NFL Week 4 Wrap-Up: Buckin' Broncos

…and then there were five. Seven more ALACS’ers bit the dust in Week 4 of the NFL Survivor Pool. Five of those casualties came at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs' shocking 33-19 upset over the Denver Broncos. Mike Shanahan’s impressive NFL head coaching resume apparently does not extend to Arrowhead Stadium; Shanahan is now 3-11 when he visits the Chiefs’ home field. The Washington Redskins’ statement victory in Dallas knocked two more people out of the Survivor Pool. Andrew Gay, Jordan Spektor, Joe Nelson, Billy Schreyer, and Mike Rennard are the five people left with a shot at the Survivor Pool’s $1000 grand prize and 330 ALACS Points.

In the GU Division of ALACS Fantasy Football, Joe Nelson’s Making it Rain earned Team of the Week honors. Nelson – who had accumulated 245 points total in the season’s first three weeks – shocked the ALACS with a 141-point showing powered by his QBs (Garrard 25, Campbell 19) and RBs (LT 24, E. James 19). Elsewhere, Willis Barnes’ Team BigMan and Matt Crevier’s El Segundo Teen Wolf tied at 105; Barnes ended up SOL with 0 points coming from a bench that held four players with byes, giving Crev’s 14-point bench the victory. Drew ‘the Bird’ Schoentrup, playing in the first fantasy game of his lifetime, was a heavy underdog going into the season; he can be hardly considered as much now, as BirdShit in Your Eye put up a third straight 100+ point performance with a 129-point showing that was good for the fourth highest Week 4 score in the ALACS. BirdShit made a serious move up the standings and now sits in 2nd place in the GU Division. Mike Marty -- who left $22 on the table in the GU Auction -- has One-Eyed Wonder sitting comfortably in first place with 36 Power Points.

Defending champ Teddy Bergeron’s Welcome to the TeeShow paced the USC Division in Week 4, ringing up 134 points in Tee’s strongest showing of the year. Earlier last week, Teddy traded for Brett Favre; with Laveranues Coles already on his roster, the two Jets’ 66 points made up almost half of Tee’s total score in Week 4. Elsewhere in the USC Division, The Commish's XFactor suffered a second straight heartbreaking loss, this time at the hands of Bobby Weinberger’s E. Village Hipsters. The Hipsters won 91-90, scoring the deciding point on the final play of Sunday night’s Eagles/Bears game on a meaningless Donovan McNabb pass. Brendan Meyer’s Roxy Returns maintained a strong grip on the top of the USC Standings with a 115-point performance, and Meyer’s 38-6 record in Breakdown stands as top in the ALACS.

In the LO Division, Andrew Gay’s Nutty Poologs yet again demonstrated that they are the most consistent team in the ALACS with a 125-point showing. The Poologs have been 9-2 in Breakdown in each of the season’s first four weeks, a relatively remarkable – if not odd – achievement. The Poologs’ consistent nuttiness has frustrated Rudi’s Luggage owner Kyle Davis, who has led the LO Division in points in three of the season’s first four weeks, yet still finds himself trailing Gay by half a point in the Power Rankings. Elsewhere, John Rosinbum threatened to set marks of fantasy football futility that could last decades. After a 39-point Week 4 performance, Rosinbum’s Fourth and Schlong has now accumulated 204 points through four weeks – 55 points less than his closest competitor in the ALACS cellar, fellow LO Division-er Billy Schreyer. Rosinbum: we still love you.

The Commish led the field with a 9-4 record in Week 4 of NFL Pick ‘Em; Andy Popp moved into a tie with Steve Duin at the top of the leaderboard at 33-26 on the strength of an 8-5 week. Brett Mullin, Kyle Davis, and John Rosinbum are one game back at 32-27.

Finally, Andrew Gay regained the NCAA Pick ‘Em lead after his 7-3 record in Week 5 was tops in the ALACS; Gay stands at 31-19 on the season and has won 62% of his picks. Week 5 proved particularly challenging as nine of the 22 pool entrants had their worst week thus far in the season; this may have had something to do with 20 of 22 ALACS’ers incorrectly picking Auburn to cover 6.5 points against Tennessee and 21 of 22 participants incorrectly picking Wisconsin (Andrew Gay alone correctly picked Michigan at +6). Joe Simich sits one game back at the standings at 30-20; Corey Rhodes, Matt Crevier, and Nick Foley sit two games back at 29-21.

NFL Week 3 Wrap-Up: Bills Paid

Another outstanding week in the NFL Survivor Pool saw nearly 2/3 of the pool eliminated before the afternoon games had even begun on Sunday. 43% of the pool held the Buffalo Bills, 9-point favorites against the Raiders in Buffalo, as their Week 3 pick, and – as a roomful of NFL Survivor participants followed the game together within the ‘Discuss’ tab of the Survivor scorecard – the Bills rallied off 17 points in the final eight minutes of the game to win 24-23 on a 38-yd Rian Lindell FG as time expired. Kyle Davis was the last one to make it out of the morning alive when his Giants then dispatched the Bengals in OT. Mike Natelli and Brett Mullin became the Survivor Pool’s 8th and 9th casualties after the Patriots took a shockingly large dump on the field against the Dolphins in New England.

In the USC Division of Fantasy Football, Dan Goldman’s TriCrownThreat claimed Team of the Week honors with a 137-point performance. Goldman’s consistent outing featured five players scoring between 18 and 21 points. The Commish's XFactor rang up the third-highest Week 3 total in the ALACS with 126 points, but experienced its first loss at the hands of TriCrownThreat. Points elsewhere in the USC Division were bipolar in dispersion, with five teams scoring above 117 points and five teams failing to reach 70. Two mid-week trades played a major role in Week 3 USC Division performances. Jon Goldberg took a beating all week in the USC Division for a deal in which he traded Joseph Addai and Chad Johnson to Alex Rosenbloom for Plaxico Burress, Ronnie Brown, and a bag of marbles – but Goldberg had the last laugh on Sunday when Brown’s 5 TDs propelled Ecto Cooler to 117 points. Recently acquired Reggie Bush scored 25 point to push Chris Chasin’s Thugs from Cali into the ALACS weekly Top 10 for the first time. Brendan Meyer’s Roxy Returns continued to pace the ALACS with both the highest overall point total and the best overall breakdown.

Ronnie Brown provided storylines in the GU Division as well – albeit from Jordan Van Horn’s bench. Apparently down on the Miami RB, Van Horn had offered him all over the league leading up to Week 3 but found no takers. According to a Team Van Horn representative who requested anonymity, Jordan has now upped his asking price to a first-string WR. Nate Duckett’s Pilate’s Dog led the GU Division with 130 points, far and away Duckett’s strongest showing of the year. Drew Schoentrup’s BirdShit In Your Eye staged a late comeback to beat Wills Barnes’ Team BigMan 106-104 on the strength of Nate Kaeding’s meaningless FG with 2 minutes left in the MNF game. Tim Hokit's Hail Hokit posted a third consecutive strong week to move into a tie at the top of the GU standings with Mike Marty's One-Eyed Wonder. Hokit has the challenging task of managing a team that has seven byes in Week 4 of the season.

In the LO Division, Kasey McCabe’s AllStar Tards scored their third consecutive win – a shocking development after McCabe was roundly chastised by the league for spending $28 on Eli Manning in the LO Auction. The real story in the LO Division is the consistent dominance of Andrew Gay’s Nutty Poologs, who have rung up totals of 108, 106, and 112 points in the season’s first three weeks, earning Gay a 27-6 record in Breakdown despite trailing the league leader by 27 points overall. The Nutty Poologs stand alone in 1st place after Week 3. Elsewhere around the LO Division, the most exciting matchup of the week pitted Mike Lazar’s 0-2 Laser Boots against Mike Shoff’s 2-0 Harmony Souljaz. The Harmony Souljaz were down 83-81 going into the MNF game that featured Antonio Gates (Souljaz) and Darren Sproles (Boots). On the strength of Sproles’ 7 points, Lazar held on to win 90-89.

In the NFL Pick ‘Em Game, Steve Duin and Billy Schreyer made up for their depressing fantasy football performances – they both are in last place in their respective divisions – by going 12-4 with their Week 3 NFL picks, rocketing them both up the standings. Steve’s 27-19 overall record leads Billy Schreyer and Kyle Davis by one game.

Finally, in the NCAA Pick ‘Em Game, Joe Simich went 5-5 to hold onto a slim lead at the top of the standings. Joe is now 26-14 overall, trailed by Corey Rhodes and Matt Crevier (8-2 in Week 4) who both of whom sit at 25-15.

NFL Week 2 Wrap-Up: We Will Survive

An incredibly exciting weekend of football led to an equally exciting number of ALACS storylines. In the NFL Survivor Game, all 14 participants who made it out of Week 1 alive also were victorious in Week 2. 50% of the pool picked the Giants to defeat the Rams -- which they did handily – followed by the Bucs (3 picks), Cowboys (2 picks), Packers (1), and Cardinals (1). 14 survivors still have their eyes on the $1000 Survivor Pool grand prize.

In Fantasy Football, little ground was made up by anyone in the USC Division, as all six teams that won in Week 1 were victorious again in Week 2. Brendan Meyer earned himself Team of the Week honors with his Roxy Returns squad putting up 158 fantasy points, led by the 66-point combo of Kurt Warner and Anquan Boldin (oddly, both of these players also player together in the GU Division on Matt Crevier’s El Segundo Teen Wolf). Meyer now has a 22-0 record in breakdown after leading the USC Division in Points in both of the first two weeks, and has a firm grip on the top of the USC Division Power Rankings.

The GU Division saw a particularly exciting matchup take place between Tim Hokit’s Hail Hokit and Drew “the Bird” Schoentrup’s BirdShit in Your Eye. Schoentrup went into Monday night’s game with a 31-point lead, while Hokit had both Donovan McNabb and Nick Folk still to play. Hokit earned a one-point victory with the deciding point coming from Donovan McNabb’s passing yards on the Eagles’ final possession. A GU Division-leading Week 2 performance by El Segundo Teen Wolf pulled Matt Crevier into an 18-4 tie in Breakdown with Mike Marty’s One-Eyed Wonder – the standings are tight up and down the GU Division. Another notable Week 2 perofmance was Willis Barnes’ Team BigMan exploding for 134 points after a less-than-impressive 67-point showing in Week 1. One-Eyed Wonder sits atop the GU Division Power Rankings.

The competition was fierce this week in the LO Division, with a few exceptions. Roughly five years ago, a man named Mike Shoff was banned from all ALA competitions after accepting bribes in exchange for trade vetoes (back when we still used such an archaic system). Then, two years ago, Mike was banned a second time (can I ban someone twice? Yes, I can!) when he chose to attend UCLA for Med School. Shoff is currently making up for lost time, and his Lil Ripstaz Harmony Souljaz turned in a second straight strong performance, leading the LO Division with 149 points. Shoff now stands at 21-1 in Breakdown and sits atop the LO Division Power Rankings with 35 Power Points -- the most out of any team in the ALACS. On the other side of that spectrum is the inspirationally-named Team Schreyer. After two consecutive sub-50-point performances, Billy Schreyer finds himself faced with an 0-22 record in Breakdown and a legitimately depressing fantasy football team. In the middle of the pack fell just about everyone else in the league: seven teams scored 106, 106, 104, 103, 101, 100, and 99 points, making the breakdown distribution particularly brutal for those unlucky enough to be on the bottom of that totem pole.

In the NFL Pick ‘Em Game, Chris Platt led ALACS’ers with a 9-5 record in Week 2. John Rosinbum, Kyle Davis, and Brett Mullin share the overall lead at 18-12, with Mike Lazar and Matt Crevier close behind at 17-13.

In the NCAA Pick ‘Em Game, Joe Simich took the lead with a stunning 8-1 record in Week 3, giving him a 21-9 record overall. Andrew Gay and Corey Rhodes are tied for 2nd place, both at 19-11.

Finally: Week 4 NCAA Pick ‘Em Lines will be sent out today – and get em in quick, because there’s one game on Thursday. Until next week…

NFL Week 1 Wrap-Up: Seven Deadly Selections

Week 1 of the NFL Season is in the books, and I'll start off with some links to all the important scorecards, since they're not yet up on the ALA Website (they will be soon). Before we get into the gruesome details:

Fantasy Football Master Scorecard
NFL Pick 'Em Scorecard
NFL Survivor Scorecard
NCAA Pick 'Em Scorecard

First: the Fantasy Football Spreadsheet explained. On this spreadsheet you will find four tabs. The first tab is the Power Rankings for all three leagues. These rankings will also be pasted on your league homepage, and they are explained within the spreadsheet for anyone who still doesn't understand how they work. The second tab is the Flex Usage tab that tracks how many times each team in each league has used each position in their Flex spot. The third tab is what I'll be using to compute each team's Breakdown metric over the course of the season. The fourth tab will detail the highest scoring team in all of the ALACS for each week.

The dominant ALACS story from Week 1 of the NFL Season was the elimination of exactly 1/3 of the 21 people who threw down $55 for a shot at ALACS glory in the NFL Survivor Pool. Four participants were eliminated by virtue of a last-second Jake Delhomme TD pass that eliminated the Chargers; three more players fell on Sunday night when the Bears -- nine point underdogs coming into the game -- shocked the Colts in Indianapolis. Fourteen participants are now a great deal closer to the Survivor Pool's $1000 grand prize.

And then, of course, there's Tom Brady...and the fact that two of the three ALACS teams with Brady on the roster don't have a backup QB. Yikes. It's rare that a player of Brady's caliber goes down in the first game -- in fact, the first quarter -- and his injury is testament to the amount of luck that is sometimes involved in these games. Before his leg was crushed by one of the Chiefs' DBs, Brady had the third-longest streak of consecutive starts in the NFL.

In the NCAA Pick 'Em Game, Nick Foley and Andrew Gay both won seven games for the second consecutive week and are now tied for the lead. In an exciting twist, Gay started the day 7-0 before losing the last three games. Alex Rosenbloom became the first participant of the season to not submit his picks in time. He can currently be found at his brother's apartment in Brazil, hanging his head in shame.

And finally, the first week of NFL Pick 'Em saw an impressive number of participants finish above .500. ALA veteran Mike Lazar and newcomer John Rosinbum led the pack at 11-5.

NFL Pick'em and Survivor Scorecards

Guys:
These will soon be linked up on the main page of the ALA Website, but for now here are links to the ALACS NFL Game scorecards.

NFL Pick 'Em Scorecard

NFL Survivor Scorecard

Fantasy Football - Week 1 Lines

Guys:
Here are your Week 1 Lines for all three divisions of ALACS Fantasy Football, based on ESPN's projections.

LO Division Week 1 Lines
USC Division Week 1 Lines
GU Division Week 1 Lines

It starts today, folks -- best of luck in Week 1.

NCAA Pick 'Em Week 1: Newcomers Lead the Way

With one week of picks down, two ALACS newcomers are atop the standings of NCAA Football Pick 'Em. Here are some stats from Week 1 along with the current standings.

% of Favorites Picked by ALACS: 71.07%
% of Favorites Covering Spread: 54.55%

% of Home Teams Picked by ALACS: 62.81%
% of Home Teams Covering Spread: 54.55%

% of Home Favorites Picked by ALACS: 76.62%
% of Home Favorites Covering Spread: 57.14%

% of Road Favorites Picked by ALACS: 61.36%
% of Road Favorites Covering Spread: 50.00%

1. Corey Rhodes (8-3)
1. Jeff Schneider (8-3)
3. Mike Lazar (7-4)
3. Joe Simich (7-4)
3. Nick Foley (7-4)
3. Matt Crevier (7-4)
3. Andrew Gay (7-4)
8. Sean Stokke (6-5)
8. Mike Marty (6-5)
8. Adam Atkins (6-5)
8. Damon Pryor (6-5)
8. Brandon Seroyer (6-5)
13. Andy Popp (5-6)
13. Kyle Davis (5-6)
13. Matt Sullivan (5-6)
13. Steve Duin (5-6)
13. Mike Duin (5-6)
18. Adam Brady (4-7)
19. Chris Platt (3-8)
19. Alex Rosenbloom (3-8)
19. Dan Goldman (3-8)
19. Joe Nelson (3-8)