Yahoo has Week 10 listed as Rivalry week. Sorry but I didn’t adjust the schedule accordingly to try and make sure some of the best rivalry games are played this week (believe it or not that is harder and more time consuming then you may think).
Also please don’t forget that the trade deadline is Saturday, November 9 so you have two more days to make that season altering deal! Now to the previews.
Pack Attack (4-5) vs Bossman (7-2)
This is the one game on the slate that would fall under a “Rivalry” game. Bossman and Pack Attack coaches go way back and the rivalry is made better because it extends beyond fantasy football. This rivalry started at a young age with games of “who can save the princess first” in Mario Bros and pretty sure there was some decent battles in Tecmo Bowl too! Let’s also not forget the games of Contra or Excitebike! Or maybe it was trying to see who could get the “best” Packers player to sign an autograph at training camp! Either way, there is a lot of history here and when these two teams play it always carries with it a bit more significance. It is also worth noting that these two are #1 and #3 in most ever regular season wins and have a total of 5 Championships between the two. So yeah.. I think Yahoo got this game right when it deemed it Rivalry week! To this game… this is a big one for Bossman as they want to try and keep pace with Rapids Plungers and an even bigger game for Pack Attack as they are holding onto hope of finding a way to sneak into the playoffs!
Prediction:
Check out the Yahoo predictions for this one!
Historical Look at this Match-Up:
- Regular Season Match-ups: 15
- Record: Advantage Pack Attack at 10-5
- PPG Avg: Advantage Pack Attack 130.61 to 118.24
Big Papa (5-4) vs 16hrs Ahead of You!! (1-8)
Big Papa comes into this one looking to build on the big win over PackMan12 last week. The next two weeks are going to be extremely important for Big Papa as they have 16hrs this week and Sportsfreak next. These two teams have a combined record of 3-15. They then finish off the season against Rapids Plungers and pack slayer. Given how things are looking right now I am thinking Big Papa will need to get to 8 wins to get a playoff spot. That means win these next two that he should be favored in and then figure out a way to beat pack slayer or Rapids Plungers! 16hrs ahead of you! is playing the role of the spoiler. This isn’t a new role for them unfortunately so I am thinking they may start getting pretty good at it soon. I guess we will find out this week!
Prediction:
This is a winnable game for 16hrs ahead of you! and they have yet to replace a RB who is on a bye so I am not sure yet what that position will for sure look like. However, despite it being a winnable game I don’t see 16hrs scoring enough and look for Big Papa to win another low scoring matchup. On a side note, Big Papa likely gets Mahomes back which will be a welcome site and build some confidence going into the last 4 weeks!
Historical Look at this Match-Up:
- Regular Season Match-ups: 15
- Record: Advantage Big Papa at 10-5
- PPG Avg: Advantage Big Papa 116.57 to 100.66
pack slayer (6-3) vs BIGBOY! (3-6)
I mentioned it last week that BIGBOY! would likely not go down without a fight and they showed a bit of that in their week 9 win! Now however things get a little tougher as they go up against a pack slayer team that would love for nothing more than to knock the two time defending champ virtually out of the playoffs and how much fun those conversations would be around the Thanksgiving dinner table! BIGBOY! however has other plans and win here and things suddenly get a bit more interesting.
Prediction:
Yahoo is predicting this as the closest game of the week. I too think this will be a close game and there are some injury question marks that as we get closer to Sunday would really help me in picking the winner. I am going to assume that everyone in the starting lineups right now plays and if that happens look for an upset here. Michael Thomas is going to have a monster game, I think the 23 point projection is low. This will make it interesting but in the end I think BIGBOY! figures out a way to get the win and hold onto hope for another week!
Historical Look at this Match-Up:
- Regular Season Match-ups: 8
- Record: Advantage BIGBOY! at 6-2
- PPG Avg: Advantage PackMan12 137.66 to 117.01
Rapids Plungers (8-1) vs DaUnderdog (6-3)
Game of the week! This is a big one for both teams as Rapids Plungers is looking to respond from their loss last week and DaUnderdog will be looking to show everyone that they belong in the conversation as one of the best teams in the league. DaUnderdog has won 4 of their last 5 games but they haven’t been overly impressive which makes me excited to see how they fare against the best team in the league in Rapids Plungers. As crazy as it may seem but a loss here by Rapids Plungers and a Bossman win could actually push Rapids Plungers out of the #1 spot!
Prediction:
Bye weeks and Injuries are a factor here for both teams. For Rapids Plungers they will be without D. Hopkins (bye) and E. Engram (Injury) while DaUnderdog will be without C. Sutton (bye). I am not yet sure what Rapids Plungers will be doing to accommodate those spots so it is hard to say for sure simply because of the options is to do nothing and that is the advantage or risk you could take with a 8-1 record. It wouldn’t surprise me to see DaUnderdog pull off the upset however it is extremely difficult to pick against Rapids Plungers as I am just expecting one of their players to go off for 40! I am going to go with Rapids Plungers to win thanks to big games from Kirk and Godwin and the normal 20 point game from Kupp! I will say if DaUnderdog wants a chance to win the guys with big upside this week need to perform well and it starts tonight with one of those guys in H. Henry!
Historical Look at this Match-Up:
- Regular Season Match-ups: 11
- Record: Advantage Rapids Plungers at 8-3
- PPG Avg: Advantage Rapids Plungers 123.83 to 106.58
PackMan12 (5-4) vs HHH (5-4)
Here is another HUGE game for both teams with major potential playoff implications at stake. The loser here will fall to 5-5 and to ensure a playoff spot would likely need to win out. Neither team is playing their best football right now as they have both loss two of their last three games. Looking at both of these teams schedules and HHH is setup quite nice. They will play 16hrs, Sportsfreak and Rapids Plungers to close out the season so a win here and it is very easy to see how they get to the 8 wins. A loss and they are then staring at the possibility of a must win game in the final week of the season against Rapids Plungers and that is not ideal! For PackMan12 they will finish off the season against Pack Attack, U Don’t Know and PackerFANatic7 which are all winnable games but a bit more challenging. I am excited to see who comes out with the win!
Prediction:
And… I am excited to see who the actual starting players will be! As of this writing it looks like neither team has wanted to disclose their starters assumingly for competitive purposes reasons! It does making picking a winner a bit more difficult however. I expect this to be a low scoring game but I am going to go with HHH to somehow pull out the win!
Historical Look at this Match-Up:
- Regular Season Match-ups: 8
- Record: Advantage PackMan12 at 6-2
- PPG Avg: Advantage PackMan12 117.39 to 99.43
U Don’t Know (5-4) vs PackerFANatic7 (1-8)
U Don’t Know saw their 3 game losing streak come to an end last week and they will be looking to start another one this week against a 1 win PackerFANatic7 team. I have been talking a lot about that 8 win mark for teams throughout the preview but it is the win total that historically has always guaranteed you a playoff spot. For U Don’t Know this is a game they need to win because they will then play Bossman and PackMan12 before closing out the season against 16hrs. It is easy to see one win after this week but the other two are playoff caliber teams. If I was U Don’t Know I would be looking at this as a Must win type of game! For PackerFANatic7, if you only have 1 win at this stage of the season you look at every game as a must win as you try and avoid that last place!
Prediction:
Bye’s and Injuries are playing a factor in this one as Chark and Wentz are notable outs for PackerFANatic7 while U Don’t Know will be without Ertz. From an injury perspective, the biggest one is A. Thielen for PackerFANatic7 without him in the lineup it will be very tough for this team to find points. U Don’t Know looks to be starting AJ Green and K. Hunt for the first time all season and it will be interesting to see how those two fare. I again am looking at a low scoring game but I think U Don’t Know finds a way to hand PackerFANatic7 their 9th loss of the season!
Historical Look at this Match-Up:
- Regular Season Match-ups: 2
- Record: Tied at 1-1
- PPG Avg: Advantage U Don’t Know 113.20 to 107.29
teamAlaska (5-4) vs Sportsfreak (2-7)
teamAlaska got a much needed win last week against 16hrs and now they play another team in the bottom of the standings in Sportsfreak. This is a big game for teamAlaska as their schedule the rest of the way gets tough. Their remaining teams after this week have a combined record of 20-7 which means they have one of the hardest remaining schedules after this week. For Sportsfreak, their season isn’t officially over yet but never in the 15 year history of this league has their been a 6 win team make the playoffs. The positive way to look at this… they have a shot at making history that Rapids Plungers and Bossman (the top two teams in the league) don’t have! I said this for some of the other 5 win teams but given who they are playing and their remaining schedule this needs to be looked at as a “Must Win” for teamAlaska.
Prediction:
This game is going to be close as I expect Sportsfreak to have a solid week. In the end I think that Brees, McCaffrey and Diggs are a bit too much for Sportsfreak. Look for teamAlaska to get the win in this one in what I expect to be a fairly entertaining higher scoring match up! 135 to 126!
Historical Look at this Match-Up:
- Regular Season Match-ups: 14
- Record: Advantage Sportsfreak at 12-2
- PPG Avg: Advantage Sportsfreak 128.21 to 99.40