I had a busy weekend and wasn't able to watch any football, but I have to say I'm feeling pretty good about my big playoff game against the Steeles. I was projected to win, and my team has been pretty consistent all season. And the Steeles have only won twice in the last seven weeks of the season. Things are looking good. Nay, they're looking great!
That's why I'm confused about why everyone is avoiding eye contact with me today. As I walked in this morning, some stranger patted me on the back in a consoling manner. The smile from the security guard was a little too pleasant. Three bouquets of flowers were in my office, one with the words, "I'm here for you if you need a friend." What's with that?
Ohhh, this about Cliff Lee, isn't it? It's OK, I'll get over it in time. At least I still have my fantasy team to cheer me up.
Anyway, I wanted to share my thoughts on the blog before heading over to ESPN to see how big of a victory I had against Steeles this weekend. OK, OK, I'll be modest. I guess that... I won by 10 or 12 points. BRB; wish me luck!
Crap.
Wild Card Round
Steeles 228, Screech 85
It all makes sense now. The sympathy cards, the pat on the back, the people staring and then quickly looking away when we made eye contact. It all makes sense.
This wasn't just your typical beatdown like the one Explosion dealt to Fire Ants in their Week 3 showdown. That was a mere 93-point dismantling.
No, this was a 143-point shellacking. Look at it this way: Steeles was 27 points away from tripling my score.
I always look at double-digit performances as good indicators of who will win a matchup. It's a pretty good yardstick. Anything 10 points or above in a single roster spot can be considered a good day, for fantasy purposes. If your team has more double-digit performers than your opponent, you'll probably win.
Well, open up a new designation for the Steeles' players this week: 20-plus performances. He had seven of them. In fact, all but one of his double-digit performers was also a 20-plus performer. That's never happened in our league.
By comparison, I had three guys in double digits, with my highest scorer netting a whopping 17 points.
Fortunately, there are no point-related trophies awarded in the postseason, because he would get all of the good ones, and I would get all of the bad ones, most notably "Serious Pwnage."
Steeles would probably say that he expected this type of point production every week, but it was a striking departure from the norm for him (and any team, really). Consider that Steeles averaged 110 points per week this season and that his previous best week was 150 in Week 10.
Steeles has a lot of players with big-week potential, and all of them decided to have their big week at the same time. You could call players like McFadden, C. Johnson, A. Johnson and Jackson "feast or famine." The big four had 128 points this week and would've beaten me all by themselves. Wow.
But look at Week 12, my last game against Steeles. In that week, the four combined for just 20 points. If that was a famine week, this matchup was the next 10 Thanksgivings worth of feasting all rolled into one. You can't expect those four to combine for 128 again, but Steeles will still find success if he gets at least two or three of them to have a nice week.
Here are the eight players who had double digits for Steeles. I've listed their name, how many points they had this week, where this week ranks for them, and their weekly average from the regular season:
- McFadden, 43 points, second-best week (best: 46), average: 15.4
- Jackson, 32 points, best week (previous best: 24), average: 11.9
- A. Johnson, 29 points, best week (previous best: 22), average: 12.4
- Schaub, 28 points, second-best week (best: 31), average: 15.4
- A. Smith, 27 points, best week (previous best: 20), average: 8.4
- C. Johnson, 24 points, fourth-best week (best: 29), average: 13.6
- Patriots D/ST, 20 points, second-best week (best: 27), average 7.0
- Winslow, 13 points, best week (previous best: 12), average 5.5
Four of those players had their best weeks of the season in this matchup, and two were three points below their previous best. The other two, Chris Johnson and the Patriots D/ST, finished within seven points of their previous best week.
Those eight players above combined for an average of 89.6 through the 13-week regular season. Their total in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs: 216.
Ouch.
If you think I'm just bitter, you're right! But there is no questioning the result in this one. His players were better than mine, and no roster moves by me could've changed that result one bit.
For all of the skill and dominance the Steeles exhibited in this matchup, I must mention his lone questionable move: starting Robbie Gould, his kicker, in the blizzard in Chicago.
(It must be noted that if starting the wrong kicker is your worst move of the week, you're in good shape.)
The forecast called for a blizzard well before the game, and plenty of kickers were available. Let that serve as a reminder to everyone that weather might affect kickers more than any other position. The Patriots did kick three field goals successfully, but all were within 30 yards and the game was out of reach early.
Anyway, 17 available kickers scored more than Gould, including five available kickers who finished with double digits (Jeff Reed had 17). And he couldn't have needed to keep Gould on his roster that badly, considering Gould is the league's 16th-ranked kicker in fantasy production.
So, yeah. In the battle of kickers, I win 7-1. So there.
The only other players on his roster who didn't score in double digits were much easier to understand. Matt Forte, a strong runner, should have done much better in the snow, even against the Steeles' own defense, the Patriots.
And Santonio Holmes dropped what was a sure touchdown in rainy conditions at the Meadowlands, so his day could've easily been better and vaulted the Steeles' score higher.
Nicely done, Steeles.
Next up for Steeles: A semifinal game against the league's top-ranked team, Team When. When had the most wins during the regular season, but Steeles finished with a few more points than When, 1434-1415.
However, When won their lone regular-season matchup, 93-83. You might remember that game as the one where When had five players on bye and started just one quarterback but still beat the Steeles' on an off day.
Steeles can't carry any points over from the previous week, and, like all of the four remaining playoff teams, he still needs to win at least once in the next two weeks to finish in the money.
As good as he looked this week, it seems impossible for Steeles to come anywhere near 200 points again. The question on everyone's minds, then, is just how far "back to Earth" will he come?
Stay tuned and find out!
Ants 115, Trees 77
Now this is how fantasy football playoffs are supposed to go down. They should be low-scoring affairs where someone with the last name Wendell ends up winning.
Yes, the Fire Ants are in the semifinals, something that wasn't looking too likely after the 0-3 start.
These are two teams that are continuing their surge in opposite directions. Ants has won five in a row, including the playoff win, and Trees has now lost five straight.
Momentum should not be as important in fantasy football as it is in regular football, but these two teams suggest otherwise.
How wacky was this game? Well, consider that Trees' leading scorer was his defense, and Ants' top performer was his kicker, Jay Feely, who had a touchdown, five field goals, and four extra points to finish with 28. That's only the second double-digit week of the season for Feely. His previous best? Thirteen points all the way back in Week 5.
Cutler was a disappointment for Ants, but his other QB, Josh Freeman, was not. Freeman's stats are interesting. He had 17 in this matchup, which means he's gone 10 straight games with between 11 and 19 points. Consistently decent!
That's more than you can say about Ben Roethlisberger and Carson Palmer, the Trees' QBs, who were two of the several disappointing players for the Trees.
Plugging in Trees' top bench players, McNabb (17) and Garรงon (21), would've made this closer but still resulted in an Ants win.
Next up for Ants: A semifinal game against the league's second-ranked team, Team Fartsicle. Farty outscored Ants 1472-1439 in the regular season and won their only matchup, 131-89.
But in that game, Farty got 27 points from Aaron Rodgers, who is now questionable with a concussion.
You see, for some reason, Farty played Rodgers during his bye in the first round of the playoffs, and now the league's second-best fantasy QB is injured and might not play this weekend. I guess that's what you get for showboating and starting your top players during a bye week!
Note about Waivers:
The waiver order has been reset for the Semifinal round of the playoffs the reflect the seeds of the four remaining teams. The top four are the ones that really matter, and it goes: When, Fartsicle, Ants, Steeles, in that order.
Good luck to everyone in the Semifinal Round of the playoffs!
