A Football Life, Week 13

Entering our final week of play, two playoff spots are locked up – Danny clinched the AFL Central a few weeks ago and Will has had the AFL East on lock for two weeks. Five teams are in the running for the final two spots.

One of those playoff spots goes to the AFL West division winner. That race has come down Andrew and Cory, who faced off for the second time last week. With his win, Andrew moved into a tie atop the division and is 2-0 now in the head-to-head matchup, so he will clinch the division title with a win against Evan or if Sean beats Cory in Week 14.

Once that division is settled, the other of the two teams currently holds the wild card spot, but there will be competition if either one loses this week. If Cory loses to Sean, Viroj can take the wild card from him by beating Eric since he holds the head-to-head tiebreaker against Cory. If Cory wins and Andrew loses, giving Cory the AFL West title, Brandon or William could take the wild card from Andrew by winning their respective games. Currently, Brandon holds the edge over William based on the third and fourth tiebreakers (points scored and points against) but the two are close enough in both categories that their respective positions are not set in stone.

After a low-scoring week 12, this week ranked 11th all-time through 67 regular season weeks of play. This was thanks in large part to the Kansas City Chiefs offense which produced three top 40 players at their positions despite losing to the Jets.

Alex Smith gave Andrew 38.2 points, the ninth highest single-game total for a quarterback in league history. Tyreek Hill scored 33.5 points in Adam’s second win of the season for the 24th highest single-game total at the wide receiver position. Danny lost for just the second time this season despite Travis Kelce’s 23.4 points, tied for #36 on the single-week list for tight ends.

Andrew led the league with 146.3 points, good for #20 on the single-week team score list. He won the Tom Brady Award and the Peyton Manning Award, his fifth and fourth such awards, respectively. It was the 15th time in league history and fifth time this season that a team won both awards in the same week.

As mentioned, Danny suffered just his second loss of the season, and it was a bit of an unlucky loss. He posted the sixth best score of the week but was facing Brandon who put up the third highest total. As such, we also had a lucky victor in Week 13. Sean had just a 4-7 breakdown with the eighth highest score but was facing our lowest scorer, Evan.

Our top coach of the week was William. He took a coaching risk by ignoring ESPN projections and starting Jermaine Kearse over Jeremy Maclin. While it didn’t change the outcome of his game, he earned 14.1 points with the decision.

Our worst coach of Week 13 was Eric. He went against projections and started Doug Baldwin over Kenyan Drake. Like William, he did not change the outcome of his game with the decision but he did cost his team a league-high 13.0 points. Only Viroj has cost his team more points this season based on coaching decisions than has Eric, and Eric has cost his team a league-high two wins due to failed decisions.

This week Andrew had four players in the top five at their positions, one at each offensive position. Viroj and Adam had three such players each. Evan was the only owner with no such players.

Check out the review of Week 13 below:

Standings:

AFL East	Rec	GB	AFL West	Rec	GB
Will Massimini	9-4	--	Andrew Perez	8-5	--
Viroj Suteerawongsa	7-6	2	Cory Puffett	8-5	--
Eric Meyer	6-7	3	Evan Ash	5-8	3
Adam Perez	2-11	7	Sean Kennedy	2-11	6
AFL Central	Rec	GB
Danny Hatcher	11-2	--
Brandon Saunders	7-6	4
William Battle	7-6	4
Anthony Battle	6-7	5

Schedule:

Away	Score	Home	Score
Will Massimini (WM)	99.1	Viroj Suteerawongsa (VS)	113.2
Adam Perez (AP2)	123.0	Eric Meyer (EM)	103.4
William Battle (WB)	129.1	Anthony Battle (AB)	89.5
Brandon Saunders (BS)	126.4	Danny Hatcher (DH)	111.6
Evan Ash (EA)	83.1	Sean Kennedy (SK)	106.6
Cory Puffett (CP)	107.4	Andrew Perez (AP1)	146.3

Scoring Leaders (Must be starting on a team to qualify):

QB	Pts	RB	Pts
1. Alex Smith, AP1	38.2	1. Le’Veon Bell, AP1	28.5
2. Russell Wilson, WB	25.6	2. Alvin Kamara, BS	28.0
3. Cam Newton, VS	21.6	3. Alex Collins, AP2	24.3
4. Andy Dalton, AP2	19.9	4. Mark Ingram, DH	22.6
5. Ben Roethlisberger, EM	18.9	5. A. Morris, VS & J. Williams, WM	21.4
WR	Pts	TE	Pts
1. Tyreek Hill, AP2	33.5	1. Travis Kelce, DH	23.4
2. Nelson Agholor, AP1	23.6	2. Rob Gronkowski, AP1	19.2
3. A.J. Green, BS	23.2	3. Delanie Walker, AB	14.8
4. Keenan Allen, EM	21.5	4. Kyle Rudolph, CP	11.6
5. Larry Fitzgerald, SK	20.8	5. Hunter Henry, VS	11.6

Game of the Week: Cory Puffett at Andrew Perez

Andrew is the fifth team this year alone to lead the league in scoring while playing in the game of the week. His win gives him a 2-0 head-to-head record against Cory and gives him the edge in the divisional record. A win next week against Evan would secure the AFL West division title and a return trip to the AFL playoffs for Andrew. 

A Football Life, Weeks 11 & 12

The Thanksgiving holiday threw me off a bit last week and I forgot to write a recap. I don’t want to leave last week’s accomplishments unrecognized, so forgive me for this post’s length.

Week 11 saw the eighth time in league history that the highest and lowest weekly scorers faced off head to head. Eric beat Sean by 68.2 points, the same margin of victory as this season’s other example of this phenomenon.

Eric’s 156.1-point total was good for the highest score of the season and the 9th highest single-week team score in league history. Will put up 134.8 points in his victory over Evan, good for #54 on the all-time team score list. Brandon’s 132.8 points rank #61 in league history.

Another, rarer, scoring phenomenon was seen in week 11 as the six highest scoring teams all won their games for just the fourth time in league history and for the first time in just over three years. The first time this happened in our league was, believe it or not, in the first week of the league’s existence.

Only two players, both wide receivers, made the top 40 list at their position in week 11. Antonio Brown gave Cory 37.4 points, the highest wide receiver total of the season up to that point and #8 on the all-time list at the wide receiver position. Keenan Allen scored 34.3 points for Eric, good for #18 on the wide receiver list.

With 1427.1 points scored between the league’s 12 teams, week 11 was the second highest scoring week in AFL history. We saw the second highest average winning score and the fifth highest average losing score.

Due to all six leading scorers winning their games, we didn’t have a designated “unlucky” owner in week 11. However, Evan lost his game despite scoring 123 points, not even three points fewer than the fifth highest losing total in league history. Remarkable, then, that Evan didn’t finish in the top half of the league in scoring.

Our top coach for week 11 was Viroj, who gained 10.4 points despite hitting on just one of his three coaching risks. He started the Rams defense, Dede Westbrook, and Kenny Stills over ESPN’s suggestions of the Seahawks defense, Jamison Crowder, and Joe Mixon. Only Kenny Stills worked out but he went boom and gave Viroj enough points to make up for the two failed risks and then some.

The worst coach of week 11 was Evan. He cost his team 21.4 points and a win by failing to check his lineup when Sterling Shepard was listed as out on Sunday morning. Substituting ESPN’s suggestion of Samaje Perine would have given Evan a much-needed win.

Eric had four players in the top five at their positions, including two wide receivers. Anthony had three such players and five other owners had two each. Adam and Andrew were the only owners with no players on the top five lists for the week.

Check out the review of Week 11 below and then continue to the Week 12 recap:

Standings:

AFL East	Rec	GB	AFL West	Rec	GB
Will Massimini	8-3	--	Cory Puffett	7-4	--
Eric Meyer	6-5	2	Andrew Perez	6-5	1
Viroj Suteerawongsa	5-6	3	Evan Ash	5-6	2
Adam Perez	1-10	7	Sean Kennedy	1-10	6
AFL Central	Rec	GB
Danny Hatcher	10-1	--
Anthony Battle	6-5	4
Brandon Saunders	6-5	4
William Battle	5-6	5

Schedule:

Away	Score	Home	Score
Andrew Perez (AP1)	99.7	Brandon Saunders (BS)	132.8
Evan Ash (EA)	123.0	Will Massimini (WM)	134.8
Eric Meyer (EM)	156.1	Sean Kennedy (SK)	87.9
Adam Perez (AP2)	98.1	William Battle (WB)	127.0
Viroj Suteerawongsa (VS)	105.9	Anthony Battle (AB)	127.5
Danny Hatcher (TA)	125.9	Cory Puffett (CP)	108.7

Scoring Leaders (Must be starting on a team to qualify):

QB	Pts	RB	Pts
1. Russell Wilson, WB	32.5	1. LeSean McCoy, WM	26.4
2. Ben Roethlisberger, EM	30.4	2. Mark Ingram, TA	24.1
3. Tom Brady, AB	27.9	3. Alvin Kamara, BS	23.4
4. Kirk Cousins, EA	27.4	4. Jordan Howard, AB	20.0
5. Drew Brees, WM	23.4	5. Lamar Miller, SK	18.5
WR	Pts	TE	Pts
1. Antonio Brown, CP	37.4	1. Jimmy Graham, WB	17.3
2. Keenan Allen, EM	34.3	2. Travis Kelce, TA	12.8
3. Kenny Stills, VS	27.5	3. Delanie Walker, AB	12.2
4. Brandin Cooks, EM	23.9	4. Kyle Rudolph, CP	8.3
5. Adam Thielen, EA	21.3	5. Tyler Kroft, EM	8.2

Game of the Week: Viroj Suteerawongsa at Anthony Battle

Anthony was hot for two weeks, scoring 135+ in weeks 8 and 9. His team managed less than half that total in week 10 but had a strong recovery to move back over .500 heading into crunch time. After yet another failed attempt to win back-to-back games, Viroj will look to reach a .500 mark for the fourth straight even numbered week against Adam in week 12.

Moving on to this week, the middle teams in the league can’t seem to separate themselves. Nine teams are at or above .500 as we get set to enter week 13.

Will beat Eric by 0.9 points, the 18th time in league history that a team has won a matchup by one point or less. It was Will’s first time being involved in such a game. Eric is now 3-1 in such contests.

Alvin Kamara led Brandon’s team in scoring with 34.3 points, good for #29 on the single week running back list.

Julio Jones had been quiet all season and in fact only had one touchdown catch entering Sunday. He caught two of them and put up 44.9 points for Danny, a new AFL single-game record for wide receivers, beating out Andre Johnson’s previous record of 44.5 points in week 9 of 2013 while also on Danny’s roster.

Antonio Brown had another big game for Cory this week, putting up 35.9 points, good for #12 on the all-time wide receiver list.

Brown’s performance helped Cory to a total score of 142.1 points, good for #26 on the single-week team scoring list in AFL history. It’s just the fourth time in five seasons that Cory has led the league in scoring for a single week.

After posting the second-highest scoring week in league history in week 11, this week was a bit of a let down as the 1245.4 points scored was good for just #28 in league history through 66 weeks.

Our unluckiest owner in week 12 was Anthony, who posted an 8-3 breakdown but lost to Danny. Evan also finished in the top half of scoring but was facing Cory in his matchup.

Viroj was our luckiest owner after beating Adam despite having just a 2-9 breakdown for the week. Will had a 5-6 breakdown but beat Eric in his matchup to clinch the AFL East division title.

Danny was the top coach for the week after earning 11.9 points for taking two successful coaching risks, starting Derek Carr over Jacoby Brissett and Cooper Kupp over Isaiah Crowell.

Our worst coach was Eric. He cost his team 12.3 points and a win by starting Latavius Murray over Keenan Allen despite ESPN projections. While he didn’t quite cost his team a win, Will also had a very poor coaching week. He cost his team 37.1 points by starting Drew Brees over Carson Wentz and James White over Jamaal Williams.

Andrew, Cory, and William each had three players in the top five at their positions for the week. Four other others had two such players each. Sean and Anthony were the only owners to have no such players.

Check out the review of Week 12 below:

Standings:

AFL East	Rec	GB	AFL West	Rec	GB
Will Massimini	9-3	--	Cory Puffett	8-4	--
Viroj Suteerawongsa	6-6	3	Andrew Perez	7-5	1
Eric Meyer	6-6	3	Evan Ash	5-7	3
Adam Perez	1-11	8	Sean Kennedy	1-11	7
AFL Central	Rec	GB
Danny Hatcher	11-1	--
Anthony Battle	6-6	5
Brandon Saunders	6-6	5
William Battle	6-6	5

Schedule:

Away	Score	Home	Score
Cory Puffett (CP)	142.1	Evan Ash (EA)	101.4
Eric Meyer (EM)	100.3	Will Massimini (WM)	101.2
Viroj Suteerawongsa (VS)	90.7	Adam Perez (AP2)	76.8
Anthony Battle (AB)	106.0	Danny Hatcher (TA)	129.0
William Battle (WB)	129.9	Brandon Saunders (BS)	97.6
Andrew Perez (AP1)	102.6	Sean Kennedy (SK)	67.8

Scoring Leaders (Must be starting on a team to qualify):

QB	Pts	RB	Pts
1. Russell Wilson, WB	24.8	1. Alvin Kamara, BS	34.3
2. Andy Dalton, AP2	20.2	2. Le’Veon Bell, AP1	24.3
3. Matt Ryan, CP	18.5	3. Tevin Coleman, EM	23.6
4. Cam Newton, VS	17.7	4. Marshawn Lynch, WB	21.2
5. Derek Carr, TA	17.2	5. Samaje Perine, EA	16.9
WR	Pts	TE	Pts
1. Julio Jones, TA	44.9	1. Rob Gronkowski, AP1	22.7
2. Antonio Brown, CP	35.9	2. Zach Ertz, WM	21.3
3. Jamison Crowder, VS	23.6	3. Kyle Rudolph, CP	20.3
4. Brandin Cooks, EM	18.5	4. Jimmy Graham, WB	10.9
5. Davante Adams, AP1	16.7	5. Charles Clay, EA	8.0

Game of the Week: William Battle at Brandon Saunders

Though he still has most tiebreakers working against him, William kept his playoff hopes alive for one more week with his win over Brandon, who just hasn’t been able to keep things afloat since Odell Beckham Jr. suffered his season-ending ankle injury.