The championship round
The championship week opened on Christmas day where I was gifted with a 22.5 point performance from the very disappointing Jacory Croskey Merrit. Fortunately, he chose this week to have one of his few good performances. R.J. Harvey added another 16.1 in a win at KC. This put me up 38.6 - 7 after Detroit put 7 on the board for Geoff on Christmas. The following Saturday Geoff was off duty while I had Christian Watson put up a decent 19.8 showing...all while being questionable up until game-time. That brings us to the Sunday early slate. Geoff's entire roster finished in this window and I knew this was the onslaught I needed to survive, there would be no waiting or suspense to see the outcome of this year's championship. It all came down to these games. I only had three players in this slot: Parker Washington (a last minute add due to my crappy WR corps), Travis Etienne, and Trey McBride. Parker Washington significantly outperformed his projections putting up 15, while Trey McBride did TE1 things as always, and Etienne held serve barely breaking into double digits. The three combined for 43.8 and the Patriots DST added another 7 leaving Geoff with a mark to beat (and get some cushion) of 109.2. For Geoff, Stefon Diggs had a 100 yard game and a Tuddy ending up with 19.10 points. Joe Burrow, while not putting up one of his signature monster games, had a 22.4 point showing which was not indicative of the 37-14 drubbing Cincy put on Arizona. Unfortunately for Geoff, those were the only two "big" games. JSN posted his 3rd lowest score of the season (which was still 11.7 points...sheesh what a season he had). Devon Achane also posted his 3rd lowest score of the season at 12.7. Hunter Henry outperformed his projection and got a respectable 12.4. The last three players: Kenneth Walker, Tee Higgins, and Josh Downs combined for a mere 19 points. This left Geoff with a respectable, but not championship caliber, score of 104.3; falling short of the 109.2 mark he needed to pass me. As it turns out, he likely couldn't have added enough to catch up anyway since CMac and Matt Stafford combined for another 43.86 putting me on a whopper at 153.06. The only slot on my team that didn't score double digits was the DST. Providing me with an epic championship performance at just the right time. I also left Purdy on the bench in favor of Stafford (it would have been a 176.22 point game otherwise). In the end, Geoff's players picked a bad time to have some of their worst weeks, and mine picked a time to have, not their best, but pretty darn good games. Final score of the championship game 153.06 to 104.30.
That went a little long so I'll be quicker with the 3rd place matchup. Vying for the last money spot at 3rd place, we had Larry (pops) and Travis. Travis, being the season high scorer was hoping for an easy win after Larry squeaked in on the last playoff spot. Only two points separated the two after the Christmas day games with Motown gaining a lead that Dak would never overtake. While Travis' team took Saturday off, Larry put up 53.3 points jumping to a huge lead. It only got worse as his roster finished all their games and added another 69.32 points finishing with a daunting 140.2. Travis wasn't out of it yet. His early Sunday players got him to 62.14 and he still had players left to go. Wandale Robinson put up 16.8 in the late Sunday games beating his projections by more than 50%. Jauan Jennings got a tuddy, but only had 2 receptions for 42 yards to go with it and underperformed at 11.2. Travis found himself down by 50 points with Puka Nacua and Kyren Williams left in the mix. As we all know Puka is capable of that much by himself practically so I don't think Larry was comfortable at all (especially considering he had a 60 point lead going into his semifinal matchup on Monday night and lost it). Nacua significantly underperformed his projected 21.9 points and came out with 13.2. Kyren Willams only added another 14.5 leaving Travis shy of the third place slot. Final Score 140.02 to 119.84. Travis did take home the season high score so he's still going home with more money than Larry, but he missed an opportunity for a much bigger payday. That's it for the championship games. I'll be putting the season end email out shortly.