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It is never good to lose a divisional game, especially late in the season, but that is exactly what I did in Week 11.  Underdogs beat me to move into a tie for second-place in our division.  Just go away Favre is now 8-3 and appears to be running away with the Charlie Sanders Division, so now the teams behind him (myself, Underdogs, and Maize ‘n’ Blue Jays) are battling it out for a wild card spot.

Maize ‘n’ Blue Jays is 5-6 after a loss to the division leader, and Underdogs’ victory over me made us both 6-5.  Detroit’s Few Good Men is also 6-5, and since the tiebreaker for the wild card is points scored, I believe he and I would make the playoffs if the season ended today.

One of the biggest stories from Week 11 was the controversial finish to the Steelers-Chargers game.  The Chargers were trailing 11-10 with only a few seconds left, and they tried to lateral the ball around in hopes a miracle would happen.  Troy Polamalu broke up one of the laterals and returned the fumble for a touchdown.  Not only did Pittsburgh suddenly cover the spread, but fantasy football players with the Steelers D/ST got somewhere around 8 points (2 for a fumble recovery and 6 for a TD).

The referees took some time to talk about the last play and eventually determined that an illegal forward pass had occurred.  Therefore, no fumble happened and no touchdown happened.  The call turned out to be completely wrong, and the impact the miscue had was huge on both the gambling and fantasy football worlds.  It is estimated that a $64 million swing happened in the gambling world due to the incorrect call, and for fantasy football the call lost or won games in many cases.

In the official POD league, Calvin and the Chipmunks lost by just over 6 points.  He had the Steelers D/ST in his starting lineup, and a correct call would have meant that he had beat Detroit’s Few Good Men, which would have changed the entire playoff picture.

In the Pride of Detroit overflow league, I played somebody that had the Steelers D/ST, and I only won by a score of 76.24-74.32.  When the Steelers scored that touchdown at the end, I was beyond pissed off as I thought I had lost.  Then, as the call was changed, I was ecstatic since I won thanks to the referee’s mistake.  I shouldn’t have let it be that close in the first place, as I had a terrible coach rating of 66%.  I made the mistake of benching Leon Washington, Jerricho Cotchery, and the Packers D/ST.  Had I started even one of them, the Steelers-Chargers finish wouldn’t have made a difference.

There was no controversy in the SBN/AOL league since the owner of the Steelers D/ST had them on the bench in favor of the Panthers.  If the Steelers D/ST had been in the starting lineup, another fantasy football player would have been screwed over since the margin he lost by was around 4 points.  The controversy was moot, though, since the Steelers didn’t start.  Thankfully I wasn’t involved in that game anyways, as I won 101.85-63.05 and had a perfect coach rating to improve to 9-2 on the season.

A full look at all of the results from the official POD league can be found below.

I ended up losing this week, and the loss itself was frustrating based on the closeness of the score alone, but it was even worse because of what happened at the end of the 49ers-Cardinals game last night.  The 49ers were on the 2-yard line with around 20 seconds left in the game, and Frank Gore got the ball.  He fell to the ground and quickly crawled into the end zone. Unfortunately, a Cardinals defender barely got a hand on him, meaning Gore was down by contact and no touchdown happened.

Why am I telling you this?  Well, Gore was in my starting lineup, and if he had scored a touchdown I would have won and improved to 7-3 on the season.  Instead, I am 6-4 and am now in second-place because Just go away Favre’s opponent forgot to adjust his lineup and left Adrian Peterson on the bench.  Had Peterson been in the starting lineup, Just go away Favre would have lost and I would at least be tied for first right now.

Things thankfully did go my way in the POD overflow league and in the SBN/AOL league.  In the overflow league I ended up winning 113.82-91.48 even though I had a coach rating of 77%.  My coach rating was so bad because I had Jay Cutler, who scored 39.78 points, and the Packers defense, which racked up 19 points, on the bench.  Thankfully neither of those mistakes mattered, as I still won comfortably.

In the SBN/AOL league, I won 83.2-81.9.  The closeness of the game was thanks to the battle between the 49ers and Cardinals.  Kurt Warner was my opponent’s starting QB and made this very close.  When Warner threw his third TD pass of the game, I thought I had lost.  Thankfully, though, passing TDs are only worth 4 points rather than 6 in the SBN/AOL league.  If this was like the two Pride of Detroit leagues, I would have had a crushing defeat.

The rest of the official POD league scores can be found below.

I was very lucky to play an opponent that only scored 57 points this week.  Scoring only 75.28 points is usually going to get you beat, but this week I caught a break.  Even if I would have lost I did have a pretty good excuse that was waiting to be used.  All but two of my bench players were on a bye.  On top of that, Matt Hasselbeck, who wasn’t on a bye, didn’t play due to an injury.  That meant that I had only one active bench player this week, and he was a kicker.

Here are the details of my win:

In the POD overflow league, I won 88.58-62.46 and had a 98% coach rating.  The win improved my record to 6-3, which is good enough for first place in my division.  In the SBN/AOL league, I suffered my first embarrassing defeat.  I got beat 104.75-61.4.  Before this, my only other loss was by .08 of a point, so this thankfully was a rare occurrence.

I’d like to say that it will be the last blowout I suffer in the SBN/AOL league, but injuries are becoming a problem for me.  Tony Romo has been out for the last few weeks and is on a bye this coming Sunday.  The player I replaced him with, Kyle Orton, is out for a month with an injury, meaning my QB situation is not looking very good.  To make matters even worse, Reggie Bush has been out with an injury, leaving me with a shortage of running backs.

Anyways, here are the rest of the results from the official POD league.

This was my best week of fantasy football in recent memory.  All three of my teams were victorious, meaning I am now in sole possession of first-place in my division in two leagues and am tied for first-place in another.  Here is what happened in the official POD league.

In the POD overflow league, I won 116.94-97.02 and had a 99% coach rating.  What’s even better is that I got 31.54 points out of Philip Rivers as my starting QB and had David Garrard sitting on the bench with 30.22 points.  I also have Jay Cutler on that team, meaning I probably should look to unload a QB.  In the SBN/AOL league, I won by the narrow margin of 93.6-91.8 and had another 99% coach rating.

The rest of the results from the official POD league can be found below.

My team in the official POD fantasy football league has sadly started performing like I initially expected it to.  I’m having trouble racking up points, and in a league like this, that is never a good thing.  Defense may win championships in the NFL, but in fantasy football it’s all about scoring points, which is something my team is struggling to do recently.

This week I was not only beat, but my optimum wouldn’t have given me a victory, either.  At the same time, my opponent’s optimum was really big, so I lucked out to lose by this small of a deficit.

I am now 4-3 in both the official league and the overflow league, as I won 79.82-76.22 in the latter (and had a 90% coach rating).  Jay Cutler had me worried as late as the third quarter in last night’s game against the Patriots, as he had his worst game of the season.  Thankfully a late touchdown pass put me ahead to give me the victory.

In the SBN/AOL league, my domination continued this week, as I won 99.85-81.8 and had a 96% coach rating.  My record in that league is now 6-1, and I am nine-tenths of a point away from being undefeated.  Even without Tony Romo, my team is in good shape after Kyle Orton stepped in as my starter this week and played well.

The rest of the scores from the official POD league can be found below.

Things did not go well for me this week, as I only managed to score 65.88 points.  My opponent put up 80.42, which sadly was a pretty comfortable win for him.  All you need to know is that my best performer was a kicker.  That alone should tell you that I didn’t have a very good week.

In the POD overflow league I scored many more points but still lost.  I had a coaches rating of 83% and got beat 113.36-100.38.  I made the terrible mistake of benching Philip Rivers in favor of Jay Cutler, which ended up costing me big time.  Had I left Rivers in the starting lineup, I would have narrowly escaped with a victory.

In the SBN/AOL league I did pick up a victory to improve to 5-1 on the season.  I had a coaches rating of 93% and won 94.25-69.9 thanks mainly to Tony Romo, Reggie Bush, and Roddy White.  I’m going to have to hope that Kyle Orton keeps playing as well as he has now that Tony Romo is injured.  Romo has accounted for the most points on my team this season, so losing him hurts big time.  I just picked up Orton last week, so I’m hoping that he can play well enough where I am able to survive until Romo returns.

Here are the rest of the matchups in the official POD fantasy football league:

Despite having the fourth lowest point total in the official POD fantasy football league this past week, I ended up winning to improve my record to 4-1 on the year.  I lucked out for sure, as my opponent had both Deuce McAllister and Lance Moore playing in last night’s game for the Saints.  Had the two combined for just 8 more yards, I would have lost, so luck was definitely on my side.