Week 3: No Witty Title

I have no cool title this week, oh well.  I had no good ideas. My apologies.  What I do have is a cool spreadsheet that shows you the latest standings before tomorrow comes around.  You can view them at this link here if you really want.  And if anyone wants to see the league page, click here.

As far as news this week, we had a few games come down to the wire-ish.

Ren beat Rob by 2.16.  It shouldn't have been that close, but Ren's only remaining player scored him a whopping 3.3 points.  Being down only 1.14 with a starting RB playing on Monday night should mean you are safe.  Ren squeaked by, but a win is a win.

Jordan beat Tyler by 12.04, but that didn't come about until the 4th quarter of the MNF game.

Trevor tried to pull a Jordan and get a Monday night miracle but ended up losing by 10 to Matt.  Unfortunately for him, DeSean Jackson came back down to earth this week.

The rest of the games were never really close or in question so we can skip over those.

Trevor was the unluckiest of the teams based on the fact that he was the 5th highest scorer but still lost.  And by far the luckiest team of this week was Geoff.  He was the 11th highest scorer (aka second lowest score), but he was lucky enough to play Chad, who was the lowest scorer of the week.  Chad trusted former Ute Alex Smith two weeks in a row over Cam Newton, and both times Cam would have led him to victory. Next week, Alex Smith is on bye.  Maybe he will lead Chad to his first victory of the year.

Looking forward to next week, Ren and Skyler are the best matchup based on standings (1 vs 4), while the lowest two matched up are Trevor and Geoff (10 vs 11).  We also have another Cousin Clash this week (Skyler vs Brady was the first Cousin Clash of the season, and it happened this last week), with the Bolivian Bowl, or maybe the Batlle of the Bolivians?

As far as games that likely have a Sunday night or Monday night games, the list is below with the format of the first number being Sunday night, and the second number being Monday night.

Skyler 0/2 vs Ren 0/0
Geoff 0/0 vs Trevor 3/0
Chad 1/0 vs TJ 0/0
Brady 0/0 vs Jordan 1/1
Matt 1/2 vs Tyler 2/0
Rob 0/2 vs Kyle 1/1

I have nothing else to say, so goodnight, and good luck...unless you are Ren.

Week 2 and the Terrible, Horrible, No Wait, Very Good Game

The games this week were significantly closer than last week, which made for some tense final moments for a couple of us. (Hyperlinked in case someone not in the league is reading and wants to see the league page.  It's unlikely, but you never know)

Skyler started tonight down 36.54, but with some miracle production (and a last minute scare), the Bears DST and Tyler Lockett combined for 38 points, leading to a win over Chad. None of it would have happened had Cam Newton started in place of Alex Smith, but that's what you get for putting your trust in a Ute.

The Matt vs Ren game was a little more intense because Ren had two people playing tonight, while Matt had one.  In the end, Matt was able to hang on to his lead with 9.8 points from Jordan Howard.  Ren almost got the comeback off of the 7 point leg of Janikowski and the 18.3 points from Allen Robinson, but it just wasn't meant to be.  Matt got the win by 2.1.  Matt is probably glad for the 3 team trade this week, as it cleared the path for Mahomes and his monster game to be in his starting lineup.  Maybe he would have started Mahomes anyway, but who knows.

The Kyle and Jordan matchup ended last night, but it was a game decided by less than 4 points.  After all the crap Kyle took after the 3 team trade last week, the trade probably got him the victory.  Had he started Kareem Hunt instead of James Conner, he would have dropped 4 points, and then had he started Gronk instead of Lewis, he would have dropped 3 more points.  Of course had he not had Drew Brees, he would have had to choose between Goff, and Ryan.  If he would have picked Goff, he would have lost, and if he would have picked Ryan, he would have won even with Gronk and Hunt.  At the end of the day, a win is a win, and that's all Kyle cares about.

Trevor and Rob finished with a 7 point difference, but that also ended last night when Saquon only got Trevor 24.8 points.  What a scrub.  Feel free to trade him to me for letting you down Trevor.

The other games weren't close enough to really get in depth, but it is worth mentioning is TJ got the high score of the week.  I didn't want to mention it because that was his goal, and his game was never really in doubt, but at the same time, it would just be petty of me not to at least give him the shout out since I was going crazy over my high score last week.  So well done TJ.  It was also high enough that he will be in first place overall when the standings are updated.

And sorry about your luck Tyler.  He was the number 5 scorer of the week but ran into the number 1 team this week (TJ).  The good luck team of the week was Kyle, who was the 3rd lowest score of the week, but he got to play Jordan, who was the 2nd lowest scorer of the week.

Looking forward to next week, Skyler and Brady are the only 2-0 teams that will play each other, so that should be an interesting result.  Brady will also have a Josh Gordon who is playing with Tom Brady.  I swear I'm not angry about this.  I suppose it makes up for him not having Joe Mixon.  Skyler will have at least one player on Monday night, while Brady will have several Patriots on Sunday night.

*Quick Side Note: I swear I don't like talking in 3rd person, and I notice how much I switch between saying I/me and Skyler.  I try to be consistent about using Skyler when I talk about my team instead of saying "my team", and then I refer to myself as me/I when I am writing about my feelings or perspective.  Anyway, back to the rest of next weeks preview*

Chad battles Geoff in a battle of winless teams.  0-2 is Chad's worst start since 2013, so let's see if he can make history and start 0-3.  I will be cheering for you, Geoff.  Geoff will likely have two starters playing Sunday night, while all of Chad's team will be done after the early Sunday games (barring waiver players that become starters)

Undefeated Matt takes on defeated Trevor.  It's not like starting 3-0 guarantees you a playoff spot, and starting 0-3 doesn't mean you will miss the playoffs, but I'm sure they will both be motivated for a win this week.  I don't think I'll have much time this week if today is any indication, but I will try and look up the history for teams starting with those records and if they make the playoffs.  Matt has two players playing Sunday night, and Trevor should have one on Monday night.

Ren and Rob will play each other while each sports a 1-1 record.  Whoever wins will at least keep pace with Matt for the division lead. I have no dog in this fight or anything snarky to say, or any fun fact to share.  I'm just rambling because I feel bad that they had such a short section.  Rob has a Sunday night player on his bench, while Ren has a Monday night player on his bench.  It's too early to tell if they will be started this week, but it could happen.

Top Team TJ takes on Kyle's revamped squad.  Given how Kyle has finished the last two weeks, I would imagine TJ has a good chance at staying undefeated, but stranger things have happened.  "Le'Veon Watch" (similar to Panda Watch that happened at the San Diego Zoo in the mid-70's) will be less fun since Kyle has both Bell and Conner, but it was good drama while it lasted.  Here's to hoping Bell comes back this week and makes me feel a lot better about my trade.  Kyle will have a starting running back going on Monday night, while TJ could start four players from Sunday night's game.  Not sure if he will, but it could make his Sunday night more entertaining.

Last and almost, but not quite, least is Jordan (actually 4th least if my math is right), who is 0-2, vs Tyler, who is 1-1.  Jordan should have two guys playing on Monday Night Football, so maybe he will get a Monday Night Miracle for his first win of the season.  Tyler doesn't appear to have any primetime players this week -- Thursday Night Football does not count as primetime in my book.

Well that's it for this week, good luck to everyone except Brady next week.  Fun fact -- Brady and Matt never play each other in the regular season, meaning they could both go undefeated and meet up in the championship having gone 14-0 (13-0 in the regular season and 1-0 in the playoffs).  I obviously don't want to see it happen, but it would be interesting if it did happen

Week 1 and All is Well

Week one is in the books and I am back to writing a weekly summary – which means I won and I don’t hate fantasy football at the moment.

None of the games were within 20 points, but two of the games came down to the final night.  TJ was able to beat Jordan on the strength of his Monday night players (he historically has issues with Monday nights), and Matt ended up beating Rob.  The game would have been a little closer had Rob not cut his kicker, but whatever floats his boat.

High scorer of the week: Skyler – enjoyed some James Conner, Drew Brees and Mike Evans luck.

Low scorer of the week: Kyle – hates Le’Veon Bell, Marquise Goodwin, and Kareem Hunt.

Unlucky team of the week: Jordan – 5^th highest scorer of the week, but played against the 2^nd highest scorer of the week.

Lucky team of the week: Matt – 128 points isn’t really lucky, but 6 teams scored higher than he did, so he got a little lucky he didn’t play one of them.  Also, look for him to trade one of his QB’s – he currently owns 2 of the top 5 QB’s.  Then again, 2 of the top 6 QB’s are on waivers, so maybe wait another week to trade him.  Just don’t let him hustle you if you do decide to trade with him!

Looking forward to next week, there are two games against undefeated teams, and two games against defeated teams.  I don’t want to look into the current projections to predict the games because A) they haven’t updated their projections recently, B) their projections are generally terrible, and C) I am personally bitter against them because they have James Conner under 2 points, which isn’t happening.  All of that being said Rob and Trevor are projected to be within 2 points and TJ and Tyler are projected to be within 4.  I doubt any of that plays out, but it would make for some exciting games.

Looking at Monday night, the next game is the Seahawks and the Bears.  Match-ups that will likely be significantly effected by that game include Ren (Allen Robinson) vs. Matt (Jordan Howard), and maybe TJ (If he starts Russel Wilson, and Trey Burton) vs Tyler.  We will see if some streamer/flex plays make an appearance (Cohen, Carson, Penny, or Lockett), but I doubt it given the lack of bye weeks.

I have a nice long commute these days, so I might be writing more – depends how much work I need to do during the ride, so there may be a more in depth matchup preview later in the week.  Good luck to everyone (except Chad) this week.