Week 13: Playoffs, Survivor Champion

A rare image of that one time the Jags were actually good

Playoffs are here! The final week of the regular season included a bit of Chaos as Goofy Gang was able to claw his way into 6th place, while NB Power pushed into a 1st round bye. This next week, there are only 2 matchups because all of our losers bracket teams are on bye, as well as our league leaders.

Survivor

The winner of our very first survivor challenge has been crowned! Congrats Eagle Powers. The key to this game was consistency, and Eagle Powers has been consistently crushing it ever since this challenge started in week 5. With an average score of 139 and low of 113 during that period, this team has cruised to 4 eliminations (double that of the next best team) on the backs of Gurley, Luck, and Davante Adams, as well as insane waiver pickups in Conner, Chubb and Kerryon. How they're only 7-6 in the actual standings is the greater mystery.

Survivor Standings :

• Eagle Powers: 132 Points this week ⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️
• NB Power: 111 Points this week⚔️⚔️💀
• Dakstreet Boys: RIP⚔️⚔️💀
• Represent 👩🏈🌻: RIP ⚔️💀
• Goofy Gang : RIP 💀
• Greg's Grand Team: RIP💀
• Wampus Cats: RIP ⚔️💀
• Return of the Mack: RIP💀
• Cool Beans: RIP💀
• Steven's Team: RIP 💀

Matchup Previews

Wampus Cats (8-5) v Goofy Gang (7-6)

Rematch! After a narrow 5 point victory in week 13 to make playoffs, Goofy Gang must play Wampus Cats for the second week in a row to move into the semifinals. It's been a rough month for Wampus Cats, losing 5 of the final 6 weeks after starting 7-0, while Goofy Gang has surged from the depths of the standings to squeak into the playoff spot.

Players to watch:

• Stefon Diggs played through an injury last week, and it showed. He was averaging 11.4 targets/game on the season and dropped down to just 6 in this game. His health may be a big determining factor in this matchup
• Tevin Coleman/Mark Ingram: Both of these RBs have been very hit or miss for Wampus Cats, and with Hunt and Gordon out he's going to have to rely on both. Lets see if they can improve on their combined 5 points last week.
• Drew Brees: Coming off a surprising loss to the Cowboys in the Saints worst offensive game of the year, he gets a chance to right the ship by torching the Buccaneers like most decent QBs have done.
• Tyreek Hill: Only Hill could put up a 5 point game following a 40 point explosion. Wampus Cats probably needs another huge week to stay alive.

Cool Beans (8-5) v Eagle Powers (7-6)

There's nothing like securing the 4 seed and having to play the strongest team in the league in round one of the playoffs. Cool Beans is now on the wrong end of some very unfortunate scheduling and points against for Eagle Powers throughout the season. Both teams have a real shot to take down the 1 or 2 seed next week if they can survive this showdown.

Players to watch:

• The Saints offense: It's no secret that Kamara and Michael Thomas have been carrying Cool Beans all season, which means his success if very much tied up in the Saints being a good football team. That happens quite a lot, as evidenced by his 8-5 record. If the Saints somehow struggle against the Bucs this team is in trouble.
• Jaylen Samuels: During the 2018 draft, the Steelers selected Samuels as a RB/TE being unsure of what role he would play in the offense. This meant nothing until both Leveon Bell and James Conner vacated the starting position for him. Now, he's going to play RB for the Steelers this weekend while being playable in Yahoo as a TE. It's the dream scenario for Fantasy owners, unless (like me) you had too low of a waiver priority to snag him.
• LaGarret Blount: This is a bit of a hail mary for Cool Beans with Brieda going down to injury, but you do what you have to in playoffs. There's nothing Blount is better at than punching in 1-2 yard TDs, so Cool Beans needs to hope for some fortunate goal line situations.
• Andrew Luck: The Colts were shut out by the Jags this last week, ending Luck's 8 game streak of throwing 3+ TDs. Will they bounce back vs the vaunted Houston defense?

Pickup of the Week

After losing Melvin Gordon, I decided to grab Spencer Ware off waivers last week to avoid losing 2 starting RBs. This turned out to be a very good idea as Hunt was completely kicked off the team for being a horrible two days later. It's not really a win, per say, but I guess it's better than nothing.