Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Well that Seahawks game was embarrassing. it’s like the 49ers watched some tape and a light bulb went on over their heads. They had their way with the Seahawks defense. It was a night and day difference from the last game. The Seahawks destroyed themselves with penalties totaling almost 150 yards including 4 15-yard penalties on ONE DRIVE. Instead of clinching a spot in the playoffs, the Seahawks are now left hoping to win a very difficult game against the Chiefs. If that falls through then they have to win their last game of the season against the Cardinals. At least that one should be easy… right?

Our league was absurd. It was the lowest total score by a mile. Let’s start at the top with #1 seed Logan playing #4 seed Tyler. Looking back through the season, they were pretty evenly matched, but this time Tyler pulled out a win even though Logan would have beat anyone else in the league. In the other championship bracket game, Andy and I wheezed our way to the two lowest scores of the league. That was my lowest score of the season by over 30 points! To add insult to injury, I lost by 0.65 points. Ouch. But this means that we’ll be crowning a new champion this year. Will it be Tyler or Andy?

There was drama in the consolation bracket as well with Nick beating Tim by less than 2 points. Nick and Luke will battle for 5th while Tim and Dad battle for “not last”.

One more crazy stat from our league: everyone who won in week 14 lost in week 15 (and vice versa)!

Andy has fallen down near the bottom of the power rankings so the algorithm thinks that Tyler will be winning the league. Let’s see how this plays out!

1. Logan (Goat Roapers)
2. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck) +1
3. Tim (Beer-me) +1
4. Ben (Kool Aid Kid) -2

On to the weekly records:

The Seahawks game was … interesting. Russell Wilson ended the game 10 for 20 with 72 yards, 0 TD and 1 INT for a passer rating of 38.9. And it’s not like they had that much better luck rushing the ball. Thankfully the defense looked as good as they did a few years ago with multiple critical stops and takeaways. The Seahawks have charged to 8-5 so unless something goes drastically wrong in the next 3 games, they’ll blow past my curmudgeon 8-8 prediction for the season. Who knows, maybe they’ll even win their wildcard playoff game but I don’t think they’ll go much beyond that.

This was another mostly unimportant week in our league as we positioned ourselves for the playoffs. The top four teams played the bottom four teams and two of those were upsets with Tim and Dad knocking off Tyler and Andy. My win, couple with Tyler’s loss meant that it came down to a tiebreaker to decide third seed and I scored 35.05 more than Tyler to beat him by about 8 points in the final total season score. That all means that next week we’ll have Logan playing Tyler and I’ll play Andy. Looking at the entire season, if Logan played Tyler every week, Logan would have won 9 of 14 weeks. If I played Andy every week, I too would have won 9 of 14 weeks. We’ll see how week 1 of the playoffs actually plays out. Our scores have been wild enough that anything could happen.

Let’s so who the power rankings think has the best chance:

1. Logan (Goat Roapers)
2. Ben (Kool Aid Kid)
3. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck)
4. Tim (Beer-me) +2

On to the weekly records:

That was a fun Seahawks game to watch. The defense looked great with lots of great drive ending stops and takeaways. It was even better knowing that the Seahawks play the 49ers again in a couple weeks. Hopefully that game is similar.

More importantly, the Seahawks kept their “scorigami” streak alive. In 9 straight seasons, they have had one game where they were involved in a game that had a score that had never happened in the NFL before.

This week and next week are a bit of a lull in our league as the playoff teams are already set. All we’re doing right now is figuring out the seeding. Logan’s reign of terror ended, but maybe he’s just sandbagging so we feel better? I had the unenviable honor of putting up the second most points and losing. I should keep track of how many times that happens as I feel like it’s happened to a couple other people this year as well. The standings remain totally unchanged from last week except that now Logan and Andy have the same record so it’s possible they’ll swap places. Next week the top four teams play the bottom four teams and then we’re off to the playoffs. Thanks for keeping your rosters full!

Andy has fallen out of the top of the power rankings and Nick has shot up into fourth.

1. Logan (Goat Roapers)
2. Ben (Kool Aid Kid)
3. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck) +1
4. Nick +2

On to the weekly records:

I hope you got a chance to catch the Seahawks at the Panthers. What a game! One lowlight was Wilson missing another pass to an open Doug Baldwin in the endzone. It sailed right over his head just like last week. What happened to the chemistry those two used to have? On the other side of the ball, Christian McCaffrey was making the Seahawks look silly. He finished with 125 yards rushing, 112 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns! It’s not often that a running back has the most points in all of fantasy football for the week. The fourth quarter had plenty of drama including a missed field goal by the Panthers with less than two minutes less and a game winning drive and field goal by the Seahawks. As Pete Carroll said before the game, this was a playoff game. It really put the Seahawks into a great spot to make the playoffs and I think they have have a great chance at topping my 8-8 prediction since 3 of their remaining games are against teams with 2 wins. Hopefully nothing silly happens there.

Our league wasn’t devoid of drama either.Logan topped 170 points for the fourth week in a row securing a spot in the playoffs. Andy also secured his spot even though he lost. But the most amazing game was easily the one between Tyler and Nick. Nick entered Monday night with a 60% chance of winning with Deandre Hopkins only needing about 10 points to put Nick on top. With 10 minutes left in the game, Nick was 0.01 behind. That’s not a typo. The closest game in the history of our league was 0.12 back in 2012. Surely he’d get at least one more yard, right? Nope! The game ended with Nick down by 0.01. With a score that close, it’s not really over yet. Stat corrections come in by Thursday and though it’s unlikely, if a correction hits either team, it could easily change the outcome of that matchup which would have big playoff implications. A win for Nick gives him a real shot at the playoffs while a loss makes it almost impossible. (And in case you’re curious, it is possible to tie in the regular season in our league.)

Next week, Tyler and I do battle with the winner clinching the third playoff spot, although realistically we’re both in. Even if Nick wins the remaining two games and one of us loses both games, we’d still beat Nick in a points tie breaker.

Thank you all for keeping your rosters full even if you’re not going to make the playoffs! It helps keep the league fair if we’re all filling the rosters each week.

Whew. I need some oxygen. Let’s look at the power rankings:

1. Logan (Goat Roapers)
2. Ben (Kool Aid Kid) +1
3. Andy (RAAAWWWRRRRR!!!) -1
4. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck)

On to the weekly records:

UPDATE: Logan noted I had incorrectly listed Tyler as the owner of Christian McCaffrey.

The Seahawks looked pretty good against the Packers but you have to wonder what’s going on with Wilson this season. He’s missed a lot more throws than I remember him missing in the past. I counted at least three big misses on that Thursday game including one to a wide open Baldwin in the endzone.

The real game of the week was Monday Night Football between the Chiefs and the Rams. If you didn’t catch that, go watch a highlight reel. I zoomed past Luke for the win floating on Mahome’s 6 TD’s (despite his 3 INT’s and 2 lost fumbles.) Logan said that Mahomes was “Farving all over the field.”

Our league set another record this season for total score. Logan topped 170 for a whopping third week in a row. I don’t have the stats for it, but I bet that 520.91 points in three games is a league record. Logan and Andy both one to extend their leads on the rest of the league. Yahoo doesn’t give them the little icon yet but they’re pretty much a lock for the playoffs. Tyler and I are tied for third but we could easily get overtaken by Nick and maybe even the others. In fact, Tyler and Nick are playing next week which will be a key game for both of them.

Logan is still on top of the power rankings this week:

1. Logan (Goat Roapers)
2. Andy (RAAAWWWRRRRR!!!) +1
3. Ben (Kool Aid Kid) -1
4. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck)

On to the weekly records:

The Seahawks are now 4-5 and are looking like they have a pretty good chance of hitting my 8-8 prediction. That might even be a stretch. If they can beat the Packers after this short week then that will be a big help because you hope they can beat the 49ers twice and the Cardinals. They kept this last game interesting but the magic isn’t there. I loved seeing Russell running more. I wonder where that’s been all season?

Our league was kuh-razy. It was the most total points for our league this season and there were two huge upsets as Luke took down Tyler and Nick squeezed out a high-scoring win over Andy. Those games were crazy too as Luke’s Monday night player scored just enough to beat Tyler before leaving the game early and Nick was one fumble away from losing his game on Monday night too.

Everyone has over 1000 points for the season now but there’s a pretty big separation between positions 1-4 and 5-8. The playoffs are far from a lock though. Andy and Logan should be feeling pretty good about their chances but there are still 4 games left before we start our playoffs and crazier things have happened. Next week’s key matchup is Andy vs Tyler in a battle of #2 and #3.

After putting up 350 points in two weeks, Logan is obviously on top of the power rankings:

1. Logan (Goat Roapers) +2
2. Ben (Kool Aid Kid)
3. Andy (RAAAWWWRRRRR!!!) +1
4. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck) -3

On to the weekly records:

The Seahawks game sure ended dramatically but they were lucky it was even that close. Dropped touchdown passes, multiple missed throws by Wilson, numerous penalties, and a pick six interception put them in a big hole that they couldn’t dig out of. Next week isn’t going to be any easier as they face the seemingly unstoppable Rams who usually give the Seahawks trouble even when the roles were reversed.

In our league, Logan finally put a decisive end to Tyler’s winning streak. But menwhile, Andy has quietly been getting his own five game winning streak going and he’s alone out front. Nick is the next one to get a crack at taking him down. Tim and Nick both had 0’s in their roster but it looks like most of them were late scratches. Nick ended up winning that one with a great last minute defense signing.

The power rankings are relatively stable this week.

1. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck)
2. Ben (Kool Aid Kid)
3. Logan (Goat Roapers) +1
4. Andy (RAAAWWWRRRRR!!!) -1

On to the weekly records:

The Seahawks looked like a reasonably good team on Sunday. The wide receivers were pulling down everything in sight (and then some). The Rams seem like a lock to win the division, but right now the Seahawks are only half a game out of the final wild card spot. They have a long way to go, but if they keep playing like they did yesterday, there’s a chance that my early prediction of them not making the playoffs will be wrong. I’ll stick with my prediction though. One game does not a season make. (Here is a good website for playoff odds if you’re interested.)

Our league witnessed another dominating performance by Tyler. He broken the season high score (which he set previously) and flirted with the all-time record. And that game between 7th and 8th place (Luke and Nick)? They put up a lot of points, but Nick came out victorious. Every week I think about saying that you need to be making lots of roster moves to win in this league, but then I see Andy up there tied for first place with the fewest moves in the league!

Tyler has shot up to the top of the power rankings chart. He had some lower scores the previous weeks which held him down but the 191 point performance is hard to deny.

1. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck) +4
2. Ben (Kool Aid Kid)
3. Andy (RAAAWWWRRRRR!!!) -2
4. Logan (Goat Roapers) -1

On to the weekly records:

There wasn’t a Seahawks game this week. Next week they play the Lions and it looks like they’re underdogs at that game which is probably fair. We’ll see what they can do on the road in Detroit.

In our league, Tim ended Tyler’s five game winning streak. Tyler now falls back into the clutches of Logan and Andy in a three way tie for first place. Tim has 4th place to himself, I’m in 5th and everyone else is tied for 6th. This marks the halfway point to the playoffs for our league since weeks 15 and 16 of the NFL regular season are our playoffs. The top four teams will make it into the playoffs so it’s still anybody’s game. Here are what the power rankings think will happen…

1. Andy (RAAAWWWRRRRR!!!) +2
2. Ben (Kool Aid Kid) +2
3. Logan (Goat Roapers) -2
4. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck) -2

Lots of new records this week…