Looking at just this week's schedule, I'm not sure if there were more upsets than usual. Currently, it doesn't make sense to see the Eagles going into Foxboro to lead 35-21 over the Patriots. I saw the 49ers vs Bears game much differently. Weren't the Bears resting since Thanksgiving? The 49ers traveled East across two time zones, and they were kicking off at 10 AM San Francisco time. I realize the Bears were 1-4 at home (despite an overall record close to .500?), but the 49ers hadn't won ANY road games yet. The 49ers have a combination of the #32 scoring offense, the #32 ranking in offensive yards gained, and their defense is near the bottom in allowing yards to other teams (about 398 per game). Again, all of that doesn't mean a bad defense can boost the Bears' statistics.
In the "highlights" I saw, the Bears got the last possession in GREAT field position, due to poor kick return coverage. Then, their really accurate kicker pulled the ball left on a field goal. The hold didn't look very good to me, unless the ball is supposed to be slanted sideways when you look at it from behind.
In fantasy, I feel like I've put way too much pressure on myself and I've let the more aggressive teams cheat me out of free agents. For most of the season, I can remember being ranked 6th to 8th in the league (10 teams total). That should give you a waiver priority in the top 5, or even the top 3. In other words, let's say I tried to put in a claim for Matt Forte's backup. I wouldn't know what other claims the rest of the teams were putting in, but if the #3 team in the whole league standings tried to make that claim, I would be able to sign him first, meaning that he'd be gone when the system tried to process that other claim. It's really my fault for not filling my roster with the backups to my own players, since running back depth has been BRUTAL this season. I'm not really "mad" at the other teams for trying to claim someone after an injury to Le'Veon Bell, but come on. Le'Veon Bell has a backup. Why do you need Forte's backup? Then again, maybe if you want to mess with people, that's the kind of selfish hoarding strategy you need to win (even in a "casual" family league?). I never expected Justin Forsett to have a broken arm (how often does that injury affect running backs?), but his understudy got snatched away, too (by a team with less waiver priority, who sat him the week he got added).
If you look at my team, we have a winning record (7-5 at the moment). I think we've also stayed above .500 for the whole season, or at least since week 4. Most of the weeks when I was ranked #6 or lower, it was because I haven't been scoring enough fantasy points. I drafted Matt Forte in his age 30 season (supposedly the limit for a #1 running back). There was no other veteran of that caliber left on the board in the first round, though (picking 9th, but I should've drafted 10th based on last year's results). Now that Devonta Freeman and Todd Gurley have played some games, you probably would've put them in that tier of running backs. Dez Bryant had hamstring issues during the preseason without me researching about that. The first game of the year, he broke his foot! I'm not trying to make excuses. It's just a lot of things swirling around a small group of players. Alshon Jeffery had something wrong with his legs to start the season. I'd love to see his numbers if he played every game.
So, I dealt with that. Recently, I've been trying to test that saying where, "Defense wins championships." My cousin inexplicably dropped the Panthers (possibly for their bye week), and I wasn't going to let them go unclaimed. In the past three weeks, I'm pretty sure they've been the #1 defense/special teams unit in standard scoring leagues. One week I BENCHED them, because the Chiefs had a juicy matchup with the Chargers, and they won that 33-3, or by a similar silly score. Guess what? I didn't gain anything by starting KC, or lose anything, because both units had 19 points.
This week, unless the Panthers score about three TDs during the two minute warning, I'm in trouble, because I had the Chiefs on the bench. It was coming down to those two teams (the Texans are a third option), and I saw how, yes, the Saints usually get their yards, but they've been sacked a bunch, and they were steadily giving up an interception and a fumble in every game to the Panthers going back a year or more. For some reason, the Panthers also play the Saints TOUGHER in NEW ORLEANS, if that makes any sense. Sometimes you just outsmart yourself. That's almost the "problem" with having multiple top 10 options at the same position. You end up starting whoever scores fewer points in that week's matchup.
I know about the playoff scenario where I can "Win and you're in." That's based on the current standings (5th place, using fantasy points to break ties). At least one 7-5 team ahead of me has to win or tie, because two of them are going head-to-head this week. The other 7-5 teams could afford to lose and break a tie with me, since I was behind by a huge number of fantasy points (90-100). Even the 6-6 teams, if they both win, could break a tie with me.
My current game won't be decided by the end of the night anyway. We both have Monday Night players. I'm sort of a Cowboys fan in that game, because how did the Redskins even beat the Giants last week? You could have 5-7 Redskins, 5-7 Giants, 5-7 Eagles if they beat the Patriots, and then 4-8 Cowboys in a division where nothing is decided yet.
Now that I think all of the "late" games finished up, here are some of the players from my roster and my cousin's team:
Andy Dalton 26 vs Russell Wilson 39
Those aren't the standard points. We have some weird tweaks with 20 passing yards per point and bonuses on long TD throws. Dalton (my team) was only playing the Browns, but I think the Bengals usually just run the ball all day to blow them out. Dalton had less than 20 pass attempts, so he didn't need a 300 yard game with 4 TDs. I'll never use anyone from the Seahawks. Wilson just surprised me, because the Vikings had good numbers against the pass and the run. That doesn't mean a mobile QB couldn't make them look bad.
Matt Forte 17 vs T. J. Yeldon 18
This is like one of those "C'mon Man!" practical jokes. You would never draft T. J. Yeldon ahead of Matt Forte. Yeldon had 19 touches today, 136 total yards, and he scored only his SECOND touchdown of the entire SEASON! The Jaguars as a team had ONE rushing TD in the first 11 games. What's the cure for that? Play against the Titans! Their defensive numbers aren't even that bad (3.9 yards per rush attempt, 108 rushing yards per game). You know what else annoyed me? Allen Hurns got roughed up last week, and sat out with a concussion. What could he have done as a WR2 or a flex in a game that had a 42-39 final score? I sat Antonio Andrews (Titans "RB1") after a long streak of no touchdowns, but he found the end zone today, too.
Jordan Reed ? vs Scott Chandler 12
This was a key matchup, since "Gronk" got hurt last week, and my cousin picked up Chandler. I almost decided to be a jerk and submit that claim myself. Instead, I dropped a guy Charles Clay, who scored 12 points today, which was more than HIS LAST FIVE GAMES COMBINED! How does it work where you give up on a guy RIGHT when he has an amazing game?!! I mainly wanted more depth at the TE position, and Vance McDonald (49ers) was recommended as a good addition (1 fantasy point vs the Bears).
The overall score is 91-76 (in my cousin's favor), but we have the same number of players left. He's putting out Darren McFadden and Martavis Bryant. McFadden is a little scary, only because the Cowboys don't have Romo anymore, so what are they going to do? I would think you slow the game down and try to open up the passing game by drawing safeties into the box. Bryant seems to be touchdown dependent, but the Colts defense is towards the bottom of the league. I've got a different Bryant (Dez), who hasn't really played at his full potential, even after the injury, and then Jordan Reed. Can at least one of those guys have about 3 TDs? That's the main way I see overcoming a 15 point deficit.
Technically, every team plays a full 17 games, and I want to win weeks 14-17. It would just stink to miss the semifinals/winners bracket for the first time. What's wrong with drafting a Matt Forte and a Dez Bryant in any year besides 2015? You have to live and learn, right?
The other awkward thing this season was how week 7 featured a bye for THREE teams that were UNDEFEATED at the time (Bengals, Broncos, Packers). That's obviously not under your control, but it sounds really stupid if you're the NFL and trying to showcase your best teams every week. I'm pretty sure the fourth team were the Bears, because I passed up Demaryius Thomas in round 2 of the draft, not wanting to sit him and Forte in the same week and sort of forfeit that game. In week 7, I happened to be against my Uncle Rich, who I have a commanding record against whenever we play. He was dealing with Peyton Manning on a bye, and replaced him with Zack Mettenberger (not even a starter right now). He also picked up Charcandrick West as a free agent in the wake of Jamaal Charles tearing his ACL. At the time, how did you even know if the replacements to Charles could put up the same kind of numbers? Anyway, there was that close loss, and another one by 2 points when I had a chance to stay tied for the division lead. You could also argue that my 100-99 and 91-89 wins may have been flipped around with a few different roster moves by either side. I just couldn't outscore teams like when we used to play as an 8 team league and it was a more balanced schedule (only one team that you didn't have to play twice). Our division has a chance to finish with four winning teams and one 5-8 squad that was 5-5 a few weeks back. You look at the other division, and Cory (my opponent this week) keeps taking advantage of a 7-1 record against a division with 2-10 and 4-8 records on the bottom.
It looks like the Eagles DID upset the Patriots. Now the Panthers are 12-0, but with two or three divisional games remaining. Can they go all the way?
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WWE 2K18 ROSTER & MATCH TYPES | ||||
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