Evans World 2014 - Regular Season Wrap-Up

Greetings, friends ... well, the great experiment is on hold for a bit.  I realized quickly that I couldn't separate my FF blogs (complete with pics of busty women in bikinis) adequately from my SF/Fantasy blog, so I'm rolling the FF blogs for Evans World back here for the time being.  It's still fitting because you're all still very lucky to know what I think, and I appreciate all of you who have told me how much you've missed my remarks this year.  Next year I'll try to do better and find a good balance of my time to allow for more blogs.  Monday/Tuesdays are just crazy busy most weeks, so it's been hard to get it all done.  And there have been some great performances and moments this season that I just HAD to tell you my thoughts on, so here they come ...

• This was finally Mike's year.  Yes, we still have 3 weeks of playoffs ahead, but all signs are looking good for our league leader throughout most of the regular season.  Mike's success is due to the unexpected performance of players that were unlikely gems during the auction draft.  I speak specifically of Cutler, Kelvin Benjamin and the amazing tandem of Forte and Murray.  Along with his timely pickups of Beckham, Matthews and Mason, Mike has had a great year of FF play and has earned his place as the top seed.  Just a reminder, Mike has never appeared in a Championship Game in all of EW History.  Will history repeat itself?  I don't think so, since he will face the winning Brown brother in Week 15 and he's already beaten them both.
• This was also, surprisingly, my year.  This is the most success in FF I've had in 4 years.  A second-place finish was completely unexpected, much less a 6-game winning streak.  Make no mistake, I'll take it.  The only thing I can tell you, and as always I'm being honest here, I knew draft day that the Packers had one of the easiest schedules in the league (after Week 1 against Seattle, anyway).  I had a strong suspicion the Packers would prove to be a FF powerhouse again, and I was right.  They exceeded my expectations, definitely, and it paid off for me, Mike and Nathan week after week.  Sadly, many of my other guesses crashed and burned, as you can see by Tom's dismal performance on the team I drafted for him.
• Speaking of Tom, it is worth noting that his 7-game losing streak was broken in Week 11 by beating Nathan.  No small feat, by any means, so I had to go back and look.  The last time Tom beat Nathan was 2007.  If you've got to end a streak, that's as good a way as any, I suppose.
• I think my favorite week of the season was definitely Week 9 when we had the Battle of the Brothers.  Normally, these types of matchup happen on/off throughout the season, but by the luck of the random schedule maker, ALL THREE sets of brothers faced each other in the same week!  Crazy.  I took care of Tom fairly easily, while Ritchie continued his dominance over Berk.  But Nathan got the final word, spanking his older brother Marshall by 64.68 points.  Good times.
• Speaking of Marshall, how about those Browns?  It's amazing to me how they became relevant FF players again for the first time in almost 5 years.  I see Josh Gordon as a high-round draft pick next season.
• Speaking of the draft, I'll post a vote later today, but I'm in favor of keeping the auction draft for next season.   The auction was definitely a fresh challenge in the draft, and looking back at the season it actually makes the wins that much sweeter when you get a good player for cheap and have it pay off for you week after week.  What say you?
• I still don't think we have the perfect waiver wire system.  I welcome thoughts on the best system.  Start a post and add your thoughts.
• Welcome, Barry, to our league, and sorry for such a shitty season.  We hope you'll come back next year and provide us an easy win each week.  Just kidding.  It must have been solar flares.
• Kevin squeaking into the playoffs with the 5th highest team point total. Love it.  Too bad for Jason who missed the playoffs by a lousy 20 points.
• Marshall finally starts Sammy Watkins after leaving 10+ points on the bench for several weeks ... and ends a 3-game winning streak.  He then disappears for a few weeks.
• Gary, I thought you had a shot this year.  You can blame the Detroit Lions for your results.
• Nice 5-game winning streak late, Ritchie, to get you back into the playoffs and defend your title.  I thought you were out of it for a while there, dude.
• I'm looking at the top scoring players of our league this year, and there are a couple of gems I have to point out.  Antonio Brown.  Damn.  Nice pick, Jason.  Tony P.'s computer-picked team with D. Thomas and Roethlisberger turned it on a little too late in the season to get him back into the playoffs.  E. Sanders, Nathan's diamond in the rough for the season.  Le'Veon Bell, the guy we all gave up on draft day (except for Barry). The Dallas Cowboys (Bryant, Murray, Romo all in the Top 25).  Nick Foles for Kevin was another favorite of mine whose injury was just unfortunate.
• For the second straight year, there were ZERO trades in our league.  I know of only 2 requests that were even submitted.  Really people?
• I find it interesting that I can't find the draft grades that Yahoo! put out.  I know it gave me a lousy grade.  Scoreboard, bitch.

EW RECORDS BROKEN IN 2014
(Click here to view the updated EW Records)

• 3rd Highest Score - Brad (155.70, Week 10)
• 6th Highest Score = Brad (148.74, Week 4)
• 8th Highest Score = Kevin (144.43, Week 8)
• 6th Biggest Blowout = Brad vs. Jason (155.70-84.68 (71.02), Week 10)
• 9th Biggest Blowout = Mike vs. Jason (123.70-54.56 (69.14), Week 12)
• 5th Closest Game = Mike vs. Brad (99.07-98.81 (0.26), Week 13)
• 7th Closest Game = Tony P vs. Berk (73.55-72.73 (0.83), Week 1)
• 1st Place, Best Regular Season Record = Mike (11-2)
• 5th Place (tie), Worst Regular Season Record = Barry and Tom (3-10)
• 4th Place (tie), Longest Winning Streak = Mike and Brad (6)
• 3rd Place, Longest Losing Streak = Tom (7)
• 5th Place, Longest Losing Streak = Barry (6)
• 4th Place, Most Points in a Regular Season = Mike (1380.33)
• 5th Place, Most Points in a Regular Season = Nathan (1377.16)

Good luck to the rest of you in the playoffs!  If I don't get a chance to write before then, I hope you all have a great Christmas and/or Hanukkah and a Happy New Year!