News:

We have four weeks left in our regular season and the deadline to complete trades is Saturday. With those milestones in mind it seems like an appropriate time to take a quick look beyond Week 14.

No doubt there’s an odds calculator online somewhere but I’m just going to “eyeball it” based on past seasons. I think it’s going to take eight wins to get in or maybe it would be more accurate to say there’s little chance that seven is going to be enough. If we set the “line” at eight, two teams are there now. Another is one win away and two more need to bat .500% the rest of the regular season to get there. If we can agree those are all pretty decent odds, that would leave four more teams in the mix for a spot (albeit with longer odds).

Still a lot can happen. A single injury can be bad luck or good luck, weakening one person’s line-up from top to bottom and having an opposite effect on someone else’s. Things change quickly.

Random Thought of the Week:

No sooner did I condemn the quality of the Thursday night games than we had a bit of a rodeo dropped on us between the Bengals and Ravens. Chase wasn’t the only one with a great night but his was one that flirted with the record books. There have been better individual fantasy performances but to get that out of the gate takes a lot of pressure off. Well, I guess it takes one kind of pressure off but it introduces a different kind. Firstly you don’t want to blow a “lead” like that and secondly, you start to think about the opportunity to maybe put a weekly score in the Clan McDonald record books. As it turned out, that didn’t happen and it does feel like a bit of a missed opportunity. The reality is, putting up 200+ points is hard with the help of an other-worldly performance and really, really hard without one.

Shark Move of the Week:

The sharks don’t always land the biggest fish. Sometimes it’s the little things. Andy managed that old If you have three QBs you don’t have any situation about as well as you can.

Perhaps more consolation prize than anything, this week I think it’s fair to award the Piper for his perseverance as he fearlessly started McCaffrey and stayed the course with Mark Andrews to ensure he will not be claiming sole ownership of the “worst record ever” honours. I don’t think a Plastic Helmet of Excellence is in the cards this year but if McCaffrey can avoid Q’s and D’s the rest of the way, it might be enough to keep the Mooglar out of the record books entirely.

Guppy Move of the Week:

In the battle of the Jacksonville RBs, it looks like both Grid and I are losing. It’s a lesson in perspective (or math?) I guess as fifty percent of nothing is still nothing.

There are other committees we can find ourselves stepping in and we quickly find out they are more quicksand than solid fantasy foundations. The KC and Denver backfields come to mind. There are touches and looks to be had there for sure and talented players to get them but those pies seem to be cut into so many pieces, there’s really not much more than a taste for anyone. As bad as the RB landscape can get, I’m still almost glad I don’t have that kind of sweet tooth.

For Week 10’s award, I somehow feel compelled to give it to the champ but I’m not even sure how to frame it. She scored 93 points which isn’t good but it’s better than the -0.20 points on her bench, which is good but also really bad. She also had Cooper Rush on her bench who is bad, and that’s bad. Last but not least, someone needs to tell her Rashee Rice isn’t coming back. I think that’s bad too.

Smack Talk Award of the Week:

Solid work in the chat thread this week from Andy, Piper, Neil and I!

On as related note, I am giving some consideration to making “The Shitpot Helmet O’ Wankers” some sort of official thing but manifesting a toilet-shaped helmet (or helmet-shaped toilet) into existence may need to wait until I’m retired. Hopefully the 3D printer at the local library is big enough to accommodate whatever I come up with.

Welcome to Fantasy Hell Award of the Week:

Honourable mention goes to Neil for recognizing his youth football season and fantasy season may have ended at roughly the same time.

Still, the obvious choice this week would seem to be Dan who had to endure watching 58 points dropped on him Thursday night. Seriously, that’s two good games in one.

I probably shouldn’t admit this but my head isn’t fully into my fantasy line-up on a Thursday. I’m really just making sure I don’t have anyone in there I don’t want in there (or vice versa) but full on “fantasy mode” doesn’t really start for me until Sunday. If Dan is anything like me, he kinda got the tires deflated on his fantasy week before it even got rolling. I can say from experience that waking up Friday morning to realize it’s already more or less over isn’t fun.