In the first week of the CouchPotatoGM Fantasy Football League, we were able to witness incredibly competitive play from all teams – this week, 18.21 points served as the greatest margin of victory – it’s a good sign. This week rings of the old “any given Sunday” adage – because the teams are so evenly-matched, the remainder of the fantasy football season should grow increasingly interesting with every passing week. Here’s what happened during Week 1:
Back2Back d. CPGM:
In a slight upset victory, Back2Back was able to steady himself during the storm while CPGM‘s ship began to take in water – both teams were evenly-matched, but CPGM‘s blue-chip under-performance led his team to defeat.
While none of CPGM‘s starters output any breakout numbers, they all performed very close to their expected margins, except, that is, for WR Dez Bryant, who only scored 1.30 points of a projected 15.26 (a 14- deficit for CPGM). On the other hand, there were quite a number of overachievers and underachievers alike for Back2Back: WR Sammy Watkins, TE Zach Miller, K Connor Barth, and DEF Kansas City combine for a 13.20 of a cumulative projected 39.33 fantasy points, setting back Back2Back 26+ points. Even so, Back2Back‘s shining star, WR Brandin Cooks, was nearly able to erase the deficit himself, scoring 32.40 fantasy points out of a projected 13.54, helping Back2Back out with an extra 19+ fantasy points.
At the end, though, Back2Back was far closer to his projected score than CPGM – his team’s shortcomings place him as the lowest-scoring team owner of Week 1.
Final score: CPGM – 96.56 (115.39); Back2Back – 110.92 (111.48)
Back2Back (1-0) takes his first win and moves on to face a thus-far-winless Termanators (0-1) in Week 2; CPGM (0-1) hopes to bounce back against Captain Morgans (1-0).
Captain Morgans d. ♨FishGrease♨
This matchup serves as an effective exemplification of what blue-chip star-power players can do for a fantasy team – players from both teams turned in impactful performances, yet only Captain Morgans would overcome the score prediction and emerge victorious.
On Captain Morgans‘ side, we have WR A.J. Green and RB DeAngelo Williams; combined, the two superstars contributed 69.10 fantasy points from a projected 29.73, a 39+ surge for Captain Morgans. While ♨FishGrease♨‘s top performers, QB Drew Brees, K Dan Bailey, and DEF Minnesota, collectively reached 85.42 fantasy points from an expected 45.54 – a 41- upswing for ♨FishGrease♨ – it would be the under-performers that would hamper ♨FishGrease♨‘s Week 1 efforts.
For ♨FishGrease♨, RB Todd Gurley, RB Devonta Freeman, and TE Colby Fleener didn’t do much as much as he would’ve liked, combining for a mere 11.80 of a projected 41.33 fantasy points, leading to a deficit of 29.5- fantasy points – it was these under-performers that ultimately contributed to ♨FishGrease♨‘s defeat.
Captain Morgans‘ stellar performance claims her the title of highest-scoring fantasy lineup of Week 1 and of the entire league; by comparison, however, ♨FishGrease♨ isn’t so far away, as his team places third-highest.
Final score: Captain Morgans – 152.84 (113.68); ♨FishGrease♨ – 137.92 (119.33)
Captain Morgans (1-0) rides the power train into CPGM (0-1) territory to begin Week 2; a potent ♨FishGrease♨ (0-1) hopes for better luck against similarly-matched Da Pplz Champ (0-1).
VIPER STRIKE d. Da Pplz Champ (Close Call)
Here we have a matchup that went a lot higher and a lot closer than procjected – VIPER STRIKE lucks out enough to inch by past Da Pplz Champ – a lot of hard-hitting star power in this matchup, as well – let’s review the tale of the tape.
Let’s start with Da Pplz Champ: his top three overachievers, WR Willie Snead, WR Larry Fitzgerald, and RB Carlos Hyde, combined for 79.10 total fantasy points out of a predicted 34.52, giving Da Pplz Champ 44.5+ in his favor. VIPER STRIKE, though, definitely wasn’t without his own breakout players, QB Matthew Stafford and WR Antonio Brown got things going enough to combine for 64.70 of a projected 46.19 fantasy points, resulting in an extra 18.5+ fantasy points for VIPER STRIKE.
The problem for Da Pplz Champ, though, wasn’t in how well his over-performers performed, but in how his under-performers couldn’t perform – whereas VIPER STRIKE did well to not have any significant under-performers in his starting lineup, Da Pplz Champ wasn’t as fortunate: QB Russell Wilson and WR Brandon Marshall only reached as far as 18.62 fantasy points – they were projected to combine for 39.30 – thusly, Da Pplz Champ missed out on 21- points that would’ve potentially been his. More so, Da Pplz Champ had the answer on his bench in the DEF New York Jets (12.00) – they scored 3.00 points higher than his starting DEF Denver Broncos (9.00). Had Da Pplz Champ made that single substitution, the tides would’ve been turned in his favor – that one replacement would’ve given Da Pplz Champ his best lineup, and, believe it or not, would’ve not only defeated VIPER STRIKE, but also his best potential lineup.
We’re talking about a less-than-one-point victory here, people – just like last year or any other year, every point matters in this league. This is what “Close Call” looks like – respectively, VIPER STRIKE and Da Pplz Champ place fourth and fifth in overall scoring for Week 1 and the entire league.
Final score: VIPER STRIKE – 134.10 (119.28); Da Pplz Champ – 133.32 (112.79)
VIPER STRIKE (1-0) gladly ekes by and prepares for Week 2 against FtLaudPhins (0-1); an ever-hungry Da Pplz Champ (0-1) covets victory against ♨FishGrease♨ (0-1).
Undisputed d. FtLaudPhins (Big Board Blowout)
This matchup went fairly down-the-line – RB-heavy FtLaudPhins was simply unable to overcome the point onslaught brought on by Undisputed in Week 1.
FtLaudPhins‘ RBs, DeMarco Murray and Ameer Abdullah, both ended up scoring 20+ fantasy points apiece, both individually well-over their projected 9+ scores, giving FtLaudPhins a 21+ cushion. Undisputed had an RB surge of his own in Theo Riddick, who scored 25.30 out of a projected 8.95 fantasy points, overachieving by a margin of 16+. Undisputed also had WR Amari Cooper score 7+ fantasy points above his projected 13.33 with a 20.70 total.
A point of note in this matchup came from the DEFs; while both DEFs were projected to fare similarly (within 1.2 of each other), FtLaudPhins‘ DEF Pittsburgh only reached 5.00 fantasy points, while Undisputed‘s DEF Seattle managed to net him 16.00 – what was supposed to be a closely-fought DEF battle became an 11.00-fantasy-point swing for Undisputed.
While not really a blowout, per se, credit will be given where credit is due – Undisputed now owns the second-highest fantasy team this week and overall. FtLaudPhins, while performing above expectation, will still have to face the embarrassment of being the Week 1 Big Board victim.
Final score: Undisputed – 140.50 (116.51); FtLaudPhins – 122.29 (111.96)
Undisputed (1-0) hopes to keep the streak alive against OBJYN 😈 (0-1); FtLaudPhins (0-1) must recover and step forward into Week 2 facing off against a formidable VIPER STRIKE (1-0).
Prime Time Champs d. OBJYN
Injury might’ve turned the proverbial tides in this matchup – Prime Time Champs survives OBJYN 😈 in Week 1, even with having the lowest projected-score total (103.32) of the entire league.
OBJYN‘s trump card was QB Andrew Luck, who scored 45.50 of 22.52 projected fantasy points, gifting OBJYN 😈 20-. It seems WR Keenan Allen was slated to perform better; at the time he was injured, there were just under two minutes left in the first half – he had already scored 9.30, and his projected score was to have been 13.30 – assuming his second-half productivity would’ve matched that of the first half, OBJYN 😈 may have proven victorious over Prime Time Champs rather than the opposite. His other blue-chip WR, Odell Beckham, Jr., also performed well under expected goals, also chipping in 9.30 out of his expected 16.46, shorting OBJYN 😈 7+ fantasy points.
Even though RB Adrian Peterson was only able to muster 3.10 fantasy points this week off of a projected 13.57 (a potential 10+ deficit), a good portion of his team, including QB Matt Ryan, WR Doug Baldwin, RB C.J. Anderson, and DEF Philadelphia banded together to credit Prime Time Champs 92.90 fantasy points from a projected cumulative 51.53, bolstering Prime Time Champs‘ efforts by 41.5- fantasy points.
A huge blow was landed to OBJYN 😈 with the definite loss of WR Keenan Allen – an outright reception magnet, not only will his absence be felt for OBJYN 😈 this week, but for every following week – some major re-tweaking and re-organization lies on the road ahead for OBJYN; Prime Time Champs has been graced in many ways by the fantasy football gods in Week 1.
Final score: Prime Time Champs – 133.56 (103.32); OBJYN 😈 – 124.40 (111.63)
A blessed Prime Time Champs (1-0) moves on from Week 1’s victory to face also-undefeated Oh YES! (1-0); a staggered OBJYN 😈 (0-1) sets forth to palliate the damage done and do his best against the aptly-named Undisputed (1-0) in Week 2.
Oh YES! d. Termanators (Close Call)
A bit of an upset between these two teams – scoring went a little helter-skelter on either side, but an unlikely contribution from Oh YES!‘s team ended up being the deciding factor in this matchup.
Termanators‘ squad performed rather consistently in this matchup – all but one player scored in the double-digits for Termanators, with the exception being TE Gary Barnidge, who contributed as many points as if he were on the bench (0.00 – projected to have made 9.66). Oh YES!, on the other hand, managed to find the breakout star of his lineup in RB Spencer Ware, who pretty much secured victory for Oh YES! in Week 1, scoring 31.40 fantasy points from a predicted 11.70, providing Oh YES! a 20- fantasy point luxury.
Had Termanators started WR Jordan Matthews in place of any of his three starting WRs, he would’ve been the victor over Oh YES!, and not vice-versa – Matthews scored 22.90 fantasy points while projected to have scored 10.89, but would’ve given Termanators anywhere from 8+ to 12+ extra fantasy points to have worked with in Week 1.
Strangely, the second-highest scorer of Termanators was none other than a kicker, K Blair Walsh (16.00, projected at 8.33 – an 8- fantasy point bonus for Termanators)– league members, don’t sell yourself short – kickers matter in fantasy football.
The predicted score had this game close to begin with (by a margin of 2+ points) – it was, even as a minor upset, by 4- points. While not the closest Close Call this week, let it be known that this league is big on nail-biters – games become really suspenseful to watch when it comes down to the last players, doesn’t it?
Final score: Oh YES! – 122.84 (112.21); Termanators – 119.18 (114.43)
Oh YES! (1-0) goes off into Week 2 to test his mettle against Prime Time Champs (1-0); Termanators recollects and seeks his first win against Back2Back (1-0).