Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king. -- Bilbo Baggins
In a real-life game of inches, this pretend game often comes down to small decisions that can determine a winner or loser. Tyler didn't have as many choices to make this season on the whole as he only made 5 adds/drops on the season on his quest to the #1 seed -- that was the lowest in the league by 7, and the lowest of the teams that made the playoffs by 24. Skyler had 61 add/drops, which was 3rd highest in the league. Tyler was 1 of 2 teams to make 0 trades on the season, while Skyler was 1 of 2 teams to make 3+ trades. All of this is to say there are multiple ways to make a team -- but it's a lot easier if you draft well.
Skyler agonized all week over AJ Dillon vs Boston Scott, and Trey Lance vs Joe Burrow. While Tyler likely didn't agonize over starting Tyreek or Saquon, he was likely still nervous at their potential results given the cold spell they had been on.
The game started off well for Tyler behind Jacobs getting an early TD (his 3rd best game of the year) and Kupp doing Kupp things (21.5 points -- which was actually in the bottom third of his games for the year) while the Skyler saw the Buccaneers defense crumble to the high-powered Jets. Kupp doing his thing meant the Ravens were forced to throw, and that helped Mark Andrews break double digits again. However, thanks to the lack of TD's and the lack of receptions, Andrews didn't break 25+ points for the first time since week 13. The lack of TD's for Andrews did mean more FG's for Tyler's kicker, but I have a feeling he would have preferred the Andrews TD and the Tucker PAT instead of all of those Tucker FG's.
Once Tyler got the lead early, he would hold onto it for most of the day. Fortunately for Skyler, he chose Joe Burrow over Trey Lance, and Burrow kept him in the game with 42 points. Burrow was up against the Chiefs, and given his big day, one would assume that the Chiefs would have tried to counter with a big Tyreek game, but instead, he only mustered up 10.2 points for Tyler in this crucial game. Skyler saw a solid game out of Deebo (17.2), and a crappy game out of Daws0n Kn0x. Saying crappy implies a #2, which is 2 whole points more than the Knox goose egg.
Going into Sunday Night Football, Tyler was up roughly 111 to 93 -- which was close enough to give Skyler hope and given Tyler fear given Tyler only had Aaron Rodgers left, while Skyler had Davante and Dillon on Sunday night, and Diontae on Monday night. Rodgers had an alright game of 24 points, which was his lowest (excluding a bye week) total since week 10 (and in the bottom third for his games played this season). Fortunately for Skyler, Dillon vultured 2 rushing TD's (22.3 points) while Davante went for 11(an unreal amount)136/1 (30.6 points) -- which were enough to get Skyler the win before Diontae suited up on MNF.
Every one of Tyler's players hit double digits (his lowest being 10.2), but only two broke 20+. Skyler had his 3 lowest players combine for 12, but his other 6 all broke 15+, with 4 of them going for 20+, with 2 of them going for 30+, and one of them going 40+. In the end, it came down to having a solid/really good game vs having your 4th best week of the season.
With the win, Skyler moves to 4 championship wins, 4 and 0 in the championship, while Tyler moves to 1 and 3. This was their best season in years, and are hoping they don't have to wait as long to make another appearance in the finals. This was the first championship for each person on Skyler's team, while Tyreek Hill is now 0-2 in championship games. This was also the first championship (starting anyway) appearance for STG legends Rodgers and Kamara.
Great season everyone, I hope you all had fun -- I know I did. The trophy looks great in my house next to my Lego Hogwarts Set.
Next year's order for picking draft picks goes
- Kyle
- Trevor
- Matt
- TJ
- Brandon
- Jordan
- Rob
- Chad
- Tommy
- Brady
- Tyler
- Skyler
