Evans World – Week 13

I’m so sorry, guys.  I’d started my blog last Tuesday and got caught up in work and Thanksgiving prep that I forgot to post it.  I’ll add any thoughts from last week that are worth repeating.  Since all of my predictions can’t be verified (since I didn’t post it), I’ll just move along to this week’s results and talk about who made the playoffs and why.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of food, friends, family and of course fantasy football.

LET THE QUEST FOR THE MONEY BEGIN

• Congrats to Marshall, Ritchie, Berk, Jason, Nathan and Mike for making the playoffs this year!  It amazes me that we didn’t have a single team with over 10 wins this year, but it has been a crazy FF year without a doubt.
• For those of you who haven’t checked the Evans World Record Book yet, this is Nathan’s 7th appearance in the playoffs, and his 6th straight.  This is also the first year Tony P hasn’t made the playoffs since 2008 following his 5-game losing streak.  This is Berk’s 5th straight year in the playoffs.
• Nathan squeaked into the playoffs with a 7-6 record thanks to his total team point total of 1,413.93.  That is the third highest regular season point total in league history.  And yet, if Tom had managed to pull off the win, Nathan would have missed the playoffs even with that massive point total.  What a year.
• Marshall is riding a 5-game winning streak and sits atop the standings for the first time in I don’t remember how long.  Enjoy the view from up there.  Evans World might just take on a whole new meaning this year if Marshall takes home the championship.
• Sorry, Kevin.  So close.  I managed to beat Mike with one of my biggest games of the season to give you the shot.  Sadly, things didn’t work out to make up the 71.53 point difference between your two teams.
• We still have a trophy.  Nathan has it (big surprise).  How about next year everyone chip in $5 to get the team names engraved onto the side of it?
• Looking to the first round, I see Mike and Nathan moving on.  Might as well put Berk out of his misery, and I think Nathan’s players matchup for more points than Jason’s team could hope to get.  If I’m wrong, we’d have a Battle of the Brothers in Week 15 between Marshall and Nathan and Berk and Ritchie.  Doesn’t that just sound cool?
• Anybody want a side bet for the consolation bracket?

RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK

• Tony P’s 5-game losing streak is just something my brain is having  a hard time computing. Looking at those 5 losses, Tony lost by an average of 21.75 points.  But in truth, he really only lost by a handful of points against 3 teams that made it into the playoffs.  Hard to feel good about it, I know, but there’s still something about those results that should cushion the blow a little.  Well, only a little.  I’ve been there.  I know.
• Berk’s QB woes continue.  I don’t blame you for starting Flynn this week, especially considering the outcome of his last game against the Lions.  But OUCH.  I don’t think anyone saw the Packers playing that horrible a game on Thanksgiving, much less you since you chose to start Flynn over RG3 or McCown.  I’d stick with one of those two through the playoffs.
• Tony G goes down fighting.  I think he deliberately played most of his team on Thanksgiving so that by the time the final dessert was down he’d have a good idea if he’d win this weekend.  In truth, I thought you had it against Kevin, but then that didn’t quite work out the way we thought it would.  Even still, probably made for a more relaxing weekend for Tony.
• Is Nick Foles for real?  In the 7 games he’s played for Kevin this season he’s average 23.87 points a week.  To put that into perspective, Brees is averaging 23.9 points.  Brady is averaging 12.33, both after 10 games.  Does that move Foles up in the FF QB ranks for next season?  Hard to argue with the numbers.
• Is Josh Gordon for real? Based on the numbers this year, he must be. The WR from the fucking Browns is the #5 ranked WR in our league this year! He had a second monster week for Nathan this week. It also surprises me to see Antonio Brown as the #4 WR in our league. When you think of the passing-heavy FF teams, the Browns and Steelers are probably at the bottom of your lists. These WR are doing amazing things with below-average QB’s.
• Tom, I’m sorry dude. It was a bad week 12 for you, and aside from leaving Spiller in your startup there wasn’t much you could have done to prevent it. Sadly, the performance is the in the top 10 lowest scores. You now have 4 of the top 10 lowest scores in EW history. Don’t worry. I have 2 of them.
• Mike, don’t feel bad, especially since you won in Week 12. I would have benched Rivers against the Chiefs DEF too.
• Speaking of the Chiefs, anyone predict how good they and the Panthers and Cardinals are doing this year? Or how bad Houston is doing? I think Seattle is finally measuring up to expectations, even though you might not see if from an FF perspective.
• Speaking of doing bad … enjoy this little GIF of the Dallas defense completely forgetting to tackle a player after a catch. Sorry, Mindi:
  
  
  
• Don’t feel so bad, Berk, about the tie between the Packers and the Vikings. At least it’s better than a loss, and you knew one was coming for you even with Rodgers out.

WEEKLY AWARDS

• MVP – Hands down it goes to Josh Gordon.  What a monster pick-up for Nathan this season.  Somehow I see it paying off for him even through the playoffs.  Nathan always seems to have that 1 WR who either gets enough catches or yards to average 10+ points a week consistently.  Gordon gets that and TD’s.  Depending on who the Browns draft as their QB in May, Gordon may go up/down in the WR rankings in the next draft.
• Honorable Mention – I could give it to me for Jeffrey, but I never had a shot at the playoffs.  It did feel good to score more than 100 points for a change.  Instead I’ll give it to Marshall for Murray who ran a hard game and got him enough points to beat Tony P and make it to the top of the heap.
• Best Owner Choice – I love Nathan’s pick-up of the Miami DEF, and Jason certainly benefited from Eric Decker finally becoming relevant in the Broncos’ passing game for at least one week.  But I’ll give the award this week to Tony G for starting Rashard Jennings, something I’m sure he wasn’t excited to do but paid off big time.
• Unfortunate Bench – Thanks, Roddy White, for finally showing up in Week 13 and justifying the high draft pick that I and so many other FF owners wasted on you this season.  Too little, too late.  But the award this week goes to Gary who by some strange happenstance or simply bad luck left 4 players (Stafford, Tate, MJD, Miller) on his bench that would have significantly changed his team total.  You would have still lost, 124.24 to 124.21.  Another 0.03-point difference game for Gary!
• Lawrence Philips Award – Coaches! Get out of the fucking way!  Both Mike Tomlin and Jason Kidd both deliberately impacted play on the court/field by stepping out where they shouldn’t.  Kidd admitted to doing it, only after the video playback showed him distinctly telling his player to bump into him.  Idiot.  Tomlin may have been a little out of it since his back was slightly turned away from the play, but there wasn’t another soul around him and he should have known that Jones was heading right for him.  The smirk on his face after the play said it all, and that’s why he’s $100K poorer today.

WE ARE A PART OF THE HUSKER NATION

• First of all, I’d like to applaud Nebraska AD Shawn Eichorst for coming out ahead of the game and nipping the media frenzy in the bud, ending what would have been weeks of endless speculation and unreachable expectations as to whether Bo would have a job at the end of the season.  I also applaud his decision, which I think he’ll stand by no matter the outcome of the bowl game: Nebraska will keep Bo at least one more season.  We can all pick apart his statement for tidbits of “well, he could still fire him based on what he said,” but I think Eichorst’s statement allows the team, the coaches and the fans to all accept what is and move on, rather than spend weeks and wasted energy trying to guess what he would do.
• Like I said, I agree with the decision to keep Bo.  But there are things that MUST change.  I only hope Eichorst and Bo can agree on what those things are.  I still believe Papuchis is the wrong man for the job of DC.  Maybe Bo is the right man.  Maybe there is someone else who can reignite the spirit of the Blackshirts and develop those young players. 
• Time to move on to the next season, my friends. That means 8 months of developing Armstrong into a capable option QB and team leader, beefing up those defensive linemen and linebackers into the Blackshirt monsters of yore, and building a team identity around winning the Big 10 Championship. That’s what Bo’s job should be.
• All I want from Bo, between the bowl game and the Spring game, is a plan for how things are going to be different from this season.  If he keeps the same staff, the same plan, and just builds with different players, I don’t think we’ll win more than 4 games and we’ll be right back here again next December.  No thank you.  Just tell us you have a plan, show us some things you’re going to do different, then go make it happen. 
• I think one thing that could easily change is Bo’s persona on the field.  Here are two things. First, his temper, with players, coaches and the refs, needs to be dialed back from 11 to 1.  He did so well for nearly the last 2 years, but in the Iowa game he fell back into his old habits without a second thought.  The impact that attitude has is just as bad as the additional penalty yards they can cost.   Another thing is something Mindi pointed out to me:  Bo never gets excited by things that go well.  You’ll never see Bo cheer on the offense for a touchdown drive or cheer the special teams for a made field goal or extra point.  This past week I saw Jason Garrett run onto the field to congratulate his team for good protection on an extra point.  The players will die for Bo, we know that.  But maybe they’ll love him even more and play harder if he shows some sort of elation at a job well done during the game.
• The last play of the Alabama-Auburn game is the best reason I can give why I love college football so much.  You’d rarely see that kind of play and the implications of that play at the professional level.  It was an AMAZING play, and Auburn fought like lions to get to that point in the fourth quarter.  Congrats to the Auburn Tigers for one of the best games in the history of the game.

Good luck to you all this week and enjoy the beginning of the Christmas season!