Newsletter: Week 11

We had the season's most lopsided victory, another Monday night nail-biter, some new scoring records, and some good luck for Randy, keeping his playoff hopes alive.

Last Week

After whining about Chris having a super easy schedule so far, he faces Branden, who breaks Randy's low score of the year with a pathetic 29 points. But this time, it didn't matter for our leader in the standings, as he steamrolled his way to high score of the week, thanks to our Player of the Week and others for a total of 86 points.  It is the second time of the year a team has broken 80. More importantly, the win guarantees Chris a spot in the playoffs!

Branden's hopes for low score of the year, however, were dashed within 24 hours after Dave's team buried their heads in the Philadelphia sand. Vegas put the over/under on the Dave/Randy matchup at 82 points and they were quite generous. Randy rides the backs of Vinatieri and the Chicago defense (and their record-setting 108 yard touchdown) to a 42-28 victory. And he avoids being the first FFLer with 7 consecutive losses.

Bruce needed 18 points from McNabb to steal a victory on Monday night against Beau.  Things looked over before he ran in a touchdown at the end of the first half, hernia and all. But he played poorly in the second half, and didn't get the two required touchdowns to pull of the comeback. Bruce loses for the second week in a row to the tune of 53-45. And Beau finds himself in second place, after being in last just four weeks ago!

Useless Info

~Branden's bench gave their owner a big "Fuck You" this week.  Had Branden picked Samkon Gado (22), Joey Galloway (11), Hines Ward (10), and Reuben Droughns (10) this week, he would have scored 75 points. Picking a running back who was listed as inactive for the week (Davis) was apparently not good karma. However, Branden can sleep well knowing he still would have lost anyway.

~Chris' 57 point victory over Branden is by far our most lopsided victory of the season. The largest spread previously was 35 when Beau defeated Randy 90-55.

~The last time we had such a lopsided victory (when both teams submitted lineups) was two seasons ago in the first round of the playoffs. And guess who? Branden defeated Chris by 58 points.

~Two teams scoring under thirty is not as rare as I thought.  Two years ago, week three, Randy and Bruce had an intense, down-to-the-wire, 23-22 contest.  And three weeks later, Randy scored 25 points while Dave scored only 19.

~Amazingly, the only year we had ten teams in the league, we had no such feat.  Randy scored under 30 three times, and Heather did so once.

~Mostly known as a humble man, Beau noticed something that even surprised him. His 53 points were the lowest he's scored since Week 2. More amazingly, Bruce's 45 points were the worst for one of Beau's opponents since Week 1.

~Chris has vaunted into second place for total points, yet Beau extends his lead to 47 points. Bruce is the only other realistic contender, 49 points back. With four weeks left, there's a ton of time to make that up.

~This is only his third season in the league, but it's the first time Dave hasn't led the league in trading. But, apparently, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.  Branden is this year's biggest donater, with 17.5 trades. Of course, if Dave had just made his customary 20+ trades, he could have retained his title. Must be all those sidebets that distracted him.

~We did break a record for average trades per person at 13.3. The previous record was 12.9 just two years ago.  Perhaps a smaller league is more conducive to training, as there is more talent on the waiver wire.

~Two years ago was also the last and only time we had three inter-team trades in one season.

The Trade^_TM

This looks all but wrapped up. We'll revisit this back at the end of the regular season unless the race heats up.

Total Fantasy Points Scored
Branden Gets...	Pts	Beau Gets...	Pts
QB Eli Manning	38	QB Peyton Manning	48
RB Priest Holmes	33	RB Brian Westbrook	27
WR Reggie Wayne	23	WR Marvin Harrison	42
WR Hines Ward	20	WR Santana Moss	35
Total	114	Total	152

Playoff Implications

Chris

Has already secured a playoff spot. Secures at least third place with a win or a Branden loss. Wins tiebreaker over Bruce with a win or tie this week.

Beau

Secures a playoff spot with a win and a Dave loss.

Bruce

Secures a playoff spot with a win and a Dave loss.

Branden

Wins tiebreaker over Dave with a win.

Dave

Wins tiebreaker over Branden with a win.

Randy

Wins tiebreaker over Beau with a win.

This Week

Branden (4-6) vs. Dave (3-6-1)
Chris (7-2-1) vs. Bruce (5-3-2)
Randy (3-7) vs. Beau (6-4)

No byes left. Good luck to everyone except Randy!