Late Game Heroics Lift Joe's Pats

Okay, so maybe James Conner isn’t the second coming of Jerome Bettis and maybe the Jets defense isn’t quite the dominate force Week 1 made them out to be.  In fact, of the Top 25 highest scoring players in Week 1, only six of those players were in the Top 25 for Week 2.  Those players are: Ryan Fitzpatrick, Philip Rivers, Patrick Mahomes, DeSean Jackson, Michael Thomas and Joe Flacco.  Players like Tyreek Hill (dropped from 2nd to 47th), Drew Brees (dropped from 3rd to 37th) and the aforementioned James Conner (dropped from 7th to 55th) all experienced a Week 2 lull, with their second outing coming in significantly worse than their first.  The only player from the Week 1 Top 25 to improve their position in Week 2 was Mahomes who moved from 7th to 2nd in overall scoring.  The player who experienced the largest drop was Kenny Stills who ranked T-12th in Week 1 (22 pts) and finished T-246th in Week 2 after only scoring 1 point.

In the Week 2 matchups, we had 2 games decided by 5 points or less, 2 decided by 30 points or more, and are left with only 2 undefeated teams and 2 winless teams.  Last season three teams made it undefeated through Week 2, and we saw the final undefeated team lose by Week 4.  Sofa King Back who romped in Week 1, fell off a cliff this week and finished with only 61 points…less than half of their Week 1 league-leading score of 124 points.  The Bubble Craps Bandits went the other way, more than doubling their point total from last week (60) en route to a dominating victory over Vandelay Industries 121-74.  It looked like Timmy had the Weekly High Score Prize all but wrapped up, until the Chicago defense picked off a Russell Wilson pass on MNF and ran it in for a TD, vaulting Joe’s Pats into the Week 2 top spot!!

Joe had an amazing game from Kirk Cousins (36 pts), and Todd Gurley (29 pts), plus racked up 31 points from his wide receivers (Hilton and Hopkins).  Joe’s worst player this week, ironically, was his lone Patriot, Rob Gronkowski, who had an abysmal game scoring only 1 point.  The victory moved Joe’s Pats record to 1-1, but in first place for total points scored (209).  Well done sir!

Just a quick write up this week, where we will take an early season look at keeper production and, of course, award the Best Bench.  Let’s do this!


BIG TIME BOOYAH!

• Ben Roethlisberger, QB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 41 pts – Big Ben chucked the ball 60 times, completed 42 passes for 452 yards, 3 TD’s, plus added a rushing TD and it still wasn’t enough to beat the Chiefs.  And while this was a big scoring game for Big Ben, he actually scored 47 points back in Week 8-2014, when he had 522 passing yards and 6 TD’s!  
• Patrick Mahomes, QB – Bubble Craps Bandits – 38 pts – Simply amazing… 326 yards and 6, yes 6!!! touchdown passes.  And if you haven’t already heard this stat, here it is one more time…Mahomes now holds the NFL record for most TD passes in his first two games with 10.  Timmy also holds a new record, as it was the most times he's jizzed in his pants during a football game.
• Kirk Cousins, QB – Joe’s Pats – 36 pts – 425 yards, 4 TD’s, a 2-pt conversion, an interception and a tie game.
• Blake Bortles, QB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 35 pts – Interesting fact-Blake Bortles now has more victories vs. the Patriots (1) than Tom Brady does (0).  Also did you know – Blake Bortles and Tom Brady have combined for 4 Super Bowl titles, 2 NFL MVP awards and 10 Pro Bowl appearances.  Impressive!
• Ryan Fitzpatrick, QB – Free Agent – 33 pts – What does a guy have to do to earn a roster spot?  Fitzperfect now leads all fantasy scorers with a 35.5 point-per-week average, as he racked up another 402 yards and 4 TD’s this weekend.  Someone needs to pull the trigger or I will!
• Todd Gurley, RB – Joe’s Pats – 29 pts – Gurley is a man baby!  He only needed 42 yards to rack up 3 TD’s, plus added 30 yards receiving.  Oh yeah, and had two 2-point conversions.

COME ON MAN!

• Houston, DEF – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 2 pts – The Texans basically showed up to this game, and didn’t do much else, as their only notable stat (along with giving up 20 points) was a single sack.
• Jack Doyle, TE – Already PlayingForFirstPick – 2 pts – Two catches for 20 yards is actually probably one of Jack Doyle’s better games.
• Larry Fitzgerald, WR – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 2 pts – Larry led the Cardinals in receiving and accounted for over 30% of their passing offense.  Unfortunately, this meant he had 28 of the Cardinals’ 90 yards passing.  Things are bad in Arizona.
• Chris Boswell, K – Vandelay Industries – 2 pts – In a high scoring game versus the Chiefs you would expect kickers to rack up the points, but Boswell missed his only field goal attempt and missed an extra point.  
• Rob Gronkowski, TE – Joe’s Pats – 1 pt -  The Jags shut Gronk down in a big way… 2 catches for only 15 yards.
• Baltimore, DEF – Longshanks – -1 pts – In 2018 there have been thus far 4 defenses who posted negative point totals, and 3 of those have been on an active roster.  How does that happen?

KEEPER CHECK-IN
We are only two weeks into the season, so this really is too early to pass judgement on keepers, but I wanted to give a production update on keepers.  Sofa King Back has had the toughest time with keepers, as neither one (Le’Veon Bell or Jerick McKinnon) has scored any points due to contract holdouts and injuries.  Other keepers stricken by the injury bug are Devonta Freeman (CL Drunk Guys), Leonard Fournette (sprouts) and Carson Wentz (Longshanks). 
The team with the best keeper production so far is returning champ Joe’s Pats with Todd Gurley (48) and DeAndre Hopkins (24), followed by Vandelay Industries with Alvin Kamara (44) and Antonio Brown (21).
Here is the full listing of keeper production so far:

Team	Owner	Keeper	Points
Joe's Pats	Joe	Todd Gurley II	48
		DeAndre Hopkins	24
Vandelay Industries	Rob	Antonio Brown	21
		Alvin Kamara	44
Young Guns	John	JuJu Smith	29
		Deshaun Watson	33
CL Drunk Guys	Shawn	Devonta Freeman	4
		Drew Brees	51
American BadAss	Jason	Ezekiel Elliott	26
		David Johnson	16
Bubble Craps Bandits	Timmy	Travis Kelce	22
		Kareem Hunt	17
Finders Keepers	Jens	Jimmy Garoppolo	24
		Alex Collins	13
sprouts	Russ	Odell Beckham Jr.	16
		Leonard Fournette	5
Longshanks	Jerry	Baltimore	17
		Carson Wentz	0
Sofa King Back	James	Le'Veon Bell	0
		Jerick McKinnon	0

BEST BENCH
This week’s lowest scoring game produced the two contenders for Best Bench.  In the game itself, the Coors Light Drunk Guys edged Sofa King Back by 4 points (65-61) and for Best Bench the Drunk Guys also edged King by 2!  In the end, Coors Light Drunk Guys could have improved their point total this week by a solid 31 points!  Shawn needed only three roster moves to get there:  B. Roethlisberger for D. Brees (+24), Jacksonville for Houston (+4) and C. Davis for L. Fitzgerald (+3).


Week 3 means we are only 3 weeks away from playoff predictions!

We are back! Sofa King Back!!

Week 1 is in the books and it belongs to the King!  With three players scoring over twenty points, and six players scoring in double digits, James racked up a solid 124 points to take the season's first Weekly High Score crown.  The top scoring player for Sofa King Back was James Conner who put up a stellar 28-point performance in place of the still-holding-out Le’Veon Bell.  (Seriously, how bad did that game screw up Ball’s bargaining position with the Steelers?)  The King also dominated in the wide receiver position, getting 20 & 20 from Julio Jones and Mike Evans.  In Week 1 last season, Joe’s Pats was the high scoring team, and they went on to win the title.  In an odd coincidence, Joe’s Pats opponent in that Week 1 matchup was none other than yours truly--the same team James defeated this week.  If history be our guide, I’d say Sofa King Back is the early season favorite to win it all this season!

Along with Sofa King Back, three other teams managed to crack the triple digit scoring in Week 1.  (Stark contrast from last year with zero teams scoring over 100 for the first two weeks of the season.)  Vandelay Industries scored 114 en route to victory (with half of those coming from two Saints – Alvin Kamara (33) and Michael Thomas (25)), the Coors Light Drunk Guys put up 105 in their victory (boosted by Drew Brees (34) and Jay Ajayi (20), and my Longshanks boys posted 104 in a losing effort (d’oh!).  Historically speaking, scoring over 100 points results in victory 88.5% of the time.  In fact, last season only twice did a team score over 100 in a losing effort.  (The fewest times a team has scored over 100 in a losing effort was zero back in 2008.  The most times it has happened in a season is 7, which occurred in back-to-back seasons of 2011 & 2012).

This week we’ll take a first look at the All Unwanteds and see who gets the Week 1 Best Bench.  Onward!


WHAT WE DO IN LIFE, ECHOES IN ETERNITY

• Ryan Fitzpatrick, QB – Free Agent – 44 pts – This was a stat line even Peyton Manning would be impressed by: 21 of 28, 417 yards, 4 TD’s, 0 Int’s, plus 36 yards on the ground and 1 rush TD!  Fitz was perfect in the first half, and I mean that literally.  He posted a QB rating of 158.3, which is the highest rating one can achieve.  Nicely done.  It’s not the first time he’s gone big either… he had a 42 point game back in Week 13 of 2014, where he threw 6 TD’s (hell yeah!) to go along with 358 yards passing.
• Tyreek Hill, WR – American BadAss – 38 pts – The speed Hill possesses is simply astounding.  He makes everyone on the field look slow.  He caught 7 balls for 169 yards (24.1 yards per catch), had 2 receiving TD’s, plus added a 91-yard punt return TD.  
• Drew Brees, QB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 34 pts – In a game completely devoid of defense, Brees went off for 439 yards passing and 3 TD’s.  
• Alvin Kamara, RB – Vandelay Industries – 33 pts – Kamara found the endzone a total of 5 times on Sunday… 3 TD’s and two 2-point conversions.  That to go along with 141 total yards is a pretty freaking awesome way to start the season.
• Philip Rivers, QB – Vandelay Industries – 31 pts – The Chargers fell behind early, so Rivers had to sling it a lot.  He did so to the tune of 51 times in the game.  51 attempts!  But he did amass 424 yards, 3 TD’s and only 1 INT, which isn’t that bad when you consider how many times he threw it.
• New York Jets, DEF – Free Agent – 29 pts – Not sure if the Jets defense is this good, or if the Lions offense is this bad, but wow.  By the end of the shellacking they put on the Lions, they had only allowed 11 points, while getting 5 interceptions (1 returned for a TD), plus a punt return TD.
• Patrick Mahomes, QB – Bubble Craps Bandits – 28 pts – Mahomes’ 3rd pass of the game was a beautiful 58-yard strike to Tyreek Hill.  He threw 3 more TD’s on the day, with zero interceptions.  Booyah!

COME ON, MAN!

• Evan Engram, TE – Vandelay Industries – 1 pt – Not much doing for Engram against the tough Jags defense… he finished with just 2 catches for 18 yards.
• Trey Burton, TE – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 1 pt – He was the second most targeted player for the Bears (6), yet he only caught 1 ball for 16 yards.  
• Amari Cooper, WR – American BadAss – 0 pts – Cooper came oh-so-close to scoring some points this week, as he caught 1 pass for 9 yards and had 1 rush for 9 yards.  Not quite the production Jason was hoping for when drafting Cooper in the 4th round.
• Jimmy Graham, TE – Young Guns – 0 pts – Do you remember when Jimmy Graham was a legit threat to put up numbers and could be considered one of the league's top tight ends?  Yeah, me neither…
• Travis Kelce, TE – Bubble Craps Bandits – 0 pts – On a day when the Chiefs offense is rolling, you would’ve expected Kelce to have a big day.  Or maybe just an alright day.  Or at worst a mediocre day.  Nope, instead we got this clunker where he only caught one ball for six yards.
• LA Chargers, DEF – Young Guns – (-3 pts) – The Chargers D didn’t do much to slow down the Chiefs.  The only stat recorded was one QB sack, along with surrendering 38 points.
• New Orleans Saints, DEF – Joe’s Pats – (-3 pts) – There were two negative scoring defenses this week, and somehow Joe and John managed to have them in their active lineups.  That is some kind of special right there.  Any one of 20 other teams would have scored positive points, but somehow both of these teams were on active rosters.  Crazy!

BEST COMMENT I READ ABOUT THE BROWNS

“Congratulations Browns, you no longer have a losing streak.  You now have a winless streak.”


AARON RODGERS – A HERO’S HERO AMONGST HEROES
Chris Collinsworth and Al Michaels took their praise for Aaron Rodgers to a new level on Sunday night.  It was full knee pad and reach-around type of praise. Now I’m not saying Rodgers didn’t have a good game, or wasn’t impressive for battling through the injury and pulling out the victory and all that.  But with how Chris and Al spoke about it, you would’ve thought Rodgers had single-handedly rescued P.O.W.’s from a Vietnam internment camp, finished his work on curing heart disease, brokered a Middle East peace treaty, all while saving dozens of children from an orphanage fire, and adopting every homeless puppy in the country.  John Gruden was always the biggest worshiper-from-the-booth (e.g. “This guy right here is just one of the best pure football players in the league”, said about Ryan Tannehill immediately before throwing a pick six), so I suppose Chris and Al are just trying to make up for his absence.  But come on...rein it in Collinsworth!


THE ALL UNWANTEDS
As mentioned last week, the three NFL teams with the fewest players selected in the draft were the Miami Dolphins, New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals, who each only had two players selected or kept.  Thus, from the remaining players on those three teams, here is the Week 1 All Unwanteds:

Pos	Name	Pts
QB	Ryan Tannehill Mia	13
RB	Bilal Powell NYJ	6
RB	Frank Gore Mia	6
WR	Jakeem Grant Mia	11
WR	Quincy Enunwa NYJ	12
TE	Neal Sterling NYJ	2
K	Jason Myers NYJ	12
DEF	New York NYJ	29
	Total	91

Nice boost from the Jets defense, and fairly solid wide receiver performance.  The 91 points scored was better than 5 teams and worse than 5 teams, so the All Unwanted’s record for Week 1 is 5-5.


BEST BENCH
For Week 1, there really were not a lot of points left sitting idle on the bench.  This either means we all know what we are doing, or we all have zero depth and are only one injury away from really low scoring games!  But with only a 26-point improvement possibility, the Week 1 Best Bench goes to… Vandelay Industries!  Rob needed only two roster moves to net the 26 points – A. Peterson for J. Williams (+16) and P. Rivers for T. Brady (+10).

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION
Lastly, wanted to close with a quick note on something I'm very excited about.  For over 8 years, my dad and I have been working on a Blackjack book, and I'm pleased to announce "Ace The Tables - How to Gain the Advantage in Blackjack" is finally complete and is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online vendors!  The eBook versions (Kindle & Nook) were just made available recently as well.  Here is a link to Amazon if you'd like to check it out! Ace The Tables 

Until next week... 

A New Season Dawns...

Bring on the 2018 season!!

The 2018 draft is in the books, and we are ready to begin the season!  The lead-up to the draft seemed to take forever (we hung out at Tilted Kilt for about 3 hours pre-draft to the chagrin of our clearly-annoyed waitress), but the draft seemed to fly by in no time at all.  Next year I swear I’m going to see if I can extend the time per pick, at least for the first 5 rounds or so.  But really, the only hiccups in the draft were Shawn thinking the draft was on Sunday, and Jens picking Golden Tate in the fourth round.  (Jens-There’s no way you meant to do that, right?…)  Reminder to everyone – the draft will always be the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend!

By position, the most taken was wide receivers with 48 players selected.  This was followed by runningbacks with 43, quarterbacks with 21, tight ends with 17, defenses with 11 and kickers with 10.

The NFL team with the most players selected was the New England Patriots with 9 players picked.  The Chiefs, Rams and Eagles each had 7 players selected.  The Saints, Vikings, Packers and Browns (WTF?! The Browns?!?) each had 6 players selected.  Think about that…a couple years ago there were ZERO Cleveland Browns players selected and this year they get more picked than Pittsburgh (5), Denver (4), Dallas (4), and Indianapolis (3).  The team with the fewest players selected (excluding keepers) was the Arizona Cardinals, who only had Larry Fitzgerald selected.  Including keepers, three teams only had two players picked, the Miami Dolphins, the New York Jets and the Cardinals.  (David Johnson is a keeper from the Cardinals).  Thus I’ll build the “All Unwanted” team this year from those three teams.

For whatever the Dolphins lack player-wise, they clearly make up for in other ways...

Here are some more stats and tidbits on this year's draft:

• Most of any single position drafted by one team: 6 – American BadAss drafted 6 wide receivers.  Jason went wide receiver early and often, taking them with his first three picks (Tyreek Hill in the 3^rd, Amari Cooper in the 4^th, and Brandin Cooks in the 5^th), added another in the 9^th round (R. Woods), another in the 13^th round (M. Gallup), and for good measure, one more in the 14^th round (K. Stills).  If anyone needs a receiver, contact Jason.
• Most of any single NFL team drafted by one team: 5 – Bubble Craps Bandits drafted 5 members of the Kansas City Chiefs.  The next closest was sprouts who drafted 3 members of the Los Angeles Rams.  Every team in the league drafted at least one pair of teammates.  And in spite of his team name being “Joe’s Pats”, Joe only picked one Patriot.  Both Vandelay Industries and Young Guns outpicked Joe as they both have two Patriot players.
• Most sets of teammates drafted by one team: 4 – Vandelay Industries has two players from each of the New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos. 
• Defenses slipping in the draft – Last year, the first defense was selected in the fifth round and this year the first defense didn’t go until the 7^th round when two were selected.  The Coors Light Drunk Guys were the only team to draft two defenses, courtesy of the autodraft.
• Most diverse round – 13^th Round – At least one of every position was picked, including 4 defenses.  Along with the defenses, there were 2 WR’s, 1 QB, 1 RB, 1 TE and 1 Kicker. (Four rounds (the 7^th, 8^th, 9^th, and 11^th) had all but one position selected.)
• Defending Champ following winning pattern – Defending Champ Joe’s Pats followed his winning blueprint from last year drafting the same positions by round through the first 10 rounds.  Last season Joe's picks by round were: TE, RB, WR, WR, RB, QB, RB, WR, RB, WR, and he did the exact same thing this year.  That's either some really good planning, or a really weird coincidence, but we'll see if it works for Joe this time around.

Yahoo! Predictions – Through some magical software coding and prognosis powers, Yahoo! produces draft grades and overall record predictions for the upcoming season.  Here is a summary of their predictions:

Rk	Team	Mgr	W	L	T	Pts
1	Young Guns	John	11	2	0	1,400
2	Sofa King Back	James	9	3	1	1,372
3	Vandelay Industries	Rob	8	4	1	1,362
4	Joe's Pats	Joe	7	6	0	1,389
5	American BadAss	Jason	6	7	0	1,324
6	sprouts	Russ	6	7	0	1,302
7	Longshanks	Jerry	6	7	0	1,265
8	Finders Keepers	Jens	5	8	0	1,296
9	CL Drunk Guys	Shawn	4	9	0	1,273
10	Bubble Craps Bandits	Timmy	2	11	0	1,251

So Yahoo! is predicting a showdown between the King and the Young Guns!  I shall keep track of this and see how accurate Yahoo!’s prognosticators end up being.

There’s only one thing left to say…

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?!?!

Joe's Pats are the 2017 Champion!!

Joe’s Pats have climbed to the top of the peak once again!  In a closely fought battle with Bubble Craps Bandits, Joe pulled out a 9-point victory 101-92, to claim the title of 2017 Sacred Sundays League Champion!  This is Joe’s second league championship, and he joins Jason and James as the only people who have been multi-time champions.  (Joe’s first championship came in 2015).  With Joe’s victory, he also claimed his record-setting 6th Weekly High Score Prize!  And third in a row!  My god!  Impressive way to close out the season there Joe!  Well done!  Well done indeed!

This week we will tie up a few remaining loose ends and dole out the final Best Bench of the season.


EVERYONE NEEDS MONEY, THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT MONEY!
Here is the final money tally for this season:

		Weekly High	Playoffs	Total
1	Joe	$300	$225	$525.00
2	James	$150	$67	$217.00
3	Rob	$150	$45	$195.00
4	Timmy	$0	$113	$113.00
5	Russ	$50	$0	$50.00
6	Jerry	$50	$0	$50.00
7	Shawn	$50	$0	$50.00
8	John	$50	$0	$50.00

Joe set a record for the payout this season, with 6 Weekly High Score Prizes and the league championship.  Only Jason and Jens did not win a prize this season.
I’ll reach out to the winners separately to get your money to you as soon as possible.

TOP 5 RECAP
All season I’ve been tracking the success of the Top 5 Yahoo! picks for each position versus how they have done in reality.  With the full season now in the books, we can see precisely how they did:

	Top 5 Ranks per Yahoo!
QB		as of 9/5/17	As of season end	Pts	Avg
1	Aaron Rodgers		Russell Wilson Sea	318	21.2
2	Tom Brady		Alex Smith KC	287	19.1
3	Drew Brees		Cam Newton Car	279	18.6
4	Russell Wilson		Tom Brady NE	276	18.4
5	Matt Ryan		Carson Wentz Phi	269	17.9
RB
1	David Johnson		Todd Gurley II LAR	308	20.5
2	Le'Veon Bell		Le'Veon Bell Pit	243	16.2
3	LeSean McCoy		Kareem Hunt KC	226	15.1
4	Melvin Gordon		Alvin Kamara NO	204	13.6
5	Devonta Freeman		Melvin Gordon LAC	203	13.5
WR
1	Antonio Brown		Antonio Brown Pit	219	14.6
2	Julio Jones		DeAndre Hopkins Hou	210	14.0
3	Odell Beckham, Jr.		Tyreek Hill KC	163	10.9
4	Mike Evans		Keenan Allen LAC	156	10.4
5	A.J. Green		Julio Jones Atl	151	10.1
TE
1	Rob Gronkowski		Rob Gronkowski NE	155	10.3
2	Travis Kelce		Travis Kelce KC	143	9.5
3	Greg Olsen		Zach Ertz Phi	120	8.0
4	Jordan Reed		Jimmy Graham Sea	103	6.9
5	Jimmy Graham		Evan Engram NYG	103	6.9
DEF
1	Denver		Jacksonville Jax	203	13.5
2	Seattle		Baltimore Bal	199	13.3
3	Houston		Los Angeles LAR	188	12.5
4	Kansas City		Philadelphia Phi	167	11.1
5	Minnesota		Los Angeles LAC	158	10.5
K
1	Stephen Gostkowski		Greg Zuerlein LAR	180	12.0
2	Justin Tucker		Stephen Gostkowski NE	164	10.9
3	Matt Bryant		Robbie Gould SF	156	10.4
4	Dan Bailey		Chris Boswell Pit	153	10.2
5	Mason Crosby		Justin Tucker Bal	152	10.1

Out of 30 ranked players, 10 finished in the Top 5 of their respective position.  The Yahoo! experts did best with the Tight End position (3 of 5 finished in the top 5, with the top 2 predicted perfectly), while Kickers and Defense were a struggle.  Quarterbacks, Runningbacks and Wide Receivers all had 2 of 5 finish in the top 5. 

SCORING RULE CHANGE FOR NEXT SEASON?
In an effort to balance out some of the scoring between players, I’m considering changing the scoring to have 1 point scored per reception (PPR).  Quarterbacks have always dominated the points scored, and this would hopefully even things out, and get more points on the board. 
I’m still not completely sold on the idea, and will likely have this as a topic for discussion in Vegas prior to the next draft.  (Speaking of the next draft, we will once again target Labor Day Weekend, so start working toward that shit!)


DRAFT AND KEEPERS
The 2018 draft order will be the inverse of standings, so it will look like this:
1 John – Young Guns
2 Shawn – Coors Light Drunk Guys
3 Jerry – Longshanks
4 Jens – Finders Keepers
5 Jason – American BadAss
6 Russ – sprouts
7 Rob – Vandelay Industries
8 James – Sofa King Back
9 Timmy – Bubble Craps Bandits
10 Joe – Joe’s Pats

Keeper rules will be the same as in prior years:  Up to 2 players from the final roster for this season can be designated as keepers for next season.  Kept players will count as draft picks in the 2018 draft for whatever round they were drafted in 2017.  Any players who were not drafted in 2017 will count as a 15th round pick.  Any players who were keepers in 2017 will count as a first round pick.  If two players are kept who both have the same draft value, they will count as 1 pick in that round and 1 pick in the following round.  For example, if two players are kept with 1st round draft value, they will count as a first and as a second round pick.  (The exception to this rule is if two 15th round picks are kept – these would count as picks in 14th and 15th rounds).  I’ll send out a sheet in the next couple days with final rosters and 2018 draft values.


BEST BENCH
Three teams avoided the Best Bench distinction all season long, which is an accomplishment in and of itself.  These teams are:  Joe’s Pats, Finders Keepers and Sofa King Back.  Well done gentlemen for keeping your rosters tight! 
Couldn’t say the same for this week’s winner, who had a 32-point improvement possibility.  The Week 16 Best Bench, and final one for the season, goes to… the Coors Light Drunk Guys!  Shawn gets his third Best Bench of the year, and needed four roster moves to do it… T. Ginn Jr. for A. Jeffery +14, D. Murray for D. Freeman +8, Z. Ertz for C. Brate +7, D. Baldwin for K. Allen +3.


Well once again the season has gone by in a blur!  It’s hard to fathom how quickly 16 weeks can zoom by.  It is even harder to fathom that next season will be Sacred Sunday’s 15th year of existence!  Tell me how that one is possible?! 
I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and I wish all of you a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2018!

And I’m looking forward to seeing all of you guys in Vegas!!! (Labor Day Weekend…let’s do it!)

It all comes down to this...

The final matchup for the season is set, as Joe's Pats and Bubble Craps Bandits posted emphatic victories by large margins! 

The Bandits were the beneficiaries of big games from the Chiefs and the Panthers, and defeated Vandelay Industries 136-87 (49 point margin), while Joe's Pats had a monster game from Todd Gurley (44 points) and easily dispatched Sofa King Back 144-74 (70 point margin!).  Let's see some high scores like that in the finals! 

In the process, Joe's Pats claimed their 5th Weekly High Score Prize of the season, which ties the record set by Timmy in 2013 for the most Weekly High Score Prizes in a season.  Well done Joe!

In the other game of note this week, sprouts defeated American BadAss by a score of 69-61.  This puts sprouts in the final standing of 5th and American BadAss finishes 6th. 

Again just a short wrap-up this week, I'll get back to a full length one next week...

But, of course, we can't finish a week without the Best Bench.  It was a close one this week, as sprouts left 29 points on the bench, but that wasn't quite enough to overtake this week's winner who had a 30-point improvement possibility.  For the second time this season, the Best Bench goes to... Young Guns!!  John needed just three roster moves to make it happen:  R. Gould for J. Tucker (+14), M. Goodwin for J. Nelson (+10) and J. Smith-Schuster for J. Jones (+6).

Next week we crown our final Weekly High Score Prize and our new champion!!!

Moneyball!

In the first round of the playoffs, the Hand Boys held off their opponents and now move on to the semifinals, but more importantly, into the money!  The Bubble Craps Bandits bested sprouts 80-68 and Sofa King Back beat American BadAss 88-70, leaving the top 4 seeds to vie for the championship!  Top seed Vandelay Industries will take on the Bandits and second seed Joe’s Pats will face the King.  Good luck and congratulations to all teams for making it this far.

Sofa King Back last won the championship in 2014 and finished in last place last year.  Bubble Crap Bandits last won the championship in 2009, and finished in 8th last year.  Joe’s Pats last won the championship in 2015 and had a fourth place finish last year.  Vandelay Industries is technically the defending champ, but current ownership (Rob) is in his inaugural season.  If Rob takes home the championship, it will be the first time a first-time owner has won the championship since American BadAss claimed the title in 2004 (the first year Sacred Sundays existed).  Looking forward to see how it all shakes out!

Week 14 Weekly High Score Prize honors go to Joe’s Pats, who is claiming his league best 4th Weekly High Score Prize this season.  Joe scored 109 points in spite of a zero-point tight end and a 3 point defense.  He really only needed three players as he got a combined 79 points from Ben Rothlisomething (31 points), DeAndre Hopkins (24 points) and Todd Gurley (24 points).  Great work Joe!  Peaking at just the right time!

In other league scores, Young Guns had a rough go of it, with not one player on the roster scoring in double digits and finishing with a final score of just 38 points.  While this is pretty low, it is still markedly better than the lowest score of all-time—a record set in Week 4 of 2008 of only 21 points scored by American BadAss.  The lowest score in a victory so far this year is 54, held by the Bubble Crap Bandits who beat Finders Keepers 54-42 in Week 9.  The highest score in a loss this season was Joe’s Pats who scored 118 points in a losing effort to Young Guns in Week 12, 122-118.  (That actually tied the all-time league record for the highest score in a loss! Ouch!)  Boy this can be a weird game sometimes…

Just a short update this week, but it wouldn't be complete without the Best Bench.  There were not a whole lot of points left sitting idle this week…but this week’s Best Bench could have improved by a solid 39 points.  A familiar face, and for a league leading 4th time this season, the Week 14 Best Bench goes to… American BadAss!  Jason needed four roster moves to get there:  J. Williams for D. Lewis +16, Detroit for Pittsburgh +14, D. Prescott for R. Wilson +5 and S. Diggs for R. Anderson +4.

Only two more weeks until we crown a champion!! And get a visit from Santa!!

Playoff teams are set!!

It’s over!  The regular season is done and it is time for the playoffs!  After all the what-ifs, tie-breaker scenarios, and head-to-head matchup breakdowns, it came down to a very simple answer… 6 games.  Six teams won six games or more, and thus make it in to the playoffs.  Leading the way is the SURGING Vandelay Industries (1), having taken home their third Weekly High Score Prize this week (three in a row, I might add), along with Joe’s Pats (2) who are the division winners and will receive first round byes.  The automatic entries from each division are: Sofa King Back (3) and Bubble Craps Bandits (4).  The wild cards are:  sprouts (5) and American BadAss (6). 

In terms of league standings, and to determine draft order next season, the remaining teams finished in this order: 7) Finders Keepers – Jens, 8) Longshanks – Jerry, 9) Coors Light Drunk Guys – Shawn, 10) Young Guns – John. 


Also to circle back to my playoff predictions in Week 5, and to show even the best of us can make mistakes, I was correct on only 4 of 6 picks.  My correct picks were: Bubble Craps Bandits, Joe’s Pats, sprouts and Vandelay Industries.  My incorrect picks were: Young Guns and Coors Light Drunk Guys, who were beaten out by Sofa King Back and American BadAss.  My apologies to BadAss and King… I should never have doubted you guys!  As for Young Guns and Drunks… what the hell guys?!  You gotta help me out here!  Ha! 



Remember, all teams are eligible to win the Weekly High Score Prize through Week 16, so make sure you set your roster each week.  Congratulations and good luck to all the playoff teams!


BEST BENCH
Not a whole lot of points left on the bench this week, but this week’s winner scored the "Perfect Best Bench", a +27.  Taking home the honor, and for the second time this season… the Coors Light Drunk Guys!  Shawn needed a four player swap to achieve perfection:  C. Brate for Z. Ertz +13, T. Riddick for F. Gore +6, J. Lambo for A. Vinatieri +6, D. Baldwin for A. Jeffery +2.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE PLAYOFFS?!?