As a wise man once said: "A solid RB can still carry a team to a fantasy title". Kamara carried Levi to a fantasy title ALL BY HIMSELF
I'd like to start out by thanking --- everyone, I guess --- for NOT making the effort to point out just how mind-bogglingly wrong my last post was. Kamara had already done his SIX TD dances at the time that I wrote it, putting Jason in an epic hole.
I'm too lazy to look up the league history to figure out whether this was the most lopsided championship game ever. But I'm confident it's the only time in league history that A SINGLE PLAYER outscored an entire team in a championship game. Hell, it's probably the only time a player has single-handedly won a game at any point in the season. Congratulations to Levi for getting to enjoy this epic beatdown. And I would be remiss if I didn't post my favorite video once again for Jason's benefit (of course, it would have been more appropriate had I posted it on Christmas Day):
It will be hard to come with anything else useful to say after the Kamara/Leviathans title game, but let's see whether maybe I can anyway.
I guess no one should be surprised that Craptastics lost the title game. For one thing, Jason has held onto that crappy team name for 3 seasons now, so he kind of deserves to be crushed like a styrofoam cup under a circus elephant. Also, other than a 3-week aberration from weeks 5-7, the Craptastics didn't crack 80 points all season, scored the fourth-fewest points in the league, and backed into the playoffs on a 2-game losing streak.
It's not surprising that Jason lost; it's absolutely STUNNING that he made it as far as he did.
It's a LITTLE bit surprising that AirMatt fell so far, so fast. He put up the most points in the league, more than 100 more than the next-highest-scoring team (the champion Leviathans), and went into the playoffs with the top seed --- where he promptly dropped two games, including losing the consolation matchup in dramatic fashion. His 63 startable RBs (or whatever the number was) didn't show up for some reason, and instead was handily defeated by Adam and his backfield of (checks notes) --- Mike Davis and Myles Gaskin.
Okay, then.
As of this writing, there is still one game where the outcome is in doubt: the battle for next year's top pick. If Pete loses, it will be because he started Darren Waller over Jimmy Graham, and if Taylor loses, it's because he started Diontae Johnson and Antonio Brown over CeeDee Lamb and Nelson Agholor. Whee! Fantasy football is fun!
And if Aaron beats Kevin, it will be because Aaron decided, what the heck, let's start Aaron Rodgers at QB, while Kevin decided, what the heck, let's leave Derek Carr on the bench and put his backup in the lineup instead.
This was actually the shark move. Kevin has already figured out that the 4-slot is the place he wants to be in next year's draft!
It looks like I beat Merrill in the most pointless playoff game, the battle for the fifth overall pick. Whee. And to round out the league, Jody fired Harbaugh in more ways than one --- losing the Toilet Bowl to Kubicek, thus guaranteeing that his team will be called something else next year.
Unless Levi flakes and doesn't pick a name for Jody's team. Because it kind of feels like we don't do that any more.
In any case, congratulations to everyone for making it through the season which I predicted would never happen! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Blessed solstice! Happy Hannukah! Merry Kwanzaa! Yippee Festivus! And similar felicitations and greetings, no matter how you may choose to celebrate the end of one of the most miserable years of our lifetimes!
End of year accounting and whatnot will be available when I damn well feel like it.
I know I'm coming to this a bit late, but after all it is the holidays. And with no Thursday game this week, we still have a full slate of games ahead of us.
So ---
After our earlier discussion about past champions, and the fact that we've had a different champion each of the last 7 years, I'm really rooting for Jason to pull off the worst-to-first turnaround this year (except that Jason DIDN'T finish in last place last year --- that was TWO years ago, and yet somehow, his team still has the Craptastics moniker. Which, I have to say, diminishes my enthusiasm for them a skoche). I mean, it's a bummer that Kevin and Taylor both got bounced from the first round of the playoffs, but at least Jason still has a shot at winning his first TTFFL title of the modern era!
I haven't looked at the league site recently, but I seem to recall that the system was projecting the title game to be a real nail-biter, with both teams scoring in the mid-70s. And I know that Jason is starting both Derrick Henry AND Le'Veon Bell! With CEH out for the Chiefs, that's a 1-2 RB combo that really packs a punch! And let's face it --- in spite of the popularity of RPOs and the passing game these days, a solid RB can still carry a team to a fantasy title.
And Jason's got TWO of them! So let's all root for the Craptastics, if for no reason other than if he wins the title, he might think about changing his team name!
Well, let me settle in and get real comfy here, while I analyze all of the various playoff scenarios with one week left in the season ---
These teams will make the playoffs:
Craptastics (Geez, Jason, 2019 is over. You can give your team a real name now)
~ AirMex ~ (Geez, Matt, Mex hasn't played in this league for three years. You can give your team a real name now)
Golden Graham's (Geez, Kevin, your team historically has been anything but 'Golden'. You can give your team an appropriate name now)
Leviathans
Suspended Atomnation
Air Apparent
These teams will not make the playoffs: Everyone else.
Whew! What a workout! And as always, the stupid tiebreaker rules that Kubicek rammed through 3 years ago (or whenever) made it especially difficult to figure out!
What's that you say? Not enough blather for you? Okay, let me see if there's anything else worth mentioning. If not, then I'll mention it.
The Craptastics will be either the #1 or #2 seed. Thanks to an early-season beatdown by AirMatt, The Craptastics will fall to the #2 position if they lose to AirMatt again by any margin whatsoever. Otherwise, they take the top seed.
~ AirMatt ~, as mentioned above, can claim the top seed with a victory this week over The Craptastics. Interestingly enough (speak for yourself, Dave!) --- a loss will drop AirMatt to the #4 seed, thanks to Kubicek's tiebreaker and losses to Golden Grahams, Air Apparent and Leviathans.
Golden Grahams, as noted above, take the #2 seed with a win and an AirMatt loss. If Golden Grahams and AirMatt both lose, then I don't know what happens, since both teams will be 8-5, along with the winner of the Air Apparent/Leviathans matchup, and possibly Adam as well. The bottom line appears to be that the #2 seed is kind of up for grabs if AirMatt loses.
Leviathans, Suspended Atomnation, Air Apparent --- you get the idea.
And really, that's all there is to say, since none of the other teams really matter.
