We have once again reached that point in the year when we start punching permutations to see what it would take for each schlep in MIISFFL to reach the playoffs. Some guys have easier paths than others, and we will take a look at each an everyone after the recaps, but first, we have ALSO reached that point in the year where we say au revoir to the feeble fellows who we know will NOT be participating in the playoff party. Enough alliteration for you?
Dewey: Dewey may not have the worst record in the league, but he sure is having a good time trying. While a couple other dudes in the other division duke it out for the rights to the #1 pick in Week 14, Dewey will surely do his part to earn that pick in case the loser of that pillow fight scores enough points.
Tom: Tom had the #1 pick locked down all season, but Julio Jones rose from the ashes in the Week 12 to smash Zach into a million pieces and put his shot at drafting first in serious jeopardy. Tom was just trying to prove his fantasy mettle in case he drafts #2 and takes Sam Darnold anyway. Hey if the Browns can do it...but even they haven't won a game yet.
Kent: The rest of the league rejoices as something about a 3-9 record keeps the trash talk out of Kent's mouth to a minimum. While he will be the first to remind you that he only does this league for kicks, we will be the first to remind him that we could see this coming all the way back on Draft Day.
Patrick: Patrick ran into the buzzsaw that is Zach in Week 13, and ran himself right out of the running for the playoffs with an 84 point clunker. He can kinda run himself all the way to the top half of the draft in 2018 (too much?).
Sean: Sean was treading water for a while until back to back losses to Nick and Nate, the latter of which was a particular stinger since he had the upper hand going into the Monday night monsoon (and flag-fest) in Cincinnati. Ben McAdoo benched Eli Manning after getting the ol' vote of confidence, and proceeded to get the door. Will Sean be doing some similar house-cleaning this offseason?
Get your votes in now for the first edition of the MIISFFL All-Fantasy team. We will be doing an All-Fantasy team during our playoff editions of the Mashup this year and we will choose our MVP from that list. Get your votes in now!
How did the current leader do: In a break from tradition the last few weeks, Zach actually won 125-84, and he won by a substantial margin! With that victory, as you could have guessed from the intro, Patrick was eliminated from playoff contention and also clinches for Zach his second division title in as many years, making his the first team (and so far only official) team to clinch a playoff berth in 2017! He did it with the help of Philip Rivers, who may have finally solved Zach's quarterback question after DeShaun Watson got hurt. Patrick's draft day gambit on taking both Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers ultimately did not pay off. Rodgers got IRed and Brees got a lot of practice handing off to Kamara and Ingram. Maybe Patrick will take notes for the draft next year.
Game of the Week: As mentioned before, Sean was eliminated by Nate 114-110 after some bad luck cost him a win in Week 13. Joe Mixon just needed to hit his projection and would've handed Nate a crushing defeat. Instead, Mixon entered concussion protocol and Nate escaped with the win after Chris Boswell knocked home the game-winner from 38 yards out. A miss would've given Sean the win in a very nip and tuck affair that wasn't high on the scoring, but made up for it in the drama department. Nate will have some big problems in Week 14 though after Gronk Gronk-spiked a Bills defender and will have to go to timeout for one week.
Blowout of the Week: Chris stuck it to Tom 141-95 in Week 13 the way Zach couldn't in Week 12, and takes home another weekly pot for his efforts. Tom actually got some good scores from Carolina Cam, Least-Mode, the Chargers defense, and the kicker, but the rest of his squad was non-existent, all failing to score 5 points, including Julio. Tom lobbied the commissioner during the week to pocket some of those points from last week, but the request was denied. Chris had 4 20+ point scores on Sunday from Wilson (possible All-Fantasy?), Burkhead (Vulture of the year?), Ingram (who is slowly losing carries to Kamara), and Tyreek Hill (who finally had a breakout game after a long drought). Chris cannot win the division due to tiebreakers, but still can lock down a wild card with a win in week 14.
Futility Bowl: Jeff is not eliminated yet, but the sequence of events that would be required for him to sneak into the playoffs is a daunting task. He had a golden opportunity to keep pace with the rest of the league against villain-emeritus Kent (he's not really a villain anymore). Instead, Kent did his usual, only scoring 70, and all Jeff could muster was a measly 62. He was hoping that Antonio Brown would go nuts in the 2nd half on Monday night, but he can at least be lucky that Brown was able to get up after getting his noodle boiled in the end zone on a blatant helmet-to-helmet hit. It made for a valiant effort, but 7 out of his 9 starters failed to score 7 points, including a whopping -5 from the Chiefs defense. Ouch. Not the way to get in the front door. As for Kent, his dreams of the #1 may have taken a hit with Tom's loss to Chris, but he has a chance at redemption in Week 14 as guess who he plays???
Bonus Recap #1: JP was in the same boat as Jeff was with his team withering on the vine to another league doormat in Dewey, but fortunately he did have the 1-2 combo of Ben the Rapist and Le'Daveon Bell who were able to hook up for a double-up TD after some...shall we say questionable tackling by the Bengals who did their best Abbot and Costello who's on first routine as Bell tiptoed down the sideline into the end zone. Roethlisberger tacked on some insurance in the 2nd half with Brown's TD, but that was pretty much all the scoring in this game as once again the guys who played on Sunday didn't do anything, but at least Dewey got a couple TDs from running backs this week (Fournette and Henry). So he at least has that going for him. JP held on 105-87.
Bonus Recap #2: Nick was feeling pretty good after Sunday in his matchup with NFC leader Bruce after Josh McCown posted 35 (even with Alex Smith's 45 sitting on the bench), Kamara added another 27, and survived Carson Wentz in Seattle. All that stood in between Nick and victory over the division leader was AJ Green who needed to post 35 against the Pittsburgh secondary. No sweat right? Well, after Green dominated the first half he was over halfway there with 23 points and two TDs already. Green appeared to score on a long 60 yard bomb, and there was some grinding and gnashing of teeth until the yellow hanky of justice came flying into the backfield, negating the hat trick on a...iffy...holding call. Nick got the win 126-114, just hanging on and sending the NFC into chaos.
Weekly Pot Winner: Chris (141 points)
PLAYOFF PICTURE!
If the season ended today:
AFC Champ: Zach (9-4; clinched)
NFC Champ: Nick (8-5)
Wild Cards: Chris (8-5), Nate (8-5)
Playoff Matchups:
#1 Zach vs. #4 Nate
#2 Nick vs. #3 Chris
Tiebreaker Analysis:
Nick wins the NFC in a 3-way tiebreaker. Nick is 2-1 against Nate and Bruce, splitting with Bruce and beating Nate. Bruce is 2-2, splitting with both. Nate is 1-2. Nick wins the 3-way head to head.
Chris and Nate take the wild cards. Chris played neither Nate nor Bruce so he has no record. Nate and Bruce split so the next tiebreaker is points. Chris currently leads the pack with 1478, Nate 1433, Nate 1353. However, with Chris qualified the tiebreaking RESETS. Because Nate an Bruce split, the next tiebreaker is DIVISION RECORD. Nate has a 7-2 record in the NFC and Bruce is only 4-5. Nate wins the tiebreak. Chris takes the higher seed because of the superior point total.
Here are the clinch scenarios (I think) for each team still alive.
Under further Review...stay tuned!
Remember that Nick and Nate play each other win Week 14. As you can guess above, the points tiebreakers are going to potentially factor in heavily this year. I am sure I don't have it all right either, so this is my DISCLAIMER that I am not guaranteeing this at all. It will all be figured out after Week 14.
No comments:
Post a Comment