Fantasy Unicorn: Week 7
Another week largely consisting of blowouts has (temporarily) brought a bit of clarity to our fair world of fantasy football land. It's starting to become readily apparent which VGChartz members the football deities bless and which ones are cursed to the eternal damnation of watching their players underperform week after week. But why focus on that when we can focus on the one decent game that came about this week, and kinda ended in a disappointing fashion for everyone besides Angelus.
Best Game: Arch 94.70, Arminillo 91.32
What initially looked like it was going to be a blowout wound up being a fantastic game that was taken down to the wire on Monday night; a few less than spectacular games from AJ Green (4 points) and Joe Mixon (6) combined with solid late game efforts from Julio Jones (15 points) and Kirk Cousins (24) led to Arminillo making up a ton of ground after being down by nearly 30 points after the early Sunday games finished. However, it wasn't enough to compensate for Arminillo's biggest problem: he forgot to remove Leonard Fournette from the starting lineup, and that likely cost him a win and sole possession of first place in the Nohr Division. Arch meanwhile, keeps pace with Ludicrous Speed at 6-1 atop the Hoshido Division. Speaking of which...
Biggest Blowout: It Ertz When Eifert 112.68, Lousy Pack 52.88
The curse of calling Samus Returns a disappointment continues to haunt Rol, who put up another "lousy" performance in losing for the fourth time in five weeks. We could blame this on Aaron Rodgers injury, but not even the bad man himself could have saved Pack here, who was utterly doomed from the Thursday night game onward. Marshawn Lynch didn't even record a full point before being ejected, Ty Montgomery only managed 15 yards overall, and Rishard Matthews only managed 4 points. Fun fact depending on who you are; Ludicrous could have won this game if he had only started his QB (Alex Smith, 26 points) and his Flex (Ezekiel Elliott, 39 points).
Most Playoff Relevant Matchup Not Listed Above: Nohrian Scum 125.86, Doomfist 78.94
This game wound up being the opposite of Arch vs. Arminillo; initially looked like it was going to be a close one, but wound up being a blowout. After both teams ended Thursday night with a player scoring at least 14 points (Tyreek Hill with 19, Harrison Butker with 14), Doomfist's players didn't show up on Sunday while mine did. The duo of Todd Gurley and Le'Veon Bell combined for 40+ points again, and Russell Wilson appears to be playing reasonably well after a slow start to the season (26 points). Meanwhile, Doomfist was let down by Cam Newton (7 points), Frank Gore (3 points) and Melvin Gordon (4 points). As a result of all this, I remain in the playoff picture for the time being, while Doomfist is now a game + tiebreakers out of the last spot.
The Rest:
The Longest Foot 90.36, Alpha Males 64.02
Dongos Gridiron Gladiators 63.42, The Loins 58.28
HanginwithHernandez 78.84, Honestly Basically a Free Win at this Point 59.92
Playoff Picture:
#1: ItErtzWhenEifert (6-1, Hoshido Division Leader)
#2: Arminillo (4-3, Nohr Division Leader)
#3: Arch (6-1)
#4: The Longest Foot (4-3)
#5: Nohrian Scum (4-3)
#6: Dongo's Gridiron Gladiators (4-3)
In Contention: Lousy Pack (3-4), HanginwithHernandez (3-4), Doomfist (3-4)
Tiebreaker Explanation:
-Ertz is the current Hoshido Division Leader by virute of head to head record over Arch (1-0).
-Arminillo is the current Nohr Division Leader by virtue of head to head record over Dongo (1-0).
-The Longest Foot is the fourth seed over Nohrian Scum and Dongo by virtue of better record against teams with the same record (1-0, compared with Dongo's 0-0 record and my 0-1 record).
-Nohrian Scum is the fifth seed based on more points scored than Dongo (707 vs. 535), as there is no head to head result to base the tiebreaker off of. The two teams will play in Week 10, so this is a largely meaningless tiebreaker.
Hope no one was tired of important games, because this week brings even more than we had last week. Once again, I'll be involved with one of the games that's the most immediately impactful on the playoff picture in a battle of 4-3 teams with a bunch of important players on bye. I will be without Todd Gurley and the surprising Rams' defense, while Arminillo will be without Leonard Fournette, Adrian Peterson, and the Jags' defense. The winner will be assured of staying in the playoff picture for the moment, while the loser may fall out (yes, Arminillo could go all the way from the 2nd seed to out of the playoffs) based on how the other games shake out.
Speaking of out of the playoffs, Dongo moved from there into the 6th seed spot after a rather ugly win (but a win nonetheless) against The Loins. It's worth noting that, for the time being, there are no tiebreakers necessary to determine who is in the playoffs; a 4-3 record or better is good enough to get in, anything worse is out. This could change going forward, however, as Dongo plays the current 4th seed, The Longest Foot. As with the above matchup, the winner will remain in the playoff picture for sure, while the loser could fall out. Additionally, with a win and and an Arminillo loss, Dongo would take over the Nohr Division lead and the #2 seed.
The two 2-5 teams are basically playing for their seasons at this point. Falling to 2-6 means being 2 games out of the last playoff spot with 6 left to go, which might not sound hopeless, but neither Alpha Males nor The Loins have much in the way of tiebreakers, so it'll essentially be 3. The Loins get HanginwithHernandez, who is looking to move into the playoff picture with a win and some help, while Alpha Males gets a much tougher task against Arch, who is riding a four game winning streak. Arch's counterpart atop the Hoshido Division, Ertz, gets Doomfist, who has lost two in a row and needs a win to avoid falling into outright panic mode.
Finally, Lousy Pack gets a potential rebound game against SCAB. Due to some generally favorable tiebreakers against the rest of his division, Rol could move back into the playoff field if he can manage a win this week.
As always, let me know if there are any questions or if you notice something wrong with my tiebreaker analysis. Full standings can be found here, though tiebreaks and playoff positioning are not guaranteed to be accurate.
