Re: 2007 FIRST Fantasy Football
 

Ugh, Reggie Wayne with a 13 from my bench...

Rhode Island Dynamic (3-3) d. RPI10 (2-4)
85-48
“Another battle of the Manning brothers. Peyton has no running game so for his team to survive he has to succeed. Against the Redskins slacking D his chances are pretty good which is probably the Dynamics best shot at winning…” If the Peyton/Eli battle was any indication, Rhode Island absolutely creamed RPI. The Manning battle went to Peyton 23-9. Corey Dillon/Rudi Johnson also went to the Dynamic 14-6. Then Rhode Island took the receiving game. Then they took the kicking game. Then they took defense. Then they dominated the battle of the benches. It was all Rhode Island this week in a much-needed win.

T-Hawks (4-2) d. Koko's X-Cats (3-3)
71-69
Now THIS is how Monday-nighters should decide games (not like last week’s disaster). In this case, it was Dallas’s (well, mostly Tony Romo’s) ability to throw interceptions, letting the Giants DEF get 19 points for the T-Hawks. You see, the X-Cats had a decent lead after Sunday, mostly thanks to Larry Johnson’s 20. But they also had Drew Bledsoe on Monday, who only got 6. Now, we don’t know for sure if the X-Cats still would’ve won had the Tuna kept Bledsoe in (for all we know, it could’ve been worse), but it’s this analyst’s opinion that the X-Cat’s got shafted. Not to take anything away from the T-Hawks, who fought back tenaciously on Monday to win.

Nor Cal Crushers (5-1) d. Cooney Quest (2-4)
73-62
Props to Cooney for holding to the same conglomeration it had last week (all but two players cleared 4). They even had a solid 18 from Michael Vick to lead them. Their problem was that they were facing the Crushers. Nor Cal somehow got 12 from David Carr, and when that happens, you know they can just do no wrong. Darrell Jackson added 14, Kevin Jones also had 12, and their three Ds combined for 28. So while Cooney played their best game of the season, the Crushers were better this week.

Eat My Shorts (3-3) d. Cromer Smash! (2-3-1)
29-28
Holy close games! Yes, I’m overselling the excitement on this game. Actually, this one was rather dramatic, even if it was pitifully low-scoring. In fact, had this game been all positive points, the Smash would’ve won. They had 10 from Gerald Hayes, 8 from Janikowski, and 5 from Pennington. EMS only had Tomlinson’s 13 and Brad Johnson’s 7. Here comes the drama: Washington had -2 points. That cost Cromer the win. Ed pinpointed the rest accurately: “[Willie] Parker may find the Falcons defense is much harder to penetrate.” A fumble and low yardage gave Cromer a -1 from him. That gave them the loss.

Evil Trav's Minions (5-1) d. FIRST Force (3-2-1)
89-54
Both teams looked like they were playing the same game here: get as many high scores as possible. This is great for the Minions, as it’s essentially their game. Though I do give credit to the Force for trying. On offense, they had a Harrington 15 and a Randy Moss 13. I could also count the rest of the offensive scoring on one hand. Their defense was also decent with a combined 23. But back comes the Minions and their big scores, including Ronde Barber getting 27 and winning the defensive battle on his own. The offense seemed lackluster in comparison, and that’s counting McNabb’s 16, Furrey’s 12, Andersen’s 10 (go, Morten!), and Gabriel’s 8. Okay, I could also count the rest of their offense on one had, but I’m essentially grasping at straws here, as the Minions won this shortly after I said McNabb.

Silver Lobos (3-3) d. Indiana Ironmen (4-2)
85-44
You’d figure with Tom Brady scoring 11 for the Ironmen that their stock was looking good this week (Brady, believe it or not, usually doesn’t provide high fantasy points; great leader, not-so-great stats). Unfortunately, that was their only score worth mentioning. Meanwhile, the Lobos were playing hard and scoring big. Their scores worth mentioning included (but not limited to) Marvin Harrison’s 15, triple 12s from Palmer, Vinatieri, and Andre Johnson, a 10 from Cato June, and Maurice Jones-Drew’s 9. Both teams now stand at 4-3.

The Very Fast Blitz (1-5) d. Stevies Scapegoats (2-4)
65-47
“The sins of non roster management have claimed another victim. Witness the Very Fast Blitz. Now everyone give them your sympathy followed by stern disapproval.” I tried giving them my sympathy and pity, but it turns out, they didn’t need it (though for the record, I’m fairly certain we’re in ‘non playing team’ territory here). The Blitz’s DEF, Minnesota, pulled in 14. Westbrook, Brunell, and Owens combined for 45. The Scapegoats were also too busy showing pity for the Blitz, because other than Denver’s 12 and Huard’s 9, they forgot to score. The Blitz had a combination a few high scores and an underplaying opponent to get to their second win.

Amazin' Blue (5-1) d. {} (1-5)
31-21
And we once again get to learn of the woes that are Murphy’s Mathletes. Losman gave them an unceremonious -5. Roethlisberger had 13, but was on the bench. Had the Mathletes switched QBs, they’d have won. Misnomer, perhaps? Irony, at the least. And even worse, Roethlisberger may be hurt and lose some playing time. I’m prettymuch eating up space here, because there isn’t anything else to talk about. Amazin’ Blue had 9 from Houshmandzadeh and their K, and an 8 from Justin Miller. It was enough to beat the Mathletes, and I guess that W is what counts.

sigmakittens (0-6) d. Boilers 1529 (2-4)
86-41
Did the Sigmakittens just score 86? They had Alge Crumpler, you say. He had 24? Okay then. Being a completist, I should also mention the combined 41 from their three Ds (Woodson, Rossum, and Trotter). The Boilers had 10 each from Dunn and Feely, but that was half their score. It was the Sigmakittens moment to win (as opposed to last week), and they took it.

stantheman (5-1) d. Meatball Artists (3-3)
62-31
The only reason this game looks exciting is because of Hines Ward’s 27 for STM. But beyond that, there wasn’t much. The Artists had New England’s 11 and Cartwright’s 8. STM had Ward’s albeit impressive 27, plus two 9s from Gates and Sims. It’s obvious who won this match, even if it was quite dull.

Wow, not much jumping this week. Anyway, I'll have the first half analysis and awards in the next couple days, so stay tuned.

Mid-season Review/Awards
 

And we’re back! After an interesting first half, we now have our best-of-the-best list.


Most Valuable QB

Donovan McNabb (Evil Trav’s Minions)
How can this not go to him? He’s the highest scoring player in the league on the highest scoring team in the league. My job has never been simpler.

Honorable Mention: Peyton Manning
Any other season, the Rhode Island Dynamic’s star would be up top. But right now, he’s the second highest scoring player in the league on the second highest scoring team in the league. My job: still simple.


Best Running Game

Clinton Portis, Kevin Jones, & Chester Taylor (Nor Cal Crushers)
A lot of teams are lucky to get two solid running backs. Nor Cal’s THREE backs are not only solid, but are all in the top fifteen among fantasy points for RBs. Talk about your nasty trios.

Honorable Mention: LaDainian Tomlinson & Deuce McAllister
Eat My Shorts (ew) is on a three-game winning streak thanks mostly to these two. Tomlinson is the highest scoring RB right now, and McAllister provides solid points as the thirteenth highest.


Best Receiving Game

Reggie Brown, Wes Welker, Reggie Wayne, & Dante Hall (Rhode Island Dynamic)
Perhaps four receivers is overkill. Brown and Welker are top five receivers. That alone would probably only get them an honorable mention. But both Wayne and Hall are solid scorers, giving Rhode Island that extra oomph in both fantasy points and in receiving overall.

Honorable Mention: Darrell Jackson & Anquan Boldin
Nothing against the Nor Cal Crushers: they have two receivers who are only slightly behind Rhode Island’s top two, and they are 6-1. But the rest of their scoring is up in the running game, so they just get the honorable mention here.


Most Valuable Kicker

Nate Kaeding (Indiana Ironmen)
The Indiana Ironmen are only 4-3, but I can swear that every time I’m typing up a postgame review on them, Kaeding’s name pops up. He’s the second best kicker in the league right now, and has only missed two FGs (both 40+ yards).

Honorable Mention: Robbie Gould
The kicking game is the only thing {} has going for them. Gould is easily the top scoring kicker in the league, and it’d be a shame not to give him mention.

Honorable Mention: Jeff Wilkins
The kicking game is the only thing {} has going for them. Wilkins is the third best kicker in the league (only a point behind Kaeding), and it’d be a shame not to give him mention.


Most Productive Offense

Nor Cal Crushers
Nor Cal is 6-1. How did they do that? Well, all five non-QBs are listed already (Portis, Jackson, Jones, Boldin, and Taylor), but we can also add David Carr to that list, who is doing surprisingly well in the fantasy stats this season. He’s also how the Crushers have five guys in the top 30 overall. Nor Cal’s only fault is that they have too many good players, and not enough spots for them. And really, is that such a bad thing?

Honorable Mention: Silver Lobos
This one was tough due to all the decent offenses out there. But let's look at the Lobos’ offense. They have a well-balanced offense, with a couple QBs they can choose from depending on their opponent, plus a kicker who’s good when not hurt (Vinatieri). None of their scorers are big, but they have a larger amount of moderate scorers, as well as a winning record, earning them this mention.


Most Dominating Defense

FIRST Force
Choosing defenses was difficult, because most of the defensive scoring has been even. But FIRST Force has just enough all around to give them this award. Adrian Wilson, Lance Briggs, and Chris Carr do their D scoring, while San Diego picks up the rest. They’re also at .500, which while not great, could be worse.

Honorable Mention: Stevies Scapegoats
I had to at least give them an honorable mention. Their defense is actually pretty good, and they have Denver. It’s their offense’s fault they’ve lost five games.

Honorable Mention: Silver Lobos
I’m starting to see why they’re 4-3; their defense is exactly like their offense. While they have no top scorers, they have a bunch of moderate ones. The Lobos have five players to choose from that have scored at least 37 points each, and while Cincinnati isn’t the greatest defense in the world, with how even DEFs are this year, it could be much worse.

Honorable Mention: Nor Cal Crushers
McGee gets most of his points from returning (though 35 tackles makes him eligible for placement) and they’re stuck with Jacksonville, but Fletcher adds enough to make this an honorable mention.

Honorable Mention: Rhode Island Dynamic
I hesitated giving this one out, but this defense is just as good as the other three honorable mentions (plus if I gave Nor Cal one, I had to give Rhode Island one). Vilma and Thomas provide high scores, and Bailey contributes when need be.

Four honorable mentions… that’s gotta be a record.


Playoff Picture

Teams won’t start clinching or being eliminated for another month at least, but it’s never too early to give predictions.

The Minions and Crushers, barring about fifteen broken legs, look great. STM and the Blue are the lower scoring of the top bracket, but with only moderately difficult schedules, they’ll probably be fine. The T-Hawks have a tougher second half schedule, so if anybody in the top five slips, it’ll probably be them.

Rhode Island has a very high fantasy score and they only have two challenging games left, so the five-team basement trip on their schedule should get them in. The Lobos have an even easier schedule, so I like their chances as well. All the Ironmen’s wins are against sub-.500 teams, and their second half is loaded with teams floating above or very near that mark. This means they could be in trouble late. EMS has four good teams left, but they’ve shown that they can win against them, so they’re at least in the fight. And the lone .500 team has only an okay schedule; FIRST force will still have to fight to make it.

All the X-Cats losses have been close enough for me to say that with their schedule, they’ll at least be in the hunt. The Boilers though, are the exact opposite, and I don’t like their chances. It’s the same with the Artists, who had a three-game streak, but that was against teams in the basement. I wouldn’t expect to see them in. Cromer has a schedule where, with enough close wins, they may very well be fighting for a playoff spot.

Cooney’s second half should be better than their first, and their fantasy score should at least give them hope. The Scapegoats, if they tune their offense, could also be fighting in Week XIV. RPI has lost five straight, and their schedule won’t help that, so count them out. Count out the Blitz as well. The Kittens have pulled their team together finally, but their terrible first half may very well cost them in the end. And what can I say about {}? The rest of their schedule inhales audibly, and they seem to have extremely bad luck. While I don’t like their chances, their bad luck in the first half was so improbable that they could have just as improbable of a good-luck streak in the second half. Stranger things have happened.

But I go back to my first sentence here: nobody is out of the playoff picture, and nobody is guaranteed in yet. Last season, we had a team in 17th place after Week X, and they came back to make it into the playoffs and eventually, the finals. So I say this again: nobody is out. Not even Murphy. :p

I’ll be back next week, where probably all my predictions will be proven wrong.

Re: 2007 FIRST Fantasy Football
 

OH YEAH BABY I GOT A HONORABLE MENTION HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

Week XVIII Postgame Analysis
 

The only football I watched this weekend was the second half of the Colts/Broncos game. I think I made a good choice. :D

Rhode Island Dynamic (4-3) d. Evil Trav's Minions (6-1)
78-51
With the exception of four plays, this game was actually pretty lackluster considering that the top two teams in fantasy scores were playing. Those four plays were Manning to Wayne for a 12 yard TD, Manning to Wayne for a 5 yard TD, Manning to Wayne for a 19 yard TD, and that TD’s resulting Manning to Wayne two-point conversion. Not counting the yardage, that was 38 points right there for Rhode Island. Reggie Wayne finished with 29, and Peyton Manning finished with 23. The Minions lacked high scores this week, with only Morten Andersen’s 11 being notable for them. I don’t have much else to say because nothing else happened.

Koko's X-Cats (3-4) d. RPI10 (2-5)
74-50
It’s about time Larry Johnson lived up to all his hype this season. The X-Cats’ (quoth Ed) season was on the line, and LJ came through for them with 33. But let’s not discount McNair’s 18 in the Superdome, doing what no other QB has done there this season. RPI put up 10 from Burress and 11 from Graham, and while the rest of the offense was decent, their defense came up short, allowing the X-Cats to take this one.

T-Hawks (5-2) vs. Cooney Quest (2-5)
draw
65-65
Poor Cooney. They’ve been playing very well the last three weeks, but haven’t amassed a win since Week III. They finally win a game come Tuesday morning, only to have Kansas City gain a single point for a sack for the T-Hawks on Thursday (so if I was actually on time with these postgame reviews, this game would be reported inaccurately). Anyhow, Cooney played really well this week, including a 20 from Michael Vick, a 13 from Thomas Jones, and 10 from Ken Hamlin. Let’s be fair though, the T-Hawks stayed even. They had 14 from Marion Barber III, 10 from Ray Lewis, and 11 from Vrabel on Monday (which, added to their extra point they got on Thursday, is the reason they survived for the tie). Great game by both teams, but sadly, we have another one sullied by Yahoo’s scorekeeping (or lack thereof).

Eat My Shorts (4-3) d. Nor Cal Crushers (6-1)
56-41
Some weeks, you have it. Other’s, you don’t. Nor Cal fell into the “don’t” category this week. Nor Cal played decent on defense with a combined 25 from three players, and even got a bit of offensive support with Darrell Jackson’s 10. But when you have a -6 in the QB spot from Carr and an extremely lucky opponent, that won’t be enough. I say “extremely lucky” because EMS only had two scorers: LaDanian Tomlinson with 30, and Oakland with 20. Everything else is countable on one six-fingered hand. But they got the win against a very tough opponent, so all is good in the land of shorts.

stantheman (6-1) d. Cromer Smash! (2-4-1)
50-38
I really just said “land of shorts”, didn’t I? Sorry, I’m still in that last review. There really wasn’t much to this game anyway. Whatever Cromer did, STM did it better. Cromer got a -2 in the QB spot, STM got a +2. Cromer gets 11 from Willie Parker, STM gets 13 from Chicago. And STM’s auxiliary scores were just plain better. While not a flashy win by any means, STM is able to retake first place.

Indiana Ironmen (4-3) d. FIRST Force (3-3-1)
104-56
You know what? FIRST Force played a pretty good game. This review won’t be about them (sorry). What this review will be about is the first team this season to break into triple digits. We’ll start low here: four 8s from Heap, Kaeding, Brackett, and Pierce, and a 9 from the grammatically incorrect Ocho Cinco. Then we go higher: 17 from Baltimore, 19 from Ahman Green (about time), and 22 from Tom Brady. The good news for FIRST Force is that their acquiring of Tony Romo seems like a good move for the future, as he got them 12 this week. Of course, nobody had a chance against the Ironmen this week. THIS was a flashy win.

Silver Lobos (4-3) d. Stevies Scapegoats (2-5)
54-41
The week after I give them an honorable mention in the defensive awards, the Scapegoats get a -3 from Denver. So is the woes of the Scapegoats. While Damon Huard has done a remarkable job filling in for Trent Green (this week he had 12) and Edgerrin James stepped onto the scoreboard with 11, they got no more help from their offense, and their defense (the Scapegoats one good thing), as you can tell by the first thing I said, didn’t come through either. The Lobos played better all around with a better offense (led by both Carson Palmer’s and Andre Johnson’s 11s), better defense, and Adam Vinatieri taking advantage of the Manning/Wayne connection mentioned in the RI/Minions game (not to mention the Scapegoat’s Denver DEF) for 14 fantasy points. The Lobos win their second straight.

{} (1-6) d. The Very Fast Blitz (2-5)
82-37
Bad News: Murphy’s Braces (yes, they’re called braces) only got 3 from Roethlisberger. Good news: Just about everything else. First off, they were facing the Blitz, who I’ll just say have problems, and move on. Secondly, the Braces had Marques Colston scoring 21 (who?) and Mike Bell scoring 19. Third, they had support from Droughns and his 14, and top-of-the-line kicker Gould’s 11. So we learn that the Braces can win, and do it pretty well. Now if only they could get their quarterback problems settled…

Amazin' Blue (6-1) d. sigmakittens (1-6)
62-38
Well, easy come, easy go. The Sigmakittens were right back to their losing ways. Plummer did well with 12 in a losing effort and Crumpler added 9, but that was all that was left from the kittens’ awesome charge last week. Amazin’ Blue had an off week last week (despite winning), but came back this week with 18 from Justin Miller, 10 from Michael Turner (who?), and 9 from Pittsburgh. So we had a complete reversal for both teams compared to last week, and Amazin’ Blue wins their seventh straight.

Meatball Artists (3-4) d. Boilers 1529 (3-4)
79-58
This was a surprisingly good game from two 3-4 teams. QBs were even at 15, and defenses were dead even. Where the Artists took this game was at running; Julius Jones, Fred Taylor, and Steven Jackson combined for 34. The Boilers had nothing of the sort, and even their receiving game was lacking enough for the Artists to pull away for the victory.

Playoff Picture: Just the basics right now. STM and Blue can clinch by winning 4; Minions and Crushers' magic number is 5; and Hawks, Dynamic, Ironmen, Lobos, and EMS will be in the playoffs if they win out (the Dynamic/Ironmen game in Week IX allows this). That's about as far as I dare to go right now, as this will all change by next week.

And seeing as how I've been working at this analysis on-and-off all day, I really need some sleep. See you next week.

Re: Week XVIII Postgame Analysis
 

The FIRST Robotics League

Koko's X-Cats (4-4) vs. Evil Trav's Minions (6-2)
It's the tale of two running backs as Fantasy Football studs Larry Johnson of the X-Cats and Tiki Barber of the Minons go head to head and both are in line for good days but what could really settle the matter is what the starting quarterbacks (the X-Cats Steve McNair and the Minions Jon Kitna) do.

Rhode Island Dynamic (5-3) vs. Indiana Ironmen (5-3)
Manning and Brady face off in the game of the year in FOxboro and face off in virtual terms here for the Dynamic (who have Manning) and the Ironmen (who have Brady). Ironically the player who may go furthert in settling the matter on the field is playing for the Dynamic. He's Corey Dillon. But the Ironmen's Ahman Green is facing a pretty awful run defense in Buffalo as well.

RPI10 (2-6) vs. Cooney Quest (2-5-1)
The Quest have to be pretty excitied seeing Micheal Vick blossom into an NFL quarterback. ANd having Brandon Jacobs clean up at the goal line for the Giants and Thomas Jones at home against the demoralized Dolphins has them looking pretty. RPI10 has the other Manning who will get to roll up points on the hapless Texans and Cedric Benson who will eventually get his shot at points for the Bears but Rudi Johnson could be in for a struggle today agianst the Ravens.

Eat My Shorts (5-3) vs. T-Hawks (5-2-1)
Eat My Shorts is going to ride LaDanian Thomlinson til he drops dead from exuahstion. The question is are they going to get anything from anyone else? Duece McCallister should do some damage today. The T-Hawks have Thomlinson's quarterback who benefits from his presence and takes advantage of it. Jeremey Shockey could be brutal today.

Nor Cal Crushers (6-2) vs. Cromer Smash! (2-5-1)
Looks like Alex is on schedule for his annual meltdown.

Stevies Scapegoats (2-6) vs. FIRST Force (3-4-1)
Both quarterbacks are enigmas. Brett Farve for the SCapegoats and Tony Romo for the FIRST Force. Both could be big but both are gunslingers and can hurt you as well. The running backs have potential but are not top flight backs so if the Scapgoats Travis Henry or FIRST Force's Dominic Rhodes may just decide this matter.

Silver Lobos (5-3) vs. {} (2-6)
The Silver Lobos got Rex Grossman who lives off of weak opponents at home. Does he need any one else? {} has JP Losman and who knows what JP will do week to week? Their top scoring threat could be Robbie Gould.

sigmakittens (1-7) vs. The Very Fast Blitz (2-6)
The Very Fast Blitz are now under league control (a move I heartily appove) but the results could be the same. Marc Brunnel, Josheph Addai and Samkon Gado need to step up huge to make it happen. Watch out for Willis McGahee for the kitties today.

Amazin' Blue (7-1) vs. Meatball Artists (4-4)
Man! Did Amazin' Blue screw this week up! Their in second place and left their roster in disarray. What's up with that?

stantheman (7-1) vs. Boilers 1529 (3-5)
Laurency Maroney and the Chicago Bears defense could go a long way in keeping stantheman at the top. Boilers 1529 need Warrick Dunn to run wild and Drew Brees to regain his forum.

Re: 2007 FIRST Fantasy Football
 

FIRST Robotics League 2

Ni Koko's X-Cats MechanicatzT-hawkssigmakittensWe Inhale AudiblyCromer Smash! Big Pappi Nor Cal CrushersFIRST Force Gopher ROFLvadersJedimasters1511Santosh1002 Stevies Scapegoats Indiana Ironmen MC Shea Piss Poor PiñatasThe Jaguar SharksFreedomForce



WEEK 9 SCEDULE[/center]
Koko's X-Cats(6-2) vs. Indiana Ironmen (3-5)
The X-Cats are relying on Larry Johnson obviously but for once would like to get a big play or two out of Reggie Bush. Not sure how much Seneca Wallace can help out the Ironmen but Ahman Green could be huge for them against the Bills.

Mechanicatz (6-2) vs.COLOR=YellowGreen]Cromer Smash! (5-3)[/color]
The suddenly adept Micheal Vick and good looking rookie Laurence Moroney lead the Mechnicatz. The Smash on the other hand are playing against themsleves with Peyton Manning and the New England Patriots defense going up against each other. If one does well it may be at the exspense of the other. That is a serious problem.

Ni (7-1) vs. FreedomForce (1-7)
Both teams are without a quarterback so scoring will have to come from somewhere else. For Ni their best bet is Ronnie Brown. For FreedomFOrce it's Stepehen Jackson.

Nor Cal Crushers (4-4) vs. Stevies Scapegoats(3-5)
The Crushers are in an epic freefall and need Willie Parker, Clinton Portis and even Tony Romo to put a stop to it! The Scapegoats need Brett Farve to continue to be productive and THomas Jones to be big.

ROFLvaders(4-4) vs. T-Hawks(6-2)
The ROFLvaders have two backs but are really depending on Eli Manning to lead the way as their backs are not featured backs. The T-Hawks aren't going to scare anyone with Bruce Gradkowski at quarterback. Robbie Gould looks like their best scoring threat.

Big Pappi(5-3) vs. Piss Poor Piñatas (2-6)
Triple P needs plays from Lamont Jordan and Willis McGahee becasue Charlie Frye cannot be counted on against the Chargers. Big Pappi is looking for good play from Rudi Johnson and Kevin Jones to make plays and hope for good plays from Joey Harrington.

Jedimasters1511(4-4) vs. We Inhale Audibly (5-3)
We Inhale Audibly leans heavily on the arm of Carson Palmer and the legs of Fred Taylor but Jedimaster1511 has a strong counter with Drew Brees and the gruesome twosome of Tiki Barber and Duece McAllister.

sigmakittens(5-3) vs.Santosh1002(3-5)
Santosh should be alot better than they are and as long as they have LaDanian Thomlinson they are a real threat but they have no quarterback with Matt Hasselback gone so that hinder their ability to compete. The kitties shave MArc Brunell who is adequet but I bet he could outscore a quarterback who is injured.


Gopher (4-4)vs. FIRST Force (4-4)
Gopher is looking for gold by starting David Garrand. Julius Jones is splitting carries and Maurice Jones-Drew is not a big part of the Jacksonville offense yet. FIRST FOrce has Steve McNair but has better backs with Chester Taylor and Frank Gore.

MC Shea (2-6) vs.The Jaguar Sharks(1-7)
MC Shea neeeds Marc Bulger to continue his high level of play and get some sort of production out of Carnel Williams and Cedric Bneson. The luckless Jaguar Sharks are hoping Tom Brady's luck will rub off them. Not much from the backs though.

Week IX Postgame Analysis
 

Yay, Ed’s back!

Rhode Island Dynamic (5-3) d. Indiana Ironmen (5-3)
73-36
All I’m going to say is that Manning/Brady should’ve been better. But it was completely one-sided in favor of the Dynamic’s Peyton Maning with a fantasy score of 13, which is 17 more than Brady (with -4) had for the Ironmen. And here’s the irony: the only Patriot to hit the end zone (Corey Dillon; he did it twice) was on Rhode Island’s roster giving them another 11 points. Add Wes Welker’s 10 (for those of us who aren’t my biased self, I ask: who? :p) and Champ Bailey’s 15 from the defense, and Rhode Island easily wins this one.

Koko's X-Cats (4-4) d. Evil Trav's Minions (6-2)
72-52
“It's the tale of two running backs as Fantasy Football studs Larry Johnson of the X-Cats and Tiki Barber of the Minions go head to head and both are in line for good days…” 15 and 14, respectively. In fact, the only edge the Minions got in this game was the QB battle, with Kitna of all people scoring 10. Everything else was either even, or widely skewed in favor of the X-Cats. The two biggest discrepancies were in the kicker spot (Stover had 14) and on defense (led by Rashean Mathis’s 12, the X-Cats’ defense combined for 35), allowing the X-Cats to take their second straight.

RPI10 (2-6) d. Cooney Quest (2-5-1)
59-54
It’s official: Cooney Quest just can’t catch a break. The one week Michael Vick underperforms is the one week Cooney really needed an extra five points. Though to be fair, the only reason the game was so close anyway was because of a 19 from Phil Dawson. Which was equaled by RPI’s Miami marching into Soldier Field and out-Bearing the Bears. Other good things for RPI included 10 from Graham, 9 from Rudi Johnson, and 8 from Rashied Davis. They were smaller scores, but large enough for RPI to finally break their six-game losing streak.

T-Hawks (5-2-1) d. Eat My Shorts (5-3)
53-44
“Eat My Shorts is going to ride LaDanian Tomlinson til he drops dead from exhaustion. The question is, are they going to get anything from anyone else? Deuce McAllister should do some damage today.” If this doesn’t get Ed a psychic point, nothing will. LT gave EMS 28 points, and that “some damage” from McAllister equaled 7 points. But, to answer Ed’s question, they didn’t get anything from anybody else. Brad Johnson even took away six points from EMS’s total. “The T-Hawks have Tomlinson’s quarterback who benefits from his presence and takes advantage of it.” Phillip Rivers scored 8. “Jeremy Shockey could be brutal today.” He had 9. Not quite brutal, but a nice contribution nonetheless. The rest of the T-Hawks victory came from Hanson’s 12 and EMS’s lack of defense.

Nor Cal Crushers (6-2) d. Cromer Smash! (2-5-1)
108-43
You know what? Even if Cromer had backups for their three byes, they still would’ve gotten their butts kicked, bruised, and handed back to them on a platter. I’ll just mention their 18 points from Willie Parker going to waste, and move on. And what we’re moving onto is the second team to hit triple digits in the same number of weeks. Nor Cal’s defense was simply amazing, with Fletcher, McGee, and Jacksonville combining for 44. Their offense was just as amazing, with Kevin Jones, Josh Scobee, Clinton Portis, and David Carr combining for 52. So I’m reasonably sure the appropriately named Crushers won.

Stevies Scapegoats (2-6) d. FIRST Force (3-4-1)
75-43
After five straight losses, the Scapegoats were looking to stop the bleeding against FIRST Force, who has been struggling as of late. FIRST Force’s struggling was only exacerbated by having no running game and a receiving game not likely to induce fear in anyone. They won the QB battle with Romo, but said receiving game was dominated by the Scapegoats’ Joey Galloway and Roy Williams combining for 29. While defense wasn’t quite as lopsided, the Scapegoats’ also got some insurance scoring from Denver (16) and DeMeco Ryans (10). The Scapegoats needed this game badly, and they won it.

{} (2-6) d. Silver Lobos (5-3)
67-64
“The Silver Lobos have Rex Grossman who lives off of weak opponents at home. Does he need any one else?” Apparently so, because as early in the review as this is, the -1 at the QB spot was easily the difference in this game. Murphy’s Streakers (ew) incorrect QB decision only cost them 1 point this week (Losman had 6). I’ll be fair: the Lobos played well, with impressive scores coming from Marvin Harrison (20, in the process of helping Peyton Manning kick both the Patriots’ and Ironmen’s collective butts), Darrent Williams (15), and Cato June (11). But the Streakers (ew) got a lot of that defensive scoring back with a combined score of 26. Their offensive scores were slightly better too, including two receivers who combined for 23. In a game that could’ve gone either way, it all comes back to Grossman not doing his job, and the Streakers (ew) having a QB contribute enough points to give them their first winning streak of the season.

The Very Fast Blitz (2-6) d. sigmakittens (1-7)
57-47
Truth be told, this game wasn’t very exciting. The Sigmakittens’ best score was Jake Plummer’s 16 while the Blitz had Tony Gonzalez with 15. But here is what the league takeover added to the Blitz: an actual defense. Not a great one (it only combined for 17), but one that took advantage of a Tampa Bay -3 and a bye from their opponents’ defense. With the rest of the game even (and not in a good way), defenses were the factor in the Blitz’s third win.

Meatball Artists (4-4) d. Amazin' Blue (7-1)
47-23
“Man! Did Amazin' Blue screw this week up! They’re in second place and left their roster in disarray. What's up with that?” Actually, while they could’ve replaced one of their defensive players on a bye, they still weren’t looking too good. And when your best score is T.J. Houshmandzadeh with 9, it’s time to call it a day. The Artist’s roster was in less disarray. It even had Stephen Jackson’s 14 and Marc Bulger’s 9. For the first time this season, the Artists have a winning record.

stantheman (7-1) vs. Boilers 1529 (3-5)
88-63
The Boilers had two faults this week. The first is that two of their players were on byes (one even had a backup they could’ve put in). They had good scores such as Brees’s 19, Muhammad and Ayodele’s matching 10s, and Dunn’s 9. Then you see those two goose eggs from byes, and it hurts your eyes to see. Their second fault was not actually their fault, but it hurt them nonetheless. It was facing the "not quite dominant, but wins when they need to" STM. And didn’t Javon Walker’s 28 for STM look pretty? Of course, that wasn’t all. They also had Garrard’s 15 (Leftwich who?) and a pair of 10s from Maroney and Urlacher. STM, as usual, remains in first place.

Two teams tied at 13th, both with the 13th highest fantasy scores. What are the odds?

Playoff Picture: We're still in magic number territory here. STM will clinch with 3 wins, Crushers, Blue, and Hawks will clinch with 4 wins, and Dynamic and Minions will clinch with five wins (i.e., winning out). I know, there are a zillion other possibilities and permutations to the playoff picture right now, but what do I look like, Supernerd? Uh, don't answer that.

Well, I'll see you all next week.

Re: Week IX Postgame Analysis
 

The FIRST Robotics League

Koko's X-Cats (5-4) vs. Indiana Ironmen (5-4)
The X-Cats of course rely on Larry Johnson but now have a revenge minded Steve McNair going up against his old team. The wildcard for the Ironmen could be the Ravens defense. Tom Brady will do his damage against the Jets but Ahman Green will be hard pressed to get results agaisnt the Vikings very tough run D.

Stevies Scapegoats (3-6) vs. Rhode Island Dynamic (6-3)
The Dynamic is standing tall with a high performing Peyton Manning and Corey Dillon is due for a big day as well. The SCapegoats are going to be hard pressed for points with Brett Farve regressing to his turnover prone ways and Edgerrin James being a non entity this season. Their best bet is the Broncos defense who get to beat down the Raiders offense.

Evil Trav's Minions (6-3)vs. Cooney Quest (2-6-1)
The Minons are relying on a desperate to rebound Donovan McNabb and Tiki Barber who will have to sludge through the tough Bears defense but on the other side is his teammate Brandon Jacobs who can syphon points away from him with end zone carries and take them to the Quest. Mciheal Vick is also looking to continue his new passing prowess at home.

RPI10 (3-6) vs. Eat My Shorts (5-4)
Eat My Shorts will ride LaDanian Thomlinson obviously but the catalys of vicotry may come from what Duece McAllister does in Pittsburgh and what Brad Johnson does at home against the Packers. RPI10 has Thomlinson's opposite Rudi Johnson who will be hard pressed for yards against the tough Chargers run defense. They really need Eli Manning to come through against the Bears to get the win.

T-Hawks (6-2-1) vs. Cromer Smash! (2-6-1)
Well outside of the idiotic drama happening with the Smash the actual game features Jake Dellohme and Willie Parker leading the Smash while the T-Hawks have Phillip Rivers and ironically Delhommes recievers Smith and Johnson thus pretty much negating his points.

Nor Cal Crushers (7-2)vs.stantheman (8-1)
Game of the week!
Niether team has quarterbacks that inspire tremendous confidence (David Carr for the Crushers. David Garrard for stantheman) but the Crushers have a three headed hydra at running back with Clinton Portis, Kevin Jones and Chester Taylor to stanthemans one running back Laurence Maroney. Maroney is good but he can't overcome three good backs production all by himself. stantheman needs the Bears defense to be their big play selves tonight to get the win.

{} (3-6) vs. FIRST Force (3-5-1)
{} has a problem. First they are depending on the undependable JP Losman for points at the quarterback. Secondly JP's favorite target is on FIRST Forces roster. Not good. Reuben Droughns and Mike Bell have to somehow make up the point deficency. FIRST Force hopes to get something good out of Tony Romo and Dominic Rhodes in his limited touches.


Silver Lobos (5-4) vs. sigmakittens (1-8)
Only the kitties could have players missing after the byes are over (no Willis McGahee). I doubt Jamal Lewis can carry this team alone to victory (I've given up on Lamont Jordna making anything happen). The Silver Lobos are seeking positve production from Carson Palmer and Deshaun Foster. Both have been hit or miss so this one could be closre than the records indicate.

Meatball Artists (5-4) vs. The Very Fast Blitz (3-6)
The Meatball Artist look for Marc Bulger to continue his efficent play and Julius Jones and Steven Jackson to counter Jospeh Addai and Brian Westbrook of the Very Fast Blitz. Not sure how much the Blitz can expect from Marc Brunell. Terell Owens could be a big factor for them.

Amazin' Blue (7-2)vs. Boilers 1529 (3-6)
For a 7-2 team Amazin' Blue's roster does nto seem all that scary. Tatum Bell is the top threat this week unless Torry Holts blows up again (recivers are up and down in fantasy football). Boilers 1529 has a worse record but better looking players in Drew Brees and Warrick Dunn and if they perform as advertised they could steal this one.

Re: Week IX Postgame Analysis
 

It's always a good week when two of the guys ahead of you in the standings are playing each other muahahahaha.

Re: 2007 FIRST Fantasy Football
 

FIRST Robotics League 2

Ni Koko's X-Cats MechanicatzT-hawksBig Pappi Nor Cal CrushersFIRST Force sigmakittensWe Inhale AudiblyCromer Smash! Jedimasters1511Gopher Santosh1002 ROFLvadersStevies Scapegoats Indiana Ironmen MC Shea Piss Poor PiñatasThe Jaguar SharksFreedomForce






WEEK 9 RESULTS[/center]
Koko's X-Cats(7-2) 70.61 Indiana Ironmen (3-6) 64.16
Though Brad Johnson did his best to derail the X-Cats run to victory (-4.95 points) Larry Johnson and the San Deigo Chargers defense made up for it with 19.15 and 14.36 points respectively. The Ironmen got 12.97 points, 11.22 points from Ahman Green and 11.00 points from Cato June. But they came up just short.

Mechanicatz (7-2) 68.77 Cromer Smash! (5-4) 60.56
The Smash got four players in double digits ( Peyton Manning with 16.51, Josh Scobee with 16.00, the New England Patriots defense with 10.12, and Aaron Kampman with 10.00) to the Mechanicatz 3 ( Matt Stover with 18.00, Jeremy Shocley with 11.30 and Laurence Maroney with 10.77 points ) but the Smash alos had two big fat zeros on the scorecard to none for the Mechanicatz.

Ni (8-1) 65.35 FreedomForce (1-8) 42.53
Both teams are without a quarterback so scoring will have to come from somewhere else. For Ni their best bet is Ronnie Brown. For FreedomFOrce it's Stepehen Jackson.
FreedomForce got 19.82 points which unfortunately is nearly half of ther points as no one else produced. Ni got 14.43 points from Ronnie Brown. They also got 16.78 points from the Seattle Seahawks defense and 10.60 points from Mushin Muhammed. That was all they needed.

Nor Cal Crushers (5-4) 102.44 Stevies Scapegoats(3-6) 52.45
The Crushers stopped the bleeding in a big way led by the surprising Dolphins defense 22.66 points, Tony Romo's 17.81 points, Roy Williams 14.40 points, Clinton Portis 13.74 points, and Lawrence Tynes 10.00 points. All teh Scapegoats got was 10.88 points from the Detriot Lions defense.

T-Hawks(7-2)81.72ROFLvaders(4-5) 67.92
Both teams

Big Pappi(6-3) 100.61 Piss Poor Piñatas (2-7) 57.22
Big Pappi ruled from the get go with 23.46 points from Kevin Jones, 17.12 points from Joey Harrington, 14.62 points from the Jacksonville Jaguars defense, 12.61 points from Rudi Johnson, 12.00 points from Rasheen Mathis, and 10.05 points from T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Triple P got 13.05 points from Donald Driver and 13.00 points from joe Nedney. That means the other 31.17 points came from the other 8 team members. That's 3.89 points per player. Not cool.

Jedimasters1511(5-4) 75.58 We Inhale Audibly (5-4) 53.15
We Inhale Audibly leans heavily on the arm of Carson Palmer and the legs of Fred Taylor but Jedimaster1511 has a strong counter with Drew Brees and the gruesome twosome of Tiki Barber and Duece McAllister.

Santosh1002(3-5) 80.09
sigmakittens(5-3) 66.85
I have never seen a scoresheet like Santosh's last week. There were 5 blanks on their side. The other five players were in double figures including LaDanian THomlinsons monsterous 32.34 points. Add in 13.86 points from the Baltimore Ravens defense, 12.00 points from Shayne Graham, 11.84 points from warrick Dunn, and 10.05 points from Chris Cooley. The kitties got didn't do too badly with 15.40 points from Darrent Williams, 11.55 points from Terell Owens and 10.52 points from Wes Welker but did not match Santoshs deep shots.


Gopher (5-4)106.31 FIRST Force (4-5) 103.06
What a battle!
Gopher had 31.06 points from Javon Walker, 22.60 points from David Garrard and 10.00 points from Brian Urlacher to FIRST Force's 21.00 points from London Fletcher, 17.85 points from Joey Galloway, 14.90 points from Marques Colston, and 12.28 points from Chester Taylor. And after all that it was Lofa Tatupu's 6.00 points that made the difference.

MC Shea (3-6) 62.74 The Jaguar Sharks(1-8) 59.52
Tony GOnzales scored 16.40 points and 10.94 points from Marc Bulger for MC Shea. The luckless Jaguar SHarks got 13.80 but obviousdly wan't expecting -2.93 points from Tom Brady.

Week X Postgame Analysis
 

One of these weeks, I’ll actually get the postgame out before Friday…

Rhode Island Dynamic (6-3) d. Stevies Scapegoats (3-6)
67-61
Uh, did Brett Favre just score 15 for the Scapegoats and take the high score of a match that had Peyton Maning? Not that it mattered: the rest of their offense didn’t show up (this game was over Sunday anyway; Galloway’s 6 on Monday only made it look close). The defense combined for a respectable 26, but that was only peanuts compared to Rhode Island’s 32. The Dynamic had no one score that stood out, but six of their players scored at least 8 points, and all but one player cleared 4 (that one player being Reggie Brown, lousy NFL scorekeepers taking away the 1 point he originally got ;)). So despite Peyton Maning having an off day and actually losing the QB battle, Rhode Island still scores enough to win.

Koko's X-Cats (5-4) d. Indiana Ironmen (5-4)
84-79
This game was FAR better than that Dynamic/Scapegoats game :p. However, as close as this game was, I still think the X-Cats had this one all the way. The big score here was the Ironmen’s Chad Johnson with 26, and that’s what made them look good (that, and Brady’s 12). But the X-Cats were even better. “The X-Cats of course rely on Larry Johnson but now have a revenge minded Steve McNair going up against his old team.” Quoth Khan, revenge is a dish best served cold. McNair scored 16 in one of the best games this week, and LJ tallied 9. Then the X-Cats’ Monday night defense struck, with Julius Peppers and the Carolina DEF adding 26 to their score. In what was probably the fantasy game of the week, the X-Cats storm forward to a 6-4 record.

Evil Trav's Minions (6-3) d. Cooney Quest (2-6-1)
72-61
As if beating up on poor Cooney Quest wasn’t enough, the Minions were still adding points to their score three days after the Monday nighter had ended. I use the term “poor”, because in what seems like a recurring theme, they just can’t catch a break. I know I say it a lot about this team, but it’s true. This week, it was facing a really strong opponent who really needed to stop a small losing skid, and it was Mike Vick underperforming for the second week in a row. Cooney also has a problem of having great conglomeration (six players all scored at least 6), but no big scores to back them. Enough about Cooney. The Eagles broke a three game losing streak themselves, and Donovan McNabb was a prime benefactor of that, giving the Minions 14 points (even if 6 of those were tacked by the NFL yesterday). Frank Gore matched that as well. And their conglomeration was slightly better than Cooney’s with seven players all clearing 7. It’s the story of Cooney’s season, really.

Eat My Shorts (5-4) d. RPI10 (3-6)
87-49
I’m noticing three big scores on RPI’s side: Gibril Wilson and Dave Rayner both with 11, and 10 from Rudi Johnson. I’m also noticing a -5 from Eli Manning. So I took a gaze over to EMS’s scorecard, where I immediately see three big scores (actually two big scores and a REALLY big score): 32 from LaDanian Tomlinson, 15 from McAllister, and 13 from Stallworth. I also noticed a positive 5 from Brad Johnson. “Eat My Shorts will ride LaDanian Tomlinson obviously, but the catalyst of victory may come from what Deuce McAllister does in Pittsburgh and what Brad Johnson does at home against the Packers.” Ed called it perfectly.

Cromer Smash! (2-6-1) d. T-Hawks (6-2-1)
72-60
For those of us keeping score, Cromer Smash’s Willie Parker has scored a combined 52 points the past three weeks (his tally was 23 this week). That’s more than he got in the entire first half. He was joined by twin 10s from Delhomme and Drummond, and their three defensive players totaled 19 points. Rivers’s 19, Steve Smith’s 14, and Marion Barber’s 9 actually gave the T-Hawks a slight edge on offense, but their defense dropped the ball, only totaling 6. This is the T-Hawk’s first loss since Week IV.

Nor Cal Crushers (7-2) d. stantheman (8-1)
66-51
I’m saying it up front: Nor Cal got lucky. Believe it or not, they had an off week this week. The ONLY reason they won was Terrence McGee and his 23 points. But I do have to be a bit impartial here; STM could’ve done better. STM is one of three teams to not have a single game score below 50 (the other two being the Minions and Dynamic), but they only have one game score above 62. They’ve stayed up top because generally, their opponent scores lower than them. But obviously, that wasn’t the case here. David Gerrard scored -2 in the QB slot (Leftwich, where?), which only made things worse. And other than Ward’s 10 and Chicago’s 11, their roster felt a bit underwhelming. Had it played out like a normal week, by all means, STM would have won. But it wasn’t a normal week (as you can tell by {} winning this week :D), and that one huge score by the Crushers did them in.

{} (3-6) d. FIRST Force (3-5-1)
58-50
How has Murphy’s Something-or-Others (it’s 2am, you try putting any thought into a name that’ll only last one review) been doing so well these past weeks? Well I’ll tell you one thing, it’s not due to their choices for the QB spot. Roethlisberger had 17 more points than Losman, and MSoO had Losman in the lineup. The good news is that they had a killer receiving game this week, with Driver and Colston combining for 26. The other good news (unless you’re FIRST Force) is that the only score worth mentioning of their opponents’ was Tony Romo’s 15 (go Cowboys!). So MSoO has won their third straight; is the end of days truly upon us?

Silver Lobos (5-4) d. sigmakittens (1-8)
50-42
Ugh, it’s too late to have to describe a bleh game like this. Keeping in mind that the Sigmakittens have only cleared 50 twice, 50 seems like a nice, round number to aim for. Carson Palmer (18) and Maurice Jones-Drew (10) did most of the work for the Lobos this week. The rest of their offensive scoring I can count on my fingers. Their defense at least scored enough for me to need a third hand to count it (or possibly a foot). But their score added up to 50, and against the Sigmakittens, that’s enough for victory.

The Very Fast Blitz (3-6) d. Meatball Artists (5-4)
45-43
Addai, Owens, Westbrook, Gonzalez, Vanderjagt. That is the Blitz’s offense (because Marc Brunell inhaled audibly and put up a big donut). It’s a pretty effective offense too, with all of them combining for 41 points. Their defense was terrible, but the Artists' only score above 6 was Steven Jackson’s 12, so they actually didn’t need it this week. They take their second straight win in a squeaker (and that’s with three Es).

Boilers 1529 (3-6) d. Amazin' Blue (7-2)
56-48
“For a 7-2 team Amazin' Blue's roster does not seem all that scary.” I actually agree here, because even though they were in third place, they had the eleventh highest fantasy score over the course of nine weeks. Keep in mind though that you only have to win by 1. That was not the case for Amazin’ Blue this week. Their best score was Michael Turner (who?) with 10. While not quite as good in the running game, the Boilers turned up the heat (sorry, had to say it) with their receiving game, defense, and Drew Brees (he led this entire game with 12). So instead of the Blue winning by a small margin, it’s the Boilers who put that one in their win column.

z=Mathematically Eliminated

A lot of good scoring games this week. In fact, only five teams scored below 50 this week, and the lowest score was only 42.

Playoff Picture: Yeah, y'all are going to have to wait until tomor- er, later today for that. I need my sleep. :cool:

Playoff Analysis: Pre-Week XI
 

z=Mathematically Eliminated

Playoff Picture: We're ten weeks into the season, and the top 18 teams are more than capable of making the playoffs, and even the 19th place Cooney Quest isn't out of it yet. Unless otherwise noted, fantasy scores aren't taken into consideration here.

• Crushers and STM will clinch with 3 wins, or 2 wins and a loss from one of the X-Cats, Lobos, or EMS.
• Dynamic, Minions, Blue and T-Hawks will clinch with 4 wins (winning out), or 3 wins and a loss from one of the X-Cats, Lobos, or EMS (yeah, yeah, 2 wins plus two losses from one of those 2-2 teams works too).
• The afforementioned X-Cats, Lobos, and EMS are the border straddlers this week. They can clinch if they win out, and one of those three has one loss. After that, we're prettymuch in "gonna need a supercomputer" land.
• Ironmen and Artists can get into the playoffs in as little as one win, but can not afford to lose out.
• Boilers, {}, and Blitz can go 2-2 and still have a chance, but they can't have more than three losses.
• Force and Smash are those rare teams that can afford a tie (though I wouldn't recommend it as that half game can be a difference maker). They can also afford a single loss. But two losses eliminates them.
• Scapegoats and RPI can't even afford the tie. Two losses will outright eliminate them as well.
• Cooney Quest can also afford a tie (though again, I wouldn't reccomend it), but other than that, they need to win out. Two of the X-Cats, Lobos, and EMS getting a single win also eliminates them.
• And finally, Kaplan's Kittens are the first ones out this year.

A few tidbits with the schedule:

• What's truly scary is that with Cooney's schedule, they are quite capable of winning out (trust me, if you've kept track of them all year, they aren't as bad as that 19th place standing indicates). Sadly, their playoff chances are looking slimmer every week.
• Nobody in the 6-4 bracket face each other in the last four weeks. Same with the 5-5 bracket. However, the Artists have both the Lobos (Week XI) and X-Cats (Week XIV) left to play. If they win both, things look pretty good for them.
• On the same subject, EMS and Ironmen face off in Week XII. It's a pivotal game, and might spell disaster for the loser.
• Remember when I said the Ironmen could be in trouble late? Well, they have yet to beat any teams above .500, and they have EMS and the Crushers on their schedule (and Cooney, which could go either way). Eep.
• The T-Hawks are in less trouble, as they've shown they can beat the good teams. But they're still in for a test as they must face the Crushers, STM, and Minions.
• {} is on a roll, and have three games that can directly help them if they keep their momentum: Dynamic, X-Cats, and EMS. But losing just one of those gives a team above them better standing, and will probably end {}.
• Of the 6-4 and 5-5 brackets, the X-Cats by far have the easiest schedule, with their only notable foe being the Artists. Thenagain, they did give Cooney one of their two wins...
• Speaking of easy schedules, the Dynamic just defeated the Scapegoats, and face {}, Kittens, Artists, and Boilers. Notice anything? That's right, they're all in the lower half of the standings. It must be nice having what is most likely the easiest schedule of the league remaining.
• I myself am personally looking forward to Crushers/Minions in week XIII, if only for the ramifications it will have on any battles for the coveted/cursed #1 Seed Award.
• And while I'm still talking about it, mathematically, the top 14 can all reach #1. Realistically though, we're looking at the top 9 teams (minus Blue; their fantasy score is too low) fighting for it. Crushers, Dynamic, and Minions have the best shot due to all them having at least 40 more fantasy points than the X-Cats, who have the fourth highest fantasy score (who themselves have a decent buffer beteen them and the next two highest fantasy scores). In the Crushers and Dynamic's cases, it's nearly a 70 and 80 point difference, respectively.

Now, I'd like to toss a question to the field. Are there any matches (either your's or someone else's) in the next four weeks that entice you, and why? I myself have a rivalry game this week that I'm looking forward to :p. Other than that, I'll see you early next week.

Re: 2007 FIRST Fantasy Football
 

FIRST Robotics League 2

Ni Koko's X-Cats MechanicatzT-hawks Nor Cal CrushersFIRST Force Big Pappi We Inhale AudiblyJedimasters1511sigmakittensCromer Smash! Gopher Santosh1002 Stevies Scapegoats ROFLvadersIndiana Ironmen MC Shea Piss Poor PiñatasThe Jaguar SharksFreedomForce








WEEK 9 SCHEDULE[/center]
Koko's X-Cats(8-2) vs. FIRST Force (6-4)
Well the X-Cats relaince on Larry Johnson goes without saying but if the X-Cats want to court victory they need points from JP Losman and Reggie Bush because FIRST Force will get their points from Frank Gore and Steve McNair.

Cromer Smash! (5-5) vs. We Inhale Audibly (6-4)
We Inhale Audibly should get their points from Carson Palmer but needs more from Edgerrin James even with Fred Taylor sharing the backfield. The Smash will get their points from Peyton Manning and Anthony Thomas is looking like a given against the Texans run D. Which recievers step up will determine the victor.

Ni (9-1) vs. Piss Poor Piñatas (3-7)
Triple P could be destroyed by Donovan McNabb alone.But Ni has Ronnie Brown and Reuben Droughns as well. Looking up and down Triple P's roster I cannot see much hope outside the failure of the aformentioned players.

Mechanicatz (7-3) vs. Stevies Scapegoats(3-7)
The Mechnicatz are wondering which Micheal Vick will show up? Fortunately they have Laurence Maroney and MArion Barber the III to take up the slack. The Scapegoats are hoping Brett Farve does not make many mistakes against the Patriots and that THomas Jones and Travis Henry are very productive.



FreedomForce (1-9) vs. ROFLvaders(4-6)
How is FreedomForce 1-9 and mired in last place? Well when the byes are done and you have a blank roster spot there is no need for explanation.

Nor Cal Crushers (6-4) vs. MC Shea (4-6)
The Crushers have Tony Romo and Willie Parker. MC Shea has the dissapointing Carnell Williams and backup for the Bears Cedric Benson. Will it be Marc Bulger to the rescue?



T-Hawks(7-3) vs.The Jaguar Sharks(1-9)
The poor Jaguar Sharks can't buy a break! They've lost more close games than the rest of the leauge combined. Is this the week the ball finailly bounce their way? Depends on what TOm Brady does for them and if Najeh Davenport or Bruce Gradkowski step up?

Big Pappi(6-4) vs. Santosh1002(4-6)
Santosh is celebrating the anticipated return of Matt Hasselbeck and it couldn't have come at a better time with LaDanin Thomlinson struggling for yard against the Broncos and Warrick Dunn facing the Ravens. Big Pappi is alos clebrating the return of Trent Green and hopes to get big yards from Rudi Johnson.


Jedimasters1511(6-4) vs. Indiana Ironmen (4-6)
You know you are in trouble when Jon Kitna is your best threat. The Ironmen may get points from Ahman Green but they will be hard pressed to match Drew Brees and Tiki Barber.


Gopher (4-6) vs. sigmakittens(5-5)
Gopher has a possibly powerful twosome in Brain Westbrooke and Julius Jones on their hands nevermind Jake Delhome and the Carolina Panthers defense. Triple digits is a possiblity. The kittes are taking a chance on Jason Campbell and I don't think Joseph Addia can match Gopher's running game.

Week XI Postgame Analysis
 

What? Mr. Math and I aren’t supposed to tie! One of us is supposed to beat the other badly!

Rhode Island Dynamic (7-3) vs. {} (4-6)
draw
61-61
In a rivalry game between the Rhode Island Dynamic and Murphy’s Tiers, they, well, tied. But in a decent scoring game, so much went wrong. The Tiers had Ronnie Brown run for a whopping 2 yards and a fumble (that’s -3 points). The league’s then-leading receiver in yardage, Marques Colston, got hurt early and didn’t return, adding 0 points. The good news is that they kept Losman in; he got 17. But if the Tiers keep Brown on the bench, they win. The Dynamic had problems of their own. Peyton Manning had three turnovers (though he connected with Reggie Wayne enough for Rhode Island’s taste). Reggie Brown was effected by McNabb’s injury and only took home a single point. And all three of their game-time decisions (Brown, Mare, and St. Louis) were the wrong ones. Both teams were very lucky they didn’t lose.

Koko's X-Cats (6-4) d. Stevies Scapegoats (3-7)
58-39
Ah, finally, something one-sided. Actually, Larry Johnson’s 20 and Carolina’s 19 were all the X-Cats needed (and that’s all the X-Cats’ defense could muster up anyway). We all know how badly Favre got pwned for the Scapegoats, and from there, it was all downhill (must be a pretty low hill). Their best score was Joey Galloway’s 9. It was nowhere near enough to stop the X-Cats from winning their fourth straight.

Indiana Ironmen (5-5) d. Cooney Quest (2-7-1)
92-54
Cooney: excellent teamwork, no big score to back them. It’s how they came in, and it’s how they’ll leave this season. Not a knock against them; they had six players clear 6 fantasy points this week. Generally, that’s pretty good. But nobody on their team scored more than 8 (Vick got that, for the record). Also, their opponent had the high score of the week. Props to the Ironmen, who really went out of their way to show us they belong in the playoffs. They had Ocho Cinco (which really should be Orchenta Cinco, but I digress) lead the way with 28. We all know how much Tom Brady pwned in Lambeau Field (consider this an extension of the Scapegoats woes from above), and that got the Ironmen 17 more points. Finally, their defense combined for 38, putting any hopes for Cooney out of reach.

Eat My Shorts (6-4) d. Evil Trav's Minions (7-3)
59-47
EMS has LaDanian Tomlinson. Do they really need anything else? Well, yes, they do, but my point still stands. His 33 (yes, I said 33) is easily why EMS won. The Minions dominated EMS on defense, but their offense led by Frank Gore’s 10 wasn’t enough to offset Tomlinson. Even worse is that the Minions have Donovan McNabb. Or should I say “had”. Long story short, the Minions have problems.

Cromer Smash! (3-6-1) d. RPI10 (3-7)
59-42
When you have two negatives from a receiver and a kicker, you know you’re just not going to have a good week. RPI tried to offset this with Miami’s 15 and Burress’s 10, but the Smash scored too many positive points. Willie Parker continued his awesomeness with 14, and Deion Branch proved his worth with 13. Also, Cromer didn’t have to deal with those nasty negative points. RPI joins the teams in the eliminated category with this loss.

Nor Cal Crushers (8-2) d. T-Hawks (6-3-1)
70-64
The Nor Cal Crushers are dropping like flies. First Portis, now Kevin Jones. And on Sunday, the rest of them were only decent. Chester Taylor and Darrell Jackson both put up 10s and their three defensive players combined for 21. Meanwhile, the T-Hawks were staying even on defense, and getting 14 from Marion Barber and 11 from Steve Smith (though take note that his partner in crime, Keyshawn Johnson, put up 0 for the T-Hawks). It looked like Nor Cal was going to die a painful death. But Monday Night Football saw the Jaguars cream the Giants. And guess what? The Crushers had Josh Scobee and the Jacksonville DEF. An extra 22 fantasy points were scored on Monday night for the Crushers, and it pushed them to victory.

sigmakittens (1-9) d. FIRST Force (3-6-1)
55-53
Heh, I have a feeling you guys are going to like this one. This was a pretty even game, even if the majority of the scoring was done by two players. For FIRST Force, they had number eighty-three score two eighty-three yard touchdowns in the first quarter (IOW, Lee Evans scored 26). The Kittens had Jamal Lewis with 22. The rest of the offenses were dead even, and so were the defenses. Here’s where the differential was: the QB spot. Jake Plummer looked like he did at the beginning of the season, only getting 1 point for the Kittens. Luckily for them, it was two more than Tony Romo got for FIRST Force. In what was a very weak performance (though to his credit, he still led the Cowboys to victory), Romo got a -1. And that’s your ballgame. The Sigmakittens come up from the grave to pull FIRST Force down with them.

Silver Lobos (6-4) d. Meatball Artists (5-5)
72-53
This was the first of two games the Artists really needed to win. And I’m pretty sure they were ecstatic watching New England shut out the Packers, because they had the New England DEF worth 11 points. Even the Sunday night game gave them Jason Elam and 9 points. But that was all they got. The Lobos outdid them the rest of the way. We all remember the Bengals victory from when I played Spanish Grammar Nazi with Chad Johnson up above. Carson Palmer got 16 points from that one. Darrent Williams was the man for the Broncos defense, tallying 15 for the Lobos. Finally, Maurice Jones-Drew is having a heck of a year, scoring 9 this week. The Lobos stay in that jumble of teams in eighth-or-better.

The Very Fast Blitz (4-6) d. Boilers 1529 (4-6)
59-46
Who here actually thought Alex Smith had a chance against the Seahawks? Not me, that’s for sure. But he gave the Blitz 13 points. They also had Watson’s 9, Westbrook’s 8, and a better defense than their opponent. Yes, The Very Fast Blitz actually played better defense than an opponent. There really isn’t much to say about the Boilers anyway. The only thing they were even close to the Blitz in was at the QB spot with Drew Brees equaling Smith with 13 points. Everything else was worse than the Blitz, giving the Blitz their third straight win.

stantheman (8-2) d. Amazin' Blue (7-3)
56-53
Jeff probably going to murder me for this one, but notice how Amazin’ Blue lost this game by the exact same amount of points the Wolverines did against the Buckeyes (much to Trav’s enjoyment). This one was another one decided on Monday as both teams had one player playing, and I seriously thought the Blue could hold their lead. Obviously that wasn’t the case. But lets go back a day to Sunday, where the Blue had three 0s on offense. Holt, Houshmandzadeh, and Tatum Bell were all held scoreless. That’s gotta hurt. They had some pretty good scores with Matt Leinhart (14), Thomas Davis (12), Pittsburgh (9), and Michael Turner (8). But there was some extreme separation between their high scores and their low scores. It left a door open for STM. Granted, they were behind going into Monday, but it seems like they held it together better. Their high scores were 11s from both Maroney and Chicago, and their defense was the better of the two. The offense all scored too. What won it on Monday though was David Gerrard and his 5 points. It wasn’t big, but it turns out they didn’t need a big score to get STM back to winning.

z=Mathematically Eliminated

Wow, we lost four more teams this week. Anyhow, before noon on Thursday, you will see both the playoff picture, and then, because Ed is away for Thanksgiving, the pregame analysis done by me. Should be interesting.

Playoff Analysis: Pre-Week XII
 

Well my math will certainly be easier this week...

z=Mathematically Eliminated

Playoff Picture: Look at how many of the top 10 won and how many of the bottom 10 lost. It made a rather noticible gap between the ones in good playoff standing and the ones who are going to need a lot of help now. Keep in mind that unless noted, I haven't figured in fantasy points yet.

• Crushers and STM will clinch with a single win, or if both the T-Hawks and Ironmen lose a single game.
• Dynamic can clinch with two wins and a tie. They're really part of the three-wins crowd, but since they are one of the few teams who can actually afford a tie, I figured I'd mention it for completeness.
• Any of the Minions, X-Cats, Lobos, EMS, and Blue will clinch upon winning out (that's three wins). There's also a bunch of other situations that can happen, all of them too numerous to mention here.
• Here's an interesting one: the T-Hawks will clinch if they win out. This is due to the Lobos/Blue game in Week XIII, and if they win out, they'll have at least a half-game lead on the loser and thus be guaranteed at least eighth.
• The Ironmen will be eliminated if they lose out, or two losses and each of the 7-4 bracket win a single game.
• The Artists and Blitz must win twice to avoid direct elimination.
• A single loss will eliminate the Smash, {}, and Boilers. Also, a single win from each of the 7-4 bracket eliminates them.
• Finally, the number of teams eliminated from the playoff race grew significantly this week. Force, Scapegoats, RPI, Cooney, and Kittens are all out of it.

Now here's where things get interesting:

• Week XIII has the match that will shake up the playoff standings: the Silver Lobos vs. Amazin' Blue. This game will knock one of those teams out of the 7-4 bracket, and is probably the best chance for any of the ninth through fifteenth place teams to make a late playoff run.
• The Week XIII matchup between the Minions and Crushers is not going to be as great as I thought it was last week due to McNabb getting hurt, and the Crushers facing injuries from Portis and Jones. It should still be pretty good though.
• The Dynamic continue their five-game basement tour with the Kittens this week, followed by the Artists and Boilers. Not only do they look good for the playoffs, but they also have a chance to spoil two teams' playoff dreams.
• The X-Cats have a similarly easy schedule, with {} this week, followed by the Kittens and Artists. Not only do they look good for the playoffs, but they also have a chance to spoil two teams' playoff dreams. Yay, cut and paste!
• EMS, after a rough first half, are all of a sudden looking golden. Their final three oponents (Ironmen, Scapegoats, & {}) are below them in the standings, but two of which can still make playoff runs. So winning those games only puts them farther ahead of the teams on the outside looking in.
• Amazin' Blue better watch out. They've lost three straight, and their next two opponents (Blitz and Lobos) are teams hungry for the playoffs. At least they have Force in Week XIV, but will it already be too late for them?
• The Artists admitedly have a tough road ahead, but with the mess going on above them, victories against the X-Cats and Dynamic will make their playoff chances greater.
• Same thing with {} and Boilers. They both have two opponents in the 7-4 bracket. It won't be easy as neither team can afford a single loss, but at least in winning out, they're directly helping themselves.
• Here's where Fantasy points may make a difference: The Ironmen will most likely clinch a playoff spot if they win out. This is because defeating EMS in Week XII will knock EMS down to their bracket and the Lobos/Blue game in Week XIII will knock the loser down to their bracket (making it a moot point whether or not the T-Hawks win out). The coup de grâce to this is the Ironmen's currently fourth place fantasy point standing, which will break any ties those two games cause.
• The battle for the #1 Seed Award got considerably narrower this week. While mathematically, anybody in the Top 10 can reach #1, realistically, it's down to STM and the Crushers (with an outside chance for the Dynamic). My pick is going to STM due to their easier schedule and because the Crushers are fighting injuries at the moment.

That should keep you all excited until I get the Thanksgiving pregame up. Which, BTW, will be posted within the next 18 hours. Until then, sayonara.