Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Naturally 50% of the teams won in the first week and this week, 50% of those teams won again leaving us with two undefeated teams: Andy and Logan. Both of those undefeated teams play the two teams that haven’t won a game yet (Dad and Austin) so we’ll see if they can keep their streak going or succumb to an upset.

Now on to the weekly awards:

• Highest Team Score: Tim had 154.46 (Previous record, Week 1: Luke had 151.22)
• Lowest Team Score:  I had 87.42 (Previous record, Week 1: Dad had 87.89)
• Biggest Blowout:  Andy beat me by 56.55. (Record, Week 1: Ben beat Dad by 62.37)
• Closest Win: Logan beat Luke by 7.1. (Record, Week 1: Logan beat Tim by 0.89)
• Highest Scoring Player: Aaron Rodgers had 42.90 for Tim. (Record, Week1: Peyton Manning had 60.28 for Andy.)

Stats mostly via TMQ:

• Tim owns the two top scoring players this week: Aaron Rodgers and Michael Vick.
• Baltimore has won 11 straight versus Cleveland.
• Peyton Manning is 3-0 versus Eli Manning.
• At 7:08 Eastern on Sept. 15, the Jacksonville Jaguars became the final NFL team to score a touchdown in the new season.
• San Diego, which won at Philadelphia, is now the favorite to win the Super Bowl. The Eagles’ four most recent home-opener opponents, the Saints, Packers, Giants and Ravens, all won the Super Bowl that season.
• At New England, Geno Smith’s passer rating was 27.6, below the 39.6 an NFL quarterback receives if every pass is incomplete.
• The Giants, who committed 21 turnovers in 16 games in 2012, have committed 9 in two games in 2013.
• Detroit, which just lost at Arizona, has not won a game in that state since 1993. Sunday the Lions travel to Washington, D.C., where they have never won — 21 consecutive road losses versus the Washington team.

Welcome to another season of fantasy football! We have the same group of guys as last year. The season got off to a rocky start with difficulty scheduling the live draft. In the end only Andy, Logan and I live drafted, but it’s doubtful that makes any difference. Next year I’ll have everyone who wants to participate help pick the date and time of the draft.

Week 1 was a dramatic start to the season. Peyton Manning tied the NFL record for 7 TDs, Danny Trevathan dropped the ball before getting to the goal line, and Chip Kelly brought a little duck to the life of the Eagles. Despite my failed ability to schedule a DVR and watch the Seahawks game, they did pull out a victory. This could be a great year for them…

Now on to the weekly awards:

• Highest Team Score: Luke had 151.22
• Lowest Team Score:  Dad had 87.89
• Biggest Blowout:  Ben beat Dad by 62.37. This blew away last year’s record too. Sorry Dad!… sort of.
• Closest Win: Logan beat Tim by 0.89
• Highest Scoring Player: Peyton Manning had 60.28 for Andy. This is higher than last year’s record.
• Deadbeat:  None!

Stats mostly via TMQ:

• Since Jan. 2012 in the playoffs, Green Bay is 0-5 versus the Giants and Forty Niners, 12-3 versus all other teams.
• Terrelle Pyror had 329 of the Raiders’ 372 offensive yards.
• The Browns (2.0) are 1-14 in openers.
• At 1:59 p.m. Eastern on Sept. 8, 2013, the Oakland Raiders scored their first rushing touchdown since October 2012.
• Green Bay has gone 44 regular season games without a 100-yard rusher.
• Andrew Luck has appeared in 18 NFL games, and has already led seven fourth-quarter comeback victories.

The championship game was a doozy this year! I didn’t really care who won, but it was nice to see a good game. Our bracket league was also very close. With Louisville winning, Jay and I had exactly the same number of points and we both had 38 correct picks so then it went to a tiebreaker: final score of the championship game. Lousiville won 82-76. My predition was 73-67. Jay’s was 73-68. SO CLOSE! Congrats Jay!

I still haven’t sat down to watch much of the tournament, but I think I’ve seen some of the highlights like Wichita State taking out Ohio State and Kevin Ware’s broken leg. I wish I hadn’t watched that second one as it will be forever burned into my skull.

It looks like our bracket race is AndyC’s to lose. If Louisville beats Michigan in the final game, Jay and I will end up in a tie breaker. In all other scenarios AndyC wins. No matter what happens, over half the field is treading water. Logan, Luke, Jim, AndyD and Tim all picked the final four completely wrong. This is probably one of the worst years for our group predicting the final four!

By the way, if you bet on “Andy” to win from the start, you’d have a 33% chance of being right.

The dust has settled on the first two rounds of the tournament. I honestly haven’t even watched a single game, but I’m winning. That’s 100% skill with zero luck involved of course. Technically Jay and I are tied for first but for some reason Yahoo lists me in #1 and who am I to argue with them? Sorting by possible points remaining tells the more interesting tale and with that AndyC is on top. Luke looks like the big loser in the possible points category as his Spokane love for Gonzaga torched his bracket. Tim is at the bottom of the current points list but has enough possible points remaining to make a come back.

The NCAA tournament starts this week! The teams have been picked and it’s time to pick your brackets. This is an annual tradition on Studio711 and if you’ve never participated, consider giving it a shot this year. Everyone should play even if you’ve never watched a basketball game in your life.

1. Go to http://y.ahoo.it/bFwqMbhJ and join the group. The password is my first name in all lower-case. There’s no cost. (I recommend that you pick a team name that somehow uses your name so we know who you are. For example, mine is “Ben’s Busted Bracket.” But of course, you don’t have to use your name in the team name. Pick whatever you want!)
2. Fill out your bracket by guessing which team will win each game. The little numbers beside the school’s name is the ranking in the tournament. So if a #1 team is playing a #16 team, the #1 team will almost always win. Who will win in a game between #8 and #9? Nobody knows! That’s what makes it fun.
3. Make sure you save your bracket and then you’re done! Come back to this site throughout the next few weeks until the tournament is done and I’ll have a few posts along the way talking about our brackets and who is doing well.

And remember that in addition to TV coverage, you can watch every game live and recorded at http://www.ncaa.com/march-madness.

Good luck! Let’s see if Logan can defend his title this year.