Author IntroRecently Promoted Michael Tibstra (Staff Author) will be your solo author for this weeks blog post recap. You might remember a few of his high quality works as an intern so please enjoy his new piece as a full fledge member of the team. With Michael's new promotion we are now looking for an intern to get us coffee, find obscure stats upon request (i.e. what is Troll Hunters average Flex position for WR vs RBs the past 2.5 years for only games played outside and on Thursday). You will love the team and allow Michael to someday earn another promotion to Senior Author. Anyway's back to it and please enjoy his first post of the year!! Hot TakesWelcome, welcome to the Tibstra Analysis Center. Here we will take a look at the season from the proletariat viewpoints of those in the bottom half of the power rankings. I know there may be some pushback as the TAC represents a former high-placing team last year, but know that I am one of you, not one of the bourgeois in the top half. Let us first take a look at my favorite (even going back to last year) subject: injuries. This year’s All-IR Fantasy team is looking pretty strong. This first few weeks of 2017 have been brutal for injuries in terms of fantasy relevant studs. We will use last year’s average PPG just to ensure we get a full sample size of being non-IR, unless they are a rookie. Then we will use their average for this year. I’m picking based off those who were drafted (except for where someone paid more for a player, which is my discretion, which ESPN makes pretty easy. I’m also picking the Texans D/ST as it got hit with the boomstick with Watt and Mercilus. Not too bad of a team at all. It’d be the top scoring team in the league if you managed to assemble all onto one team. It just passes up the TH at 119.5 who is our top scorer this year. So yeah, on top of a bit of an already fluky season in terms of scoring we have seen a great team already assembled out of year ending injuries. All praise to the fantasy football gods! Game Breakdown NSA (132) beats TH (121.1) The trends continue for NSA (now going by the Northside Reapers). The real question is what trend it is. Either it’s an odd week trend or a >100 point trend. Either way NSA pulled out a big win over the second-best team in the league after a sort of trying start watching Cooper put up almost 40 points on the bench. Hopefully that’s a sign of resurgence itself as NSA will need Cooper for the homestretch. Troll Hunters put up a super respectable week that only fell short as they faced the second highest scorer. A troubling trend may be appearing with Jeffrey and Anderson however as their fantasy relevance is falling over time. Wentz is looking to spread it around quite a bit and Anderson and the Broncos offense in general are anemic at best. But the depth of the Hunters are where it’s strength lies so I am certain they will continue their dominance of the league and division. After the rebrand, NSA came up with its second highest scoring game of the season, giving NSA a brief taste of what it remembered week in and week out last year (sobs). The pickup of Wentz and Agholar were brilliant in hindsight, even after the aforementioned benching of Cooper. Reed finally came up with a big game that NSA drafted him for after a disappointing year so far. Odds are that the upswing will turn downwards next week as NSA is the definition of boom or bust. 90° (122.8) beats IO (95.1) Basically 90° had an excellent week and IO had the bye week hit them on top of a mediocre week. Nothing would have changed if their bye players were back, but it surely didn’t make it easier. IO had 4 of his players on bye this past week and the rest of his bench scored zero points. So what he put on the board was all there was to be had. There wasn’t anything special on the IO in terms of big weeks or low lows. Taylor put up his best week but it wasn’t anything special. The rest of the squad most likely met their projected scores or close to them. IO needed that boom player this week to draw this closer but even then it most likely not been enough. 90° had a pretty darn good week. Carr started it big on Thursday with 30 points. The rest of the team (barring Bryant) followed it up with big weeks themselves. Julio finally, finally found the endzone that we’ve all been waiting for in the fog (frankly it’s a miracle that 90° is above .500 with him lacking in that department). Baldwin had another of his big weeks on the back of Wilson’s craziness. Thompson is looking like an excellent pickup as well. Nice work on the FAAB there. Much better than Carson, Cohen, or Gordon! 302 (110.4) triumphs over TCTC (96.2) (Showcase Mon Night Match until the NSA upset) In the game we were all really watching Monday night we say the upset happen. TCTC just needed Blount to have a decent game and outscore Elliot and Ertz. But alas, it was not to be. 302 claimed their second victory of the year. Blount and Thomas really let down TCTC who had a good game besides that. High single or double digits from every other position. Thielen was a bit of a let down but that’s mainly from the Vikings game plan and extreme use of field goals. May be something to watch however in the future. Mark Ingram is looking like a good trade now that he can run by himself and not have AP over his shoulder. I think TCTC is gonna do better here in the home stretch. 302 demonstrated why others on the blog commitee like him. He keeps on getting good point totals. He is consistent there. The only problem is their opponents getting even more points 5 out of the 7 times. Lev Bell is finally getting the rock a lot more which helps the team maintain the highs and lows of boom or bust players. Dak is looking good still so the trend should continue for points scored at least. RG (147.6) destroys BCH (93.4) In this week’s name-change game, RG came in swinging hard and laid out BCH hard. The only missed haymaker was Jordy Nelson as RG shows they have a team of absolute monsters if they all play well. BCH experienced a mediocre to poor game from their RBs and WRs. None of them broke 10 points so it wasn’t going to be pretty against a team with only 2 players being below 10 points. Justin Tucker balled out (though not as much as Kobra Kai). A bit of a glimmer of hope is BCH’s TE in Engram who appears to be the new target of choice in New Jersey. This is their second name change on the season so the PF-PA split (655 to 803) is none too surprising. The Gypsies decided this week would be the one they put up the numbers. 2 players (Jordy and Rudy) were the only ones below 10 points. Just knowing that is enough to say they probably won. But then comes along the Legal-Enigma Zeke. Apparently wanting to get in a season’s worth of fantasy production before he is suspended for the playoffs, Zeke dropped 40 points on the board consisting of 200+ yards and 3 TDs. And that run down the sideline was a thing of beauty. Here’s to hoping he keeps it up for at least one more week! VV (99.7) drops the champ MN (73) All must come falling down. The Veg Heads have done it. They beat the former champs where no one else could and have ended a 11 game winning streak (counting the post-season last year)! Well done! MN had it’s second down week this year, but this time they didn’t go up against their punching bag and close-game nemesis NSA. Just a down day across the board with the only highlights being AJ Green getting some passes early on in the Bengals game. And when your highpoint is 12.6 points, it’s gonna be a rough day, All MN needs is for Gordon to keep having decent games to keep the engine rolling, but it becomes evident when he doesn’t as both times it happened MN was sub-100 points. I’m sure it’s just a temporary downswing as MN looks to clinch a playoff spot next week. The VV didn’t have a spectacular game but they did have a good game, and that’s all that appears to be needed this year to grab wins.Alex Smith continues to be a good QB, both in fantasy and on the gridiron. Shady came up with the big win after a bit of a slump from what we’d expect from the Shade-meister. I’m really liking Sefarian-Jenkins this year. Dude is a touchdown machine. Power Rankings
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It’s been awhile! Our last blog post was the Week 3 recap, and here we are on the Week 6 recap. Life has gotten in the way, but here we are once again.
Best Move of the Week: For a week with several close matches, there was really only one move that made a definitive difference in outcome. MN had Phillip Rivers slated in at the QB spot in place of the injured Mariota, with a vacant WR (and TE) spot, since she didn’t want to drop Derrick Henry to roster another pass-catcher. Just before the Chargers game, she reverted back to Mariota, dropping Rivers, and grabbing John Brown (13.8). Her margin of victory ended up being 10.4, and Mariota only scored 0.1 points fewer than Rivers. Going with Mariota won MN her sixth game. Worst Move of the Week: It would be easy to pick on the decision to bench Ingram (27.5), but TC2 still won his game easily, and the decision itself wasn’t really too controversial. I don’t think many people saw Ingram’s explosion coming this week, given the fact he hadn’t yet broken double-digits in any game this year. Instead, I’ll pick on myself, for IO’s last-second decision to start Abdullah (5.4) @NO instead of Ajayi (13) @ATL. That was classic tinkering, and it nearly cost IO their match against RG. Ajayi was getting more volume than Abdullah and also had a good matchup. He shouldn’t have been benched. Game Breakdowns TC2 defeats NSA, 82.1 – 56.6 This was the short-bus matchup of the week, and it didn’t disappoint. TC2 had a promising week overall, despite the low point total. Benching Crowell (8.3) for the first time this year somehow turned out to be the wrong choice, compared to Jones (4.7), but I respect the choice nonetheless. Ingram (27.5) was a major plus…on the bench. Ingram, Blount, and Crowell gives TC2 a very shaky, but potentially passable, RB corps. I actually like it better than NSA’s, currently. Evans (17.7) had a rough day until a last-minute Derek Anderson pass got him a TD. The injury to Winston is potentially troubling for Evans. DT (16.3) feasted on 14 targets, but got a little nicked up. Shouldn’t be an issue for him, and with Sanders’ injury, DT is in line for some big production. Thielen (12.2) and Marvin Jones (18.6) also looked valuable, so this team is actually trending in a positive direction. Could we have turned the corner on TC2? NSA took a major blow with the early loss of Rodgers, but can take solace in the fact that Rodgers would have needed to score nearly 27 in order for NSA to win. The injury probably didn’t alter the outcome. NSA came back to earth with disappointing totals from Duke (5.4), Buck (8.1), Reed (5.7), Ellington (0), and Crosby (4). Hogan posted his first down week of the year (2.4), and even the mighty Jaguars DST (6.8) couldn’t come through for NSA with another TD. This week shows NSA’s floor, and it is troubling. Even Brown’s 23.5 points couldn’t propel NSA over the 60-point mark. This team can hit high notes, but is really tough to rely on. IO defeats RG, 95.1 – 81.6 I’ve written the above statement once before this season, but I don’t think a stat correction is going to wipe this one out. IO actually turned in a pretty underwhelming performance this week, other than Watson (23.3) and Fuller (13.2) continuing their amazing streak, and Hunt (13.5) showing his incredibly high floor. The Broncos DST (8.9) was a major disappointment against a decimated NYG team, and Abdullah (5.4), Allen (7), and Kelce (5.7) were lackluster. On the bench, Ajayi (13), Dez (BYE), and Mixon (BYE) could have been useful this week. One bright spot is that Donta Foreman continues to perform admirably behind Lamar Miller. I’m still on the Foreman bandwagon. He’s the future. This was a really tough week for the Gypsy crew, both in score and in overall roster news. Zeke’s suspension looms like a dark cloud, though he wouldn’t have helped this week anyway (BYE). Freeman (9.6) and Coleman (10.1) are a surprisingly capable 1-2 punch, but losing Zeke would hurt big time. Gore is likely not up to the challenge of covering the RB2 spot. Also, the injury to Rodgers puts a damper on the impressive seasons Jordy (9.7) and Adams (13.9) have had. They’re still likely to get plenty of volume from Hundley, but their ceiling just got a whole lot lower. The Packers passing attack is going to struggle. Tyreek (5) busted this week, which per his pattern indicates he will boom this Thursday night. Landry (16.2) turned in a nice bench performance, but he wouldn’t have been the difference anyway. RG is 2-4 and trending in the wrong direction with the recent news, despite solid points-scored in the early season. Enjoy the Kardashians, Gentry! BBB defeats VV, 113.9 – 101.1 This game was pretty important for future playoff implications, and it was pretty close up until the end. This goes down as an unfortunate loss for VV, and a huge win for BBB’s playoff hopes. BBB is putting together a pretty decent team all of the sudden. I still can’t get on board with Murray (4.2), but with Thompson (13.8), Perine (12.2), McFadden (BYE), and Powell (injured) on the bench, there are plenty of rotational RBs to choose from to complement Miller (9.6) and McCaffrey (15.7). McCaffrey turned in his best game yet, despite the Panthers offense looking disjointed. BBB really could benefit from Julio (10.2) getting his act together and actually scoring, but the points will come. Fitzgerald (22.8) and Baldwin (BYE) round out a decent WR corps. Stafford may look banged up, but if BBB wanted to make a swap, there are tons of QBs available. This is a playoff team. VV really missed Lesean McCoy (BYE) this week. He had to start Elijah McGuire (2.2) instead, and with a margin of defeat of just 12.8, it’s perfectly reasonable to think that McCoy may have turned the tide. Cobb (4.3) is hurt by the Rodgers news, which makes VV’s already-thin WR corps even more underwhelming. Crabtree (14.2) is the lone bright spot and consistent producer. Even though Demarco Murray (16.7) turned in a nice game, he looked banged up on the sidelines, and was grimacing. It will be interesting to see how Murray’s soft tissue survives the season, especially with a capable young, healthy RB waiting in the wings. If Murray missed any time, this team plummets to the bottom of the standings. And frankly, it might be on its way there regardless. TH defeats 302, 149.9 – 105.4 Yet another loss for 302 despite a decent showing, and the clock is beginning to tick. TH put on a show this week, mostly driven by three waiver pickups last week (Cousins’ 28.5, Texans DST’s 28.8, and Succop’s 21.3). So that certainly helps. Gurley posted solid numbers (12.5), but is becoming more clear that he’s hit the rough patch of his schedule, defense-wise. Hilton (2.4) struggled without Luck once again. He and Tyreek Hill are arguably the most boom-bust WRs this year. It’s difficult to predict which weeks to play them. Anderson (1.7) is a major problem potentially, getting poor usage and losing snaps to other RBs. Charles and Booker are no longer afterthoughts, though I do think Anderson just had a down game during a game where the Broncos overall simply underwhelmed. Another concern is the loss of Tate to an injury that will sideline him for several weeks at least. His 19.1 points helped this week, but I’m guessing TH would rather keep him long term. Gronk (23.3) and Cooks (12.3) were a dynamic Patriot duo. The bright spot is found on the bench, with McKinnon (22.4), Adrian (24.1) and Brate (16.6). Those guys may have to pick up a little slack with Anderson losing a little bit of his early-season luster, but they’re up to the task. Great waiver pickups all around. It is becoming tougher and tougher to envision a road where 302 makes the playoffs from his current 1-5 perch, but I’m still buying in for now. Newton (20.7), Bell (26.6), Benjamin (14.4) and Ertz (14.8) were fantastic, but surprisingly they couldn’t carry Thomas (3.3) and Hopkins (8.9). It’s a little bit of a red flag that the Saints and Texans combined to score 85 points, yet their two stud WR1s only got utilized to the tune of 12.2 points. Alshon (9.1) is a solid bench piece, as usual, but I’m guessing 302 (or rather the computer) had higher hopes when he spent $32 on him. Lynch once again struggled (7), as have all non-Crabtree Raiders. I would say that 302 needs to find consistent points to get some wins, but they’ve already done that. It’s simply the points-against at this point. With back-to-back games against TC2 though, 3-5 remains a very realistic hope. MN defeats BCH, 128.7 – 118.3 In what was originally the second-lowest projected total of the week, these two combined for the most high-octane matchup during Week Six. MN continued to roll this year, despite being originally projected for only 83 points this week. The decision to forego a tight end proved to be worthwhile, both with the victory, and with the fact that Derrick Henry (21) proved he really should not be dropped. Gordon (31.5) turned in another elite week, Hyde (22) returned to form after his hip injury, and the Vikings DST (17.5) feasted on Brett Hundley. Even the plug-and-play pickup of John Brown (13.8) was fruitful in a great matchup with Tampa Bay. Mariota (14.2) looked a bit rusty, but his long TD was enough to push MN past BCH. Montgomery (3.6) also looked a bit rusty, but the Packers trusted him enough to give him 11 touches, which bodes well for the future. The potential return of Corey Davis is also another intriguing option, as is the consistency of Kamara (10.7). This team already has its eye on 11 wins, and that seems possible. BCH had a great week, with nearly 120 points, but it wasn’t enough. Really, BCH had a fantastic week and showed how strong the majority of its roster is, but as anyone would guess, the WRs let BCH down. Pryor (3.8) and Funchess (5.1) handicapped the starters, and Bryant (3.7), Parker (injured), and Shepard (injured) don’t offer any more appealing bench options. The RBs Fournette (20.8), Howard (18.1) and Martin (14.9), along with Engram (16.7), Brady (16.2), and Tucker (12.7) were excellent assets this week, though week-to-week consistency is up in the air for a couple of them. I predict good things for all of them with time, and if BCH can find a way to bolster his WRs without seriously cutting into his RB talent, this team could easily make a run. As is, those WRs necessitate a nearly-perfect performance from the rest of the team, which is a tall order. And even this week, with that nearly-perfect performance, he still happened to run into a higher-scoring team. Rough luck, there. Power Rankings 1. The Mullynation: Obvious. Gordon is elite. Green and Graham are past their byes, and the team is still undefeated. 2. Troll Hunters: That kind of production from waiver QB-DST-K is impossible to rely on, but the team looked very impressive regardless. Excellent bench RBs. 3. Indian Outlaws: Any borderline return-to-form for Ajayi would be very welcome. 4. 302 Cadets: Even though I don’t buy Lynch, I think this team can outscore anyone on a given week. Nearly elite throughout. 5. Baby’s Big Blowout: RB stable is coming along. Now the WRs surprisingly need to pick up the slack. 6. River Gypsies: What’s going to happen to Zeke, and how far do Jordy and Adams tumble? Bias aside, this honestly may be one spot too high. 7. Big City Hillbillies: Dynamite RB trio, but by far the worst WR corps. In a 0.5PPR league, that’s tough to overcome. 8. Twin City Tree Cats: RBs are no longer putrid. WRs are trending up. Buy stock now. 9. Northside Angels: If Hogan is anything less than a WR1, NSA is screwed. Was this week an aberration, or was Hogan just having a hot start? RIP Cooper. 10. Vicious Veg-Heads: The loss of OBJ and uncertainty around Murray is really hindering this team. Crabtree and a resurgent effort from McCoy are their only hope. |
By: Hayden HansonMr. Hayden Hanson (Editor in Chief) is an Accountant-extraordinaire, as well as an aspiring writer. He has written several moderately-successful self-help books, the most famous of which is "What Do You Mean You Can Smell My BO?" Gustav Travers of the New York Times praised the book as "A vulnerable, courageous look into the mind of a man who has literally no sense that other people exist. And also no sense of smell. Nope, he definitely doesn't have that either. Just musk, like a hog that's gotten into the cabbage." Archives
September 2019
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