FFL: Two Week Recap

We’re two weeks through the fantasy season and while it’s still too early in the race to call it there’s been enough action to start to get a better idea of the teams and how their rosters are shaping up. While perhaps expected your fantasy football expertly lead Dorito Dinks are positioned in first place with a pristine record and tied for the league lead in points scored. The unexpectedly the only other remaining undefeated team after two weeks is that of second year player “Trader Joe’s”. Round out the bottom of the roster are two teams dealing with a complication of under performance and injury in Bloodriders and Nelsons.

The FF league started the season with a series of three rivalry weeks, pairing up opponents with some connection or in some cases giving them a reason to hate each other. While each manager wants to start the year off strong, these same three opponents will be their competition down the final stretch. Which rival makes it into the post season, which floundering team manages to take down a rival, which rival knocks out another, who is clean sweeping and taking those bragging rights into the offseason?

Kicking off the rivalries in week one was the Husband Bowl pitting Maggie vs Walter in a battle for the Lost Man-Card (LMC) Trophy. Despite Maggie having 6 of 9 starters only score in the single digits he was able to outscore Walter 130 to 92. Leading the charge was Maggie's first round pick Gronkowski who put up 32 points in the season opener. Gronkowski, Hopkins, and Carolina scored 67% of Maggie's points and 95% of Walter's point total. Walter's defense also had a good week scoring 18 points as Miami thrashed Washington, but his three receivers managed 16 points between them and his RBs combined for 25 a mere 3 points more than he got from his QB. In the end Maggie's Maineiacs took home the LMC Trophy in the opening week.

Bloodrider's and Wilfork were up next in the Sibling Rivalry. Bloodriders were heavily favored in the match up receiving all 7 pick-em votes for the week.  Ultimately injuries undid the hype building around Bloodriders as they saw Mike Evans miss the week and Bryant leave the game early with a broken leg. However a -2 effort from their Tampa Defense and Gostkowski's measly 4 point outing spoiled what could have been a salvageable week. Wilfork got the most from their lineup beating their project total by 5 while having 6 of 9 players out-stripe their projections including her first and second round picks who combined for 35 points in their opening outing.

The Mountain Bowl saw Boss face off against Tader in what could be the upset of the season after one week. While the Pickem votes went 5-2 in favor of Boss despite the 106-98 projections and questionable drafting on the part of Tader the actual match-up was rather one-sided in Tader's favor. Travis Kelce the TE who Tader drafted in the third round went off for 28 points, Brandon Marshall his fourth round selection notched 18, and Woodhead his 8th scored 22, while 11th round selection Kendall Wright scored 20, more than making up for the poor showing from Tader's first two draft selection who combined for a mere 23 points. Boss was sitting dead in the water, losing despite 7 of his 9 starters out scoring their projections including fifth round selection Tom Brady opening the season with a 27 point game, putting up 10 more points than the first round Luck. The Mountain now passes to Sean who will look to defend its possession week four against German Engineering.

A battle of goliaths saw veteran fantasy managers Hamsters and Germans match-up in what was the most lopsided affair of the week after Hamster got off to a disappointing start in week one. Hamster's roster combined for a mere 63 points in week one, his first two draft picks combining for 14 points. Meanwhile German Engineering smashed their projected point total scoring 171 of 114 projected points. Leading the charge was first round pick Julio Jones with 35 who was supported by 31 point effort from third round pick Carlos Hyde. The two combined for 66 points or 104% of Hamster's point total.

The Honeymooners Bowl saw the coupling of Dorito Dinks and Fashion + Football which ended in, this experts opinion, expected fashion. While Fashion's line-up was projected to win 121-113, the honeymoon ended early for her. Dorito Dink saw free agent acquisition Tyler Eifert outscore his projection by 23 points while Fashion saw one of her starters post a score of 0 after being sidelined by an early injury. Dorito Dink's 142 points were second highest in the league after German Engineering's 171. Fashion + Football will look to rebound next week in a heated rivalry against Antartica Penguin's in the Post Bowl and the debut of the Golden Eagle.

The week was rounded up by the Border War squaring Maine hailing Penguins against the Mass based Nelsons. The Penguins were favored 5-2 in the pickem voting and 117-112 in the projections. While Nelson had a good showing from their initial picks, seeing 17 points from both Lacy and Murray, they found themselves without support as the rest of the lineup was outscored 61 to 86. Jason Witten the 5th TE taken off the board managed 26 points for Penguins and carrying that team to a rather average victory. Penguin did manage the week one win, but had the lowest total of any winning team and would've lost to 7 of the other 10 opponents he could have faced in week one. The Penguins will have to put together a better outing in week 2 if they hope to take home the Golden Eagle.

Week one saw some reactionary movement after the opening salvo of games, managers getting their first look at team’s game plans and making roster decisions on wiser footing… or just managers overacting and jumping ship because some clown yelled fire. Which is which? Well we’ll probably have to wait and found out, but there weren’t any significant name drops at the end of week one.
Moves worth noting include the addition of Peyton Manning to the trading block, David Johnson, DeAngelo Williams, Denver, Jordan Reed, Travis Benjamin, Carson Palmer, and Donte Moncrief all being added to rosters from either Waivers or Free Agency. All having strong showings in week one and each new owner hoping theirs would be the next Peyton Hillis rather than the next Ogletree.

Week Two brought us another series of rivalry match-ups, with Six Victors looking to build on their week one success and six losers looking to right their seasons direction. This was a week for the losers as four of them overcame their week one defeats to find victory in week two while only two of victors remained undefeated.

The Post Bowl pit alums Fashion and Penguins against each other. Fashion limped into the match-up coming off a defeat at the hands of the vaunted Dorito Dinks, while the Penguins were soaring high after coming out on top. The pick-em lines split down the middle each side receiving 3 votes despite projections showing Penguins  as the favorite. The bragging rights and the Golden Eagle went to Fashion who managed a 117 to 115 victory despite her Tight End posting a score of 0 in the match-up. Fells was the second player to post a 0 for Fashion in two weeks of football for Fashion after D. Jackson posted up a 0 last week. Fashion managed to scrape by Penguins thanks to a second week of domination by Julian Edelman whose 33 point performance propelled him to third among WRs and Fashion to the win. While some questioned if Fashion had taken Edelman too early during the draft, he’s returned that value and more in the early goings of the season. On the opposite end Penguins got a mere 28 combined points from their wide receivers being outscored  70 to 28 in the position. Penguins's top of the draft rebounded this week posting 58 points or 50% of his total points for the week, though they were outscored 65 to 58 by Fashion's top 3 picks who combined for 55% of her line-ups score. Sankey, Penguin's 11th round draft choice scored a mere 4 points in the contest, with both T. Smith and S. Johnson scoring double digits on his bench the win was there for Penguins if they had made the right decision.

In what was perhaps the most hyped match-up of the week, the league leading Germans took their high scoring affair to the Dorito Palace in a matchup of Titans. The league leading Germans were heavily favored in the affair as the Pick-em vote went 6-1 in favor of the Germans with the only dissenting opinion that of the home-team. There could be only one Juggernaut and a poor day for Hill foretold Germans doom in this one. German's roster wasn't the only one to come back to earth as Dorito's own line-up faltered scoring below projection and only seeing 4 of 9 players outpace their projection. Dorito was carried by their first round selection Antonio Brown who managed 36 points outscoring German's Julio Jones by 10. Dorito Dink saw the top of his draft account for 45% of his weekly points scoring 51 of 112 points, while German's top selection accounted for  42% after Hill and Hyde were stalled by head injuries. Germans 83 point effort in the week was the worst scoring line-up in week 2 and an 88 point drop off from their league leading 171 point effort in week 1. Which is the real German? Perhaps week 3 will tell as German looks to get back on the right track against an injury riddled Bloodriders.

The matchup of Maggie v Boss ended in a draw as the two tried their best to out troll the other. Maggie starting CJ Spiller and Boss starting Darren McFadden on their way to a 117 v 117 draw. Maggie saw the top of their lineup score 46 points good for 39% of their point total while Boss's managed a mere 24 points and accounted for only 20% of their team's points. Boss will need better production from the top of his draft if he hopes to ever find a win this season. While Maggie thus remains undefeated, their inability to come out with the win could hurt them down the stretch. That said the team really hurting from the draw is Boss which is winless through two weeks without any of the excuses we’ll find for Bloodrider or Nelson. Is it manager deficiency with the sub-optimal line ups; is their best effort just not enough? Only time will tell, but I imagine the end result of this week will lead to a very interesting and important match-up in week 14 when the two teams face off once again.

It was a battle of the defeated as 0-1 Bloodriders squared off against the lowest scoring team in the league Muscle Hamsters. The pick-ems were split between the teams but it was another disappointing week for Bloodriders as Bryant sat with a lingering leg break, and Mike Evans while playing posted the same amount of points while sitting last week. Meanwhile Hamsters broke out of their week one funk and put together a lead leaguing 147 point week 2 effort, swapping places with German Engineering whose score went from first to worst. After being on the receiving end of the biggest blowout last week, Muscle Hamsters were the ones doing the pounding this week. Did the Hamsters shake off the rust, or will there be inconsistency year round for the Hamsters. Hamsters got 68 points out of the top of their roster this week, 46% of their teams points, while Bloodriders saw the top of her lineup score a mere 14 points 14% of the lineups total. It's clear the trouble in Bloodriders line-up starts with the top, the injuries threatening to derail their season before it even began. Mike Evans has scored 0 points through two weeks despite not being flagged before the draft, while Dez Bryant's unlucky break has him with 9 points on the season for the foreseeable future.

Walter White and Suck my Nelson were each looking to rebound after poor week one outings in which they each missed the century mark. The Polls favored Nelson 4-2, but an injury to Lacy stopped Nelson from overcoming a 2 point deficit falling 122 to 124 while posting the highest losing score of the week. Nelson would have defeated 9 of 10 possible other opponents. Walter saw the top of his lineup post 0 points, or 0% of his 124 points on the week, Bell still suspended, Alshon dealing with an injury, and Russel Wilson inexplicably benched for Romo who managed 6 points before leaving with an injury. It seems no amount of horrendous drafting or game managing could give the game away to Nelson. Nelson find themselves 0-2 after two weeks with question marks at running back but looking strong at the receiving position where they posted scores of 37, 28, 25, 18, 14, and 9 in week 2. We'll have to see if the decision to start Watkins over Moncrief haunts Nelson at the end of the season where Moncrief's 7 more points could've given Nelson the win.

The final match-up of the week saw two of the newer members of the fantasy football community square off as Wilfork and Tader looked to stay undefeated. The Polls were as even as the projections split 3-3 with neither team voting. In the end Wilfork's team, lead by Roethlisbergers 30 point effort, got the win in an 111 to 84 effort. Wilfork saw the top of their roster produce 26 points or a mere 23% after benching Hilton who was dealing with some lingering health concerns and a case of the Revis. Meanwhile Tader's top trio produced a mere 22 points, account for 26% of their score, which may restart the questions about Tader's strategy at the top of the draft. The bright spot for Tader after two weeks? They're 1-1 and in 7th, while Brandon Marshall their 4th round pick has posted 41 points making him the 18th best WR and in WR2 territory. Wilfork on the other hand sits at 2-0 but will be hoping for more consistency from their lineup. Wiflork heads into week 3 undefeated, but their 184 points against is second lowest in the league and you have to wonder if that success can be sustained when they face some of the higher scoring line-ups. 
Through two weeks we've had upsets and blowouts and a combined 77 roster moves. There are two teams at 2-0, three undefeated teams, two teams at 0-2, and three teams without wins. The team with the most scored points (254 tied) is in first at 2-0, while the team with the least a mount of scored points (198) is in last at 0-2. There's already been 1 tie, meanwhile those two teams comprise the biggest move and the smallest with Maggie making a league leading 16 roster moves, and Boss being the only remaining team yet to make a change. It's been an exciting start to the league and the trash talk and rivalries are starting to get into full swing. Week three marks the end of the first bout of Rivalry Games. Fashion and Football will look to retain the Golden Eagle against Walter White Walkers, while Boss and Nelson face down in a battle of the defeated each vying for their first victory of the season and the Wood V Trophy.