FIRST Robotics Fantasy Football League 2007!

[EddieMcD]

So if you guys would just skip over that first review...

Rhode Island Drive (4-3) d. The Stud Man Clan (3-4)
59-48
Remember Rhode Island's "Most Productive Offense"? Well, half of it was off this week. Luckily, they had their honorable mention of a dominant defense to save their bacon (again). While Minnesota was nigh useless, Fletcher, Wright, & Ryans combined for 23. Then there were the bits and pieces of the Rhode Island offense that weren't off, namely Derek Anderson (16) and David Akers (10). Now, the Drive did a rather interesting thing to cover their byes: they handcuffed two backs and added two returners. It didn't work very well (the handcuffed backs were from the Bears, and we all know how well they did this week), but at least I see their strategy; I can't, for the life of me, figure out what the Clan were thinking starting three defenders from the same team. Even if they were Patriots, they were on the field for only a third of the game. And what's worse, what seemed to be their ace-in-the-hole this week, Randy Moss, only took in 8 points. In the end, this game was ugly to play and ugly to watch. But Rhode Island somehow manages to win.

Silver Lobos (6-1) d. Koko's X-Cats (2-5)
71-62
The X-Cats had Travis Henry. Aaaaaannnd that's the story of this game. The X-Cats were already spotting two 0s to the Lobos (for some odd reason, Julius Peppers did absolutely nothing), and the Lobos took advantage of the situation. Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne hooked up enough for 29 points, Tennessee had 10, and the rest of both the offense and defense, at the very least, kept pace. Not that that pace was very difficult to keep up with. Along with their two zeros, the X-Cats also had two 1s and two 4s. Their upper scores were nifty; San Diego led with 18, Rivers had 14, and Welker & Gostkowski (another spellcheck nemesis) both scored 10. But with two 0s due to unforeseen circumstances, the X-Cats were playing at 80%, and to quote Ed, essentially screwed.

Stevies Scapegoats (2-5) d. What Am I Doing Here (4-3)
53-22
What am I doing here? Um... Well, I'd say I was critiquing WAIDH down to the last detail, but that'd involve words Brandon Martus would ban me for. Suffice it to say, they weren't good. Their entire offense (that's six players) combined for 6 points total. Their defense wasn't half bad, but I'm pretty sure defense is a moot point right now. The Scapegoats weren't exactly Olympic caliber themselves, but at the very least, eight of their players turned in at least 3 points, and Torry Holt's 13 plus Detroit's 11 would've won on their own. There's really not much else to say.

Isotopes (3-4) d. Indiana Ironmen (4-3)
83-60
Now here's what happens when one team has the one Patriots defenseman that actually got to do something. I'm talking about Mike Vrabel's 23. The Isotopes won by exactly 23. Coincidence? Probably. I mean, the 'Topes also had Braylon Edward's 18, McNabb's 11, & Longwell's 10. Meanwhile, Steve Smith was off for the Ironmen, they dumped Stover, and their receiving duo of Johnson & Johnson (don't they sponsor the New Jersey Regional?) was less than spectacular (to put it in perspective, their best receiver this week was the guy who caught the lone TD for the Redskins). The Ironmen did have the New England DEF, but their 15 could only go so far. The same goes for Roethlisberger's 10. When your middle-offense and defensive players can't back you up, you're not going to win a high-scoring game.

FIRST Force (4-3) d. Nor Cal Crushers (2-5)
56-53
I was tempted to make a bad boy-band joke upon seeing all the byes on both teams' scorecards. In such a close scoring game, every tiny provider of points starts to matter. In the Crushers' case, they were missing a kicker. While I'm pleased to welcome Brian Westbrook back to the scoreboard with 16, I can't help but notice that had Nor Cal played a kicker who kicked a single field goal, this game would've tied. On the other side, half of FIRST Force's defense also put up 0s due to byes. At least Terrence McGee's 10 kept the Force defense from becoming all for naught. Fast Willie Parker led the Force offense with 13, and T.J. Houshmandzadeh did his job, scoring 10. In the end, they won by 3, which was 2 more than they needed to.

Team Jack (6-1) d. Youngstown Hitmen (2-5)
95-41
I'll keep it to just the good stuff in this review. The Hitmen had Will Witherspoon's 10, and the Hitmen outscored WAIDH (though to be fair, a half asleep team of monkeys would've outscored WAIDH). Team Jack had Tom Brady's 3 passing and 2 rushing touchdowns. Team Jack had dual 16s from Gates and Ward. Team Jack still won defense with a bunch of single-digit scores. Team Jack had seven of it's players scoring at least 7 points. And if I say it for Youngstown, I have to say it for Team Jack: Team Jack outscored WAIDH (though to be fair, I could've gone onto the gridiron and outscored WAIDH). Long story short, Team jack won.

Dunedain (2-5) d. The XaulZans (5-2)
93-60
I'll come right out and say it: I was impressed with the XaulZans' defensive unit. E.J. Henderson, Antoine Winfield, Nick Barnett, & the Jacksonville DEF combined for 39. Sadly, nobody on the Zans' offense cleared 5, so while they put up a decent score, they had to compete with Dunedain. Dunedain's defense was only half as powerful as its opponent's, but they made up for it on offense. Let's start with Joseph Addai's 109 YDs & 3 TDs. Favre was on fire too, netting 15, and Dunedain's two receivers piled on another 22. On the downside, Dunedain had San Francisco's -1. I suppose they can't all be winners...

Rank  	        Team  	        W-L-T  	Pct.  	Pts.  	Streak  F.Rank  Change
1. 	Silver Lobos 	        7-1-0 	.875 	649 	W-6 	1 	±0
2. 	Team Jack 	        7-1-0 	.875 	586 	W-7 	3 	±0
3. 	Rhode Island Drive 	5-3-0 	.625 	610 	W-3 	2 	+1
4. 	FIRST Force 	        5-3-0 	.625 	583 	W-2 	4 	+1
5. 	The XaulZans 	        5-3-0 	.625 	533 	L-2 	7 	-2
6. 	Indiana Ironmen 	4-4-0 	.500 	554 	L-2 	6 	±0
7. 	What Am I Doing Here 	4-4-0 	.500 	506 	L-3 	8 	±0
8. 	Isotopes 	        4-4-0 	.500 	457 	W-2 	12 	+1
9. 	Dunedain 	        3-5-0 	.375 	555 	W-1 	5 	+1
10. 	Stevies Scapegoats 	3-5-0 	.375 	446 	W-1 	13 	+4
11. 	The Stud Man Clan 	3-5-0 	.375 	443 	L-1 	14 	-3
12. 	Koko's X-Cats 	        2-6-0 	.250 	501 	L-1 	9 	-1
13. 	Youngstown Hitmen 	2-6-0 	.250 	474 	L-3 	10 	-1
14. 	Nor Cal Crushers 	2-6-0 	.250 	468 	L-5 	11 	-1

856 points scored this week, a whole 2.6% of which was scored by WAIDH...

I kid, I kid. We're going into Week IX, and thankfully, there's a clean chopping point for this week's (brief) playoff picture:

• Lobos & Jack's magic number is 2. They could clinch as early as next week if they win and all three of Dunedain, Scapegoats, & Clan lose.
• The next magic number is 4 for the Drive, Force, & Zans (3 if Dunedain, Scapegoats, & Clan each lose once).
• Winning out will put the Ironmen, WAIDH, & Topes in the playoffs. 4 wins would also work if Dunedain, Scapegoats, & Clan each lose once.
• In an interesting mathematical anomaly, Dunedain, Scapegoats, & Clan only need to lose 4 times to be eliminated. This is because all three play 2 of the Ironmen, WAIDH, & Topes (and before someone with even less of a life than I do comes in and mentions that the Topes are only in one of those games, specifically with the Scapegoats, both the Scapegoats & Topes play the X-Cats & Crushers, and come Week XIII, if the Topes have lost 4 and the Scapegoats have lost 3, at least one of the X-Cats & Crushers would've passed both of them; a side note, this also means that the Topes can not make the playoffs with 4 losses).
• X-Cats, Hitmen, & Crushers will be eliminated upon losing 4 times, or 3 losses and a single win from each of the Ironmen, WAIDH, & Topes. No calculus needed.

You know, I went awfully deep into that 3-5 bracket for something that has a 50/50 chance of no longer being true after Monday... Anyhow, I'll be back sometime next week, where there's actually a chance that the top 8 could be separated from the next tier by two games, making my job fairly dull until playoffs...