Week 11 Results: "It's Just Nice To Win One"

If you're an Office fan like myself, you might remember this little quote from when Kevin was going through his breakup with his fiance Stacy and him and Andy were able to get the employees of Dunder Mifflin their parking spots back by talking to "The Five Families" and standing up for themselves. With all the crap Kevin was going through, and as little as taking back parking spaces are in the grand scheme of things, sometimes it's those little things that can for just a few moments erase some of the pain. As Kevin says..."It's just nice to win one". Now look, I'm not naive, I've been pretty unbearable this season and I know I've gone far off the deep end than ever before with the level of frustration of this league. I know it gets old listening to me gripe and moan and pull the woe is me act because with some of you, I also do it on either FB Message (Sorry Leland) or texting (sorry Mike, Matt, Drew, Ryan) and I'm sure you guys get tired of the same negative bullshit I sprew every week. The thing is...and I don't wanna get on a soapbox or get too deep and personal, but there are things going on right now that just haven't been ideal. It just hasn't been a fun year personally and professionally..and basically I take it out on Fantasy Football because well... because it's supposed to be my escape from reality and obviously it just hasn't been. When everything just seems to be going wrong all the time, you just ask for one little thing..one little victory at something...anything..just for a moment of achievement and when you can't even get that in something as small as fantasy football and not only do you lose but you lose in the worst ways possible, you just throw your hands up and ask "I can't even get THIS?"  A "W" in the win column means more than anything right now, because for at least a brief moment, it's a moment of success. I know this game is unpredictable and I shouldn't let it bother me as much as I do, that's just the competitive part of me, but sometimes it's just not about the game itself, believe it or not my life doesn't revolve around fantasy football even though it comes across that way. When the chips are down and no matter how much you bust your ass you keep getting knocked down, sometimes all it takes is one little win..a win that in the general scheme of things means nothing..not only in life but in this league, because a win here doesn't magically put in me in the playoffs, but it means something to me to help myself ease a little bit of the pain I'm going through in what has been a pretty rough patch of my life. Now I'm not putting this out there for pity or anything like that, or for attention, I just wanted to make it clear that it's not the game that has me so on edge. I'm the only one who makes their feelings public through this blog so I don't want to be known as this over competitive psycho that takes this way to seriously and personally. There's some truth to it...but it's not even close to being the reason why I've been such a pessimistic ass. So just like Mr. Malone so bluntly put it...sometimes it's just nice to win one. Ok..I'm done being deep and shit...let's get on to the results.

SCLSU MudDogs (6-5)                     110.00
BigBadBob (0-11)                               87.58

So yeah, as predicted, this was never a game as Alex demolishes Dad for his 6th win and Dad remains winless. Dad really never stood a chance as his roster isn't exactly great right now and on top of THAT he had two of his better players (Emmanuel Sanders and Devonta Freeman) on bye. It was a valiant effort and he did get awesome games from Pierre Garcon (116 yards and a TD which was a 70 yarder) Rashad Jennings (who came out of the mothballs and had 129 total yards an a score) and Frank Gore (121 total yards). Unfortunately every one else came up super small. For Alex, hey call it an "easy win" all you want, but Alex's 110 would beat every team this week, so regardless of his opponent this week, he would've won. I give serious props for Alex taking a gamble on Le'Veon Bell with that 4th pick. It was a HUGE gamble to wait 3 weeks for him, but man has it paid off. Yet another 30 point performance and he's so valuable in both the receiving and rushing game that his floor and ceiling are equally super high. He had 201 total yards and a score. He's beyond amazing. Julian Edelman FINALLY looked like a WR1 and this was easily his best game of the season with 77 yards and a score. If we're going to see THIS Edelman on a consistent basis, than yeah...it makes Alex that much more scarier. Theo Riddick still sucks at rushing but his receiving skills more than overcome that weakness as he had 8 catches for 70 yards to get with his piddly 13 rushing yards. Theo Riddick is the ultimate flex play, he does exactly what you want him to do, provide double digit points on a weekly basis. Carlos Hyde didn't score a TD, but had 110 total yards. Alex had a great week despite average games from Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, and Delanie Walker. Alex is starting to gain momentum at the right time which is good because he's got a tough test next week facing Mayra. Remember in Week 1, Alex put up a ton of points but Mayra put up even more. For Dad, he's still in search for Win #1 and he'll take on me next week. My matchup isn't that intimidating and Dad will have his team fully back so it should be a competitive matchup that Dad has a chance to win.

Game MVP

Le'Veon Bell (SCLSU MudDogs)

146 Rushing Yards, 1 Rushing TD, 8 Receptions, 55 Receiving Yards, 30.10 Points

 

No Soup For You (5-6)                      94.42

Light's Broken Bots (4-7)                 77.00

Well the good news is Leland's team lives to see another day...the bad news is, it comes with a HUGE price. A.J. Green tore his hamstring yesterday and it now looks like he's more than likely done for the season. That's a HUGE blow to Leland's team and after trading a lot of depth away the past two weeks, it might be death blow to his chance as repeating as champion. Once again, David Johnson did the heavy lifting with 160 total yards and two scores. That guy is a beast and he's going to have to have games like this to keep Leland in the thick of things. James White was good with 6 receptions for 63 yards and a score but I worry about Dion Lewis being back and slowly taking away White's snaps. It already gradually started this week. Eric Ebron had 70 yards and a RUSHING score (yup,lol) and Matthew Stafford continues to struggle and trend down as that 's 4 straight games under 19 points. Luckily for Leland, he didn't need much as Matt's team was just awful. Gronk not playing basically destroyed Matt's chances at winning as he was forced to play Dwayne Allen who put up a donut. Tons of disappointing plays and the though Jordy Nelson and Matt Asiata did score TD's, they did nothing yardage wise. It was basically just Tom Brady who had 280 yards and 4 Passing TD's. This loss puts a nail into Matt's season as the best he can do now is finish 6-7. He joins me and Dad in the "Spoiler" group. It's not going to be easy though, he takes on Eugene next week, while Leland tries to keep his playoff hopes alive against Mike.

Game MVP

David Johnson (No Soup For You)

103 Rushing Yards, 1 Rushing TD, 7 receptions, 57 receiving yards, 1 Receiving TD, 31.5 Points

 

Bay Area Tanners (4-7)                  105.14

Woe Is You (7-4)                               94.20

Well....it's nice to be on the OTHER side of a bullshit win for once. It happens every once in a while but that's definitely what this was. This is actually even closer than it should've been thanks to my stupid decision to bench Sterling Shepard for Jeremy Kerley. That was a 13.5 point swing as Kerley got blanked and Shepard had 50 and a score. Luckily for this week, I countered that stupid move with a very gutsy call. For the 2nd straight week I benched Todd Gurley, this time for Rob Kelley. I just felt Gurley was going to suck as usual and thought Kelley provided more upside. Well, of course almost as if to prove me wrong, Gurley scored his first TD in AGES on the very first drive of the game and already I was immediately regretting my decision. Honestly, up until Sunday Night, my team was pretty terrible. Jameis was OK, but only had 1 TD pass, Mike Evans had a 100 yard game but no TD, Spencer Ware was disappointing and LaGarrette Blount did good, but had a 38 yard TD called back, and he wasn't NEARLY involved in this game as I thought he would be but still managed to have a 124 yards. My only saving grace (or at the time frustration) was Mike's guys weren't doing much either. Odell Beckham and Stefon Diggs had crappy games while Terrelle Pryor had an okish game with 5 catches for 97 yards. Mike had made his own chess moves and decided to swap out Eli for Derek Carr before the games began and at first Mike too was wondering if he had made the right decision. Eli was decent with 227 yards and 2 scores for 19 points. So Sunday/Monday Night was down to Rob Kelley/C.J. Fiedorowicz for me against Jordan Reed/James Starks/Derek Carr for Mike. You know me, I felt like I didn't have a chance in hell, that my Gurley/Shepard decisions would cost me yet another win in what's been a horrible season. Kelley actually scored pretty fast, which made me feel good that at the very least he had a good shot at matching Gurley's production. Finally Reed started getting going, getting large chunks of yards at a time. James Starks had sucked so far, but I was still worried. Then in the 3rd quarter, James Starks scored on a 31 yard screen and I was livid. I was going to lose because JAMES FUCKING STARKS did good. This was early too, so I felt it was going to be a shootout and Jordan Reed was going to dominate. I was pissed off, and stopped following the game, so frustrated that I had lost shitty again. It wasn't until really late in the game that I decided to check my phone and see what the damage was...I saw Washington was up 42-24 and chuckled to myself and said "gotta be fucking Reed"...imagine my surprise when not only wasn't it Reed.....it was ROB F'N KELLEY.....he had scored 2 MORE TD'S and had also ripped off a 66 yard run. Holy shit I couldn't believe it. Over 31 points from "Fat Rob". I was 100% sure this shit was over, but now I was actually in the driver's seat. Insane. Now...I wasn't ready to call it a win yet...HELL NO...what happened for me could happen TO me because Posey still had Derek Carr to play. I had C.J. Fiedorowicz to try to counter and I was just asking for his projected 6 points to hopefully be enough to counter Carr. I was up comfortably alllllll the way until the 4th quarter. C.J. had done his job, but I'm always a "it's not over till 0:00 in the 4th" kind of guy so I was STILL nervous. Then it starts happening......Carr a 75 yard TD to Jamize Olawale...6 minutes later in what was an all passing drive..Carr with a 35 yard TD to Amari Cooper. My "comfortable lead" was dwindled down to 9 damn points....in a close game. I tried to stay positive, but man I couldn't believe what was happening. I was like...no way...no way it's going to go down LIKE THIS. I needed this game to be over. If the Texans would've tied this up, it would've been a nightmare. Thankfully....the Texans had to punt and the Raiders were able to eat the rest of the clock including going for it on a key 4th and 1 and getting it and I escape with the narrow win. As bad as the Shepard/Kerley swap was..the Kelley/Gurley swap WAS EVEN BETTER and it's the only reason I won. Like I said above, sometimes it's the little things that can for a brief moment make you feel good about yourself and this is exactly what I needed. In regards to the league, it's a meaningless win, and it's not that bad of a loss for Mike. He's still solid for the playoffs, and though the win would've been nice for a shot at aiming for a bye, it still would've taken some work to get that by getting help from others beating Eugene and/or Ryan and though it got even harder now, he's not completely out of the bye picture. He'll look to bounce back against Leland next week, while I take on Dad as he still looks for Win #1.

Game MVP

Rob Kelley (Bay Area Tanners)

137 Rushing Yards, 3 Rushing TD's, 31.70 Points

 

Bigger Balls (7-4)                     99.94
THE SPOILER (5-6)                78.30

Big win for Mayra here, as with Mike's loss she takes 3rd place and pretty much has clinched a playoff spot. She didn't have Matt Forte or Matt Ryan and it didn't matter much. Dak Prescott filled in beautifully with 300 yards and 3 scores, while Lamar Miller FINALLY had a great game with  104 yards and a TD. Amari Cooper added a TD, and although Antonio Brown, Mike Wallace, and Jay Ajayi weren't spectacular, they did just enough to help Mayra get the win. For Drew, it's the same ol same ol like most of this year. Unpredictability. He's got a ton of the same wild cards that he's going to hit (C.J. Prosise before he got hurt, busted a 75 yard TD) and miss (Robert Woods, Michael Floyd, Ladarius Green, Ryan Mathews (got hurt but still) sucked while Cole Beasley and Terrence West were actually pretty good). Just hard to win with a roster like that. Donte Moncrief and Allen Robinson scored TDs and Kirk Cousins was amazing with 375 yards and 3 scores. Just too many misses to make this matchup competitive. So what about Drew's playoff chances? His points are still unbelievably low, so he can't win tie breakers. Here's Drew only way into the playoffs. He needs to win out and both Leland and Albert need to lose out. No wiggle room. For next week, he kind of controls his destiny as he plays Albert, while Mayra has tough matchup against Alex and his surging team.

Game MVP

Dak Prescott (Bigger Balls)

301 Passing Yards, 3 Passing TD's, 16 Rushing Yards.

 

Channel 4 News Team (6-5)         104.88

Shock The Monkey (4-7)              102.58

Unbelievably the closest match of the week as Albert BARELY gets by with a 2 point win in what could've been a disastrous loss to his playoff chances. Mark's decision to play Vernon Davis or Gary Barnidge costs him the win as Davis was blanked while Barnidge had 23 yards and a score. Even without the TD, Mark wins with just the catches and 23 yards from Barnidge. So how was Mark able to keep this competitive?  Dez Bryant was great with 80 yards and two TD's as was Jamison Crowder with 102 and a score. Jarvis Landry hasn't done much recently and he didn't do much yardage wise, but still scored a TD. DeMarco Murray had a "bad" game but still had 70 yards and a TD. What was frustrating was the way Oakland used Latavius Murray. He only got 33 yards on the ground but salvaged his day with 5 catches for 59 yards but Mark really needed a couple more points from him to score the upset win. For Albert, LeSean McCoy was doing great before he injured his thumb and never came back. It seems he should be good to go for next week, but Rob Ryan isn't committing to that. It'll a be a big but not devastating loss if McCoy can't go only because Albert still has Mike Gillislee just in case. The Luck to Hilton combo led the way as they combined for a little over 39 points. More bad news though as Andrew Luck suffered a concussion and is concussion protocol and with the Colts playing Thanksgiving night..it doesn't look like Luck is going to play which also affects Hilton. That could be a crucial blow to Albert, especially since he hasn't officially clinched a playoff spot yet and still has a couple teams breathing down his neck including the one he's playing this upcoming week. Doug Baldwin actually THREW a TD pass to Russell Wilson and he's been looking good again as he finished with 18 points, while 10 and 12 point games from Jordan Howard and Doug Martin helped seal the win respectively. Well, if Drew ever wanted to live up to his team name, this week is the time to do it. He could really play Spoiler and hurt Albert's chances at a playoff spot (not to mention, he needs it for himself to stay alive) and he'll have a chance if indeed Andrew Luck is out. Unfortunately for Mark, this all but eliminates him from the playoff race. He had  a little nice run going, even defeating Mayra, and came SO CLOSE to picking up win #4 in a row. His points unfortunately, aren't great and I can't see a scenario where he sneaks in as the 6th seed. He'll take on Ryan's 1st place team next.

Game MVP

Andrew Luck (Channel 4 News Team)

262 Passing Yards, 2 Passing TD's, 1 INT, 22 Rushing Yards, 21.18 Points

 

Rocket Man (9-2)                  102.04

Hoosier Daddy (9-2)               66.38

Well...this was underwhelming. Despite no Julio Jones and no Melvin Gordon, Eugene still easily wins this matchup and if you're Ryan...that's gotta be scary. Also what's alarming is that although Ryan has only lost twice, he's been blown out both times and has barely put up scores of 72.58 and now 66.38. It's like when Ryan loses..his team completely falls apart. The good news is though that Ryan gets Demaryius Thomas back from bye and the news that C.J. Prosise is out for an extended period of time means his pickup of Thomas Rawls earlier in the season was a great move and he immediately slides in to a flex spot. There's really nothing to talk about on Ryan's side as outside of Steve Smith (8 for 99 and a score) and Zeke (a "bad" game with only 127 total yards) everyone else was horrifically bad especially Ben Roethlisberger (not even 9 points) and Michael Crabtree (2 points). Ryan's gotta hope he's getting his bad games out of the way, because he can't afford a performance like this in the playoffs. For Eugene, once again Aaron Rodgers continues to be the best QB in fantasy as this is 5 straight weeks of of 26 points or more. The Packers suck, but Rodgers has been putting up HUGE numbers which is help driving Eugene's 9-2 record. Rodgers had 351 yards, 3 TD's and 33 rushing yards. For fantasy purposes, he's been more than amazing. Devante Parker had a big breakout game with 8 for 79 and a score, and Rishard Matthews had yet another productive game with 9 catches for 122 yards. Marty B was a bust despite Gronk being out and DeAndre Hopkins still doesn't seem like he's going to have the impact everyone thought he would this season. I still think he's a wildcard for Eugene and just might have a blowup game when you least expect it. Travis Kelce caught 7 balls for 108 yards, and though the running game was once again disappointing, Eugene does get Melvin Gordon back next week. With Eugene and Ryan still fighting for the #1/#2 seeds, their matchups are still very important and both seem to have very easy matchups as Ryan takes on Mark, while Eugene takes on Matt. With only a little more than 3 points separating the two, it looks like it's going to come down to the wire on who's getting the #1 seed.

Game MVP

Aaron Rodgers (Rocket Man)

351 Passing Yards, 3 Passing TD's, 33 Rushing Yards, 32.34 Points