Tuesday, December 24, 2013

FCNPFFL: 2013 Championship

Another season in the books. This marks the leagues 17th season and my 16th as commissioner. We had easily the most exciting end to a regular season for that last playoff spot and another dominant team for the record books.

All in all I hope everyone enjoyed the season and I do expect everyone back next year. Of course if life intervenes and you cannot join us for year 18 let me know as soon as possible.

I have some rule changes in mind for next year which I will bring to the floor before next seasons draft. If you have can think of anything you would like changed please feel free to let me know whenever you want.

Okay onto the Championship Game between #1 Seed Adam and #6 Seed Nate:

In the QB battle Kirk Cousins narrowly edged out Tom Brady 13-12 giving Nate a one point lead. At RB Nate extended his lead with 29 total points from DeMarco Murray and Bobby Rainey while Adam got just 18 points from Jamaal Charles and Pierre Thomas (who posted a big fat zero). At WR Nate watched his lead disappear. The usually stout combo of Vincent Jackson and Andre Johnson mustered just 10 points while Eric Decker doubled that by himself with 20 points and Julian Edelman tacked on 5 points. Adam now held a three point lead. Neither player had a decent TE showing as Nate scored the only point from Heath Miller. Vernon Davis gave Adam his second zero of the Championship. Each team got 13 from their kickers Nick Novak and Matt Prater. With a two point lead it would come down to the defenses for Adam to hang on and win. He started the Bengals D and they came through with a DTD, 4 turnovers and 4 sacks to post 14 points. Nate would need a minor miracle from the Lions D to win. Although they forced two turnovers, two sacks and had a safety it was only good for 8 points. Adam completes his dream season at 14-1 and takes home his 2nd FCNPFFL  Championship!!! Congrats Adam on a great season.

Final Score: Biggums' 'Basers 82 The Bounchers 74

(as a reminder my predicted score was 84-73...so yeah)

 In the 3rd place game, big brother Joel took down baby brother Luke behind 16 from Ryan Mathews, 12 from Matt Flynn and 11 from Julius Thomas. Luke saw his three Lions fail once again combining for just 16 points. Frank Gore did add 15 in a losing effort.

Final Score: Nikachu 67 Deathtongue 40

Until next August...

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

FCNPFFL: Playoffs Week 2 - Semifinals

Bad news: the fantasy football season is almost over.

More bad news: there's no Thursday night football to bridge us to the weekend

Who said this is the most wonderful time of the year? I for one am very sad. I'm probably the only fantasy owner in the world that not only lost WITH Jamaal Charles (another league), but got blown out 179-153. My last ditch effort last night was needing Megatron to outscore Justin Tucker by 15 points...how did that work out?

Okay back to this league where I could continue to whine and vent, but I won't (much). Let's keep the focus on the people who are actually still vying for a championship and not a whole bunch of what ifs.

The 'under card' of the week pitted defending champion and #6 Seed Nate against the Detroit Lions #2 Seed team coached by Luke. You have to hand it to Nate who started 1-4, then went 5-1, then 0-2 and backed into the last spot for not giving up all year. He won his first round playoff game with RGIII being benched in a blowout loss and then went into the semis without RGIII who has been shutdown. Nate plucked Kirk Cousins from the waivers and inserted him into the biggest game of the year and boy did he respond with a game high 31 points. He also got 20 from DeMarco Murray and 9 each from VJax and Nick Novak. Luke had a pretty deep hole to crawl out of with only Kendall Wright eclipsing double digits by the time the games stopped on Sunday. With three Detroit Lions left to play, Luke needed 53 points to win. He got 23. The good news is he didn't even have to sweat it out and be heartbroken down the stretch. The Lions just crapped the bed and ended Luke's season. Nate moves on to defend his title. We have only had two franchises reach a championship game the year after winning. Ben is the only team to win back-to-back and he did that way back in 2000-01 (long before free agency balanced out the league). The other franchise was Jody who won in 1999 and then lost to Ben in 2000. So it's safe to say that it's been awhile since this has happened. Kudos again to Nate who will be making his fourth appearance in the championship game. He is 2-1 so far.

Last season Nate beat Adam to win his championship. With a 10th (or 11th*) straight win, he'd get his chance at revenge. Standing in his way was another Hardi, this time Luke's big brother in Joel. Last week Joel went crazy with scoring, so Adam sent a note to his best player, Jamaal Charles, and asked for help. Five touchdowns and 51 fantasy points later, Adam was running away with this game. He also got 25 from Tom Brady, 17 from Vernon Davis and 15 from Julian Edelman to lead the league in scoring for the week. Joel gave it a great effort getting 29 from Matt Flynn, 18 from Ryan Mathews, 13 from Keenan Allen and 11 from the Cardinals D. Adam moves to 13-1 and hasn't scored less than 94 points in the last four weeks. He will be the heavy favorite to win his 2nd championship in his fourth appearance (1-2 so far). It's been a great run so far for Adam, but next week is the big one.

The matchup should look like this:

#1 Seed Adam               v               #6 Seed Nate

QB Tom Brady                              QB Kirk Cousins
RB Jamaal Charles                         RB DeMarco Murray
RB Pierre Thomas                          RB Bobby Rainey
WR Eric Decker                             WR Andre Johnson
WR Julian Edleman                         WR Vincent Jackson
TE Vernon Davis                            TE   Heath Miller
K   Matt Prater                                K Nick Novak
D   Cincy                                         D Chicago??

Commish predicted score: 84-73 Adam

It's gotta be like looking into a mirror from last year for Nate who steamrolled through the competition winning his last 13 games.

Best of luck to you two.

Luke and Joel square off in the 3rd/4th place game as the only other true Week 16 game.

In other games from Week 15:

5th/6th place: Nick G defeated Ben 82-82...tie broken by the higher seed.
7th/8th place: John used 25 from Drew Brees to beat Mike 84-50
9th/10th place: Nick B rolled through Matt with 22 from Cam Newton 100-86
11th/12th place: I destroyed Ike behind seven double digit scorers 109-56

And finally....

Jody and Alex squared off in the Toilet Bowl Championship. Loser runs the draft board during the 2014 draft. Alex got 23 each from his two Cowboys, Tony Romo and Dan Bailey to defeat Jody who topped out with 16 from Philip Rivers. The stickers await DoggNutz.

Final Score: The Worthless Peons 76 DoggNutz 64





Tuesday, December 10, 2013

FCNPFFL: Playoffs Week 1

This time of year a fantasy season can be ruined by many things: weather, injuries, poor play, blowouts and owner errors. This week we saw it all. In a record scoring week in the NFL we saw elevated fantasy scores for some and complete whiffs for others.

Before we get to the games...I will NOT be able to make it to the annual FCNP Holiday Party meaning no payouts this week. If you are local and would like to schedule a swing by my work here in Fairfax please let me know and I'll bring the money. If not I will have to cut you a check.

As for this upcoming weeks games: THURSDAY brings us DENVER and SAN DIEGO. Set your rosters accordingly as I think this game will impact rosters far more than last weeks game did.

Okay...on with things:

#3 Seed Nick G went toe-to-toe with defending Champion and #6 Seed Nate in our first playoff game of the season. While most of the 1pm games were snow laden both Nick G and Nate saw some flake free fun. Nate got rolling first with an 80 yard TD run by Bobby Rainey as he finished with 24 points. Nick G had his top scorer going at 1pm as well as Andrew Luck blew up with 39 fantasy points. Then the bad news came for Nick G. Rashad Jennings was inactive and Nick G didn't react fast enough to get Marcel Reece in the game (who finished with 26 points). Then AP, the #1 overall draft pick, went down with an injury after scoring just a single point. Nate stepped on the gas pedal with 13 each from RGIII and Nick Novak and 10 from Vincent Jackson. Going into MNF Nick G needed a repeat effort from Alshon Jeffery from last week to pull out a miracle. He didn't get it...coming up 17 points short. Oh to have gotten Reece into the game. Nate survives in inexplicable fashion again as a dream of back-to-back championships lives on. Nate moves on to face #2 Seed Luke who caught a HUGE break with Stafford/Megatron playing in a blizzard as they combined for a paltry nine points and Luke mustered just 46 as a whole during his much needed BYE week.

Final Score: The Bounchers 88 The Lollipop Kids 71

The other side of the bracket featured long time owner and #4 seed Ben versus second year owner and #5 seed Joel. This game was a blowout. Ben got 35 points from Peyton Manning and 13 from Marshawn Lynch...his two constants...and stood no chance. His other six players combined for only 16 points. Joel got 19 from the Cardinals D, 18 from Ryan Mathews, 16 from Shane Vereen and 15 from Keenan Allen and had the game wrapped up long before Josh McCown stepped in to destroy the Cowboys with 41 fantasy points on Monday Night Football. Joel does NOT earn $10 for the top scoring team of the week, but he does get to play the #1 Seed in Adam who is currently riding a 10 game winning streak (really a 9 game streak, but he won on his BYE week too as he's just been that good). This should set up to be a great game as Adam went triple digits with 100 points behind 27 from Jamaal Charles and 26 from Tom Brady.

Final Score: Nikachu 118 The Magic Wands 64

In our Purgatory bracket:

#10 Seed Mike ran roughshod over #7 Seed Matt behind 39 from LeSean McCoy: 99-42

#8 Seed John rolled over #9 Seed Nick B behind a 31 point performance from Drew Brees: 82-61

In our Toilet Bowl bracket that determines draft board duties for the 2014 draft:

#11 Seed Jason held off #14 Seed Alex thanks to 25 from Josh Gordon: 81-56

#12 Seed Ike survived against #13 Seed Jody with four double digit scorers: 70-63

This sets up #14 Seed Alex vs #13 Seed Jody for Toilet Bowl Winner Loser

Other games:

Ike vs Jason for 11th/12th place
Matt vs Nick B for 9th/10th place
Mike vs John for 7th/8th place
Ben vs Nick G for 5th/6th place

#6 Nate vs #2 Luke in Semi-Final 1
#5 Joel vs #1 Adam in Semi-Final 2

Good luck to the four remaining participants!!!


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

FCNPFFL: Week 13 Results****

****all results pending a government review of why that wasn't ruled an interception by Seattle last night rather than a sack/fumble. Balls that go forward are usually called forward passes, thus resulting in an interception when the ball doesn't hit the ground and is caught by a member of the opposing team. (not bitter one bit)

Well...I hope everyone was thoroughly entertained by the most exciting 37-7 game in the history of football. We can't all be perched atop the league at 11-1 and having a safe stroll to the semi-finals of the playoffs. For no less than seven teams, the final two playoffs spots were up for grabs heading into MNF in the great northwest.

Everything I type here is based off of the current standings. PLEASE BE AWARE THAT EVERYTHING COULD CHANGE COME WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY. I will explain as best as I can, but without seeing the official stat corrections. For example, last week I earned 2 points on Wednesday as the 49ers were credited with two extra sacks against RGIII. Earlier this season Matt and I had 'tied', but by the time I woke up on Thursday I had lost because the Ravens lost a sack that had turned into a running play by the opposing quarterback. Hell last week Dez Bryant lost 16 yards receiving!!! Stuff happens and with this weeks results, a mere point could swing the fate for four different teams who were all one point away from having their seeds change. Yes guys this league was that close!!! Shut it Adam and your overpowering squad, we can all hear you laughing. It's karma for all the healthcare.gov website jokes I suppose.

Reminder for those four teams that actually play a meaningful game next week: THURSDAY night brings us the TEXANS and JAGUARS. I assume that game means nothing to any playoff team, but I'll throw it out there anyways.

Onto the godforsaken madness that had Mike and I up all night crunching numbers and scenarios on how it all went wrong.

Usually I start with my game, but that would ruin the suspense of the evening.

Let's start with the Hardi War of 2013. Win and you're in, lose and you're out. Father v Son. Thanksgiving week. Drew Brees vs Josh McCown. John came in on fire and Joel came in with a bunch of injured/benched players. He did have Josh McCown though who led all scorers with 29 points. John had Brandon Marshall on his side, but unfortunately every pass went to Alshon Jeffery as Marshall mustered just 3 points. Joel plugged in Shane Vereen for a benched Stevan Ridley and that got him 11 points while the Dolphins D added 13 points. John got 13 each from Stephen Gostkowski and the Panthers D, but looked to be dead in the water until fantasy zombie Steven Jackson blew up with 20 points. He was right back in the game with his best player left to play. Drew Brees needed 18 points to get John into the playoffs. Seattle was having none of that as Brees could only post half that leaving John just short of a miraculous season comeback. It was a great effort. Joel gets in with an injured Aaron Rodgers/Julius Thomas/Percy Harvin and a benched Stevan Ridley. Not too shabby in a 14 team league.

Final Score: Nikachu 75 The Situation 67

The next team that controlled his own destiny was Nate who just needed a win to get in against Matt. Nick B, Ike, Mike and I all needed Matt to win even though he had been eliminated on points alone to have a chance. Nate made a critical error by not setting his roster (I assume) leaving DeMarco Murray out and either Woodhead/Rainey in. Murray scored three touchdowns which was good for 26 bench points. Instead Nate had only one double digit scorer in RGIII who tallied 22 points. Matt came to play behind a stable of quality outings. Nick Foles stayed lightning hot with 25 points, Adam Vinatieri booted 20 points, Reggie Bush scampered for 19, Torrey Smith hauled in 12 and Larry Fitzgerald continued to amaze with 10 points. Matt had done his job opening the door for the four of us. Nate...well we'll get to that in a bit.

Final Score: Rainbows & Puppies 91 The Bounchers 59

So now Nick B could get in with a win or I could get in with a win and some help. This still makes plenty of sense. That is until this game came along. I got started on Thursday with 17 from Le'Veon Bell and took a 17 point lead into Sunday. Cam Newton got Nick B rolling with 31 points and Michael Floyd hauled in a TD to score 12 points. I had gotten a decent game from Josh Gordon, but was toiling in obscurity until he caught a game changing 95 yard touchdown and I suddenly vaulted ahead with his 35 point performance. I then got 19 from Kaep while Nick got 11 from Phil Dawson leaving me with an 11 point lead and Nick B having just the Seahawks D left to play. After a very questionable sack/fumble for a defensive TD, Nick B had regained the lead. The Saints scored knotting our game at 98 and that's the way it ended. Seattle earned no sacks/turnovers the rest of the way and the Saints couldn't score one meaningless TD the way the Rams did to my 49ers D late in the fourth to cost me two points. Ah two points...or hell one point how I love thee. C'mon stat correction gods!!! With the tie, Nick B and I were eliminated from playoff contention (Nick B due to points, me for being 0.5 games behind the group with a stellar .462 win %. We did both end up with the top scoring week of the league so we were splitting $10...two ways for now.

Final Score: Escaped Lunatics 98 The Knacks 98

So now it was up to Mike and Ike to decide the final playoff spot. Win and you're in for both of them. Simple as that. Both teams were going to outscore the others at .462 (Nick B, Matt, John and Nate). Mike started Carson Palmer over Matt Ryan which paid off as Palmer led the way for his team with 23 while Ryan score 18. Unfortunately, most every other decision went wrong for him. Andre Brown did score 16, Dez added 10, but Fred Jackson and his 18, Mike Wallace and his 11 and Greg the leg and his 8 could have all added more points to his starting lineup. Very similar to me starting Gano over Tucker and leaving 12 points on the table...the decisions we make that bite us in the ass. Ike got 14 from Gronk, 11 each from Moreno and AJ Green, but was dead to rights heading into MNF down by 24 with each team having two players left to play. In my head I couldn't figure out how Russell Wilson and Garret Hartley would outscore Jimmy Graham/Saints D by 24+ points. Wilson scored early only to see Jimmy Graham come right back to score. Then Wilson scored again and again as he shredded the Saints D. Ike had taken a lead, but with a sack and a Graham catch, Mike took a one point lead. Up a million points, the Seahawks faced a 3rd&7 with Wilson at 298 yards passing. This was basically his last series in the game. Ike was down a point. Mike was in the playoffs. One play...a pass to Zach Miller for a 1st down and Ike earned the final point of the night. Game tied. Yup. Another frickin' tie!!! Mike and Ike both join me at 5-7-1 and eliminated (barring further review).

Final Score: Bookoo Barbarians 73 Myra's College Fund 73

So that brings us back to the 4 teams at 6-7 or in Nick's case 5-6-2. All a .462 win % per CBS.

Head to head thrown out for a tie of 3+ teams.
We go to points....drum roll please.....

Nate gets in by virtue of being the top scoring team of that bunch!

Scenarios if anything changes from the ties:

If Nick B, Mike, Ike or I earn a point more than the others...we're in over Nate.

If Nick B loses his point from the sack/fumble that should be an INT, I'm in
If for any reason Mike and I both earn one point...Mike is in because he scored one more point than me on the season...yeah wouldn't that be a kick in the nuts??
If Ike and Nick B earn a point...Ike is in by points

Basically it goes from Mike to Jason to Ike to Nick B to God to Kent to the cleaners (name that movie reference).

We'll see if anything changes, but for right now...Nate is the #6 seed.

We still had the #3/#4 seeds to decide:

Nick G rolled through Luke behind 34 from Alshon Jeffery, 21 from AP, 15 from Rashad Jennings and 13 from Andrew Luck. Matt Stafford scored 24 for Luke as he rested up for his game in two weeks. Nick G became the 3rd member of the 98 point club for the week meaning Nick B's and my $5 and no playoff spot, turned into $3.33 and no playoff spot. Awesome. Nick G locked up the #3 seed with that win.

Final Score: The Lollipop Kids 98 Deathtongue 66

Ben having locked up the #4 seed now lost anyways to a red hot Jody. The only fun part was to see if Marshawn Lynch could get two more points to tie the game up with Jody and give us three ties on the week. Jody got 15 from Rivers, 14 from CJ2K and 11 from MJD to outlast Peyton Manning's 38 points.

Final Score: DoggNutz 64 The Magic Wands 62

Oh yeah, Adam won again by destroying Alex. Eric Decker became the newest hero for Adam with 35 points while Tim Brady tallied 25 and Jamaal Charles scored 16. Adam has now won 9 in a row and awaits somebody in the semi-finals in two weeks. Congrats again on a great season. If you had started Golden Tate over Terrance Williams we would have had four teams at 98 points.

Final Score: Biggums' 'Basers 94 Worthless Peons 50

Final regular season standings (so far):

Biggums' 'Basers (Adam) 12-1 (#1 Seed Back Wall Division Winner)
Deathtongue (Luke) 7-5-1 (#2 Seed Critter Corner Division Winner)
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Lollipop Kids 9-4 (Nick G) 9-4 (#3 Seed; Wild Card #1)
The Magic Wands (Ben) 8-5 (#4 Seed; Wild Card #2)
Nikachu (Joel) 7-6 (#5 Seed; Wild Card #3)
The Bounchers (Nate) 6-7 (#6 Seed; Wild Card #4)
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Rainbows & Puppies (Matt) 6-7
The Situation (John) 6-7
The Knacks (Nick B) 5-6-2
Bookoo Barbarians (Mike) 5-7-1
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Escaped Lunatics (Jason) 5-7-1
Myra's College Fund (Ike) 5-7-1
DoggNutz (Jody) 4-9
The Worthless Peons (Alex) 3-10

Week 14 (Playoffs Week 1) Schedule:

Championship Bracket:

Adam/Luke BYE Week

#3 Nick G vs #6 Nate (winner to play #2 Luke)
#4 Ben vs #5 Joel (winner to play #1 Adam)

Purgatory Bracket:

#7 Matt vs #10 Mike
#8 John vs #9 Nick B

Toilet Bowl Bracket:

#11 Jason vs #14 Alex
#12 Ike vs #13 Jody

Again...if anything changes, I'll let you know. Good season everyone. I feel decimal point scoring is on the horizon!!!