We have all three of our division winners:
North – Nottingham Bandits
Midlands – Coventry Eagles
South – Oxford Seahawks
The byes are taken by the Bandits and the Eagles but the Seahawks will have to play the 6th seed in week 14.
The Fireflies have secured a playoff place as one of the best remaining records at 8-4 and would have the 3rd seed on points for if they were in the same division as the Seahawks but instead they will be against the other best remaining record team.
That leaves just 2 spots remaining going into the final week of the season and it will be two from the Spartans, Beavers and Pythons.
It’s easier to figure out how teams cannot make it rather than how they can! The Pythons cannot catch the Spartans so the only way they can miss the playoffs is if they lose to the Bandits and the Beavers beat the Sandslashers. This would put them both on 7-6 but the Beavers take the Best record spot due to the superior PF. If the Pythons also win or lose against the Seahawks it doesn’t matter to the Spartans as they would have a worse PF than the Pythons and would miss out on the HPS spot.
So the Spartans are in if they win or if the Beavers lose.
For the Beavers, a win or a loss only matters if the Spartans lose but as long as they are not outscored by 67 points by the Pythons, then the playoff place is secured because if the Beavers lose and the Pythons win, they would both be on 6-7 and unable to catch the Spartans and the HPS is the only spot left.
For the Pythons to get in, they have to outscore the Beavers by 67 points in week 13 or get a win combined with a Beavers win and a Spartans loss.
I think this is right but after last week, I’m not sure of myself!!!!
Congratulations to Jason for locking up the Johnny, remember to never wash the t-shirt.
The Buzzsaw: Oxford Pythons
It was a big week with a player scoring points which I don’t think our league has ever seen before, even during the year of the 4TD bet. Having that player was pretty much a win but having 3 of the top 6 means the Pythons scored the highest total of the season so far at 185.34 points. Hill, Henry and Fuller were three players that a couple of years ago were being questioned if they would be in the league for a mix of injury, legal and sustainability but Olly took the risk and it is paying off, he just has to get a bit of luck to make them count from week 14 onwards.
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆
Chippenham Beavers - 🏆🏆🏆
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆🏆
Flitwick Fireflies - 🏆🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆🏆🏆
Andover Sandslashers - 🏆
Highest Point Scorer - Oxford Pythons
269 yards and 3 TDs on 13 receptions, what a game from Tyreek Hill! His yardage alone would have made him the 7th best scorer of the week, just ahead of Cousin’s 26.18 points. His three TDs alone would have made him the 30th best player of the week! 51.4 points is more than the entire total of the Chargers (Sorry Jason). Watching the game, it is entirely possible for Hill to have more big games, but maybe not quite as big as this, as he and Mahomes seem to have that special QB/WR connection. Derrick Henry being second seems like a down week but he scored 37.5 points and it was a surprise to see Antonio Gibson third with 34.1 points. What odds would you have gotten for James Robinson and Gibson to be in the top five fantasy running backs?
Wigan Wombats – 🏆
Chippenham Beavers – 🏆🏆🏆🏆
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆🏆
Lurgan Leopards - 🏆
Flitwick Fireflies - 🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆🏆
Andover Sandslashers - 🏆
Unluckiest Loser - Chippenham Beavers
I was honestly tempted to keep the trend going and award this one to the Pythons and rename it the unluckiest winner as I think this does more damage to him than it does to the team that suffered the defeat!
The Beavers scored 118.7 points which was enough to be the fourth highest scoring team of the week, but they were up against the Buzzsaw Pythons and their season-record total. But this means that instead of the Spartans being the likely rival for the HPS spot and having 144 point lead over them, this defeat allowed the Spartans to take the best record spot instead and now the Pythons are up against the highest average scoring team in the league and are 66 points behind.
Still, a win would have made the process a little more relaxed for the Beavers so they still get the award.
Chippenham Beavers - 🏆🏆🏆
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆🏆
Coventry Eagles - 🏆
Andover Sandslashers - 🏆
Wigan Wombat - 🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆🏆
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆🏆
Closest Matchup - Flitwick Fireflies
Not many close ones in this weeks intra-divisional match ups. In a weird twist, the biggest gap was between the 4th and 1st highest scores and the closest gap was between the 9th and the 12th .
I don’t know what happened to the Chargers tight ends but both of them failed to get on the scoresheet, maybe because of Taysom Hill and Derrick Henry the Saints and the Titans are too run focussed now to use the TE? That is back to back weeks in the fifties for the Chargers now, and the two lowest scores of the season, but the Fireflies went from a league leading performance to one that only beats the floundering Chargers by 26.6 points (Sorry again Jason, especially just after your birthday!!). But win it they did and that is all that matters in the end.
Oxford Seahawks – 🏆🏆
Coventry Eagles – 🏆🏆
Flitwick Fireflies – 🏆🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆🏆
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆
Derby Otters - 🏆
Chippenham Beavers – 🏆
Most Impactful Injury - Chippenham Beavers
The reason these awards have been delayed (I know, no more than usual) was because of the Steelers – Ravens game being pushed to Wednesday and I was worried of something happening there that would ruin all of this "work". Well that was because of the covid going through the Ravens (and Broncos but who really cares about them) and some of the players that missed that game, might miss the next game against the Cowboys, which would be a lot of points. The Pythons could be without Lamar but Herbert has been outperforming him so the blow is eased and it wouldn’t be an injury report without mentioning the Spartans, so here is the first of two where they may lose Mark Ingram who hasn’t be great but is a breathing body for them to start.
The biggest impact is a different injury that might mean missed time or a reduced role for the fantasy leader this season, Dalvin Cook. The Beavers need him to keep performing the way he has in the past if they are to get in and make a run in the playoffs but he has an ankle issue which is worth monitoring as they are always reported as fine but used as an excuse at the end of the season.
The Fireflies lose Daniel Jones but Kyler Murray is the starter when available and Josh Jacobs has that ankle injury I was talking about and it is limiting him, so it is a good job Chris Carson is coning back.
The Spartans second mention is for DJ Moore who looked like he too suffered a bad ankle injury but he wasn’t going to be available anyway in week 13 and might heal in time for week 14 if the Spartans make it.
Controversial as it may be, but I’m giving it to the Beavers.
Gateshead Spartans – 🏆🏆🏆🏆
Coventry Eagles – 🏆
Oxford Pythons – 🏆
Chippenham Beavers – 🏆🏆
Lurgan Leopards - 🏆
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆🏆
Hereford Chargers - 🏆
Worst Decision - Oxford Seahawks
I like how this award sparked some discussion last week and I think it highlights that this one in particular is subjective and based on how we each make our starting decisions.
This week I didn’t see any bad decisions, or should I say decisions that I wouldn’t have made, so I went through the report again and there is one if I really, really want to be picky and that was the Seahawks starting Henderson over Murray. Henderson hasn’t been scoring much in recent weeks despite getting similar snap numbers to Malcolm Brown and they were facing a very good 49ers D whilst Murray has been outscoring him and with Taysom Hill starting, the Saints look like they want to run as much as they can instead of letting him throw it. Did I expect Murray to be the 4th highest scorer this week? No. Would it have made a difference to the outcome with the Sandslashers? No. But this is as bad as it got this week, so the award goes to Dan.
Chippenham Beavers - 🏆🏆
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆
Andover Sandslashers – 🏆🏆🏆
Lurgan Leopards – 🏆🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆🏆
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆
Oxford Seahawks - 🏆
The table so far for the stats guys