It’s stats week!
I believe this is how it stands after week 7. The Bandits and the Seahawks have the first round byes and my Eagles are in as a division winner. The Fireflies and the Beavers have the next best records, and the Pythons are the highest scoring of the rest. Only 4 teams are above .500!
Here are the average points per week, the standard deviation (spread of the results) and the minimum / maximum / range of results so far.
The top scoring teams, unsurprisingly, are the teams that currently sit in the playoffs but it is the spread of the data is much more interesting. The Beavers are a different team from week to week and they have the second lowest score of the season and the highest score of the season and that will make them a team that will be luck dependent in the playoffs.
The top teams seems to be the more inconsistent but to investigate further, I put the data into a different stats package. It turns out that the Bandits are just that varied week to week but the Beavers are skewed to the right (the low scores are outliers). The only team with true outliers were the Seahawks (one too high and one too low).
The Otters are interesting in that they are the most consistent and have very similar mins / maxs as my Eagles, average only 1 point less per game than the Fireflies but they are 2-5 whilst my Eagles are 6-1 and Mike’s Fireflies are 4-3.
The Buzzsaw: Andover Sandslashers
3 wins out of the last 4 match ups has Scott believing again and the Week 7 Buzzsaw will only fuel that confidence - having a Jag lead the way is just making it sweeter! With James Robinson as the second best running back on the season so far the Sandslashers have put up over 130 points for two weeks in a row and are in a 3 way tie in the South with the Beavers and Pythons.
Scott is also doing it with players that might not have been on top of everyone’s wishlist at the start of the season. Ronald Jones and Myles Gaskin were in a murky backfields, Robinson was a UDFA, Anderson was signed into a crowded WR corp with a new QB and HC and Keelen Cole was also fighting for reps. These players are keeping up with the bigger names in the starting line up like Watson, Boyd and Andrews and there were also plenty of points on the bench so depth is good for the Sandslashers which is very much needed this season.
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆
Chippenham Beavers - 🏆🏆
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆
Flitwick Fireflies - 🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆
Andover Sandslashers - 🏆
Highest Point Scorer - Andover Sandslashers
I’ve forgotten my own rules for these awards! I have a vague recollection of saying that the winner of the award had to start the player for it to count but it has been a while since the highest scorer hasn’t been started and this is even worse as he wasn’t on a roster!!!!
Kyle Shanahan really is a RB whisperer and he turned Jeffrey Wilson into the latest player to have a big game at the position for the 49ers. 3 TDs against the frankly terrible looking Patriots with over 100 yards gave Wilson 31 points for the week but he wasn’t picked up by anyone before his break out game! A Highest Point Scorer with no award?!
So it moves down to the second highest point scorer of the week and that was the aforementioned James Robinson who scored 2 TDs and over 100 yards in the game vs the Chargers (LA not Hereford) and that makes it the second time he has gone over 25 points this season. These points will be missed by Scott this week with the Jags on a bye.
Wigan Wombats – 🏆
Chippenham Beavers – 🏆
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆
Lurgan Leopards - 🏆
Flitwick Fireflies - 🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆
Andover Sandslashers - 🏆
Unluckiest Loser - Oxford Pythons
This was an especially difficult loss for the Pythons as it was an Oxford derby and it was to keep the Seahawks close to the rest of the division instead of gaining a 3 game lead. So putting up the 4th highest score of the week was a good start but it wasn’t enough as the Seahawks put up the 3rd highest thanks to Darrell Henderson getting just enough points on Monday Night Football to edge it. All intra-division matchups in the South are going to be hard fought as this week all four teams had top half scores, so 4th highest scores aren’t going to make the playoffs down there!
Chippenham Beavers - 🏆
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆🏆
Coventry Eagles - 🏆
Andover Sandslashers - 🏆
Wigan Wombat - 🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆
Closest Matchup - Oxford Seahawks
To win Championships, you need to have more than just a good roster, you need to have a decent slice of luck and the Seahawks are combining the two of them this season as they have another close win, just 1.24 points over the rival Pythons. A similar close margin against division rival Beavers in week one is the difference between 6-1 and 4-3 with the Pythons and Beavers on level terms. 3 points is the difference between a tied division and a 3 game lead!!!
Both teams will feel like the margin could have been bigger in either way as they both has a receiver unexpectedly disappear (Claypool and Gallup) and Olly even had the higher potential points (142 to 133) but you could say that Todd Gurley cost Olly the win this week. If he hadn’t scored that TD, the Lions wouldn’t have gotten the ball back and Stafford wouldn’t have thrown a 29 yard pass to Gollady in the final drive and added 3.6 points to his score…
Oxford Seahawks – 🏆🏆
Coventry Eagles – 🏆🏆
Flitwick Fireflies – 🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆
Most Impactful Injury - Gateshead Spartans
This season is a mess for injuries and as a result, even lesser named players are proving to be significant misses for our teams. Take Devonta Freeman for example, normally a player in his current stage of his career wouldn’t be a miss for one of our teams but for the Spartans it is yet another blow to their RB corp. Other injuries might mean that McKinnon might be relevant this week, but it’s fingers crossed time again for Chris as he might have to take a chance on McCaffrey on Thursday Night Football.
The Bandits picked up Wilson off waivers, but he is injured and the way Shanahan uses RBs, some other random player might be the next Wilson. The loss of OBJ for the season probably hurts more as they are down to pretty much Lockett, Godwin and JuJu there and the Steelers are looking at other receivers right now.
I’ve waited a long time to finally put Deebo Samuel in my line up and he is injured on his return, that trade is getting worse and worse!
Chris Carson is another guy who always seems to licking up minor injuries and that is a blow to the Fireflies as that hits their backfield as much as Seattle’s.
Does Dermy even care that Desean Jackson is likely done for his career, never mind the season? As an Eagles fan myself, I never expected anything from him anyway.
As they are all low key, it’s hard to say who is the most impactful for our fantasy league, but I think the fact that it pretty much wipes out a position I think I’ll give it to the Spartans. The Bandits, Eagles, Fireflies and Leopards all have someone to replace their losses with but that might not be the case for Chris.
Gateshead Spartans – 🏆🏆🏆
Coventry Eagles – 🏆
Oxford Pythons – 🏆
Chippenham Beavers – 🏆
Lurgan Leopards - 🏆
Worst Decision - Oxford Pythons
Kendrick Bourne over Scottie Miller by the Chargers? That was a choice between low floor, low ceiling and boom or bust so it’s not something to argue over too much.
This one is a little less obvious but bear with me. Nelson Agholor has been a very good receiver for the Raiders this season and prior to his bye week he had 2 TDs in two weeks and had scored double points and it is clear that Carr trusts him. I think it would have been a better play to start him rather than a couple of running backs that are either in time shares or are the number two on their team (Kelley and Lindsay). This also would have resulted in a win for Olly rather than a loss.
Chippenham Beavers - 🏆
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆
Andover Sandslashers – 🏆🏆
Lurgan Leopards – 🏆🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆