OBITUARIES - 7TH PLACE - TIEG
CALEB’S BUKAkE PARTY: 6-7
What Went Right?:
The first 8 weeks of the season were incredible for Teig. He went 6-2 and was in a heated race with Keetz for the #1 seed. His team was on fire and life was good. Teeg combined to score 1,137 points in the first 8 weeks, which is about 142 per game. ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY TWO POINTS PER GAME! I don’t think we’ve ever seen an 8 week run like that. For comparison, Keetz scored the second most points this year. Through 8 weeks, he put up 1,001 points – nearly 140 fewer than Taeg (over 17 per week fewer).
In Tieg’s defense, he should have been 7-1 through 8 weeks. He suffered a crushing loss to Keetz in Week 4 when he put up 147 points. I know Tieg is kinda the villain in this league, but I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. If you score 147 points you deserve to win. That loss would prove to be very costly.
Back to the numbers. Not only did Tieg put up a ridiculous amount of points the first 8 weeks, he also demoralized his opponents. During his 6 wins, his average margin of victory was 52 points…….
During the first 8 weeks of the season, he won games by 87, 18, 41, 4, 116 (lol) and 49. If you take out the 4 point lucky ass win over my team, his average margin of victory in those 5 wins was 62 points. IT’S NOT WORTH WINNING IF YOU CAN’T WIN BIG!!!.
(Tieg is such a Hawk)
What Went Wrong?:
Ohhhhh boyyy where do I even start? Back in September, if you told me that Tieg started 6-2 and missed the playoffs, I would have thought you were nuts. If you told me that Tieg scored the most points in the league and missed the playoffs, I would have laughed in your face. Guess what? Both of those things happened. So where do I start?
One: The Zeke suspension. Due to the looming suspension and uncertainty, Zeke fell to the 4th round of our draft. Tieg almost pulled one over on us by getting Zeke there. For the first 9 weeks of the season, it looked like Zeke might not miss any time. Tieg was riding high and had a 6-3 record. Unfortunately Roger gonna Roger. Zeke ended up starting his suspension in Week 10, right in time for the stretch run and playoffs. Honestly the timing of the Zeke suspension couldn’t have been worse. Tieg had a 6-3 record with Zeke, but an 0-4 record without him.
Two: Deshaun Watson injury. The one weakness on Teeg’s roster was his QB. When he picked up Deshaun Watson, it looked like that weakness became a strength. He started Watson in Weeks 6 and 8, earning 66 combined points. Watson then proceeded to tear his ACL and rob Tieg of a superstar.
Three: Jordy Nelson. In the 5 games that Aaron Rodgers and Jordy played together, Jordy scored 6 touchdowns and 68.5 fantasy points. That includes a game where Jordy got hurt on the first drive and scored 0 points. Really you could say he scored 68.5 points in 4 games, or 17 per. Then Aaron Rodgers got hurt and Jordy lost every ounce of value he had. Literally. Since Rodgers’ injury, Nelson has 35 fantasy points in 8 games. THIRTY FIVE!!
Yes, that is right. He’s averaging 4.4 fantasy points per game since Rodgers got hurt. Jordy is currently WR44.
Four: Devonta Freeman. Freeman was rumblin bumblin stumblin the first four weeks and was averaging 22 points per game. He then had a bye in Week 5 before things went off the rails. Between weeks 6 and 13, he scored 10.7, 12.9, 9, 10.6, .7, 0, 0 and 11 points. If it weren’t for points per carry, he would have been under 10 in all but one of those games. He also missed two games with injury and as you saw, got injured and scored .7 in another. Freeman really didn’t live up to his draft value during the fantasy regular season and it hurt Tieg.
Five: Kareem Hunt. Ohhhh mannnnn, a tale of two seasons. Through the first 8 games, he averaged 24.5 points per game and scored more than 200 points. Then came the last 5 weeks of the season, where Tieg’s team slumped. In the last 5 weeks, Hunt had a bye and averaged 9.4 points in his other four games. Between weeks 4 and 13, Kareem Hunt did not score a TD. Brutal timing.
Six: This wasn’t as impactful, but Tieg did have Chris Carson early in the year. Carson scored 14.5, 14.4 and 10.5 points in a 3 week stretch before going down with injury.
I’ll stop here, I’m getting tired. Tieg had some bad luck this year.
Best Roster Move:
Drafing Adam Thielen in the 12th round was easily the best move Tieg made all year. The Minnesota Vikings WR who played at Minnesota is currently WR5 and has 80 catches to go along with 1,161 yards and 4 TDs. While more valuable in PPR, Thielen has still been an asset in any type of league – nice pick by pure taige. For reference, other 12th round picks include Pierre Garcon, Donte Moncrief, Eddie Lacy and Thomas Rawls. Nice.
Drafting Kareem Hunt in the 5th round was a really good, if not extremely lucky move. Even though Hunt buttfucked every one of his owners the last 5 weeks of the year, he still gave you an incredible first half and is a top 3 RB.
Picking up Deshaun Watson would have been a great move……but…..ACL.
Tyreek Hill in the 6th round was another good move. Hill is currently WR3 and has 64 catches for 986 yards and 6 TDs this year. He also has a punt return TD on the year.
Worst Roster Move:
Drafting Tyler Eifert in the 7th was a bad move. He took him over Delanie Walker, Ertz, Evan Engram and Kyle Rudolph.
Dropping Rex Burkhead after week 3 was kind of a bad move. Burkhead has been money the last 6 games, scoring nearly 100 total points. Tieg lost all of those games.
Drafting Spencer Ware in the 10th round was kinda bad too, we all knew he was out for the season which is why Hunt went so high.
There’s not much to pick from. Tieg didn’t manage his team poorly, he just got boned.
Defining Moment:
When Tieg sat Tyreek Hill in his week 13 matchup. Tieg would have made the playoffs if he beat Dylan, if I lost to Frader, or if Kenny lost to Lamone. There was a pretty good chance of that happening since he just needed ONE of those things.
Kenny was on a roll and beat Lamone, while my team took care of business against Frader. It all came down to Dylan vs. Tieg – the rivalry that I have made up and is now a thing. Dylan was already in, but the season was on the line for Tieg. Win or go home. As we all know, that didn’t happen.
It didn’t happen because Tieg sat Tyreek Hill in favor of Orleans Darkwa. Tieg lost the matchup by 19 points. Tyreek Hill outscored Darkwa by 25 points. That was the difference. One bad decision cost him his season (technically).
Pre-Season Prediction: I predict Tieg will start the year in the middle of the pack - let’s say 3-5 through 8 weeks. Once Zeke gets back he’ll rip off 5 wins and a row and finish at 8-5. Tieg always gets stronger as the year goes on and his team is set up perfectly for that this year. After making the playoffs at 8-5, I say Tieg will win the league and be your 2018 GEORGE W BUSH FANTASY FOOTBALL CHAMPION.
Horribly horribly wrong on that one, but I don’t feel bad. The circumstances were pretty brutal for Tieg as we saw above. 2-2 Commish, pick it up.
Non-Football Reference:
28-3
Tieg’s season reminds me of the Falcons loss in the Super Bowl. They had it. It was 28-3. The third quarter was almost over. The Falcons owner was on the field, the Falcons were celebrating, people were leaving the game. IT WAS OVER…………. And then it wasn’t.
This is like Tieg’s season – he had it. He was 6-2 with five weeks to go. He literally only had to win one of his last 5 games and he would have made it in. HE HAD IT…………….. and then he didn’t.
Wrap It Up:
The streak is over. Finally. We officially started this league in 2011 (sorry Dyl) when I lived in Malden with Ken, Dyl and Karpel. That means we’ve had 7 years of this league. Tieg made the playoffs every single year before this one. That’s 6 straight years. Sadly for him, it’s over – he’s on the outside looking in. Now that the streak is over, we can appreciate the sustained success. It was a crazy streak, but it's ova.
That being said, it's probably just a heavy dose of regression all coming at once. Fantasy football is all about luck and generally things regress to the mean. Tieg rode too close to the sun for too long and this year he got shot down. I’m sure he’ll come back and win the league next year, but I won’t lie, this feels good. Score one for the underdogs.
