Week 9 2018: The Playoff Race Gets Serious

Bracket Time Approaches

Playoff Position

With 4 weeks left in the regular season, lets take a look at where everyone current sits, and who still has time to climb the playoff positioning ladder. 

• Fighting for first round byes: as you should all know, the top two teams will get a bye week for the initial round of playoffs. 2 weeks ago Wampus Cats looked like a virtual lock for a spot at 7-0, but the gap has closed. 

• Wampus Cats: On a 2 game losing streak and looking for a startable QB, this team is investing hope in Fitzpatrick for the 2nd time this season. Coleman's emergence as a top RB is a huge boon, and Josh Gordon seems to finally be clicking in NE. Wampus Cats play both of the desperation teams in the next 4 weeks, giving them good odds at staying at the top.
• Daksteet Boys: Dalvin Cook returning to the Vikings has hurt this team's RB depth significantly, but the good new for them is that they don't have to play any top 5 teams to end the season. The JuJu/Antonio pair continues to be every week gold.
• Cool Beans: I definitely spoke too soon when I dropped this team all the way down our power rankings. Cool Beans just gained a possible starting RB in Mike Davis, and the Saints offense continues to destroy everything in its path. VS Eagle Powers (this week) is his last remaining matchup vs an upper tier team.
• Good Odds at a playoff Berth: These are teams that should make the playoffs, but don't have a huge cushion 
• zane's Team: An extremely narrow (7 yard) win over Eagle Powers puts this team in good position to catch the 3 teams above them, as they have the points edge over Dakstreet and Cool Beans. Some of zane's success hinges on how healthy Cris Carson can stay, and how stupidly devoted the Dolphins remain to Frank Gore despite Kenyan Drake's breakout.
• Steven's Team: This is still the lowest scoring team in the league, and that's bad news if you end up needing a points tie breaker to keep your playoff spot. Steven's Team needs Marlon Mack and Dion Lewis to both show up this week to upset Dakstreet boys, or he will fall below any cliffhanger teams who win.
• Cliffhanger Teams: These 3 teams are all fighting for 1 spot, unless someone above them drops down
• Eagle Powers: The good news for Eagle Powers? Lev Bell still hasn't shown up, and Conner continues to dominate alongside Gurley, giving him the best 2 RBs in Fantasy. The bad news? They have to play Wampus Cats, Cool Beans, an Dakstreet boys in this final 4 game stretch. They will need to find a way to win 2 of those 3 matchups (along with their week vs Represent) or end up sitting at 6-7, and possibly outside playoffs.
• Return of the Mack: This week will be a huge game as Return of the Mack and Goofy Gang face off for a good shot at 6th place. The loser will need a lot of luck to make it back. ROTM desperately needs Michel and Watkins to be healthy enough to play, especially with AJ Green out for now.
• Goofy Gang: The other side of that matchup, Goofy Gang finally has Kupp back, but is still waiting on Gronk. He needs to hope it's a Cohen week for the Bears and not a Jordan Howard game like this past outing. Goofy Gang has a brutal schedule after this (zane's Team, Wampus Cats, Cool Beans) so a win here would be huge.
• Desperation Teams : These teams need some kind of miracle to make it into the picture
• Greg's Grand Team: GGT is the 2nd lowest scoring team in the league, so that means he needs to pass 6th place by a full game (unless that team is Steven). With a max record of 6-7 this is still possible, as there will probably be 1 losing record teams that squeak in. He can't lose any more games though. This will be the first week in months he can play Mixon and Fournette, so there's still a glimmer of hope.
• Represent 👩🏈🌻: If her 121 point game this week had been enough to secure a win, things would be looking up for Represent. As it stands, they have to play Wampus Cats, Dakstreet Boys, and Eagle Powers the next 3 weeks. That starts this week where they will be hoping for a huge game from David Johnson off his bye to offset lacking Theilin.

Survivor

The Vikings sacked Stafford a mind boggling 10 times on Sunday to produce a 22 point week for Dakstreet Boys, and a combined 50 points from the Panthers offense (Funchess, Olsen, McCaffrey) gave Dak his first elimination of the year as GGT was finally removed from the standings. Exactly half our teams remain as we enter the final stretch of the season.

Survivor Standings :

• Dakstreet Boys: 138 Points this week⚔️
• zane's Team: 117 Points this week⚔️
• Eagle Powers: 117 Points this week ⚔️⚔️
• Represent 👩🏈🌻: 121 Points this week 
• Goofy Gang : 97 Points this week 
• Greg's Grand Team: 84 Points this week💀
• Wampus Cats: RIP ⚔️💀
• Return of the Mack: RIP💀
• Cool Beans: RIP💀
• Steven's Team: RIP 💀

Power Rankings

I already detailed the teams in Playoff Positioning, but since power ranking is unrelated to record, we'll continue to rank teams here with less informational commentary

• S Tier 
• Eagle Powers: 1️⃣1️⃣🐦1️⃣1️⃣1️⃣💯💯1️⃣1️⃣💯
• A Tier
• Dakstreet Boys: still hasn't added Dak Prescott
• Wampus Cats: 😵
• zane's Team : In a crazy turn of events, Julio managed to catch a touchdown before zane could pick a better team name
• Cool Beans: remains in 2nd despite making the least adds/drops/trades this year. A+++ drafting
• B Tier
• Steven's Team: Lev Bell tweeted that he left Miami. BUT WHERE IS HE GOING?
• Return of the Mack: tied for least adds/drops/trades, forgot to do the other part of the equation where you draft an allstar team
• C Tier 
• Goofy Gang : goofy gang, goofy gang, goofy gang, goofy gang 🎤
• Greg's Grand Team: leads the league in points against. gotta work on that fantasy defense 💪
• Represent 👩🏈🌻: put up your 2nd best score and still lose by 40. life is cruel sometimes

Pickup of the Week

There were a LOT of pickups this last week, partially due to team situations shifting with the NFL trade deadline. Steven's Team wins again for grabbing Courtland Sutton, who has a real chance to break out for the Broncos over the back half of the season.