I hope everyone enjoyed that three week window of getting to start your full lineup without having to worry about Bye Weeks. Between Week 4 and Week 12 there will be at least two teams missing from the schedule. I say it every year, but this will be the time of the year will the depth of your team and your ability to make the proper waiver moves/trades will pay off.
And injuries...oh I can't forget the injuries. They will still be around to throw a wrench into any best laid plan.
Thursday night marks yet another installment of night time football. This week we will be treated to two struggling offenses/defenses when SAN FRANCISCO takes on ST. LOUIS.
BYE WEEKS for Week 4 are: GREEN BAY and CAROLINA
We had five 2-0 teams looking to go to 3-0 and with none of them playing each other it was a viable option.
The first team attempting to stay undefeated was Nick B who was my Week 3 opponent. Cam Newton was the only player to show up for The Knacks this week as he scored 32 of the teams' 48 total points. CJ Spiller went down injured and Danny Amendola was still not replaced in the starting lineup. On my side I had my own game day injury as Daryl Richardson re-aggravated his injury on the first play of the game holding him scoreless. Luckily TE Jordan Cameron has gone to the Norv Turner school of tight ends and come out valedictorian. He scored three touchdowns for 22 points and along with 13 from Justin Tucker and 10 from the Patriots D, I got just enough to overcome another shoddy outing by Colin Kaepernick.
Final Score: Escaped Lunatics 71 The Knacks 48
Adam sat 2-0 and on paper had the stiffest test going up against Mike who had already had weeks of scoring the most and second most points in the league. Unfortunately that left him 1-1, but certainly fired up to take down the 'Basers. Adam was going to have none of that, knowing he needed to score a lot he got massive days from most everyone. Jamaal Charles was beat by LeSean McCoy heads up on Thursday 20-21, but the tone was set for Adam. He got 18 from Tom Brady, 17 from Matt Prater, 14 from Eric Decker, 13 from the Bengals D and 10 from a still healthy Darren McFadden. Mike tried to keep pace as Jimmy Graham scored 20 and Matt Ryan tossed for 18, but his other five players scored just 4 total points. For the second week in a row Mike 'gave up' the most points and Adam takes home $10 and a 3-0 record for his troubles.
Final Score: Biggums' 'Basers 99 Bookoo Barbarians 63
Next up Ben had his chance to stay undefeated going up against a struggling squad from Jody who was looking for win #1. Through Sunday's games it was more of the same for both teams. Jody saw Philip Rivers be his top scorer with just 13 points and while MJD helped with 11 points, there wasn't much to be happy about. Ben had his top Sunday scorer be the Browns D with a paltry 9 points. Jody held a 40-28 lead with one game to be played...MNF. With only Peyton Manning left to play for Ben and Jody having one of his targets in Demaryius Thomas and the Raiders kicker, Sebastian Janikowski this looked to be headed down to the wire. The Peyton crushed the soul of Jody as he threw three 1st half TDs to everyone not named Demaryius. Even a Thomas caught one as Julius scored again, but Jody got left out of the party. The Raiders also never attempted a field goal at the high elevation for SeaBass to show off. All in all Ben outscored Jody 28-9 and took home his third victory.
Final Score: The Magic Wands 56 DoggNutz 49
It turned out the Nick G had the closest game of any of the 2-0 teams as he went toe to toe with win-less John this week. Behind 36 points from Drew Brees and 12 from DeAngelo Williams, John took early control of the game. The Packers D scored 14 and AP ran for 13 to get Nick G started. In the afternoon, Andrew Luck scored 16 and Matt Bryant booted in 10 and suddenly Nick G took a slim lead. With just a five point lead and stud WR Brandon Marshall left to play for John, it certainly appeared that Nick G was going to be handed his first defeat. The Bears destroyed the Steelers on Sunday night scoring 40 points, but Marshall was basically a non-factor. He hauled in just 52 yards receiving good for just 3 points and John fell just short. For those keeping track at home...the big pre-draft trade now has Nick G at 3-0 while Mike is 1-2 even though Mike has scored 21 more points.
Final Score: The Lollipop Kids 72 The Situation 70
Last 2-0 team going this week was Luke who battled our defending champion Nate. Luke rode his Stafford/Megatron pairing again this week to the tune of 39 total points while Nate had the error prone RGIII on the other side score just 16 points (oh to have had that 57 yard TD back). Nate did get 24 points from the all or nothing DeMarco Murray and 10 from the Cowboys D. It must be killing a Redskins fan to have to watch Cowboys help his team so much. Luke countered with 14 each from Gio Bernard and Stephen Gostkowski to run away and hide. Luke makes it 4/5 teams to hit the 3-0 mark this week.
Final Score: Deathtongue 88 The Bounchers 66
Joel looked for win number one has he took on Matt who was without Reggie Bush and a benched Larry Fitzgerald. Matt also had his #1 draft pick, Trent Richardson, traded mid-week to add to the early season drama. His team responded poorly to all the troubles, especially Eli Manning who mustered just 5 points. Only his kicker scored double figures and as I've said for 15 years...that's never a good sign. Joel took advantage in this runaway win with 20 from the Bears D, 16 from Aaron Rodgers and 10 from his kicker Blair Walsh to get off the mat (pun intended) for his first win.
Final Score: Nikachu 64 Rainbows & Puppies 44
Our final game of the week pitted two 0-2 teams, Ike and Alex, against each other. Ike sat an injured Ray Rice, but had his backup Bernard Pierce and his starting QB Russell Wilson for backup Alex Smith to try and send a message that no job is safe. Pierce did well with 12 points, but Alex Smith got outscored by Wilson 24-16. Outside of those two, nobody else found double digits for Ike as his scoring slump continued. Alex had better success with his squad as Tony Romo got going with 22 points, Matt Forte scored 15, ALF had 13 and Wes Welker chipped in 11 on MNF to get Alex his first win.
Final Score: Worthless Peons 77 Myra's College Fund 52
Standings after Week 3:
Back Wall Division:
Biggums' 'Basers (Adam) 3-0
Lollipop Kids (Nick G) 3-0
Magic Wands (Ben) 3-0
Bookoo Barbarians (Mike) 1-2
Worthless Peons (Alex) 1-2
DoggNutz (Jody) 0-3
Myra's College Fund (Ike) 0-3
Critter Corner Division:
Deathtongue (Luke) 3-0
Escaped Lunatics (Jason) 2-1
The Knacks (Nick B) 2-1
The Bounchers (Nate) 1-2
Nikachu (Joel) 1-2
Rainbows & Puppies (Matt) 1-2
The Situation (John) 0-3
Week 4 Schedule:
Adam 3-0 vs. Ben 3-0 (Game of the Week)
Luke 3-0 vs Nick B 2-1
Nick G 3-0 vs Jody 0-3
Jason 2-1 vs Nate 1-2
Mike 1-2 vs Alex 1-2
Joel 1-2 vs Ike 0-3
Matt 1-2 vs John 0-3
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Back to Back: 2013 Oakland Athletics
Last season I waxed poetic about my affinity for the 2012 version of the Oakland Athletics. It was partly due to them coming out of nowhere to win the A.L. West on the final day of the season in dramatic fashion. It was mainly due to the collection of players and the fun that they had on and off the field that won me over. You had the walk-offs with the pies, the 'Bernie lean' dance and Balfour rage. Off the field on the Twitter-verse it was the world of the McCarthy's, Brandon and Amanda, who kept fans in stitches with their witty repartee.
But that was last season. Gone were the McCarthy's. Gone was the element of surprise. After winning 94 games, nobody (including me) expected the 2013 Athletics to do it again. The Rangers appeared to take a step back as they lost slugger Josh Hamilton to the Angels. Everybody had Los Angeles running away with the division in pre-season projections (yes, including me). Of course I wanted Oakland to win, but I'm a realist. I thought they played out of their minds last season and had everything break right for them.
The young pitching was going to regress. Bartolo Colon was going to be clean of PED's and 40+ years old. The Angels were going to score 900 runs! I predicted the Athletics narrowing out the Rangers for a Wild Card slot and losing that play-in game to the Tampa Bay Rays.
So how would Oakland respond? Would they collapse under the weight of expectations like my local team the Washington Nationals? After a quick 0-2 start, the Athletics went crazy. Nine straight wins scoring 69 runs. I had never seen an Oakland offense get off to a hot start. It had always been a struggle. Maybe they were for real last year and it was going to carry over into 2013.
Then reality set in. Following a loss to Texas, Oakland slumped to 20-22 or 11-20 in just over a month's worth of games. They were seven games out of first place and the offense had disappeared.
Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Reddick and Coco Crisp were all struggling. Chris Young brought in to help the offense was putrid. Opening Day starter, Brett Anderson was (shockingly) injured. Thankfully the Angels had also gotten off to a wretched start. It was the Texas Rangers that appeared to have control of the A.L. West this season after choking it away a few months earlier.
That seven game deficit was the furthest they would be back for the rest of the season.
By the end of May they would be three games back. Bartolo Colon was having his best season since he won the Cy Young in 2005. Josh Donaldson was carrying the offense. Jed Lowrie was a doubles machine. The bullpen was lights out. Behind Sean Doolittle, Ryan Cook and Grant Balfour all leads were safe. Balfour would go on to break the Athletics team record of consecutive saves set by Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley. Some things were working.
The month of June saw Oakland win 16 games for the third straight month. At 13 games over .500 they stood just 0.5 out of first place. By the end of July, they would be alone in first by four games. It had been a full six games on the 29th of July, but by August 10th, just 11 days later, the Athletics were in second place once again, a game behind the Texas Rangers. For the second consecutive season the A.L. West would come down to those two teams.
On August 13th, it was a moment off the baseball field that would turn the season around. Coco Crisp received a cortisone shot on his ailing left wrist.
From that moment on Coco Crisp could do no wrong. He has hit 11 home runs since he returned on August 17th. The Athletics followed suit. At last count the Athletics had homered 68 times in their last 43 games (starting August 6th). The next highest amount in MLB is 50 with the resurgent Nationals here in D.C..
From the one game deficit back on August 10th, the A's would fall as much as 3.5 games behind Texas on August 23rd. September has belonged to the green and gold.
This month Yoenis Cespedes had his own cortisone shot and from the looks of it everyone should have one. He has been producing at an MVP level this month hitting .361 with 6 HR's and 19 RBI's. His previous high for a month had been .237 in July.
Up and down the lineup everyone is hitting. Outside of Coco and Yoenis, Lowrie and Donaldson are still doing their thing. Brandon Moss has been terrific. Josh Reddick has been better. Aleberto Callaspo was brought in from the Angels and has been hitting better than expected. The platoon team (which needs a nickname) of Eric Sogard, Nate Freiman, Derek Norris, Kurt Suzuki, Stephen Vogt, Daric Barton and yes even Chris Young have chipped in along the way in various ways.
The pitching has been good enough, but their deficiencies have been largely ignored thanks to the offense. The bullpen is shaky at best right now. Ryan Cook looks lost and the once invincible Grant Balfour has shown cracks in his armor. Bartolo Colon has returned from a DL vacation stint as strong as he was to start the season. Jarrod Parker had an 18 game start streak of not losing come to and end recently, but rebounded in his most recent start. A.J. Griffin has been homer prone but seems to be just good enough each start to be successful. Dan Straily quietly has been effective and rookie Sonny Gray has been solid.
Brett Anderson, still stuck on one win this season, is working out of the bullpen as is fellow starter Tommy Milone who had been demoted to AAA earlier in the year.
This month Oakland has gone 16-5 while the Rangers have flat lined at 5-15. This includes Oakland walking into Arlington and sweeping the Rangers on their home field. Fittingly it was a Texas lost that officially clinched the A.L. West for Oakland today even though they took care of business a few hours later with a victory over the Minnesota Twins.
Currently Oakland has the second best record in not only the American League, but in all of baseball. They have proven to be a more complete team this season. I believe they can still play better. Maybe not on the offensive side, but their pitching could easily improve, especially on the back end.
With six games left Oakland should exceed their win total of 94 games from last year, but as always it will be how they do in the playoffs that will be what everyone remembers. Since making the playoffs in 2000 Oakland will now be playing in the postseason for the seventh time in that 14 year period. They have only won one series in those previous six appearances. It has also been nearly 25 years since the franchise has last won a World Series. Could this be the group that gets them back to the mountaintop?
My 25 man playoff roster would look like this:
Pitching:
1. Bartolo Colon
2. Jarrod Parker
3. A.J. Griffin
4. Dan Straily
5. Dan Otero
6. Sean Doolittle
7. Ryan Cook
8. Grant Balfour
9. Brett Anderson
10. Jerry Blevins
11. Jesse Chavez
Hitting:
1. Coco Crisp
2. Jed Lowrie
3. Josh Donaldson
4. Yoenis Cespedes
5. Brandon Moss
6. Josh Reddick
7. Alberto Callaspo
8. Eric Sogard
9. Stephen Vogt
10. Kurt Suzuki
11. Chris Young
12. Seth Smith
13. Daric Barton
14. Derek Norris...yes three catchers.
If you want one more bullpen arm I suppose I'd keep Norris out and put Pat Neshak or Sonny Gray in his place.
But that was last season. Gone were the McCarthy's. Gone was the element of surprise. After winning 94 games, nobody (including me) expected the 2013 Athletics to do it again. The Rangers appeared to take a step back as they lost slugger Josh Hamilton to the Angels. Everybody had Los Angeles running away with the division in pre-season projections (yes, including me). Of course I wanted Oakland to win, but I'm a realist. I thought they played out of their minds last season and had everything break right for them.
The young pitching was going to regress. Bartolo Colon was going to be clean of PED's and 40+ years old. The Angels were going to score 900 runs! I predicted the Athletics narrowing out the Rangers for a Wild Card slot and losing that play-in game to the Tampa Bay Rays.
So how would Oakland respond? Would they collapse under the weight of expectations like my local team the Washington Nationals? After a quick 0-2 start, the Athletics went crazy. Nine straight wins scoring 69 runs. I had never seen an Oakland offense get off to a hot start. It had always been a struggle. Maybe they were for real last year and it was going to carry over into 2013.
Then reality set in. Following a loss to Texas, Oakland slumped to 20-22 or 11-20 in just over a month's worth of games. They were seven games out of first place and the offense had disappeared.
Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Reddick and Coco Crisp were all struggling. Chris Young brought in to help the offense was putrid. Opening Day starter, Brett Anderson was (shockingly) injured. Thankfully the Angels had also gotten off to a wretched start. It was the Texas Rangers that appeared to have control of the A.L. West this season after choking it away a few months earlier.
That seven game deficit was the furthest they would be back for the rest of the season.
By the end of May they would be three games back. Bartolo Colon was having his best season since he won the Cy Young in 2005. Josh Donaldson was carrying the offense. Jed Lowrie was a doubles machine. The bullpen was lights out. Behind Sean Doolittle, Ryan Cook and Grant Balfour all leads were safe. Balfour would go on to break the Athletics team record of consecutive saves set by Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley. Some things were working.
The month of June saw Oakland win 16 games for the third straight month. At 13 games over .500 they stood just 0.5 out of first place. By the end of July, they would be alone in first by four games. It had been a full six games on the 29th of July, but by August 10th, just 11 days later, the Athletics were in second place once again, a game behind the Texas Rangers. For the second consecutive season the A.L. West would come down to those two teams.
On August 13th, it was a moment off the baseball field that would turn the season around. Coco Crisp received a cortisone shot on his ailing left wrist.
From that moment on Coco Crisp could do no wrong. He has hit 11 home runs since he returned on August 17th. The Athletics followed suit. At last count the Athletics had homered 68 times in their last 43 games (starting August 6th). The next highest amount in MLB is 50 with the resurgent Nationals here in D.C..
From the one game deficit back on August 10th, the A's would fall as much as 3.5 games behind Texas on August 23rd. September has belonged to the green and gold.
This month Yoenis Cespedes had his own cortisone shot and from the looks of it everyone should have one. He has been producing at an MVP level this month hitting .361 with 6 HR's and 19 RBI's. His previous high for a month had been .237 in July.
Up and down the lineup everyone is hitting. Outside of Coco and Yoenis, Lowrie and Donaldson are still doing their thing. Brandon Moss has been terrific. Josh Reddick has been better. Aleberto Callaspo was brought in from the Angels and has been hitting better than expected. The platoon team (which needs a nickname) of Eric Sogard, Nate Freiman, Derek Norris, Kurt Suzuki, Stephen Vogt, Daric Barton and yes even Chris Young have chipped in along the way in various ways.
The pitching has been good enough, but their deficiencies have been largely ignored thanks to the offense. The bullpen is shaky at best right now. Ryan Cook looks lost and the once invincible Grant Balfour has shown cracks in his armor. Bartolo Colon has returned from a DL vacation stint as strong as he was to start the season. Jarrod Parker had an 18 game start streak of not losing come to and end recently, but rebounded in his most recent start. A.J. Griffin has been homer prone but seems to be just good enough each start to be successful. Dan Straily quietly has been effective and rookie Sonny Gray has been solid.
Brett Anderson, still stuck on one win this season, is working out of the bullpen as is fellow starter Tommy Milone who had been demoted to AAA earlier in the year.
This month Oakland has gone 16-5 while the Rangers have flat lined at 5-15. This includes Oakland walking into Arlington and sweeping the Rangers on their home field. Fittingly it was a Texas lost that officially clinched the A.L. West for Oakland today even though they took care of business a few hours later with a victory over the Minnesota Twins.
Currently Oakland has the second best record in not only the American League, but in all of baseball. They have proven to be a more complete team this season. I believe they can still play better. Maybe not on the offensive side, but their pitching could easily improve, especially on the back end.
With six games left Oakland should exceed their win total of 94 games from last year, but as always it will be how they do in the playoffs that will be what everyone remembers. Since making the playoffs in 2000 Oakland will now be playing in the postseason for the seventh time in that 14 year period. They have only won one series in those previous six appearances. It has also been nearly 25 years since the franchise has last won a World Series. Could this be the group that gets them back to the mountaintop?
My 25 man playoff roster would look like this:
Pitching:
1. Bartolo Colon
2. Jarrod Parker
3. A.J. Griffin
4. Dan Straily
5. Dan Otero
6. Sean Doolittle
7. Ryan Cook
8. Grant Balfour
9. Brett Anderson
10. Jerry Blevins
11. Jesse Chavez
Hitting:
1. Coco Crisp
2. Jed Lowrie
3. Josh Donaldson
4. Yoenis Cespedes
5. Brandon Moss
6. Josh Reddick
7. Alberto Callaspo
8. Eric Sogard
9. Stephen Vogt
10. Kurt Suzuki
11. Chris Young
12. Seth Smith
13. Daric Barton
14. Derek Norris...yes three catchers.
If you want one more bullpen arm I suppose I'd keep Norris out and put Pat Neshak or Sonny Gray in his place.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
FCNPFFL: Week 2 Results
If you think falling to 0-2 in the NFL is difficult to overcome, imagine the troubles a fantasy owner might have in a shortened fantasy season. Whereas the NFL season is a full 16 games, a fantasy season is, at most, 14 games with many seasons lasting just 13 weeks. Throw in future Bye Weeks to your starting lineup and 0-2 is a world of hurt.
Seven teams in this league are facing that unwanted fate.
Before we get to the scores, a friendly reminder of the upcoming Thursday night game between KANSAS CITY and PHILADELPHIA. For those of you not keeping score at home, that is Andy Reid returning to the city of brotherly love. That should be good television.
This week marked the first week in as long as I could remember that the MNF game meant absolutely nothing to the final scores of the games. So here I sit on Monday night actually typing up this recap allowing me to be more productive at work on Tuesday.
Onto the games:
John and I tangled in a battle of teams looking to avoid that 0-2 hole. I took a quick lead behind a solid Patriots defense as they stymied the Jets and scored 11 points. On Sunday, I extended that lead with early strikes from my wide receivers. Dez Bryant wound up scoring 15 and Randall Cobb added 14. John answered with 13 from Brandon Marshall and 11 from Eagles kicker Alex Henery. Then John took a small lead behind 22 from Drew Brees, but Doug Martin kept me right in it with 14 points. Only needing a handful of points from Colin Kaepernick on Sunday night, things looked good. Through three quarters, I still hadn't wrapped up the game, but eventually Kaepernick squeaked out just enough to get me a win.
Final Score: Escaped Lunatics 75 The Situation 69
Another game with a guaranteed 0-2 starter (barring the dreaded fantasy tie) had our defending champion Nate, locking horns with Joel. On the field, the Packers trounced the Redskins and on the fantasy field, Joel got the best of Nate in the quarterback battle as Aaron Rodgers outscored RGIII 40-27. That's the good news for Joel. The bad news was that his other seven players scored just 35 more points with none in double figures. Nate had three other players score in double figures with Arian Foster tallying 15 and Jermichael Finley and Garret Hartley kicking in 10 apiece. That was enough to get Nate over the top and back to his winning ways.
Final Score: The Bounchers 85 Nikachu 75
Okay enough of the slow starting teams. Week 1 top scorer, Mike took on fellow 1-0 member Ben in a pure classic. Both teams hit triple digits this week as they (barring a huge Bengals D scoring night) were the top two scoring teams in Week 2. That means somebody lost a game that they really shouldn't have. Outscoring 12 teams and losing is the worst. Mike was led by Matt Ryan who posted 30 points, but Jimmy Graham did his best to assist with 23 points. Mike Wallace woke up from a long slumber with 13 points, LeSean McCoy put up 12 and Josh Brown booted in 11 points. Ben responded with 23 from Peyton Manning, 15 from Pierre Garcon and 12 from Lamar Miller who had a better Week 2 that his 1 yard Week 1 effort. Still, Mike was in great shape, up 27 points with Ben having just a single player left. He must've already been counting that second $10 prize. No chance Marshawn Lynch could go #BeastMode on the vaunted 49ers defense, right? Wrong. Lynch scored a hat trick of touchdowns along with 135 total yards to amass 29 total points. His final score, a meaningless one in a Seahawks blowout, was a killer for Mike. Congrats to Ben on a huge comeback and the $10 payout.
Final Score: The Magic Wands 103 Bookoo Barbarians 101
And then there was the other 1-0 vs 1-0 game pitting Nick B against Matt. Each team battled injuries and poor performances this week in an ugly effort. Matt saw Larry Fitzgerald barely do anything fighting an injury and his favorite player (as a Lions fan) Reggie Bush go down mid-game. Randy Bullock also added to Matt's misery by scoring (or is it pissing away) -1 points. Only Eli Manning (18) and the Ravens D (11) went into double digits for Matt. Nick B didn't fare much better. Already without injured receiver Danny Amendola, Nick B also saw Michael Floyd, Jason Witten and Phil Dawson combined for a paltry 3 points. Cam Newton did put up 19 points and Rashard Mendenhall added 13, but Nick was still in need of help. The Seahawks defense came to the rescue with 18 points as Nick B moved to 2-0.
Final Score: The Knacks 64 Rainbows & Puppies 51
Nick G looked to stay undefeated while Alex looked to get win #1 in a pretty solid matchup. Nick G had the games top two scoring players as Desean Jackson continued to flourish in the new Eagles offense with 24 points and Andrew Luck continued his steady play with 22 points. Jordy Nelson added 16 points for Nick G which just happened to be the point total of Alex's top scorer. That's never a good sign. Alex tried to stick around with balanced scoring. Tony Romo had the aforementioned 16 points to lead the way while Dan Bailey added 14, Matt Forte 11 and Alfred Morris chipped in 10. His other players did well, but not well enough.
Final Score: The Lollipop Kids 87 The Worthless Peons 76
Even though Lucas still has a player left tonight (and he has already scored a touchdown), it won't make a difference against Jody this week. Phillip Rivers led all scorers with 33 for Jody in a shootout win over the Eagles. Sebastian Janikowski, unfortunately for Jody, was his only other double digit scorer with just 10 points. Luke countered with his Lions tandem of Matt Stafford and Megatron who paired up on both a 72 yard (double) touchdown and a 3 yard scored for 48 total points. Heading into MNF Luke already led by 3 points and it now stands at 10 with 30 minutes left to play...and Gio scores again. Luke joins the crew at 2-0 while Jody falls to 0-2.
Final Score: Deathtongue 86 DoggNutz 67
Just like last week, our final pairing proved to be the clunker of the week. One of the two teams had a pretty decent outing while the other just had the bottom fall out. Adam and Ike proved to be a tale of two Sundays this week. With 24 points from Julio Jones, Adam nearly had all the points he would need. Yup, that about sums it up. To kick dirt on Ike's fresh grave, Adam also saw Jamaal Charles score 14, Tom Brady and Matt Prater add 13 and Darren McFadden post 11. Ike saw both his starting running backs, Ray Rice and Eddie Lacy, leave injured after just scoring two total points. The silver lining for Ike is that his two bench RBs scored 32 points. All is not lost. This week, though, all was completely and utterly lost.
Final Score: Biggums' 'Basers 88 Myra's College Fund 29
Standings after Week 2:
Back Wall Division
The Magic Wands (Ben) 2-0
Lollipop Kids (Nick G) 2-0
Biggums' 'Basers (Adam) 2-0
Bookoo Barbarians (Mike) 1-1
DoggNutz (Jody) 0-2
The Worthless Peons (Alex) 0-2
Myra's College Fund (Ike) 0-2
Critter Corner Division
Deathtongue (Luke) 2-0
The Knacks (Nick B) 2-0
Rainbows & Puppies (Matt) 1-1
Escaped Lunatics (Jason) 1-1
The Bounchers (Nate) 1-1
The Situation (John) 0-2
Nikachu (Joel) 0-2
Week 3 Schedule:
Nick B 2-0 vs Jason 1-1
Luke 2-0 vs Nate 1-1
Adam 2-0 vs Mike 1-1
Ben 2-0 vs Jody 0-2
Nick G 2-0 vs John 0-2
Matt 1-1 vs Joel 0-2
Ike 0-2 vs Alex 0-2
A very interesting schedule as none of the undefeated teams face each other. Will they pull away or will the league become wide open?
Seven teams in this league are facing that unwanted fate.
Before we get to the scores, a friendly reminder of the upcoming Thursday night game between KANSAS CITY and PHILADELPHIA. For those of you not keeping score at home, that is Andy Reid returning to the city of brotherly love. That should be good television.
This week marked the first week in as long as I could remember that the MNF game meant absolutely nothing to the final scores of the games. So here I sit on Monday night actually typing up this recap allowing me to be more productive at work on Tuesday.
Onto the games:
John and I tangled in a battle of teams looking to avoid that 0-2 hole. I took a quick lead behind a solid Patriots defense as they stymied the Jets and scored 11 points. On Sunday, I extended that lead with early strikes from my wide receivers. Dez Bryant wound up scoring 15 and Randall Cobb added 14. John answered with 13 from Brandon Marshall and 11 from Eagles kicker Alex Henery. Then John took a small lead behind 22 from Drew Brees, but Doug Martin kept me right in it with 14 points. Only needing a handful of points from Colin Kaepernick on Sunday night, things looked good. Through three quarters, I still hadn't wrapped up the game, but eventually Kaepernick squeaked out just enough to get me a win.
Final Score: Escaped Lunatics 75 The Situation 69
Another game with a guaranteed 0-2 starter (barring the dreaded fantasy tie) had our defending champion Nate, locking horns with Joel. On the field, the Packers trounced the Redskins and on the fantasy field, Joel got the best of Nate in the quarterback battle as Aaron Rodgers outscored RGIII 40-27. That's the good news for Joel. The bad news was that his other seven players scored just 35 more points with none in double figures. Nate had three other players score in double figures with Arian Foster tallying 15 and Jermichael Finley and Garret Hartley kicking in 10 apiece. That was enough to get Nate over the top and back to his winning ways.
Final Score: The Bounchers 85 Nikachu 75
Okay enough of the slow starting teams. Week 1 top scorer, Mike took on fellow 1-0 member Ben in a pure classic. Both teams hit triple digits this week as they (barring a huge Bengals D scoring night) were the top two scoring teams in Week 2. That means somebody lost a game that they really shouldn't have. Outscoring 12 teams and losing is the worst. Mike was led by Matt Ryan who posted 30 points, but Jimmy Graham did his best to assist with 23 points. Mike Wallace woke up from a long slumber with 13 points, LeSean McCoy put up 12 and Josh Brown booted in 11 points. Ben responded with 23 from Peyton Manning, 15 from Pierre Garcon and 12 from Lamar Miller who had a better Week 2 that his 1 yard Week 1 effort. Still, Mike was in great shape, up 27 points with Ben having just a single player left. He must've already been counting that second $10 prize. No chance Marshawn Lynch could go #BeastMode on the vaunted 49ers defense, right? Wrong. Lynch scored a hat trick of touchdowns along with 135 total yards to amass 29 total points. His final score, a meaningless one in a Seahawks blowout, was a killer for Mike. Congrats to Ben on a huge comeback and the $10 payout.
Final Score: The Magic Wands 103 Bookoo Barbarians 101
And then there was the other 1-0 vs 1-0 game pitting Nick B against Matt. Each team battled injuries and poor performances this week in an ugly effort. Matt saw Larry Fitzgerald barely do anything fighting an injury and his favorite player (as a Lions fan) Reggie Bush go down mid-game. Randy Bullock also added to Matt's misery by scoring (or is it pissing away) -1 points. Only Eli Manning (18) and the Ravens D (11) went into double digits for Matt. Nick B didn't fare much better. Already without injured receiver Danny Amendola, Nick B also saw Michael Floyd, Jason Witten and Phil Dawson combined for a paltry 3 points. Cam Newton did put up 19 points and Rashard Mendenhall added 13, but Nick was still in need of help. The Seahawks defense came to the rescue with 18 points as Nick B moved to 2-0.
Final Score: The Knacks 64 Rainbows & Puppies 51
Nick G looked to stay undefeated while Alex looked to get win #1 in a pretty solid matchup. Nick G had the games top two scoring players as Desean Jackson continued to flourish in the new Eagles offense with 24 points and Andrew Luck continued his steady play with 22 points. Jordy Nelson added 16 points for Nick G which just happened to be the point total of Alex's top scorer. That's never a good sign. Alex tried to stick around with balanced scoring. Tony Romo had the aforementioned 16 points to lead the way while Dan Bailey added 14, Matt Forte 11 and Alfred Morris chipped in 10. His other players did well, but not well enough.
Final Score: The Lollipop Kids 87 The Worthless Peons 76
Even though Lucas still has a player left tonight (and he has already scored a touchdown), it won't make a difference against Jody this week. Phillip Rivers led all scorers with 33 for Jody in a shootout win over the Eagles. Sebastian Janikowski, unfortunately for Jody, was his only other double digit scorer with just 10 points. Luke countered with his Lions tandem of Matt Stafford and Megatron who paired up on both a 72 yard (double) touchdown and a 3 yard scored for 48 total points. Heading into MNF Luke already led by 3 points and it now stands at 10 with 30 minutes left to play...and Gio scores again. Luke joins the crew at 2-0 while Jody falls to 0-2.
Final Score: Deathtongue 86 DoggNutz 67
Just like last week, our final pairing proved to be the clunker of the week. One of the two teams had a pretty decent outing while the other just had the bottom fall out. Adam and Ike proved to be a tale of two Sundays this week. With 24 points from Julio Jones, Adam nearly had all the points he would need. Yup, that about sums it up. To kick dirt on Ike's fresh grave, Adam also saw Jamaal Charles score 14, Tom Brady and Matt Prater add 13 and Darren McFadden post 11. Ike saw both his starting running backs, Ray Rice and Eddie Lacy, leave injured after just scoring two total points. The silver lining for Ike is that his two bench RBs scored 32 points. All is not lost. This week, though, all was completely and utterly lost.
Final Score: Biggums' 'Basers 88 Myra's College Fund 29
Standings after Week 2:
Back Wall Division
The Magic Wands (Ben) 2-0
Lollipop Kids (Nick G) 2-0
Biggums' 'Basers (Adam) 2-0
Bookoo Barbarians (Mike) 1-1
DoggNutz (Jody) 0-2
The Worthless Peons (Alex) 0-2
Myra's College Fund (Ike) 0-2
Critter Corner Division
Deathtongue (Luke) 2-0
The Knacks (Nick B) 2-0
Rainbows & Puppies (Matt) 1-1
Escaped Lunatics (Jason) 1-1
The Bounchers (Nate) 1-1
The Situation (John) 0-2
Nikachu (Joel) 0-2
Week 3 Schedule:
Nick B 2-0 vs Jason 1-1
Luke 2-0 vs Nate 1-1
Adam 2-0 vs Mike 1-1
Ben 2-0 vs Jody 0-2
Nick G 2-0 vs John 0-2
Matt 1-1 vs Joel 0-2
Ike 0-2 vs Alex 0-2
A very interesting schedule as none of the undefeated teams face each other. Will they pull away or will the league become wide open?
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
FCNPFFL: Week 1 Results
Season #16 is officially underway!
A fantasy team doesn't feel 'real' until we actually get to see them play on the field when it counts. Nobody will ever get the projections correct for the week and any single player has the ability to take over a fantasy matchup. Who had Anquan Boldin going for 208 yards receiving??
Before we get to the results, let me cover some of the week to week rules as a refresher course. Waivers are done by the computer every Wednesday night. Please do not send my any waiver requests for that. I will ignore them, you have been warned.
As soon as the computer is done doing its thing, all KICKERS/DEFENSES become open game free agents until 12:55pm EST on Sunday. YOU MUST EMAIL/TEXT/TWEET/CALL me with your add/drop request for that. If you submit it on the website, I won't see it and it will just go for the waivers for the following Wednesday.
Simple enough? We haven't changed this process in about five years now, so everyone should be good to go, even newbie Joel.
As a reminder their will always be at least one Thursday game each week, so set your rosters accordingly. This weeks game is: NEW ENGLAND vs NEW YORK JETS
Okay, with that out of the way...lemme plug, one last time, my new writing venture with LeagueSafePost.com where I'll be writing a couple of fantasy matchups each week. As always I guarantee 72% accuracy!
Onto the games!
My first game of the season saw me taking on Matt in what turned out to be the first of a string of close, high scoring, games this week. Thursday was a dud for Matt as the Ravens defense posted a goose egg while Justin Tucker got me going with 8 points. Come Sunday, the scoring began. Reggie Bush got Matt rolling with a huge 27 point performance including a double touchdown of 77 yards. Jordan Cameron's 13 and 10 from Doug Martin kept the game tight. The afternoon games saw me take a big lead behind 34 from Colin Kaepernick and 13 from Randall Cobb. Matt got 17 from Larry Fitzgerald, but he was to need a standout performance from Eli Manning to get back into the game. Well 450 yards, 4+ TD's (another double score) and 39 points later, Matt was within a point with his kicker still to play. Randy Bullock scored 7 and Matt notched an opening week victory.
Final Score: Rainbows & Puppies 96 Escaped Lunatics 90
Mike and Jody saw the 186 combined points that Matt and I produced and said 'We can go higher.' These two put up 203 total points and the game didn't get decided until Monday night. Jody came out on fire with 28 points from Demaryius Thomas on Thursday night. The two quarterbacks, Matt Ryan for Mike and Andy Dalton for Jody nearly matched one another as Ryan outscored Dalton 23-20. Jody took an even larger lead with 12 from the Dolphins defense and 10 from Marques Colston. Mike was in trouble. That was until Victor Cruz salsa'd his was to 31 points on Sunday night giving Mike a shot at a victory. He needed LeSean McCoy to come up with a good night, yeah, not a problem. McCoy shredded the Redskins for 24 points and Mike not only won going away but he also pocketed the first $10 weekly prize of being the top scoring team of the week!
Final Score: Bookoo Barbarians 110 DoggNutz 93
You want drama? You want a week one nail biter? I'm sure this was a great game, coming down to the last seconds of the second MNF game, but I was fast asleep. Daddy duty is exhausting. Ike and Nick G had themselves a whale of an opening game. Ike saw all of his Thursday/Sunday players hit double digits with 22 from AJ Green, 18 from Russell Wilson, 12 from Reggie Wayne, 11 each from Ray Rice and David Akers and 10 from Eddie Lacy. Nick G got 34 from #1 overall draft pick Adrian Peterson, 25 from Andrew Luck and 14 from Jordy Nelson to keep the game close. Each team had two players going on Monday night and Ike held a slim 5 point lead. In the early game it was all Nick G who got 12 from DeSean Jackson to just a single point for Ike from Fred Davis. Nick G up six. The late game came down to Antonio Gates vs. the Texans defense. Ike won that battle 8-3, but Nick G won the war by a single point.
Final Score: The Lollipop Kids 94 Myra's College Fund 93
Similar MNF drama came between Alex and Adam who played our fourth great game of the week. Adam was led by Tom Brady who posted 19 while Vernon Davis got him 18, Jamaal Charles put up 14 and Run DMC stayed healthy long enough to score 11 points. Alex saw his quarterback, Tony Romo, also lead the way with 20 points while Wes Welker added 14 and both Matt Forte and Dan Baily chipped in 13 apiece. With Alex having the last bullet in the gun in the form of Redskins running back Alfred Morris, he looked to be in decent shape. Needing just 11 points to win against a porous Eagles defense, he had to be feeling good. Until Morris fumbled on his first touch of the season...-2 points. Then he mishandled a ball for a safety and the drama was on! The Redskins inched their way back, mainly through the air, but Morris did score a late touchdown, which proved to be too little too late for them and for Alex.
Final Score: Biggums' 'Basers 81 The Worthless Peons 79
The we head to our defending Super Bowl Champion, Nate, who looked to continue his run of 13 consecutive wins and his overall unbeaten streak of 16 games (one tie last season). He took on Ben who was thankful that he owned Peyton Manning. The Broncos quarterback posted an astounding 55 points on Thursday night and then Ben saw his other seven players muster just 28 more points the rest of the weekend. Nate took the more balanced approach with five players tallying between 9-11 points. With the Giants D posting -1 points Nate still found himself down 40 points heading in MNF with three players left while Ben had just Pierre Garcon. RGIII got Nate within striking distance with 24 points while Garcon had just 4 points. The lead had been shaved in half and with both Arian Foster and Andre Johnson left to play, Ben had to have been sweating bullets. Although the two Texans combined for 236 total yards from scrimmage neither found pay dirt and they settled for just 16 total fantasy points, ending the magical run that Nate strung together.
Final Score: The Magic Wands 83 The Bounchers 79
I haven't forgotten about the Hardi clan. With three members from one family within one single division, it's going to get messy by Thanksgiving. Week 1 saw father John, take on one of his sons, Luke and the game did not disappoint. Again the quarterbacks basically evened out as Luke won the battle 28-24 behind Matt Stafford (vs. Drew Brees). Each team had a double digit scoring running back as Steven Jackson scored 10 and Frank Gore rumbled for 11. Brandon Marshall pieced together 12 for John while Luke got the same 12 from Stephen Gostkowski. It came down to the tight ends. John saw a good effort from Brandon Myers who hauled in 10 points, but it was Jared Cook that stood out and earned Luke a week one victory. Cook whipped together a tasty 19 point effort which could have been more had it not been for a goal line fumble early on.
Final Score: Deathtongue 76 The Situation 70
And then there was this clunker...usually I say 'last, but not least' in this spot, but not this week. Nick B and Joel combined for just 107 points in this game. Mike wins again!! For Joel he got more than half of his points from the golden right arm of Aaron Rodgers who scored 28. His two running backs, Stevan Ridley and David Wilson scored a grand total of -1 points. Ouch. Nick B wasn't a whole lot better, but he was good enough this week. 16 from Jason Witten and 13 from Cam Newton along with middling efforts from the rest of the team, got him a week one victory.
Final Score: The Knacks 62 Nikachu 45
Back Wall Division Standings:
Mike (Bookoo Barbarians) 1-0
Nick G (Lollipop Kids) 1-0
Ben (Magic Wands) 1-0
Adam (Biggums' 'Basers) 1-0
Jody (DoggNutz) 0-1
Ike (Myra's College Fund) 0-1
Alex (Worthles Peons) 0-1
Critter Corner Division
Matt (Rainbows & Puppies) 1-0
Luke (Deathtongue) 1-0
Nick B (The Knacks) 1-0
Jason (Escaped Lunatics) 0-1
Nate (The Bounchers) 0-1
John (The Situation) 0-1
Joel (Nikachu) 0-1
Week 2 Schedule:
Mike 1-0 vs Ben 1-0
Matt 1-0 vs Nick B 1-0
Nick G 1-0 vs Alex 0-1
Adam 1-0 vs Ike 0-1
Luke 1-0 vs Jody 0-1
Jason 0-1 vs John 0-1
Nate 0-1 vs Joel 0-1
A fantasy team doesn't feel 'real' until we actually get to see them play on the field when it counts. Nobody will ever get the projections correct for the week and any single player has the ability to take over a fantasy matchup. Who had Anquan Boldin going for 208 yards receiving??
Before we get to the results, let me cover some of the week to week rules as a refresher course. Waivers are done by the computer every Wednesday night. Please do not send my any waiver requests for that. I will ignore them, you have been warned.
As soon as the computer is done doing its thing, all KICKERS/DEFENSES become open game free agents until 12:55pm EST on Sunday. YOU MUST EMAIL/TEXT/TWEET/CALL me with your add/drop request for that. If you submit it on the website, I won't see it and it will just go for the waivers for the following Wednesday.
Simple enough? We haven't changed this process in about five years now, so everyone should be good to go, even newbie Joel.
As a reminder their will always be at least one Thursday game each week, so set your rosters accordingly. This weeks game is: NEW ENGLAND vs NEW YORK JETS
Okay, with that out of the way...lemme plug, one last time, my new writing venture with LeagueSafePost.com where I'll be writing a couple of fantasy matchups each week. As always I guarantee 72% accuracy!
Onto the games!
My first game of the season saw me taking on Matt in what turned out to be the first of a string of close, high scoring, games this week. Thursday was a dud for Matt as the Ravens defense posted a goose egg while Justin Tucker got me going with 8 points. Come Sunday, the scoring began. Reggie Bush got Matt rolling with a huge 27 point performance including a double touchdown of 77 yards. Jordan Cameron's 13 and 10 from Doug Martin kept the game tight. The afternoon games saw me take a big lead behind 34 from Colin Kaepernick and 13 from Randall Cobb. Matt got 17 from Larry Fitzgerald, but he was to need a standout performance from Eli Manning to get back into the game. Well 450 yards, 4+ TD's (another double score) and 39 points later, Matt was within a point with his kicker still to play. Randy Bullock scored 7 and Matt notched an opening week victory.
Final Score: Rainbows & Puppies 96 Escaped Lunatics 90
Mike and Jody saw the 186 combined points that Matt and I produced and said 'We can go higher.' These two put up 203 total points and the game didn't get decided until Monday night. Jody came out on fire with 28 points from Demaryius Thomas on Thursday night. The two quarterbacks, Matt Ryan for Mike and Andy Dalton for Jody nearly matched one another as Ryan outscored Dalton 23-20. Jody took an even larger lead with 12 from the Dolphins defense and 10 from Marques Colston. Mike was in trouble. That was until Victor Cruz salsa'd his was to 31 points on Sunday night giving Mike a shot at a victory. He needed LeSean McCoy to come up with a good night, yeah, not a problem. McCoy shredded the Redskins for 24 points and Mike not only won going away but he also pocketed the first $10 weekly prize of being the top scoring team of the week!
Final Score: Bookoo Barbarians 110 DoggNutz 93
You want drama? You want a week one nail biter? I'm sure this was a great game, coming down to the last seconds of the second MNF game, but I was fast asleep. Daddy duty is exhausting. Ike and Nick G had themselves a whale of an opening game. Ike saw all of his Thursday/Sunday players hit double digits with 22 from AJ Green, 18 from Russell Wilson, 12 from Reggie Wayne, 11 each from Ray Rice and David Akers and 10 from Eddie Lacy. Nick G got 34 from #1 overall draft pick Adrian Peterson, 25 from Andrew Luck and 14 from Jordy Nelson to keep the game close. Each team had two players going on Monday night and Ike held a slim 5 point lead. In the early game it was all Nick G who got 12 from DeSean Jackson to just a single point for Ike from Fred Davis. Nick G up six. The late game came down to Antonio Gates vs. the Texans defense. Ike won that battle 8-3, but Nick G won the war by a single point.
Final Score: The Lollipop Kids 94 Myra's College Fund 93
Similar MNF drama came between Alex and Adam who played our fourth great game of the week. Adam was led by Tom Brady who posted 19 while Vernon Davis got him 18, Jamaal Charles put up 14 and Run DMC stayed healthy long enough to score 11 points. Alex saw his quarterback, Tony Romo, also lead the way with 20 points while Wes Welker added 14 and both Matt Forte and Dan Baily chipped in 13 apiece. With Alex having the last bullet in the gun in the form of Redskins running back Alfred Morris, he looked to be in decent shape. Needing just 11 points to win against a porous Eagles defense, he had to be feeling good. Until Morris fumbled on his first touch of the season...-2 points. Then he mishandled a ball for a safety and the drama was on! The Redskins inched their way back, mainly through the air, but Morris did score a late touchdown, which proved to be too little too late for them and for Alex.
Final Score: Biggums' 'Basers 81 The Worthless Peons 79
The we head to our defending Super Bowl Champion, Nate, who looked to continue his run of 13 consecutive wins and his overall unbeaten streak of 16 games (one tie last season). He took on Ben who was thankful that he owned Peyton Manning. The Broncos quarterback posted an astounding 55 points on Thursday night and then Ben saw his other seven players muster just 28 more points the rest of the weekend. Nate took the more balanced approach with five players tallying between 9-11 points. With the Giants D posting -1 points Nate still found himself down 40 points heading in MNF with three players left while Ben had just Pierre Garcon. RGIII got Nate within striking distance with 24 points while Garcon had just 4 points. The lead had been shaved in half and with both Arian Foster and Andre Johnson left to play, Ben had to have been sweating bullets. Although the two Texans combined for 236 total yards from scrimmage neither found pay dirt and they settled for just 16 total fantasy points, ending the magical run that Nate strung together.
Final Score: The Magic Wands 83 The Bounchers 79
I haven't forgotten about the Hardi clan. With three members from one family within one single division, it's going to get messy by Thanksgiving. Week 1 saw father John, take on one of his sons, Luke and the game did not disappoint. Again the quarterbacks basically evened out as Luke won the battle 28-24 behind Matt Stafford (vs. Drew Brees). Each team had a double digit scoring running back as Steven Jackson scored 10 and Frank Gore rumbled for 11. Brandon Marshall pieced together 12 for John while Luke got the same 12 from Stephen Gostkowski. It came down to the tight ends. John saw a good effort from Brandon Myers who hauled in 10 points, but it was Jared Cook that stood out and earned Luke a week one victory. Cook whipped together a tasty 19 point effort which could have been more had it not been for a goal line fumble early on.
Final Score: Deathtongue 76 The Situation 70
And then there was this clunker...usually I say 'last, but not least' in this spot, but not this week. Nick B and Joel combined for just 107 points in this game. Mike wins again!! For Joel he got more than half of his points from the golden right arm of Aaron Rodgers who scored 28. His two running backs, Stevan Ridley and David Wilson scored a grand total of -1 points. Ouch. Nick B wasn't a whole lot better, but he was good enough this week. 16 from Jason Witten and 13 from Cam Newton along with middling efforts from the rest of the team, got him a week one victory.
Final Score: The Knacks 62 Nikachu 45
Back Wall Division Standings:
Mike (Bookoo Barbarians) 1-0
Nick G (Lollipop Kids) 1-0
Ben (Magic Wands) 1-0
Adam (Biggums' 'Basers) 1-0
Jody (DoggNutz) 0-1
Ike (Myra's College Fund) 0-1
Alex (Worthles Peons) 0-1
Critter Corner Division
Matt (Rainbows & Puppies) 1-0
Luke (Deathtongue) 1-0
Nick B (The Knacks) 1-0
Jason (Escaped Lunatics) 0-1
Nate (The Bounchers) 0-1
John (The Situation) 0-1
Joel (Nikachu) 0-1
Week 2 Schedule:
Mike 1-0 vs Ben 1-0
Matt 1-0 vs Nick B 1-0
Nick G 1-0 vs Alex 0-1
Adam 1-0 vs Ike 0-1
Luke 1-0 vs Jody 0-1
Jason 0-1 vs John 0-1
Nate 0-1 vs Joel 0-1
Monday, September 2, 2013
NFL Crystal Ball 2013
Third time is the charm, right? After swinging and missing last year with a Houston over Atlanta Super Bowl, I'm back with another 72% guaranteed accurate prediction of the upcoming NFL season. I'll predict every game, a bunch of break outs and flops, your future MVP and of course the winner of the first ever outdoor Super Bowl in a cold weather climate.
Seeing as my XBOX is currently covered in dust due to lack of use, I was resorted to breaking out my old Patriots vs Bears Super Bowl XX Electric Football Game and simulate the games while listening to that awful buzzing sound. Basically, I started playing these games in early March and I have just now finished them. Now although my all too early prediction from my post in February didn't come true exactly this go around, I was close. I do know that the editors at ESPN the Magazine read my blog as their prediction of Denver over Seattle matched mine although they were 6 months late. The only thing that kept Seattle from advancing in my mind during my simulation was the injury to Percy Harvin. They'll drop a game that they shouldn't have forcing them to play on the road in the playoffs.
Here are some predictions for the season:
Break out candidates - T.Y. Hilton who finally emerges as the #1 receiver in Indianapolis over personal favorite Reggie Wayne. Daryl Richardson who will either be the next Alfred Morris or Donald Brown making me look smart or costing me two fantasy leagues. Ben Tate who takes over as the primary back in Houston in the 2nd half due to fatigue/injury concerns with Arian Foster. Dwayne Bowe has been waiting for an offense like the one Andy Reid will compose. He becomes a Pro Bowl starter if there is a Pro Bowl anymore.
Busts - C.J. Spiller becomes the latest top talent on a bad team to suffer an early season ending injury. Vincent Jackson doesn't come close to his 2012 numbers mainly due to the lack of progression in the career of quarterback Josh Freeman who gets benched for a short spell mid-season. DeSean Jackson wears out his welcome with the new Eagles coaching staff by sleeping through yet another team meeting and is relegated to 2nd string down the stretch. Carson Palmer suffers behind the worst offensive line in the NFL for the second year in a row (Oakland was horrid in 2012) and doesn't make it through the season upright.
Regular season MVP: Colin Kaepernick narrowly edging out Peyton Manning
Here are you 2013 NFL Standings:
NFC EAST
Washington Redskins 10-6
New York Giants 9-7
Dallas Cowboys 8-8
Philadelphia Eagles 7-9
NFC NORTH
Detroit Lions 11-5
Green Bay Packers 10-6
Chicago Bears 7-9
Minnesota Vikings 5-11
NFC SOUTH
Atlanta Falcons 12-4
New Orleans Saints 11-5
Carolina Panthers 7-9
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 5-11
NFC WEST
San Francisco 49ers 12-4
Seattle Seahawks 11-5
St. Louis Rams 9-7
Arizona Cardinals 2-14
AFC EAST
New England Patriots 13-3
Miami Dolphins 6-10
New York Jets 3-13
Buffalo Bills 3-13
AFC NORTH
Cincinnati Bengals 11-5
Pittsburgh Steelers 9-7
Baltimore Ravens 8-8
Cleveland Browns 8-8
AFC SOUTH
Indianapolis Colts 13-3
Houston Texans 11-5
Tennessee Titans 5-11
Jacksonville Jaguars 4-12
AFC WEST
Denver Broncos 12-4
Kansas City Chiefs 10-6
Oakland Raiders 3-13
San Diego Chargers 2-14
Playoffs:
NFC
1. San Francisco
2. Atlanta
3. Detroit
4. Washington
5. New Orleans
6. Seattle
Wild Card Round:
Seattle over Detroit
Washington over New Orleans
Divisional Round:
San Francisco over Seattle
Atlanta over Washington
NFC Championship:
Atlanta over San Francisco
AFC
1. New England
2. Indianapolis
3. Denver
4. Cincinnati
5. Houston
6. Kansas City
Wild Card Round:
Denver over Kansas City
Houston over Cincinnati
Divisional Round:
New England over Houston
Denver over Indianapolis
AFC Championship:
Denver over New England
Super Bowl:
Denver over Atlanta 27-20; Peyton Manning MVP 24-33 285 yards 2 TD's, 0 INT's and he retires on top.
Seeing as my XBOX is currently covered in dust due to lack of use, I was resorted to breaking out my old Patriots vs Bears Super Bowl XX Electric Football Game and simulate the games while listening to that awful buzzing sound. Basically, I started playing these games in early March and I have just now finished them. Now although my all too early prediction from my post in February didn't come true exactly this go around, I was close. I do know that the editors at ESPN the Magazine read my blog as their prediction of Denver over Seattle matched mine although they were 6 months late. The only thing that kept Seattle from advancing in my mind during my simulation was the injury to Percy Harvin. They'll drop a game that they shouldn't have forcing them to play on the road in the playoffs.
Here are some predictions for the season:
Break out candidates - T.Y. Hilton who finally emerges as the #1 receiver in Indianapolis over personal favorite Reggie Wayne. Daryl Richardson who will either be the next Alfred Morris or Donald Brown making me look smart or costing me two fantasy leagues. Ben Tate who takes over as the primary back in Houston in the 2nd half due to fatigue/injury concerns with Arian Foster. Dwayne Bowe has been waiting for an offense like the one Andy Reid will compose. He becomes a Pro Bowl starter if there is a Pro Bowl anymore.
Busts - C.J. Spiller becomes the latest top talent on a bad team to suffer an early season ending injury. Vincent Jackson doesn't come close to his 2012 numbers mainly due to the lack of progression in the career of quarterback Josh Freeman who gets benched for a short spell mid-season. DeSean Jackson wears out his welcome with the new Eagles coaching staff by sleeping through yet another team meeting and is relegated to 2nd string down the stretch. Carson Palmer suffers behind the worst offensive line in the NFL for the second year in a row (Oakland was horrid in 2012) and doesn't make it through the season upright.
Regular season MVP: Colin Kaepernick narrowly edging out Peyton Manning
Here are you 2013 NFL Standings:
NFC EAST
Washington Redskins 10-6
New York Giants 9-7
Dallas Cowboys 8-8
Philadelphia Eagles 7-9
NFC NORTH
Detroit Lions 11-5
Green Bay Packers 10-6
Chicago Bears 7-9
Minnesota Vikings 5-11
NFC SOUTH
Atlanta Falcons 12-4
New Orleans Saints 11-5
Carolina Panthers 7-9
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 5-11
NFC WEST
San Francisco 49ers 12-4
Seattle Seahawks 11-5
St. Louis Rams 9-7
Arizona Cardinals 2-14
AFC EAST
New England Patriots 13-3
Miami Dolphins 6-10
New York Jets 3-13
Buffalo Bills 3-13
AFC NORTH
Cincinnati Bengals 11-5
Pittsburgh Steelers 9-7
Baltimore Ravens 8-8
Cleveland Browns 8-8
AFC SOUTH
Indianapolis Colts 13-3
Houston Texans 11-5
Tennessee Titans 5-11
Jacksonville Jaguars 4-12
AFC WEST
Denver Broncos 12-4
Kansas City Chiefs 10-6
Oakland Raiders 3-13
San Diego Chargers 2-14
Playoffs:
NFC
1. San Francisco
2. Atlanta
3. Detroit
4. Washington
5. New Orleans
6. Seattle
Wild Card Round:
Seattle over Detroit
Washington over New Orleans
Divisional Round:
San Francisco over Seattle
Atlanta over Washington
NFC Championship:
Atlanta over San Francisco
AFC
1. New England
2. Indianapolis
3. Denver
4. Cincinnati
5. Houston
6. Kansas City
Wild Card Round:
Denver over Kansas City
Houston over Cincinnati
Divisional Round:
New England over Houston
Denver over Indianapolis
AFC Championship:
Denver over New England
Super Bowl:
Denver over Atlanta 27-20; Peyton Manning MVP 24-33 285 yards 2 TD's, 0 INT's and he retires on top.
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