I'll admit it, I got into my current fantasy football league just so I could show off the clever team name that I came up with--Horrible Losses. I conceived the idea for the name when I was watching the movie "Horrible Bosses" earlier in the summer.
I've never had great luck with my fantasy football teams. I started playing in 2003, and I've only made the playoffs one time ever.
Whatever hope I had to do well this season was quickly diminished in week one when Tony Romo (that's right, he's my starting quarterback) fumbled away the football on his way to a touchdown in a Sunday night game in New York. The touchdown would have clinched a victory for me, but instead, the minus-two that I earned for that play led to a loss; a Horrible loss, if you will.
It was the same old story. I didn't care. I was like Walter Mathau's character in "The Bad News Bears." I wasn't drunk (as far as you know), but I was indifferent. I started out 0-2 and had already decided to just play out the string.
But then something happened. I started winning some games. I picked up Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and that seemed to make a difference in my September and October games. And Arian Foster, who was hurt the first week or two, started going nuts for me, and he's been on a tear pretty much every week since. I also made maybe the greatest fantasy free agent pick up of my entire life the week that the Jaguars knocked off the Ravens. I needed a kicker for that week since mine was on a bye and could have easily just taken the top ranked guy. However, I scrolled down the list and spotted Josh Scobee of the Jaguars. I thought, "Hmmmmmm, the Jaguars will be lucky to score a touchdown against the Ravens, but I'll bet Scobee kicks a few field goals." Sure enough, not only did Scobee kick a few field goals (four), but three of them were from outside of 50 yards. It was ultimately the difference in an early victory for me.
Unfortunately, I still kept experiencing the kind of Horrible Losses that seem to keep me out of the playoffs every year.
I had rebounded from my 0-2 start and was 2-2 heading into week five. But just when it looked like I might actually improve to 3-2--a rare winning record for me--I suffered a horrible tie in week five and then a horrible one point loss in week six. Talk about deflating.
But, for whatever reason, I never gave up.
My team started picking up some steam, and I was 5-5-1 and only one game out of a playoff spot heading into last week's match ups. After the Sunday afternoon games were completed, I thought I had won my game, 96-93. I was super excited. However, when I logged onto NFL.com (my league's site) last Tuesday morning to see what place I was in, I was shocked to discover that I was 5-6-1. What the hell happened? Well, while evaluating my opponent's team last weekend, I failed to scroll down far enough to see that her team still had a kicker in play on Monday Night Football.
It wasn't like I could control it or anything, but it was still a pretty stiff blow to my confidence.
"Would I ever have any luck in fantasy football?" I thought heading into this week's game.
Well, my team put up a pretty high octane-like 130 points this week, and I won my game rather easily. And I got some help in the standings. The 4th place team lost it's game, and thanks to that tie, my 6-6-1 record is good enough for the 4th and last playoff spot as things stand right now.
There is one week left, and Horrible Losses control their own destiny. If I win, I'm win. It's as simple as that.
Heck, even if I lose, I can still get in if Chuckie's Bastards--the team in 5th place--loses their last regular season game.
But I don't want to leave anything up to chance, no, not with my fantasy football history.
I think I'd have a great shot of winning the whole thing if I can just somehow make the playoffs. As I said, Foster has been going nuts all year, and Marshawn Lynch has been a beast for me as of late. I also have Frank Gore and Shonn Greene to choose from in my running back stable. Tony Romo is playing better, and I also picked up Santonio Holmes because of his late-season touchdown scoring prowess--he has two since I acquired him last week. I think my team is pretty loaded.
This is Horrible Losses time to shine. Where would I rather be than right here, right now!
Go Horrible Losses!
No comments:
Post a Comment