So I was thinking - my team this year is among the most dominant that we’ve ever had in this league, right? 1664 regular season points. How does that stack up?
So I beat the next best regular season score in league history by 132 points, which is a pretty huge margin, a whole week worth of a good score.
Str8dope my foot this year actually has the third highest score ever in this league, and he also lost in the first round of this playoffs. So out of 4 games we had this playoffs, 2 of them featured 2 of the top 3 all time scorers in our league losing.
8 of the 20 highest scores ever were from this season, a product of the league being pared to 18 teams.
*1664.64
*1534.58
1532.53
*1532.19
1530.93
1522.25
1520.49
1513.62
1509.53
1507.59
1507.57
*1498.30
1483.91
1476.46
1474.28
*1473.58
*1471.92
1471.56
*1460.98
*1444.42
Below I’m showing the totals from all seasons since I took the time to figure that out, if anyone wants to play around with the numbers or make adjustments to this year’s totals.
Well yeah, it clearly looks like the best regardless. Mine might not be top 10 all time. I might have been on that trajectory before week 13. Last week knocked my weekly scoring average down 3 or 4 points.
I think at least three of the four results were well within the realms of predictability.
In the 4 v. 5 game, it was actually not too surprising at all that #5 won, given his almost 300-point higher PF over the course of the season
In my game (3 v. 7), I had about 100 points more over the course of the season, but that’s less than 10 points per game, and it really doesn’t take much of a swing each way to change that around. I also made a couple of bad lineup calls, and could have squeaked out a win if I’d put the right players on the field. C’est la vie!
Even the 1 v. 8 game wasn’t that much of a surprise. The #1 team had a good season, but his exceptional record was as much a product of a low PA tally as it was a high PF tally, and he only scored about 36 points more than the #8 team over the regular season.
The only real surprise was 2 v. 7, where #2 had scored over 300 points more than #7 over the course of the season, but still ended up losing, largely thanks to sub-par performances from two of the players who had been massive for him all season - Gurley and Ertz.
Anyway, that’s the way it goes. I had a fun season, and I’m looking forward to next year.
Right. My point was that it was not surprising that the higher scoring teams for the season got wins in the playoffs.
And the luck I was referring to for the other two (#6 & #7) wasn’t just for winning their playoff games. They had bottom half PF scores, but got lucky in matchups. PA is pure luck in fantasy, unlike in real games. It isn’t that surprising that they won, necessarily – there’s always a random factor, and that’s why they play the games, as they say. But it’s certainly more surprising, and more lucky, than the result for the #5 & #8 teams, who were top 4 in PF.
Going into the Sunday night game there’s a pretty good chance that the bottom seeds will sweep again. We may have a 7v8 final if Goff outplays Foles and Brees has a typical game.
There we go. If Brees manages to score 13 fantasy points tonight our two bottom seeds will play for the championship next week. Strangest fantasy season in a long time.
At least the consolation bracket went chalk. The championship game everyone expected will still take place next week. It’s just the 5th place game.
Well, my luck finally ran out. Second highest score, but had the misfortune of going against the highest score. Worst part is I picked up the Indy defense for next week, but didn’t play them, which would’ve put me over the top.
Oh well, I’ve secured my highest finish since 2014 and bounced back from my #19 finish last year.
Last year going into the finals I spent 3 days agonizing over my last roster spot needing to decide on one of 4 players. In the end I chose Trey Burton who put up a 0 and I lost by 1/2 point. (About two months later Burton threw the Philly Special pass in the Superbowl, so my patience paid off.)
This year I’m throwing darts at my roster.
We have our championship game. The Dented Pixels (Pixel Dent) vs John’s Dandy Team (Hamlet), who happened to be the 5th and 7th seed going into the playoffs. What a topsy turvy playoffs we’ve had.
The third place game is Garcon’s Cedilla vs Rough and Tumblrs.
The fifth place game is Exploding Pancakes vs The Str8dope My Foot, which was originally probably the favorite to be the championship game. My team would’ve fell apart on the finals week anyway, with Josh Gordon suspended, Aaron Jones on IR, and Todd Gurley 50/50 to play.
And the 7th place game, Mundi Madness vs Inglewood Chargers.
