Well, after the Thanksgiving triple-header, it looked like I was going to roll to an easy 5-0 record this week. But since it’s a law that at least one player has to set a career high or an NFL record when facing Axe Elf, naturally I ended up with a couple of losses. Still in good shape overall, though…
League 1: This team has probably struggled more than it should have, between inopportune bye weeks, injuries and having patience with the transition between Trubisky and Pickett at my QB2 position, but things are starting to look up now after a 3 game winning streak, and I’m sitting in a pretty good position tied for 2nd place at 8-4, currently the 3rd seed out of 4 playoff teams. I won’t catch the undefeated 1st-place team, so I just have to avoid falling to the 4th seed to avoid having to play the undefeated team until the Championship game. I’ve had to weather extended absences from Keenan Allen, Chris Godwin, Marquise Brown, J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards and Damien Harris—but Latavius Murray (whom I spent almost half of my $51 FAB to get in October) looks like he’ll be the lead RB for the Broncos the rest of the way, and I’m hopeful of having Allen, Godwin, Edwards and maybe Dobbins all back for the stretch run. I have no FAB left, and 3 games to go; 2 of my remaining opponents are right on my heels at 7-5, but I should be able to put down next week’s 5-7 team without difficulty—after posting the highest score in the league this week, and holding the 4th-most total points on the season.
League 2: Even with Matt Ryan struggling, this team was in first place with the most points scored for most of the first month or so—and then this nonsense happened where Ryan was supposed irrevocably benched for the season and I had to blow my remaining FAB to get Ehlinger, only to have him suck, and then ultimately replaced by Ryan again, whom I had long before dropped. So I was stuck without a Superflex QB—and without any remaining FAB. I managed to do a little overhaul during last week’s waivers, landing QB prospects Mike White, Joe Flacco, and Trevor Siemian (dropping Case Keenum, Sam Ehlinger, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire) on $0 waiver claims behind the smoke of Taylor Heinicke drawing waiver claims from two other teams who had FAB left (he went for $11). So hopefully between those three and Jameis Winston, I can eke out a QB2 for most of the remaining weeks—so far, Mike White is looking like a season-saver, contributing to my second-highest score of the week, and helping to maintain my overall total points dominance (I have also had the most points scored against me of any team in this league). After a sweet win over the former 2nd-place team (I beat Mahomes/Allen/CMC/Taylor with DJones/MWhite/LMurray/RWhite—LOL!), I’m in a three-way tie for third place at 8-4 by record, but hold the 3rd seed out of 4 playoff teams due to total points. My three remaining opponents are all within one win of my team in the standings, so I’m going to need to continue to get strong performances out of my five top-20 WRs in this PPR league (Jefferson, Diggs, Amon-Ra, Godwin, Lockett)—and hope that the QBs and RBs (Etienne, Patterson, Latavius, Rachaad and Chuba) don’t let them down.
League 3: This team seems to have struggled more than it should as well, and this week was no exception, as Jalen Hurts set an NFL record and scored 71 points against me, and I made the error of starting Brandon Aiyuk over Chris Godwin on a hunch this week, which cost me 20 points, and I lost by 10 points. It doesn’t really matter, though, as six teams make the playoffs in this 10-team league, there are currently five teams with my record of 7-5 or better, and the remaining five teams are all tied at 4-8. So none of them can catch us, with 2 games remaining in the regular season here, but one of them will emerge to join us in the playoffs as the 6th seed. I can’t fall to the 6th seed, so I’m hopeful of ascending to the 3rd seed (to stay out of the 1-seed’s bracket), but for that to happen one of the two 8-4 teams will have to lose both games while I win both games. I do play one of them in the next two weeks, along with the last-place team in my division for an easy win. It just sucks that I have such an embarrassment of riches at the RB position in a highly run-centric scoring system, and I can only start 2 of Henry, Taylor, Etienne, Walker, Edwards, DHarris, and formerly Eli Mitchell. I was regularly getting something like 150 points on my bench in this league.
League 4: This league really irritates me. Yes, it had the best record of all my teams at 8-3, I’m tied for first place by record, I’m second in total points scored (-50 or so), and yet nonsense keeps occurring on a regular basis. For instance, the average score in this league is 126 pts per week. 150 is a really good score. I have scored 150+ points in 4 of the last 5 weeks, and I have lost 2 of those contests. This week was a new high for the nonsense, though, as I faced the 9th-place, 3-8 team which had scored more than the league average (126) only one time this season, and that was only 138. I dropped 150 on them this week, but between Josh Jacobs, Miles Sanders, Chris Godwin, Adam Thielen and Dalton Schultz, my hapless opponent threw up a 180. So now I’m in a 4-way tie for first place at 8-4, holding down the second seed and a first round bye for the 6 team playoffs. I’m pretty much a shoo-in, with 2 games to go and a 2 game lead over any of the 3 teams at 6-6 vying for the final 2 playoff berths. However, I do play the new 9th-place team in Week 14, so I should probably be prepared for a loss in that one, too.
League 5: When you look up “not yet mathematically eliminated” in the dictionary, there will be a picture of this team’s avatar. With a second straight victory, this time over the 4th-place team, I lifted my record to 5-7. With three weeks to go, my goal is still to finish over .500—but I will need a lengthy series of highly unlikely events to occur if I am to make the playoffs. I am currently in 7th place, with 3 games to go. I am within 3 games of second place, but even if I won out and they lost out, I’d have to outscore them in those 3 games by some 250 points, so that’s not going to happen. There is a currently a tie for the 3rd/4th playoff spots between two 7-5 teams, but one of them also has over 200 more points than me, so I would have to win out and them lose out to catch them. The other one is probably my best bet to overtake, since I have 20 more points scored than them, so I could catch them if they lose two games while I win out. Great, but the only problem is that I play the 1st place team, the 2nd place team, and the 5th place team over the last 3 weeks—and he literally plays the 8th, 9th, and 10th place teams. The team in 5th place at 6-6 would probably have to lose 2 of their final 3 games as well while I win out—but they play me and the 9th and 10th place teams over the last 3 weeks. The other 5-7 team in 6th place has only 4 more total points than me, but they play the 8th and 9th place teams among their final 3 games. So I’m not holding my breath—on the playoffs OR on finishing over .500—but it’s nice that this sad sack of a team is still in contention (however unlikely) at this point in the season.
So overall I sit at 36-24 (60%), with all five teams still in playoff contention with 2-3 weeks to go (albeit one only mathematically in contention).