, 12 and 13).  Over that span, they amassed a record of 6-1 to finish with a record of 7-6!

Here was their Week 14 roster:

QB Gardner Minshew II    Jax 13

WR Keelan Cole Sr.            Jax 12

WR Laviska Shenault Jr.    Jax 4

RB James Robinson          Jax 7

RB J.D. McKissic             Was    7

TE Logan Thomas     Was 4

DEF Washington     Was 25

K Dustin Hopkins     Was 13

TOTAL  = 85

With a final record of 7-6, that would have put the UW’s in a tie with Joe’s Pats to make it into the playoffs.  In total this season, they scored 1,153 points which trailed Joe’s Pats by just 7 points!  Looks like you just edged them out Joe... ;-)

BEST BENCH

Coming into Week 14, three teams had avoided being Best Bench, but now that number is down to 2!  When three players combine to score only 3 points, you’re setting yourself up for some bench improvement.  So for the first time since Week 6, 2019, the Best Bench goes to… Longshanks!  There was much improvement to be had, as I could have improved by 49 points (3rd highest Best Bench this year) with three roster moves:  LA Rams for Ravens (+27), N. Agholor for D. Chark (+15), C. Kupp for C. Davis (+8).  Two weeks left and only two teams have not had a Best Bench: Sofa King American and Vandelay Industries.

Crazy to think we are down to just four team vying for the title, this season has just flown by… get those waivers in for these final games!

2020 Playoffs are upon us!

It took a Wednesday game, two Monday night games and a Tuesday game, but the 17^th regular season of Sacred Sundays has come to a close.  The top seed this season goes to the South Division champion, sprouts, who dominated early and often and finished with a league best record of 10-3.  In the North Division, Attack of Mahomes takes the top spot by virtue of an 8-4-1 record, and thus receives the 2^nd seed.

Third seed goes to Sofa King American with the second best record in the South Division (9-4).  The King is the hottest team in the league now, currently riding a 7-game winning streak and a 3-week streak for Weekly High Scores!  James was the only team to break 100 this week, thanks to four players in double digits led by Davante Adams (24), Deshaun Watson (18), Harrison Butker (17) and Chris Carson (16).  This marks James’ 5^th Weekly High Score Prize this season, overtaking sprouts for the most.  The league record for most WHSP’s in a season is 6, set by Joe’s Pats in 2017. 

Fourth seed goes to Longshanks, by having the second best record in the North Division (8-5).  The two wild card teams are:  Young Guns and Joe’s Pats by being the teams with the two next best records (8-5 and 7-6, respectively).  After all the scenarios, tie-breakers and what-ifs, it simply came down to the overall records.

So there you have it… playoff qualifiers for 2020:  sprouts, Attack of Mahomes, Sofa King American, Longshanks, Young Guns and Joe’s Pats.  Do you know what this means?  It means that my playoff predictions in Week 5 were 6-for-6!  I’m getting that dialed in!

For the non-qualifying teams, the ranking as of now determines the final standing order and thus the draft order for next season.  The order for the 1^st four picks will be:  Big Sack No TDs, Coors Light Drunk Guys, American BadAss and Vandelay Industries. (Teams finished 10^th, 9^th, 8^th and 7^th).  The remaining positions will be determined by the playoff matchups.

First round matchups will be (3) Sofa King American vs. (6) Joe’s Pats and (4) Longshanks vs. (5) Young Guns.  For any tie game prior to the Championship game, the tie goes to the higher seeded team.  If there is a tie in the Championship game, the champion will be decided by the following tie-breakers:  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.

EVERYONE NEEDS MONEY, THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT MONEY

Here is a reminder on the prizes for this season:

Weekly High Score Prize = $50

Count of WHSP's so far = Sofa King American (5), sprouts (4), Longshanks (2), American BadAss (1), Vandelay Industries (1)

Champion = $225

Runner-up = $125

3^rd Place = $75

4^th Place = $25

LEGENDARY TIGHT END PERFORMANCE

Las Vegas Tight end Darren Waller accomplished something never achieved by Tony Gonzalez, Rob Gronkowski, Travis Kelce, Antonio Gates or any other legend of the position…he led all fantasy scorers this week!  Waller posted 35 points on 200 yards receiving and 2 TD’s, which also happens to be the highest score ever posted by a tight end in Sacred Sundays history.  (George Kittle has the next closest with a 30 point performance in 2018.)

BEST BENCH(ES)

Double duty on handing out Best Benches this week… for Week 12, it was the team with the second-longest non-Best Bench streak in the league.  Not since Week 16 of 2018 had this team won the honor, but alas, all things must come to an end.  With a solid 41-point improvement possibility, welcome back to the Best Bench – Coors Light Drunk Guys!!  Shawn needed only 3 roster moves to make it happen:  J. Landry for J. Jones +20, Houston for Cleveland +19 and J. McKissic for T. Gurley +2.

From a team we haven’t seen win a Best Bench in a while, to one we’ve seen here quite a bit this season… in fact this marks the 4-and-a-halfth time this season for the Week 13 winner.  Also with an impressive 41-point improvement possibility, the Best Bench for Week 13 goes to… Young Guns!  John needed to swap J. Allen for J. Herbert (+29), W. Gallman Jr. for M. Sanders (+10) and R. Woods for A.J. Brown (+2).

We are just three short weeks away from crowing a champion!  Let’s do this!!