Before this week, only Kyle was eliminated from the playoffs. After Brady, Rob, and Matt all won, Brandon, Trevor, Jordan, and TJ all joined him. A moment of music for our fallen tributes. I was trying to find the right clip to share, and Jocelyn and my mother-in-law were trying to figure out what I was playing. I told them what it was, why I was doing it, and how I wished I was good at photoshop so I could put up the eliminated people's pictures. My mother-in-law law was concerned I was being too rude. I think it's best I not inform her of the type of smack talk we have.
Game Recaps
Skyler vs Chad: This game was decided before the Sunday evening game even started. Chad said it best when he said 'Waiver wire rb just killing it for Skyler. Love it'. When the guy your opponent picks up at midnight the night before goes off for almost 20 points, you know it's going to be a long day. Skyler only had 2 people score 20+ points (Gibson and Diontae), and one of them went for 30+ (Diontae). Chad also had two 20+ point scorers (Wilson and Montgomery), but 6 other players scored single digits, while Skyler only had 2 such players.
TJ vs Tyler: Stop me if you've heard this before, but TJ had...wait, I'm getting a note from my producers that TJ performed one of the greatest Monday Night Miracles of all time. TJ was down big, and had Damien Harris to go while Tyler still had Mike Jones...who?...Mike Jones...who? Michael McCorkle Jones ended up with more passing completions (2) than he did rush yards (-3). Unfortunately for Tyler, TJ had Damien Harris, who ran for a season-high 111 yards in addition to a TD. It was enough to give him the win by 2.04 yards. Those players had help though, as TJ had Kirk Cousins go for 20+, while Tyler had Cooper Kupp and Josh Jacobs eclipse the 20+ point plateau. Tyler's Monday Nightmare moves him from the 1 seed to the 2, but more on that later. This was the nail-biter of the night, as well as of the week. It was the battle of ineptitude, but it was by far the best battle of ineptitude I've had the joy of witnessing.
Kyle vs Jordan: Jordan needed a win to stay alive, in addition to a Brady loss, but Kyle had other ideas. Had it not been for the TJ/Tyler matchup, this would have been the weekly and nightly nail-biter. Jordan put up 119.62, but over 70 of that came from Kyler Murray and Justin Jefferson combined, and he had only 1 other person who scored double digits. Kyle was able to get the win from 3 players scoring 20+ points (Mattison, Moore, Colts DST), 3 more players scoring double digits, and only 3 in the single digits.
Matt vs Brandon: Matt needed a win to either retake the division lead, or at least keep pace with Rob, and Brandon needed a win just to stay alive in the playoff hunt. Brandon had Michel score 20+ and Herbert score 30+, but their combined 52 points weren't enough as Brandon topped out at 88 points. Matt was able to get a win in the second-biggest blowout of the week by getting 30+ from Stafford and Godwin, while only 2 players on his roster scored in the single digits.
Tommy vs Brady: After this matchup Brady's win streak is not 5, not 6, not 7... he has hit 8 wins and is now tied for the 2nd best record in the league. Let this be a lesson to all of you out there to not give up after starting 0-5. Brady's win streak continued thanks to a trio of 20+ point talents -- Fournette, Allen, and Goedert. Even though Tommy didn't have anyone hit 20+ points, 7 of his 9 players were in double digits. He has to hope he can hit that kind of floor going forward, but can get a little more ceiling play from just one or two others.
Trevor vs Rob: Trevor needed to win to stay alive in the playoffs. What he got instead was the wrong end of the beatdown of the week. At this point Trevor knows his opponent is going to have a great week, but I'm sure it still hurts. In this beatdown, Trevor had two players score 20+ points (Taylor and Higgins), while Rob laid the wood with three players who scored 20+ (Javonte Williams) including two who went for 30+ (Kittle and Brady). Rob had 2 players score in the single digits while also being the high scorer of the week (187). If this is the team we are going to see in the playoffs, we are all in big trouble. This also ended up being the weekly bonanza -- mostly thank to Rob's huge week, but Trevor had a solid score that help contribute.
Award Season
MVP: Damien Harris did just enough to get TJ the win in a tight game with no room for error.
LVP: It would be easy to give this to McCorkle, but he played well in his game plan, so I'm hesitant to actually give it to him. Instead, I will pick Tyreek Hill who had a season low game.
Luckiest Team of the Week: TJ won despite being the 8th highest scorer, and won with his opponents QB getting less than half a point, so he wins this week.
Unluckiest Team of the Week: TJ did everything in his power to not be eliminated from the playoffs, including win this week, but he still got eliminated thanks to Brady's win. TJ gets the rare luckiest and unluckiest team of the week in the same week. The runner up was Trevor for allowing another high scorer of the week.
High Scorer of the Week: Following that excellent transition, Rob smashed all his competition this week by being 40 points higher than everyone in the league.
Low Scorer of the Week: Poor one out for Brandon for pulling the double ocho, and scoring less than 90 points this week. This poor week moves him below Jordan for lowest scoring team of the year.
Speaking of yearly records, as we are playing with an additional week this year, most records will be broken going forward. In the interest of fairness, that means the record for highest scoring season (13 games) will be Ren's forever (1892.84). I suppose we could track the first 13 weeks of the season going forward and compare those numbers, but I won't remember that going forward. As of right now, the highest scoring team is at 1808.36, which is solid but 5 other of the highest scorers of the season have also broken 1800.
Playoff Update
Kyle, Jordan, TJ, Trevor, Brandon: Eliminated
For the first time ever, an entire division has made the playoffs. Congratulations to the North for time and again proving they are the best division in the league.
Matt and Rob: Matt clinches his division and the 6 seed with a win and a Rob loss, OR both get the same result (win or lose), but Matt outscores Rob by 114 points. That's not likely to happen, so Rob is win and in, Matt is win and Rob lose and in.
Skyler* and Tyler: Tyler clinches the 1 seed with a win and a Skyler loss OR both get the same result (win or lose), but Tyler outscores Skyler by 60 points. This is a little more feasible than the Rob/Matt scenario, but still not likely. So if they end up with same result, Skyler likes get the 1 seed. If Tyler wins and Skyler loses, Tyler gets the 1 seed. No result gets Tyler lower than the 2 seed.
*=Skyler can still technically lose the North division if he loses to Brady, and Brady outscores him by 140, or if Chad wins and outscores Skyler (while Skyler loses) by 195, or if Tommy wins and outscores Skyler (while Skyler loses) by 255 points. Most of those seem unlikely though.
Brady, Chad, Tommy: If Brady wins, he is the favorite for the 3 seed. If he loses, the winner of Chad and Tommy will get the 3 seed. The loser of the Chad and Tommy game should get the 5 seed. Tommy and Chad could play this week and then turn around and play next week as well.
Game Previews
Skyler (1) vs Brady (3): Skyler has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Brady has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. This is the early favorite for the weekly bonanza.
Kyle (9) vs TJ (8): Kyle has 1 player on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. TJ has 2 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye.
Tyler (2) vs Jordan (10): Tyler has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Jordan has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye.
Trevor (11) vs Matt (7): Trevor has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Matt has1 player on Thursday and 1 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye.
Brandon (12) vs Rob (6): Brandon has 1 player on Thursday and 4 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Rob has 1 player on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. This is looking like a good candidate for the nightly nail-biter and Monday Night Miracle/Nightmare
Tommy (5) vs Chad (4): Tommy has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Chad has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 2 players on bye.
Good luck to almost no one this week. I have a lot of scenarios that I would like to see happen with playoff seeding, so wishing everyone the right amount of luck (good or bad) isn't great this week.
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