DFL Moving forward

Well, I've been staring at a blank blog entry going on a week now, and I'm not really sure how to start this.  As I generally blog best when I just start writing AND they always say don't bury the lead, so I'll just say it:

I've decided to retire the DFL this year.

Well, shit.  That wasn't so bad, now was it?  And before any of you bastards start in on me about how this is sour grapes for me pulling in the playoff bitch position this year, you can back right off.  I decided back in November that it was probably time to hang up the spurs, as it were.  

You know, cuz I ran out of pudding and all.

Remember the October / November time frame?  Remember when my team was still kicking ass and taking names?  Yeah, *that* was when I made the decision.  At that point, I was worried about walking into the Championship and being accused of going out on top.  So, yeah, cursed for hubris, right?

So, what's going on?  Well, before we get there, let's go back to the beginning...

So, Skoot started this league way back in 2002, as a way for some of us old Penn Staters to keep in touch.  Gotta remember, this was before Facebook was opened to everyone, when we still had land lines and paid for long distance, when Time Warner Cable scoffed and said "Who would EVER need more than a 10 Mbps connection?", when dinosaurs roamed the Earth...  I'm saying that it was hard to keep in touch back in those days.  I mean, you ever try to hold a conversation on a wired phone while dodging ankylosauruses?

Jesus doesn't count.. that dude is good at everything!

Anyway, over the years, we all started to figure out how to play fantasy football and got better.  Well,  except Skoot and Whitey - they already knew how to play and just kicked our asses up and down those first few years.  And before you ask , yes, we had a guy in the league who we called Whitey.

No, it wasn't this guy....

As the years went by, we started expanding the league out to other people to fill out the ranks.  I took over as commissioner when Skoot stepped down.  Lots of things changed.  In fact, there's a fairly good history of the league that I wrote up a few years ago here:  https://diamondshaft.blogspot.com/2013/09/dfl-hall-of-fame.html

The only problem is that I haven't been bothered to update that post in 5 years.  And that's kind of the heart of the decision to end the league now.  I'm burned out at this point.  Back when I started the write ups, there was excitement and drama.  I'd pour over each game and the through lines to write the weekly narrative would flow so easily.  (I would suggest that you go back and look at them, but I can't since Skoot killed them when he changed web hosts back in 2009 and we lost all of the league data - duuuuuuude.)  I'd go out and look for extra games (like Pick 'ems and Elimination League) to see what we could do to add a little spice here and there.  Each week would be exciting and fun for me.  Also, I got the impression that everyone was stoked when August rolled around.  What changes would we be implementing?  How's the draft going to work this year?  How will Ben suck the fun out of things?  The possibilities were infinite!!!

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But, over the years, things kinda changed as they are wont to do.  Marriages, houses, kids, work changes... just a lot of reprioritizations went down.  There wasn't anything specifically that happened, but things happened, and the passion kind of slipped away year by year.  Now, August rolled around and I was worried about what changed were absolutely necessary.  Do people still want to do the Pick 'Ems league?  (Though Patrick was good enough to point out that you can't actually do it on the phone.  I mean, really, Yahoo!?  WTF?)  Each week, it was getting just a little bit harder to find good write up material.  (I mean, how many ways can I say that a player shit the bed and screwed a team, really?)  Some weeks, I definitely had to phone it in.  When that was happening more and more, I figured that it was probably time to call it a day.  

I did talk with a few people through the season to get a pulse for where everyone's heads where at.  Granted, I didn't talk to everyone and I didn't get complete consensus, but I got enough of a feeling that I wasn't the only one feeling malaise.

Big shout outs to everyone in the league:

Skoot:  Founder, and first commissioner.  Thank you so much for thinking to pull this together and for getting it off the ground.  Also, I hate you.

D:  Founding Member, and guy who has had probably the most varied level of success in the league.  Thanks for sticking with it all these years.

McClennnen:  Another founding member.  I'm kinda glad that you never got enough time to fully commit because I'm pretty sure that you would have destroyed us year in, year out, if you had.

Ben:  And the last active founding member.  Your team names were always on point, and I always enjoyed debating rules changes with you.  But seriously, why was your email address always hidden?

Mike:  My nemesis.  Damn, I loved playing against you.  I always appreciated the extra emails that you'd send on the side.

Terri:  Special shout out to the last lady left in the league!  I always got a kick out of when couples would play each other, and yours were hands down the best wifely smack talk.

Patrick:  When you came into the league, you elevated the whole league.  Your insight on how other fantasy leagues worked made our league better and I thank you for it.

Crutch:  You know what one of the biggest things that I'm going to miss next year?  Playing D&D on Monday nights where you and I are glancing down at our phones because the games are coming down to the last game and the D&D nerds sneer at us for being FF nerds. 

Kyle:  Damn, you know I always dug watching you weigh just how many Pats you could put on your team before you'd be unbalanced.  And next year, with Brady "probably" coming back, I would have loved to see which direction your team actually went.

Josh:  I was actually thinking about extending the league another year just because of the smack talks that we had pretty much every day during the season.  But then you had to go and win the whole thing and you are just going to be insufferable as champion.  So, you know, easy choice...

Stephen:  Man, I'm sorry about this.  I mean, I pulled you into a new league and you had one of the most surprising teams in the league.  Same line up would score 45 points one week and then 95 the next.  And now, I'm killing the league, just as you missed the playoffs by a hair.  :(

So... where do we go from here?  Hell if I know.  I know that I'm going to be taking back a bunch of time (write ups and waiver bids on Tuesdays, fill in pick ups setting the line up and Pick 'em picks on Tuesdays, and Elimination League picks on Thursdays), but I might get rammy.  Who knows?  Maybe after a few seasons, something can come back in a greatly reduced form.  For now, the DFL is going to be put to bed.  Thank you all for everything that you've done for the league.  It has been wonderful being part of this.

DFL 2018 Week 17: Dear Season, We Hardly Knew Ya!

17 weeks up and 17 weeks down. That's how we roll.  And as with every last post for the season, we have a new champion. 

Congratulations to Josh for sticking with it week after week to pull in the gold!  But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself?

Pick 'ems:  Phil and Crutch went 3-1, while Mike and Ben-bot pulled in 2-2.  Hard week, in that the only match up that was perfectly called was Ben over Patrick.

So, that leaves the post season picks like this:

Phil:  9-3 (Gold)
Crutch: 9-3 (Gold)
Mike:  8-4 (Bronze)
Ben:  6-6

And the overall looking like this:

Phil:  65 (Gold)
Crutch: 56 (Silver)
Mike:49 (Bronze)
Josh:49 (Bronze)
Ben: 48 (So close!!!!)
Terri:  27  (Not so much)

Well done, Pick 'ems!  This is really the endurance contest part of the league every year (unless you're Ben-bot, then it's just front loaded...)

Lest we forget, here's how the elimination league shaped up this year:
Josh:  Gold (Strike 1 @ week 3)
McClennen:  Silver (Strike 1 @ week 2, Strike 2 @ week 11)
Phil:   Bronze (Strike 1 @ week 1, Strike 2 @ week 9)

And just to sum that ridiculousity up, EVERYONE else was eliminated at week 3.  Well, except for Kyle who was eliminated at 2.

Now, let's get to championship week, shall we?

Josh (5th seed:  70.55) vs. Mike (2nd seed:  65.59).  Damn.  This was an insanely close game.  And really the insult to injury here is that the Skins were shut out by the Eagles.  Had that not happened,  Mike's 2 Washington players might have been able to overcome the difference.  (Of course, who the hell could have foreseen the Pats D racking up 15 points? I mean, we all knew that it was going to be bad, but not THAT bad.)  Josh, on the other hand, had just enough to get through.  So, when the late game came around, Josh was up and Mike had no players left, Josh did the right thing and benched his remaining player.  Well done, sir.  Well done, indeed. 

Ben (3rd seed:  88.23) vs Patrick (1st seed:  43.23).  Ben pulled out all of the stops here. He set his line up and then cut everyone on his bench.  Which was... good for you Ben.  Patrick, on the other hand, just couldn't get things going.  And he was making moves til the very end.  Like, he was the second to last move.  Still, nothing doing.  Ben pulled in this win and caught himself bronze for the effort.

It's still a medal, dammit!

D (8th seed: 83.10) vs Kyle (6th seed: 69.80).  In really the only game that didn't mean anything, both competitors still put up some pretty significant points.  D picked up Winston, who went gang busters, White woke up and Hopkins even had a good game.  Kyle's team road mostly on Luck and Howard, but he didn't really need much more and he might have been able to pull this one off.  (Looks like Brown was a last minute benching, so there's that...) Overall pretty exciting game, and great way to end the season (well, for D at least..... Kyle - hey way to stick with it!).

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Crutch (7th seed:  92.44) vs Phil (4th seed:  43.12).  Ugh....  OK.  Crutch won fair and square.  He put up the most points of anyone in the league this week.  I put up the least this week.  Two of my starters were benched for protection reasons (Dammit), and pretty much everyone on Crutch's team was firing on all cylinders.  So, this pretty much sums up my season.  I lost not 1, but 2 defenses on the waiver wire this week.  And I thought that I was being all smart by picking up one of Ben's benched players.  Motherfucker didn't even play.  So, my season that I was dominating for most of the regular season ends with me being the playoff bitch.  Is this what being on the Cowboys feels like?

The funny thing is that there were LOTS of choices returned for
a GIS of "Romo laying down."

So, that leaves the final standings looking like this:

1. Josh (Gold)
2. Mike (Silver)
3. Ben (Bronze)
4. Patrick
5. D
6. Kyle
7. Crutch
8. Phil (Playoff Bitch)
9. Stephen (King of the Losers)
10. Skoot
11. Terri
12. McClennen

Now, let's get into the fun stuff!  Here's how Yahoo! projected team strength right after the draft:

1. Crutch
2. Stephen
3. Phil
4. D
5. McClennen
6. Kyle
7. Patrick
8. Mike
9. Josh
10. Ben
11. Skoot
12. Terri

How about moves?  This is how many moves each team had:

1. Crutch (40)
2. Josh (38)
3. Phil (36)
4. D (25)
5. Mike (22)
6. Stephen (15)
7. Ben (13)
8. Patrick (12)
9. Kyle (12)
10. McClennen (11)
11. Terri (10)
12. Skoot (5)

Waiver bids?  Holy crap!  We more than double the number of conflicts this season!  Last year, we had 10.  This year, 25.  Last year, we only had multiple intersection, this year 7!  So, it sounds like we're all watching the waiver wire a bit more as the years go by.   Of course, no trades this year... but c'est la vie!

And one final image, should anyone need a nice summary of the season:

This was a hell of a fun year.  It didn't seem like anyone was really running away with the league (except for maybe Patrick for a few weeks at the end, but the week 17 checks and balances seemed ready to kick in, so I wasn't too worried.)  Hope that everyone had a great time!

DFL 2018 Week 16: Merry Christmas - and Funk All Dis.

Well, it's Christmas Day, but that doesn't stop this train from rolling on.  I'm sure that by now everyone is full of Christmas cheer, merriment, and spirit of the season.  Oh, and bitter rage.

OK, Keep it together, Phil... Keep it together.  Anyways, I'll keep it short this week because there are fewer and fewer games that matter and, I mean, come on. It's Christmas.

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Pick 'ems!  Well, as good as last week was, this week was at least consistent in its mediocrity.  Phil, Crutch, and Mike all went 2-2, while Benbot pulled up the rear at 1-3.  There was some variation, but everyone missed on picking Patrick, and everyone hit on Kyle.  So, one last time for Josh:

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That leaves us with the following for the post-season:
Phil:  6-2
Crutch:  6-2
Mike:  6-2
Ben:  4-4

And overall:
Phil:  62
Crutch:  53
Josh:  49
Mike:  47
Ben:  46
Terri:  27

Normally, I would go from highest score to lowest score, but, ironically, it's reverse of that in order of importance.   So, we'll start at the highest seeded game to the lowest this week.

Patrick (1st seed: 50.81) vs Josh (5th seed:  76.88).  Boy oh boy, the upsets keep rolling in Josh's favor.  On Patrick's side, Rivers shits the bed, Cooper shits the bed, Kelce shits the bed...McCaffrey and Crosby hit projections, but it really doesn't matter.  Josh's insane running back core did their work and Rothlisberger decided that nothing's over til it's over.

Nothing's over, just get me something to drink!

Mike (2nd seed: 82.84) vs. Ben (3rd seed: 64.80).  Mike came out swinging.  Woods, Anderson, and Williams all had 15+ point games.  Brees was a little slower, only pulling in 11 points.  Sadly Gronk wasn't even looked at on Sunday.  Ben put his best foot forward, but really only Mahomes stepped up.  Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, and Mike sallies forth.

Evil Ash, notwithstanding.

D (8th seed:  83.81) vs. Phil (4th seed:  60.04).  Dammit.  D's team kicked ass and my team collapsed. 

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Sadly, not even with that much style...

Kyle (6th seed: 96.06) vs. Crutch (7th seed:  81.88).  Well, look who stepped up!  Kyle's team exceeded expectations pretty much across the board.  Considering that he was projected to win in the first place, it was kind of a slaughter.  So, when Crutch very kindly asked not to be in the bitch bowl, this was Kyle's response:

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So, that means with the results of the semi-final round that it'll be Josh vs Mike in the Championship (neither have won the gold before - huzzah!) and Patrick vs Ben in the race for bronze next week.  Of course, we'll also be looking at Phil vs Crutch for the bitch bowl.  Who can be the biggest post season loser???  D and Kyle will also face off, but really who cares about that?

And on a completely unrelated note... Foles is tearing it up again down the stretch... How freaking cool would it be if he were able to sneak the Eagles into the playoffs this year??

We're all counting on you, St. Nick.

DFL 2018 Week 15: It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times...

... Oh who am I kidding?  It was only the blurst of times!  I mean did you see those games???

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Yeah, it's going to be a bitter blog post.  So get ready....

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So, the good news is that we have only 2/3 the number of games this week as we did last.  And next week we'll only have half of that number... well, only half that count at least....  So, we'll do the quick, quick version of the write up from here on out

This kid gets it.

Pick ems!  OK this was kind of a gimme.  All of the games were slated to be blow outs.  So, everyone, except the Ben bot (who made his selections too soon) bingo'ed this week.  The playoff totals?

Phil:  4-0

Crutch:  4-0

Josh:  4-0

Ben:  3-1

Which brings the total for the season to:

Phil:  60

Crutch: 51

Josh:  49

Mike:  45

Ben:  45

Terri:  27

And .. the games:

Ben (3rd seed: 86.99) vs Kyle (6th seed: 46.16).  Really the only blow out of the week.  And accordingly, Ben pulls in the beat down of the week this week. On Ben's side of the ball, everything was coming up Aces.  Prerry much everyone but Ebron and Houston D met or blew away expectations.  And even better news for Ben is that pretty much nobody on his team is on the injury report...  Looking good, Ben...  Kyle, on the other hand... made all the right choices, and none of them panned out.  Just a really bad time to go belly up, really.

Patrick (1st seed: 65.67) vs D (8th seed: 62.36).  This should have been lambs to the slaughter.  Patrick was estimated to blow the barn doors off, and he *barely* eeked out a win here.  And that was only on Monday night.  When McCaffery threw a touch down.  O man... What a nail biter.  D - Yeah...  your team just stunk it up.  Except for Hopkins and Fairbairn, who carried you.  But, man wouldn't it have been great for another 8 seed to advance??

Mike (2nd seed:  60.99) vs Crutch (7th seed: 56.51).  Well, this was pretty much the battle of good QBs doing badly.  :( Running backs kicked ass, and Kickers kicked ass... everyone else... kinda eh.  I would be whole-heartedly cheering for Mike here, but he was only using 1 TE this week.  I mean, his other TE didn't actually score, so it would have cost him the game, but I do like a little razzle dazzle.

Josh (5th seed: 55.54) vs Phil (4th seed: 52.35).  OK, if you've seen my Facebook feed today you know that I'm pretty much in hate with Alvin Kamara right now.  Yes, he was the top scorer on my team, but he also screwed me pretty hard in not 1 but 2 (and maybe 3) leagues.  Outside of Allen leaving the game on his first attempted pass, Josh's team did pretty well across the board.  This was the only upset this week. So, well done, Josh!  Go kick some ass.

And that's it!  Kyle, D, Crutch, and I now compete to avoid being playoff bitch.  And Ben, Patrick, Mike, and Josh are all still vying for the gold.  Good luck everyone! See you next week!

DFL 2018 Week 14: Goodbye Regular Season (with a bang!!)

Well, that was a painful week, wasn't it?  I mean kinda across the board, people just shitting their pants. Crutch got stuck in traffic and couldn't make his pick 'em picks, I scored the third most points and still received the beat down of the week, Stephen starting Goff and somehow loses him 7 points and thus boots him from the playoffs, and Terri coming within a quarter of a point of a spite win over her dear husband.

Yeah, that kinda sums it up, doesn't it?

Let's go from Turrible to Wonderful.   We got ourselves a second week in a row with a bingo.  Last week, it was Crutch, this week, Josh!  THen, Phil went 5-1, Mike 4-2, and Ben-bot rounds us out at 2-3.  Which leaves us like this for the pick 'ems for the regular season:

Phil:  56 (Gold)

Crutch: 47 (Silver)

Mike:  45 (Bronze)

Josh:  45 (Bronze)

Ben:  42

Terri:  27

So, congrats to Josh for sneaking into a tie for Bronze right at the last minute!!

Bonus:  Mike has to share 3rd place now.  hehe

Don't forget - we continue on with the pick 'ems next week into the playoffs.  We'll reset to do a play offs only contest and an overall one.  So, go make those picks!

On to the games!

Patrick (131.26) vs. Phil (74.65).  I think that we can all agree with on thing here: Fuck.  This. Game.  Good lord, Brady *finally* wakes up for me, only to have pretty much all of Patrick's starters go double digits.  Going into the playoffs no less.

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And that's all that I have to say about that.

Ben (89.20) vs. Crutch (51.87).  The good news for Crutch?  Finally, Mahomes was contained.  The bad news?  Jones, Mixon,Ebron, and Hilton were not.  They REALLY were not.  To be fair though... Hats off to Crutch for holding on hope by keeping Hunt on the bench.  He's definitely not coming back this season, but don't tell Crutch...

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Kyle (70.20) vs. Skoot (48.73).  Well, Skoot did about as expected....  Ryan and Barkley kicked ass, and the rest were also starters.  For Kyle?  Luck kept quietly pulling in massive points, Juju was Juju and everyone else was just good enough to snag a win right when he needed it the most.  As a side note, feels kinda like Kyle might have enough late season talent to make a run at the Championship.  Keep your eyes peeled.

Josh (61.43) vs. McClennen (58.88).  Josh could have rested on his laurels here and just taken the easy win from a guy who gave up in September.  But good for him that he didn't because he barely eeked this one out. The fact that Fournette and Diggs barely suited up this week was probably making Josh sweat about sneaking into the playoffs.  But with an almost 3 point victory, Josh pulls in the win and a playoff berth.  

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D (59.65) vs. Stephen (54.19).  OK, let's be clear about this one right up front.  D didn't so much win this one, as Stephen lost it.   And really, through no fault of his own. I mean, who would have thought that the G mean would go crazy to the tune of 40 points against the Skins?  Moreover.. Goff with *4* interceptions?  Ugh.. Did NOT see that one coming! This game was do or die for both teams and D did.  As a side note, if D rides a successful Prescott through December, I'm officially calling shenanigans on the NFL in general.  

Mike (44.22) vs. Terri (43.96).  This was ... a sad game.  Less than 90 points total, and really the only break out was Gronk. I,  mean, I didn't realize he was still starting.  O wait.. he's playing D now... badly.

Miracle In Miami

(Yeah, I could pretty much watch that all day.)

Anyway, well done for making this razor close, in a game that didn't really matter anyways.

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So, where does that leave us?  Well, first off, 4 teams short starting this week.  So, to Stephen, Skoot, Terri, and McClennen, enjoy the off season and be glad that you don't ahve to put up with the stupid tomfoolery for the next three weeks.  And since I'm pretty sure that most of you have stopped reading the write ups a few months ago, let me just say:

Everyone else?  Well, the real season starts now.  Playoffs are the best part of the season...  until they are done, of course.  At which time, they are stupid and suck.  So, Good luck everyone!  May upsets abound!

DFL 2018 Week 13: We're not playing golf, right?

So.. Didja see the scores this week?  Cuz they were... not high..

Well, low score... but you get the idea...

Like only two people broke 70 points:  Patrick, because he's Patrick and none of his players are beat up at all, and D... because shit:

Now, to be honest, this was a pretty harsh week for players too.  McCoy is gone for the year (and this point, you kinda have to feel bad about the skins at this point...), Hunt was cut (and toxic as hell - even the Cowboys aren't touching him!), Green is gone for the year, Conner *might* be done this year, Brieda got banged up again, and just for good measure.... Olsen is gone too.  So, that kinda explains the low scores to some degree...

(Oh, and I just saw that Sanders has a torn ACL as well...)

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Pretty much the NFL right now.....

But even with this tomfoolery, big news.  (See what that was?  It was a segue)

Erm, not that... never that.

Pick 'ems.  We had our first bingo since September.  And it couldn't have happened to a worse person... Crutch bingo'ed this week, which means that he's officially in striking distance of first place, just in time for  the last week of the regular season.  (Spoilers:  that would be next week.)

This was the break down for this week:  Crutch up top with 6-0, Then Josh and Phil with 4-2, Mike goes even at 3-3, and Ben's bot does a paltry 2-4.  That leaves the standings going into the last week of the regular season at:

Phil: 51
Crutch: 47
Mike:  41
Ben: 40
Josh:  39
Terri:  27

So, there's a long shot for first place and a knock down drag out fight for 3rd place...  One week left and then we reset for the playoffs, and we'll do an overall season prize as well.  So, another chance to get in on it, if you've been on the fence!

I think that I've danced around it enough... let's get to the games, such as they are...

Patrick (93.70) vs Kyle (63.21).  Yeah, Patrick *savaged* Kyle here.  I don't even know how he wound up not pulling in the beat down of the week.  Oh, right.  Skoot's in the league - at least on paper.  Kyle actually had some impressive performances, with 3 players in double digits.  Oddly, Luck was absent from this list.  (Not sure if anyone's been following, but Luck was the 4th highest scoring player in the league until last week.)  Unfortuately for Kyle, Patrick came in with gunz blazing.  4 players hit double digits, with two of them close to 20 points and another actually over 20.  This was a fine game, fellas. 

Well, for Patrick at least...

D (75.80) vs Crutch (69.98).  Well, this was certainly the closest of the games.  And considering that a combined 31 points were scored by the kickers and another 10 by the DEFs, the points didn't really come from where you'd expect.  Well done, on having 3 players in double digits, but still losing, Crutch.  (And don't worry, I got bitten by LaCrosse too.  What can a TE do when he's not targeted?)  This was a critical game for D to win, as it keeps his post season hopes alive.  It's going to an uphill battle going against Stephen next week, but doable.  Maybe.

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Josh (67.83) vs Skoot (31.34). Oh, *There's* the beat down of the week. Josh trounces Skoot.Keenan Allen went mad crazy and the Ware acquisition was perfectly timed.  Going forward, it looks like Josh has made some pretty solid moves to both get him into the post season and also to keep him viable. 

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Ben (64.90) vs McClennen (44.13).  Ben had a massive game here.  Even though there was some shake up in KC, Mahomes still came out swinging after his BYE week, pulling in 30 points. McClennen has a player goose egg (ouch - Indy shut out by JAX - never good for a kicker!) and his D go WAY negative.  The big question is whether McClennen goes crazy this week and acts as spoiler to his opponent. 

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Phil (61.73) vs Terri (48.65).  This one had me sweating a good bit.  At variou times each team was up and nobody ever rally ran away with it.  This is what it looked like:

Any time that I play a Garaffa, I always want to crush completely.  This was not that.  But a win is a win, no matter how very, very ugly.

I'm just sayin'....

Mike (59.54) vs Stephen (51.94).  This... this was a genuinely surprising game.  Brees AND Goff both got shut down her.  Gurley was the only one who really dominated, and everyone else was ... OK, I guess?  Except for the Washington D.  The Eagles kinda manhandled them...

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This is Eagle man-handling.... Not good.

And that's about it!  We've got one more regular season game.  Patrick, Mike, Phil, and Ben all have been locked in to the playoffs.  Josh and Crutch are pretty much in, but not guaranteed.  Kyle, Stephen, and D are all on the husp.  (And if I had to pick a favorite, I would probably go with Stephen, who just picked up Jaylen Samuels, who is going to be Pittsburgh's #1 RB unless Conner can make it back in time. Oh, and he can also be played as a tight end too.  Ugh....)  Skoot, Terri, and McClennen..... thanks for playing, but it's pretty much end of the road for you guys.

So, whether you are playing for a playoff berth, or just tying to put off how long it will be before Patrick kicks you out of the playoffs, enjoy this next week.  Last regular season game, guys!  Let's make it a good one!

Surf's up, space ponies!  I'm making gravy without the lumps!!

DFL 2018: Week 12: That's how it's going to be, huh?

Well, we are just sliding along, aren't we?  A third of the league is on a 3 game streak.  Good for some (Ben, Stephen), and bad for others (Phil, Skoot).  I think that we can all agree that the really shitty thing is that as I take my third loss in a row, I'm not only bumped down to 3rd place, but somehow my clinched playoff spot from last week has disappeared.  AmIRightGuys???

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O, screw you too!!!

As a reminder, the elimination league is done, with Josh being the winner.  

So, no more reporting on that.

Next up... Pick 'ems!  Awful, awful week here, fellas.  Only 4 people made picks, and nobody climbed above .500 here.  It's like it was a holiday week or something.

OK, so technically, they have 2nd amendment rights too....

Anyways, Crutch and Mike both went 3-3, while Ben and I only pulled in 2-4.  To be fair, there were only 2 games that the favored team actually won.  Again, who can even guess at this point?  Anyway, Crutch is inching ever closer and Mike caught up to robo-Ben, leaving us like this:

Phil:  47

Crutch:  41

Mike:  38

Ben:  38

Josh:  35

Terri:  27

Keep your picks coming!  Only two more regular season games!!!

Let's look at the games!!!!

Patrick (97.89) vs. Josh (92.05).  Once again, the second highest scorer loses to the highest scorer.  And once again, it's Josh on the painful side of this match up...  Of course, this is the second week in a row that Josh has started Wentz.  So, we'll see where he goes next week. Sadly, as it stands right now, Fournette is going to be suspended next week, which will make things a little awkward for him.  But hey, I'm sure that an injured Wentz will surely pull some magic off, right?

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As for Patrick... man o man... His players are just turning it on down the stretch.  Both McCaffrey and Elliot went off.  And with this win, Patrick all but locks up the 1 seed in the playoffs, leaving the rest of us like this:

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Ben (70.47) vs. Skoot (52.51).  (Holy geez! Look at the drop off in points between the high scoring game and the next in line.  MASSIVE!  I would have hate to have lost that first game!)  Ben continues his winning streak and Skoot continues his losing streak.  Skoot had Barkley going off (so what else is new), and nobody else really doing anything.  On the plus side, he did keep his streak of playing short handed going.  Well done, Skoot! Ben lucked out that his back up QB didn't shit the bed on his golden boy's BYE week.  Mixon and Ebron also contributed nicely to the beat down of the week.  Ironically, the only pick that wasn't for Ben was actually FROM Ben.  So, congratulations?  I guess?

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Stephen (69.02) vs. Crutch (58.42).  Man... I keep thinking that Stephen is out and then his team just gets it together at just the right times.  Chubb is carrying the team righ tnow, but Cook and Adams certainly didn't hurt too much either.  Crutch did a solid job of treading water while HIS golden boys (Hill and Hunt) were on BYE, but it just wasn't enough.  Also, Crutch, you know that you can pull a quarterback who ISN'T playing in Tampa, right?  But who am I to question your QBs?

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Mike (64.97) vs. Phil (57.01).  I love Mike vs. Phil match ups.  They are always good to watch.  This one came down to Monday night.  As long as the new guy Thomas didn't get a touchdown, Phil should be able to take it.  Sadly, Thomas got not one, but two touchdowns and he not only won the game, but acended to 2nd place AND kicked Phil out in the process.  

I'm just sayin'...

Kyle (63.37) vs. Terri (61.21).  Man, what a shit situation this could have been for Kyle.  Terri has pretty much given up for the year (not undeservedly so), and Kyle was THIS close to dropping a game to her.  Luck and Juju (hehe - what a wonderful combination!) were enough to counter balance Cam and Miller, but mostly becaues Johnson didn't actually play this week.  So, Kyle keeps his play off hopes alive... barely.

McClennen (58.45) vs. D (48.23).  Well, McClennen, it certainly was nice of you to spot D TWO positions here.  Funches didn't play and you didn't even bother with a Defense.  D on the other hand somehow found a way to have his defense score less and threw pretty much a Hail Mary when starting Mullens.  I mean, I know that the Niners were only playing Tampa, but seriously?  Mullens?  Respect on the balls, man.    So, well done, McClennnen!  You've just pulled in back to back wins for the first time this season!  Dare you go for a hat trick?

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(I know, I know.. wrong sport, just go with me on this one.)

That's it, ladies and gentlemen!  Only two more weeks of regular season play!  Good luck!