NFL Week 7 Wrap-Up: More Mewelde

Week 7 of the ALACS Fantasy Football season was an explosion of fantasy points; when all was said and done, the three highest scorers in Week 7 had equaled or surpassed the previous season high of 159 points in a week. In the GU Division, Mike Marty’s One-Eyed Wonder rang up 172 points to win Team of the Week honors in a critical matchup between two 5-1 teams (the other being Tim Hokit’s Hail Hokit). 172 points is the highest single week total scored in the last three seasons of ALA Fantasy Football. Marty’s epic week featured Steven Jackson (37), Mewelde Moore (31), Calvin Johnson (25), and Dominic Rhodes (23). One-Eyed Wonder experienced a massive gain in the Power Rankings and is now the clear front-runner in the GU Division. Elsewhere in the division, Matt Crevier’s El Segundo Teen Wolf and Pete Lawton’s Panty Sniffers put up impressive totals in Week 7, with 125 and 122 points respectively.

In the LO Division, Mike Lazar made good a post-Week-6-claim that his team was on the rise with a 159-point day from Laser Boots. Lazar’s breakdown from Weeks 6+7 stands at 21-1. What makes Lazar’s Week 7 even more impressive is that he had two players on his team get 0 points in Week 7, yet still reached 159. LenDale White (34), Calvin Johnson (25), and Dominic Rhodes (23) played major roles, and Matt Cassel (21) even got in on the fun on Monday night. On the other side of that matchup were Andrew Gay’s Nutty Poologs, who continued to make a mockery of fantasy football in general by starting three players with byes. Shame on you, Gay. Kyle Davis’ Rudi’s Luggage remained at the top of the standings , eeking out a 102-101 victory over Joe Simich’s Nuck Inc. Week 7 hero Mewelde Moore contributed a large chunk of Davis’ points with his 31-point effort. In other news, Team Schreyer got their first victory of the year with a surprising 124-point outing.

In the USC Division, Alex Rosenbloom’s Blazin’ Hits finally showed signs of life and led the way with 161 points. Hits QB Jeff Garcia filled in nicely for the injured Tony Romo with 21 points, and Steven Jackson’s 37-point contribution padded Rosenbloom’s total. Elsewhere, Jordan Spektor’s Seahawks Nation won their fourth consecutive H2H matchup to move to 6-1 on the year. Bobby Weinberger’s E. Village Hipsters made a dent in ALACS leader Dan Goldman’s armor, defeating TriCrownThreat 92-88. The top of the Power Rankings are crowded in the USC Division, with TriCrownThreat and Seahawks Nation tied at 32.5 Power Points. Brendan Meyer’s Roxy Returns sits close behind with 31 Power Points in 3rd.

In the NFL Survivor Pool, both remaining participants nailed their picks, with Mike Rennard prevailing along with the Buccaneers over the Seahawks and Andrew Gay winning with the Texans over the Lions. They both live to see another week.

The standings in the NFL Pick ‘Em Game saw a stunning amount of movement following Week 8’s games – a development possibly spurred by the fact that four participants failed to submit picks. The most depressing of these omissions were that of Andrew Gay and Dan Goldman, both of whom went 0-14 on the week, yet did not get to remove the week from their overall score because they had both gone 0-16 earlier in the season. Andy Popp and Jordan Spektor also deserve a nice ‘FAIL!’ for their lack of effort. Those who fared better in Week 8 included Alex Rosenbloom, who jumped from 11th to a tie for 3rd in the standings on the strength of an ALACS-leading 11-3 week. Kyle Davis took over first place at 49-37 on the year; Billy Schreyer sits in 2nd, a full game back at 48-38, and Brett Mullin, John Rosinbum, and Alex Rosenbloom are all 1.5 games back at 47-38.

In the NCAA Pick ‘Em Game, Corey Rhodes moved into the lead on the strength of a 6-4 week. Corey is now a full game ahead of Nick Foley in 2nd, and Joe Simich is 1.5 games back after going 4-6 on Saturday. Foley, Adam Atkins, the Commish, and Steve Duin all tied for the weekly lead by going 7-3 in Week 8.

VEGAS, BABY....VEGAS!!

Four days, folks. Get ready.

NFL Week 6 Wrap-Up: REFEREE FAIL

The NFL Survivor Pool nearly reached its end on Sunday – only an astonishingly terrible Pass Interference penalty saved Mike Rennard and Andrew Gay. Joe Nelson, Jordan Spektor, and Billy Schreyer all bit the dust when the Redskins lost to the Rams; it can be easily argued that Rennard and Gay should have met a similar fate. With the Vikings down 10-9 in the final three minutes and facing 2nd and 20, Gus Frerotte heaved a bomb down the sideline to Aundrae Allison. Lions DB Leigh Bodden made a small amount of incidental contact with Allison – about the amount of contact you’d have with someone if you tried to squeeze through the door of a restaurant together – and a PI flag was thrown after the ball fell to the ground. Just like that, the Vikings were in FG position, and Rian Lindell kicked a 26-yard FG to win the game 12-10.

That leaves two Survivor participants – Mike Rennard and Andrew Gay – to battle for the Survivor Pool’s $1000 Grand Prize.

In the LO Division of ALACS Fantasy Football, Kyle Davis’s Rudi’s Luggage earned Team of the Week honors for the 2nd time this season, becoming the first ALACS team to accomplish that feat. Kyle’s 159-point effort also set the season high for a single week point-total. Rudi’s Luggage was led by his QB combo of Drew Brees (28) and Philip Rivers (29). Davis’s showing overshadowed Mike Lazar’s Lazer Boots’ strongest showing of the year, a 131-point effort that led Lazar to victory over an outmatched Team Schreyer. Andrew Gay’s Nutty Poologs continued a depressing fall from grace in Week 6; after starting off the season with four straight brilliant performances, the Poologs started two players with byes in Week 6 on the way to a 71-67 loss to Joe Simich’s Nuck Inc. After going 36-8 in Breakdown through the season’s first four weeks, the Poologs combined Breakdown record from Weeks 5+6 is 2-20.

In the other two ALACS divisions, the abysmal performance of the Giants' defensive unit on Monday Night wrecked havoc. Brendan Meyer’s Roxy Returns squad had led the USC division for the first five weeks of the season, and he found himself in a fateful inter-roommate matchup with Alex Rosenbloom’s 0-5 Blazin’ Hits in Week 6. After Top Three finishes in each of the last three seasons, the Blazin’ Hits’ 2008 campaign had been a prolonged struggle, and it only got worse on Monday morning when it was announced that Blazin’ Hits QB Tony Romo would miss the next four weeks of the season with a broken pinkie. Meyer went into the Monday Night matchup with Jamal Lewis and the Giants’ D on his side, leading Rosenbloom 90-80; Alex’s fate lay in the hands of Braylon Edwards.

The matchup may have been the most dramatic in the ALACS this season. At one point, Braylon Edwards caught a 75-yard pass…and was tackled just close enough to the goal line for Jamal Lewis to run it in for a crucial six points. With just 8:22 left in the game – and on the strength of Edwards’ best fantasy showing of the year, by far – Roxy Returns led the Blazin’ Hits 102-99.

And then….boom. An Eli Manning pass down the sideline is picked off and returned 94 yards for a Touchdown. Just like that, Meyer and Rosenbloom are tied 99-99.

Now this is where things get fun. Up to this point – immediately after the interception return for a TD – the Giants’ D had allowed 33 points to the Browns; if the Browns reached 35 points, the Giants’ D moved from -4 fantasy points to -7. Thirty-four points allowed would have kept the Giants’ D at -4.

So what do the Browns do? They go for two. And who scores the two-point conversion? Braylon Edwards. Final score: Blazin’ Hits 101, Roxy Returns 95. Roxy Returns’ loss meant bad things for the rest of the ALACS, however, as current ALACS: Year One leader Dan Goldman moved into first place in the USC Division on the strength of Tricrownthreat's 110-96 victory over Jon Goldberg’s Ecto Cooler. Jordan Spektor’s Seahawks Nation continued to move up in the USC Division standings by leading the league with 136 points in Week 6.

The Giants’ D also made the difference in a pivotal GU Division matchup between Tim Hokit’s Hail Hokit and Matt Crevier’s El Segundo Teen Wolf. Hokit, 4-1 on the year and clutching first place in the GU Division through five weeks, went into the MNF matchup losing 92-86. Hokit had no one playing; his score was set in stone at 86. Crevier, however, had both the Giants’ D and Amani Toomer in action. Amani Toomer? Zero receptions, zero yards. Giants’ D? –7 points. Final score: Hail Hokit 86, El Segundo Teen Wolf 85 – and the victory keeps Hail Hokit on top of the GU Power Rankings. Sean Stokke’s The Taters led the GU Division with 131 points and pulled within 1.5 points of Hail Hokit in the Power Rankings. Speaking of the GU Division Power Rankings…well, it’s hard to know what to make of them. Two teams sitting at 4-2 have the two worst Breakdown records and the two lowest Points totals. The Taters, leading the league in both Points and Breakdown by a comfortable margin, have had such bad luck in their H2H matchups that their record sits at 2-4. The discrepancy in the GU Division’s PWR numbers is truly a rarely seen fantasy phenomenon.

Both Pick ‘Em games saw their standings get a little more intriguing this week, as a recently adopted rule allowed each participant to drop their worst weekly score of the year. Both Pick ‘Em scorecards have been updated to show each participant’s overall record as well as an adjusted record to account for the removal of their worst week to date.

Brett Mullin moved into 1st place in the NFL Pick ‘Em game with a 59.42% winning percentage on the season; John Rosinbum, last week’s leader, took a hard fall down to 2nd after a 4-10 week. Kyle Davis, Steve Duin, Andy Popp, and Billy Schreyer are close behind. Dan Goldman led the field with a 9-5 record in Week 6.

In the NCAA Pick ‘Em Game, Joe Simich and Corey Rhodes are separated by mere percentage points (Joe is 36-22, Corey is 36-23) but are comfortably ahead of the rest of the field. Andrew Gay – the darling of the NCAA Pick ‘Em Game after an impressive 31-19 showing through the season’s first five weeks – is now in 3rd place after turning in a 5-13 record over the last two weeks (Coupled with Gay’s two week fallout in fantasy football, it bears asking the question: Gay, you been alright these past 14 days?). Damon Pryor and Rhodes both finished 7-2 in Week 7 to lead the ALACS.

Ok I need to stop writing before I get fired. Cheers.

NFL Week 5 Wrap-Up: Five Still Fighting

With a $1000 grand prize on the line, the five remaining NFL Survivor participants all made it through Week 5 easily. The Dallas Cowboys – at (-17), the biggest favorite of the week – turned out to be the most nerve-wracking of the three teams selected, as their 9-point victory over the Bengals paled in comparison to the Giants’ 44-6 shellacking of the Seahawks and the Panthers’ 34-0 victory over the Chiefs. In Week 6, the big favorites are the Redskins (-13.5 over the Rams), the Vikings (-13.5 over the Lions), and the Giants (-9 over the Browns).

In ALACS Fantasy Football, Justin Zelik’s Brent Huckelberry earned Team of the Week honors in the USC Division with a 158-point performance that tied the season high across all of the ALACS leagues. Zelik can thank his 56-point Carolina Combo of DeAngelo Williams and the Panthers’ D – plus solid contributions from Ben Roethlisberger (27), Kyle Orton (25), and Michael Turner (18). Dan Goldman’s TriCrownThreat was a hard-luck loser to Huckelberry; Goldman’s 116 points were 2nd in the USC Division in Week 5. Elsewhere, Team Handman prevailed 97-96 over Steve Duin’s Father Figures after getting a 16-point boost from Devery Henderson on MNF. Brendan Meyer’s Roxy Returns saw its lead atop the standings shrink to 1.5 Power Points after turning in its worst performance of the season.

Chaos reigns supreme in the GU Division, which has some of the closest standings the Commish has ever seen in a fantasy football league. Some fun facts to illustrate just how close the competition in this division is:

- 13 wins separate the best (33-22) and worst (20-35) Breakdown records in the GU Division. In the other two divisions, the best and worst Breakdown records are separated by 27 wins (USC) and 31 wins (LO).

- The two highest-scoring teams in the GU Division this season – Sean Stokke’s The Taters and Willis Barnes’ Team BigMan, both at 501 points – stand at 1-4 and 2-3 in H2H record, respectively.

- EIGHT teams in the GU Division have between 485 and 501 points on the season.

Tim Hokit’s Hail Hokit moved back into first place after Reggie Bush’s 27-point explosion on MNF, which earned Hokit a 6-point victory over The Taters – another hard-luck loser (The Taters had the second highest score in the GU Division in Week 5). Mike Marty’s One-Eyed Wonder, who had sat atop the Power Rankings with 36 points after Week 4, dropped to 2nd after an ALACS-low 56 points in Week 5. A rough season continued for Trevor Severeid’s 0-5 Ass Hats, who lost 110-93…with a 32-point performance from DeAngelo Williams on the bench.

In the LO Division, the aforementioned Carolina Combo found itself united again, and this time led John Rosinbum’s Fourth and Schlong to a stunning 112-100 upset over Stu Schrager’s Silver Fox. In more somber news, Billy Schreyer – on suicide watch since the brooms came out on his Chicago Cubs – left five players with byes in his Week 5 lineup…and almost pulled off an upset over Mike Shoff’s Harmony Souljaz, which needed Bernard Berrian’s 17-point showing on MNF to pull off a 74-67 victory. Rudi’s Luggage owner Kyle Davis – irate over Billy’s dismal effort – has put a bounty on Schreyer’s head, and declared Mike Shoff’s 2nd place standing in the LO Division “a travesty.”

In NFL Pick ‘Em, John Rosinbum led the way with a 9-3 record in Week 5, thrusting him back atop the standings with a 41-30 record on the season. Rosinbum’s closest competitors are Kyle Davis and Brett Mullin, coworkers who share a 39-32 record (how cute!). Four players sit three games back of Rosinbum at 38-33.

In NCAA Pick ‘Em, Joe Simich regained the lead after going 6-3. Joe can thank the five players who surrounded him at the top of the leaderboard after Week 5; they went a combined 12-33 in Week 6. In stark contrast to most of the weeks this season, the pick distribution was remarkably close for every game in the pool outside of UW/Arizona (in which 68% of the pool incorrectly chose UW to cover). In the other nine games featured, check out the pick distribution amongst the 22 NCAA Pick ‘Em players: 13/9, 11/11, 11/11, 10/12, 9/13, 12/10, 11/11, 10/12, 12/10. This could mean that Vegas is getting better at picking accurate lines as the season goes on…or it could mean absolutely nothing.

Until next week...