Evans World 2011–Week 14

Wow, was anyone even paying attention this weekend?  No votes on the matchups.  No comments.  No trash-talking.  Not even a woo-hoo from Ritchie.  So sad.  We’ve all been off this year, make no mistake.  But, this was a fun weekend of matchups, some closer than we’d thought they’d be.  I thought, just maybe, I’d hear something about it.  Sad.

PREDICTION CHECK
Let’s take a look at my playoff predictions and see how I did:

• Ritchie will beat Nathan in a close one - Well, not as close as I thought it’d be, so we’ll call this half-right.  Ritchie still has not changed his team name despite my warning.
• Rob’s chances are slim at best. - Nope, way closer than I thought it’d be, but in my defense Aaron Rodgers was pulled in the third quarter.  Even still, I was right that Rob lost, so there’s another half point for me.

Hmm, so far so good.  We’ll call it 1 out of 2.  So, let’s make a few new predictions for the second round of the playoffs.  Maybe with everyone playing this week we’ll get a little more chatter and/or interest:

• Tony P. vs. Ritchie – They split their regular season matchups, averaging 111.30 points each.  Yeah, should be a great, high scoring matchup.  I’ve got a bad feeling that Ritchie will have one last, huge week and beat Tony, denying him the championship one more time.  But, I’ve already predicted him in the final so somehow Tony will win this one.
• Berk vs. Tony G. – Berk is scoring at least 90 points a week for the past few weeks.  When Tony loses, he loses big.  I’ve got a feeling that Tony will have a bad week and Berk will easily find himself in the finals.
• Nathan vs. Rob – Sorry, Rob, but Nathan will want to get some money out of this season, so he’ll destroy you this weekend just as he did in week 4.  Nathan, be sure to give yourself $50 for your Christmas shopping.
• Kevin vs. Gary – Before this weekend I would have said it’s a no-brainer.  But now suddenly Gary has probably the biggest weekend of the past 5 years thanks to MJD.  Will it happen again this weekend?  Sorry, Gary, but Kevin’s beaten you twice now by an average of 28 points.  Unless MJD has another monster weekend, you’re done.
• Mike vs. Brad – Mike, time to change the team name?  Sorry, had to take the dig at you since we’re matched up.  I had a good weekend last week.  That’s my one for the year.  I don’t think you’ll have a problem beating me.  Please, God, don’t let me get a third record lowest score this year.
• Jason vs. Tom – ZZZZZZZZZZ.  Oh, sorry, were they playing each other?  I’ll admit, even I don’t care about this one that determines last place in the league.  I’ll just flip a coin for it.  Heads, Jason.  Tails, Tom.  (flip) It’s heads.  Tom ends up last, as he always should.

DO YOU EVEN REMEMBER YOUR DRAFT?
As promised, I’ve done a thorough analysis of the draft results and posted my findings here.  As with all things, I’m sure you’re going to burn these facts into your brains to keep with you until next fall when we see you all (and I mean ALL) back here again for more fun and sure victory for me.

GEMS OF THE DRAFT

1. Aaron Rodgers (Tony G.) – No question here on this one.  He may have even been worth taking at the #1 spot.  Sure, I’m biased, but you can’t argue with the numbers.  He’s far and away the highest scoring EW FF player after the end of the regular season.
2. Arian Foster (Rob) – A tough call for Rob to take him with the injury, and he still lost matchups even after Foster came back.  Foster is surging late and proving to be one of the best FF players out there.  Good gamble by Rob and FF owners everywhere that paid off huge.
3. Tom Brady (Ritchie) – A star FF QB every season, somehow he fell to the second round.  Are we crazy to do that?  Maybe.  Teaming him with Gronkowski has paid off in spades.
4. Matt Forte (Jason) – Forte is taking advantage of Martz’s offensive scheme and a poor QB/WR corps, which is paying off for FF owners.  Unfortunately, a late season injury killed Jason’s chance at avoiding last place.  Even still, Forte is an easy first-round pick again next year.
5. Wes Welker (Nathan) – I think I’ve talked about him enough this year, but let me bash us all one last time for letting Nathan pick him up in the third fucking round.

BOMBS OF THE DRAFT

1. Jammal Charles (Tom) – Sure, it’s easy to point at injured players and say they’re a bomb FF player for the year.  And of course Tom got two with Peyton thrown in.  Even still, I think it’s safe to say that Charles’ season would have been pitiful even if he’d been there.
2. Larry Fitzgerald and Reggie Wayne (Gary) – Oh, Gary, I don’t know if it’s what you were thinking when you drafted, but what worked for the past two seasons was definitely not going to work this year.  Both of these WR, normally huge EW WR, were coming in with new, untested QB’s and a limited chance of their success.  Can’t agree with your choices there, and neither paid off for you this year.
3. Andre Johnson (Brad) – Once again, injuries kept him out for 25% of the season.  I’m wondering if this prevents him from being a first-round pick next season.  Lots of reasons to say yes to that, and I might put Welker, Calvin Johnson and maybe Jennings ahead of him.
4. Danny Woodhead (Nathan) – Really sad.  So many reasons to root for him, and Nathan’s instinct to take him in the 8th round seemed justified at the time.  Had the Pats finally found a player to develop a running game?  Seemed like it.  Too bad. They decided to add a TE to their offensive scheme instead.
5. Philip Rivers (Brad) – After last season’s monster points, he was the Eli Manning of this season.  Totally bombed.

FINDS OF THE DRAFT

1. Jimmy Graham (Kevin) – Taken in the 10th round, if you can believe it, I don’t think Kevin even knew who he was.  He was just next on his TE list.  He’ll be at the top of all our lists next fall.
2. Rob Gronkowski (Ritchie) – Ritchie had taken Antonio Gates.  He really didn’t need another TE, but in the 13th round he took the backup to Hernandez just to fill a spot.  17 TD’s later Ritchie rejoices at his luck.
3. AJ Green (Gary) – Did Gary know he’d blow up?  I’m curious.  As I said before the season started I thought all Bengals would be worthless.  I see Green going in the late 2nd, early 3rd round next year.  Great call in the 9th round, Gary.
4. Steve Johnson (Jason) – By the 5th round Jason may have been reaching here.  Even still, I doubt anyone predicted the FF success of the Bills in the early part of the season.  Johnson helped Jason when the rest of his team let him down, and helped Fitzpatrick work his magic for Kevin’s bizarre season.

UNDRAFTED STUDS

1. Darren Sproles (Kevin) – At the end of the regular season, Sproles was the #5 EW RB in FF points.  And he went undrafted! Can you believe it??  Damn.
2. Jermaine Gresham (Nathan, Mike) – Nathan drafted Chris Cooley as Mr. Irrelevant, thinking he was as good a TE as he’d get, not that he needed one.  Gresham did well for him for a few weeks, then Nathan let him go for reasons as yet unexplained.  Mike picked him up at just the right time to help with those last few matchups.  Definitely becoming a favorite target of the FF-friendly Bengals this year.

PLAYERS WE SHOULD THINK HARD ABOUT NEXT FALL

1. Wes Welker.  First round.  Nuff said.
2. Darren McFadden.  Assuming he comes back from his injury strong, he’ll be a good second round RB in EW.
3. Matthew Stafford.  Definitely rank him higher in your QB listings next year.
4. Cam Newton.  Unless Carolina drafts a star RB that takes carries/plays away from him, Cam should be huge again next year.
5. The Lions DEF.  We all joked about it draft day.  We won’t blame you next fall.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

• So, Berk, how much longer are you going to keep Roy Helu on your bench?  Seriously! Starting C.J. Spiller?  Gotta question that one, buddy.  It’s the playoffs.  Put the best guys in.  I can see as of this morning you heeded my advice (which I hadn’t even posted yet).  Very well done.
• I think Gary’s trade for Maurice Jones-Drew has finally paid off.  Wow, what a huge week!  Was it the coaching change?  I didn’t see the game so I don’t know if they’ve changed a lot of their game plan, but they obviously did something they should have done a long time ago.  Gary paid off big time.  Whoever comes in next year to coach the Jags should focus their offense on him, draft a franchise WR and develop Gabbert.
• Anybody else notice that Nathan has three … count them! … three defenses on his team right now?  Come on, Nathan, admit I was right publically. Defenses can be very valuable … well, when you start the right ones anyway.
• Surprised to see that Sproles was the #5 RB?  Take a look at the point totals as of today.  After Sproles, there is a huge drop to Matt Forte.  This just hasn’t been a stellar year for the RB.  Will that change our draft strategies next year???
• Anybody else have problems with the Yahoo! app during the first Sunday games?  Very annoying.
• I hate the new banners on the Yahoo! site.  Seeing the “Biggest Blowout” banner with my name on it for last week is really fucking annoying.
• What was my favorite part of the weekend?  Hearing Mindi cheer for the Packers.  Sure, she was trying to jinx us since everyone she’s rooted for (in college and NFL) has lost recently.  It was just fun to see her cringe each time she yelled at the TV when the Packers did something great.  It was a magical moment for me.  Berk, your turn next.  See you at the Super Bowl party.
• So, here’s a question for you … anybody think the Colts would be doing much better if they had Peyton?  I say they’d have won a couple of games, but really their defense would still suck, their running game would fail, and not much else would have changed.  I think they’d still be drafting Andrew Luck in the fall. 
• I thought Harrison’s hit on McCoy was accidental.  Fine him, sure, but no suspensions.  Now, the Browns’ staff should be ashamed for sending him back in without any concussion testing at all.  Anyone with a brain and a TV to see the replay of the hit would know that everything was not okay upstairs on the kid.  That’s how high school football players die each year, people!
• Surprised to see Haley get let go.  I can see him landing as an offensive coordinator again somewhere quickly.  It sucks that his great season last year was so quickly forgotten.  Injuries have really hurt his season, no doubt, but he just couldn’t right that ship.  Look for Josh McDaniels to get promoted soon.
• If you’re computer is suddenly attacked by eamils, ask Rob for help.  Heh, heh.  Inside joke.
• Congrats to RG3.  Definitely earned it.

WEEKLY AWARDS

• MVP – Well, they helped him win one more week, so Brady and Gronkowski get it for Ritchie.
• Honorable Mention – Love to give it to Gary for MJD or even me for Sanchez.  But, gotta give it to the game that mattered, so Rodgers and Nelson gets it for Tony G. to move him into the semi-finals.
• Best Owner Choice – Even with his loss, Nathan made some great choices.  Starting Colston and Tolbert were great choices given the matchup.  But …
• Unfortunate Bench – If Nathan had started the Lions DEF, a defense coming into the game with something to prove and a playoff spot on the line, he’d be in the semi-finals.  Sorry, Nathan, but got to disagree with you on this one even with hindsight on my side.
• Lawrence Phillips Award – Oh, Marion Barber.  Bears fans were just warming up to you when you failed to stay inbounds and gave Denver the chance they needed.  They’re ready to run you out of town the moment Forte is healthy again for fumbling in OT.  Sure, it was more good DEF that made you lose the ball, but no one cares.  Just like we don’t care what happened to LP.

Well, I didn’t have any time this weekend to think about the scoring changes, so let’s hold off on that until the end of the season.  Next week we’ll look back on the highlights from the regular season.  Since we had no trades, trash-talking, comments or even replies to this blog … should be a short analysis.  Until then, have a great week!