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.