Superbowl Shuffle Championship Week 16

It’s finally here. The last week of the season. We’ve had joy we’ve had fun we’ve had seasons in the sun but the wine and the song like the seasons have all gone. That’s right I just typed that. We’ve had 5 teams with the same season record (6-7) and half those teams made the playoffs. Quite a bit of parity for a 12 team league. How’s your season ending? For some of you it's ended like this:

And for others it will end like this:

(I want these moves. Full video here: Kill killin it)

I just want to let you all know I’m proud of you. If this was a soccer league for 5 year olds I’d give you all awards. Actually know know what? Wait a sec….OK here you go:

Feel free to print it off. Bring it to Christmas dinner. Post it on Facebook.

You guys made this year really, really fun and I hope you all can come back next year.  But there can only be one Highlander and that Highlander will be Let’s Get Physical or Team Kent. Congrats to both teams. Let’s Get Physical got physical with Big Blows, who put the blow in Blows last week. Team Kent continued his late season domination as the #1 seeded Savannah Pickles picked the wrong time to lay an egg. That egg turned out to be Jimmy Graham expending more energy complaining about penalties more than running routes. Or it could be Matthew Stafford deciding to model his throwing motion after Dan Quisenberry….just for fun.

Let’s look at the tale of the tape for the championship. Take a look a the matchup projections picture below:

Team Kent has been riding the Peyton Manning like this monkey rides this dog:

What’s nuts about these projections is PM should get 29.8 points. “Preposterous!” you’d say (if you actually said something like that in real life.)  But Manning has done this 6 of the last 16 games, and we really haven’t seen this face this year:

Here’s something else that’s crazy: here are the names of the high scorers that got Kent into the champeen ship last week: Demarco Murray, Rashad Jennings both with over 20 points. That’s right, the perpetually injured Murray on a dysfunctional, pass happy Cowboys team, and a backup that couldn’t get the starting role on the Jaguars the last couple years. Calvin Johnson is usually the anchor for this team however he’s slowed down lately and is dinged up.

Will this random, Mean Machine like group continue their hot streak for one more week?

Let’s Get Physical has the fantasy gem all stars this year. Eric Decker and Julius Thomas decide who’s going to dominate each week in the locker room right before the game. Eddie Lacy is making the Packers offensive line look professional for once. And when Dez Bryant does something he goes all out whether it’s this:

or this:

Filling out their lineup has been a Phillip Rivers who has clearly replaced himself with the younger Rivers via some type of Delorean using garbage as fuel. And finally Danny Woodhead, who looks like RB2 for a nine man high school football team.

If the fantasy talking heads saw this team, they’d swoon from having the vapors and then declare this team the champion immediately.

But the game still has to be played. Here’s what’s at stake:

1st place - $30 gift card

2nd place  - $15 gift card

Just a reminder we’re still playing for the rest of these spots too:

Highest scorer for the entire league (did not take 1st or 2nd place)  -  $10 gift card  

Consolation - $5 gift card

8 seed  - Prize: Nothing Absolutely Nothing!

Last Place: Not a threat, just a promise. If you get last place will immortalize you on the blog. I’ll get some pictures of you mark my word. I’m sure your 7th grade class picture will do. Believe it or not there have been a few hits from places I know our members aren’t located so it is public I’ll figure out a way to get the word out

Hope you and your families all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I’m sure I’ll post a recap after the holidays to tie a bow on this season (Christmas tie in!). Good luck to all.

BTW, had to share this as I'm certain my fantasy week this week will end like this:

Super Bowl Shuffle 2013 Playoffs Week 2

It was snowing and freezing in what felt like half the games last week where you the networks had to computerize the yard markers. There were some huge injuries to Reggie Bush(Sorry Mono, lesson learned, never warmup before a game) and Ryan from the office still couldn’t play.  So of course it had to be a low scoring, pedestrian week right? Well….If you had played against Josh McCown, Andrew Luck, and Lesean McCoy you didn’t think so. 99 TDs were scored in 14 games last Sunday. That’s not even counting the single digit temperature shellacking Josh McCown gave the Cowboys (This Josh McCown).

What’s more, take a look below at the top 20 scorers in our league last week. Show of hands, who had Da’rick Rogers and Jason Campbell? Nobody even had Andy Dalton last week in our league

That being said all the top seeds except one won in our league (Sorry again Mono) just maybe not the way we’d expect. The #1 seed advanced by 20 points even with a Monday Night surge by Boy’s Club’s Josh McCown’s 42 points. Replacement Refs just missed a huge upset over Let’s Get Physical by six points. Who knows what would have happened if there weren’t some key injuries to AP and Gronk in the middle of the game. And the big Mono Peligroso vs Team Kent saga now shows Kent is 3 of 9 against his archenemy. Kent isn’t winning the war but he won this battle and continues his rampage across this league.

#1 Pickles vs. #5 Kent - Will this be the Superbowl Shuffle championship one week early? Denver was disappointing on Thursday but Manning still got 20 points. It’s basically Manning and Megatron vs. Stafford and McCoy. This guys have superstars but it will be the 4th and 5th tier guys that will swing this matchup.

#2 Big Blows vs #3 Let’s get Physical - The Thursday night game wasn’t any fun for either of these teams. but that game isn’t all they need. They need big games from their heavy hitters. Physical needs Dez Bryant to make some big plays against a terrible defense. The Blows need Roethlisberger and Vincent Jackson to carry them like they have the last couple weeks. This could be a close one

I won’t get into the details with the rest of these teams. Just know there is still plenty to play for. In fact here are the prizes for this year:

1st place - $30 gift card

2nd place  - $15 gift card

Highest scorer for the entire league (did not take 1st or 2nd place)  -  $10 gift card  

Consolation - $5 gift card

8 seed  - Prize: Nothing Absolutely Nothing!

Last Place: Not a threat, just a promise. If you get last place will immortalize you on the blog. I’ll get some pictures of you mark my word. I’m sure your 7th grade class picture will do. Believe it or not there have been a few hits from places I know our members aren’t located so it is public I’ll figure out a way to get the word out

Here’s to some craziness this week too.

Superbowl Shuffle 2013 Week 14

It's playoff time y'all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Booooyahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






































Well it's finally here. The culmination of all those weeks on the waiver wire and setting up those rosters. Now all that's left is to play it all out to see who is the best team. No more power rankings, no voting, comparative rankings and debates. I don't mean to bring up a sore subject too soon but I just witnessed Michigan State beat Ohio State after winning 24 straight games. This left only 1 undefeated team in the country, Florida St. Ohio St. was undefeated until the very end. Do those teams meet in the NCAA Championship? No, it's going to be Auburn 12-1 vs Florida St. probably because Auburn beat #1 Alabama by doing this crazy thing:

After ward Twitter exploded Twitter explodes and sports "analysts" rejoiced to have something to do for 40 hours the next week. So Auburn got to play in the SEC championship so they would play Alabama for that Championship right because they were #1 the whole season? No because they were in the same arbitrary division. So that means Alabama has one less game than then res....Ok I give up it's too dumb to explain.  there's a bunch of 11-1 teams and a bunch of 12-1 teams and none of them have a shot to play in the National championship because of who or when they lost to the other team. Basically it's like the NCAA basketball tourney except everyone is a bubble team at all times.

I don't have the patience but I wonder if NCAA did the same thing how many Butler's, NC State's and #3 in the nation teams would have missed out on getting to the National Championship because they didn't win or lose to the right people.

I'm not saying Ohio State should still be int he National Championship their defense looked rough the last 2 games and they were outplayed by Michigan St tonight. But...wouldn't you want to see all these teams play it out to decide it all?  This will start to a small degree in 2014: Playoff system so we'll see how it goes.

Fortunately for us we don't have to debate. It's all going to happen out there on the field...er Internet. On to the Playoff brackets!


Winner's Bracket


#1 Savannah Pickles vs #8 Team Boy's Club - The Savannah Pickles started out the year dominating the league with McCoy and Stafford with strong starts. Near the end of the year he hit a 3 game skid which almost lost him the #1 spot. His sister, Team Boy's Club, had the same end of the year skid but managed to pick up just enough wins earlier in the season to put the brakes on. If you look at the numbers this may be a sibling rivalry but it's not a true rivalry as the Pickles seem to have too much firepower. Keys: If Boy's Club get get a bunch out of McCown, Jackson, and Fitzgerald. Maybe there's a chance but the Pickles are too stacked.
#4 Mono Peligroso vs #5 Team Kent - I love this matchup and I-eeee-I-eeeeee-I have always loved....this matchup. Truth be told Mono Peligroso leads this matchup 6-2 all time against Kent but some of those games were really close and Kent won the Champioship against Mono holding off an epic Monday Night comeback where Michael Vick needed like 5 passing yards or 1 rushing yard to put Mono over the top. Not to mention the bad blood that always happens after being college roommates for a few years.
# 3 Let's Get Physical vs #6 Replacement Refs- Let's Get Physical has been solid all the way around the entire season not sustaining any losing streak for very long mainly because of fantastic waiver wire choices like Danny Woodhead and Julius Thomas. Doesn't hurt to have Eddie Lacy and Eric Decker on the team too. The Replacement Refs had a solid draft but have had an up and down season due to Tom Brady inconsistencies, Offensive issues with the Vikings for Adrian Peterson. This lead to some serious losing streaks but the team has put up good numbers week to week to get them into the playoffs and should put up a tough fight
#2 Big Blows vs #7 Team Cantona - Aaron Rodgers and Knowshon Moreno, and some hot receivers are what got the Big Blows here. They laid an egg last week with a chance to be #1 seed and lost out based on points.  With Rodgers hurt and some tough matchups to start the playoffs it's gonna be a tough road. If Rodgers is back and the Broncos don't decide to rest starters they could make the repeat run. Team Cantona came into the league last year almost exclusively among the elite teams all year with a tough loss in the playoffs. This year has been a tough one with some key injuries challenging depth and underperformance by Eli Manning and more recently Andrew Luck. You aren't ever out of it with Jamaal Charles.


Loser's Bracket


#9 Rain Dancer vs #10 Silver Bullets - Rain Dancer decided to be the warehouse for all the most hyped and apparently the most overrated draft picks of the season. CJ Spiller, Lamar Miller, Dwayne Bowe, RG3. But Bobby Rainey (who?), AJ Green, and the return of Andre Johnson could help them salvage the season. The Silver Bullets have shown how you can have Drew Brees and Cam Newton and still get 10th seed. With a 3 game losing streak, a 4 game losing streak and a 4 game winning streak, it seemed to be on teh shoulders of who started at QB. Whether Wes Welker and Antonio Brown can actually get passes and if the Ravens offensive coordinator remembers Ray Rice is in the lineup. Which streak will the Bullets start in the playoffs?
#11 Levanger's Bangers vs #12 Spatula City Spatulas - The Bangers seem to make all the right moves with their roster with Keenan Allen, Desean Jackson, Frank Gore and Tony Romo unfortunately they hit a 6 game losing streak with a good portion of these games losing by a small margin leading to an uncharacteristically underperforming season. They still have the talent to make a run for consolation. let's see if Allen is for real and if Romo will do Romo things, good or bad. Spatulas were also uncharacteristically  underperforming. The Spatulas loved overrated players so much this year they bought the company. Who would have seen all the drama with the Falcons and Matt Ryan or with Trent Richardson. Josh Gordon could help them make a run and the waiver activity throughout the year could make the season somewhat redeemable.

I'll announce the prizes for 1st, 2nd, Highest scoring, etc next week.

Good luck today!

2013 Week 13

Well this is the end of the regular season y'all. I've already said all the thank yous possible. I was basically this: http://youtu.be/8HgWANva9Xk on Thursday. Someone calm me down. 

So to me all that's left is scenarios. The great thing about this year is there's a lot of parity. I've updated the magic numbers but let's throw them out this week because it's all situational now. Here's a few numbers:

3 - teams already made the playoffs (Big Blows, Savannah Pickles, Let's Get Physical)

9 - teams are playing for the last 5 spots 

3  - teams need a win OR need 3 of the 5 remaining 5-7 teams to lose (Peligroso, Cantona, Silver Bullets)

5 - teams are 5-7 and need a win AND need a 3- 5 of the 5 5-7 teams to lose. If you are one of these teams and you lose then you need 4- of the 5-7 teams to lose AND you need to win the "Points For" tiebreaker (Silver Bullets, Team Kent, Levanger's Bangers, Replacement Refs, Rain Dancer)

1 - team is 4-8 and would need to win AND need 4 out of the 5 5-7 teams to lose AND win the "Points For" tiebreaker. Not impossible but going to be a tough road.(Spatula City Spatulas)

0 - 5-7 teams play each other today so all 5-7 teams could lose today making today wide open for anyone 

Does your head hurt? Mine does. Here,  this may be easier to understand: 

This is just brilliant. "You need to take some 2x4s and 1x8s and just shimmy it." Props to Mike Reid for the link.

Bill Murray seems to make the right choices. And even if he makes bad choices (See: The Man Who Knew Too Little, Space Jam, Quick Change, Mad Dog and Glory) He still fits in a few brilliant moments). BTW see him in Zombieland. Even if you don't want to watch the movie (which is good if you can stomach the zombie kills) fast forward to his part, it's fantastic. Besides the classics (Meatballs, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, What About Bob?, Groundhog Day) check out the dramatic work (Lost in Translation, Get Low, Hyde Park on the Hudson). 

I especially want to highlight Hyde Park on the Hudson. It's no Lost in Translation but he carries the film, and is the first time I forgot the character he was playing was Bill Murray. Don't even get me started on co-owning the St. Paul Saints.  

Just goes to show, if you make film choices based on movies you believe in more than movies you get paid the most for and not be afraid to do some dramatic work, you can keep your integrity and relevance...or you can be Chevy Chase or Dana Carvey.

Here'e hoping you can make choices you believe in over what seems to get you the most gain. Both in life and in fantasy football. 

Here's the Power Rankings:

Power Rankings

Let's Get Physical has now made the playoffs and could still get the 1st or 2nd spot. The top spot is Big Blows to lose if they lose and Savannah Pickles win then we're looking at another "Points For" tiebreaker. Special mention to Silver Bullet's who have surged forward with a 4 game winning streak going from 1-7 to 5 -7. Also to Team Kent who has a 3 game winning streak and leads the rest of the league better watch out for in the playoffs as he leads everyone else in the league in Points For with 70 more points than the next highest scorer. Rain Dancer drops significantly after a tough loss last week. 

Here's the playoff picture:

Let's see how much this changes after this week. This is gonna be fun.  Everyone have a great week! Hope you make the playoffs!

Ryan

PS- The noon games are almost done and I couldn't resist posting this from today's Vikings game: 

*shopping for Patterson jersey currently*