Week 16: It All Comes Down to This

After some high scoring games in week 15, we finally know our matchup for the championship -- Trevor vs Brady.  They were the top two seeds going into the playoffs, which has happened 5 other times in recorded league history.  I thought it was going to be lower.  But before we go into the details of this upcoming game, let's look at the games behind us.

Game Recaps

Trevor vs Brandon: Brandon put up a solid 136.44 this week.  Of the 8 teams in action this week, that was the 4th highest score.  However, this is the playoffs and all of those bottom-feeder teams are playing Christian McCaffrey.  In the games that mattered, Brandon's 136.44 was the lowest score of the playoff teams.  I don't really know what it feels like to have 136.44 be a bad week, but that is why I'm playing for 11th place.  Anyway, Brandon had some really nice games from a wide variety of people, but none of them broke 26 points.  Trevor had one guy score 30 and another score 43 while also having solid games from other players as well.  What's crazy is that Trevor made almost every wrong call on who to start (of players healthy that is).  His bench TE outscored his starting TE by 18 points, and of his 5 RB who played this week, he started 3 of them, and the two on the bench were his #1 and #3 scoring running backs this week.  Apparently, this was just his week, and there's nothing Brandon could have done about it.

Tyler vs Brady: In the other semifinal matchup, the unlikely trio of Josh Allen, David Montgomery, and Tony Pollard combined for 100 points, which meant the other 6 people on Brady's team combined for just a hair under 60 points.  Tyler's top 3 players scored just over 70 points, meaning the other 6 people on his team scored 70 points. Moral of the story -- when your studs go off, you win important games.  I know, that's a revolutionary take, and no one has ever thought of it before in fantasy football.  Maybe I can apply it next year and have studs go off during regular-season games. In good news for Brady, George Kittle could be back this weekend.  I'm not sure Brady wants to trust him right away, but Kittle would certainly be an upgrade over Irv Smith.

Award Season

Tommy was the only one to make any picks this week, so he takes the season lead over Tyler.  With an 11 game lead and only two weeks to go, I think Tommy wins this for the season.

Championship Preview

Trevor vs Brady:  It has all come down to one final game. The preseason numbers had Brady at an 80% chance to make the playoffs (4th best in the league), and Trevor at a 65% chance (10th best in the league), which means Trevor outperformed the projections by a healthy margin, and Brady has performed as expected..

The schedule is a little different with Christmas Eve and Christmas.  The earliest game this week happens on Friday instead of Thursday. Trevor has 0 players on Thursday, 5 players on Saturday, and 1 player in prime time. Brady has 0 players on Friday,  1 player on Saturday, and 1 player in primetime.  Trevor's last primetime player plays on Sunday night (Tannehill), and Brady's last primetime player plays on Monday night (Josh Allen).  Those were the MVP's of their respective teams last week, so it seems like we won't know the champion until late Monday.

This year, Brady leads Trevor (weeks 1-13, 15) 8 to 6, including the actual head to head win in week 6. However, in the last 4 weeks, Trevor leads Brady 3-1.  In the one week that Brady led Trevor in the last four weeks, he only beat Trevor by 3.

Trevor leads in all time regular season matchups 6-5.  They have never met in the playoffs, and I don't care to look up the consolation bracket information.  Fun fact: This is the first year and Brady and Trevor have made the playoffs at the same time.  We will see one or the other (or neither), but we've never seen both until now.  

Brady is 1 for 2 in the playoffs, and now is tied for the league lead in championship appearances at 3 (he is tied with Skyler [3-0], Rob [2-1], and Chad [0-3].  If he wins, he becomes the 3rd multi championship winner, and joins Rob with a winning record in the championship. Trevor makes his first appearance, and he is building off of last year where he made his first semi-final apperance.  All 3 of Brady's championship appearances have come in the last 4 years.  This has been the best stretch of their respective fantasy careers.

Looking head to head at each position, I give Brady the edge at QB, RB1, TE, Flex, and K.  I give Trevor the edge at RB2 (especially if Zeke plays), WR1, WR2, and DST.  I think QB, RB1, and DST are narrow advantages, and Flex depdning on McLaurin health. I think WR1, WR2, and K are bigger advantages, and RB2, TE, and Flex are very much dependent on injuries and who plays, and I could see those going either way.

My final guess, Tannehill, Hopkins, and Hill go off and take Trevor to the promised land, and he gets his name on the trophy for the first time. 

Week 14.5: There is Still Football Going On?

Apparently, I have just completely checked out this year.  Sorry guys.  Fortunately the recap and preview this week will be quick since I only focus on the playoffs.

Game Recaps

Brandon vs Chad: In the first battle, Brandon came away victorious.  Unfortunately, because I am bad at writing, and because our website is terrible, I can't tell who Brandon's RB and DST were because he has since dropped them.  I think he had the Cardinals DST, but I don't remember who his RB was.  Either way, he beat Chad by a healthy margin and moves on to the semi's.  That's what happens when Your QB, RB, and WR combine for 95 points. Chad had a couple of solid games from 4 players, but his team combined for only 106 points.

Kyle vs Tyler: Kyle put up 138 points -- which was his 4th highest score (out of 14) this season, but unfortunately Tyler put up 171 points -- which was also his 4th highest score of this season.  Let that sink in -- Tyler has put up 170+ four times this season.  He was also the only non-North person to lose to Skyler this year.  So his team can hit the highest of highs and lowest of lows.  Speaking of Tyler's losses this year, he lost to Kyle twice in the regular season, so this was a great revenge game for him.

Award Season

The only award I wanted to say mattered was winning in the playoffs, but Tyler won this week in the pick 'em game, and now he and Tommy are tied on the season.  So I guess we will keep following along since it's a close game. 

Game Preview

Trevor vs Brandon: Trevor had two players on Thursday night, no players on Saturday, and no players in primetime.  Brandon had no players on Thursday night, one player on Saturday, and no players in primetime. Combined, they only have three guys in the Sunday afternoon slot, so this game should be decided early.  From weeks 1-13, Trevor outscored Brandon 8 of the 13 games.  Trevor averaged 0.715 more points per game than Brandon, but Brandon's median score was 5 points higher than Trevor's median score.  Trevor is the only person remaining in the playoffs in the league who never scored below 100 points this season. Trevor had a higher season high score (189 to 168) and a higher season low score (101 to 88) than Brandon.  When I went through the process of trying to find outliers, I had to find the quartile's to calculate the InterQuartile Range (IQR).  First, no one remaining had any 'outlier' games, and second, Trevor had the highest lower quartlie, the lowest higher quartile, and therefore, the smallest IQR.  Basically, Trevor is the most consistent team remaining in the playoffs, and is least likely to crap the bed (I'm sorry if this jinxes you my Charger brother).  I also looked at the average scores in groups.  Brandon had the higher average score in the weeks 1-4 group, but Trevor had the higher average in the weeks 5-8 gorup and the weeks 9-13 group. Based on all of that, I'm taking Trevor to win this series and get to his first championship game.

Tyler vs Brady: Tyler had no players on Thursday night, one player on Saturday, and one player in primetime.  Brady had no players on Thursday night, one player on Saturday and one player in primetime.  Hold on, I'm being told that Brady did indeed have a player on Thursday.  Apparently Keenan Allen did play for both Brady and the Chargers, but he only scored 2.6 points.  Woof.  My apologies.  Their primetime game is Sunday night, so this will be finished before going into Monday. From weeks 1-13, Tyler outscored Brady 8 of the 13 games. Tyler averaged 3.715 more points per game than Brady, but Brady's median score is 8 points higher than Tyler's median score. Tyler had a higher season high score (184 to 171), and Brady had a higher season low score (92 to 81). Their IQR score is only 4 points apart, and their Q1 and Q3 scores are close, so they have roughly the same consistency all season.  I set a check at how many times teams scored over 150.  Tyler did it 3 times, Brady did it twice (regular season only).  If you include the playoffs, Tyler gets to 4.  I'm not sure where Brady would be because he sat all of his players. Tyler averaged 20 points more weeks 1-4, Brady averaged 10 points more weeks 5-8, and Tyler averaged 2 points more weeks 9-13.  Tyler has the higher cieling and the lower floor, and with Brees coming back this week, that puts Kamara back into a ceiling player, so I'll pick Tyler to win this week.

At the time of publication, Trevor is projected to win by 3, and Tyler is projected to win by 1 Brady is projected to win by 6.  I went back to double check my original numbers and Josh Allen scored a TD to give Brady the projected edge.

Anyway, best of luck to the four teams that matter.  For the rest of us losers, there's always next year.

Week 14 -- I mean 13...

 ...this was totally published before week 14 started.  No idea why you guys didn't see it earlier. This week saw some fun battles for the top spots, but was fairly anticlimactic for the final wild card spot.  Trevor held on to the top spot by 9 points over Brandon, and Brady only had a minor lead for a while, giving Kyle hope that he could pass Brady for the second bye.  Eventually Brady slammed the door shut though, and left Kyle stuck in 3rd.  Tyler had a cake walk this week, which made things nearly impossible for Matt to make a comeback and sneak into the playoffs.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Brady: After two weeks of greatness, Skyler's team regressed to below 100 points. The David Montgomery revenge tour continued, with another season high performance against a former manager. Allen and Monty combined for 55 points and gave Brady the comfortable win.

Chad vs Tommy:  Three weeks ago Chad was looking good and had a shot at the bye week.  He then crapped the bed against Skyler last week, and then got mauled to death by Tommy this week (two of the worst teams this year).  Chad was the 7th highest scorer this week (not great, but not terrible) with 118 points, and he lost by 66.38 points.  This was the run away beatdown of the week. I thought it was going to be the beatdown of the year, but that looks to have come in week two when Kyle beat Jordan by 67.76.  Speaking of Jordan, you could have added Jordan's score this week to Chad's score, and Chad would have only won by fewer than 10 points. Mahomes and Cook each scored 20+ and combined for 45.22 -- Tommy got 45 from Darren Waller alone. Chad had two starters get over 20+ points -- Tommy had three starters that didn't.  One of the starters that didn't was his kicker, who still get 16 points. Tommy singlehandedly made this the bonanza. 

Trevor vs Matt:  This was the nail-biter of the week, and also one of the two most important games for playoff seedings.  Trevor needed to win, for Brandon to lose, and to score just enough to keep ahead of Brandon, and he would get the top seed.  Spoiler alert, mission accomplished.  This is Trevor's first season being the top team in the regular season.  Congratulations! He got there with 30+ from Tannehill, and a lot of solid (10-19 points) games from the rest of his team.  Matt had two players score over 20, but it wasn't enough as the rest of his team struggled to hit double digits.  Matt needed to win or a Tyler loss, and he needed to score enough points to pass Tyler - literally the exact opposite of that happened.  Congrats though on getting the top seed of the consolation bracket?

Brandon vs Rob: In one of the other big playoff seeding games, Rob pulled off the big upset and beat Brandon by 30.  The loss put Brandon to number two overall, but because of the league structure/rules, it gives Brandon the 4th seed. Rob secured the win with 20+ from Roethlisberger, and around 95 points from his Quartet of Death (Adams, Thomas, Kelce, and Julio).  Congrats Rob on winning the consolation bracket.

Kyle vs TJ: This was an impressive beatdown, which is what Kyle needed for a chance at the 2 seed and the bye.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen, but Kyle should feel good after getting four players with 20+ points.  TJ started the usually stout Steelers DST and got 4 points from them -- and that was still more than TJ's starting RB, WR, and K combined.

Tyler vs Jordan: Remember how Tommy singlehandedly made his matchup the bonanza?  Jordan did the opposite for this matchup. Tyler was the 4th highest scorer this week, and this was still the battle of ineptitude. It was the only matchup this week where the combined score didn't break 200 points.  Jordan was so bad, (how bad was he?), Jordan was so bad, that his starters lost to his own bench (they had four players combine for 1.5 points), and only beat Chad's bench by fewer than 2 points.

Award Season

Pick 'em:  Tommy won the week with 12, while Tyler got 11.  There were only 15 games last week.  Well done gentlemen.  Tommy leads Tyler by 4 on the season.

Highest Scorer of the Week: Turbo

Lowest Scorer of the Week: Jordan

Luckiest Team of the Week: Trevor -- he was the lowest scoring winner (but he was 6th overall, so not that lucky), but he also managed to score enough to keep Brandon at bay, and also had Brandon lose.  This makes up for his unlucky stretch there a few weeks back.

Unluckiest Team of the Week:  No one in the bottom 6 scorers won, so we'll give it to Brandon for losing out on the 1 seed in the last week.

MVP: Darren Waller for being in the 40+ point club was going to be the winner, but then after looking at how Trevor won the luckiest team, I am giving it to his top scorer, Ryan Tannehill.  He didn't break 26 points from week 7 on, but in week 13, when Trevor needed him most, he came up with 33 points.  It's not a big jump, but it was enough to bring Trevor to the (regular season) promised land.

LVP: Everyone who started for Jordan and TJ.  Those teams combined for ~155 points.  AKA they would have lost to Tommy by nearly 30.

Playoff Seedings

1. Trevor
2. Brady
3. Kyle
4. Brandon
5. Chad
6. Tyler

Game Previews

Brandon (4) vs Chad (5): Brandon has one player on Thursday night and one player in primetime.  Chad has no players on Thursday night and one player in primetime.  I'm giving Brandon the narrow edge in this matchup based on the matchups of each of their starters.  I hope I'm wrong.  I'm cheering for Chad since he's in the North division.  Brandon used to be in the North, so if he wins, I'm counting it as a minor victory for the division.

Kyle (3) vs Tyler (6): Kyle has one player on Thursday night and two players in primetime.  Tyler has no players on Thursday night and two players in primetime.  3 of those 4 primetime games are Monday night.  Kyle has Kareem Hunt, and Tyler has Nick Chubb, so they will be watching the Browns backfield anxiously. I think this is close, but I'll give Tyler the edge. Kamara had his best week with Taysom in the backfield, and I think he builds on that, plus with Julio out, Ridley could be in a for a big game.

Good luck to Trevor, Chad, and Brandon.  They haven't won a trophy yet, and I'd rather they win than anyone on the other side of the bracket.

Week 12: We Finally Have Cannon Blasts

One day, I am going to learn video editing with photoshop or something, and when someone is officially eliminated from playoff contention (or from the playoffs), I want to play the cannon blast scene from the Hunger Games, and have each person's image projected on the screen.  Instead, you will just have to imagine four cannon blasts, one for TJ, Jordan, Skyler, and Tommy.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Chad: In the upset of the week, number 12 Skyler took down number 2 Chad. In doing so, he opened the door for Brady to get the bye week, and Chad could potentially drop to the 4th or 5th seed.  But more on that later.  This game saw Skyler lead by over 100 points on Thursday night.  At one point, Chad was still projected to win, but season lows by Miles Sanders, Tyler Lockett, and Dalvin Cook (eliminating games he didn't play in) did him in.  Skyler got big games from AJ and Hollywood Brown, and Diontae Johnson -- all from his bench.  In all seriousness, he got a season-high score from Deshaun Watson, Duke Johnson, and a career-high score from Antonio Gibson.  This was also the weekly bonanza, and beat out Matt vs Brandon for that honor by ~6 points.

Brady vs Tommy: Josh Allen had a bye last week, so this was his first week with his new team.  He put up one of the lower games of his season at 17.48 points, but that didn't matter too much as three other guys on Brady's team outscored him, and two other guys still put up 16 points.  Tommy had several solid performances, but only James Robinson scored 25+ points.  In terms of other narratives and matchups within this matchup, this game was Carson's first start since Tommy traded for him. He acquired Carson by trading Montgomery to Skyler.  Skyler eventually traded him to Brady.  This week, Montgomery had his revenge game against Tommy by having his season-high score of 25 points.  Also, Brady's kicker scored 21 points this week.

Matt vs Brandon: If I had told you before this game started, that Kyler Murray and Melvin Gordon combined for 11 points, how many of you would have bet on Brandon to win? Maybe that bet would have evened up Matt's tab with Tyler, because Matt managed to win anyway.  Before this game, Kyler didn't score fewer than 24 points.  This week he had fewer than 8.  It didn't matter because Will Fuller V had XXXV points (a season-high), and season-high scores from Engram, Dan Bailey (kickers are people too), and over 73 points combined from DK, Kenyan, and the Saints DST.  Brandon had a normally great week at 133 points, but that only made him the 7th highest scorer of the week.  Brandon is sobbing all the way to first place -- but he could potentially move to the 5th seed next week.  Again, more on that later.

Trevor vs Rob: This was the beat down of the week. Most games were around 20 points apart, but this one ended at more than 55 (insert fantasy footballers sound drop here) points apart.  Trevor put the beatdown on by playing Tyreek Hill during one of the greatest games of all time.  Switching to real football for a moment, I really do enjoy watching the Chiefs (I know, that's super controversial), and seeing Tyreek this last week was watching greatness. I obviously want the Titans to win the Superbowl every year, but if we get the Chiefs playing in it every year, that's not a bad consolation prize.  Back to fantasy -- Ekeler and Samuel came back healthy, and nearly combined for 50 points.  Between those two and Tyreek, Trevor would have beaten Rob as they combined for over 100 points.  Rob was let down by most of his team, but no one more than Derek Carr.  If we round to the nearest point, Derek Carr got 1 point.  If we want to round to the nearest half-point, he got 0.5 points.  Four turnovers did him in as he scored 0.6 points this week.  That helped Rob be under 100 points for the week.  This week, the league averaged 130 points -- Rob scored nearly 35 points fewer than the league average.

TJ vs Tyler: Speaking of 35 points fewer than league average, let's talk about TJ. He had four guys score in the single digits, and only one guy score over 20. Tyler put the beatdown on with a season-high from Chubb, and 20+ point games from Rodgers and Evans. This was a really good week for Tyler, especially since Zeke and Kamara combined for 9.1 points.  Imagine telling the league on draft day that they would combine for 9.1 points in week 12.  It's been a weird year for sure.  

Kyle vs Jordan: Kyle won this game and locked in the 3 seed.  Mathematically he could move up, but it won't happen -- again, more on that later.  This was the nail-biter of the week, as it was the closest game.  It wasn't that much of a nail-biter though as they were about 17 points apart.  This was also the battle of ineptitude as they combined for the lowest combined score this week.  Kyle secured the win by getting a combined 50 points from Fitzpatrick and Allen Robinson.  Speaking of which, I'm glad Fitzpatrick got a chance to start again. Jordan tried to keep it close with good to solid games from Tonyan, the Cardinals DST, and Justin Jefferson.  Unfortunately, he didn't get the miracle he needed from Gus Edwards on Wednesday Afternoon Football.  The Gus Bus scored a TD late in the first quarter to give Jordan hope, but then did nothing else the rest of the game, which was odd given Dobbins and Ingram were out.

Award Season

Pick 'em: Skyler wins again, by getting 13 right, while Tyler got 11, and Tommy got 9.  Tommy does lead with 111 for the season, and Tyler right behind him with 109.

Highest Scorer of the Week:  It's Skyler for back to back weeks.  This is the highlight of his season given how the rest of his season has gone.

Lowest Scorer of the Week:  TJ was one of two teams under 100 points -- unfortunately, he was 0.8 points behind Rob for this award.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Kyle was the 8th lowest scorer of the week, but he still won, so he wins the award this week.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Chad was the 6th highest scorer, but still lost, so he wins this award this week.

MVP: Tyreek. Hill.

LVP: There weren't any super close games where I could pick on someone for coming up short.  This goes to 0.6 Derek Carr.

Game Previews

As a note, there are no Thursday night games, and this is the last week of byes. Primetime will be Sunday night football and beyond (so all of Monday and Tuesday next week).

Skyler (10) vs Brady (4): Skyler has three players in primetime. He has one player on bye. Brady has three players in primetime. He has no players on bye.

Chad (3) vs Tommy (11): Chad has two players in primetime. He has one player on bye. Tommy has three players in primetime. He has two players on bye.

Trevor (2) vs Matt (7): Trevor has four players in primetime. He has no players on bye. Matt has one player in primetime. He has no players on bye.

Brandon (1) vs Rob (8): Brandon has three players in primetime. He has one player on bye. Rob has five players in primetime (assuming Julio is healthy and Rob plays him). He has no players on bye.

Kyle (5) vs TJ (9): Kyle has one player in primetime. He has two players on bye. TJ has two players in primetime. He has three players on bye.

Tyler (6) vs Jordan(12): Tyler has two players in primetime. He has two players on bye. Jordan has one player in primetime. He has no players on bye.

Playoff Previews

Eliminated - Skyler, Tommy, TJ, and Jordan.

Playoffs clinched - Chad, Brady, Brandon, Trevor, and Kyle

Playoffs TBD - Matt, Rob, and Tyler.

Bye's clinched: None. 

• Brandon can clinch with a win OR a Trevor loss. If he loses, and Trevor wins, it will come down to tie-breakers
• Brady/Chad/Kyle - clinch if one wins and the other two loses.  If all win (or all lose), Chad currently leads by fewer than 19 points over Brady, so it's still within reach for Brady to catch Chad on points.  Kyle is currently 60 points behind Brady and 80 points behind Chad, so the only realistic way he clinches a bye is if he wins and the other two loses.
• Trevor can clinch with a win AND a Brandon loss AND factoring in the above scenarios.
• Current lead on points if it comes down to a 5 way tie
• Trevor 1586
• Brandon 1582
• Chad 1577
• Brady 1558
• Kyle 1497

Divisions clinched: Kyle (West).

Wild Card Scenarios:

• The two lowest winning/scoring team of the 5 teams above
• The highest winning/scoring team of Matt, Rob, and Tyler.
• None of them play each other this week, so there is no elimination game between them.
• If one wins, and the other two loses, he is the 6 seed.  No offense to TJ, but Tyler has the easiest matchup by far.
• Current lead on points if it comes down to a 3 way tie
• Tyler 1606
• Matt 1596
• Rob 1394
  
• If all three lose, but Matt outscores Tyler, he could move into 6th.

Good luck to Brady (I won't be throwing my game, don't worry), Chad, Trevor, Rob, Kyle, and Tyler this week.  That would make the most chaos at the top, but less chaos at the bottom.

Week 11: Every One is Still Alive, and Two People Have Clinched a Spot

In a big week for playoff implications, the four teams on the bubble stayed alive, while only two of the four teams that could clinch a spot did.  This was a much higher scoring week than last week.  Only one team was under 100 points (and that was by less than a point), whereas last week, we had 5 teams under 100.  Last week only saw two teams score over 120 points -- this week had ten teams score over that same mark.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Tommy: The front runner for the battle of ineptitude ended up being the weekly bonanza by having a combined score of 280+. Skyler had one 30+ point scorer, and an additional 20+ point scorer as well.  Tommy had three players score 20+.  Skyler was able to get the win by the strength of his middle-tier guys.  He had four players score 15+, and most of his team hit double digits (only two players had <10 points, but they still had 9+ points) while Tommy had only one other player score 15+ and had four players with <10 points.

Brady vs Chad:  In the battle for North supremacy and a bye week, Chad was able to get a solid win by 16+ points in the battle of ineptitude.  He was led victory by a combined 50 points from Mahomes and Dalvin, while also getting 20+ from Lockett.  Brady had the leading scorer of the game with Keenan Allen nearly putting up 35, but only one other player on his team had more than 13.5 points.  The win guarantees Chad makes the playoffs -- he is still not guaranteed to win the division though. Given their schedules, it will likely be hard for Brady to make up ground on Chad, but he should clinch the playoffs net week.

Rob vs Matt: Everyone in the league had an eye on this matchup.  If Matt won, it would have eliminated Skyler, Tommy, and Jordan, and no one would have clinched the playoffs. Rob made half of the league very happy with four players having a good game with 19+ points. Matt was let down by most of his team.  He was the only one to not break 100.  His bench had 91 points.  He would have been crazy to start Taysom over Kyler (the only starter to score 18.5 or more for Matt), but Taysom did outscore Kyler this week (by less than a point, but still).  I think that's just a sign that it wasn't Matt's week.  With the win, Rob becomes part of the 5 win club, which means that another win by him will eliminate all of the 3 win teams (Matt is already part of this club, and Tyler is there as well).

Trevor vs Brandon: Brandon's win over Trevor essentially locked up the division and a bye week for Brandon -- and he did it with a Monday Night Miracle in the nail-biter of the week.  Brandon got his win on Monday night with a combined 48 points from Woods and Godwin.  He was able to stay in the game thanks to 20+ points from Henry and Wilson on Sunday.  Trevor took the early lead by getting big (but not big enough) games from Tannehill, Tyreek Hill, and ::double checks notes:: the Cleveland Browns.  They all scored 23+ points.  Trevor was, unfortunately, let down by Travis Fulgham.  From weeks 4 (when he became a starter/had stats to look at) to week 8, Fulgham was averaging around 19 points a game.  Then the bye happened, and he has hit 3.6  points combined in weeks 10 and 11, on a total of 12 targets.  It was a slight dip in targets, but not enough to justify such a big drop in points. If Fulgham hits his season-low from weeks 4 to 8 (12.3 points) Trevor gets the win.  That's back to back weeks of a key player letting Trevor down -- and those back to back losses have knocked him from contending for a bye to not even guaranteed a playoff spot.

Jordan vs TJ: The second favorite matchup for the battle of ineptitude ended up being second on the bonanza list. The winner of this game was guaranteed to still be alive for the playoff hunt, while the loser could have been eliminated based on the other games.  TJ got the win and inched to a game back of the 5 win club, while Jordan was forced to wallow in the 3 win club. Jordan had the best player in the matchup with 33+ points from Herbert, but the rest of his team struggled and no on else scored over 18 points.  TJ's best player was Curtis Samuel with 21.4 points, but he was able to overcome Jordan thanks to 20+ from two other players, and 15+ from four more players.

Kyle vs Tyler: This was a competitive game, but what it represented on a larger scale (the battle for the West) is better categorized as a pillow fight.  The West has limped towards the playoffs the last 3-4 weeks, meaning the top division 'battle' was between a 6 win Kyle and a 5 win Tyler.  Kyle came through victorious with a 16 point win on the backs of Thielen, Andrews, and the Panthers DST -- all of whom scored 20+ points.  Kyle's real MVP though may have been Taysom Hill though.  Kamara had his season low points (10.5) with 0 receiving yards and 0 receptions.  However, Kamara hitting his average (24 points) wouldn't have been enough to win this week, so he wasn't the only one to let Tyler down -- he can also thank Gronk for that.  Gronk scored <5 points, which has happened two times in the last three games. Before this three game stretch, Gronk's last 3 game stretch,  he scored 18, 17, and 14 points.  If Gronk bounces back, Tyler will be fine -- if not, he may miss the playoffs entirely.  At least Elliott looked good for Tyler, and hopefully turns his season around.  Kyle took a 2 game lead on the division, but is behind a lot on points to Tyler -- so if everything goes wrong, Kyle could lose the division, but it would take a lot to get there.  Starting that journey on the wrong foot though is Burrow going on IR, and Thielen going on the Covid list.  Thielen tested positive, and then negative the next day, so sho knows what will end up happening with him.

Award Season

Pick 'em: Skyler won this week, 6-5 over Tommy.  Tommy now leads the season by 4 over Tyler, which likely only happened because Tyler gave up this week.

Highest Scorer of the Week: Now that his team is on life support and were seconds away from getting the plug pulled, Skyler's team finally showed their potential and scored the most points of week.

Lowest Scorer of the Week: Matt was the only one who didn't break 100 points this week.  I think Chad would say Matt was a...well we won't go there.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Speaking of Chad, he was the 8th highest scorer this week, yet he still managed to get a win.

Unluckiest Team of the Week:  Trevor is coming for Matt's record of Unluckiest Team, as Trevor wins this in back to back weeks.  He was the highest scoring loser.  More on that losing in a minute.

MVP: I want to give this to Deshaun Watson as he was the highest scoring player on the highest scoring team, but Skyler could have started any QB who scored over 7 points and still won his game.  The MVP needs to be someone irreplaceable.  The award this week will go to Robert Woods.  He averaged 13.4 points a game (before this week) but led Brandon to a narrow win by dropping a season high 30 points.

LVP: Trevor has a player win this award again.  Go back and reread his game matchup to see why Fulgham gets the LVP this week.

Game Previews

Skyler (12) vs Chad (2): Skyler has five players on Thursday and one player in primetime. He has no players on bye. Chad has one player on Thursday and four players in primetime. He has no players on bye. With the amount of players in primtime, this could be the Monday night miracle/nightmare

Brady (4) vs Tommy (10): Brady has two players on Thursday and two players in primetime. He has no players on bye. Tommy has no players on Thursday and one player in primetime. He has no players on bye. 

Matt (7) vs Brandon (1): Matt has two players on Thursday and one player in primetime. He has no players on bye. Brandon has one player on Thursday and one player in primetime. He has no players on bye. Based on standings, this looks to be the bonanza.

Trevor (3) vs Rob (8): Trevor has two players on Thursday and no players in primetime. He has no players on bye. Rob has one player on Thursday and one player in primetime. He has no players on bye. 

TJ (9) vs Tyler (6): TJ has no players on Thursday and one players in primetime. He has no players on bye. Tyler has two players on Thursday and one player in primetime. He has no players on bye. 

Kyle (5) vs Jordan (11): Kyle has no players on Thursday and two players in primetime. He has no players on bye. Jordan has no players on Thursday and one player in primetime. He has no players on bye. He currently has no defense. Based on standings, this if the front runner for the battle of ineptitude.

Playoff Previews

Skyler, Jordan, Tommy, TJ- Eliminated with a loss OR a Matt win OR a Tyler win OR a Rob win.

Brandon - Clinched the playoffs, clinches a first round bye with a win OR a Trevor loss.

Chad - Clinched the playoffs, clinches a first round bye with a win AND a Brady loss.

Trevor - Clinches the playoffs with a win, eliminated from the division title with a loss OR a Brandon win.

Brady - Clinches the playoffs with a win OR a Matt loss and a Tyler loss and Rob loss.

Matt, Tyler, Rob - Cannot clinch or be eliminated this week.

Kyle - Clinches the division title with a win OR a Tyler loss. Clinches the playoffs with a Matt loss AND a Rob loss

Good luck to me, Brandon, TJ, and Trevor this week so I can still mathematically not be eliminated.

Week 10: Every One is Still Alive, and No One Has Clinched a Spot

Thanks to the work previously shared by Brady, we learned that no one has clinched a playoff spot, and as was discussed earlier today, no one has actually been eliminated yet -- though some of us might as well be eliminated given the amount of points and other miracles we need. Don't forget about the trade deadline -- it's this Friday, but I don't know what time specifically.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs TJ: In the week of ineptitude, this was the biggest battle of ineptitude this season.  This was the first time that both teams scored under 90 points in a matchup all season.  Someone needs to put these teams out of their misery. Skyler had one guy score 20+, TJ had one guy score 30+, no one else was really noteworthy.

Jordan vs Tommy: This had the potential to be the battle of ineptitude given that they were 2 of the bottom 4 teams -- instead their score of 105.98 to 122.54 was nearly the bonanza -- they were only .9 points behind the leaders. Tommy got the win to get up to 3-7 (same as Jordan), with help from two guys who scored 20+, and another two who scored 19+.  Jordan had three players that scored 20+, but no one else on his team scored more than 8 points -- those were the guys who ended up letting him down.

Matt vs Chad: Matt got the 11 point win behind two 20+ point winners (one of whom scored 30+).  Chad had no one score over 20 points, so the fact he only lost by 11 shows just how shallow Matt's team was this week.

Rob vs Brady: In the second biggest beatdown of the week, Brady beat Bobby by 30.  I know Rob doesn't go by Bobby or Bob, but the alliteration was too good to pass up.  Anyway, in a week full of disappointments, Brady was the third-highest scorer, and he was able to calmly enjoy the Monday night game since he locked up the win on Sunday night. Even more impressive in this win is that no player scored more than 20 points for Brady.  If he can get a few blow-up weeks from his players in the playoffs while maintaining this floor, he should be hard to beat.

Brandon vs Tyler: For the second time this year, Brandon has lost a game.  When you're at 8 wins, it's not the worst thing in the world -- but when the next guy in your division is only one game behind, any loss hurts.  This was the biggest blowout of the week as Tyler beat Brandon by 50+ points.  His score of 141.50 for the week was the clear highest score of the week, and he was able to drag this matchup to the bonanza of the week. Brandon had one guy score 25+, but the rest of his team let him down -- especially Jimmy Graham at 0 points. Tyler got 63 points combined from Rodgers and Kamara.  I'm not sure there's a much better QB/RB duo heading into the playoffs. Tyler has to be feeling pretty good this week -- the other 11 teams averaged 103+ points, and Tyler outdid that by nearly 40.

Trevor vs Kyle: This was the nail-biter of the week and the Monday Night Miracle/Nightmare. Trevor had around a 25 point lead going into the night, but Kyle was able to come from behind and secure the 5 point win thanks to 20 points from Thielen, and 10 points from Robinson.  Trevor had that lead thanks to a pair of 25 point games from Hopkins and Swift, while Kyle had several players in the mid-teens who help keep him close.  Thielen was his only player to score 20+, so it was a "solid" (in air quotes because 109 is not normally a great week) team effort to pull out this win.

Award Season

Pick 'em: Tommy won the week with 11 correct picks -- Tyler had 9 and Skyler had 8.

Highest Scorer of the Week: We already talked about Tyler's week, so it should have been obvious this was going to Tyler, but in case you weren't sure, it's Tyler.

Lowest Scorer of the Week: You know what rhymes with Tyler? Skyler.  Do you know what else ends in -er? Loser.  Skyler is the big loser this week and wins this award.

Luckiest Team of the Week: TJ would have beat a grand total of 2 people, and he played one of them this week.

Unluckiest Team of the Week:  I want to give it to the whole league for this ugly week, but that's a cop-out. Normally this goes to the highest-scoring loser, but I'm going to deviate and give it to the second-highest scoring loser, who lost by the narrowest margin in the last game of the week.  At least Trevor won something.

MVP: The second closest game of the week was TJ vs Skyler.  TJ won by fewer than 5 points. His WR1 and TE combined for 1.5 points, yet he still got the win and kept his playoff hopes alive thanks to a 30+ point game from Josh Allen.  Josh Allen accepted this award virtually from a private jet this week as he is en route to Brady's team.  No loyalty to players these days.

LVP: In every week that he gets double-digit carries, James Conner scores at least 14 points a week. This was the first week that didn’t happen. If Conner hits 14 points, Trevor gets the win, and would have been the #1 seed, beating out Brandon by less than a point. James Conner gets the LVP this week for Trevor.

Game Previews

Division games are back and more important than ever.  The North and South are battling it out for first-round bye's, while the West is doing their best to get more than 1 team in the playoffs this year.

Skyler (12) vs Tommy (9): Skyler has no players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has no players on bye. Tommy has no players on Thursday night and three players in primetime. He has no players on bye. This is a front runner for the battle of ineptitude.

Brady (3) vs Chad (2): Brady has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has three players on bye. Chad has one player on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has no players on bye. This has a chance to be the bonanza and is a big game for bye week implications.

Rob (8) vs Matt (6): Rob has one player on Thursday night and two players in primetime. He has one player on bye. Matt has four players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has no players on bye. This is big for the minimum amount of wins needed to make the playoffs as a wildcard team.

Trevor (4) vs Brandon (1): Trevor has one player on Thursday night and two players in primetime. He has no players on bye. Brandon has one player on Thursday night and two players in primetime. He has one player on bye. This has a chance to be the bonanza and is a big game for bye week implications.

Jordan (11) vs TJ (10): Jordan has two players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has one player on bye. TJ has no players on Thursday night and three players in primetime. He has two players on bye. This is a has a chance to be the battle of ineptitude.

Kyle (5) vs Tyler (7): Kyle has no players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has two players on bye. Tyler has no players on Thursday night and two players in primetime. He has three players on bye. This is big for the division win and the (Dare I say undeserved?) 3 seed.  The loser could fall out of the wildcard.

Bye was determined by players who would be startable if they weren't on bye.  If they were bench players, I didn't included them in the count.

Playoff Previews

Let's start with the easy situations

Skyler - Eliminated with a loss OR a Matt win OR a Tyler win

TJ - Eliminated with a loss AND a Matt win or a Tyler win

Tommy - Eliminated with a loss AND a Matt win or a Tyler win

Jordan - Eliminated with a loss AND a Matt win or a Tyler win

The reason Skyler's OR's are capitalized is because they are independent of each other.  The or's with TJ, Tommy, and Jordan are depenedant on the AND part as well.  If it were math or programming, it would have made more sense to write it as 'Own Loss and (Matt loss or Tyler loss)', but I thought it looked weird. Instead I had to include it anyway in my explanation, so it doesn't really matter.  The same syntax applies below as well.

Brandon - Clinches with a win OR a Matt loss or a Tyler loss.

Trevor - Clinches with a win AND a Matt loss AND a Tyler loss.

Brady - Clinches with a win AND a Matt loss AND a Tyler loss.

Chad - Clinches with a win AND a Matt loss AND a Tyler loss.

Matt - Cannot clinch or be eliminated this week.

Kyle - Cannot clinch or be eliminated this week (though a win would give him a 2 game lead over Tyler for the division title with two games to go).

Tyler - Cannot clinch or be eliminated this week (though a loss would give him a 2 game deficit behind Kyle for the division title with two games to go, meaning he would have better odds for a wildcard spot).

Rob - Cannot clinch or officially be eliminated this week (though a loss would give him a 2 game deficit behind Matt for the final wild card slot with two games to go, and would also be behind by 180 points, which would effectively eliminate him).

Good luck to me, Rob and Kyle this week so I can still mathematically not be eliminated.

Week 9: The Final Trimester

Our fantasy football regular season lasts 13 weeks.  If you break it up into 3 groups, you have weeks 1-4, 5-8, and 9-13, and we are going into that final group.  I decided to call it a trimester because I wanted to compare my fantasy season to her pregnancies.  Fortunately, she doesn't read this, so I won't be murdered for making the comparison.  The first little bit of the first trimester is exciting because it's a new season/child, but then there is a lot of throwing up because it's making you sick.  Sometimes the sick carries over into the start of the second trimester, but then you accept what's going on, and you start to feel better.  The last trimester is simply a lot of discomfort, pain, and hope that it ends sooner rather than later.  Anyway, like I said, I'm in my third trimester of this season and everything is pain and hope that the end is soon.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Rob: Rob is on a hot streak as the highest scorer over the last two weeks.  I don't know if he is currently the scariest team in the league, but he's definitely on the shortlist of teams no one wants to see in the playoffs.  He won this week with 30+ points from Roethlisberger and Adams, and 25+ points from Kelce.  Skyler was let down by his whole team, but also by none of them -- when your standards are so low, you're happy when a player breaks double digits.

Matt vs Tommy: This game had a lot of back and forth for a while, but then Kyler, Juju, Fuller, and Metcalf all had a solid 20+ points and pulled away in the middle of Sunday.  Between a lot of really good games, and Tommy's QB leaving hurt, Tommy ended up losing by 35+ in the biggest blow out of the week.  To help you get an idea of how good Matt was this week, this was the biggest blow out of the week, but Tommy was the 4th highest scorer of the week.  The 1 vs 4 made this the weekly bonanza.  Add Matt to the shortlist of the scariest teams.

TJ vs Trevor: Hold on, I'm pulling up a previous write up. Week 6: It was all brought home as TJ's Monday Nightmare continues. Week 4: It's TJ and a Monday night though, so is anyone surprised? Week 1: This week has the distinction of being the Monday Night Miracle, and spoiler alert, it has TJ losing -- again.  I don't know anyone who hates Monday Night Football more than TJ.  And that's all just from this year.  I could have gone on, but why would you beat a dead horse?  Anyway, this was the weekly nail-biter, but at least the agonizing defeat happened before Monday.  Instead, TJ watched two of his players on Sunday night get him agonizingly close, only to fumble away the ball on the 2-yard line -- literally, that's what happened to his TE.  If he finds a way to score there, TJ would have won.  TJ was given a chance by getting 42 from Allen, but then also getting gut-punched by three of his players combining for 6.1 points.  In a game that came down to fewer than 5 points, that hurts.  Trevor eked out the win thanks to 33 from Tyreek Hill, and a couple of digit games (though no 20 point games).

Jordan vs Brandon:  This nearly got the weekly nail-biter, but as you saw up above, this match couldn't quite get there.  This nail-biter was finished before the Sunday night game, so I guess that gave Jordan more time to heal? The gut-punch this game is Jordan starting C0rey Davis while two WR on his bench scored 23+ points each. Brandon snuck out the win with help from Chef Russ and Steffon Diggs both going for 20+.  This was far and away the battle of ineptitude as Brandon was the 10th highest scorer, and Jordan was the 12th highest scorer.

Tyler vs Brady: In the battle of barely in the playoffs, Brady beat down Tyler by 30 points.  Over 1/3 of Tyler's 101 points came from A-a-ron Rod-gers on Thursday night, but the Rodgers rate wasn't enough to get Tyler the win.  Tyler did win the Zeke vs JTT match, but only because Brady sat JTT. This game was narrow going into Monday night (Brady led by 10), but Brees put Brady ahead by more than Evans and Gronk could score. This loss puts Tyler out of the playoffs thanks to Matt's win and scoring margin. Since 4-5 is fighting for the playoffs, maybe the three 2-7 teams still have a shot?  HAHAHA, just kidding.  Back to this match Brady's 3 WR combined for over 65 points in support of Brees.

Kyle vs Chad: Chad needed to win to keep pace with Trevor, and win he did, by 30 points.  His scoring margin over Trevor means he moves into second based on points (though he was already the second seed based on how the league works). Chad got this all-important win by getting 75+ points from Mahomes and Cook.  This is back to back weeks where they carried his team.  Chad had meh to solid weeks from everyone else on his team.  He is probably the third and final team of scary teams no one wants to see in the playoffs.  That being said, we are still several weeks away, so perhaps all 3 teams cool down. Kyle got Run CMC back, with a whopping 37 points, and another 18 from Derek Carr -- for a combined 55 points.  Unfortunately, the other 7 starters combined for 55 points and let Kyle down.

Award Season

Pick 'em: Tyler beat Tommy 11-8 this week.  Everyone else has continued to give up.

Highest Scorer of the Week: Matt eliminated any chance of getting unlucky by making sure no one could beat him.

Lowest Scorer of the Week: Jordan was 2 passing yards away from scoring under 100 this week.

Luckiest Team of the Week:  Brandon was the 3rd lowest scorer of the week, but still got the win.  He is especially lucky as a loss would have put him even with Chad on record, and only up 3 points for the one seed.

Unluckiest Team of the Week:  Tommy was the 4th highest scorer, but walked a way with the loss.

MVP: In the nail-biter of the week, Tyreek Hill helped Trevor win and overcome a 42 point shot from Jared Allen by scoring 33 points of his own and getting Trevor the 4 point win.  It wasn't the biggest performance of the week, but it was the clutchest performance of the week.

LVP: C0rey Davis let Jordan down big time.  Corey Davis is averaging a shade under 14 points a week.  He could have scored half of his average, and Jordan would have snuck out the win.

Game Previews

Skyler (12) vs TJ (10): Skyler has one player on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has no players on bye. TJ has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has no players on bye. This is one of the two front runners for the battle of ineptitude.

Jordan (9) vs Tommy (11): Jordan has no players on Thursday night and three players in primetime. He has one player on bye. Tommy has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has one player on bye. This is one of the two front runners for the battle of ineptitude.

Matt (6) vs Chad (2): Matt has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has two players on bye. Chad has no players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has three players on bye. This is one of the three candidates for the bonanza.

Rob (8) vs Brady (4): Rob has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has three players on bye. Brady has one player on Thursday night and one players in primetime. He has one player on bye.

Brandon (1) vs Tyler (7): Brandon has one player on Thursday night and two players in primetime. He has no players on bye. Tyler has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has two players on bye. This is one of the three candidates for the bonanza.

Trevor (3) vs Kyle (5): Trevor has two players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has one player on bye. Kyle has no players on Thursday night and four players in primetime. He has no players on bye. This is one of the three candidates for the bonanza. This is the matchup with most players in primetime (4) which gives this game the biggest chance to end up as the nail-biter and/or Monday nightmare/miracle.

Playoff Previews

If the 6 seed/lowest wild card team gets to 5 wins this week, anyone with 2 wins (after week 10) will have less than 0.1% chance to make the playoffs.  There are 3 teams currently at 4-5.  Matt or Rob (two of the 4-5 teams) will eventually get another win as they play each other in the division rematches.  If they both win this week, one of them is guaranteed 6 wins, which a 2-8 team can't match.  There is a scenario where Rob, Matt, and Tyler all end up with 5 wins, and some 2-8 team can come back and tie them on record, and then in that process, outscore everyone by 100 points a week, and then eventually catch up on tie-breaker, but let's be real -- its not happening.  For the loser of TJ/Skyler to make the playoffs, they will need a modern day miracle.  

There are three 2-7 teams -- TJ, Skyler, and Tommy.  TJ and Skyler play each other this week, and Tommy and Skyler play each other next week. So much ineptitude.  Back to the playoffs.

With losses from Matt (who plays Chad), Rob, and Tyler (who plays Brandon), Brandon and Chad will officially clinch the playoffs.  A lot of teams right now could still get to 8 wins and somehow pass Brandon on tie-breaker if he loses out, or could pass Chad if he loses out and only hit 7 wins.  The odds of those scenarios happening are also less than 0.1%.

Realistically, every game has major implications this week with seedings -- outside of Skyler/TJ and Tommy/Jordan. 

So best of luck to everyone, except TJ this week.  Since I'm not hoping for playoffs, I'm hoping for the most fun/chaotic story lines.

Week 8: A Winner Will Be Crowned

In the preseason, we decided that even if the season got cancelled, as long as we got to week 8, there would be a champion.  We are completing week 8, so there will be a champion.  This was an ugly week all around as three members of the league didn't hit the 100 point mark, two more didn't break 104, and two more didn't break 115.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Matt:  In the first of two of the battles between 2-5 teams, this first matchup was the battle of ineptitude was fraught with ineptitude with a combined score of less than 200.  Baker Mayfield only scored 7.78 points, and yet he was the leading scorer at QB because he outscored Garoppolo by 6 points. The kickers of both teams outscored their QB's, as did the DST's. In fact, if you sum up row by row, QB was by far the lowest row in this matchup.  Of the 18 starters in this game, 11 of them scored single digit points.  Matt had 6 of them, but still managed to get the win.  Why? How? Who? DK 'Jerry "Megatron" Rice' Metcalf is who.  DK scored 40+ points this week to help break Matt's losing and unlucky streak, and will likely be this weeks MVP.  This was also the nail-biter of the week.

Tommy vs Rob:  In the second matchup of 2-5 teams, Rob curb stomped Tommy's team.  Rob's three starting WR and flex scored a combined 98 points would have beaten several teams by themselves.  Rob's other players mostly played well (excluding kicker), and he was the highest scorer of the week.  Tommy was let down by several people, but none more so than his RB 2 and his whopping 0.4 points.  If Rob's team is turning around now and finds a way to make the playoffs, that would be quite the turn around.  Seeing as he will add Chase Edmonds to the mix next week, and maybe even Michael Thomas, we should all be worried about what this team's ceiling is.

Chad vs Tyler: Speaking of curb stomping's, Chad had two players (QB and RB 1) combine for 93 points (enough to beat Skyler and Kyle), while the rest of his team was mediocre to bad.  Newly acquired Amari PCooper scored 1.5 points for him. Tyler's team had solid weeks from his QB and RB 1 (53 points) for most teams, but Tyler didn't go up against most teams. Tyler's team has the potential to turn it around though with the newly acquired Ezekiel Elliot only scoring 8.3 points this week.  This is Zeke's 3rd team in 4 weeks.  Maybe he just needs the stability and solid coaching that Tyler provides?  That's totally a thing in fantasy football right? This was the weekly bonanza with a combined score of around 260.  Not sure if that's the low for the year, but it certainly feels like it.

Brady vs Kyle: In one of the more interesting matchups, Brady beat Kyle and now ties him on record at 5-3.  Kyle leads his division, so he won't drop in the seedings, but Brady is now tied on record with the 5th seed team, and outscored the 5 seed by about 30 points this week.  That 30 point move up was facilitated by 20+ points from  each of Curtis Samuel, Keenan Allen, and the Eagles DST.  The cost of moving up is losing Kittle for roughly 8 weeks after an ankle injury.  We'll have to see how Brady maneuvers the latest speed bump on his quest for the playoffs.  Kyle was let down by everyone on his team not named Allen Robinson -- and Robinson didn't even score 21 points. Only two other players scored in the double digits.  Thankfully Kyle's trash week was offset by the rest of his division losing.

Brandon vs TJ:  Going into the week, Brandon was the #1 ranked team, and he finished this week as the #1 seed while cruising past TJ.  I'm not saying Brandon wants the season to end early, but if it does, he is the front runner for "Champion*".  If we see an uptick in covid cases for NFL players in the cities Brandon has recently been in, we know who did it.  Brandon held onto his seed with a great week from Russell Wilson, and Robert of the Forest (Woods -- get it?  Wood comes from trees, trees are in a forest, and I am clever) nearly getting to 30 points himself.  TJ's team struggled mightily this week with no one topping 20 points, though Tyler Boyd was the closest at 19.6.

Trevor vs Jordan: In this weeks medicine bowl (Get it?  A doctor vs a pharmacist -- man are my dad joke's on a roll this week), the doctor beat the pharmacist behind a 20+ point game from Tannehill and T. Hill (Tyreek not Taysom -- though all of these T Hill names make me want to see Taysom on this roster), while also getting solid performances from Conner, Fulgham, and his DST.  Nels0n Agh0l0r tried to ruin Brandon's day, but his 0.00 didn't end up costing Brandon the game.  Jordan had big weeks from Herbert and Davis, but Kenny G0lladay got hurt and also scored 0 points.  Despite all of that, Jordan had a long shot chance of winning, but Evan Engram wasn't enough to get it done on Monday Night Football, but he got it within 10 and it was the nail-biter of the night (but not the week)

Award Season:

Pick 'em: This was ignored last week because I read the data wrong.  This week, Tommy and Skyler won by getting 8 right.  Overall, Tommy and Tyler are tied.

Highest Scorer of the Week: Rob and Chad battled it out, but Rob was able to take home this award after the Bucs DST had a really good week, and RoJo was bad.

Lowest Scorer of the Week: Kyle joins the illustrious group by scoring 85 points this week.

Luckiest Team of the Week:  It was about time something broke Matt's way. He would have lost to 9 other teams, but he played last place Skyler and got a victory.  Maybe this will help make up for that previous unlucky streak.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Jordan was the highest scoring loser, and he actually came close to winning, but wasn't able to pull it off with Engram doing what the Giants do best getting close, but then coming up short.

MVP: This was forgotten last week, but this award will go to DK Metcalf because I'm bitter -- and also because he was the third highest scorer this week.  The only 2 people to outscore him were also on Chad's team, and played in a blow out, so they didn't help as much as DK did in the weekly nail-biter.

LVP: I don't like giving it out for injuries, but in the games Kenny G has been healthy, he averages 16.5 points in a week.  If he only got 11 points this week, it would have been enough for Jordan to win.

Game Previews

Coming later because I'm going to get a free birthday burger at Red Robin.  I may be in last place, but I'm eating "bottomless" fries suckers. Bottomless is in quotes because I feel like I never get more than 3 total baskets of fries in because the waiter is never around to hear me say "I'm a glutton and want more fries immediately". Update: again with only 3 baskets, and only 3 refills on the soda, and those cups were like 80% ice when they were brought out. I am a bitter, fat man.

Skyler (12) vs Rob (8): Skyler has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has three players on bye. Rob has two players on Thursday night and two players in primetime. He has no players on bye. Based on the standings, this is the front runner for the battle of ineptitude.  Based on Rob's score last week, it may just end up being a thrashing.

Matt (7) vs Tommy (11): Matt has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has no players on bye. Tommy has one player on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has no players on bye. 

TJ (10) vs Trevor (2): TJ has one player on Thursday night (if he's healthy) and three players in primetime (depending on health and roster decisions). He has three players on bye. Trevor has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has one player on bye. 

Jordan (9) vs Brandon (1): Jordan has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has one player on bye. Brandon has one player on Thursday night and one player in primetime (depending on health). He has several players on bye (but only one that would have likely been a starter). 

Tyler (6) vs Brady (4): Tyler has three players on Thursday night and three players in primetime. He has two players on bye. Brady has no players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has three players on bye (only one would be a guaranteed starter if he wasn't on bye, but he hasn't been healthy anyway). Based on the standings, this is one of two choices for the bonanza. Based on the number of primetime players, this could be the Monday (Sunday) Night Miracle/Nightmare.

Kyle (5) vs Chad (3): Kyle has no players on Thursday night and up to two players in primetime (depending on roster choices). He has two players on bye. Chad has no players on Thursday night and 2-3 players in primetime (depending on roster choices). He has three players on bye. Based on the standings, this is one of two choices for the bonanza. Based on the number of primetime players, this could be the Monday (Sunday) Night Miracle/Nightmare.

Good luck to everyone next week, except for Rob.  Mathematically, I believe everyone still has a chance, but it would take a miracle for for 2-6 teams to get there.

Week 7: The Midway Point

We have hit the halfway point of our regular season.  Once next week goes final, a champion will be crowned, even if Coronavirus cancels the season.  Let's be honest, after seeing how this season has gone, it's not getting cancelled.

Also, as a heads up, I think Tuesday blogs will likely become a regular thing -- at least it will if my game is still going on Monday Night.  I'm taking this season far too hard, so I'm trying to separate myself from that where possible and look at my phone less often.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Kyle: Stop me if you've heard this before -- Skyler lost important players to injury during the middle of the game and ended up losing.  The one benefit to losing OBJ for the season is that he can now be dropped and quit causing headaches for roster construction.  One of the most amazing battles this week was between the two defenses in this game.  They combined for 50 points.  After 26 points for Kyle's defense, the next highest scorer's for him were Cole Beasley and Derek Carr who were both over 20 points.  7 of his 9 players had at least double digits, which is what made the difference in winning and losing this week as Skyler had 5 of 9 starters score in double digits.

Brandon vs Brady: Another year, another no undefeated team.  Brandon went 6-0 before stumbling into a fight with Brady and got a solid beatdown. Brady was the 3rd highest scorer, and Brandon was the 2nd lowest, and yet it still wasn't the beatdown of the week. Russel Wilson and Chris Godwin came to play for Brandon, combining for nearly 60 points.  The other 7 guys struggled to make it to 50 combined. 5 of those 7 guys, scored single digit points.  Brady on the other hand had 4 players who scored 20+ points, including Carson Wentz going for 30+. One interesting note for Brady's team, Zeke was the second lowest scorer on the team, and Brady shipped him off promptly.  No loyalty  or patience shown to the stud running back acquired earlier this year.

Trevor vs Chad: In a tumble of two of the top teams, Trevor took down Chad by twenty points.  Trevor's kicker was the only player who scored single digits, and Tannehill and Hopkins were the only two to score 20+.  The rest of his team was really solid. For Chad's team, 5 of his 9 starters scored single digits, and only Tyler Lockett scored more than 14 points -- he just happened to score 53 points in an amazing performance and game -- too bad it was wasted on the rest of his team's performance. It was enough to put Chad within striking distance on Monday Night, but Darrell Henderson didn't have a 30 point game in him to give Chad the win.  Instead if was one of the 5 people to score single digits.  

TJ vs Rob: Rob was the second highest scorer this week, and this was still the battle of ineptitude -- which goes to show just how bad TJ got beat. It was also the biggest beatdown of the week as Rob won by 60+ points.  TJ was let down by most of his team -- only 4 guys scored double digits points, and only one of them was for 20+ points.  On the other hand, Rob broke 150 with 20+ from three players, including 40+ points from Davante Adams. Rob's team got 6 points from his kicker -- nothing really noteworthy, but he missed a field, which led to him getting cut in real life.  Other than that, Rob's team is setting up nicely -- he has Carlos Hyde (Carson got hurt this week) and Chase Edmonds (Kenyan Drake got hurt this week), Davante Adams is back, and Michael Thomas should be back soon.

Jordan vs Matt: This was the nail-biter of the week, and also the Monday Night Miracle/Nightmare.  This game was set up nicely by a crazy Sunday Night game from Kyler Murray for Matt, and a really good game from Christian Kirk for Jordan. That put Matt ahead by 13 points, with only Jordan's DST (the Rams) left. One of the changes we made a few years ago was that defensive points didn't count against the DST.  So in this game, Goff threw a pick six to the Bears.  Because the Bears defense scored it, Jordan's DST didn't lose any points for it.  Had the defensive player been tackled at the one, and the Bears offense punched it in from the one, Jordan would have lost 3 more points.  They were also 21 yards away from losing 3 more points.  So going back to the previous scenario, If the defensive player was tackled at the 25(ish) yard line, and then the Bears scored a TD -- between the yards and points, the Rams would have scored 6 few points.  That would have meant Jordan won by .08  Hopefully all of that makes Matt feel a little better about losing.

Tyler vs Tommy: This was the weekly bonanza as it was the only game that went over 300 combined points this week -- not that it was really close as Tyler won by 35+ points. Speaking of 35+ points, that's what Aaron Rodgers scored for Tyler.  Jeff Wilson also scored Tyler 32 points before going out with injury. He had another two players score 20+ as well.  Tommy had one 30 point scorer in James Robinson, and 20+ points from Minshew and DJ Moore.  In recent trade news, Tyler parted with JTT for Zeke and looks good on paper. Tommy traded Montgomery for Chris Carson.  Tommy gets upgrade, but it is unsure when he will be back to play.

Award Season

Pick ‘em: I erroneously excluded Tyler from winning this week. I made the mistake of not checking week 7.  All I saw were 0’s in week 8. So good job Tyler, maybe someone will give you a cookie as a reward. 

Highest Scorer of the Week: Tyler ran away with this this week by beating the next closest person by 20 points.

Lowest Scorer of the Week: TJ takes up this award with 89.22 points, which was 20 points fewer than the next closest person.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Trevor wins this award by default because he was the lowest scoring winner this week.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Stop me if you've heard this before, but Matt is the highest scoring loser again.  It also didn't help that he was close to winning on Monday Night and had to sit through that game hoping to finally get another win. Tommy was 2.1 points away from stealing this award away from Matt.  I'm sure he's really torn up about it. I accidentally put this write up on the Luckiest Team of the Week section -- that would have been way off.

Game Previews

Skyler (12) vs Matt (8): Skyler has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has two players on bye. Matt has no players on Thursday night and two players in primetime. He has four players on bye. Given their rankings, this has the potential to be the battle of ineptitude.

Tommy (10) vs Rob (11): Tommy has one player on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has three players on bye. Rob has one player on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has two players on bye. Given their rankings, this has the potential to be the battle of ineptitude.

Chad (3) vs Tyler (5): Chad has no players on Thursday night and two players in primetime. He has no players on bye. Tyler has one player on Thursday night and three players in primetime. He has no players on bye. This has the chance to be the bonanza given their rankings, and has a chance to be the Monday Night Miracle.

Brady (6) vs Kyle (4): Brady has one player on Thursday night and two players in primetime. He has two players on bye. Kyle has two players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has one player on bye. This has the chance to be the bonanza given their rankings.

Brandon (1) vs TJ (9): Brandon has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has no players on bye. TJ has one player on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has no players on bye.

Trevor (2) vs Jordan (7): Trevor has no players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has one player on bye. Jordan has one player on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has no players on bye.

That's all for this week.  Good luck to everyone this week, except Matt.  Knowing my luck, Matt's streak of unluckiest team ends this week.

Week 6: Socialism is Good?

I couldn't think of a great title, but I thought about how all of the poor 1-4 teams got wins from richer 2+ win teams.  So on behalf of all of the crappy teams, thanks good teams for redistributing wins to the rest of us.  Feel the Bern!  Anyway, now that I've alienated everyone, let's do some game recaps. *Editors Note: That really was my headline and introduction since earlier today,  It's just extra funny that it's politics, which we were just talking about*

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Tyler: In one of the uglier games this week, and definitely the battle of ineptitude, Skyler managed to beat Tyler by 20.  Despite Gronks best game in years, Tyler was let down by <4 points from A Rog, 2 points from a starting WR, and <5 points from a starting WR.  Skyler's leading scorer was Gardner Minshew, and he was the only player in this game to get more than 20 points for either team.  Skyler's next two leading scorers were his DST and kicker.  It was definitely an ugly game for everyone. Of course, it wouldn't be a Skyler game if it weren't for injuries -- Miles Sander and Jonnu Smith both left the game hurt, with Sanders projected to miss several weeks for recovery.  I'm sure Tyler will be thrilled to get Kamara back from bye and Chubb back from injury.

Tommy vs Kyle:  Tommy got a 20 point win thanks to a resurgent (aka healthy) Julio Jones. The rest of his team was average, but it was enough this week to get the job done.  Kyle didn't have anyone score over 20, and this was his first game of being under 100 points for the week. His players were all average, and that would normally be enough against another average team, but Julio proved the difference this week, and is a dark horse candidate for the weekly MVP.

Chad vs Brandon: I don't want to say the game between the top two seeds disappointed, but it did, so I will: this game was a disappointment.  Both scored fewer points than expected, and it was a bit of a blowout as Brandon won by 30.  The good news for Chad is that even with the lost, most of the other good teams lost too, and he should stay in second place.  The bad news for Chad is that Parker (Dolphins WR) got hurt and left the game early, and even then, Gesicki (TE for the Dolphins) still couldn't get any points for Chad.  Brandon road Tractorcito (that is one of Derrick Henry's nicknames, I'm not making this up) for 40.40 points and the win.  As one of the top scorers of the week, this puts him in the MVP conversation as well.

Brady vs Trevor: The dark horse game of the week actually was the game of the week.  It was the highest-scoring game of the week - aka the bonanza -- and also the nail-biter of the week.  There was a lot of back of forth in the various games throughout the last 2 days, but Zeke tried to not put the nail in the coffin, but Tyreek and Deandre forced his hand by being terrible, and it got Brady the win in the second Monday Night Football game (isn't two MNF games great?). Zeke was aided by some Ryan FitzMagic, as well as 20+ point games from Cooks, Kittle, and the newly acquired AJ Brown.  Brady's kicker even added in 18 points for good measure. This Monday Nightmare loss stings for Trevor as he was the third-highest scorer this week, and had great games from Tannehill and Swift.

Matt vs TJ:  Matt started hot, called out TJ, and put the jinx into effect.  It was all brought home as TJ's Monday Nightmare continues.  The fantasy gods were upset that TJ got a win last week on MNF, and decided he needed to be punished for it this week.  Matt's new acquisitions of Kyler, CEH, and Hayden Hurst brought home the win by all scoring 15+ points, while the suddenly mortal Josh Allen spoiled TJ's best efforts, including 22 points from his DST.

Rob vs Jordan:  This was the only game a 1-4 team lost -- but that's because both teams were 1-4 and they couldn't both win. Jordan's DST score him -2, and Mark Ingram went out with an injury after only scoring 2 points, and Jordan still somehow won -- after essentially playing 9 on 7. Rob suffered his on injury concern as well with Mostert getting hurt, but his LVP (and the leading candidate for LVP) was Alexander Mattison with 4 points. Mattison was averaging 6.25 points a game through the first four games, and then after Cook got dinged up, he scored 16.60 against Seattle in week 5.  Yet, as the starter and the Vikings had to play from behind and Mattison didn't get much chance to show off his skill set. No one cares what happened the last time they played -- the end.

Award Season

Eliminator: Tommy finally lost his streak thanks to the Vikings. I will quit updating this now.  Congrats Tommy for leading wire to wire.

Pick 'em: Tommy won this again, but his only competition was Tyler.  We should try getting back into this.

Highest Scorer of the Week: Brady won this week, despite the fact his defense score him 0 points. Garbage time Matt got this spot after Murray and Cooper ran up the score on TJ

Lowest Scorer of the Week: Tyler won this week thanks to some byes, injuries, and a career-worst from Aaron Rodgers.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Skyler was the lowest-scoring winner, so he wins this award.  It's also the 5th game he's had this year affected by injury, so he deserves this.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Trevor was the third-highest scorer, but he still lost to Brady.

MVP of the Week: CEH and Kyler Murray were Matt's new dynamic duo.  They rewarded the BHers with a great Monday night. There were rumblings that Justin Jefferson should win it, and that Jordan would have lost without him, but I'm still giving it to the two big players on this week's top team.

LVP of the Week: Mattison was a consensus start amongst just about everyone, and it cost Rob the much-needed win to get out of last place.

Game Preview

Skyler (11) vs Kyle (4): Skyler has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has two players on bye. Kyle has one player on Thursday night and three players in primetime. He has two players on bye.

Brandon (1) vs Brady (6): Brandon has no players on Thursday night and two players in primetime. He has two players on bye. Brady has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has one player on bye.

Trevor (3) vs Chad (2): Trevor has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has two players on bye. Chad has no players on Thursday night and two players in primetime. He has two players on bye. This should be the game of week/the bonanza based on seeding.

TJ (8) vs Rob (12): TJ has one player on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has no players on bye. Rob has no players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has no players on bye.

Jordan (10) vs Matt (7): Jordan has no players on Thursday night and two players in primetime. He has three players on bye. Matt has one player on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has no players on bye. This is the early front-runner for the battle of ineptitude

Tyler (5) vs Tommy (9): Tyler has no players on Thursday night and two players in primetime. He has one player on bye. Tommy has no players on Thursday night and three players in primetime. He has no players on bye. This could be the nail-biter and Monday Night Miracle/Nightmare given the number of players they have in primetime.

That's all for this week, good luck to everyone, except Kyle, next week.

Week 5: The Have's and the Have Nots

 I'm not sure we've ever seen such a lack of parity before in the league.  Five teams are 1-4, two teams are 5-0 and two teams are 4-1. There are two teams at 2-3 (one of which is the 6 seed), which should give the 1-4 teams hope to keep trying and hope to make the playoffs.  When I have more time, I'll have to look at the worst start to come back and make the playoffs.  I know the worse schedule to make the playoffs is 6-7, but I'll have to check if any of the 6-7 have ever started so poorly.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Trevor: For the Tuesday Night Torture, Tannehill gave Trevor enough points to beat Skyler sometime in the 2nd quarter tonight.  Trevor had two players score 25+ points in Tannehill and Hopkins.  Skyler was let down by himself as the people he took risks on didn't pan out due to poor play (Hayden Hurst) and injury (Diontae Johnson)...<rant> Johnson led the Steelers in games he was healthy, and Claypool went off this week after Johnson went out. The process was right, the results were wrong, and fantasy is stupid </rant>

Brandon vs Tommy:  Tommy took an early lead with Bridgewater, Waller, and Montgomery playing well, but Wilson put Brandon in striking distance, and then his trio of Henry, Singletary, and Diggs put him over the top on Tuesday.  There was some Tuesday Night Torture to this, but Brandon didn't make it last long and put Tommy out of his misery early enough.  Brandon had some mild concern over whether or not the Tuesday game would happen, but once it did, there was a good chance Brandon would pick up the win. Special shout out to the Ravens DST getting 30 points for Brandon.  That doesn't happen often, but when you get that much from your DST, it means you are likely having a great week.

Jordan vs Chad:  I'm not sure I've given out a weekly butt-whooping or beatdown of the week, but I might have to start after Chad dismantled Jordan this week and kept his undefeated streak going. Chad had four players score 19.9 points or more this week.  In fact, those four people would have been enough to beat Jordan by themselves. Jordan's top trio scored 65 points this week which is rather solid.  His other six players did him in by scoring a combined 30.5 points.

TJ vs Brady: There were six 1-3 teams this week, and none of them played each other.  Five of them lost -- the only one that didn't, the only upset of the week -- your boi, Mr. Goodtimes, Travis James Morrison. It was the (first?) Monday Night Miracle for TJ, and the Monday Nightmare for Brady.  Emmanuel Sanders outscored the Saints DST by 20, which was enough to give TJ the win over Brady by 14 points.  This was TJ had a solid (20+) outing from three of his players, while Brady only had one hit that Mark.  This was also the battle of ineptitude as this was the lowest scoring matchup of the week.  They scored a combined 4 points fewer than the Brandon/Tommy matchup to win this award. 

Kyle vs Matt: Kyle beat Matt by 40, which doesn't make a lot of sense when you look at the top scorers.  Kyle had three players score 20+, while Matt had two such players.  The bottom wasn't too far off either as Matt had two players score less than 10, while Kyle only had one.  It seems Kyle was only marginally better when breaking it down, but it still ended up in a whooping, and *spoiler alert* it led to winning the highest-scoring team of the week by a healthy margin.  Even though it was a 40 point margin victory, Matt did well enough to make this the weekly bonanza.

Tyler vs Rob: The nail-biter of the week, and another Monday Night Miracle/Monday Nightmare, Tyler was behind 50+ points, and on the backs of Kamara and Herbert, he won by 9.  Tyler's TE and DST combined for -2 points, so it was an extra big miracle that he was able to come back from this. It's hard to blame any one person on Rob's team, but it would probably be Josh Kelley -- Ekeler is out several weeks, and Kelley looked like he would be the lead back for his team, but he ended up playing second fiddle and possibly causing Rob the loss.

Award Season

Eliminator: We've all given up, but Tommy is still winning, so he keeps getting the shout out.

Pick 'em: Tyler beat Tommy 10-9 this week.  I was going to give this up, but these guys keep going and deserve their shoutout.

Highest Scorer of the Week: I mentioned it earlier, but Kyle ran away with one by 20 points.

Lowest Scorer of the Week: Tommy and Jordan battled this out, but Jordan "won" this "prestigious award" by scoring 3 fewer points than Tommy this week (95 for anyone who was curious).  When your WR1, WR2, TE, and Flex combine for 10.5 points, it's a recipe for disaster.  Two of his players were affected by injuries to themselves or their QB, which makes that 10.5 a little flukey. 

Luckiest Team of the Week: TJ was the luckiest team of the week -- though he was the 7th highest scorer, so it wasn't a major dose of luck, but he won this award fair and square by being the lowest-scoring team to win and he should get his shout out.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Matt was the unluckiest team of the week.  He was the 6th highest scorer of the week (and only 5 points ahead of TJ), but he still lost because he ran into Magical (it should be capitalized TJ, don't let the haters get you down) Kyle Express this week.

MVP of the Week: This award will be split between Emmanuel Sanders and Justin Herbert.  They were both able to lead their teams to a victory on the big stage Monday night

LVP of the Week: This is another split for the losing teams who lost to the teams in the MVP category.  George Kittle and Joshua Kelley were being counted on to do bigger things, but unfortunately, they came up short when it mattered in the closest games this week.

Game Previews

Remember, there are no Thursday night games this week due to the schedule change for the Bills, but there will be two Monday Night games.

Skyler (10) vs Tyler (5): The center/left tackle vs his QB1. Skyler has no players in primetime.  He has one player on bye. Tyler has two players in primetime. He has one player on bye.

Tommy (9) vs Kyle (3): Tommy has three players in primetime.  He has two players on bye. Kyle has no players in primetime. He has one player on bye.

Chad (2) vs Brandon (1): I'll have to double-check, but I believe this is the latest we've ever had two undefeated teams play in the season, and is certainly the front runner to be the game of the week and the bonanza as they are two of three teams in the league to score over 700 points so far. Chad has four players in primetime.  He has one player on bye. Brandon has three players in primetime. He has one player on bye.  Their players on bye are Seahawks, which should make this matchup even more interesting since the Seattle passing attack has been so good this season.  Having that many players in primetime should also make this matchup more enjoyable.

Brady (6) vs Trevor (4): This doesn't have the hype as the previous game (given that I'm the hype man, that's on me), but this is the other matchup this week that has two teams playing in the top 6. Brady has three players in primetime.  He has one player on bye. Trevor has three players in primetime. He has one player on bye. This game also has a large number of primetime players, which should make it more enjoyable for the rest of us.

Matt (8) vs TJ (7): If Brady loses his game, the winner of this game should move into the 6th seed.  So while the matchup isn't as good based on their seeds, it's still an important game. Matt has three players in primetime.  He has two players on bye, but also has to replace Dak this week, so three of his starters from last week will not start this week. TJ has one player in primetime. He has two players on bye, but they are already on his bench, because TJ, like Bill Belichick, doesn't get hyped up on big wins, he's "already on to next week", and will only talk about the players who are available.  Expect to see him in a cut off hoodie on Instagram this week.

Rob (12) vs Jordan (11): This has a "Loser Leaves Town" vibe to it as they are the two of the bottom seeds, and is the front runner for the battle of ineptitude.  At least one "1 win team" will get a win this week.  The other 1 win teams are playing teams with higher seeds and could keep their 1 win for a while longer. Rob has three or four players in primetime (depending on who he decides to start).  He has one player on bye. Jordan has two players in primetime. He has one player on bye. 

Well, that's all for this week.  Thanks for your patience as I finished up.  Good luck to everyone, except Tyler, this next week.

Week 4: Its the End of the World as We Know It...

 ...and I don't feel fine.  The title isn't all about me though.  We had the Titans game postponed a few weeks, the Patriots game postponed a day and a last-minute scare for New Orleans.  The NFL has threatened teams with forfeits if they have a similar situation as the Titans.  Hopefully, it never comes to that.  Taking a left-hand turn here, but Liverpool also lost 7-2 and is having an outbreak of coronavirus of their own.  Between the Jazz, the Titans, Liverpool, and BYU's schedule, and even BYU's new and then canceled Army game, Coronavirus is out to get me and make sure I don't get sports to enjoy.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Brandon: This had a shot as the nail-biter, but then Tonyan went berserk and put the game away for Brandon at halftime.  Brandon got a great game from Tonyan and really good games from everyone else. Skyler finally had a respectable game, but he still couldn't win.  OBJ went off, and Chris Carson carried his weight in the losing effort, but it wasn't enough. At least Skyler doubled his score from last week.  Brandon stays in first with this beat down he administered.  This was the weekly bonanza as it was the only score that combined for 300+ points.

Tommy vs Trevor: This was another nail-biter candidate, and it likely would have delivered if not for a late injury for Tommy.  James White and Tyreek Hill went off enough in the early game today to give Trevor a big enough lead that Julio couldn't overcome before he got hurt.  This ended up being the battle of ineptitude thanks to the low score of both teams.  Trevor is happy to escape with a win after a serious injury to Ekeler and a moderate injury to Fant.  This gets the Monday Night Miracle -- but it's a small miracle, like finding your keys miracle, not being cured of cancer.

Chad vs TJ: This game didn't look like it would be close, and then Aaron Jones put on his medium boy pants and made it the nail-biter of the week. Unfortunately, he didn't put on his big boy pants and give TJ the win or the Monday Night Miracle.  It's TJ and a Monday night though, so is anyone surprised?  Chad had a quartet of players who nearly scored him 100 points, including Melvin Gordon who put up 25+ on Thursday night to get Chad started on the right foot.  Sorry TJ, but I'm bringing back the Monday Nightmare just for you, and because it's October.

Brady vs Jordan: Brady put a beatdown on Jordan and now has a winning streak.  Jordan left a few points on the bench, but it wasn't enough to have made a difference.  Other than 1-2 starters, Jordan had a really solid week from everyone else -- solid isn't often good enough in this league though. Brady got 80+ points from Kittle and Mixon -- two guys he was looking at trading earlier this week.  Sometimes the trades you don't make are more important than the trades you do make.

Matt vs Tyler:  This game looked close until the Cowboys with Dak, Zeke, and Amari went bananas and gave Matt the boost he needed to seal the victory.  Aaron Rodger tried to bring Tyler back on Monday Night, but Ridley put up a terrible game and made sure Tyler didn't have a real chance for a comeback.  Tyler was also let down by a Chubb injury that should last several weeks. Matt's win and several other people's losses puts him in 7th up from 12th, and knocking on the door of the wildcard.

Rob vs Kyle: Another week, another tank job, and Rob is finally in last place by .04 points -- aka 1 passing yard. This week it was Adam Thielen and Allen Robinson that made Rob cry "Cousin" (instead of uncle, since Kyle is his cousin -- I know, incredibly clever). and sit Kelce and not try and find a replacement for Adams.  Kyle didn't have any major disappointments,  as none of his players scored less than 5 points.

Award Season

Eliminator:  Tommy already won, but he is keeping the streak going.  I was thinking of dropping this award, but since he keeps getting it right, I'll keep shouting him out.

Pick 'em: Tommy won this week here as well.  He keeps crushing it in the competitions that don't matter as much.

Highest Scorer of the Week: Brady managed to hold onto this award this week over Brandon's late efforts with Tonyan.

Lowest Scorer of the Week: Rob and his quitting ways take the most shameful spot.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Trevor was the second-lowest scorer of the week (of teams trying to win), and he still managed to win this week.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Skyler wins this award for being the 4th highest scorer, and still losing.  Given he won the luckiest team a few weeks ago, this just offsets that.

MVP of the Week: Dalvin Cook was Chad's leading scorer, and did just enough for Chad to keep the win away from TJ.

LVP of the Week: The Chargers DST for TJ.  They were 4 points and 35 yards away from 4 fantasy points which would have got TJ the narrowest of wins. Instead, they only got TJ 3 points.

Game Previews

Skyler (11) vs Trevor (3): Skyler has no players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. Trevor has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has one player on bye.

Brandon (1) vs Tommy (9): Brandon has no (healthy) players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has one player on bye. Tommy has one player on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has one player on bye.

Jordan (10) vs Chad (2): Jordan has no players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has one player on bye. Chad has no players on Thursday night and two player in primetime. 

TJ (8) vs Brady (6): TJ has no players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has one player on bye. Brady has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. He has one player on bye.

Kyle (4) vs Matt (7): Kyle has two players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. Matt has one player on Thursday night and two players in primetime. They have the best-combined rankings, so this has the early nod for the weekly bonanza.

Tyler (5) vs Rob (12): Tyler has two players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has one player on bye. Rob has no players on Thursday night and several players in primetime -- how many depends on health and who he chooses to start. He has two players on bye. Based on their potential schedules, this could be the nail-biter.  Based on the standings, this could be the battle of ineptitude.

Fun Facts

The North went 2-2, the South went 3-1. and the West went 1-3 this week.  It looks like the North's demise was over-exaggerated.

Teams 7-12 are all 1-3.  So no one is out of the playoff race yet.  140 points separate the top from the bottom of that range.  That's a wide gap, but it's still something that can be overcome in 9 weeks time.

Best of luck to everyone, except Trevor, next week.

Week 3: The Injuries Start Coming and They Don't Stop Coming

There was another string of injuries throughout the league again this week.  I won't list them all, because I have to draw the line somewhere -- and last week to this week is that line.  What a rough year for health.  On the positive side, we had a lot of good QB games this week.  In real football terms, the league is in a good place -- our league is in an interesting place.  Returning league member Chad is 3-0, and division moving member Brandon are the only undefeated teams left.  If they can keep it going, that will make for an interesting week 6 when they meet up.

Game Recaps

Brady vs Skyler: The nail-biter of the week was also the battle of ineptitude.  I will have to look it up tomorrow when I have more time (I'm trying to get this out tonight), but I can't remember the last time we had two sub-100 teams face off.  It was ugly for injuries and for scores on both sides, but it was only slightly less ugly for Brady since he won. Kyler Murray broke 25 and CEH broke 18.  Skyler's leading scorer got less than 15 points.  His lowest scorer was 0.9 points.

Tommy vs Chad: It's the Return of the Chad, or maybe Batman Returns? Either way, he is 3-0 and the rest of the division is 1-2.  This was the biggest blowout of the night.  Chad had a great week all around, but the Tyler Lockett was phenomenal at 37 points.  Tommy scored 90 points, 30 of which came from Keenan Allen.  Other than Allen, his team was bad/injured.

Matt vs Trevor: This was the weekly bonanza, and had Mahomes not taken it easy and only gone for ::checks notes:: 48 points, this could have been the nail-biter of the week.  Unfortunately for Matt, Trevor put up a redonkulous (I don't use that word lightly -- only for movies like Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) 189 points as a team.  Six of Trevor's players got 20+ points. 

Rob vs Brandon:  In another tank job, Rob knew he was getting worked and decided to lean into the skid and tank. Brandon had DangeRuss Wilson cooking up 46 points.  In real life football, the Seahawks are fun.  In fantasy football, they need to feed Carson and stop Russ from cooking -- especially next week.

TJ vs Kyle: In the upset of the week, #12 beats #2 by 32 points.  Josh Allen took TJ on his back and carried him to the promised land.  Tyler Boyd and Mike Davis helped get him there as those 3 combined for over 80 points.

Jordan vs Tyler: Jordan had a solid week of 127 points, but Tyler still managed to beat him by nearly 50 points.  Sunday Night Football was great for Tyler as A Rog and Kamara combined for 70 points, and for good measure, earlier on Sunday, Nick Chubb dropped 24.  Speaking of mid 20 point games, Jordan's leading scorer was Gostkowski with 25 points. He's a kicker for those of you who live under a rock.

Award Season

Eliminator:  Tommy wins the overall pool as Trevor was eliminated this week with the Jags.

Pick 'em: Skyler got 10 this week, Tyler and Tommy each got 9 this week, and Skyler leads the season standings by 2 over them.

Highest Scorer of the Week:  Trevor with his 189 points.

Lowest Scorer of the Week: Skyler with 69 points -- not nice.  And that was without tanking.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Brady was the 3rd lowest scorer of the week, but it was enough to get him his first win.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Matt was the 3rd highest scorer of the week, but it was not enough to get him his first win.

MVP of the Week: This was tough as there weren't very many close games where the top scorers helped the team eke out a win.  I'm going to give the MVP this week to Russell Wilson.  He did so great that he made Rob quit in back to back weeks.

LVP of the Week:  Again, this was another one as no one player cost his team the game.  I'm giving it to Skyler.  His starters only outscored his bench by 8 points.  That would be nice if your starters are putting up great numbers, but when your bench plus your starters combined would have scored less than the 6th best team this week, it becomes a team award.

Game Previews

Skyler (11) vs Brandon (1): Skyler has no players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. Brandon has no players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. This looks to be the blowout of the week.

Tommy (8) vs Trevor (4): Tommy has one player on Thursday night and two players in primetime. Trevor has one player on Thursday night and no players in primetime.

Chad (2) vs TJ (6): Chad has one player on Thursday night and no players in primetime. TJ has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. This could be the bonanza as this has the highest-ranked matchup this week.  Julio is TJ's only Monday player (currently on the bench).  If TJ starts him, Julio won't play, and TJ will lose by 2.  If TJ sits him, Julio will go off for 35, and TJ will lose by 30.

Brady (7) vs Jordan (10): Brady has one player on Thursday night and two players in primetime. Jordan has no players on Thursday night and one player in primetime. This could be the battle of ineptitude as this is the lowest-ranked matchup this week.

Matt (12) vs Tyler (3): Matt has no players on Thursday night and no players in primetime. Tyler has no players on Thursday night and four players in primetime. This is looking like the Monday night nail-biter with 3 players on Monday night for Tyler

Rob (9) vs Kyle (5): Loser dies first in mafia! Rob has no players on Thursday night and up to two players in primetime -- depending on injuries and tank jobs. Kyle has no players on Thursday night and one player in primetime.

That is all for the week, good luck to everyone next week except Brandon.