I'm sitting here watching the Niners go toe-to-toe with the Saints, and looking back on the year just finished. As usual, there were a number of surprises, and as usual, there was one team which stood head and shoulders above the rest for most of the season, but faded late. In years past, it's been the River Horses and Los Diablos; this year it was YAC Attack. Only the 2010 Puttheads managed to keep the top spot all year long.
These are my team-by-team thoughts and observations, as usual going from worst to first.
Los Diablos: HAH-hah! Will Kubicek *ever* pay off his karma debt from the 2006 season, when he won the title despite scoring practically no points? Somehow, he managed 3 wins versus 11 losses, despite scoring the 5th most points on the season. All 3 wins were picked up between weeks 8 and 11; the rest of his season was misery. The Houston Texans may be in the playoffs, but Matt Schaub and Arian Foster didn't help Los Diablos much. The lone bright spot for Los Diablos on the season was their week 8 thumping of the Psychotic Ninjas to win the week, no doubt small comfort for a season which began and ended with solid drubbings at the hands of the Puttheads, and many, many other losses in between.
Team Datanator: The first fantasy team I've ever seen to be named after a software utility saw a 2011 season filled with promise and futility. With Adrian Peterson, Frank Gore, Matt Forte and Marshawn Lynch, Team Datanator demonstrated that you can field a competitive team using auto-draft. With occasional weeks-long periods of neglect which saw (for example) Roy Williams as a starter from week 10 on (total fantasy points: 5), Nick proved that even a team loaded with stud RBs can limp to the finish line without adequate management. Late-season injuries to Peterson and Forte didn't help, either.
Nick also demonstrated that you don't need to be a hands-on manger to beat Kevin.
(Okay, to be fair, he also beat Your Esteemed Commissioner, not to mention the eventual champion Orion River Horses).
Merrill's Marauders: After Los Diablos, Merrill is next in the line of 'What's Wrong with the Former Champions?' entrants. And unlike Kubicek, Merrill's point total for the season (805) is second-lowest, meaning his 5-8-1 finish is about what he earned. His draft roster is almost a who's who of 2012 fantasy disappointments: Rashard Mendenhall, Andre Johnson, LeGarrette Blount --- seriously, was there a Bucs player this year who wasn't a fantasy disappointment? --- and JerMichael Finley. Even the early-season pickup of Cam Newton didn't help.
I'm sure the worst part of the season, from Merrill's perspective, is that he not only lost to Kevin, he lost to Kevin twice. And speaking of Kevin . . . .
Golden Graham's: The Denver Broncos of the TTFFL. Seriously. Tim Tebow did for the Graham's what he's done for the Broncos; the only problem was that the TTFFL season is 2 weeks shorter than the NFL season, and the Graham's got Tebow as a starter 2 weeks later than the Broncos did. But once Kevin had Tebow starting for him, his season totally turned around. They were 1-6 before the trade, and went 5-2 the rest of the way, even remaining in playoff contention until a week 11 loss to the eventual champion River Horses.
To be honest, a 9th-place finish is better than Kevin usually does. And of course, there are those 2 victories over Merrill. All in all, not a bad season for the Graham's.
Leviathans: The Leviathans had an awesome inaugural season in the TTFFL; unfortunately, it was only 5 weeks long. The Leviathans were unbeatable in weeks 5 through 9, and 1-8 the rest of the way, including a crushing 5-game losing streak to finish out the season. Hmm, that's the way Pete's seasons usually end --- perhaps the torch has been passed. To be fair, Levi's end-of-season schedule was brutal, with three consecutive games against playoff teams (YAC Attack, River Horses and Strike Team), and the season finale against the Golden Tebow's --- er, Graham's.
Psychotic Ninjas: I haven't said this before, but I always thought I got away with highway robbery in the 2010 league draft: Rodgers, Austin, DJax, Charles, Foster, Nicks and Bradshaw in the first 10 rounds. Somehow, even with all that talent, I only managed a 3rd-place finish.
Well, as good as my 2010 draft was, that's about how bad my 2011 draft was. Three of my top 6 picks lost significant chunks of time to injury (McFadden, Felix Jones, Hightower), and in hindsight, my plan to make the Josh Freeman/Mike Williams combo the cornerstone of my offense was extremely misguided, if not downright idiotic. It's a miracle I manged even 6 victories on the season.
But wait, that's not all the stupid stuff I did this year! Let's look at my trades, shall we? As good as Tebow was for Kevin, Rivers was mediocre for me. And the steal of the season was my deal to give the Orion River Horses Marques Colston and Tim Hightower for the ultimately useless Jahvid Best. All I can say to Pete is: you're welcome.
But man, I really robbed Pete blind on that Aaron Hernandez/Owen Daniels trade. Hernandez averaged 3.7 points per game after that trade, versus 1.7 for Daniels. Oh yeah, think about that the next time you trade me a tight end, Petey boy!!!
Screaming Eagles: Jason managed the team that did the most with the least. Despite only putting up 817 points --- third least --- Jason still managed to put up a 7-7 record and had at least a theoretical shot at the playoffs right up to the last week of the regular season. All they needed to do week 14 was score 52 more points than they did. I know there's a lot of us who wish we had gotten that close. The real killer for the Eagles' season was the pathetic display by Chris Johnson, or as I now call him, CJ0KE. If Johnson had played in 2011 like has the past two seasons, we could well be trying to wrap our minds around an Eagles championship now --- which is even more inconceivable than a River Horses title.
Puttheads: If Kubicek had a disappointing season by winning only 3 games while scoring 895 points, then Jody had a disappointing season on steroids, scoring 1031 points (second most), but managing only a 7-7 record and a fifth-place finish. By comparison, the Puttheads only scored 967 points in 2010, which earned them a 12-2 record and the top seed in the playoffs. But I guess that's fantasy. Part of Jody's problem was a 106-96 week 4 loss to Taylor, but the real roadblock for the otherwise high-flying Puttheads this season was a mysterious slump in weeks 7-9, when they only managed 45, 48 and 48 points.
It's probably not much comfort to Jody that his season began and ended by absolutely pounding Los Diablos into dust, by a combined 222-102 margin. But as silver linings go, I'd take it.
Suspended Atomnation: In finishing fourth, Adam wins the award for having the best team on the season who didn't really win anything. With one lonely weekly win, Adam finished with as much money as Los Diablos, and less than the playoff-less Ninjas and Puttheads. Unlike Kevin or Levi, whose seasons were divided into streaks of winning and (mostly) losing, Adam's Atoms were consistently among the top 2-3 teams all season long. Unfortunately, someone has to go 0-2 in the playoffs, and this year it was Adam. You could look at their playoff games and point to lackluster performances by Eli Manning and Ray Rice, but the fact of the matter was that weeks 15 and 16 just weren't the Atoms' weeks, losing by 27 or more each week.
I'm trying to look for a silver lining in this season, but there just isn't one. Adam can say he made the playoffs --- whee.
YAC Attack: Congratulations to Taylor for fielding the top scoring team of 2011! And congratulations too for coming out of the season with something to show for it, though taking home the 3rd-place trophy has to sting, considering that YAC Attack outscored Orion River Horses by nearly 200 points on the season. Add to it that the first-round playoff loss to the Hippos was keyed mostly by Drew Brees having his second-best fantasy day the same week Aaron Rodgers had his second-worst (that, plus the out-of-nowhere 19 points put up by C. J. Spiller).
Trust me, Taylor. I know what it's like to miss out on a title due to QB issues in the first-round playoff game. Oh and how I know.
Actually, I'm guessing that adding insult to injury is that this was probably a pretty dull season for Taylor. With a mostly rock-solid draft (Rodgers, Fitzgerald, Bryant, Fred Jackson, Steve Smith), there really wasn't any need to pay much attention to his lineup each week --- this was the team Nick needed to have --- so Taylor missed out on making moves and nail-biting weekly start/sit decisions which make fantasy football such an awesome pastime. Better luck next year, Taylor.
No wait, what am I saying?
Strike Team: Second year in the league, second place. Not too shabby. I mean, it's no breaking into the league with three straight titles (*cough*, *cough*), but it's still impressive. Here's a little-known fact about Aaron. At the start of last season, he was the league's Team Datanator. By which I mean, he was, shall we say, relaxed about maintaining his roster. But since about week 5 or 6 of 2010, he's been all in, with a solid draft and consistent performances from his team throughout the season. But like Taylor in round 1 of the playoffs, Aaron could not overcome the might of the River Horses and their stars Drew Brees and C. J. Spiller in the title round. I have a sort of nervous feeling that we may be seeing Strike Team as a force in the playoffs for years to come.
Orion River Horses: The River Horses' season just drives me crazy. If you had to pick a team to go all the way, they wouldn't have been in the top 4. With the exception of Drew Brees, and possibly Marques Colston, Pete's draft was chock full of underachievers. And although Pete successfully foisted Jahvid Best off on the naive and trusting Ninjas in the Colston trade, the dirty little secret there is that I only had Colston available to trade to Pete because Pete dropped him after his collarbone injury in week 1.
Not only that, but the River Horses started the season 2-3, and backed into the playoffs with losses in weeks 13 and 14. It was less a case of Pete making the playoffs and more a case of everyone else --- Levi, Jody, Jason and myself --- stumbling to the finish line. I mean hell, Pete even dropped two games to the Ninjas, if you can believe that.
But wow, did Pete ever manage to make the most of the opportunity he had. I've already talked about Brees' strong finish, and the opportunistic pickup of C. J. Spiller. Considering that the River Horses only finished 7th in overall scoring, they sure picked a good two weeks to blow the top off of things. Sometimes that's all it takes.
And so, we draw the curtain on the 2011 TTFFL season. It's been a blast. And trust me, guys, I'm not going to draft like a loser again next year. Pete, Aaron, Taylor and Adam: Don't get cocky.
No comments:
Post a Comment