Crazy to think we are already here in the fantasy football playoffs! Seems like just yesterday we were drafting our teams and now here we are with 6 Teams remaining to see who will be crowned this years champion! The field is a good one. We have 4 teams that all have at least one championship, Rapids Plungers, BIGBOY!, Pack Attack and DaUnderdog. Sportsfreak and Starrfavrerodg are both searching for their first ever championship! Sportsfreak has come close and even last year got to the Super Bowl but just haven’t been able to get over that hump and win one! More then most years these playoffs seem to be wide open and it wouldn’t be hard to make a case for any one of these 6 teams to win it all!
(3) BIGBOY! vs (6) DaUnderdog
I can’t think of a better first round matchup then this one and it has a little less to do with the actual players on each team but more do to the actual coaches going up against each other. These two coaches have a history and I think if you were to ask either of them which team they most want to beat in fantasy football, I believe they both would have each other as really high on that list! DaUnderdog took down BIGBOY! by 48 points back in Week 6 and things have been relatively quiet between the two! This rivalry is such that just a few short days after winning their 3rd championship last season BIGBOY! posted this on Facebook “Shoutout to DaUnderdog for getting my team rolling by asking if I ‘even had a team this year’—while proceeding to not have a team after Week 6”. Is BIGBOY! less confident in their team this year? Will we see some more fireworks between these two? The one thing I find interesting is that most of the comments I have seen in the past have been “after” the game has been played when it is easy to talk smack? Anyone brave enough to say a few words before? To the game both of these teams have had solid seasons and for BIGBOY! they will be looking to do something that has never been done before. That is to win back to back super bowls twice! Also, with another super bowl title they would tie Pack Attack with the most Super Bowl’s in the league at 4! Who advances? Well, let’s find out!
Prediction
It’s playoff time, so I will get a bit more in depth in the preview and go position by position. Let’s start with the QB spot. BIGBOY! is going with J. Brissett while DaUnderdog has D. Maye. Who would have thought at the beginning of the year that J. Brissett would be out here leading teams to fantasy wins? The lowest points he has scored in a game since starting is 16.89 which is solid! D Maye for DaUnderdog has also been solid for a 9th round pick! This week I like D Maye and DaUnderdog with the QB edge. Brissett is going up against a brutal Hou D and Maye could be in a potential shootout spot against Buf. The edge goes to DaUnderdog.
The WR spot has Jefferson/DJ Moore/K Allen for BIGBOY! against Z Flowers/J Waddle and right now T Higgins however I don’t expect him to play so that is likely going to be Doubs or J Jennings. If there has been a disappointment this season for BIGBOY! it has been J Jefferson but he is in one of the better matchups of the season so maybe just maybe he can come through when it counts? DaUnderdog’s core would look a lot better if Higgins can somehow play but even without him I like DaUnderdog’s WR’s even though I do think that Jefferson has a nice game for BIGBOY! Edge at WR however goes to DaUnderdog.
The RB spot is next and we have C Brown and T Spears for BIGBOY! vs B Robinson and R Dowdle for DaUnderdog. This one is simple as B Robinson is the superior back of the 4 and Dowdle is better then Spears. DaUnderdog with the edge at RB.
The TE position has D. Schultz for BIGBOY! vs T Kelce for DaUnderdog. Kelce had been playing decently well up until last weeks performance. I think Kelce is checked out. The slight edge here goes to BIGBOY!
The FLEX spot has H Fannin Jr for BIGBOY! vs T McLaurin for DaUnderdog. Fannin has been solid and is coming off his best performance of the season. McLaurin is just working back into the offense after being out for most of the season. I like McLaurin and DaUnderdog with the edge here.
I am not going to get into the K/D/DST positions. That is for the Super Bowl. So who wins? Well, I think this is DaUnderdog’s game to lose. This BIGBOY! team has been overachieving a bit this season and that is what happens when you have a solid coach driving the ship. I don’t ever count out the reigning champ but I am going to pick DaUnderdog to get the upset win.
(4) Pack Attack vs (5) Starrfavrerodg
This is a really fun matchup! Let’s go back to Week 8 of the season. At that time Pack Attack was 3-5 and had just lost to Rapids Plungers while Starrfavrerodg was 2-6 and just scored 90 points in a ugly loss to DaUnderdog. Then something happened? Both of these teams started winning games. Pack Attack went on a 5 game winning streak to get to 8 wins and a playoff berth and Starrfavrerog finishes the regular season on a 6 game winning streak to get to 8 wins and punch their ticket to the post season! So if you do the math over the past month and a half these two teams are a combined 11-1! I don’t have the stats to back this up but I can’t imagine we have had many (if any) first round playoff matchups where two teams have come into the playoffs with stronger finishes then we have this week. The bad news? One of them is going to lose in the first round and with a wide open field would the winner of this one be favored against either of the top seeds? This is a big one and looks to be the matchup of the week! Can Starrfavrerodg keep their momentum going or will Pack Attack find a way to stop their winning streak?
Prediction
I normally don’t predict these games because well it’s hard not to feel a little biased but I will do my best. Let’s start at the QB Position. Pack Attack looks go be going with a rookie QB in J Dart while Starrfavrerodg has D Prescott. While I know the fantasy ranking gurus like Dart this week I don’t think he outscores Prescott. Dak at home is a beast! I like Prescott and Starrfavrerodg with the edge here.
The WR position has Jameson Williams, D Adams and D Slayton for Pack Attack while Starrfavrerodg has M Wilson, C Tillman and D Samuel. If you told me these lineups in the beginning of the year I would have said it was a no brainer and the edge goes to Pack Attack however M Wilson has been unstoppable when Marvin Harrison doesn’t play. The games Harrison doesn’t play he has averaged 16 targets, 12 catches and 148 receiving yards! Those are insane #’s. So the big question for this one is will Marvin Harrison play? He didn’t practice Wednesday so it seems like a 50/50 shot right now. For the sake of the preview I am going to assume he doesn’t play which gives the extra boost to M Wilson. That really makes things look better for Starrfavrerodg but I do think I would give the edge to Pack Attack. The WR position might however end up determining this matchup. D Adams and J Williams for Pack Attack are capable of big games but Williams has had two weeks where he played the entire game and scored 0 points and D Adams is touchdown dependent so if he doesn’t score his points are usually under that 10 range. M Wilson does have a tough matchup against the Hou D. A lot of variables at play which is why this position may very well determine the outcome.
The RB Position is one of the better ones we will see in all of the playoffs as you have CMC and Etienne for Pack Attack vs J Gibbs and B Hall for Starrfavrerodg. Both CMC and Gibbs have been outstanding all season long and I am not sure there is any RB you would want besides these two in a big time playoff game as both are capable of leading your team to victory almost by themselves! I would give a slight edge here to Pack Attack and it’s mainly because of the matchups. Gibbs is up against a tough Rams D and Hall the same with the Jax D that just held J Taylor in check. CMC has a much easier matchup against Ten and the same can be said for Etienne as he gets the Jets. I am giving the edge to Pack Attack here.
The TE position again is probably the best matchup you are going to see in these playoffs. You have Pack Attack with T. McBride and Starrfavrerodg with B Bowers. These two TE’s were the consensus top 2 TE’s being drafted in fantasy leagues this fall. Bowers has been hurt for a good part of the season but when healthy he has shown he is capable of game changing scoring. McBride has been about as good as it can get at the TE position all season. So who has the edge? This is a tough one but I think I am going to give the edge to Bowers and Starrfavrerodg and it is mainly due to the matchup. McBride is going up against arguably the top D in the league and while the Eagles D is no slouch I think its a slightly easier matchup.
Lastly the FLEX spot, you have M Pittman Jr for Pack Attack vs K Monangai for Starrfavrerodg. Pittman just lost his QB and now may have P Rivers throwing to him… yes the same P Rivers that was old 10 years ago! I would think that hurts his value but who knows for sure and a tough matchup against Sea doesn’t help. Monangai is going up against a really tough Cle D as well but his style of running may actually benefit him and get him on the field more. I would give the slight edge here to Pittman and Pack Attack. So who wins!? Well that I am not going to pick. (If anyone would like to weigh in on the Facebook comments please do so! Should be a great game!
That’s it! Good luck to all four teams this week!