So one week and a couple of trips to the doctors later, the final fantasy recap is here. Sorry for the delay; some medical allergies threw a wrench into things and made it a lot easier to ignore this. =p
Anyway, I have now recovered and am markedly less red and itchy, so I'm out of excuses for writing this. To get this out of the way up front; congrats to Angelus for winning the championship! (grumble grumble Devin Funchess)
Championship: Arch 99.04, Nohrian Scum 96.62
Angelus' team of misfits carried him through to the end, while my team finally played so poorly that Todd Gurley couldn't bail them out any longer. A solid team effort with notable performances from Jared Goff (25 points), LeSean McCoy (15), and Mark Ingram (13). Meanwhile, after the usual one two punch of Gurley and Bell, my team all turned in subpar performances. Brandin Cooks finished his extremely inconsistent season with a 3 point game, Devin Funchess could only manage 1 point, and Matt Prater and the Rams' defense weren't much better. For Angelus, Alex Collins and the Ravens' defense turned in disappointing performances as well, but the rest of his supporting cast contributed just enough to secure the win.
3rd Place Game: NobleTeam360 91.90, ItErtzWhenEifert 90.14
The closest playoff game in a postseason full of tight contests; Ludicrous came oh-so-close to third place, but Ben Roethlisberger (17 points) came up less than 2 points short. Dion Lewis (27 points) nearly doubled his output from last week and was almost enough to pull off the upset, but Denver's DST (4 points), Brandon McManus (3), Jarvis Landry (3), and Robert Woods (3) all disappointed. Noble was almost sabotaged by a number of subpar games as well; Kenyan Drake (6), Marvin Jones (5), Greg Olsen (3), and Adam Thielen (2) all turned in lower-than-predicted outputs, but a 17 point game from his kicker (Harrison Butker, 17) and a 14 point game from Chicago's DST helped secure third place.
5th Place Game: Dongo's Gridiron Gamers 107.46, Arminillo 73.16
Setting aside the awful game from Travis Benjamin (-0.4 points), every single player on Dongo's team put up double digit points. Giovani Bernard (23 points) led the way for the highest scoring team this week, with contributions from the Chargers' DST (13), Rob Gronkowski (13), Jordan Howard (17) and Justin Tucker (11). Continuing what seemed to be a common trend on the final week, Arminillo was sabotaged by terrible games from role players. Alshon Jeffery was held catchless, the Jags DST only managed 1 point, and Kyle Rudolph couldn't even reach that mark (0.6).
Consolation Championship: Lousy Pack 75.50, The Longest Foot 69.40
Two of Seth's pass catchers, Michael Crabtree and Ricky Seals-Jones, were held without a point, allowing for Rol to finish the season at .500 and claim 7th place. Stephen Gostkowski (13 points) and the Vikings DST (15) played a significant role in putting Rol over the top, and while JuJu Smith-Schuster (14), Carlos Hyde (13), and Tom Brady (16) all turned in solid games, it wasn't enough to overcome having two zeroes in the score column. Perhaps this is a sign that the fantasy gods have finally forgiven Rol's blasphemy against Samus Returns, and are willing to allow him back into their favor if he repents.
That wraps up all the games that I think players were actively making an effort to win, along with the fantasy season! Congrats to everyone who made it through. If anyone has any suggestions, comments, or critiques for things to change next year, hit me up; I'm interested in hearing what can be improved.
