Week 11, or a three-way tie

Well Week 11 happened...you may see some salt in the following write up. (Stupid fantasy football)

Jameis Winston Zeddemore(129.5) vs. The Jeff Fisher Effect (90)

That panic that started to set in after last week for The Effect? Yup...fully formed. The wind in New York made a big difference for the Chiefs weapons, and it appears The Effect’s faith in those weapons might have been misplaced. Andy Reid sucks. Zeddemore told the Commish to suck it after his mid-week post pointing out how close his point totals were to a team that finished 0-fer last season. Allow this to be a lesson: do not tempt the fantasy gods. Interesting part of this matchup: the two highest scoring players were the Jacksonville D (27 points) and the Chargers D (24 points).

Scrote Squad (105) vs. Iron Ryan(100.5)

Who cares if Javorius Allen gets you only a half-point in a Ravens blowout: Brandin Cooks and Larry Fitz had a big days to lead Scrote to the victory. Sterling Shepard missed the game with an illness, though apparently Iron Ryan (the Giants fan) didn’t know that, and it probably cost him the game. Solid performances by both teams, little bit of bad luck for Iron Ryan; Scrote Squad keeps on the playoff pace.

Hooper’s Heroes (181.5) vs. Team Provost (67)

Holy shit. If the Steelers offense looks like that the rest of the season, The Heroes are going to be tough. Big Ben and AB were working together, and combined for a metric crapload of points (64 to be exact, or 3 short of Provost’s total) and Heroes put up the highest point total we’ve seen this season. He got more than 20 from the Ravens D, Latavius Murray, Adam Thielen and Stephen Gostkowski. Provost, meanwhile, LOST 5 points thanks to his $10 defense. It’s not like he would have had a shot anyway. At least he didn’t waste any points trying to win.

Pedro Pickles (119.5)  vs. Released Dix On Boobies (93.5)

Boobies (heh) is starting to get a little snake bitten. He’s got some really good players, and if they all produce on the same week, look out. But he hasn’t had luck with that, or the Texans D being consistent. Last week, they lost him a point. This week? Plus 8 points. Pickles team was pretty consistent across the board this week, and got a second straight big week from Mark Ingram. He hasn’t gotten much from Keenan Allen all year; until this week’s blowout on the bench. But It didn’t matter. If you can score 119 points and the highest scoring player on your roster is on the bench, you done did good.

Outta Luck (83) vs. Grim Reaper (79)

Reaper looked pretty good going into Sunday Night Football. And then Dak pooped in his big boy pants and posted a -3, opening the door for Outta Luck to walk through. Which Luck-less walked through, thanks to a Monday night shootout that saw Doug Baldwin and Jimmy Graham each score a touchdown. Both these teams are on the outside looking in at a playoff spot right now.

The Rod Tidwell Award

Ok, so it only took me 11 weeks of the season to name this thing something better than "Money Winner." Hooper’s Heroes picked up his first Rod Tidwell Award since Week 1. His 181.5 points are the second most ALL-TIME in the Smarter Than Phil Simms Fantasy Football League.

Standings

It’s now a three way tie for first place (record-wise), though The Effect still holds a slight edge on the top seed as the the league’s high scorer. Heroes absurdly high total this week narrowed the gap significantly, though he’s still a game behind. But that means he has an easy leg up on the 4th spot, right now. Heroes has almost 200 more points than Zeddemore, who has more points than Outta Luck, meaning if they all finish with the same record, Heroes gets the nod. Our first team has been mathematically eliminated: Boobies (heh) won’t be able to make the playoffs this year.

Preview

The marquee matchup this week is Pedro Pickles vs. The Jeff Fisher Effect, both at 7-4. The winner there has the inside track on the 1 seed, since they both have more points than Scrote Squad (who plays the 3-7 Boobies (heh)).

Outta Luck and Hooper’s Heroes are set to do battle at 6-5. This one is important for the aforementioned “finish with the same record” thing. The winner here has a leg up for that playoff spot.

Grim Reaper (5-6) faces Jameis Winston Zeddemore (6-5) hoping to get into the playoff himself. Rumor is that last week, Reaper made the bold prediction that he’d finish as the top seed. Now he’s fighting for his playoff life, and basically needs to win out to have a shot to make it in.

Team Provost and Iron Ryan are the matchup of 4-7 teams. If Provost wins, he keeps an outside shot at the playoffs, thanks to his total points. Iron Ryan is second to last in total points, so he’s virtually eliminated from the race. But hey, it’s socially-acceptable D&D, and you never really know how the dodecahedron is going to land.

It's the time of year again where we are grateful for the things we have and the things we're able to do. I'm thankful (again) this year for you guys and this league. As maddening (no, not John Madden) and frustrating as this game can be, it's all for fun. And I'm in leagues that are not nearly as much fun as this. So thank you all for making this league fun. (I wish there were a reasonable synonym for the word "fun." I mean..."merry" and "pleasant" just don't do it justice.)

On to Week 12! 

Remember, there's a bunch of games on Thursday this week, so get your lineups ready.