My Prediction Record to Date:
26-21
Bossman (5-4) vs Pack Attack (4-5)
Yahoo tells me it’s Rivalry week! Well for this game I think rivalry is a good word as these two teams have been competing against one another since 2005 in this league! However, these two coaches have been competing against each other for much longer then that! Before there was fantasy football (yes there was a time that fantasy football didn’t exist) and before there was such a thing as a PlayStation or Xbox. There was this gaming system called a Nintendo and there was this certain game called Super Mario Bros. These two coaches would battle through the night to see who could be the first person to beat the game and save the princess. Ever heard of Contra? Yep, they battled in that too… or Excitebike… or maybe Tecmo Bowl….. I know some of you know these games!
In addition, these two teams also have been competing in a fantasy baseball league since 2006 and in that time Pack Attack coach has won three championships and Bossman has won two! That means that five of the 13 championships have been won by one of these coaches. That figures out to be 39% of the time.
In this league, Pack Attack has won 4 championships and Bossman has won two that means that so far 6 of the 14 championships have been won by one of these two teams! That figures out to be 43% of the time.
I am mentioning all of this because not only do they and have they been competing for a very long time but they continually compete at a very high level! So yes, this is a rivalry game and bragging rights are on the table. Now lets get to this season. All that bragging about these two teams and how consistently good they have been brings me to this season where Pack Attack needs a lot of things to go right just to make the playoffs and Bossman despite their record needs to really step up their game these next 4 weeks to not only make the playoffs but also be viewed as a potential championship caliber team. This is a big one for both teams and only adds to the storied rivalry!
Prediction:
Check out the Yahoo predictions for this one.
Historical Look at this Match-Up
Pack Attack holds a 9-5 lead in their previous 14 meetings. Pack Attack also holds the edge in ppg, 130.61 – 118.24.
16hrs Ahead of You!! (4-5) vs pack slayer (4-5)
I think the trend we are going to see for all of these games this week is that it is a BIG game for someone. This one is a BIG game for both teams. Falling to 4-6 basically puts you in the position that you would have to win your remaining three games to have a shot at the playoffs. These are two teams that have had their ups and downs all season. pack slayer is coming off the huge win last week against the previously undefeated U Don’t Know team while 16hrs has now lost two straight games and finds themselves in need of a big win this week! The winner of this one certainly sets themselves up better and their odds of making the playoffs go up greatly!
Prediction:
This is one of the hardest one to pick as the main players for 16hrs (Rivers, Hunt & Melvin Gordon) all are playing teams they should blow out. What I am struggling with is how that affects their value. Do they have monster games because of the inferior opponent? Matt Ryan and Julio Jones are on the road which typically changes my expectation on their performances. However, last week they were phenomenal in a road win. I am going to go with 16hrs to get this win. I don’t yet quite trust Ryan and Jones on the road and pack slayer relies heavily on these two players putting up big #’s. 16hrs wins by 5, 138 – 133.
Historical Look at this Match-Up:
pack slayer holds a 5-2 lead in their previous 7 meetings. pack slayer also holds the ppg edge, 111.46 to 97.55.
PackMan12 (7-2) vs Big Papa (4-5)
PackMan12 found a way to win last week and this is a big game for them for different reasons then it will be for Big Papa. PackMan12 with another win here and a loss by U Don’t Know would find themselves in a tie for the #1 spot in the league. Big Papa on the other hand like the other 4-5 teams needs to avoid that 6th loss because like I have stated before. Once you hit loss # 6 you basically have to win out and hope that you win any tiebreakers if you want to make it to the playoffs!
Prediction:
PackMan12 is at full strength this week with Barkley back from the bye. Big Papa is being forced to start Alex Smith at QB and their RB group of Thompson and Drake is extremely inconsistent at this point. I think PackMan12 gets the win here and sends Big Papa into a bit of panic mode!
Historical Look at this Match-Up
PackMan12 holds a 4-3 lead in their previous 7 meetings. PackMan12 also holds the ppg lead, 111.71 to 106.69.
U Don’t Know (8-1) vs BIGBOY! (6-3)
This is the matchup I have had my eyes on for the past couple of weeks and it is finally here! BIGBOY! the hottest team in the league is going up against U Don’t Know, the best team in the league through 9 weeks. The good news for U Don’t Know is that regardless of the outcome of this game they will still be at a minimum tied for 1st place and because of their amount of points scored they would likely hold the tie breaker. However, BIGBOY! with a win will put themselves just a game behind and just last week they became the highest scoring team in the league so they would win that tie breaker as of now. I would say all the momentum is in the favor of BIGBOY! the question is can they keep it going against a quality opponent like U Don’t Know!
Prediction:
I will admit, I was a little disappointed to see that both teams wouldn’t be at full strength for this one. U Don’t Know will be without Adam Thielen who has been the #1 WR in fantasy football so far this year. This is obviously a big loss for U Don’t Know and if they could pull off the win with Thielen on the bench…. well that would be huge for them. BIGBOY! on the other side is at full strength and looks ready to dominate again. I do think they get this win and I think they do it with relative ease. U Don’t Know will have to wait until playoff time to get their revenge!
Historical Look at this Match-Up
These two teams have each won 4 of their first 8 games. BIGBOY! however holds the ppg lead, 123.86 – 117.19.
PackerFANatic7 (4-5) vs DaUnderdog (3-6)
These are two teams that if they weren’t playing each other I would likely pick them to lose no matter who they were playing. PackerFANatic7 is coming off their worst week of the season in losing to the previously winless teamAlaska squad while DaUnderdog just can’t find a way to score points these last 3 weeks. DaUnderdog has lost three straight games while PackerFANatic7 has three of their last four. This is a must win for DaUnderdog if they want to have any chance at the playoffs this season while PackerFANatic7 needs a win to get that last weeks loss out of their mind and can hopefully gain some momentum for the remaining three games.
Prediction:
I do think this is going to be a close game. If Gronk plays this week for PackerFANatic7 that would be a huge boost but also you wonder how effective he will be. Two key pieces for DaUnderdog would be Brees and Adams. They will need monster games out of each of them in order to pull of the win. That is not out of the question but I don’t think they will be able to get quite enough. Look for PackerFANatic7 to had DaUnderdog their 4th loss in a row.
Historical Look at this Match-Up
DaUnderdog was able to pull off the win in their only other meeting, the score of that game was 117.11 to 91.86.
HHH (6-3) vs teamAlaska (1-8)
HHH is coming off the tough 2 point loss to Bossman last week and will be looking to get back on track against a teamAlaska squad that got their first win on the season. Ironically that win was against the son of HHH’s coach. teamAlaska would if nothing else hold some bragging rights if there were able to knock off Father and Son in consecutive weeks! Both of these teams are facing bye weeks for their players so they will need to make some adjustments. This one might come down to how those fill ins play and if they can pick up the slack left behind by the starters.
Prediction:
I do think that teamAlaska has a real shot in this one but I am not entirely sure what they are going to do with some of the bye week players. However, I still think that HHH figures out a way to get the win here. HHH with win #7 to stay near the top of the league standings.
Historical Look at this Match-UP
teamAlaska holds a 10-5 advantage in their previous 15 meetings. teamAlaska also holds the ppg edge, 116.62 to 113.87.
Rapids Plungers (5-4) vs Sportsfreak (2-7)
Rapids Plungers comes into this one having won three straight games. That is second to only BIGBOY! and their 5 straight. Some would argue (I might be one of them) that those three wins maybe should come with an asterisk if that was an option because this team really has not played that well. In those three wins the most points they have scored was 108 so I think my point is easily made. However, getting wins when you maybe shouldn’t or aren’t supposed to has a tendency of setting itself up for a strong finish especially when you are talking about a team with a good head coach. If they can put things together these last few weeks of the season, I think this becomes a dangerous team come playoff time. OR they could continue down this trend and not win a game the rest of the season! Sportsfreak is now in the role of spoiler. Yes, I know they have not been officially eliminated but I don’t recall ever a 6 win team making the playoffs. I could be wrong and unfortunately my statistician doesn’t have time to look it up but if there is a time it is extremely rare!
Prediction:
If Devin Funchess and Luke Kuechly can come close to keeping up with Brown in tonights game then this one is going to be really interesting! This is a game however that Rapids Plungers needs to find a way to win and I expect them to do that yet again and get win #6 on the season.
Historical Look at this Match-Up
Rapids Plungers holds a 7-3 advantage in their previous 10 meetings. Rapids Plungers also holds the ppg edge, 134.34 to 133.66.
Enjoy the games everyone!