Week 16: A Champion Will Be Crowned

I'll blame being late on the blog on all of the holidays, and hopefully, that's an acceptable answer for the few of you still reading. Neither game was particularly close this week, which made things a little less fun for neutral parties

Game Recaps

Matt vs Brady: Matt won by just under 30, and with only 2 games going on this week, that made this the nail-biter of the week and also the battle of ineptitude. Matt led wire to wire, and had Goff, Cook Ja'Marr, and JSN all score 20+ points. Brady only had AJ Brown and the Bengals DST cross the 20+ point threshold.

TJ vs Jordan:  TJ won this game by just over 40, making this the blowout of the week. This was also the weekly bonanza. TJ gets his revenge on Jordan for denying him a bye week on the division title.  TJ's vengeance was brought about thanks to Burrow, Taylor, Ford, and Bowers all scoring 20+. Jordan had Murray, Barkley, and Jacobs all in the same 20+ group, but his low scorers let him down as he had two guys score under 3 points.

Award Season

MVP: In two blowout performances, it's hard to pick one guy, so we'll go with JTT for being the high scorer of the week on the highest-scoring team of the week.  It was 13 points higher than his previous high score of the season.

LVP: Again with 2 blowouts, it's hard to fault one or two people, but this will be a team effort for two of Brady's guys. Brian Robinson had his worst (healthy) game of the season, and Allen had his 3rd worst game of the season, and hadn't scored this low in nearly 3 months.

Lucky/Unlucky: N/A this week as the top two teams won.

Highest Scoring Team of the Week: TJ

Lowest Scoring Team of the Week: Brady

Game Previews

Several games have already happened (my bad), so this will simply be forward-looking

Matt (1) vs TJ (3): Matt has 1 player on Saturday and 1 player in primetime (MNF). 5 of his 9 players have already played. TJ has 2 players on Saturday and 1 player in primetime (SNF). 1 of his 9 players have already played. TJ is currently projected to win by 26 points, but his team could easily come crashing down, and it could all come down to Jared Goff on MNF. I'm sure no matter what happens, TJ won't be sweating it out.  It's not like Goff has a game over 40 this season, and then another game over 50.

History

Based on seeding, the underdog has won 8 straight championships and 12 total.  The last time the higher seed won was when #1 Skyler beat #2 Kyle in 2015, and the only other time before that was #1 Skyler over #2 Ren in 2014. That bit of history favors TJ.  That being said, the last time a #3 seed won a championship was back in 2013, when Tyler last led the West to glory. I would guess that historically the #3 team has been overseeded thanks to being the division winner, and they were likely bounced early.  Our recent rule changes have put the better teams higher up, and we should be seeing more #3's being successful going forward.

In the West Corner, we see TJ, carrying the weight of his whole division, as well as for the underdogs who have yet to win a championship.  In the Blue corner, we see Matt trying to solidify himself as the 2nd best blue blood. The other blue bloods are arguing if they want to see him move up in their internal rankings, or if they want him to keep the underdog out of the club.

This is TJ's first championship appearance. A win here would see him join the rank of champion, and he would leave behind Trevor, Tommy, Brandon, and Scott, and the corpses of Ren and Chad in the land of the Trophy-less.  On his ascent to the throne, he would see pre-historic cave drawings on the stairs of what appears to be Jordan and Kyle, and then he would join the fully verified champions of Tyler, Matt, Brady, and Skyler (editors note: Rob was erroneously left out originally, but instead of adding him back in and acting like it never happened, we'll call out the mishap here).  While looking around the championship penthouse, he might want to check out the 'in memoriam' section and pay tribute to former fallen champions Konner and Geoff. A TJ win would be the most recent "first championship" since Brady won his first in 2018.

This is Matt's fourth championship appearance. He first appeared in 2016, when he won by less than a point over Chad.  It was such an epic comeback, it actually made me post on facebook, and I saw the memory show up just the other day. He also appeared in 2018, in a loss to Brady, and Matt's most recent appearance was in 2022 when he beat Jordan. Matt's win over Brady last week means they are tied with 4 championship appearances total. Matt is looking to become the 2nd team to win 3 times and break the tie with Rob and Brady.

This is their first playoff matchup. The one time they played this year was week 6, and TJ won by 36 points. If they played each other every week in the regular season TJ would lead 8-6 over Matt.  That being said, TJ would have started 6-1, and Matt would have finished 5-2 in the second half of the season. If you throw in the playoffs, TJ would have won week 16, and week 15 it's hard to tell because Matt had a bye and didn't set a real lineup, but it likely would have been a Matt win based on how his bench did.  The total for the regular season and playoffs favors TJ 9-7, but recent scores favor Matt. For the lifetime regular season, Matt leads TJ 6-4.

Whoever wins, they will be the first name on the last panel of the trophy. We are only 6 years away from needing an extension on the base.

Happy last week of fantasy football.  It's hard to believe it's already over for most of us, and almost over for all of us.

Week 15.9999... : The Forgotten Matchup Stats

It might be a little late now, but I wanted to bring up some history for the matchups going on right now for posterity.

On one half of the bracket, we have the two newest members of the 2x champion club who are looking for the chance to get to the 3x club.  The one time they played all season was week 11, when Matt won by around 10 points and that game was the bonanza.  If they only played each other all year, I believe Brady would be 9-6 (including last week when Matt was on bye).  That bodes well for Brady.  Matt should be optimistic though as Brady went 6-1 against Matt in the first 7 weeks.  Since then, Matt has been 5-3.

On the other half of the bracket, we get the top two teams in the West who have been dancing around and towards each other all season.  Jordan may have won the division this year, but we all know this is their biggest matchup of the season.  Courtesy of guest author TJ "I’m 0-2 against @⁨Jordan Gray⁩ for the year. If we played each other every week we’d be 7-7. " TJ would is now 8-7 after looking at week 15 (assuming Jordan had set a full lineup). The West hasn't won time with the Trophy since Tyler won in 2013. That was actually a back-to-back title for them as Konner won it for the West in 2012. They hope the winner of this matchup ends their decade drought.

This is Brady's 7th semi-final appearance and 5th consecutive appearance. That is the second-longest consecutive streak behind Skyler from 2010 - 2015. No one has matched Brady's consistency of 7 semi-finals in 8 years though.  His 7 appearances tie him for second-most all-time with Jordan...

This is Jordan's 7th total semi-final appearance (as mentioned above). This is his first appearance since 2022.  We are so happy he was able to end this terrible drought.

This is Matt's 6th semi-final appearance (tied with Chad), and it's his 3rd consecutive semi-final.  

This is TJ's 1st semi-final appearance and the best season of his career. (For historical information, Rob and Ren are tied at 5 total semi-final appearances)

If Brady wins, he will tie the record at 5 total championship appearances, but if Matt wins, he will move into second, tied with Brady for 4 total championship appearances.  If Jordan wins, he would have 3 championship appearances, which would tie him with Rob, Chad, and Matt if Matt loses. A win by TJ would help him get to the championship for the first time.

As of this writing, it does seem like we'll get Matt vs TJ, but you never know.  Hopefully, I'll get to writing the blog faster this week.

Week 15: It's the Final Countdown

 With only two games to cover (sorry, not sorry consolation bracket), things should be pretty straightforward. We had one nail-biter and one blowout with the high score of the year finally hitting 200+ (TJ previously set it with 199).

Game Recaps

Brady vs Trevor: This was supposed to be the close/tight game based on the rankings and the identical record.  Instead, Josh Allen went off for 45, while Evans and St. Brown each went for 35+, and Brady ended up winning by 70.  That's not to say Trevor had a bad game -- he did better than both teams on the other side of the bracket -- he just had the tougher matchup.  Brian Thomas Jr. had the first 30 point game of his career and solidified himself as the rookie WR of the year, but it just wasn't enough.  It's kind of crazy that Trevor's top scorer would have only been Brady's 4th highest scorer.  Trevor had no one else break 20, while Brady had two more players (Chase Brown and AJ Brown) score 25+.  Given the games Chase Brown, AJ Brown, and Amon-Ra St. Brown, Brady should change his name to 'UPS' because the answer to the old question of "What can brown do for you" has an answer, and that answer is send you to the semifinals.

TJ vs Rob: This was quite the nail-biter as Jahmyrr Gibbs went off and got Rob back in the game, but in the end, Bowers and London did enough to hold off Sam Darnold on Monday Night.  There are obviously a dozen different plays over the course of the week that could have changed this game, but Justin Jefferson getting tackled at the one and then seeing the TD get vultured by Aaron Jones was the final nail in the coffin for Rob's attempt to join the 3x club. Gibbs was the only player for Rob to score 20+, while TJ had two of them with Burrow and the Chiefs DST.  On an interesting (to me anyway) note, Rob had the lead after Thursday Night, but it seemed like the results favored TJ as Puka had nearly outscored Kyren and Jauan combined.

Award Season

MVP: The Chiefs DST more than doubled their previous high score this season and punched TJ's ticket to the semi-finals.

LVP: Jauan Jennings had been averaging around 17 points per game over the last 5 weeks (his low over that time frame was 8.6), and he only puts up 5.1 this game.  If he had even put up the low score of that run of 8.6, Rob wins the game.

Lucky: TJ for the late win and getting matched up with Rob instead of Brady or Trevor

Unlucky: Trevor for the bad matchup.

Highest Scoring Team of the Week: Brady

Lowest Scoring Team of the Week: Rob

King of the Court: On hiatus in Cancun with the rest of Hit Squad until next season.

Game Previews

Programming Note — there are multiple Saturday games this week.

Matt (1) vs Brady (4): Matt has 0 players on Thursday, 2 players on Saturday, and 1 player in primetime. Brady has 1 player on Thursday, 1 player on Saturday, and 1 player in primetime.

TJ (3) vs Jordan (2): TJ has 0 players on Thursday, 0 players on Saturday, and 1 player in primetime. Jordan has 0 players on Thursday, 2 players on Saturday, and 1 player in primetime.

Week 14: All Quiet on the Southern Front

Depending on who you ask, this weekend was fortunate or unfortunate, to be all chalk with no major upsets or changes to the wildcard race. Rob won and crushed Kyle, Skyler, and Tyler's dreams of making the playoffs. Kyle was the only one who had a shot as he won his game (and was the highest-scoring team of the week), and even outscored Rob this week by 22 points.  Unfortunately for Kyle, it was too little as Rob still beat him by 36 points in the tiebreaker, which is less than 2.6 points per week on average.

In the top half of the bracket, Kyle's win over TJ put Jordan in contention to win and secure the 1 seed, which he did by sneaking past Tyler with a 4-point win. TJ's loss dropped him to the 3 seed and put Matt at the 1 seed, with Jordan taking the 2 seed.  Brady and Trevor were essentially locked into the 4/5 matchup, so their games were irrelevant.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Brady: After a blip the last 2 weeks where Skyler maybe looked like a real team, he was back to his old ways of scoring under 100 points (4 of the last 6 weeks). Skyler had only one person go over 20+ with Mooney, while Brady 'only' had two of them.  I put only in quotes because one of those people was Josh Allen, who scored 57 points -- and that was without throwing a TD to himself.  They both had 4 players score in the single digits.

Kyle vs TJ: Six teams this week scored 148+ points -- this was the only game to feature two of them, and made this the clear Bonanza.  It was mentioned above that Kyle won, but it is worth calling out that he led wire to wire over TJ, but did not do enough to take the title from TJ of highest-scoring single game. Kyle had four people score 20+ while TJ had two.  In a 32 point win, there is no 'one player' who lost TJ the game, but getting a negative from his defense this week certainly did him no favors. We shall see how long Kyle and the Vikings can keep this up.

Tyler vs Jordan: We go from Bonanza to ineptitude as this was the matchup of the 9th and 10th highest scoring teams in the league, or 3rd and 4th lowest, whatever you want to call them. This game was close for a while, but Tyler played the Bills DST, who ended up scoring -5, which was the difference in the game as this was also the weekly and nightly nail-biter. Tyler had one players score 20+ points and Jordan had two. I mentioned Tyler's DST scoring -5, and when paired with Deebo Samuel, they combined for 0.5, which was 0.5 more than Jordan's starting TE got. This was an ugly game all around, but Jordan doesn't care since it got him the bye week.

Scott vs Tommy: Scott broke a 3-game streak of being sub-100 by putting up 159.62 this week, and was the 3rd highest scorer. This loss means Tommy sits tied at the bottom of the list with the fewest wins in a season. Scott had five people score 20+, which appears to be the high this week, while Tommy only had one. Scott had two people score in the single digits, while Tommy had four.

Rob vs Brandon: Raise your hand if you had Sam Darnold having the best day of his career (44.58) on the day of playoff-clinching before the start of the season?  If your hand is up, put it down you liar. In his best year, Darnold had his best day, making sure Rob didn't lose his spot to Kyle.  Though the two biggest reasons Kyle had a chance to steal the spot is because he had two of Darnold's wide receivers -- so maybe it wouldn't have mattered?  Anyway, in this match, Rob beat Brandon by a solid 45 points. Most of that was Darnold, but Williams and Jennings also joined the 20+ points club.  Brandon had three people score 20+ as well.  Unfortunately for him, he was let down by having 5 players in single digits, while Rob only had 3.

Matt vs Trevor:  This game was mostly played for pride as Matt secured the division and the bye week last week.  After a couple of mediocre weeks, Matt got back to putting up big points, while Trevor stayed in his sweet spot of 105-120. Matt only had three people score 20+, but one of them was Ja'Marr Chase, who went for 45.  Trevor had no players score 20+. Amazingly, Trevor only had two players score in single digits while Matt had four.

Award Season

MVP: Darnold, Addison, and Jefferson all went off this week together and got their two teams big points.

LVP: Only one game was close enough where an LVP could even be possible.  The Bills DST could have got 0 points and Tyler would have won, but their -5 saw him lose this week.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Jordan would have lost to 8 other teams and would have lost the bye, but instead he played a bottom-three team, won the week, and secured the division and the bye.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: TJ would have beaten 7 other teams this week and would have won the bye week and the division, but instead he played the highest-scoring team of the week and has to square off against Rob.

Highest Scoring Team of the Week: Kyle

Lowest Scoring Team of the Week: Skyler

King of the Court: Kyle wins it from TJ, but is eliminated from the playoffs.  I made the executive decision that the King of the Court will stay with Kyle until week 1 next year.  I don't talk about the consolation in the blog, and bringing up King of the Court would require me to talk about the consolation bracket. Any losses in the consolation will not lose Kyle his crown, but neither will any wins add to the total number of weeks of holding the crown.

Game Previews

Programming Note -- There are two Monday Night Football games this week. Don't forget to optimize your lineups accordingly.

Brady (4) vs Trevor (5): Brady has 0 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime.  Trevor has 1 player on Thursday and 0 players in primetime.  If there aren't any drastic lineup changes, this one will be decided by the end of the Sunday afternoon games. The one time they played head-to-head this year, Trevor won 169-147. If they played each other every game this season, Brady would be winning 8-6, and would be on a 3-game win streak. The last time they met in the playoffs was in the first round in 2022, where Brady won 146.74 to 104.28. Brady also beat him in the championship in 2020 143.8 to 106.34. Those are the only two times they have met in the playoffs.

TJ (3) vs Rob (6): TJ has 1 player on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. Rob has 2 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. It looks like they will have to sweat out this game as 3 players play on Monday night, including Darnold (Rob), London (TJ), and Bowers (TJ).  It should make for an intense night. The one time they played head-to-head this year, TJ won 119-112. If they played each other every game this season, TJ would be winning 9-5. but Rob would be on a 1 game win streak and would have won 4 of the last 7. They have never met in the playoffs.

Some Regular Season in Review Notes

I put in everyone's information for each week to find their quartile information and then any outliers.  If you remember the phrases boxplot, box and whisker diagram, or a Tukey plot, that is what I did with our data. Based on that methodology, Tommy had one positive outlier (week 12), Brandon had two positive outliers (weeks 6 and 9), Trevor had two positive outliers (weeks 6 and 11), TJ had 1 positive outlier (week 5), and Kyle had one negative outlier (week 7), and one positive outlier (week 14).  This may be of some concern for Trevor as his highest games are mathematical outliers. Of all the playoff teams, if you look at the amount of times they scored 130+, Trevor has the least at 3. Matt has 5, Brady, Rob, and TJ have 6, and Rob leads the group with 7. If we move the cut-off to 150+ points, Brady has the least at 1, Rob, Trevor, and TJ have 2, Jordan has 3, and Matt has 4.

From a season-total perspective, TJ finished as the highest-scoring team.  Compared to the other highest-scoring teams at season end, he finishes in last all time (out of 4) for the 14-game schedule. If we take a points-per-game average so we can better compare team totals across shorter schedules, he finishes at 132.4 per game, which is 10th all time out of 15.  The record high for the high points per game is still Stephen Lorenzo Quinn from the 2014 season (145.6 per game), and the record low for the season high is Rob in 2010 at 124.3 points per game

Skyler finished as the lowest-scoring team. Compared to the other lowest-scoring teams at seasons end, he finishes in second all time (out of 4) for the 14-game schedule. If we take a points per game average so we can better compare team totals across shorter schedules, he finished at 109.4 points per game, which is 5th all time out of 15.  The record high for the low points per game is Travis James Morrison for the 2018 season (116.5 per game), and the record low for the season low is TJ in 2019 at 95.2 points per game.

Some interesting data I found was when I calculated averages and medians for everyone.  Usually, an average is higher than a median.  For example, if you take the average net worth of Americans, the billionaires skew the data high, but if you take the median net worth of Americans, it finds the person in the middle of the 330+ million people in the US, and that number will be lower than the average of the same data set.  When comparing the average and median of everyone in the league, Skyler, Tommy, and Kyle all had a lower median score than an average score. The other 9 people had averages higher than their medians.  The overall league score when looking at every score of every week has an average that is 2.5 points higher than the median. Matt, Scott, and Jordan have the highest positive difference between average and median, with the lowest difference of the 3 being 9.75, and the highest being 10.58.  I'm not sure that's cause for concern for Matt and Jordan in the playoffs, but it's an interesting note.

As a late note, congratulations to Matt back in week 11.  According to my records, that win over Brady made him a centurion.  The all-time regular season wins count is now Skyler 113, Jordan 108, Brady and Rob 106, Matt 102, Kyle 95, Tyler 94, Trevor and Chad 93, TJ 68, Ren 66, Geoff 44, Tommy 38, Brandon 32, Konner 29, and Scott 9.

Lastly (for this post anyway), congrats to Brady on being only the second person to 3-peat as a division champ.  The only other person to do it was Ren from 2012 to 2014.  His division championship gives him 5 all time. Matt won his 4th division championship this year.  Not to be outdone, Jordan has won his 7th division championship, which is tied for most all time with Skyler.

Good luck to none of you this week.

Week 13: 4 Guys, 1 Wild Card

With only one week to go, we finally have some clarity.  I will put more details down below, in the playoff section, but I say only some clarity because we only *know* one division winner, we have a greater than 99.999999999999999% idea of another, but we don't know their seedings, or the seedings of those who have already clinched qualification.  We also have 4 people fighting for the last spot.  The scenarios for that last spot are pretty cut and dry, but who knows how things will play out.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Scott: The margin for victory in this game was 28.12, which made this the blowout of the week.  After last week where we had multiple games of around 60 point margins, a much smaller blow out was much appreciated.  In a different world, Scott starts Jeudy over Cooper, and wins by enough that it wouldn't even be the nail-biter of the week.  Anyway, enough multiversal events of who could have won, let's get to what actually happened. Skyler won on the backs of only two 20+ point players (Daniels and McConkey), while Scott only had one (Harris). Skyler had 4 single digit players, while Scott also had 4 (if you include the DST in negative single digits). The loss eliminates Scott from playoff contention.

TJ vs Tyler: TJ was the leading scorer of the week, and Tyler was number 3, but the real story is Tyler taking himself out of the playoff race by not checking in time (Saturday Night/Sunday Morning) to start his first-round pick, the #2 pick overall, the #4 RB on the season, and the #5 RB/WR/TE on the season. This loss doesn't eliminate Tyler, but it takes him from the driver's seat for the last Wild Card spot, to the last spot, and needing a lot of help. TJ got the win no thanks to three 20+ point scorers (Burrow, Bowers, and the Cowboys DST), because Tyler actually had more with four of them (Lamar, Mixon, Dowdle, and Jonnu).  A minor help to TJ was that he had fewer (2) single-digit scorers than Tyler (3). The win also came down to TJ having the only person over 30, and most of his double-digit, but non-20+ scorers getting in the high teens. This was easily the weekly bonanza.

Kyle vs Jordan: Kyle could have lost and not been eliminated, but it would have put him in a really tough spot.  Thankfully for him, he got a narrow win over Jordan this week. They each had one person score 20+ this week (Kyle with Tyreek, and Jordan with Jacobs), and they each had 3 scoring single digits.  In a 6-point win, there likely won't be any clear reasons for victory, and that's the case here. The loss for Jordan takes him out of the driver's seat for the division and the bye week, but he's currently in shotgun and he can grab the wheel pretty easily while TJ is driving.

Matt vs Brandon: Matt needed a win to lock up the division from a surging Trevor, and he got it this week. This was the second biggest blowout of the week, which says more about Brandon than Matt as Matt was the 3 lowest scorer of the week. Matt and Brandon both had two 20+ scorers this week (Matt - Goff and Chase, Brandon - Achane and Allen). Matt had 4 players in single digits while Brandon had 5 -- the big difference there though is that all of Matt's single-digit players were >5, while all of Brandon's were <=5. The loss officially eliminated Brandon. With their joint low scores, this was the battle of ineptitude.

Trevor vs Rob: A win by Rob would have put Rob and Trevor in great spots to both make the playoffs, but they still could have theoretically been knocked out. A win by Trevor would clinch a spot for him and would put Rob in a much tougher spot (though still in the driver's seat). Thankfully for the Yle's, Trevor won. This was the nail-biter of the week as it was decided by less than 2 points, and adding to the fun of the game was that there was a 49er player on each team on SNF. They each had a 20+ point scorer (Rob had Darnold, and Trevor had McBride). Trevor had more single-digit scorers than Rob (4 to 3). The difference in this game didn't really even come down to Trevor's double-digit scorers doing more as I think Rob's were slightly better. In a game this tight, you can say anything was the reason, so I'll give up trying to find something obvious.

Tommy vs Brady: With a difference of 16 this was the 3rd biggest blowout or the 4th closest game -- I'll let you all decide how you want to spin the narrative.  Brady was the 2nd highest scorer, while Tommy was the 4th highest scorer. Brady had two people go for 20+ (Allen and Evans), while Tommy only had one (McLaurin).  Brady only had one person score single digits, while Tommy had two. The play of the night was the Hook and Ladder to Allen, which made sure he got the Receiving TD and the Passing TD.

Award Season

MVP: In the closest games, no one had a player who scored a season-high.  At best it was their 2nd best game of the season.  So we'll give it to Tyreek for breaking 20 points for the first time since week 1 in a game Kyle was desperate to win.

LVP: I want to give this to Demario Douglas for not being Bijan, but I feel like I've piled onto Tyler enough already. So let's give it to Jahmyr Gibbs who had his lowest-scoring game of the season and fumbled at the 6-yard line

Luckiest Team of the Week: The award will be split this week.  Matt won despite being the 10th-highest scorer, and TJ won thanks to Tyler being checked out.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Based on the above, you would think I might split this, but Tyler brought it on himself and will not win this award.  So it will all go to Tommy -- I'm sure it is making him feel so much better.

Highest Scoring Team of the Week: TJ is back to sitting on top after this week.

Lowest Scoring Team of the Week: Brandon had a rough week and 'wins' the award.

King of the Court: TJ gets the crown back after a few weeks of not having it.  

Game Previews

Skyler (8) vs Brady (5): Skyler has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Brady has 2 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. 

Kyle (7) vs TJ (1): Kyle has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. TJ has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. 

Tyler (9) vs Jordan (2): 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. 

Tommy (12) vs Scott (11): Tommy has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 5 players on bye. Scott has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. 

Brandon (10) vs Rob (6): Brandon has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Rob has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

Trevor (4) vs Matt (3): Trevor has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 players on bye. Matt has 2 players on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

Playoff Scenarios

1 Seed - If Matt wins and both TJ and Jordan lose, he is the 1 seed. If either TJ or Jordan win, Matt is likely the 2 seed due to tiebreaker.  If TJ wins, he is likely the 1 seed due to tiebreaker.  If Jordan wins, and Matt and TJ lose, Jordan would be the 1 seed.

2 Seed - If Jordan and/or TJ win, Matt is the 2 seed. If they all lose, Matt is the 2 seed. If Matt wins, and TJ and Jordan lose, TJ is the 2 seed.

3 Seed - The system will put the North winner will be put here by the system, but due to our recent rule changes, Jordan or TJ will be here, and I will move them manually.  If one of them wins while the other loses, the loser will be here.  If they both win, or both lose, odds are that TJ will be here. Jordan is only behind TJ by 40ish points, so in theory he could pass TJ if they have the same result, but it's not likely.

4 Seed - If Trevor wins, he is the 4 seed.  If Trevor loses and Brady wins, Brady is the 4 see (unless Trevor were to somehow outscore Brady in that scenario, in which case Trevor would be 4).

5 Seed - If Trevor wins and Brady wins, Brady is the 5 seed. If Trevor loses and Brady wins, Trevor is the 5 seed.  If Brady loses and Rob, Kyle, or Skyler win, and they manage to outscore Brady by 60, 125, or 205 points respectively, that person would be the 5 seed.

6 Seed - (Ignoring tiebreakers for a second) If Rob wins, Rob is the 6 seed. If Rob loses and Kyle wins, Kyle is the 6 seed. If Rob and Kyle lose and Skyler wins, Skyler is the 6 seed. If Rob, Kyle, and Skyler all lose, and Tyler wins, Rob is the 6 seed (though Tyler could catch Rob on tiebreaker as he is only back 20ish points). Skyler is 85 points behind Kyle, Kyle is 60 points behind Rob, so expecting them to catch on the points tiebreaker is very unlikely.

My predictions - (Mostly based on projections) 1 TJ, 2 Matt, 3 Jordan, 4 Trevor, 5 Brady, 6 Rob.

Good luck to everyone but Brady, Rob, and Kyle this week.

Week 12: Math Meets Probability

Mathematically, no one new has clinched the playoffs or been eliminated.  Rob is the current six seed is 6-6, and with two games to go, Brandon and Scott who are both at 4-7 could win out and catch him. However, they are behind on total points, and the schedule doesn't appear to be kind to them.

The YLE's (skYLEr, tYLEr, and kYLE) are all 5-7 and could mathematically catch Trevor who is at 7-5.  They are all behind on points, but Tyler and Kyle could reasonably make that up in two weeks, Skyler would have to out score Trevor by 70+ points each of the next two weeks to catch him. If they all won out, Trevor lost out, and the 6-6 teams won, Trevor could still be eliminated.  So as the title said, the math says it's possible, but the probability of it is low -- similar to BYU making the CFP.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Tommy: This was projected as the battle of ineptitude for good reason, but instead it ended up being the bonanza.  The game was decided by less than 4 points, but it wasn't even the Weekly or Nightly Nail Biter, or the Monday Nightmare/Miracle.  Games this close often come down to one or two plays, or one or two decisions.  For example, if Skyler had kept Elliott instead of Seibert, he would have won by 0.08. On the other side, if Tommy's kicker doesn't miss a couple of field goals, this is a double-digit win and we aren't even having this conversation.  Tommy was led to victory by 3 players scoring 20+ (Stack of Nix and Sutton, and Scary Terry), while Skyler only had 2 (Daniels and Waddle).  The biggest difference in this game though was seen with the single-digit scorers.  Skyler had 4 people score single digits, while Tommy only had 1.  This win guarantees Tommy won't finish as the first 1-loss team in league history.

Jordan vs TJ: This was supposed to be the bonanza, and Jordan pulled his weight as the only team to hit 150+ this week, but the Bye-mageddon was too much for TJ to overcome.  This was only the 2nd time he has scored under 100 all season -- the other time being week 1, also against Jordan. Jordan was led to victory by 3 people scoring 20+ (the Texans DST, Josh Jacobs, and the fantasy season MVP Saquon Barkley). TJ's stack of Rams (Stafford and Puka) also got 20+. TJ had 4 people score single digits, while Jordan had 3.  The biggest difference in this game was Saquon going for 46, which was more than TJ's top two scorers.  That being said, this was enough of a blowout that Jordan could have sat Saquon and still won by double digits.

Kyle vs Tyler: This was the underrated game of the week.  It didn't score a lot, it was only the 3rd closest game, but it was a big deal for the playoff hunt, and it included a come-from-behind win thanks to Lamar.  A Kyle win would have put him to 6-6 and it would have put Tyler on life support at 4-8. Instead, they are tied at 5-7 and the tiebreaker is manageable enough that Tyler could overcome it if things break his way.  Tyler had 3 people score 20+ (Lamar, Jakobi, and Jonnu), while Kyle had 2 (Mahomes and Pollard). Kyle had 5 people score single digits, while Tyler only had 3.

Matt vs Rob: Another victim of the Bye-pocalypse, Matt lost in the blowout of the week.  This was his first time getting under 100 on the season.  Rob put the beatdown on thanks to Tua and Jahmyr each scoring 20+.  They actually combined for 60, and if Rob only played them, Matt would have only won by 24 points (he lost to Rob by nearly 60 for context). Matt had no one score 20+ points this week, but fret not dear reader, we will not leave Matt's accomplishments out -- he had 5 people score single digits.  That's more than half his team scoring less than 50 points. Rob only had one person score single digits

Scott vs Brady: This was another blowout, but not the blowout.  Brady had two players score 20+ (AJ Brown and his Kicker), while Scott had 0.  Speaking of 0, Scott wishes his DST scored that high (it was -1).  Scott had 6 people in single digits (including negative single digits), while Brady only had 2.  This blowout would have been more had Brady's top 2 RB's not both left with injuries.  This was also the battle of ineptitude.

Brandon vs Trevor:  I was distracted by my own game, but this was the game of the week.  It was decided by 1.26 points.  Herbert had enough of a good game for Trevor, and King Henry didn't do enough to offset the Chargers DST for Brandon.  I can't imagine a stat correction will come into play, but you never know. There are so many one off plays that could have changed the course of this game, so we won't dive down that rabbit hole. Trevor had two players score 20+ points (Trey and Nico), while Brandon had three people score 20+ (Achane, Kupp, and Kittle). Trevor also had 5 players score single digits, while Brandon had 4. I am legitimately incredibly confused how Trevor won.  I suppose if the DST scored 8 more points, they still would have been a single digit team, and Brandon would have won by about a TD, but the overall blog metrics would have been the same.

Award Season

MVP: I wanted to give it to Saquon as the best player on the best team, but he wasn't even necessary for the win.  I will split the award though between Courtland Sutton and Trey McBride for scoring their highest games of the season during and incredibly close week.

LVP: Another split -- Seibert had his lowest game of the season, and Downs scored single digits for the firs time since week 7.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Trevor wins this award for how he won, and also because he only outscored 4 teams this weeks.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Only 3 teams would have beat Skyler this week, and he was matched up with one of them.

Highest Scoring Team of the Week: Jordan 

Lowest Scoring Team of the Week: Matt

King of the Court: Tyler takes it from Kyle, and goes up against TJ, normally a juggernaut, but maybe he’s trending down? Or maybe that was just the bye week. 

Game Previews

Stupid Reminder that there will be a Black Friday game on Amazon this week. How many prime commercials will there? The small, small bonus, I suppose, is that the game will be for anyone who has an Amazon account, and not just an amazon prime account.

Skyler (9) vs Scott (11): Skyler has 2 players on Thanksgiving/Black Friday and 0 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Scott has 0 players on Thanksgiving/Black Friday and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

TJ (2) vs Tyler (7): TJ has 2 players on Thanksgiving/Black Friday and 0 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Tyler has 5 player on Thanksgiving/Black Friday and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

Kyle (8) vs Jordan (1): Kyle has 2 players on Thanksgiving/Black Friday and 0 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Jordan has 3 players on Thanksgiving/Black Friday and 0 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

Matt (3) vs Brandon (10): Matt has 3 players on Thanksgiving/Black Friday and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Brandon has 2 players on Thanksgiving/Black Friday and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

Trevor (4) vs Rob (6): Trevor has 2 players on Thanksgiving/Black Friday and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 player on bye. Rob has 3 players on Thanksgiving/Black Friday and 1 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

Tommy (12) vs Brady (5): Tommy has 2 players on Thanksgiving/Black Friday and 4 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Brady has 3 players on Thanksgiving/Black Friday and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

Playoff Update

Playoff Scenarios

Matt, TJ, Jordan -- In

Tommy -- Out

Trevor -  7-4 If he beats Rob, he is locked into the playoffs.

Rob and Brady - 6-5 If they win and all the 5-6 teams lose, they are locked into the playoffs. Brady will win the division with a win and a Skyler loss.

Kyle, Tyler, and Skyler - 5-6 If Kyle and Tyler lose and Rob wins, they are out.  Brady winning or losing will not affect Kyle or Tyler. A win keeps them all alive. 

Scott, Brandon - 4-8 If they lose or if Rob wins, they are out. Brady winning or losing doesn't affect them.

Divisions and Seeding

West: TJ and Jordan are still fighting for their division, but Jordan beat down TJ by so much this week that the tiebreaker difference is now at 6 points, which is easily overcome in the last two weeks.

South: Matt still leads the division, but Trevor still has a small chance to win it. A Matt win or a Trevor loss makes Matt the division champion.

North: Anyone but Tommy can still win, but it will be incredibly difficult for anyone to catch Brady given the current schedule and tiebreakers. A Brady win and a Skyler loss gives Brady the division.

There's a lot of you who I need to lose, so I hope you do.  Same to the teams in the B12 ahead of BYU.

Week 11: Clear As Mud

We have now wrapped up the non-division part of the season, and we will start the home stretch of our rivalry games over the next three weeks.  As a fun (or maybe not so fun based on how last week went for you) reminder, week 11 was when we played all the matchups we missed out on for years because of the league layout and the NFL league schedule.  Those dark days are now behind us, and we all play each other every year.

The Triumvirate of 8-win teams became the Holy Trinity of 9-win teams (in the name of a 2-time champ, a pre-historic champ, and a championship virgin, amen) and look to be the clear favorites in the playoffs.  I thought Matt locked up his bye week, but there's a small possibility that Trevor can win out, while Matt loses out, and Trevor catches Matt on the points tie-breaker.  Matt's win guarantees the North will not get a bye in the playoffs this year.  I was guessing it was the first time in a long time, but it turns out the last time they missed out on a bye week was 2022. TJ and Jordan are in a heated battle for the other bye week, and they play each other this week. This week won't settle it, but the winner will be set up nicely.

Lastly, it is mathematically confirmed that the members of the first presidency of fantasy football are all in the playoffs and that Tommy is officially eliminated.  That means there are 3 spots left with 8 teams fighting for said spots over the next 3 weeks.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Jordan: This game was 0.58 away from being a 60-point blowout.  Yet somehow, this isn't even the biggest blowout of the week. Jordan had 4 people (A Rodg, Saquon, Jacobs, and the Texans DST) score 20+, Skyler had 0. Jordan had only 2 people score in single digits, Skyler had 5.  Not much more to say from this breakdown as Jordan took the lead during the Sunday morning game, and never gave it up again.

Scott vs Rob: In the second of the four blowouts this week, Rob beat Scott by a solid 44 points.  It was a close back-and-forth game for a while, but then Rob took off like a rocket near the end of the Sunday afternoon game and never looked back. Rob had 3 people (Jameis, Jennings, and Higgins) score 20+ points, while Scott had 0. In a strange turn, Rob had more people score single digits than Scott, (4 to 3), but Scott's 3 combined for 10.2, while Rob's 4 combined for 24.3 aka Rob's single-digit players averaged double the points of Scott's single-digit players. This was the battle of ineptitude this week as it was the only match to not break the the combined 240 mark.

Tyler vs Trevor: This is the third of the four blowouts, and it was actually the blowout of the week.  Trevor beat Tyler by 59.62, which was only 0.2 points more than what Jordan beat Skyler by.  This blowout was made possible by Trevor putting up a very good 162.6 points.  Why was it not great you ask? Find out in the next recap. Back to this recap, Tyler wasted a 35-point (34% of his points this week) game from Joe Mixon, while Trevor had 3 people score 20+ points. Herbert was 20+, Breece scored 30+ and Taysom went for 40+. Tyler didn't do himself any favors by having 5 players score in the single digits, while Trevor only had 3. Trevor led this one comfortably wire to wire.

Matt vs Brady: Thankfully not every game was a blowout, and this was one of the two games to be decided by less than 10 points.  This was also the bonanza of the week as this was a matchup of the 1st and 3rd highest-scoring teams. Brady took the lead Thursday behind a solid Eagle and Commander and then watched as his Lions put up some great points.  Unfortunately, those Lions stopped putting up points, and Matt's Lion took off. Brady still had the lead the whole week up until JK Dobbins went on his crazy end-of-game TD run, which gave the Chargers and Matt the win.  The twist of the knife was when Dalton Schultz played on MNF and ran up the score ever so slightly.  Matt had three 20+ point scorers (Goff, JSN, and Chase) while Brady also had 3 (Allen, Monty, ARSB). Each team also had 3 people in the single digits, and neither one had someone score <5. The combination of their big 3 (each of the 20+ people) was less than 2 points apart (in Matt's favor).  The combination of their small 3 (single-digit people) was less than 3 points apart (in Brady's favor). The 3 middle people favored Matt by 10 points, which got him his win.

TJ vs Tommy: The 4th blowout of the week was TJ beating Tommy by over 31 points. For two brief moments, Tommy had a lead, but TJ didn't let it last long. TJ had 3 people score 20+ (Burrow, Puka, and Bowers), while Tommy only had 1 (Nix). Fun fact, a few weeks ago, a very good source tells me that Tommy was offered Nix but turned down the offer.  Turns out he made the smart move to simply scoop him up off the waiver wire. Anyway, both teams had 4 players score in the single digits.  Tommy's scored 12 fewer points than TJ's, which explains some of the loss, but the much bigger margin was in the 20+ point group.

Kyle vs Brandon: This was the closest game of the week, so it will get the nail-biter of the week award.  There was no nightly nail-biter on Monday and no Monday Nightmare/Miracle, so we'll say those awards go to this battle.  There was some back and forth early, and then Brandon took a big lead on Sunday night.  Unfortunately, that big lead was his defense, and they slowly got whittled down while McConkey slowly went up for Kyle.  Their paths crossed late in the game, and unfortunately for Brandon, there was no last-minute pick-six to give him a tie game, which would have been a first in league history.  Unfortunately for Brandon, he missed the announcement that Kittle was out.  Brandon mentioned to the group that Kincaid would have gotten him a tie, which would have been hilarious.  Sadly, it didn't happen. It would have been great had their been a tie for the King of the Court, but Kyle is the undisputed King.

Award Season

MVP: Dobbins and McConkey had the late-game heroics to seal their close wins, but Boswell doubled his average while also kicking three 50 yard FG's in one game (6 total in the season before this week) wins the award this week

LVP: From the same matchup the LVP will go to the Chargers.  They were averaging over 11 points a game but only put up 2 (season low) in a game decided by 8. Or maybe the award should go to not being on top of roster management?

Luckiest Team of the Week: Kyle was the lowest-scoring winner (7th total points), and he won off some last-minute heroics against a guy who missed that his TE was out.  The stars lined up, and he took advantage of it.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Brady was the 3rd highest scorer, and lost by less than 10 points.  A big part of that is thanks to Goff not throwing to Brady's players, and Dobbins scoring a last-second TD.

Highest Scoring Team of the Week: Matt by 4 points

Lowest Scoring Team of the Week: Skyler goes back-to-back and gets the award this week.

King of the Court: Kyle takes it from Brandon.  It will now reside in the West until the playoffs.  There's an off chance that Kyle (or Tyler) could have the crown, and still miss the playoffs.  If that is the case, I haven't decided how to track it during the consolation.  I don't normally cover the consolation in the blog, but those games matter for draft picks, and they feel like they should matter for the King of the Court.  Hopefully, this matter resolves itself before we get there.

Game Previews

Skyler (8) vs Tommy (12): Skyler has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Tommy has 1 player on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. So much ineptitude this game.

Jordan (3) vs TJ (1): Jordan has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 4 players on bye. TJ has 1 player on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. He has 5 players on bye. This is the front-runner for the bonanza

Kyle (5) vs Tyler (11): Kyle has 2 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 3 players on bye. Tyler has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 3 players on bye. There's a shot at the battle of ineptitude here as they are the other 2 teams (with Tommy and Skyler) to be under 1,300 points for the season.

Matt (2) vs Rob (6): Matt has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 3 players on bye. Rob has 0 players on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. 

Scott (10) vs Brady (5): Scott has 2 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Brady has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 3 players on bye. 

Brandon (9) vs Trevor (4): Brandon has 0 players on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Trevor has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 3 players on bye. 

Playoff Scenarios

Matt, TJ, Jordan -- In

Tommy -- Out

Scott, Brandon, Tyler -- These are the 4-7 teams. If they lose and if 2 of the 4 teams that have 5 wins (Brady, Skyler, Rob, and Kyle) get to 6 wins, they will be behind the 6 seed by 2 games with only 2 games to go.  It would be quite a hole to dig out, but not impossible.  They cannot mathematically be eliminated this week, but a loss makes it very hard for them to come back.

Brady, Skyler, Rob, and Kyle -- The 5-6 teams can't clinch or be eliminated this week.

Trevor -- The lone 6-5 team, if he wins and all the 5-6 teams lose, he will have a 2 game lead with 2 games left to go.  He wouldn't mathematically clinch, but he would be in a great spot.

Divisions and Seeding

West: TJ and Jordan are both fighting for the bye week, and this week sees them play head-to-head.  The winner will take a commanding lead.  TJ currently leads the tiebreak by around 65 points.  A win this week would see him move to a 1 game lead and a likely 70+ point lead.  He wouldn't guarantee himself the division, but it would be hard for Jordan to catch up. If Jordan wins, he would have the same one-game lead, but he would likely still be behind on points, and if TJ were to sneak a win back, he would be back in the lead over Jordan,

South: Matt will win the division once he wins a game or Trevor loses a game.  Even if Trevor wins out and Matt loses out, Trevor would also need to overcome an 80+ point deficit to beat Matt on a tiebreak.  Matt's at >99% to win the division.

North: Anyone but Tommy can still win. This will likely come down to the wire.  As mentioned above, this division cannot get a first-round bye. Depending how weird this gets, we could see the division winner be the 7th seed overall, but still make the playoffs as a division champion.  It's not likely, but it's possible.

Mail Bag Questions

Hey Commish, I'm insecure about my team record, but I noticed the top two members of the Division of Champions have the same record as me and I want to dunk on their whole division during a down year where they all have a losing record after week 11.  Can you let me know if any other division has been this bad before? (edited slightly from the original submission) - Anonymous

Hey Anonymous, I'd hate to help you out, but here you go. Back in 2021, everyone in the South division had a losing record. If you don't remember much about that year, that was the first time everyone in the North made the playoffs -- the first and only time to date that every team from one single division made the playoffs. It was also the first year of the expanded schedule.  The South also did the same thing in 2018, and the North pulled it off in 2011. So congrats to the West for never having everyone suck all at the same time.  Another fun fact that you didn't ask for, but I wanted to make sure to include, 2011, 2018, and 2021 were all years that a team from the North won a championship.  We shall see if history repeats itself.

Week 10: Cloudy The Future Is

After another week of chaos, the math is still undecided.  It's possible that the 8-2 teams lose out, finish 8-6, and all the 4-4 and 5-3 teams catch them and eliminate them on tiebreaker, but it's incredibly unlikely -- especially since two of the 8-2 teams will play each other later in the year, and one of them will have to get to 9 wins (which would mathematically guarantee a playoff spot).  It is also possible that Tommy wins out, and the right combination of teams win or lose, and Tommy could sneak in on a tiebreaker, but that's incredibly unlikely. No 8-win team has ever missed the playoffs, and no 5-win team has ever made the playoffs -- we haven't had a 6-win team make the playoffs in nearly 10 years, and likely won't with the 14-game season.  These next 4 weeks are crucial for all of the 5 and 4 win teams.  Given the schedules and the fact that 8 teams are in that win range, it should be a wild end of the year.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs TJ: TJ won by 40, and it was only the 3rd biggest blowout of the week.  Joe Burrow put up a 40 burger on Thursday night, and the game was essentially over from that point on.  TJ had no other 22+ point players and had 3 single-digit players.  Skyler had no 21+ point-getters and had 5 people score in the single digits.

Brady vs Rob: This was the closest game of the week, and Rob got the win thanks to Kyren getting over 5 points on MNF, which designates this both the nightly and weekly nail-biter, as well as the Monday Nightmare/Miracle.  Brady had Chase Brown score 21+, while Rob had Kelce and the Eagles DST hit that mark. Rob needed that extra person scoring 22+ as he had more people score single digits (4) than Brady did (3).

Scott vs Matt: Matt was a top 2 scorer this week, and Scott was a bottom 3, which is a perfect recipe for the blowout of the week. Matt had Ja'Marr Chase on Thursday night and never needed to look back after that. Matt had no other 22+ point scorers.  Scott actually had two 21+ point scorers, but it didn't help that he had 6 people score single digits.  Time out, hold on just a minute, Scott started an inactive player? I was excited about Scott being in the North, but today, I am not. I’m very disappointed and will talk to the commissioner (myself). This was not fair to our division. I'm disgusted that it didn't actually make a difference though since he didn't have anyone on the bench who would have won him the game.

Tommy vs Jordan: Jordan got a solid win by having two 22+ point scorers, while Tommy only had 1 player score 21+.  They both had 5 single-digit scorers, so Murray going for 30+ is what really sealed the deal.  This loss essentially knocks Tommy out of the playoffs, not that he had much hope before this.

Tyler vs Brandon: This was the second biggest blowout of the week, with Tyler doing most of his damage in roughly the second quarter of the game (if you look at the point chart).  Fortunately for him, he didn't totally fall apart at halftime, and he was able to get the win. Tyler had two people score 22+ plus, while Brandon had zero people score 21+.  In an interesting twist, Tyler had 3 people score in the single digits, while Brandon had 0 score in the single digits.  Despite having his whole team score in the double digits, Brandon lost thanks to Tyler having a few heavy hitters (Lamar going for 40+ on Thursday night) getting the job done. This gets Tyler the King of the Court

Trevor vs Kyle: Trevor got a narrow 8 point victory over Kyle, which was only the 2nd closest margin this week.  Kyle tried for a Monday Night Miracle, but Tyreek only ended up with 11.7 points. Tyreek has only scored over 13 points once this season, so while he probably had some hope, this score should have been in his expected outcome.  Trevor got the win despite only having one player score 22+ points.  Kyle also only had one player score 21+ points, so it made Trevor's low output ok. The difference appears to be Kyle having 4 people score in the single digits, while Trevor only had 2.

Award Season

King of the Court: Tyler takes it from Brandon this week.

Highest Scorer of the Week: Tyler

Lowest Scorer of the Week: Skyler

Luckiest Team of the Week: Jordan was the lowest-scoring winner, but he was still a top 6 team, so it's not that lucky.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Brady was the 8th highest-scoring player, so he wasn't really unlucky, but losing on MNF by such a narrow margin will give him the award.

MVP: Ja'Marr Chase going for 55 on the second-highest-scoring team of the week gets the award this week

LVP: Let's go with Josh Allen and his 2 INT's.  That's -4, in a 7 point loss, and maybe one of those drives that ended early would have been for a TD.  It's a weak case, but I'm making it.

Skyler (6) vs Jordan (3): Skyler has 2 players on Thursday night and 0 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Jordan has 1 player on Thursday night and 2 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. 

Scott (7) vs Rob (10): Scott has 1 player on Thursday night and 2 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Rob has 1 player on Thursday night, and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. 

Tyler (9) vs Trevor (5): Tyler has 0 players on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Trevor has 0 players on Thursday night and 2 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. 

Matt (2) vs Brady (4): Matt has 0 players on Thursday night and 3 players in primetime. He 2 players on bye. Brady has 2 players on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. 

TJ (1) vs Tommy (12): TJ has 0 players on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Tommy has 1 player on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. 

Kyle (11) vs Brandon (8): Kyle has 0 players on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Brandon has 1 player on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime.  He has 2 players on bye.

Good luck to me and whatever is best for my playoff chances this week.  I can't wish anyone else luck because it's too tight right now.

Week 9: The Playoff Picture Appears, But Doesn't Look Like Anything Yet.

With 5 weeks left to go, no one has clinched a playoff spot or been eliminated.  However, Tommy cannot finish in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, while Matt, TJ, and Jordan cannot finish last.  Everything else is still up for grabs though.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Rob: This was 1 of 3 games that featured a person under 100 points, but it somehow wasn't the battle of ineptitude (mostly thanks to Rob). Skyler had Daniels and Jefferson go for 20+, but had 5 single-digit players (4 of them had <5 points).  Rob also only had 2 players score 20+ (Darnold and Kelce), but 6 of his other players also scored in the double digits, which led him to his victory.

Matt vs Tommy: This was the 2nd game to feature a person under 100 points, and this one was the battle of ineptitude and the blowout of the week.  Tommy had a sad sub-80 score, while Matt was a catch away from clearing 130.  Matt had Dobbins, Otton, and JSN each in the 20+ point tier, while Tommy had none. Matt had 3 players in single digits, Tommy had 5...and one of those had negative single digits. 

TJ vs Trevor: This was the 3rd and final game that featured someone scoring under 100 points.  This one was the closest of the 3 matchups as TJ only won by 27-28 points.  He got said win by having Joey B be less than a point away from 40 points (with 4 players scoring double digits). Trevor had no one go over 20, while he had 5 players score double digits.

Jordan vs Brandon: Brandon didn't have the blowout of the night, but he did blow out Jordan this week by nearly 40 points. Brandon had 5 players score 20+ (Baker, Henry, Achane, Kupp, and Chargers DST), while Jordan had Barkley and Wilson (they both actually went for 30+) in the same club. The other big help was Brandon only having 2 players in single digits, while Jordan had 5. Brandon's win means he keeps his crown this week.

Tyler vs Brady: This was the weekly and nightly nail-biter, and also had a Monday Nightmare/Miracle -- or at least a light version of it.  Brady had an 8.7 lead going into MNF, while Tyler only had his DST to play.  Tyler took the lead by virtue of the game starting, but then he slowly started coming back down.  Unfortunately for him, he dropped just enough to give Brady the narrow win. While the Chief's DST was the primetime play, the game really came down to Brady only having 2 players in single digits, while Tyler had 4. Both players had 2 players score 20+ (Brady: J. Allen and C. Brown. Tyler: Lamar and Bijan)

Kyle vs Scott: This was the bonanza this week as the 3rd and 4th highest-scoring teams squared off in the 2nd tightest game of the week. Scott pulled off the victory (and got himself back in the playoff discussion) thanks to Hurts going for 30+ and Davante Adams and the Rams DST going for 20+.  Not to be outdone, Kyle had Mahomes go for 30+ (best game of the season), and Kamara go for 20+.  Kyle had 3 players score in the single digits, and Scott only had 2.  Due to those minor adjustments in Scott's favor, he got the narrow win.

Award Season

King of the Court: Brandon

King of the Course: Back, due to (semi) popular demand, King of the Course gets Tommy a shoutout this week -- but we shall see how much longer he will get this shoutout.

Highest Scorer of the Week: Brandon

Lowest Scorer of the Week: Tommy

Luckiest Team of the Week:  TJ was the lowest-scoring winner this week (8th highest), so he gets the award this week.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Kyle was the highest-scoring loser and 4th highest-scoring team this week, so he'll get the award this time.

MVP: Chase Brown scored a season (and maybe career?) high for Brady in a week when he won by less than 3 points.

LVP: Mark Andrews had his lowest score in a month, and cost Tyler the win by not keeping up with his recent standard.

Game Previews

Game Previews

Skyler (5) vs TJ (1): Skyler has 0 players on Thursday night and 3 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. TJ has 2 players on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 3 players on bye. 

Rob (10) vs Brady (4): Rob has 0 players on Thursday night and 3 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Brady has 1 player on Thursday night and 2 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye.

Matt (3) vs Scott (6): Matt has 1 player on Thursday night and 2 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Scott has 0 players on Thursday night and 0 players in primetime.  He has 1 player on bye.

Jordan (2) vs Tommy (12): Jordan has 0 players on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Tommy has 0 players on Thursday night and 0 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. 

Brandon (7) vs Tyler (11): Brandon has 1 player on Thursday night and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Tyler has 2 players on Thursday night and 2 players in primetime. He has 4 players on bye. 

Trevor (8) vs Kyle (9): Trevor has 0 players on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Kyle has 1 player on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. 

Playoff Scenarios

If the 6 seed is ahead of a lower seed by more games than there are weeks remaining, the lower seed is eliminated.  For example, Tommy is in last place and has 1 win, and the sixth seed (and 3 other teams below him) has 4 wins.  Tommy would need to lose his next two games, and any one of the teams with 4 wins right now would need to win his next two games to eliminate Tommy.  Fortunately for Tommy, 2 of the 4 win teams play each other this week, and another one is playing a 7-2 team, and then the next week, 2 of those 4 teams play each other again.  All of that is a convoluted way of saying Tommy could be eliminated by the end of week 11, but it would be highly unlikely.

Similarly, the 7-2 teams could all lock the playoffs in two weeks if they win out, and three of the four 4-5 teams lose out during those two weeks.  However, we know that some of the 4-5 teams play each other, so unless Brandon, Scott, and Trevor all lose out the next two weeks, we won't likely see all the 7-2 teams guarantee a playoff lock in two weeks.

So everyone, even Tommy, still has something to play for, and no one is safe from elimination.

Good luck to everyone but Rob this week.

Week 8: The Return of the Points

If you want the title reference to be for "The Return of the Mack", "The Return of the Jedi", or "The Return of the King", I'll leave that up to you. Either way, it was good for there to be an abundance of points again. 

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Matt:  This was the weekly blowout as well as the weekly bonanza.  A lot of that has to do with Matt being the highest scorer of the week, but it didn't hurt that Skyler (the 8th highest team) was closer to the 2nd highest scorer (Rob), than 12th highest scorer this week (Brady). This week was top-heavy -- Skyler actually had the highest scorer in the matchup with Bo Nix scoring 35, but he had no one else score 20+.  On the other hand, Matt didn't have anyone score 30+, but he had 5 players score 20+ (Goff, Cook, Chase, Harrison, and Otton).  Skyler had 4 single-digit scorers, and Matt had 2, while Skyler had 1 in the 5 and under club, with Matt having 0.

Trevor vs Jordan: Jordan led wire-to-wire, and beat Trevor by a respectable ~25 points. Each team had two 20+ point scorers -- Jordan had Murray and Jacobs, and Trevor had Tracy and McBride. The big difference in this game came from Trevor having 5 players scoring single digits, while Jordan only had 1 of them.

Tommy vs Rob:  Rob started out hot on Thursday and led wire-to-wire. He had 5 players score 20+ points (Darnold, Kyren, Gibbs, Devonta, and Kelce), while Tommy only had Kyle Pitts join that club.  Tommy had 3 players score single digits, while Rob had 2. This was a big win for Rob as both teams had only won one game all season, and Rob was ranked 12th while Tommy was ranked 11th.  With the win, Rob has moved all the way up to 11th, and Tommy has dropped to 12th.  And even with those glowing endorsements, this was not the battle of ineptitude.

Brandon vs TJ:  TJ's reign as King of the Court came to an uneventful end.  Brandon was only the 7th leading scorer, but TJ's team laid a goose egg as they were the 2nd lowest-scoring team this week. Despite being the new King, King Henry wasn't as big of a factor as he failed to score 20+, and had his worst week since week 1.  Thankfully, Brandon had Mayfield and Achane go for 20+, while TJ didn't have anyone in that group. Both teams had 4 players in the single-digit group.  Despite both teams being in the bottom half of scoring, this was not the battle of ineptitude

Scott vs Tyler: This was the only game decided by single digits this week, so it receives the coveted nail-biter of the week award.  By default, it was also the nightly nail-biter as Scott's RB (Harris) was playing on MNF and was trying to drag his team to the come-from-behind victory.  Sadly (for Scott anyway), he could not, and Tyler held onto the win. Scott had two people in the 20+ point club (Hurts and CD), and they were actually both in the 30+ point tier.  Tyler had three players score 20+ (Lamar, Mixon, and Bijan).  Tyler took a commanding lead Sunday afternoon, and I had assumed the game was over, but then Ceedee Lamb went off on SNF to give Scott an outside chance of pulling off the comeback with Najee on MNF.  This game was less than 10 points off of the weekly bonanza and was the game of the week thanks to the amount of points, how close it was, and how it was still up for grabs on MNF.

Brady vs Kyle: Finally, we have the battle of ineptitude. Brady was the lowest scorer this week, with the next highest scorer being 15 points higher. Kyle was the 6th highest scorer, which wasn't enough to drag this matchup out of ineptitude. Kyle got the win thanks to a season-high score from Mahomes (22 points), who was the only 20+ point member of this matchup.  Can we talk about just how bad he has been this year from a fantasy football perspective?  It makes no sense.  I suppose the Chiefs don't need him to be otherworldly with the defense that they have, which is a good thing given his WR are all bad or hurt.  Kyle's 4th highest scorer (the Steelers DST), was less than a point behind Brady's highest scorer. This wasn't the only reason he lost, but Brady was certainly held back thanks to Love and Mason leaving the game early due to injuries. Brady had 5 players score single digits, while Kyle only had 2.

Award Season

King of the Court: Brandon

King of the Course: Back due to (semi) popular demand, King of the Course gets Tommy a shoutout this week.

Highest Scorer of the Week: Matt

Lowest Scorer of the Week: Brady

Luckiest Team of the Week:  Brandon was the lowest-scoring winner, so he'll win the award this week.  He was 7th highest though, so it's not like it was a large amount of luck.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: The unluckiest team of the season is the unluckiest team of the week as Scott was the 4th highest scorer, but he played the 3rd highest scorer.

MVP: Tyler won thanks to the Lamar/Andrews stack -- Lamar's passing TD to Mark Andrews was the big play that ended up getting Tyler the win.

LVP: Amari Cooper's second game with the Bills meant more playing time, but much less production, and in a close game, Scott needed every point he could have gotten out of the extra Amari playing time.

Game Previews

Skyler (4) vs Rob (11): Skyler has 0 players on Thursday night and 5 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Rob has 1 player on Thursday night and 3 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. 

Matt (3) vs Tommy (12): Matt has 0 players on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Tommy has 1 player on Thursday night and 0 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

TJ (2) vs Trevor (6): TJ has 0 players on Thursday night and 2 players in primetime.  He has 0 players on bye. Trevor has 1 player on Thursday night and 0 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye, but CMC hasn't taken a snap all year, so does he really count?

Jordan (1) vs Brandon (9): Jordan has 3 players on Thursday night and 0 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Brandon has 0 players on Thursday night and 2 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye.

Tyler (10) vs Brady (5): Tyler has one player on Thursday night and one player in primetime. He has one player on bye. Brady has 0 players on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye.

Kyle (7) vs Scott (8): Kyle has 0 players on Thursday night and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Scott has 1 player on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. 

Good luck to everyone but Rob this week, and Happy Halloween to all of you, even Rob, tonight.

Week 7: We're half way there...

...and a lot of teams are living on a prayer.  It was another ugly week with low scores for teams, low passing yards, and I read on social media (so you know it's true) that this was the lowest #1 WR for the week score maybe ever (Amon-Ra St. Brown was the highest WR with 25.2 points).  If you look at the breakdown, only 4 teams in the league have an overall winning record.  I keep thinking this season will turn around and get better, but maybe we're just in for a wild ride all year long?

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Kyle: This was an ugly game and clearly the battle of ineptitude, though this week was the week of ineptitude.  There were 3 teams who scored under 100 this week (and Tommy only got 100.14 if you want to say there were 4 bad teams this week),  and this was the only matchup that featured two of them. Skyler got the win thanks to his 3 players who scored 20+ (Aaron Jones, Justin Jefferson, and the Philly DST). Kyle had no players score 20+. Skyler had had 5 players in single digits, and Kyle had 6.  We've already spent more time on this game than we should have.

Brandon vs Brady: I prewrote the blog because I had the time, and then the fantasy gods laughed at me and this game happened.  This was a crazy game, yet would have been the battle of ineptitude if not for Skyler and Kyle.  This game had an amazing comeback on MNF thanks to some big players and some bad coaching.  In the end, Baker and King Henry dragged Brandon to the lead, while the Chargers DST tried to give it back to Brady. This was the weekly and nightly nail biter, as well as the Monday Nightmare/Miracle. Each team had two players score 20+ (the aforementioned Baker and the King for Brandon, and Love and the Sun God for Brady). Brandon had one of his players actually go for 30+, and he only had 4 single digit scorers compared to Brady's 6.

Scott vs Trevor: Trevor had a chance to join Skyler and Brady in the 5-2 club, and make league history this year by having a 2 game difference between the 6 and 7 seeds this early in the season (I decided to leave this section as a reminder that history was on the line, but Trevor and Brady didn't come through).  Scott had other plans, and with his win, he will jump over Kyle to the 7 seed and is now only 1 game back of 6 seed Brady. It's probably too early to put too much importance on playoff positioning, but this win has Scott 1 game out of the playoffs instead of 3 games out (if he had lost to Trevor [and if Brady had won]). It is a little bit surprising that Scott got the win given how few 20+ point games he had (only Jalen Hurts) compared to Trevor, who had three 20+ point scorers (Geno, Breece, and BTJ).  It helped that on the low end, Trevor's guys really let him down, whereas Scott's Tot's only kind of let him down (aka Davante Adams being bad in his Jets debut) .

Jordan vs Matt:  Matt has been roughed up the last two weeks, and in his defense, he has had the hardest schedule. Not in Matt's defense, he is averaging around 102 points per game the last two games. The beatdown of the week was brought to you by the number 4 and the letter N.  Jordan had 4 guys score 20+ points (Barkley, Jacobs, Pickens, and the Washington DST), and the Jets DST had Negative points for Matt. Matt did have 1 player score 20+ points (Goff), so we should give him his flower for that -- not flowers though, because he doesn't deserve more than one flower. Despite Matt's best efforts to suck, Jordan made this the bonanza with his offensive explosion.

TJ vs Rob: In lieu of writing something crazy just to see if TJ will post what I wrote to social media (with all my bad typos and awkward writing in general) 3 weeks in a row, I'll keep this a little more simple. Rob was the highest-scoring loser, and TJ was one of the better winners.  Going into this week, 4 teams had scored between 600-699, 7 teams had scored between 700-799 (5 of those under 712), and only TJ had scored over 800 points. After this week, TJ is the first (and only) team to 900 points on the season.  That was made possible this game due to 2 players being the 20+ point club (Walker [not Texas Ranger], and Bigsby [not Clayton]). Rob had 1 guy in said 20+ club, and he actually was a 30+ point scorer (Gibbs), but it wasn't enough to overcome TJ.  Rob was done in by having his bottom 3 players combine for 2.8 points, though TJ's bottom 3 weren't stellar either, and only scored 9 -- but in a game decided by less than 8 points, even the scrubs matter.

Tommy vs Tyler: In one of the weirder matchups this week, Tommy's K and DST combined for 40, but Tyler's combined for 30.  Unfortunately for Tommy, those were his two best players, and only the Broncos DST scored over 20+ for him.  Tyler had a really bad week from his 49ers WRs (combined for 4.3), but he did have 3other players score 20+ (Mixon, Bijan, and Lamar). In unfortunate news for Tyler, Aiyuk will be out for the year, and Jerome Ford may have lost his job with Nick Chubb coming back. This was the only matchup of 1-5 teams (there were 4 of them going into this week), so one of them had to win.  The other 2 lost, and will go to 1-6 with Tommy, which means Tyler goes from 12th to 10th.  It's not a lot, but you have to start somewhere.

Award Season

MVP: Baker for getting the win for Brandon in garbage time

LVP: I wanted to give it to someone on Brady's team, but so many of his people played hurt, and that feels dirty.  I was thinking Jordan Mason, but he actually has the most rush yards against the Chiefs this season.  So sadly, I will go back to the injured (or kind of injured) Montgomery since his injury didn't knock him out, and it was by far his worst game of the season.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Rob was the highest-scoring loser, so I was going to give it to him, until Brady lost in the fashion he did.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Skyler didn't break 100 and still won.

Highest Scorer of the Week: Dr. (50 shades of) Gray

Lowest Scorer of the Week: Kyle

King of the Court: Early on, Rob was projected to win, but TJ managed to beat projections and hold onto his crown.

Game Previews

Skyler (4) vs Matt (3): Skyler has 3 players on Thursday night and 0 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Matt has 0 players on Thursday night and 0 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

Trevor (6) vs Jordan (2): Trevor has 0 players on Thursday night and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Jordan has 1 player on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye.

Tommy (11) vs Rob (12): Tommy has 0 players on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Rob has 2 players on Thursday night and 0 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Given their rankings, this has the potential to be the battle of ineptitude.

Brandon (9) vs TJ (1): Brandon has 1 player on Thursday night and 2 players in primetime. He has no players on bye. TJ has 0 players on Thursday night and 0 players in primetime. He has no players on bye.

Scott (7) vs Tyler (10): Scott has 0 players on Thursday night and 3 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Tyler has 0 players on Thursday night and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

Brady (5) vs Kyle (8): Brady has 0 players on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Kyle has 0 players on Thursday night and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

Mid Year Awards

MVP: Brock Bowers was an 8th round draft pick, and has been the best TE on the season, helping TJ to the best record and most points so far.

LVP: Can't Run CMC -- We all have the same number of points as the #1 draft pick this year

Unluckiest Team of the Season: Based on points for and the breakdown scores, Scott should be a playoff team instead of outside the playoffs.

Luckiest Team of the Season: Based on points for and the breakdown scores, Skyler should be a bottom-three team, not a top 4 team.

Highest Scorer of the Season: TJ

Lowest Scorer of the Season: Tyler

Good luck to everyone but Matt this week!

Week 6: A Strong Middle Class

I had no great title or overarching theme for this week, so I went with a mediocre observation -- the teams that were ranked 5-9 before the week started didn't change at all in their rankings after the games went final. That won't be the case this next week though as 6 plays 7, and 5 plays 8.

As part of writing the blog, I looked through the write up for week 6 last (so I can copy and paste the game preview template), and I realized that in weeks 5 and 6 last year I talked about how many injuries were occurring.  Given last year and this year, it seems weeks 5 and 6 are the cursed weeks.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Tyler: This was the second closest game of the week, and it came down to MNF.  Aaron Rodgers did enough to drop the Bills DST down and get Skyler the win.  Going back to the unexpected theme of a strong middle class, Tyler had 4 guys score 20+ points (Lamar, Mixon, Bijan, Deebo) compared to Skyler only have 1 (Daniels). Given the top heavy nature of Tyler's team, it would have been safe to assume he would have won, but Tyler was let down by 5 players in single digits, 3 of whom were 5 and under.  Skyler only had 2 guys in double digits, and only one of them was 5 and under.

Kyle vs Tommy: What a game! It was the 3rd highest scoring game of the week, and it was decided by less than a point on MNF aka Monday Nightmare/Miracle and Nightly/Weekly Nailbiter.  What was fun for the rest of us must have been agony for Kyle and Tommy, so thank you gentleman for the entertainment. In one of the flukier things I have ever seen, each team had a player end with negative points (neither of them DST's).  Tommy had 3 guys score 20+ (Stroud, Swift, and Scary Terry), while Kyle only had Fields, yet it was Kyle's middle class of guys who got him the win.  This middle class thing I made up at the start is now paying dividends two matchups in.  Let's see how it continues.

Matt vs TJ: In preparation for the matchup of the top two teams, there was a media event similar to boxing.  As they were staring each other down, Matt blinked first, and then decided to fall to the ground and get in the fetal position.  Surprised by this show of weakness, TJ decided to stomp on him repeatedly until he got Matt right in the bladder, causing him to wet himself while crying. Afterwards, a reporter asked what happened, and TJ's only response was "If you come at the King, you best not miss". Maybe that's not what really happened, but when you are the number 1 team on the season and then you are the second lowest scorer of the week and you were on the losing end of the weekly blow out, I feel I get to take creative liberties in describing what happened. TJ didn't quite lead wire to wire, but he got a lead by the end of Thursday night and never looked back. TJ had 2 people score 20+ (KW3 and Flowers), while Matt only had 1 pass the 20 threshold in Goff.  In Goff's defense, he actually got 30+, but the rest of his team was lacking.

Rob vs Jordan: This was the first of 3 games that was decided by 15-25 points -- right in the sweet spot of not agonizingly close where you wish you had started someone else, but not far enough apart that it's embarrassing. That being said, Rob still has to be pretty salty that in a game where the Cowboys were down the entire time, Dak had his worst game in yards and TD's to combine for his worst game of the season.  Overall, this game was a bit of a let down as it was the battle of ineptitude and featured two of the bottom four scorer's.  Rob had 0 people score 20+ points, and Jordan only had 2 in that group (Wilson and Kmet). Rob actually had more people score double digits than Jordan did (6 to 5) but he also had more people score 5 and under (3) than Jordan (0).

Trevor vs Brady: Trevor is finally on the winning side of when 2 of the top 3 teams play each other. This was the weekly bonanza, and was pretty close through the early games with a couple of score changes early on.  Trevor was able to put it away in primetime behind Tracy and Hall running wild when it mattered most as they both scored 20+ this week.  Not to be outdone, Caleb Williams went for 36, and managed to outduel Jordan Love on Brady's side, who went for 33. Brady also had Monty and the Sun God join the 20+ point club.  Neither team had anyone score under 5 points.  Brady did have 3 people in the single digits, while Trevor only had 1. Unfortunately for Brady, Mike Evans played the Saints (his Kryptonite) and Mason got hurt. As great as this bonanza was, I feel like we were robbed of an all-time classic with Mason and Evans underperforming.

Brandon vs Scott: In the surprise of the week, 12th place Brandon and 8th place Scott were 2nd place in the bonanza standings, and were the 3rd closest matchup of the week. Each team had someone score 30+ (Baker for Brandon, and Purdy and Godwin for Scott), and they had an additional 4 players combined score 20+ (3 for Brandon -- Henry, Allen, and Kittle, and 1 for Scott -- Najee).  Scott's demise came from 5 players scoring single digits, while Brandon only had 2.

Award Season

MVP:

LVP:

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Should it go to Brady, for being the 3rd highest scorer and losing? Yes.  Could it also go to Scott, for being the 5th highest scorer and losing? Yes. But will it go to Tommy, who lost on MNF because Kincaid had a season-high total in catches and yards? Yes

Luckiest Team of the Week: Jordan only could have won against 3 teams this week, and he was lucky enough to play one of them.

Highest Scorer of the Week: Dr. T-Rev

Lowest Scorer of the Week: Rob

King of the Court: It's still TJ, but let's see if Rob has anything to say about that next week.

Game Previews

Skyler (6) vs Kyle (7): Skyler has 1 player on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Kyle has 1 player on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. If Skyler wins, there will be a 2 game gap between the last playoff team and the 7 seed, but if Kyle wins, it will be all tied up. It probably means nothing, but we've never had the 6 seed with a 2-game lead over the 7 seed after week 7.  And I'm also realizing this would require Trevor and Brady to win as well as Skyler.  So odds are good we won't see a 2-game gap from 6 to 7 at the halfway point.

Brandon (10) vs Brady (4): Brandon has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Brady has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. This is the leading bonanza candidate based on the always accurate and infallible projections.

Scott (8) vs Trevor (5): Scott has 0 players on Thursday and 4 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Trevor has 0 players on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. 

Jordan (2) vs Matt (3): Jordan has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Matt has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

TJ (1) vs Rob (11): TJ has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Rob has 0 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Based on the standings, this could be the blowout of the week.  Based on projections, this is a prime bonanza candidate.

Tommy (9) vs Tyler (12): Tommy has 1 player on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. He has 3 players on bye. Tyler has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Based on standings, this looks to be the battle of ineptitude.

Good luck to everyone but Kyle this week.

Weeks 4&5: Rapid Fire

Here's a rapid-fire update in the hopes of trying to get caught up before getting further behind.

Week 4 Game Recaps

Skyler > Brandon: Skyler got lucky that several of Brandon's players got hurt.

Brady > Jordan: Brady had 4 guys who went for 20+, Jordan had 0.

TJ > Scott: This blowout of the week was made possible by TJ having 3 score 20+ while Scott had none. TJ even had 1 of those three go for 30+.

Matt > Tyler: Matt had one guy over 30, Tyler had one guy over 20. Tyler's bottom two players combined for 2 points. Tyler's bottom two players combined for less than Matt's worst player. This was the battle of ineptitude

Kyle > Rob: Weekly bonanza as well as the weekly and nightly nail-biter, so it was easily the game of the week. 

Trevor > Tommy: Game was decided by Sunday afternoon.  According to the website, this was Trevor's first win over Tommy. Both had players score 0 points, but Trevor got the win by having three 20+ point players (including a 30+), while Tommy only had two 20+ point players.

Week 4 Awards

MVP: The Titan's DST gets this for Kyle.  They were playing Monday night, they were averaging 7 points a game, and then they put up 19 in a game Kyle only won by 8.

LVP: There's no one obvious, so I'll say the Dolphins DST for Rob. Will Levis got hurt before he could give up 3+ sacks or throw a pick 6.

Unluckiest Team of the Week:  Rob was a top 4 team and still lost -- it couldn't happen to a more deserving team.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Matt was the lowest-scoring winner, and is lucky to stay undefeated.

Highest Scoring Team of the Week: TJ put on a clinic this week.  Let's hope it's not a trend (foreshadowing).

Lowest Scoring Team of the Week: Tyler needs to go to a clinic as the only team to not break 100.

King of the Court: TJ takes the crown from Scott this week.

Week 5 Game Recaps

Skyler vs Trevor: This was the battle of ineptitude, but at least there was a Monday Nightmare/Miracle to make up for the low score, and this was also the closest game of the week. Each team only had one player score 20+, and each had 3 players in single digits, and both had a key player injured. There's no real reason that Skyler won this game.

Brandon vs Tommy: This would have been the weekly bonanza had TJ not gone nuclear and automatically made his game the bonanza.  Almost hitting the bonanza was unexpected as these two came into the game defeated.  As a parting gift to his former North Carolinian, Tommy took the win with him to Cedar City. On the top end, both teams had two players score 20+.  Tommy got said win thanks to the lower-level players though, as Brandon had one player go <=5 while Tommy had none, and Brandon had 4 players score single digits, while Tommy only had 2.

Tyler vs Rob: Speaking of teams getting their first wins of the season, Tyler gets his first win thanks Lamar going for 40+ and Rob tanking.

TJ vs Brady: TJ decided he liked being the high scorer last week, but didn't like that he didn't get his shout-out in time -- so he went even higher this week and throttled Brady, making this both the weekly bonanza and blowout of the week. Said throttling was made possible by Burrow going for 40+, London going for 30+, and Bigsby and Bowers going for 20+.  Brady had a valiant effort and would have won against about half the league, but had a rough schedule this week. TJ keeps his King of the Court crown for another week, and Brady is no longer undefeated.

Jordan vs Scott: Jordan got the win this week by ~30 points.  In a normal week, that's blowout material, but this week it only puts him in the top half of winning margins. Jordan's win came on the backs of his studs as he had two 20+ point players (Murray and Wilson).  He needed those top players as he had 4 people in single digits, while Scott had only one player score single digits (and he was 3 yards away from being double digits).

Kyle vs Matt: Matt got a 35-point win -- which was made possible by the 2nd highest scorer going against the lowest scorer.  Again, that was solid blowout material except TJ went crazy.  Anyway, Matt remains the last undefeated team thanks to a great game from Ja'Marr Chase going for 40+ and Geno going for 20+. Kyle was let down by no one going over 20 points.

Week 5 Award Season

MVP: Shaheed got Skyler the late win on MNF in the closest game, so he was the front-runner, but then I remembered that Lamar put up so many points for Tyler that he convinced Rob to quit a game he would have won had he actually tried, so Lamar gets the award this week for getting Tyler his first win.  Burrow was also a leading contender as he was the highest-scoring player on the highest-scoring team, but TJ could have sat him and still won.

LVP: Kaimi Fairbairn and the Saints DST.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Skyler should win the award as he was the lowest-scoring winner, but for reasons mentioned above, we'll give it to Tyler.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Brandon would have beat 6 other people, so he'll get the award this week, though Trevor has a minor claim to the thrown with only 10 points combined from Darnold and Hall.

Highest Scoring Team of the Week: TJ -- aka Mr Goodtimes

Lowest Scoring Team of the Week: Kyle

King of the Court: The good times keep rolling for King Goodtimes, and he holds onto his crown for another week.

Game Previews

Skyler (6) vs Tyler (11): Skyler has 0 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. He has 5 players on bye. Tyler has 4 players on Thursday (likely only 2 starters) and 0 players in primetime.  He has 1 player on bye. 

Kyle (7) vs Tommy (9): Kyle has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 3 players on bye. Tommy has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime.  He has 0 players on bye.

Matt (1) vs TJ (2): Matt has 2 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 3 players on bye. TJ has 2 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime.  He has 1 player on bye. Rankings have this as the bonanza.

Rob (10) vs Jordan (4): Rob has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Jordan has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime.  He has 1 player on bye.

Trevor (5) vs Brady (3): Trevor has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Brady has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime.  He has 0 players on bye. 

Brandon (12) vs Scott (8): Brandon has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 3 players on bye. Scott has 2 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime.  He has 1 player on bye. Based on rankings, this is the battle of ineptitude.

Good luck to everyone but Trevor this week.

Week 3: 2,1,0

3, 2, 1, 0 -- a countdown that is often used by kids playing ball in the driveway, as part of a countdown on New Year's Eve, or even a shuttle launch.  This week, however, it perfectly describes each division from the top (3 wins) to the bottom (0 wins).  This kind of pattern isn't uncommon -- there's usually a division that follows this pattern at least once a year, sometimes even twice a year.  2024 is only the second time every division follows this pattern.  The only other time it has happened was actually last year.  If we put too much stock into last year's results, Brady, Matt, and Jordan (all 3-0) will all make the playoffs, and one of them will win the whole thing. Two of the 2-1 teams (Scott, Trevor, TJ) will make the playoffs this year, and only one of the 1-2 teams (Skyler, Rob, Kyle) will have a shot.  Sorry to the 0-3 teams (Tommy, Brandon, Tyler), assuming history holds.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Brady: Skyler started off strong Sunday morning -- whether that was because his Vikings did well, or just because he had more people than Brady in the morning game, it doesn't really matter -- but Brady's RB's made it a close game Sunday afternoon. Monday night ended up being a Josh Allen clinic has he gained Brady a lead and then kept building on it until he had Skyler's team (and the Jaguars) in a chokehold.  Despite the 'comeback' nature of this game, it wasn't even close to the best game of the night. As previously mentioned, Allen was a big player in getting Brady the win, but Brady's Lions (Montgomery and ARSB) joined the 20+ club with Allen. Skyler had 3 people in the 20+ group as well (Daniels, Jones, Jefferson).  The big difference in this game was Brady having 6 people score double digits while Skyler only had 3, and Skyler having two players at 5 and under, while Brady only had 1. This was somehow the bonanza -- most of that having to do with Brady being the high scorer of the week.

Tommy vs Scott:  This was the 2nd place for the battle of ineptitude, but it was the best game of the week as it was closest, and went back and forth several times on Monday night aka Nail-biter of the night and week, and also a Monday Nightmare/Miracle. Scott's team wrapped up on SNF, while Tommy still had his DST and RB going on MNF. Tommy may have been thankful that his players weren't going head to head, but in the end, the players ended up canceling each other out to some degree, with his DST getting negative points, and ETN wasn't able to do enough to counteract. By my count, there were 4 lead changes during the night, and in the end, Scott walked away with a win by less than 4 points.  The small bit of consolation for Tommy is that at least it was far enough away that it wasn't like he lost by 10 yards or anything.  Tommy's only 20+ point player was Nabers, while Scott had no players in that group. It probably won't help Tommy feel any better that he had 6 people score double digits, while Scott only had 5.  The thing that set this game apart was Tommy's bottom 2 people scoring a combined -0.7, while Scott's bottom two players combined for 6.5

Matt vs Trevor: This was the first week Matt finally played a full roster, but that actually ended up helping him, as Trevor's defense scored negative points.  Trevor probably felt he had a small chance going into Monday night, but then Matt's two players combined for nearly 50 and secured the come-from-behind win by nearly 25 points. Despite the two MNF players combining for almost 50, only one of Matt's players got 20+ points (Ja'marr Chase). Trevor's only entrant into the 20+ point club was Rashee Rice.  Matt's win came on the margins as he had 4 double-digit scorers to Trevor's 3, and his 5U club had 0 members, while Trevor's had 2 (combined for negative points).

Rob vs Brandon: Rob would have been the high scorer of the week, but he decided to sit his DST and instead buy a lotto ticket called 'the Bills backup RB'. He could afford to do that thanks to this being the biggest blowout of the week.  Rob was able to secure said blowout on the backs of Dak, Kyren, and Charbonnet as they all scored 20+ (the first two actually went for 30+), while Brandon only had one person score 20+ (Derrick Henry with 30+). 6 of Rob's 8 starters went for double digits, while Brandon only had 2.  Rob was so top-heavy, it made no difference that he had 3 slots score 5U, while Brandon only had 1.

TJ vs Kyle: This wasn't a wire-to-wire win, but TJ led for most of the game and ended up winning comfortably.  Kyle started out alright with a quick start from Olave, but then TJ clawed back, with some back and forth in the morning games, and then TJ took the lead early in the afternoon game and never looked back.  TJ's win was made possible by Burrow and Taylor joining the 20+ point group, 5 people with double digits, and only one 5U player.  Kyle had the workhorses at the top by also having two people in the 20+ point group (Mahomes and Olave), and 4 people with double digits, but was let down by three 5U players.

Jordan vs Tyler and the Half Iron Man: Thanks to the Half Iron Man, Tyler only rostered half a team.  That's not entirely true -- Mark Andrews was active, he was just awful.  Mixon was declared out almost 24 hours before the game though, so that's definitely on Tyler. Thanks to Tyler's poor showing, Jordan didn't even roster a full team and was the 5th highest-scoring team this week without a DST. Jordan had two 20+ point players (Saquon and DK), while Tyler only had one in Lamar Jackson. Jordan also had a noticeable lead in the double-digit count as he had 5 players score double digits, while Tyler only had 3. Jordan had two 5U players (one being no DST), while Tyler had three (two bad players and an inactive Mixon) 5U players. At least Tyler apologized to the league, but I feel he owes a few more apologies.  He owes one to Tony Stark since Tyler thinks he can call himself Iron Man now. He owes one to social media -- Shalyse called him an Iron Man on Facebook for completing a half Iron Man.  If we gave full titles for halfway completing something, I hope we can get 4-time league champ Chad back in the league.  Lastly, he owes God an apology for using his body to be out exercising on the Sabbath, instead of vegging on the couch and watching football all day.

Award Season

MVP: This is tricky because most games were some version of blowouts, so I want to give the award to someone on Scott's team for helping him get the win, but his team was kind of 'meh' individually.  Let's give it to the Seahawks DST for their best game of the season.  I know we're only 3 weeks in, so there's plenty of time to pass that number, but I'd be surprised if they get over 17 the rest of the season.  The runner-up goes to Josh Allen for having 35 points at halftime for the highest-scoring team of the week.

LVP: It would be easy to give this to the Bengals for getting negative points on MNF in a game that was decided by less than 4 points.  But I'll go a little deeper and say the newly acquired Rhamondre Stevenson was the real downfall for Tommy. Before this week, Rhamondre was averaging 19.3 a week -- this week he left the 19 at home and only scored 0.3.  

Unluckiest Team of the Week: The numbers say Skyler should win as the highest-scoring loser, but as the 6th highest-scoring team, that hardly counts.  Let's give this one to Tommy for the timing of his loss in addition to all of the LVP comments about his team above.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Scott was the lowest-scoring winner, and got the win in the last minutes of the MNF doubleheader. But hey, he's 2-1, and sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

Highest Scorer of the Week: Brady wins this award after a big night by Allen, and a concession by Rob.

Lowest Scorer of the Week: I would say the half Iron Man was a touchdown catch away from being half of Brady's points, but no one on his team actually caught a touchdown (rushing and passing only this week), so instead I'll just keep it classy and say "Tyler is the low scorer of the week".

King of the Court: Scott holds on to his crown last minute after the nail-biter that was Monday Night and will try to hold onto it another week when TJ comes to town.

Centurion Watch: Congrats to Jordan and Rob for joining the Centurion Lounge this week. We hope you enjoy the amenities, and the towels that look like $100 bills should stay by the pool/hot tub area when you're done. Matt finally passed Chad and is in sole possession of 5th place all-time in wins at 94.

Game Previews

Skyler (9) vs Brandon (11): Skyler has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. Brandon has 0 players on Thursday and 3 players in primetime.  This is far and away the front-runner for the battle of ineptitude

Brady (1) vs Jordan (2): Brady has 0 players on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. Jordan has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime.   This is the clear front-runner for the bonanza and the game of the week.

Scott (6) vs TJ (5): Scott has 3 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. TJ has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. 

Tyler (12) vs Matt (3): Tyler has 0 players on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. Matt has 0 players on Thursday and 3 players in primetime.  

Rob (8) vs Kyle (7): Rob has 1 player on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. Kyle has 0 players on Thursday and 4 players in primetime.   4 of the 7 primetime players are on MNF, so this should be a nail-biter

Tommy (10) vs Trevor (4): Tommy has 2 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. Trevor has 0 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime.