Week 7 - CAN I JUST TALK ABOUT THE COLTS??!?!?!

Okay, seriously.

Week 7 oh my precious baby.

I thought about many titles for this week. Such a "Zen in the Art of Fantasy Football", or "Week 7, eh." or "The week I lost to the bottom ranking team in the league" however none of these things turned out to be true.

Because THE COLTS ARE AMAZING.

So, I started the week off in a pretty "eh, football" kind of mood. I didn't have anyone playing Thursday night. I worked in the colt outside Friday and in the rain on Saturday and so when Sunday came around I was just not into anything. Because the weather sucked all weekend until Sunday I spent all day catching up on the work I couldn't do in the rain. 

Now the big news a work is that B-Rad, my bro and FF coach broke his foot this week. So he worked inside at the desk (watching and updating me about the games).

My defense was freaking heartbreaking. Cincinatti, who has been awesome for me, typically scores between 7-16 points for me, scored 2. 2 points and they still won against Detroit (sorry friends!)

My wide receivers under preformed and running back under preformed and I was worried. I had 3 players playing Sunday night while Mr. Anderson had 2 playing Monday night.

Then it was like the heavens opened up, and the Colts played an amazing game!  If you haven't heard (and if you haven't heard you are not a football fan, and that's okay!) but they beat The Broncos.

You might be thinking okay, one team about horses beat another team about horse and historically I would have agreed with you. However the Broncos Quarterback is Peyton Manning, who used to be the Colts quarterback.

I made a post earlier this year about Peyton Manning being the Harry Potter of the football world. He is a pretty big deal and the Colts let him go a few years ago. The Colts letting Manning go is this big deal in Indiana. He had neck surgery and had to sit out all of the 2011 season. In reality the Colts were gonna have to pay something close to 90 Million dollars to keep Manning on the team for the next 5 years. Yeah that's a lot of money and at the time he was still recovering. So the logical decision was to let Peyton Manning go. So Indiana loses there shit, might I add.

So this game on Sunday was a pretty big deal because the Colts took it as a moment to welcome him back and thank him for all the years he was the QB.

Also EVERYONE thought the Colts were going to lose. B-Rad asked if I wanted to make a bet on the game (being poor I don't play for money). I told him I thought that the colts would lose but it would be less then a 10 point difference. 

Big freaking surprise, they WON! and Andrew Luck got me a WHOOPING 34 points! 

However, Reggie Wayne tore his ACL reaching for a wonky throw by Luck and now he is out the rest of the season. I feel for Wayne because I tore my PCL playing Roller Derby and that shit sucks!

So I had like a 7 point lead going into Monday night's game, Mr. Anderson had 2 players left, I had resigned myself to losing. HOWEVER, his two players only made like 5 points and I won! (Sorry Mr. Anderson!)

(for those of you who don't know, the angry looking guy is Wes Welker, the other guy is Andrew Luck, forgive the horrible facial hair)

Now I am even more excited for December 15th, when the Boyfriend and I are going to see the Colts.

And we are ready! (god damn, why does he look adorable in all the pictures and I look...well, ridiculous.) 

First weekend "I have created a monster!"

OH MY GOODNESS!! FANTASY FOOTBALL!! WHY ARE YOU SO AMAZING!?!?!

Andrew Luck? AMAZING

Jason Witten? AMAZING!

Montee Ball? Not so much...but IT'S OKAY because this is so much fun!

As B-Rad said to me today "I have created a monster" and it might be true.

Thursday was just a rough day for me and real life bullshit is getting in the way of my football enjoyment. We were so busy at work that night that even though the TV was on in the club house I didn't really get to watch anything that was happening with the Broncos and the Ravens. So I only caught the last quarter of the game while laying on the couch being depressed about the state of things. n

I was upset because I took a risk in my line up that didn't pay off.

I spent about 30 minutes debating who my flex should be. I decided on T.Y. Hilton. Then when I talked to scuba Steve he said it was smarter to play a running back. So I switched Hilton for Montee Ball, and that was the wrong decision.

Montee Ball got the ball a fair bit in the 4th but he couldn't get through the defense at all! He earned me 2.40 points and damn it sucked.

I was feeling really discouraged. Yet as B-Rad and the Boyfriend kept saying, there is still a lot of football to be played. B-Rad also reminded me that it's better to trust my gut then take advice from someone else.

FINALLY it was Sunday. B-Rad and I both roll into work both of us hung over. Both of us a bit down trodden. Until I reminded B-Rad that its sunday! I swear he actually inflated!

I absolutely hate that yahoo predicts and give percentages of who is going to win because all day I was predicited to lose. At one point I had a 15% chance to win, then i have a 50% chance to win, then I had a 20% chance to win! It was an emotional roller coaster!

Believe it or not, my saving grace was David Wilson. He sucked so badly (-2.4 points) and was on my opposing team. He made Ball seem a winner with his two points.

Also Jason Witten is a beast.

So I won my first game of fantasy football and I am addicted.

I meant to post this before Thursday but things have been so busy. Between my friend getting married next weekend and the Museum I volunteer at having a party the following week I just haven't had the time.

However this upcoming week I am once again the underdog. I rotated my roster, pulled Ball, put my back up tight end in as my flex and we'll see how things pan out.

Preseason jitters - Standard leagues compared to PPR leagues

I don't know about other people who play FF, but I have dealt with more nerves then I care to admit.

When I made the decisions to play this year, my friend Mr. Anderson (Yes, people really call him that) offered me a spot in the league he plays in. His good friend is the commissioner and there were a few opens slots. Over Monday night dollar beers I was told that it was 20 dollars to play but it was "a-maz-ing".  Might I add this was over three months ago.

20 bucks is a lot when you have a master's degree and no one wants to give you a job. So you work part time at a golf course to pay off your student loans and you live with your parents when you are 26. (sorry that was really just venting). However I decided back in June that I was going to do this. Putting up the money has just made me more serious about the whole thing.

So now that I had a league, I had to actually learn about fantasy football.

Thankfully working at a golf course has provided me with many football loving coworkers. So I started asking around. I heard my boss Scuba Steve (yes, we actually call him that) is really in to FF. So I ask him for advice. All he says to me is "Just watch the cheat sheets."

Then I found a hidden gem, my co-worker B-Rad (yes, I actually call him that too). When B-Rad heard that I was getting into fantasy football, we suddenly became bros. Then he became my coach. That's right. I have a FF coach. B-Rad, the best coach this side of...well Lake Michigan I think.

Suddenly I found myself in conversations I wasn't prepared for. For Example "Is your league a standard league or a PPR league?" 

For those of you who don't know (like I didn't know) the difference between the leagues is how they are scored. ( WARNING: if you aren't interesting in learning about FF skip to below the red section)

Standard leagues are scored - six points for touchdowns (quarterbacks often only receive for points for passing scores), one point for every 10 rushing or receiving yards, one point for every 25 passing yards, mine 2 for interceptions or fumbles 
 (linked to my source)


PPR leagues are scored by passing, rushing and receiving points. Here is a points breakdown I got from Footballguys.com
Passing -

• yards passing - One point per 20 yards (e.g., 240 passing yards = 12 fantasy points)
• 4 points for every passing TD
• Minus one point (-1) for ever interception thrown
• 2 points for every 2-point conversion.

Rushing -

• Yards rushing - one point per 10 rushing yards. (e.g., 100 rushing yards = 10 fantasy points).
• 6 points for ever rushing TD
• 2 points for every 2-point conversion

Receiving

• Yards receiving - one point per 10 receiving yards (e.g., 73 receiving yards = 7.3 fantasy points)
• 6 points for every receiving TD
• 1 point for ever catch
• 2 points for every 2 point conversion

I learned that depending on how your league is set up to score will change the value of specific players. Thankfully I found this out before the draft. B-Rad and I had been preparing for a standard league draft, not a PPR. I am still not 100% sure how this is going to effect everything but once our first game happen I am sure it will make more sense.
Finally when my boss Scuba Steve realized I was serious about FF he gave me some advice too! Which really surprised me since I figured he didn't like me. Too bad his advice was WAY above my level of understanding.

Look, Fantasy Football is already bringing me closer to people. Now I have an awesome bro/coach in B-Rad and Scuba Steve and I have a topic we can actually talk about together.