BEST MOVE OF THE WEEK I'm going to go a little unorthodox here, and commend Merman pop, Mer-man for his entire WR corps. Alshon Jeffery was coming off a seven point game. AJ Green was coming off a two point game, and frankly looked bad. Mike Evans, though coming off a nice 18 point game, was still a rookie WR. There were other options too. Larry Fitzgerald had just scored 11. Julian Edelman had last scored 21. Jordan Matthews had just scored 26. You see my point, right? Alex made three consecutive right calls with his lineup. He played Jeffery (20), Green (19), and Evans (33), benching the rest. Though Matthews had a nice day (17), he was the only one to even come close to the other three's production. Fitz had 3 and Edelman had 8. Nice call, Alex. MPM earned a beautiful 50+ point victory with this week's high score. WORST MOVE OF THE WEEK This was a really bad week for fantasy football in general. Scores were down in a major way. In fact, through all the afternoon games (noon and 3 o'clock), there were a total of four rushing TDs. That's it. Four. Jamaal Charles had two of those. Then Jonas Gray screwed it up and got four more, and the Pit/Ten game had two more. But for the vast majority of teams, their RBs were awful this week. Pretty much across the board. I'm avoiding picking an RB move for that reason, though basically everybody's RBs were bad. For this reason, I'm unfortunately going to pick on our #10 seed a little. I don't like it, but I'm going to. 38V chose to play Colin Kaepernick (12) over Jay Cutler (23) this week. Kaep was at NYG. Cutler was home facing Minnesota. If you look at Kaep's stats, he's been really bad. Cutler has been bad too, but he's had more ups than downs. Also, home vs. road makes Cutler a more attractive pick, in my opinion. In losing by three, this was the call that lost him the game. Them's the breaks. Power Rankings: #1 Turn Down for Watt (7-3) +1 Sound the alarm. TDfW is coming up big, and the playoffs are right around the corner. Things are just starting to click, meaning TDfW has recaptured the #1 seed for the first time since Week One. As the second-highest scoring team (kudos Alex!) in this incredibly strange fantasy week, TDfW posted a healthy 120 points despite the absolute incompetence of Pierre Garcon (who was filling in for Dex Bryant). TDfW is riding the Packers to victory, and even though that fact makes it hard to sleep at night, owning our beautiful trophy at the end of the year will make it all worthwhile. The ends justify the means. Gronkowski is putting up potential fantasy MVP numbers considering the dearth of healthy, elite TEs this year. He's a juggernaut. Speaking of juggernaut, is there any player better than JJ Watt? I mean honestly. He's outscored the second-highest DP by 24 points. Yup. Watt has 83 points, while second-place Brent Grimes has 59. Watt is averaging 8.3 points per week, and has scored more TDs than Calvin Johnson. He's a legitimate weapon, and a surprisingly important part of TDfW, besides just being the namesake. On another note, there was a beautiful three-team trade on Tuesday, prior to the trade deadline. Jeremy Hill and Rashad Jennings are good solid players, I won't argue with that, but why not grab a home-run hitter? TDfW parlayed Tre Mason and Charles Sims into Brandon Marshall and Adrian Peterson (sob), then turned Hill, Jennings, and Marshall into Jamaal Charles and Odell Beckham Jr. In effect, Garcon became absolutely expendable with OBJ as the WR3, Charles gets locked in as the new RB1, and LeSean McCoy laughably is now the FLEX play. Who cares who plays QB now? Roethlisberger/Newton Charles Lacy McCoy Jordy Dez Gronkowski Don't mind me, I'm just admiring this handiwork over here. Buckle up playoff-bound teams. It's going to get messy. I'm not dropping this #1 seed no matter what my wife says. She can deal with it. The Quest for Three is alive and well. #2 the mullynation (8-3) -1 She's mortal! The streak is over! For the first time this entire year, the mullynation did not break 100 points, nor was she a top 4 scorer. It actually happened, and T-Swift earned a surprise victory. This is perhaps the most surprising upset since TDfW was curb-stomped by GMMBP in Week Two. The issue this week was...mostly everything. Every player basically had their worst game of the season, and it all happened in the same week. That's pretty darn funny, and boy was it satisfying to see. The part that's tough to ignore though is that the mullynation's MVP, Demarco Murray, was sitting out this week. On top of that, the mullynation is now bringing out Josh Gordon to bolster her already frightening WR corps. It's actually finally happening. This is the guy who led the league in WR fantasy points last year, despite only playing 14 games. It's hard to drop the mullynation too far when her lineup in Week Twelve is going to be so drastically different than her Week Eleven lineup. I don't envy PMotr, who will be the first opponent for the now-Gordon-led mullynation. This team may have slipped up in Week Eleven, but this is still the mullynation we're talking about here. This team has the #8 and #10 WRs in fantasy right now. Oh yeah, and they ALSO have Calvin Johnson and Josh Gordon. This is an embarrassment of riches (to go along with the #1 fantasy QB and the #1 fantasy RB). This might be the best overall WR corps in the history of Just Win, Maybe. This week was a speed bump on the way to a first round bye. #3 Staff Infection (8-3) +2 Losing Gio Bernard has really hurt this team. It's a good enough squad that they've been able to keep chugging, but his loss does hurt. Gio is hopeful about coming back this week, though I went through two weeks of that teasing with Rashad Jennings before he actually hit the field. We'll see. Darren McFadden didn't exactly fill Gio's shoes this week with his 2.1 points. Still though, LeVeon Bell actually scored a rushing TD! He did it! First time since Week One, but Bell absolutely delivered when SI needed it. Bell had a dynamite performance against Tennessee, eclipsing 200 yards on his way to 28.2 points. Mark Sanchez didn't exactly WOW with his 11.8 points, and maybe people were too quick to deem him the next big thing in Chip Kelly's offense. This is Mark Sanchez we're talking about. Demaryius Thomas once again broke 100 yards receiving, and he once again did not score a touchdown. He has now been outscored by Emmanuel Sanders in FOUR straight weeks. That's actually pretty surprising. It's also unlikely to continue, since Sanders had his head knocked off and probably won't play this coming week. Along with Julius Thomas being questionable, there's a chance that defenses will be able to key in on DT even more than they already do. This could go either way. Who is Manning going to throw to, other than DT? Who are defenses going to blanket, other than DT? The Jordan Reed experiment didn't work out. He's just not the same guy he was last year, whether RGIII is throwing the ball or not. Regardless, riding Bell, Maclin, and the Texan's DST nice production, this team broke 100 points in Week Eleven, a feat that only two other teams (MPM and TDfW) accomplished. Scoring 102 in a normal week isn't super impressive, but in this week, it worked out well. SI needs to sort out the RB situation if they want to be in the upper echelon, but trading DeAndre Hopkins is a step in the right direction. Hopkins wasn't being used, and Gore is a decent FLEX play. At least he won't need to play McFadden anymore. #4 Merman pop, Mer-Man (3-8) +5 I am so pumped about this team. Seriously. I knew this team had potential and I've been harping about it for weeks (even though last week was admittedly grim). This team is pretty damn scary, especially with the explosion of Mike Evans. Evans is the highest scoring WR over the last three weeks, certainly paying off after TDfW traded him for Jeremy Hill. This may be hyperbole, but I don't know if there's a team that I fear more right now besides the mullynation. Brady is electric. Morris is improved after RGIII came back. Mathews is back from injury. Jeffery and Green are playing great, and Evans is on fire. On top of that, the Dolphins DST is playing unbelievably well, and is a nice advantage on a weekly basis. This team is legit. Does this resemble a team that's 3-8? Nope. Is that a shame for MPM? Yup. Is that a sigh of relief I hear from all the playoff-bound teams? Yup. I have a feeling that Alex is going to be adorning himself in a brand new jersey of his choice after winning the consolation bracket. I'd consider him the favorite at this point, though we all know injuries can strike. He's the one to beat right now. #5 Gin Makes Me Bum Pucker (6-5) -2 This was one of those weeks that just bugs you. GMMBP actually had a pretty good showing. He scored the fourth-most points (with a paltry 92 somehow), but since he was facing TDfW's 119, he gets the L. On the whole though, I don't know if GMMBP deserved a W this week. 27 points came from the DST and K, and Rodgers contributed another 24.8. Rodgers is pretty much automatic at this point. I take that for granted. The DST and K production is more fluky. What does this mean? This means that GMMBP's RB1, RB2, WR1, WR2, FLEX, TE, and DP all COMBINED to earn 40.4 points. That's a bad omen for a playoff team, really. Mike Wallace (3.8) has been on a cold spell after a great start to the season. DeSean Jackson (3.7) also had a rough game, despite coming off a bye against Tampa Bay. Antonio Gates (3.2) couldn't do anything against Oakland. Darren Sproles (4.4) and Shane Vereen (7.7) are not RB1 and RB2 material (though only one has to start normally, because Justin Forsett, who was on bye, has been solid). Vereen may be in even more trouble after Jonas Gray's ridiculous 43 point explosion. The only good production from this group was Emmanuel Sanders' 16.2 points, but then he promptly got concussed. It's unclear when he'll be back, but that was a nasty hit. Losing Sanders would push Patterson, Crabtree, or Wayne into the starting lineup. That could go okay, but I wouldn't want to bet on it. Sanders has been the best GMMBP player other than Aaron Rodgers. Let's hope that concussion isn't too bad, or GMMBP is going to be in trouble. #6 302 Cadets (6-5) --- It's tough to win a fantasy football match against a competent opponent when two players score 1.8 and 1.7, respectively, another player scores 0.3, and two players get negative points. That's a pretty rough setup to win. It was going to be so close, and then all the sudden it just wasn't close any more. 302 couldn't keep up with SI, and in fact the team sabotaged itself. Ahmad Bradshaw, while breaking his fibula, earned -0.9 points. Further, the Eagles DST earned -2 points. Playing them against Green Bay, arguably the hottest team in football? Maybe not the best call. Other than that though (as if it even matters, with those issues), the studs came to play. Brees had a decent game, Brown once again broke 15 points, and Jamaal Charles looked magnificent. In fact, he just had such an impression on me that I had to go and trade for him. 302 got a nice return for Charles though. This is a team that, upon losing Bradshaw, had Jonathan Stewart as its every-week RB2. Damn. That's not going to go well. Derek made the prudent move and took one superstar and turned him into two legitimate starters. Charles became Jeremy Hill and Rashad Jennings. Jennings may be the steal of the year, as the Giants have been a joke without him. They're obviously confident in his health too, as he touched the ball 22 times in his first game back. He's the obvious bell-cow in NY. Also, Hill just got a lovely compliment from his OC on Wednesday. He said that they are excited about Hill's talent, that he's a complete player, and that they're going to use him more than they were before, even after Gio comes back. 302 also turned Odell Beckham Jr. into Brandon Marshall in the trade, though that one could really go either way. Marshall has been great lately, but OBJ has also. OBJ also has nice keeper value, but 302 wasn't in a position to be picky. This deal had to get done, and it did. It hurts to lose Charles, no doubt, but something had to happen to keep 302's championship hopes alive. It's hard enough to win with Dwayne Bowe as a starting WR. Can't have Jonathan Stewart too. #7 Poppin Mollies on the reg (6-4) -3 PMotr had an absolutely brutal week. Yes, they won. But with 71 points, this was the worst winning point-total of the year thus far. After breaking 130 points in back-to-back weeks, this team just collapsed. I'm having a hard time justifying any ranking for this team, since it fluctuates so much! RGIII is not himself, and is a liability at QB. Ellington is getting into perhaps the most difficult RB schedule of any RB (though Oakland's RBs could contend). Lynch was effective against KC, but just couldn't score. Oh well. Joique Bell was decent compared to his baseline, but 9.5 points from a starting RB isn't great. And then, it gets worse. Sammy Watkins had 3.5 points. Rookie indeed. Brandon LaFell had 6.2 points in the hyped-up "shootout" against Indy. Julius Thomas had 0.3 points before getting injured for the second time this year. The WR corps has always been PMotr's obvious weakspot. That's not new. The issue is potentially losing production from Ellington and Thomas. Ellington is a great back! If I was a Cardinals fan, I'd be glad to have him. The fact of the matter is, going against @Sea, @Atl (ok that's easy), KC, @StL, and Sea is going to be BRUTAL. Other than the @Atl game, Ellington could have a decent day running the ball and still only earn six points. That's a major issue down the stretch. Also, though I'm not particularly worried about Thomas, if he misses time, that would be a major loss. Thomas has perhaps been PMotr's MVP this year, and any time or points lost due to injury would be a big blow. On the plus side, the Bills DST had a nice day, earning 11 against Miami. Yay! #8 I'm Just Gonna Shake It Off (4-7): --- They're alive! T-Swift still lives. The playoff hopes are slim, but they're still there. T-Swift is going to need to go 2-0, and either 302 or GMMBP are going to need to go 0-2, but the dream lives on. This week was a shocking victory over the previous #1 seed, the mullynation. T-Swift caught her at just the right time and stole an 89.9 - 83.6 point victory. As important as the victory was, oddly enough the best overall contributor was the Chargers DST scoring a lovely 14. Peyton did earn 15.5, but it was by far his worst game of the season and he usually scores much better. CJ Anderson had a strong 11.8, Randall Cobb had 12.9, and Rueben Randle earned 11.5, but other than that, it was pretty subdued. T-Swift declined to ship off their captain, Mr. Manning, at the trade deadline, though this team could really use some RB help. Anderson is fine; Ball and Hillman are out for basically the duration of the fantasy season. The other starter though? Matt Asiata. Oof. Unfortunately this was a rough week for waiver wire RBs. Looking ahead, I see Peyton, Cobb, and Anderson keeping T-Swift in most games, but the missing RB piece is going to make the next two weeks' matchups (SI and TDfW) pretty tough to overcome. Still though, who was betting on T-Swift in Week Eleven? No one, but they still won. The playoff potential is still there. #9 Clam Juice Junkies (3-8) -2 CJJ is going to be changing names once again after consecutive 50+ point losses (EDITOR'S NOTE: They just changed to Forgetting Brandon Marshall). Evan's misfortune was going against the red-hot MPM squad, rather than an embarrassment on his own end. CJJ scored 82 points in this low-scoring week, good for seventh best (a strong indicator at how bad this week was). Matt Forte is continuing to roll as a potential fantasy MVP candidate, and CJJ has given the keys to the car back to Tony Romo. I think it's a good move. Matt Ryan simply doesn't have time behind his offensive line, which we've discussed before regarding Julio's value. Meanwhile, Martavis Bryant has officially come back down to earth. The pace was seemingly unsustainable, yet every week we would see that he could keep it going! That is, until this weeks 1.1 point outing. Ouch. On top of that, Julio Jones resembles the usual 2014 Julio Jones with his 5.9 point outing. Golden Tate also just added 4.9 points. Unfortunately for CJJ, the one receiver who lit it up was Brandon Marshall, who was on the bench. Brandon Marshall then was traded to TDfW, and subsequently traded to 302. Evan made a couple nice gambles, trading the nice asset BMarsh for two young options, both with keeper potential. Still though, Tre Mason gives CJJ a nice RB2 option. Also, trading Frank Gore for DeAndre Hopkins was an excellent deal. The moves overall strengthened CJJ while also keeping the future in mind, which was a perfect outcome. This year isn't really CJJ's year, but hopefully the young talent turns out to be viable starters, and one as a nice keeper. #10 38% Chance of Victory (3-8) --- What a truly agonizing defeat. After having two really rough losses to start his fantasy football career, Mike was looking at PMotr as a potential win in Week Eleven. 38V was actually favored in the game line, and as the match progressed, 38V's projected points surged ahead of PMotr's. This was the week. Then, life interrupted. The matchup ended hinging on 38V's play of Colin Kaepernick over Jay Cutler. Kaep had 12. Cutler had 23. 38V lost by 3. There it is. On the other hand, 38V actually had a decent week, considering the squad. Yes, Greg Jennings got injured and scored only 0.4 points. Yes, Dwayne Allen also got injured and scored no points at all. Yes yes yes. The rest of the team did decently. Alfred Blue stood in well for Arian Foster by earning 15.6. Crowell, Andre, and Wright all had 7, which could be better but isn't bad. Vinatieri had another nice week with 10 points. This could have actually been worse than it was, and it was pretty bad. 38V just needs Arian Foster back, and it needs the right QB play. I'm not going to offer any advice in that area, because I always, always choose wrong. Good luck, Mike. Predictions (Winners underlined): Turn Down for Watt (7-4, +1187/-1139) @ 302 Cadets (6-5, +1138/-1057) I'm Just Gonna Shake It Off (4-7, +987/-1117) @ Staff Infection (8-3, +1209/-1079) 38% Chance of Victory (3-8, +995/-1139) @ Clam Juice Junkies (3-8, +1066/-1248) Merman pop, Mer-man (3-8, +1053/-1189) @ Gin Makes Me Bum Pucker (6-5, +1060/-1051) Poppin Mollies on the reg (7-4, +1112/-966) @ the mullynation (8-3, +1311/-1133) Last Week’s Picks: (3-2) Overall record: (33-22)
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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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