Week 5 Notes, or what a comeback

 So I went to bed Monday night after watching the Red Sox walk off into the ALCS (where I so badly want them to beat the Cheat-stros) and thought our matchups were all pretty well in hand. Also, after Jonathan Taylor went 76 yards (and scored 14.5 points) to vault DVD to victory over me, I said "forget this" just as my namesake.

And then Lamar Jackson did Lamar Jackson things. Dude is a destroyer of worlds, and brought Bishop Sycamore back from the depths of his first loss and into....a TIE! Sycamore stays undefeated, but it's not quite the same.

The second half of Monday night's game launched some serious points into our league. As mentioned, Lamar's 41 points salvaged Sycamore's week, after he got a total of 1.5 points from Saquon and Chase Edmonds (Saquon because of injury and Chase Edmonds because of general suckiness). I-Ry could do nothing but be annoyed that Robert Woods decided to be a thing again.

The game also added 30.5 points to Boobies (heh) total, thanks to two TDs from Hollywood Brown. But it wasn't enough for Boobies (heh) to overcome HRG and Davante Adams and Antonio Brown. Oh, and Derrick Henry who basically kept Boobies (heh) from coming into the club.

All those points ALSO vaulted Utah Falco to his first Tidwell of the season. Basically, the Colts said "We don't need to cover Mark Andrews OR Hollywood Brown" and the points just started coming. 

The only matchup with no players on Monday night was Hardcore vs. Pickles. And that one basically was decided because the Browns defense alertly pushed Austin Ekeler INTO the end zone toward the end of that insane game to give themselves more time for themselves to score. 

.@AustinEkeler's IN ... with a little help from the Browns.

📺: #CLEvsLAC on CBS
📱: NFL app pic.twitter.com/rZKhcyt8vL

— NFL (@NFL) October 10, 2021

Just crazy. For real though, this is the first time IN LEAGUE HISTORY every team in our league has broken the 100 point barrier. What a week. 

So we're on to Week 6. We just had a crazy week in waivers....let's see how that translates into actual team production!

Week 4 Notes, or lots of 2s

 There are 10 team in our league. After Week 4, SEVEN of them are 2-2. And there were other seconds too.

Iron Ryan blows up, wallops Utah Falco 155-107.5

So, I-Ry messaged the Commish on Tuesday: "Hey, I won my first Tidwell!" Except it wasn't his first. It was his second. In his defense, his only other one came in 2019 (Week 11, 129.5 points), and it was pretty non-descript. So I don't blame him for not remembering. I do, however, blame Falco for not using his new toy. After the first trade of the year in the league (Falco got Cordarelle Patterson from The Effect for Jalen Hurts) and then didn't use him. Though, to be fair, the 20-25 points he'd have gained would only have made this less of a blowout. I bet he doesn't make that mistake again next week.

Bishop Sycamore keeps rolling, tops Hamilton Rod and Gun 108.5-99.5

It's hard to tell (I really need a better "database" so I can run queries and stuff) but this might be the biggest difference between the Tidwell winner and the second-highest score of the week. He might have a harder time now with David Montgomery slated to miss some time. I guess if Saquon keeps putting up weeks like that it may not matter. He's 4-0, and as previously mentioned, it looks like not many of the league can compete right now. HRG has a solid if unspectacular team. He might have some trouble when the bye weeks come around.

Death Valley Driver emerges, sacks Hardcore Sacks 107-88

So DVD's emergence also seemed to coincide with that of James Robinson. Urban Meyer apparently decided to use his best RB more, which is most certainly the best decision he made this weekend (and quite possibly his last good decision as head coach in Jacksonville). Hardcore got 49 of his 88 from Aaron Rodgers and Austin Ekeler, but not much of anything from anyone else. He's hoping CMC comes back soon.

Pedro Pickles topples Released Dix On Boobies 105-92.5

Most interesting thing I can see about this one is the defenses on Pickles' roster: he has two, and they combined for -9 points this week. Not that it mattered. Boobies (heh) defense scored 1 point. Boobies (heh) can basically go as far as Dalvin Cook can carry him: and if he's half-injured like this, it seems unlikely to go well.

The Jeff Fisher Effect tops Team Provost 98.5-86.5

As much as I had to say about the last matchup, I've basically got less to say about this one. Provost should have played Deebo, I guess. But not the Pats D. JFE is glad to have traded for Jalen Hurts, but still the rest of his team is "fine."

It's on to Week 5 now. Let's see if someone can beat Bishop Sycamore, if someone in the 2-2 group can go on a run, and if DVD can finally get over the 400 point mark.

(it's cringey because the guy writing this ALSO isn't over the 400 point mark....)

Week 3 Notes, earlier than the Week 2 Notes

 I really enjoy when our standings are a perfect palindrome. I don't love it when my team is 9th of 10, but hey, it's early.

Ah, who am I kidding? As if that makes a difference, right?

Let's do the traditional recaps this week.

B.S. Centurions dismantle Pedro Pickles, 125.5-98

That Mike Williams pick in the 10th round looks like money right now. He's Justin Herbert's favorite target, and an early leader for BS's keeper next year. He's certainly helped overcome Allen Robinson in the 3rd. Williams had 30.5 points on Sunday; Allen Robinson has 18 on the season. Matt Nagy sucks. Pickles partly got got by Nuke playing through a rib injury. And not playing Kareem Hunt.

Hardcore loses CMC, Tidwell, wins over Jeff Fisher Effect, 125-95

You all saw The Commish's apparent jinx powers. Last week's notes reference CMC's point total at the time of the posting, and that's all he got, after an injury. But then JFE's roster just slept through Sunday, while Hardcore's roster was like Alexis to Stevie in Schitt's Creek:

It's tough to win a game when you get 10 total points from your RBs. And Hardcore is loving his 4th round pick of Cooper Kupp. He's the WR1 in all of fantasy right now (just ahead of the aforementioned Mike Williams.

Team Provost softens Iron Ryan, 122.5-107

A week after having a shot at a Tidwell on Monday night and still losing, Provost got right this week. When your skill position guys all put up 15 or more, it's gonna go pretty well for you. And it's also helpful when your kicker sets an NFL record for distance, and destroys the hopes and dreams of Lions fans everywhere. (Relatedly, damn the NFL for not allowing you to embed YouTube clips. Here's a link to the call by Lions radio team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NM93tx7Tvk)

Utah Falco uses Zeke to punish HRG, 104.5-96

Pretty sure we all enjoy it when we use a player from our opponent's favorite team to beat them in fantasy. Though, come to think of it, it's basically only the Cowboys where that happens; all the other favorite teams in our league barely have any players worth starting. Certainly not the Giants. Anyway, two TDs by Zeke doomed HRG against Falco this week. I'll say Falco did get kinda lucky though: an injury to A.J. Brown caused him to put up a donut, and the Bucs D LOST 3 points...but he still pulled out a win.

Released Dix On Boobies tops DVD, 103.5-88.5

Herbert, Mattison and Cardinals D. That's how Boobies (heh) won. No one else on the roster broke into double digits. Meanwhile, somehow DVD had THREE players over 20 points, and couldn't break 90; partly thanks to the 8 points the Washington D lost him. After Thursday night, it looked like playing Sam Darnold over his keeper Josh Allen was going to be a good move. Then Allen came out and put up the QB1 of the week. Boobies (heh) squeaks out the win.

Tidwell Time

BullSpit Centurions won his first Tidwell of the season. No repeats yet. The longest we've gone without a repeat Tidwell winner to start the season is four weeks (last year, our first repeat winner was in Week 5). 

Commish is now off to cry in a corner with an aggressively mediocre team.

Week 2 Notes (Basically in Week 3), or Latey McLaterson

 Yeah, so this week's Notes are late. It is what it is.

Now, I'm just hoping to get these things out before Christian McCaffrey drops 30 on me tonight (Thursday night).

As usual, I'll start with recaps. As unusual, I'm gonna mix it up a bit.

There was a sort of 3-way race for the Tidwell this week. Funny enough, two of those teams played each other, and all three had a Green Bay stud going on Monday Night. Speaking of Monday Night, what is the deal with the Peyton and Eli Show? I found it unwatchable, only slightly less so than bumbling Louis Riddick and over-excited Steve Levy (Brian Griese is good though). I'm willing to give it another watch though; I stumbled in while they were interviewing Gronk and Gronk was trying to be as funny as possible, and kind of failing. Anyway...

The Tidwell ultimately went to Hamilton Rod & Gun, thanks to Davante Adams, and our scoring system that kept Aaron Rodgers and Hardcore Sacks from putting up enough points to take home the ten bucks.

Third place in the Tidwell standings (he says, as if there were such a thing) was Team Provost, who actually got to play Hardcore. In defense of his title, Provost is now 0-2.

Speaking of teams who are 0-2, Death Valley Driver really does seem to be driving to the valley of death. He's put up a TOTAL of 142.5 points (which you'll notice is LESS than our top two point scorers this week). He's the only one who doesn't have more than 200 total points, and he's 57.5 shy of that. It's not been a good start.

You know who it has been a good start for? Bishop Sycamore Centurions, who is one of two undefeated teams so far (HRG is the other). If Mike Williams continues to be Justin Herbert's favorite target, and Travis Kelce and Lamar Jackson keep doing what they do, his team is gonna be good.

Justin Herbert, btw, was one of only 3 players in double figures for Released Dix On Boobies who, one week after a Tidwell, flirted with the lowest score of the week. He fell to Jeff Fisher Effect in a kind of pillow fight; neither team cracked 100 points. JFE could have broken 100 with SOME output from his D or K spot (they combined for -1 on the week).

Let's see....who haven't I talked about yet? Oh right. Iron Ryan, who was bummed he didn't get to play either Boobies (heh) or JFE. He got Tidwelled instead.

And Pedro Pickles, a week after picking up Gronk on waivers while the rest of us fell asleep at the wheel, rode him to a win over the other guy I would have assumed would have picked up (or even drafted) Gronk, Utah Falco. He's got the old guy who throws to Gronk instead. 

So, as I click "Publish", it looks like CMC only has 3 points. So, there's that.

Good luck in Week 3.

But not you, Tim.

It's 2021, and we're playing fantasy football again!

 So, do you remember when the season started and there was no concern about injuries or illnesses and life was perfect?

Yeah, me either. It was a Week 1 just like any other. Injuries, illness, some surprises and some teams who might consider hitting the panic button, even in Week 1.

Boobies (heh) smothers Hardcore Sacks, 137.5-89

This one had a lot happening on Opening Night with the Cowboys and Bucs; both were happy that Cowboys WRs had big nights. The real difference in this game? A-Aron laying an egg, Raheem Mostert doing Mostert things and getting hurt (because that's what he does) and Tim picking the Browns D for a Week 1 matchup against the Chiefs. We'll see if Amari Cooper keeps putting up 30 point games (which I feel like he did a bunch last year until Dak got hurt).

Centurions look real, take down The Effect, 119-108

Saquon is back, but wasn't good. Andy Dalton is bad and couldn't help Allen Robinson. But that didn't really matter for BSC, thanks to two TD catches each for Travis Kelce and Corey Davis (who is apparently the only Jet receiver). The Effect has nothing to be ashamed of really (I can say that, cuz it's me). His team did their thing, mostly. A solid start. (yeah, I'm sure it's just telling myself not to panic).

Utah Falco kills DVD, 112.5-74

So it's only Week 1, but it looks quickly like DVD's team is NOT going to be good. James Robinson may not be the primary back in Jacksonville (because Urban Meyer is an idiot) and Brandon Aiyuk is apparently a magician with a good disappearing act (or his coach hates him suddenly). Falco managed to overcome the negative points from the Tampa D (thanks to the QB from the same team) and a couple TDs from Adam Thielen. Still waiting on a Zeke sighting...

HRG take two good players, beats Provost 109.5-81

Kyler Murray and T.J. Hockenson (who, BTW, has one of the silliest headshots ever on ESPN) got most of his points, but that's all HRG needed. Provost's team wasn't (isn't?) good. Aaron Jones can't be that bad again, but CEH might be. Mike Evans is often BIG hit or BIG miss; he was the latter this week. But 32 from Murray is a good start for any team. Interesting piece: there were FOUR players in HRG's lineup that scored exactly 7.5 points.

I-Ry does just enough, beats Pedro Pickles 106.5-98.5

Good news for I-Ry: that Mahomes/Tyreek stack is likely to do some great things for him this year (they were his only 2 players in double digits in Week 1). Bad news: his RBs might be REALLY hurting. He's got three on his bench who got zilch in Week 1! Now you're saying "But it's his bench." Did you see his starters? Gibson was meh, Najee Harris was more meh. Pickles was fine. He coulda won, if not for the Ravens D and Mike Gesicki (who's already been jettisoned for something else at TE). Dat Pickles bench doe.

Other Stuff   

As already mentioned, Boobies (heh) won the Tidwell this week.

Also, apologies on the Notes arriving when they did. Hopefully, they'll be sooner for more of the season. Crobi, Pete and I played in a golf tourney on Tuesday. We shot 61 (11-under par) and didn't come CLOSE to winning (best score was a 52). So the time I would normally be writing the notes, I was driving around looking for a golf ball that I had smashed into the woods. Or some bushes. Or a sand trap.

When's the next league outing?

On to Week 2!

Championship Week, in which we crown a new (repeat) champion

On Monday night, Commish wondered how horrible it would feel for Team Provost if Stefon Diggs scored a 40 yard touchdown, during which he tweaked a hammy and the Bills decided to sit him the rest of the game because they're already in the playoffs.

Well, Diggs scored a 50 yard touchdown, and it was over. Congratulations to TEAM PROVOST on his second Smarter Than Phil Simms Fantasy Football Championship.

As it has often seemed in our league (and throughout most of fantasy football), the best team in the regular season has not won the title. I think we can say that wasn't the case here; Provost scored the most points in the regular season and he put up the most points on Championship Week. It was a pretty impressive year. His final overall record of 14-2 is the best record in league history, and he scored the most points we've ever had in a regular season.

Elsewhere, in the league....

It appears that Iron Ryan was a Week 15 gameday shower away from a league championship. Yes, there's some speculation here, but had he swapped out the injured Zeke and put in Tony Pollard (the highest projected RB on waivers) in Week 15, he'd have defeated the Provost Train and moved into the finals. And then, he scored more points this week than runner-up RTTM, and could be walking home with a title. Alas, it's not to be. But he won the third place game though, and the newly minted cash that goes with it.

We also had a nailbiter in the Worst Bowl. You guys saw the GroupMe when Hardcore Sacks asked for no stat correction, because he was winning by 1.5? Guess what?

THERE WAS A STAT CORRECTION!

Or maybe it was a point fix from some kind of audit (it's not listed under the "stat corrections" on ESPN), because that lead and apparent margin of victory is down to .5. Crazy!

Also, that this was the highest scoring matchup of the year was just peak-2020.

Our winner of the extra scratchers for the draft is Death Valley Driver, who rode Josh Allen and Davante Adams to victory over Utah Falco (who, strangely enough, won the extra scratchers last year).

Those extra scratchers will be provided by Pedro Pickles, who as he mentioned in the group chat, will now sink into a deep depression. He had some rotten luck this year, and really does not deserve to be The Worst, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. 

The deserving Worst is absolutely Jeff Fisher Effect. Though, he turned it on when it "mattered", breaking 100 points in consecutive games for the first time all year, and winning as many Pooper Bowl games as he did regular season games. He might have gotten a little lucky in that his opponent decided he was too good for a meaningless game, and started TWO players who were inactive on game day (CEH we knew from last week, DeVante Parker was a game day inactive). I'd like to figure out some sort of incentive for this game, just to keep everyone interested all the way down to the end.

So that's it: that's a wrap on the 2020 Smarter Than Phil Simms Fantasy Season. 

I'm behind on my stat updates, but you can believe I'll be finishing them up, and poring over them for stat nuggets for our End of Season: The Gathering.

Speaking of End of Season: The Gathering: We can do a Zoom call, similar to the draft, where we can also do our standard playoff pool, and I'll rattle off the aforementioned stat nuggets and stuff. I think then we can also plan an actual in-person The Gathering when the weather warms and we can all be outside.

In closing, once again, I say thank you. I hope you all enjoyed the fantasy season in STPS. I look forward to 2021.

For more reasons than that.

Week 16, Championship Week, Christmas Eve

Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers.

Weren't they 11-0? You're not supposed to lose to the Cincinnati Bungles SO spectacularly. (Honestly, I was OK with it; the Steelers D laid an egg which helped me get into the Finals in another league.)

And that spectacular failure did NOT help Boobies (heh) in his first ever playoff appearance. Big Ben was bad, and JuJu was even worse. Bad JuJu. (Get it?) Those two got Boobies (heh) a combined 6 points, and he couldn't top Regress to the Mean, who advances to his second consecutive Super Bowl.

In the other semi-final....well, we had a manager who stopped paying attention. Zeke was declared out about an hour before kick-off and I-Ry didn't take him out of his lineup. Substitute in the other Cowboys RB for the week, and I-Ry takes the victory. Instead, he took a 0 and an L. Tough way to go out.

So it's Team Provost vs. Regress to the Mean for the Title. At least they don't have to agonize over it with four straight days of football.

In the Pooper Bowl, it's Falco and DVD playing for next year's extra scratchers. Falco took out Hardcore with a Tidwellian performance (which doesn't technically count as a Tidwell), and DVD won a pillow fight with HRG. But hey, a win's a win, and Falco and DVD are each hoping for one more to potentially improve their draft stock for next year.

This year's Worst Bowl features Pickles and Hardcore. Pickles fell to JFE, which triggered some ribbing in the GroupMe. It's kind of both managers season in microcosm: JFE putting up a mediocre number of points most weeks, and Pickles either booming or busting. He busted, and JFE avoids the Worst Bowl, and advances to the only matchup on the year that doesn't mean a damn thing.

So we've come to the end of another year. Perhaps we'll be able to gather in person for the year-end festivities, but likely not. We may have to do another Zoom session, and hopefully we'll be able to gather in person for the draft and other frivolity next season.

I mentioned it on Thanksgiving, but I'll say it again here at Christmas: Thank you. Thank you for another great season of Smarter Than Phil Simms Fantasy Football. I hope this season has been a little bit of a distraction for you in an otherwise trying time. I hope you enjoyed another year of bad beats, and deez Notes, and watching football.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!