The intra-divisional round had mixed results, offering a little bit of clarity in the North and Midlands but muddying the waters in the South. This was the Seahawks chance to get a bit of breathing room by beating the closest rival Beavers but instead the gap is just a single game, and the strength of schedule looks about even. Not to mention that the Pythons are also just a game back, but the team to be worried about them is the Fireflies as they are also a game back on them but have a better points for and would take the best record spot. This is a situation that the Spartans find difficult as it would probably be easier for them if the Pythons took the best record spot so the deficit for the HPS spot is easier to overcome against the Fireflies. The Bandits and my Eagles need one more game each to pretty much take the bye weeks as it would need the Seahawks to win out to overtake them.
This is a lot to try and unwrap but it means the next four weeks will be very interesting at the top! The only thing which separates the 2nd pick to the 5th pick is less than 50 points, so the race for the better pick next year is also a close one.
The Buzzsaw: Oxford Pythons
The Buzzsaw in week 6 and now the Buzzsaw in week 9, the Pythons realise that there is more than one way to make the playoffs. The division is descending into a brawl so getting that top spot will be tough, but they are only 2 games back. There is tough competition for the next best record spots and as it stands a team with a better record is missing out there, so why not have a third option to get in, the highest point scorer spot! 3 tickets in the raffle is better than one, and you do this by having a 96% efficiency rating to make sure you get every point.
Normally Olly is living and dying by Derrick Henry, but he had a disappointing 6.8 points against the Bears and the next three weeks might not get better so it rests on the rookies. How many QBs would you rather have in dynasty than Herbert right now? He is still outscoring Lamar Jackson and has a favourable schedule for the rest of the season. Jeudy looked goooood against the Falcons and Claypool had a decent day, so add that to Hill, Hockenson and Fuller and that is a low floor going forward.
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆
Chippenham Beavers - 🏆🏆🏆
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆
Flitwick Fireflies - 🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆🏆
Andover Sandslashers - 🏆
Highest Point Scorer - Chippenham Beavers
I’m running out of things to say about Dalvin Cook! This week’s 38.2 points is a let-down compared to last week’s score of 47.6 points but this means that he has scored over 15 points in every game he’s played, over 20 in five of them and over 35 in two of them! He gained over 200 yards in back-to-back weeks! He’s scored a TD in every game!
This week he accounted for a third of the Beavers points and outscored Johnson, Taylor, Davis, Gallup, Hopkins, Mooney and Waller combined for the Seahawks (Sorry Dan). Even Brady going AWOL doesn’t stop a team with Dalvin in it.
A rare free agent is in the top ten this week in Richie James, but I think before this gets published, he won’t be a free agent anymore.
Wigan Wombats – 🏆
Chippenham Beavers – 🏆🏆🏆
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆🏆
Lurgan Leopards - 🏆
Flitwick Fireflies - 🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆
Unluckiest Loser - No one?
For the first time I can remember, and I’ll admit that my memory isn’t as good as it used to be at 37 with 4 kids, if you had a top six score, you got the win. Pythons, Fireflies, Eagles, Spartans, Bandits and Beavers all won with higher scores than the other six teams so nobody was unlucky to lose.
So I added up everyone’s awards and two teams have not won one yet and I can think of a good reason to give this to either one of them. The Otters had the 7th best score, but their team is on auto-pilot, so if Dan says that Chris set it this week, he should get the award. The Chargers are the other team, but they got the lowest score of the week!
Let me know who should get this one this week, Otters or Chargers?
Chippenham Beavers - 🏆
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆🏆
Coventry Eagles - 🏆
Andover Sandslashers - 🏆
Wigan Wombat - 🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆🏆
Closest Matchup - Nottingham Bandits
As we saw in the unluckiest loser award, this wasn’t the week for close matchups with winners scoring high and losers not, the Beavers won by 34.5 points, the Pythons won by 54.3, the Fireflies won by 30, the Spartans won by 36.4 and I won by 62 points.
The closest matchup was between the Bandits and the Leopards and that was because of the early injury to Justin Jackson and the surprise performances on Monday night by Rex Burkhead and Breshad Perriman. Perriman put up 24.6 points in this game compared to 18 points for his season total before the game! The balance of the Chiefs game played a modest part as well as the Chiefs threw which gave points to Mahomes and didn’t run which took points away from Lev Bell. The Leopard’s slide is surprising as they are now behind the-actively-selling-every-asset Wombats at the bottom of the North.
Oxford Seahawks – 🏆🏆
Coventry Eagles – 🏆🏆
Flitwick Fireflies – 🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆🏆
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆
Most Impactful Injury - Gateshead Spartans
It’s the hope that kills you eh Chris? You survive and scrape to keep you team in position for the playoffs whilst being without not just your best player but probably the best player fantasy football. He finally comes back and he didn’t even need a week to ease in, he puts up 32 points! Could this be the boost the Spartans can use to become the first two time champion? Well, he injured his shoulder and is now "week-to-week" and the Spartan backfield is cursed this season.
The worst injury was obviously Kyle Allen. In the full speed view I thought his ankle had been bumped into and couldn’t understand why Scott Hansen was getting all worked up and then I saw the slo-mo and it was his whole lower leg that seem to disconnect from the knee and point the wrong way. Then Alex Smith replaces him!! Who is the third string QB, Thiesmann?
My trade for Monty is going as well as I hoped as he his now in the concussion protocol and he can sit with the Seahawks David Johnson.
Gateshead Spartans – 🏆🏆🏆🏆
Coventry Eagles – 🏆
Oxford Pythons – 🏆
Chippenham Beavers – 🏆
Lurgan Leopards - 🏆
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆
Worst Decision - Andover Sandslashers
I feel like I might be kicking a hornets nest here but the worst decision this week was to start a player than was ruled out the day before they played. I get the feeling that Scott was the victim of Thursday night football when it comes to Aiyuk, we’ve all been there in thinking that you can set the line-ups at the weekend when work isn’t in the way. If I remember rightly, Keelan Cole was the player added in by Dan but he was only marginally better than a zero as he only caught a single pass. Ridley went through pre-game warm ups so keeping him in was high-risk high reward. I hope this award makes up for the fact that 6 of us voted against you Scott!!
The only reason I’m bringing all this back up is that everyone pretty much did their best with their line ups except for the Seahawks and the Beavers. I don’t I would have disagreed with any of the Seahawks decisions so even though it was a 55% efficiency week, it was bad luck rather than bad choices. The Beavers suffered from the Buccs collapse but you would have expected a shoot out in that game.
Chippenham Beavers - 🏆
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆
Andover Sandslashers – 🏆🏆🏆
Lurgan Leopards – 🏆🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆🏆