Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Luckily for me, I had my house full of Packer fans on Sunday. That made the disastrous game even more fun to watch. But seriously, I think we can stop entertaining notions of any Super Bowl run. It’s not going to happen. My prediction is Dallas vs. New England.

Our league had, by far, it’s lowest output of the season. Three teams set their individual low scores for the season. It was close too. Two games were decided by less than 0.7 points! Logan and Austin seem to be peaking at just the right time. Logan is on a four game winning streak and this is the first week that Austin has had either the high or low score of the week. The playoffs will feature Andy vs Austin and Logan vs me. The consolation bracket features Tim vs Dad and Luke vs Jim.

Here are the power rankings at the end of the regular season:

1. Logan (+1)
2. Austin (+2)
3. Ben (-2)
4. Andy (-1)

Now THAT Seahawks game was fun to watch… mostly. It was a dominant 40-7 win with good turnovers on defense, good blocking from the offensive line, and great runs and passes. The only obvious downside was the season ending injury to Earl Thomas. He’s a fantastic player and big part of the defense.

In our league, the big logjam at second place was broken up. I defeated Andy, Logan beat Austin and Luke beat Tim. The net result is that Logan and I are now tied for second by record and Austin and Tim are tied for fourth by record. Andy has officially clinched a playoff spot, but Logan and I are effectively in unless something crazy happens because we have so many more points than Tim. Fourth spot is still up for grabs. If Austin wins, he’s in. If Austin loses, either Tim or Luke could snag that final spot. Thank you to Dad and Jim for hanging in there. Your games are deciding the makeup of our playoffs!

League leader Andy continues his slow climb up the power rankings. Maybe he’s peaking at the right time?

1. Ben
2. Logan
3. Andy (+1)
4. Austin (-1)

So the Seahawks place very well and defeat the Eagles and Patriots but then get manhandled by the Buccaneers?! Hey John Schneider, can we please have an offensive line? What a mess that game was. The defense was really missing Earl Thomas but held Tampa Bay scoreless in the next three quarters. The offense was a mess though and only managed 3 points the entire game. That loss also broke a pretty major streak: “Seattle’s streak is over. At no point during the fourth quarter today were they within one score of tying the game. This is what blowing out Seattle looks like.” [source] That incredible 98 game streak that was ended by the Buccaneers who are now over 0.500 for the first time since 2012.

Our league standings are officially constipated. Andy is still comfortably out front but there is a 4 way tie for 2nd place. Total season points are the tie breaker. As the monday night game ended, I was on ahead of Logan in the total season points by 0.01. Then Rodgers took a knee twice and Yahoo apparently counts that against the QB rushing yards so that dropped me to 0.19 behind Logan. Austin is close behind us in fourth and Tim is 220 points behind in fifth. He’s going to need to get into the playoffs with his record because I don’t think he can make up that point deficit with only 2 games remaining until the playoffs start.

Next week we have some big matchups that will help shape our playoff picture. Andy gets his chance to beat up on me, but then Tim and Luke play each other, possibly battling for that fourth playoff spot, and Austin and Logan play each other battling to break out of the four way tie. Dad and Jim make up the fourth game and one of them will get to put another notch in their win column.

1. Ben
2. Logan (+1)
3. Austin (-1)
4. Andy

It seems like there have been a lot of very tense Seahawk games this year, but this one was more of a comfortable win. They played pretty well and chugged along to get the win. There are some concerning injuries coming out of the game though. Procise is probably out for the season and Pope is going to miss a game or two. Thankfully Rawls is back but he got banged up in the game too. Thomas and Sead have hamstring strains at might miss a week. One bright spot is that Bennett is probably going to suit up for the next game after missing the last 4. The Seahawks have survived some pretty major injuries so far this season. We’ll see if they can continue that. They will definitely be a favorite over the Buccaneers but these injuries will add to the drama.

In our league, Andy’s #1 team scored the second lowest points but was playing against the lowest score in the league so he keeps his streak alive. (Andy’s total was hurt with the major injury to A.J. Green.) Logan ended his 4 game skid by stopping my 4 game winning streak. We haven’t had a winning or losing streak more than 4 games long this year.

Nobody has clinched a playoff spot yet and the league is still really tight. It’s going to be a stretch for Dad and Jim to make it, but everyone else has an excellent chance to make it in. Currently, the third through fifth teams all have the same record and the most points in the league, but they are separated by only 24 points. Thank you to everyone for continuing to start full rosters even as some people drop out of the playoff picture!

There’s no change in the power rankings this week. They still differ wildly from the actual standings so we’ll see how that shakes out.

1. Ben
2. Austin
3. Logan
4. Andy

Each week I usually check the Bing NFL predictions to see what they think about the Seahawks game. It has been a long time since the Seahawks were not favored to win but that was the case against the Patriots. It was a great game and it was very refreshing to see the offensive line giving Wilson pretty good protection and a good run game. And the ending was very sweet: the Patriots had first and goal from the 1 and they failed with four chances. It was good payback for the Super Bowl (but obviously not at the same scale.)

Every week there are a few stat corrections and Yahoo takes those and updates all of our scores. They generally don’t matter too much, but last week there was a stat correction in the game between Luke and Logan. It was already incredibly close and the stat correction made it even closer. Luke’s score dropped just a little bit and almost changed the winner of the game. (Seems appropriate during election time, right? Maybe there were some hanging chads.) The net result is that last week’s game between Luke and Logan broke our all-time record for closest win ever.

In our league, Andy held on to his first place position, but it’s a firmly packed mess behind him. There are 5 teams separated by a single game. Nobody has clinched a playoff spot yet and there are only 4 games left in our regular season. It almost always comes down to a tie breaker somewhere in the league so every point counts!

No big change in our power rankings this week except that our top place team, Andy, reappears on the list.

1. Ben
2. Austin
3. Logan
4. Andy (+3)

The Seahawks played a doozy of a game on Monday night. Jimmy Graham had two one handed touchdown catches and he hurdled someone. The man is incredible and it’s nice to see him getting used. I loved the shock of everyone in the stadium when Russell Wilson ran in for that first touchdown. It felt like a collective, “What?! He can do that again?” Thankfully he’s good enough that her was able to keep the passing game alive despite the horrible offensive line and complete lack of a running game. It was a nail biter to the end. And oh yeah, that mess at the end of the first half was beyond ridiculous. (Also ridiculous: people who spell ridiculous with an “re” as if they are “diculous” again.)

Our league was really low scoring in most of the games. Austin and I scored a lot of points but five other teams didn’t break 100. There were some very close games with Dad and Logan coming out on the bad end of those. Dad gets the deadbeat award for missing two roster spots, but he already apologized for that one. Please keep an eye on those rosters because our league is so tight that it doesn’t take much to change the list of teams that make the playoffs… we only have 5 games left! This week’s big game in our league is Luke vs. Logan (1st vs 3rd.)

1. Ben
2. Austin (+1)
3. Logan (-1)
4. Luke

Before we get into football, I have to say something unbelievable: for the first time since 1945, the Cubs are playing a game that could win them the World Series! After being down 3 games to 1, they have fought their way back to even. Last night, they won 9-3 which is the score that they lost game 7 by in ’45. I’m not a superstitious man, but I’m thinking about stopping at the butcher on the way home to grill some fresh goat. Go Cubs go! End this curse!

The Seahawks had another frustrating day. The highlights of the game for me were the big goal line stands. The Tanner McEvoy play was good too but the penalties in the game were killer. So. Many. Penalties. The weak offensive line is hurting the team pretty bad. It’s hard to throw down the field when Wilson doesn’t have time and they get extra penalties as they try to get the first step in the blocks. The final drive down the field looked great but didn’t end in anything. Bleh. After 7 games, they have only won 4. Hopefully Kam Chancelor and Michael Bennett come back soon and Wilson gets healed up. Otherwise this season isn’t heading very far into the playoffs.

In our league, three of the four games were upsets according to the Yahoo projections (those projects are oh so accurate and useful, aren’t they?) The biggest upset was definitely Jim getting his second win against Logan who had the top spot in the league. #8 topples #1. Andy is now top dog in the league and he’s only made 2 roster moves! He has also had the easiest schedule so far so well see if he can keep it up.

We’re over halfway to the playoffs in our league but the league still feels pretty tight. Nobody has clinched yet but another win or two for Andy might get him a spot. Everyone still has a chance I think.

There were some big moves in our power rankings this week:

1. Ben (+4)
2. Logan (-1)
3. Austin (-1)
4. Dad

The Seahawks vs Cardinals game was a doozy. I’d say it was a defensive battle but it felt more like impotent offenses, at least on Seattle’s side. Regular time ended with a 3-3 tie so they went to overtime. Surely one time would be able to find a way to score a touchdown and put this game out of it’s misery? Nope. They both managed a field goal which meant that the next score would win the game. Seattle’s defense let the Cardinals march down the field in range for an easy field goal and… it hit the upright! The Seattle found some offense and marched down the field for an easy field goal and… wide left! AUGH! My old man heart can’t take this. The game ended with that 6-6 tie and that’s it. The Seahawks are now 4-1-1. Since the new overtime rules were introduced in 2012, this is only the fourth tie and it’s the first in Seahawks history. Meh. The bottom line is that the Seahawks better find a way to fix their broken offense because it looked horrible.

We had a crazy week in our league too with the top two teams (Logan and Andy) losing. There is now a three way tie for first place between Logan, Andy and Tim. Next week’s game of the week is probably Austin vs Andy. They’re both in the top 3 in the power rankings:

1. Logan
2. Austin (+1)
3. Andy (-1)
4. Dad

The Seahawks are 4-1 after and ugly win against Atlanta. The normally rock solid kicking game had a missed field goal and blocked extra point that nearly cost them the game. The big play of the game unfortunately came from the referees with a blown pass interference call at the end of the game that would have put the Falcons in field goal position. I love the Seahawks but that as a terrible no-call. Nevertheless, it’s a W in the books and that means that “Russell Wilson is 1 win away from his 50th career victory. With a win over the Falcons in his 69th career start, he would tie for the 3rd-fastest starting QB since 1970 to reach 50 career wins, behind only Ken Stabler (62 starts) and Tom Brady (65 starts).” (source)

Two of the highest scores in our league came from the 7th and 8th place teams (Dad and Jim) in their head to head battle. Luke’s team blew everyone away though with three players over 30 points! Logan looks dominant as he extended his winning streak to 4 games. And I don’t want to pick on Tim too much, but have we ever had a team that was in first place get the lowest score in the league two weeks in a row? If he keeps this up for a few more weeks, he’ll be down in the standings by me. Here’s what the Power Rankings have to say:

1. Logan
2. Andy
3. Austin
4. Dad (+2)

The Seahawks had a bye this week, but I read a couple fun statistics that make me excited about the possibilities for this season:

• The Seahawks now have played 77 straight games without losing by more than 10 points. That is now the longest streak in pro football history, as they passed the Decatur Staleys-turned-Chicago Staleys-turned Chicago Bears streak of 74 straight set from 1920 to 1925, per Pro-Football-Reference.com.
• Since 2012, the Seahawks have allowed 106 touchdowns. The next closest team is the Bengals, who have allowed 143 during that stretch.

Tim’s undefeated streak was ended in our league in grand fashion. It was kind of reminiscent of the Hindenberg as Logan beat him by so mucch that we wondered about the toppling of the all-time record. Elsewhere in the league, Luke, Jim and Dad are still looking for win number two before their season is flushed like number two. Jim and Dad each other next week so one of them will find the endzone. Kudos to Jim though for starting the perfect roster this week!

With his big game, Logan jumps up to the top of the power rankings this week:

1. Logan (+2)
2. Andy (-1)
3. Austin (-1)
4. Ben