Last Place Wisdom: Week 12 - No Juice!

Aaron wasn't able to win and create my dream scenario when it comes to the intrigue and excitement present in the last week of the regular season, it's tough to really ask for much more. Typically, you'd be lucky to have maybe 2 teams fighting for the last playoff spot, and some minor positioning available for those teams who have already clinched. We have 3 teams fighting for the last spot, and of the 5 teams in the playoffs for sure, no one knows where they're finishing besides Steve.

I'll start with the three 5-7 teams vying to take the last playoff spot. Mike has cooled off in recent weeks, and Andrew has gone on a roll to grab the last spot for now. Neither of the 3 teams has a good matchup, and while anyone can win, I find it tough to favour any of them against myself, John or Steve. Andrew has the clear inside track to the playoffs, with a 50 point tie-breaker lead, but rather than squeak into the playoffs, someone needs to reach out and grab the last spot with a win.

Things are no more settled for those of us in the playoffs. Steve has a bye, that much is known, and the result of his game will have no real impact on his positioning. Myself, Shayne, John and Dawson have more to play for still. Unfortunately my close loss in Week 11 knocked me out of contention for a top 2 finish, but I can still finish 3rd with a win and a loss bye both John and Dawson. John's loss to Andrew also knocked him out of contention for a bye, since Shayne and Dawson's head to head matchup means the winner there will get the bye and a top 2 finish. John can leapfrog Shayne for the 3rd spot if he and Dawson can both win, meanwhile Shayne will get 3rd if he and John both lose.

There is a good chance that I could get either John or Shayne as a 1st round matchup in the 4&5 game, guaranteeing that one of the top 3 scoring teams (to this point) in the league will be eliminated in the quarterfinals. I'm terrified of having to face either of the 2 of them that early, and I'm sure neither of them would relish that prospect either. Andrew is on a major hot streak, and if he wins the 3&6 matchup might not be any easier though. My personal goal would be for Shayne and John to win and set up a showdown between myself and Dawson, which is the matchup I would like the most at the moment. No offense Dawson, but your RBs just don't scare me like theirs do.

Mr.Manager of the Week Award

Staying the course with Rashad Jennings instead of my other RB options helped me pull out a close win over Curt and help my playoff positioning.

It appears that the Giants were the team to watch when it comes to determining who could be the Mr. Manager of the week, since the only other call I could find that was a major determining factor involved Mr. ODB himself. Now, it was probably a pretty easy decision to go with Beckham in his flex spot, but Andrew has a lot of good receivers at the moment meaning he did have to leave Golden Tate on his bench to do so. There was at least a discussion to be had about which one of the guys to start, so kudos to him for picking the right one (there will be no discussion between the 2 from this week on, I believe).

Why weren't videos of ODB making catches like this available before the draft? If you want me to take rookie WRs, forget college stats and combine results, just show them doing stuff like this, which gauging from practice apparently ODB can do all the time with no problems.

You know who doesn't get Mr. Manager of the Week awards....all of us but Andrew for not picking up ODB after Andrew dropped him the first time.

Random Thoughts

Well I was able to work out a trade before the deadline. I'm feeling much better about my TE position, as I think I now have the guy who is definitely the 4th best/most consistent TE this season. Now watch Olsen go and put up 3 point games the rest of the year. Matthews would've been a good flex play for me the rest of the season, but I need to give something up to get something in return. He's a decent keeper for Aaron in the 7th as a waiver wire pickup.

In recognition of this all important week, I wanted to take the time to answer a few questions about my team the current state of TFLOEG that I'm sure has been on everybody's minds. Thanks to those of you who submitted questions.

Q: Do you feel confident about your chances going into the playoffs knowing you might have to face Shayne or John in the first round?
A: Maybe

Q: Which of the three 5-7 teams do you see making the playoffs after this week?
A: I don't know

Q: Still having fun writing this blog each week?
A: Yeah

Q: Is this joke getting old for the people reading the blog right now?
A: Maybe

Q:Why is chasing points an exercise in futility? (Andrew)
A: No juice

Q: Is it an embarrassment that someone under .500 could win a playoff game, let alone the league? (Shayne)
A: Yeah

Q: How can we get more activity in the trade department? (Shayne)
A: I don't know

Q: Who are we, the UN? (Andrew)
A: Yeah

And there you have it, insightful and engaging I'm sure.

Week 10 Preview

The Keith-glorius Basterds vs RW Throws a Sexy Deep Ball – We both have something to play for...Andrew moreso than me. As I said before, Andrew has turned things around going 35-10 over the past 5 weeks, while I have been consistent in avoiding any truly bad weeks the last while. I have some really good QB matchups this week, which could be trouble as my team's success rests on how good Stafford can play. Andrew has some good matchups himself, although he has to hope for a big game from Roethlisberger without it being a big game for Brown. Looks like both Marshall and Jeffery could be benched, which is surprising since both were top 10 guys at the start of the year, but don't have a good matchup this week.

oh that's nasty vs NFL Owner – Shayne has to be favoured here; everyone is healthy and is off their byes, and the only weakness I see could be Eli Manning as QB2. Dawson may have found a gem in Tannehill, who has 7 good games out of his last 8, and is playing the Jets who give up more points to QBs than anyone else (I'm kicking myself a bit for not drafting Tannehill like I wanted). Maybe Dawson pulls off the upset and get's the bye after all, it would be almost as a surprising a result as Andrew or Mike making the playoffs given where he was 5 weeks ago.

The Fear Boners vs BISP  – Boner Bowl 2: Electric Boogaloo! I'm glad that the fantasy schedule allowed these 2 teams to meet twice, and the stakes are higher than previous matchups. As we know with this particular rivalry, projections mean nothing, and either team could win this. Mike has to be regretting giving up Forsett at this point, Ivory has been turrible as a replacement, but I think this is the game Megatron breaks out again, and I don't think he wins unless Foster gets the start. Mallett'ss injury also hurt him, as it meant he needed to use his top waiver pickup on Bridgewater rather than on potentially LeGarette Blount, who could've been a deciding factor as his RB2. John's long term playoff success took a hit with RG3 losing his job again, as he now has to rely on McCown. He also has a big decision in regards to which Bengals RB to start.

What are the Chances vs I am like the U in the 80s  –The only matchup that doesn't really mean anything this week, other than for pride. 

Sideliners vs NINERS – Stan has pretty much the ultimate boom or bust team this year. Since week 4, he's often either gone 9-0/8-1 or 1-8/2-7 compared to the rest of the league. He has the players to win against Steve, although Manning will have to avoid Sanders and Julius Thomas to do so. I feel like both these teams can be tough to call, and I don't have much a prediction to make beyond that.

Good luck, and I'll see you in the playoffs!

Random Thoughts Part 2
After taking the time to actually ask me questions, I figure I should somewhat seriously respond as a thank you to those who put thought into theirs

 Q:Why is chasing points an exercise in futility? (Andrew)
A: We talked about this by text, so Andrew knows my thoughts, but if a guy has a big game, you pick him up, he has a bad game, you drop him, he has a big game while on waivers, repeat...all you're doing is chasing points. In most cases, if you pick someone up, you should be prepared to keep him for 2 weeks before you drop him. If a guy has the talent and the role to put up points, it's worth giving him a chance to do so. As an example, look at Isaiah Crowell, who has probably been on half the teams in the league at this point since he hasn't been shown much patience.

 Q: Is it an embarassment that someone under .500 could win a playoff game, let alone the league? (Shayne)
A:If it's an embarrassment, it would be on those of us already in the playoffs for not taking care of business and winning games we should have won. There is a lot of parity this year, and because of that most of the league is sitting right around .500. Going solely off points scored, if you look at me in 3rd and Mike in 7th, there is only an 8 point difference in what we score on average each week, and it shouldn't be surprising that both teams have a shot at winning the championship. The only way to get rid of this is to reduce the number of teams in the playoffs, but I think 6 is the perfect number, as it means more teams have something to play for for a longer period of time.

Q: How can we get more activity in the trade department? (Shayne)
A: Good news! There were 7 trades this year, and only 4 trades last season. That is a 75% increase in one year. Trades are fun and I would like to see more, and in other seasons if more teams are out of the playoffs before the trade deadline, we might see more people trying to sell for the future.

As to your point on voting on trades...the only way you're ever going to see me vote to stop a trade is a blatant attempt at someone hurting their team to upset the competitive balance. As an example, in another league someone out of the playoffs tried to trade Demarco Murray for Ben Tate the week Tate got cut; I vetoed that so fast. For the most part, trades shouldn't be vetoed, and those making the trade don't need to explain themselves to the rest of us if they don't want. Just because I can see a clear winner in a trade, it doesn't mean I'm right and it doesn't mean the trade shouldn't go through, each owner has to be responsible for their own team and no one else, just like in real sports. In an extreme example, Stan trading AP in Week 2 to Andrew for OBJ would have looked incredibly unfair at the time, but in hindsight would have worked out well for him. Owners deserve the opportunity to do what they want.

It's interesting that the accusation that trades this year have been "loose" is made, the only one that looks that way to me now is John and Andrew's trade, and that is only because Patterson has busted so hard this year which couldn't have been known at the time.