GP Stands Alone At The Top Of Ryan's FFL!

[GP]

GP (5-2, 901.63 points) takes ownership of the top spot in the league after beating Battle Red Bulls (fourth place, 4-3, 884.04 points) 139.35 - 112.68. GP also got the second-highest point total in the league this week. Having won their last five straight, GP has become a very tough matchup. Battle Red Bulls had two players rank highly this week. Victor Cruz scored 28.10 points while Aaron Rodgers put up 25.68. On top of the loss, Battle Red Bulls had a starter score zero points (Kyle Rudolph).

GP Smooth Moves
...The 32.18 points scored by Drew Brees was the second-highest QB score of the week and is the eighth-highest QB score in the league this season.

...Benched Andy Dalton, who had the lowest QB score on the team with 7.10 points.

...With 18.90 points, Owen Daniels ranked third in the league this week in scoring among TEs.
Mason Crosby scored a season-high 14.00 points and beat his scoring projection by 53.8%, which also is a season-high.

...6 of 9 players in the starting lineup for GP topped their projected points.

Battle Red Bulls Regret Tracker
Did not start Randall Cobb, who ranked fifth in the league in scoring and beat his scoring projection by 205.4%, the third-highest percentage in the league.
Phil Dawson, who Battle Red Bulls picked up this week, scored below his 8.71-point projection with 1.00 point.

GP won the K position battle, beating Battle Red Bulls 14.00 - 1.00.
At the DEF position, Battle Red Bulls got outscored by GP 18.00 - 7.00.
Dez Bryant scored a season-low 3.97 points, 24.5% of his projected 16.23, which is his lowest percentage of the year.
What If

...GP would be 4-3 if they played Battle Red Bulls every week.

...Besides Battle Red Bulls, GP would have defeated nine other teams this week.

...If they played the same schedule as Battle Red Bulls, GP would be 4-2.
If GP had played every team in the league each week, they would be 50-27.

...Battle Red Bulls would have lost to four other teams besides GP this week.

...GP would have lost to Battle Red Bulls 143.18 - 104.64 had they played each other last week.

...Battle Red Bulls would be 3-3 if they played the same schedule as GP. If they played every team every week, Battle Red Bulls would be 47-30.

Game Notes
...With the win, GP has a five-game win streak, currently the longest in the league.

...In the loss, Victor Cruz ranked sixth in the league in scoring with 28.10 points against a projected 15.47 and has now overachieved in four straight games. The loss snapped a three-game win streak by Battle Red Bulls.

...GP got a combined 38.47 points from their WRs, their lowest combined scoring output from the WR position this season.

...Despite being on the winning team, BenJarvus Green-Ellis scored 6.90 points against a projected 12.37 and has now underachieved in six straight games.

...It was the biggest loss of the season for Battle Red Bulls.

...The draft continues to pay off for GP, which got 79.3% of their points from players they drafted. That means I draft like a boss

...GP overachieved in the win, improving to 4-1 when beating their projected points this season, while Battle Red Bulls falls to 2-2 when scoring below their projected points.

 

[Playoffs]

You forget the JPG...

 

[Ryan]

You got me this week. This team and my other league team both lost so it was a bad week. My running backs are a mess.

 

[Ryan]

Man our league is TIGHT though. 11 teams within at most 2 games of each other, 10 teams are within 1 game of each other. Gotta bring your A game to get in the playoffs and win every week.

 

[GP]

Man our league is TIGHT though. 11 teams within at most 2 games of each other, 10 teams are within 1 game of each other. Gotta bring your A game to get in the playoffs and win every week.

You're right. There's really not much separation, Ryan.

I am amazed that I dropped my first two games and then went a 5-game winning streak. I've never done that before. I've either steadily plodded along or steadily spiraled downward. To have a rough start and then make it a 5-game streak has me nervous as to when the streak ends and maybe even reverses.

One thing that has worked well for me in this league is that in the draft I got out of my comfort zone:

1.) No more Mr. Nice Guy routine for me. I stopped drafting players I normally draft, such as Andre Johnson and tier 2 QBs. Enough said.

2.) Drew Brees as the foundation of my FFL team. I was lucky enough to land Drew Brees as my QB in round 1, and that was my strategy from the get-go: Lock up the most consistent point producer, IMO, in the entire NFL. QBs only get 4 points for TDs in this league, something I detest since a QB's throw to a WR/TE/RB ought to count as 6 just like it does for WR/TE/RBs, but I digress...however, Drew Brees is always pressing for MORE.

Even when they are up, he keeps throwing on defenses. He's a killer. A cold-blooded killer out there. With how their defense has been struggling, it has helped me even more than I could have hoped for, too! He rarely has an off game, and his team usually scores a lot of points or at least throws for a lot of yards. He's regularly good for 300+ yards passing, which is 12 points and then maybe three TDs for another 12 points. Tat's 24 points, and yet he's putting up sometimes 30 points for me. Best draft I have made since drafting Larry Johnson the year Priest Holmes went I.R. and LJ took me all the way to my only FFL Super Bowl.

3.) Wes Welker. He's the Drew Brees of WRs, IMO. Consistent, an easy target for Brady, and he's mad as hell and ready to prove his worth. I have to admit that I was scared BIG TIME when he had those first two awful weeks, which I think contributed to my losses, btw, but he and the Patriots rallied to see things through and he has been V.I.P. number 2 for me. In years past, I never would have taken him as high as Round 2 like I did this year...I just never thought of him as being a big points guy in FFL But with this league being a PPR league, I went all-in and selected him in round 2 as my #1 WR.

4.) TE and D/ST Restraint. From there, I had to show restraint and not go for a big TE or a killer Defense. I let other people do that and my strategy was to get Owen Daniels in a later round, which I did. He has been phenomenal for me. Consistent producer.

5.) REGGIE WAYNE. He lasted until round s-i-x which was obscene, IMO. You all should be ashamed you did that to yourselves. When I saw he was still there, it was a no-brainer. The guy is not garbage just because Manning is not there anymore. In fact, with an accurate rookie QB in Luck it makes sense to think he's going to lean on Reggie Wayne even more. Biggest steal of the draft, IMO, and I snuck into all of your homes and robbed ya' blind.

Overall, I filled in with some RBs who are not world-beaters but who are good for around 10 points-per-game. Stud QB, Stud WR1, Quasi-Stud WR2, decent RB1 and RB2, Stud TE, and then fill in with weekly waiver wire acquisitions for defense based on match ups.

 

[GP]

I must admit that I have benefited from my weekly opponents who have had some bad luck with some of their consistent producers.

In the previous week, Ryan, you would have SPANKED my butt by a ton of points. It was just a rough week for you and a really good one for me.

Which makes me nervous about just when that sort of bad luck happens to me!

 

[Ryan]

You're right. There's really not much separation, Ryan.

I am amazed that I dropped my first two games and then went a 5-game winning streak. I've never done that before. I've either steadily plodded along or steadily spiraled downward. To have a rough start and then make it a 5-game streak has me nervous as to when the streak ends and maybe even reverses.

One thing that has worked well for me in this league is that in the draft I got out of my comfort zone:

1.) No more Mr. Nice Guy routine for me. I stopped drafting players I normally draft, such as Andre Johnson and tier 2 QBs. Enough said.

2.) Drew Brees as the foundation of my FFL team. I was lucky enough to land Drew Brees as my QB in round 1, and that was my strategy from the get-go: Lock up the most consistent point producer, IMO, in the entire NFL. QBs only get 4 points for TDs in this league, something I detest since a QB's throw to a WR/TE/RB ought to count as 6 just like it does for WR/TE/RBs, but I digress...however, Drew Brees is always pressing for MORE.

Even when they are up, he keeps throwing on defenses. He's a killer. A cold-blooded killer out there. With how their defense has been struggling, it has helped me even more than I could have hoped for, too! He rarely has an off game, and his team usually scores a lot of points or at least throws for a lot of yards. He's regularly good for 300+ yards passing, which is 12 points and then maybe three TDs for another 12 points. Tat's 24 points, and yet he's putting up sometimes 30 points for me. Best draft I have made since drafting Larry Johnson the year Priest Holmes went I.R. and LJ took me all the way to my only FFL Super Bowl.

3.) Wes Welker. He's the Drew Brees of WRs, IMO. Consistent, an easy target for Brady, and he's mad as hell and ready to prove his worth. I have to admit that I was scared BIG TIME when he had those first two awful weeks, which I think contributed to my losses, btw, but he and the Patriots rallied to see things through and he has been V.I.P. number 2 for me. In years past, I never would have taken him as high as Round 2 like I did this year...I just never thought of him as being a big points guy in FFL But with this league being a PPR league, I went all-in and selected him in round 2 as my #1 WR.

4.) TE and D/ST Restraint. From there, I had to show restraint and not go for a big TE or a killer Defense. I let other people do that and my strategy was to get Owen Daniels in a later round, which I did. He has been phenomenal for me. Consistent producer.

5.) REGGIE WAYNE. He lasted until round s-i-x which was obscene, IMO. You all should be ashamed you did that to yourselves. When I saw he was still there, it was a no-brainer. The guy is not garbage just because Manning is not there anymore. In fact, with an accurate rookie QB in Luck it makes sense to think he's going to lean on Reggie Wayne even more. Biggest steal of the draft, IMO, and I snuck into all of your homes and robbed ya' blind.

Overall, I filled in with some RBs who are not world-beaters but who are good for around 10 points-per-game. Stud QB, Stud WR1, Quasi-Stud WR2, decent RB1 and RB2, Stud TE, and then fill in with weekly waiver wire acquisitions for defense based on match ups.

In my other league get this, I actually got Reggie Wayne in the 9th round. I was baffled. My other team is VERY similar to this team i have in our league, sub out Ryan Mathews for Trent Richardson, Dez Bryant for Fitzgerald(Dez has been a huge let down in this league), and Brent Celek for Tony Gonzalez and that's basically it. That team is in first place and for obvious reasons since I ahve what seems to be significant upgrades at the other 3 spots, although i did lose my first game there this week too.

Richardson instead of Mathews probably isnt a huge upgrade now since Richardson has played awful and hurt the past two weeks. I think losing Amendola on this team really hurt since for the past several weeks i've been forced to start Dez. I hope he comes back soon.

It's good to see Rodgers back in his old ways too. I used to be like you usually not taking QBs that early cause i liked stacking up on RBs more, but QBs really are the most consistent point scorers there are.

 

[TexanSam]

Now we have 5 teams tied for first and 4 for second. This is going to down to the wire.

 

[Ryan]

Now we have 5 teams tied for first and 4 for second. This is going to down to the wire.

I'd feel better if my team showed any range of consistency whatsoever. They'll probably drop 170 this week then come back with 80 next week. I love the competition though.

 

[Ryan]

My team in this league just can't win for losing this season. 4-6 and still only one game out of a potential playoff spot.