Week 7 Update

The time has come.  We are a bit more than halfway through the season, and it's time to take a look at where everyone stands.  Much to my chagrin, the Trumbores ARE at the top of the league --- but as expected, they're well on their way to blowing it.

NOTE: This might not be the correct week 7 order, because I'm writing it before the final Monday night game of the week.  Apologies to anyone showing up lower on the list than they deserve.

1. Leviathans - Levi is absolutely crushing the league in terms of points scored, sitting at 514 points going into this weekend.  He's broken the 80-point threshold 4 times, and was the high-point scorer for three consecutive weeks.  However, he's run into some bad luck in the past week, with Aaron Rodgers going out for the year (which made Jordy Nelson ineffective also, for this week at least), and Leonard Fournette going out for --- a while, anyway.  Despite all of this high scoring, he's about to fall into a 4-way tie for first place at 5-2.  But the good news is that with all of those points, he probably only needs to score two more victories to lock up a playoff spot, and another 4 victories is likely to secure a first-round bye.
2. Suspended Atomnation - Our defending champ got off to a rocky start, sitting at 1-2 after the first 3 weeks.  But he's now riding a 4-game winning streak, thanks in large measure to his opportunistic pickup of DeShaun Watson after week 3.  Would you believe the Houston rookie is the #1 fantasy QB right now?  Neither would I.  Adam is also getting help from Chris Thompson, another unlikely stud.  Adding these two breakout players to his lineup also leaves Adam in strong contention for the playoffs and a first-round bye.
3. Team Harbaughs - We see a significant dropoff in points scored between the #1 Leviathans and #2 Atomnation, and another significant dropoff between Atomnation and Team Harbaughs. Jody has notched 5 wins more by luck than by having any real stars on his roster, but as we all know, sometimes that's all it takes.  But, while he's currently part of a 4-way tie for first, he's probably equally likely to miss the playoffs as make them.
4. Orion River Horses - See Harbaughs, Team.  Hell, going into this week, Team Harbaughs and Orion River Horses had scored practically the same number of points: 359.7 to 358.7.  And while Pete has scored a couple of reasonable victories, he has also lucked into a 54-44 win and a 46-34 win.  Jody and Pete will be two of the teams helping to keep the playoff picture cloudy right through the end of the season.
5. Air Apparent - The former Polly Prissy Pants is driving toward a 7-6 final record in a very predictable way.  Taylor has notched wins in weeks 1, 3, 5 and 7, and losses in the even-numbered weeks.  Kind of appropriate, considering that Taylor's second strongest player (after Antonio Brown), is Ezekiel Elliott, who is having his own on-again, off-again season.  Will he be suspended, or won't he?  Given Taylor's usual luck, and the fact that Elliott appears to finally be heating up after a slow start, it seems likely that the suspension will go into effect just in time for Taylor to lose in the first round of the playoffs.
6. Screaming Eagles - Taylor, Jason and Merrill --- the three teams which should all be 4-3 at the end of the week --- had all scored roughly the same number of points coming into the week, with Taylor leading the way at 384.1, and Merrill bringing up the rear at 382.3.  Jason has some stars on his team, including Kirk Cousins, Jordan Howard, and Davante Adams (though the Rodgers injury might spell the end of his usefulness), and if Jay Ajayi could remember how to run for 200+ yards again, Jason might make things interesting.
7. Merrill's Marauders - The Marauders started slow --- just like some of their players, like Cam Newton and LeVeon Bell.  They're still not exactly a good team, scoring more than 56 points only twice on the season (so far), and like the four teams above them on this list, they will likely be fighting for a playoff spot right up to the end.
8. Los Diablos - Every year, we see that points scored don't always match up with a team's won-lost record.  This year's Los Diablos team is an example of this, with the 3rd-most points scored going into the weekend, but only a pair of victories (and riding a 4-game losing streak to boot).  This week's victory over Strike Team has stopped the bleeding for now, but Kubicek needs his Saints (Brees and Ingram) to step up their games, as well as needing Julio to find the end zone more than once every 7 games.  Otherwise, he'll find himself fighting to stay out of the Toilet Bowl at the end of the year.
9. AirMatt has scored the 4th-most points this season, but is still about to collect his 4th loss of the year.  Part of this is due to his failure to notice that this league starts TWO RBs each week (strangely enough, both of the other leagues he plays in only require ONE starting RB), and part of it is due to injuries (Stefon Diggs, DeMarco Murray).  Will his W-L record eventually catch up with his scoring to put him in the playoffs, or will he continue to underperform in the W-L column to end up in the consolation bracket?
10. Golden Graham's has the same 3-4 record as Paul and Matt, but with about 70 fewer points scored --- second-fewest in the league.  His roster consists of pretty much the surprising Alex Smith, the perennial stud Gronk, and not much else.  In short, the Graham's are what we thought they were, and we never thought very much of them.
11. Strike Team Started off poor and has gotten worse just about every single week.  They've scored the third-fewest points in the league, and it's not surprising, considering their roster has only mid-level starters Devonta Freeman and Michael Crabtree, and a bunch of replacement-level guys.  In fact, there's every reason to believe that this year's Toilet Bowl will be played between Strike Team and the only team pitiful enough for them to beat . . .
12. Psychotic Ninjas Everyone may recall that earlier this year, I sent out a league update because I was asked to.  And a lot of folks got irritated that I didn't discuss my own team, so I won't make that mistake again.  As noted above, sometimes a team's record doesn't match up with the number of points that team scored, but in the Ninjas' case, they line up perfectly.  The Ninjas have scored the fewest points in the league thus far, and they have the 0-7 record you would expect.  Their roster is a who's-who of busts and disappointments.  I did manage to pick up the #3 DST and the #1 kicker off waivers (and those rankings are likely to remain high after this week), but other than Travis Kelce (the #4 tight end with a whopping 32 points scored over 6 games) and Mike Evans (the #14 WR), NONE of the players I drafted rank higher than TWENTIETH. It really is a spectacular collection of misery.

The Ninjas' 0-7 start to the season is so remarkable, I had to go back into the archives to see whether an 0-7 start had ever occurred before in league history, and I was surprised to discover that it has actually happened quite often (hasn't it, Kubicek?).

In the 'modern era', two teams have started the TTFFL season 0-6, those being the 2014 Strike Team (who got their first victory in week 7 over the Golden Graham's), and 2016 Screaming Eagles (who beat Merrill in week 7, unlike this year).

One team --- other than the 2017 Ninjas --- has started 0-7, that being the 2011 Los Diablos.  Ironically, they scored their first victory that year against the Ninjas in week 8.  The Orion River Horses get honorable mention in this category, as their 2010 squad started the year with seven winless weeks, including a tie (against --- you guessed it, the Ninjas again) in week 6.

One team has managed to start the season with EIGHT consecutive losses.  That would be the 2013 Los Diablos squad, which was winless until their week 9 matchup against the Screaming Eagles.

But at the moment, the record for futility at the start of the season belongs to none other than last year's Strike Team squad, which lost NINE GAMES IN A ROW before claiming their first victory in week 10 against the River Horses.

Will the Ninjas match or exceed Strike Team's record for futility?  Will they avoid last place, or even the Toilet Bowl?  It's difficult to see how they'll manage even one victory on the season, but anything is possible.  They actually scored the second-most points in the league in week 6, when they just happened to be matched up against Merrill, the high-point scorer for the week.  Certainly a single victory seems more likely than 9 more losses, but I've been playing fantasy long enough to know never to say never.