SB Nation The FanHouse^® Leagues

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.

In the POD overflow league, I lost for the second straight time.  I only put up 69.46 points but did have a coaches rating of 94%.  That was only because nearly half my bench had a bye, but that is good news for next week since I’ll be getting a couple starters back, which hopefully will get my point total at least in the 70′s.  In the SBN/AOL league I improved to 4-1 after winning 106.2-69.65.  I had a coaches rating of 88% and appear to be in good shape as the season continues.

Before taking a look at how the rest of the teams in the official POD league fared, here is a standings update:

Charlie Sanders Division

1. Better Than Millen (4-1)
2. Just go away Favre (3-2)
3. Maize ‘n’ Blue Jays (2-3)
4. Underdogs (1-4)

Bobby Layne Division

1. Motown Madmen (4-1)
2. West Coast Lions (3-2)
3. SnotKnocker’s (2-3)
4. LA Leos (1-4)

Doak Walker Division

1. The Gosder Cherilus Posse (4-1)
2. Calvin and the Chipmunks (3-2)
3. Detroit’s Few Good Men (2-3)
4. Rudys Warhawks (1-4)

All good things must come to an end eventually, and that was exactly what happened for me in the official POD fantasy football league in Week 4.  LA Leos, who was 0-3 coming into his game against me, absolutely destroyed my team by dropping a ridiculous amount of points.  I had my best lineup in, as my coach rating shows, but that really doesn’t say much considering most of my bench was either injured or on a bye.  The loss drops me to 3-1 on the year, which makes for a four-way tie for first-place in the league.

My undefeated record in the POD overflow league also no longer exists.  I lost 118.92-107 even though I got a great performance out of both Larry Johnson and LaDainian Tomlinson (and I had a coach rating of 90%).  Looking back, it wasn’t a very good decision to bench Jay Cutler for Philip Rivers or Thomas Jones for Chris Perry, but my optimum score was only 118.24 anyways, which still would have resulted in a loss.  Things did go much better in the SBN/AOL league as I had a coach rating of 99% and won 97.5-72.05 over Niners Nation, improving my record to 3-1 in that league as well.

Here’s how everyone else did this week:

My dominance of the official Pride of Detroit fantasy football league continued this past week as I once again was victorious.  The victory improved my record to 3-0 on the season, giving me sole possession of first-place in the league.  The same goes for the overflow league as I won 106.76-99.44 after making an enormous comeback.  I was down by nearly 40 points going into the Monday night game, but thanks to LaDainian Tomlinson, Thomas Jones, Jerricho Cotchery, and Nate Kaeding, I ended up winning and had a coach rating of 83%.
In the SBN/AOL league I also nearly made a comeback thanks to Antonio Gates.  However, the comeback fell 0.8 points as I ended up losing 102.3-101.5.  Gates did all he could and added 8.5 points on Monday night to get me close to a win, but looking back there were two things that cost me an undefeated record.  The first was Aaron Rodgers racking up points after the Packers’ game against Dallas was basically over.  Rodgers not only threw the ball a lot at the end of the game since Green Bay was in a no huddle offense, but he also scored a late TD on a QB sneak.  Take one of those completions away and I win.
The other thing that I do have to take responsibility for is benching Roddy White.  He didn’t do well a week ago and Antonio Gonzalez scored double digit points on my bench.  I thought about swapping them for week 3 for a few minutes and ultimately did.  That move proved to be costly as White scored 19.9 points compared to Gonzalez’s 3.7.  That move alone prevented me from starting off 3-0 in all of my leagues, and to say it was disappointing would be an understatement.
Anyways, below are the details of my victory in the official POD FFL and you can find the results of the other games this week as well.

Heading into Week 2, I was worried that my three teams’ performances in week 1 were flukes.  I say that only because in fantasy football you can go from being the best one week to being the worst another, so my concern was that I would quickly go from being dominant to being dominated.  Thankfully, that wasn’t the case in any of my leagues as all three of my teams were once again victorious.

I’ll get to my official league match-up in a second, but first want to share what happened in my other two leagues.  In the POD overflow league I won 95.38-53.84 and had a coach rating of 79%, and in the SBN/AOL league I won 91.5-73.85 and had a coach rating of 84%.  The SBN/AOL score would have been closer if DeSean Jackson didn’t make one of the dumbest plays in NFL history, but it wouldn’t have changed the end result anyways.

One other thing I have to mention from the POD overflow league is just how close things can be in fantasy football.  Team “Mountain Dew” beat “the G men” by a score of 134.78-134.14.  I can’t even imagine how much it would suck to be on the losing side of that match-up.

Anyways, here is how I did in the official Pride of Detroit league this week:

Even though I got absolutely no production out of my starting quarterback I still put up a huge amount of points.  The reason for that is because outside of Hasselbeck and Michael Turner, every other one of my players scored in double digits.  Hell, even my tight end, Tony Scheffler, scored 18.1 points for me.

Here is how everyone else fared this week:

Coming into the start of the season, my confidence wasn’t exactly all that high for my team in the official Pride of Detroit Fantasy Football League.  The reason for that is because I had a really crappy draft, at least I thought I did at the time.  It was my first draft of the year and I was pretty rusty.  Looking back, some of the picks just cause me to scratch my head.  If I could go back and redo it, I probably would have, that is, before week 1 got underway.

Despite my lack of confidence in my official POD FFL team, I ended up dominating my opponent this week.  That was actually the case in all three of the leagues I’m in, but I’ll save the other two for later as I first want to give you a look at just how dominating my team was.

(Note: Stud = highest scoring player; Dud = lowest scoring player; Benched = highest scoring player on bench; Optimum = most points possible; Rating = actual points scored/optimum)

By the way, SnotKnocker’s is the team that has Tom Brady.  To add insult to injury (no pun intended), SnotKnocker’s drafted Brady #1 overall.  That really has to suck.

Last night the POD Fantasy Football League draft was held, and the results were quite interesting.  This was actually my first fantasy draft of the year, and to say I was rusty would be an understatement.  I haven’t exactly researched fantasy football to the extent of years past, and sadly my first few picks showed that.  Some advice for everyone out there is to not wait to research who you should pick until you are on the clock.  That is a good way to cause panic and end up with a pick you will later regret, which brings me to how the first-round went.

Tom Brady surprisingly was taken first overall by SnotKnocker’s, and that gave both the Underdogs and Rudys Warhawks a chance to take LaDainian Tomlinson and Adrian Peterson, respectively.  After that Just go away Favre drafted Brian Westbrook and Calvin and the Chipmunks got Tony Romo.  Detroit’s Few Good Men was on the clock next and drafted Joseph Addai.  Steven Jackson was taken off the board as West Coast Lions picked him next, and then Peyton Manning was drafted by LA Leos.  Marion Barber would then be selected by Maize ‘n’ Blue Jays, putting me on the clock.

The clock was running out and I really couldn’t make up my mind, so I went ahead and drafted 49ers running back Frank Gore.  Yes, the same Frank Gore that is in an offense controlled by Mike Martz.  Looking back I really do sort of regret this pick, but unfortunately it was better than my second-round pick, which you’ll find out in a second.  Following my pick, Motown Madmen took Randy Moss and The Gosder Cherilus Posse closed out the first-round by drafting Marshawn Lynch.

As the second-round began, my thinking was that I probably should draft a quarterback.  Three of them were already off the board and it would be very risky to wait until the third-round to draft one.  I don’t know what caused me to go against my original thinking, but I did and drafted Terrell Owens.  I seriously dislike this pick in hindsight as receivers are really a dime a dozen and I passed up the chance to draft a solid starting quarterback.

That mistake would come back to bite me in the butt as I was stuck drafting Matt Hasselbeck in the fourth-round.  I decided to add running back Michael Turner in the third-round as I knew Hasselbeck would still be there when I made my next pick.  I was right and realized that if I didn’t get things together my team could end up being very bad.

As the draft went on I will say that my picks got better.  I’m not thrilled with this team at all, but I think I can make the most of it.  Before I get to the picks other teams made, here is a list of the players I selected during the rest of the draft (in order of when I took them): RB LenDale White, WR Santana Moss, QB Jake Delhomme (I wanted a decent backup for sure), D/ST Green Bay Packers, K Josh Brown, WR Donte’ Stallworth, D/ST Seattle Seahawks, TE Tony Scheffler, RB Justin Fargas, WR Bobby Engram, TE Anthony Fasano, and K Josh Scobee.

Out of the players listed above, I would say that the two steals I got were Donte’ Stallworth and the Seahawks defense/special teams.  Stallworth should bring in a decent amount of points each week and the Seahawks have a very talented defense.  I was surprised they were still available when I made the pick, and I actually think I may start them over the Packers defense in the first week of the season.

Overall, as I’ve said I’m not thrilled with my team, but I can live with it.  I definitely should have prepared more for my first fantasy draft of the season, but this ended up getting me more than ready for tonight’s POD Overflow League draft.

Now that you’ve seen my team, after the jump you can take a look at the other 11 teams in this league.  I was originally going to rank them based on how they drafted, but ran out of time for right now.  I’ll save that post for next week when we’re waiting for the season to start.

(more…)

I have gone through and updated the scoring rules and also have made a few other changes to the Pride of Detroit Fantasy Football League. Basically, I took the responses of the members of the league into consideration and then messed around with the scoring rules. Thankfully Fleaflicker gives you total customization of the rules, meaning I was able to implement many different things.

I’ll get into all of the scoring changes in just a bit, but first, here are some of the other most noticeable changes:

• The three divisions are now named after Lions Hall of Famers Charlie Sanders, Bobby Layne, and Doak Walker.
• We will have decimal point scoring. Although I was originally leaning in the direction of not using this feature, I decided at the last minute to include decimals. It should make things much more interesting as every single yard will count.
• The playoff schedule has been changed so the championship game will be played in week 16. That means the playoffs begin in week 14, allowing us to still include 6 teams (I originally thought this wasn’t possible, but thankfully, it is). That is great news as not only do 6 teams get to make the playoffs, but the league championship can be decided before the final week of the NFL season.
• During the regular season ties will not be broken. I would be shocked if any game ever end in a tie since we’re using decimal point scoring, but if it does then it will remain a tie. In the playoffs there are obviously tiebreakers ready to go in case they are needed, but in the regular season you’ll have to have the feeling of kissing your sister.
• The trade deadline has been set for week 10.
• I added a second running back to the starting roster and also increased the size of the bench by one player. That means that each team will have 16 players, giving you room on the roster for at least one backup at each position if you want, and then one more spot on top of that as well.
• The most important change outside of scoring rules is that the draft now is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. ET on August 26 (a week from today). That will allow us to get through one more week of the preseason to see if any injuries happen, which hopefully will prevent any devastating blows to a team before the regular season even begins.

The scoring changes/performance bonuses can be found below.

• 1 extra point when total Passing Completions is greater than or equal to 25
• 2 extra points when total Passing Yards is greater than or equal to 500
• 1 extra point when total Passing Yards is between 300 and 499 (inclusive)
• 2 extra points for every Passing TD of 80 or more yards
• 1 extra point for every Passing TD between 50 and 79 yards (inclusive)
• 2 extra points when total Rushing Yards is greater than or equal to 250
• 1 extra point when total Rushing Yards is between 150 and 249 (inclusive)
• 2 extra points for every Rushing TD of 80 or more yards
• 1 extra point for every Rushing TD between 50 and 79 yards (inclusive)
• 1 extra point when total Catches is greater than or equal to 10
• 2 extra points when total Receiving Yards is greater than or equal to 250
• 1 extra point when total Receiving Yards is between 150 and 249 (inclusive)
• 2 extra points for every Receiving TD of 80 or more yards
• 1 extra point for every Receiving TD between 50 and 79 yards (inclusive)
• 2 extra points for every FG of 50 or more yards
• 1 extra point for every FG between 40 and 49 yards (inclusive)
• -1 point for every FG Missed
• -2 points for every XP Missed
• 1 point for every XP Blocked (for team defenses only)
  
• 2 points for every FG Blocked (for team defenses only)
• 2 points for every Punt Blocked (for team defenses only)
• Change: 1 point for every 25 Passing Yards (previously was 1 point for every 20 yards)
• Change: -2 points for every Fumble Lost (previously deducted points for fumbles that weren’t lost; I got rid of that)
• Change: 1 point for every Sack (previously sacks were worth 2 points)
• Change: 2 points for every Safety (previously safeties were worth 4 points)
• I also added performance bonuses that vary depending on how many points a defense allows. Here’s how that scale works: 10 points for a shutout, 7 points for 1-6 PA (points allowed), 4 points for 7-13 PA, 1 point for 14-20 PA, 0 points for 21-27 PA, -1 points for 28-34 PA, and -4 points for 35 or more PA.
  

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.