Week 7 Recaps: So Close

So this week's games were much closer than last week's, as the average margin of victory was only 11.2 points compared to 26.6 last week. There were two games decided by three points or less, and only one team was able to crack 100. Overall, the scores were down a lot this week. This week the average score was 79 points compared to 92.5 the week before. I'm not really sure what the reasoning for the low scoring is, but it sure made things interesting. Moving ahead to the recaps, Zach continued his unbelievable season with another low scoring win, and 5 teams came into this week at 3-3 with a chance to move above .500 but only I'm Ball Murray was able to do it.

Rolling Meadows Mustangs 80
Kalamazoo Red Hawks 77

It almost happened, Zach almost lost. That is until Arian Foster caught a touchdown pass last night with a minute and change left. I wasn't following his game that close but I found out when I got a text from Zach last night after the game saying "Hell ya I'm 7-0 in fantasy, all because of that last minute TD by Foster" This now moves the Rolling Meadows Mustangs to 7-0 this season and one win short of tying the record for best start by an awesome guy to start the season (Team Bashaw started 8-0 in 2011 on his way to a 12-1 regular season). The crazy part about this matchup is that each team had 4 good performances and 5 very shitty ones. In fact if you take the 4 best players from each team, Zach would have won 74-70. In case you didn't do the math, that means the other 5 on each team scored 7-6 in favor of the Red Hawks. Three players in this game put up zeros, Jordan Cameron (RMHS), Percy Harvin (KRH), and Zach Stacy (KRH). This game was so close that it could've swung either way, but if there was one spot that Zach excelled in compared to Dr. Panda it was at the flex spot. The Red Hawk's had the zero from Harvin there where as Zach had a 24 point performance from Sammy Watkins there. Looking at the bench's, Dr. Panda had four players on the bench that would have given him the win if he would have started them. The two highest scoring bench warmers for the Red Hawks were Shane Vereen (23) or Chris Ivory (17). It would have made sense to start one of them over Zach Stacy or Percy Harvin (although I'm not sure how the trade to a team that played Thursday night thing works), but then again Ray Rice is still on the team so why would the Red Hawks start making competent owner decisions now. Zach had a few performances that would have helped him win easier. More importantly, though, he heads into a brotherly battle next week between the two best teams looking to tie the record. This is the first and only meeting of the season between the brothers, and the first meeting since Zach beat T 199-163 in last year's championship game.

Team Mustangs 91
Baghdad Bombers 78

T won his second game in a row and improves his record to 5-2 before his matchup with his brother next weekend. On the other hand, Josh was one of the four teams that came into the week at 3-3 and lost. The Mustangs made nearly all the correct decisions this week, outside of playing Alshon Jeffrey who put up a 0 (but who would ever sit him?). In fact Josh also made all the right moves on who he started and who he benched, but his team just struggled a bit this week.  Similar to last week, T's best player (Calvin Johnson) did not play and yet the rest of his team was able to carry on. This game was very close across the board in all of the categories. The biggest gap was 7 points at quarterback, where T started Tony Romo (over Drew Brees I might add, 21 points) compared to Josh's start of Phillip Rivers (14). The bomber's may have had a better chance in this one if it wasn't for the fact that Fred Jackson went down early in the game Sunday and did not return, giving Josh only 2 points on the day. I know this loss angers Josh (he called me last night and told me so) but at least if the Giants win tonight and continue to win the rest of the week, all will be well in his world (Josh is a huge San Francisco Giants fan). I've already mentioned T's big game next week, but Josh also has an important matchup. He has to find a way to replace the bye weekend Frank Gore as he goes up against Tom in a battle between two of the of the five teams that have a 3-4 record and are all tied for the last playoff spot.

I'm Ball Murray 62
Show Me Them TD's 60

Here's an excerpt from my recap of John's game last week, "Lucky for John, he faces me next week so I'm sure my team will find a way to lose." Wow did I hit the nail on the head! Outside of the always steady performance of Jordy Nelson, my team played like a sack of turds this week. Not to be out done, John's team played like a sack of slightly less smelly turds. In fact, if it wasn't for that DeAndre Hopkins fumble last in last nights game, I would be talking about another tie, this one of epic failure proportions. Luckily for John, DeMarrco Murray had another great game (18 points) and he won so it doesn't matter how bad his team performed in the end. For me, this is disheartening. My team has now lost 3 in a row and has fallen into a tie for last place with Jason (who picked up a nice win this week which I'll get to later). The theme of each game having a player put u a 0 reared its ugly head again in this one as I'm Ball Murray's kicker Matt Bryant missed a field goal which negated his 1 extra point. The funny thing about this game is that John didn't have defense in his lineup till yesterday, yet he was lucky enough to have Alfred blue who he could drop for the Steelers D/ST in order to get the points capable of winning the matchup. Also an interesting point about this game was that we faced off against each other using the players we had traded for two weeks prior. Unfortunetly for John, the trade turned out to be horrible for him as C.J. Spiller went down with a season ending collar bone injury. I feel a little bad for you John, but then again you just beat me even though you only scored 62 so you can suck it! The bench for John looks completely bare. Filled with injured and bye weekend players,only the Redskins defense (who I assume he forgot to put in his starting lineup) put up points. On my bench, there were 4 players I could've played that would've won me the game, most notably Kelvin Benjamin (12) and Marques Colston (11). After last season's collapse ( I started off 3-1 and preceded to lose 6 games in a row...I don't want to talk about it) I was hoping to rebound this year and contend for a championship. The way things are looking right now, I'd be lucky if I finished .500, but then again I'm still only 1 game back of a playoff spot so there's still a chance. John, on the other hand, was the only team to take advantage of his opportunity and leap over the .500 mark and take over sole possession of 3rd place in the league. He will go up against the 2-5 Multiple Scoregasms, with a chance to move into 2nd place if he wins and Zach beats T.

Wisconsin ArcticCats 109
MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard 82

Louie was another one of those 3-3 teams that came into this week with a chance to separate from the large muddle of teams stuck at or below .500, but he lost and fell right back into it. The first noticeable thing in this game is that neither team had a player put up a zero like in the previously recapped games, instead both teams' defense put up -5. Ya be jealous! Both teams also had some monster performances, but unfortunately more of them came from Gunnar's team than Louie's. The big one for Louie was Demaryius Thomas who put up 29 points and caught the record breaking touchdown from Peyton Manning. On Gunnar's team, he had a 36 points performance from Russell Wilson (Aaron Rodgers is still on his bench) to go with dual 18 point days form Randall Cobb and Ahmad Bradshaw. The ArcticCats were the one and only team that cracked one hundred this week, as I mentioned earlier. There was nobody on the bench that would have been able to bring Louie much closer in this one, while Gunnar had performances to spare on his bench. Quickly touching back on that Rodgers on the bench thing, at some point I would have to imagine Gunnar will shop either him or Wilson around because there is no sense in having both of them when you can get a high quality player in return that will actually start for him. Also, Gunnar has said fuck you to the Giants training staff and decided to keep Victor Cruz on his team because he believes all that salsa dancing will result in Cruz magically coming back this season. Looking ahead to next week, Gunnar gets to play me so chalk up a win for the ArcticCats, and Louie has a highly important matchup against fellow 3-4 team the Kalamazoo Red Hawks. Next week's games may finally start to separate the contenders from the pretenders.

Multiple Scoregasms 81
Smokin Blounts N Drinkin FORTEs 70

After losing 5 games in a row, Jason finally gets a win at a very important time. With this win, Jason moves to within 1 game of a playoff spot as the season passes the halfway mark. He also moves into a tie to get out of the cellar of the league (I own the tie breaker though so he an stay down there for at least another week). Looking back at this matchup, Tom had the best performance of the week with Matt Forte (22), and had two other double digit performances. However, Jason got double digits from 5 of his players which was enough to give him the edge in this battle. The position where this game was won and lost was the D/ST slot. Smokin Blounts N Drinkin FORTEs had the usually reliable but lately terrible Seahawks defense who put up a -4, where as Multiple Scoregasms had the Bills defense who had a nice 10 point day. This was the biggest separation in an other wise even game, and the cause for Tom's demise. To pour salt into the wound for Tom, he had a 21 point performance form Ronnie Hillman sitting on his bench, if he would've used him instead of Justin Forsett he would've came away with a one point victory. Instead we get to make fun of him for losing to the worst team in the league and a team that was on a horrible losing streak. Tom, like so many other, entered the week 3-3 with an opportunity to separate and didn't take advantage of it. Next week's previously mentioned game against the Baghdad Bombers will be key to separating the middle of the pack teams. As for the Scoregasms, they simply need to win next week to be right back in the thick of things.