Welcome to another episode of Fantasy Football Experts Beating Up on Each Other: XN Sports Edition. In this inaugural season of the League of Champions, the trash talk flows freely as do the frustrations every fantasy team owner experiences. To learn more about how some of these teams were constructed, make sure to read our weekly transactions recap and keep an eye out for trade analysis and more waiver wire moves coming this week. To take a closer look at this past week’s matchups, just click on each recap’s heading. Anyway, on with the review.
STUDFELDSVILLE (Salvatore Stefanile) 154, FIFTY SHADES OF CATS (Felipe Melecio) 145.50
Welcome to the winners’ column, Sal. Riding the back of Julio Jones (whom he acquired via trade an hour before kickoff) and his 29.50 points, Studfeldsville put up the highest point total of the week, and he needed just about every bit of it. Fifty had his own wide receiver put up 29.50 points in DeSean Jackson, but the duds that were Reggie Bush and Frank Gore combined for just 10 points and likely cost him the week. The pair took to Twitter in español to hash out their battle in a war of words.
@pathological_h8 Gracias, hombre. Muy cerca. Usted tiene un gran equipo, y te llevaremos lejos. Buena suerte el resto del camino, mi amigo.
— Salvatore Stefanile (@2QBFFB) September 17, 2013
My Spanish is a little rusty, but I think those translate roughly to “I hope you fall into a fire” and “Your team is full of miscreants”. Steffy gets his first win of the year, which gives his league-best ‘A’ draft grade from Yahoo! some form of legitimacy, at least for now. Shady falls to 1-1.
THE WINTER CLASSICS (Chris Blanchard) 147.50, DERWOOD #DEGENERATES (C.D. Carter) 147.00
This one will sting for C.D. for a while. A matchup can’t get closer than this and, unfortunately for the #Degenerates, the Steelers are not a very good football team. The Classics were down 15.50 going into the Monday night game with just Andy Dalton left to play.
@BlanchardNHL I can’t even watch.
— C.D. Carter (@CDCarter13) September 17, 2013
Pittsburgh proceeded to give up 280 yards and a TD to Dalton, good for 16 points and the win for Blanchard. Hockey Boy couldn’t help himself.
David beat Goliath, and a hockey writer just beat @XNSports lead fantasy writer @CDCarter13 by .5 points with just 6.5 RB points. #Underdog
— Chris Blanchard (@BlanchardNHL) September 17, 2013
For C.D., it was a well-rounded week, but just not enough. All of his players scored at least nine points and were led by Pierre Garcon‘s 24. He was probably hoping for a bit more from Terrelle Pryor who had a great debut against Indianapolis, but only produced 10 points in what seemed like a good matchup against Jacksonville. The #Degenerates are now 0-2 and Mr. Winter grabs his first win.
FANTASY FOUNDATION (Rich Hribar) 146.50, @BRYKNO RHINOS (Bryan Knowles) 115.50
Bryan made like an aggressive rhino and traded away one of his best players for a dinged up tight end prior to the Week 2 matchup and it hurt him a bit. He sent Julio Jones packing for Rob Gronkowski. So, instead of starting Jones, he was left with Lance Moore, who gave him a whopping 1.50 points – a 28 point difference than if he had started Julio. It still wouldn’t have mattered, but it would have at least been close. If not for Calvin Johnson and Marshawn Lynch combining for 57.50, the Rhinos would have turned in an even more dismal showing. As for the Fightin’ Hribars, seven double-digit performers, including a resurgent Michael Vick and impressive rookie DeAndre Hopkins, provided the ammunition at the top. Now the two teams are already talking their Week 13 rematch.
@LordReebs That means I’m gonna win in the rematch on my turf, right? 😛
— Bryan Knowles (@BryKno) September 16, 2013
Rich didn’t miss the chance to rub in the fact that the Bryknos had no shot from the outset and, for some reason, Bryan thinks there are home-field advantages in fantasy football. Maybe that’s why he’s still sitting at 0-2. For Rich’s team, while foundations generally occupy the cellar, this one is at the top, remaining undefeated. Having a mystical 8-year-old running the team probably doesn’t hurt either.
MY BUDDY AND ME (Dave Major) 144.50, KEEPIN HEADS RINGIN (Michael Clifford) 105
Remember when David Wilson was going to have a great season since Andre Brown went down? Well, it’s become his mission to prove all those people wrong. And SlimCliffy is taking the heat. A big ol’ one from the Giants’ RB was representative of the entire Ringers team. Cam Newton was the leading point-scorer for Cliff with a mere 16. Now at 0-2, he should maybe consider renaming his team The Underperformers. Especially if he’s already focusing on the fantasy hockey season.
First #fantasyhockey draft of the season. Home league, 10-team 10 keep. It’s finally here.
— Michael Clifford (@SlimCliffy) September 17, 2013
Davie, meanwhile, moved to 2-0 thanks to Jimmy Graham. 28 points from the Saints’ tight end was the most of the matchup and even with Peyton Manning putting up less than half of the points as he did in Week 1, The Buddies coasted to an easy win and all that he was left to worry about on Monday night was the awakeness of the Steelers.
Also, I think number 73 is sleeping. #Zzzz pic.twitter.com/vJQvCrwg8M
— Dave Major (@RealDaveMajor) September 17, 2013
BLURRED GOAL LINES (Tony Consiglio) 135.50, MAKE IT WAYNE (Igor Derysh) 86
It was Wayning in the Derysh household this weekend. Wayning tears. There’s no sense dancing around the obvious – the Igors were terrible this week. With just 86 points, he’s now the proud owner of the Worst Week of the Year Award. It’s really just an imaginary Jaguars helmet, but the symbolism is clear. The bold move to start Brent Celek over Kyle Rudolph really backfired, as did just about everything for Igor. He had four starters score 3.5 points or fewer. I suppose there’s no need to pile on, though. Igor knows how bad it truly was.
@TonyConsiglio12 @XNSports Mike Wallace is your only good start of the day #SignsOfABadFFWeek
— Igor Derysh (@IgorDerysh) September 15, 2013
It was pretty evident early on that it was not going to be a good week for the Wayners, and I let him know.
Looks like @IgorDerysh is going to need some help to stay undefeated in the @XNSports League of Champions. #Youcantprayhardenough
— Tony Consiglio (@TonyConsiglio12) September 15, 2013
Randall Cobb, Stevie Johnson, and LeSean McCoy got the Goalies off to a good start and helped overcome a lowly five spot from Colin Kaepernick. But, hey, I’ll take a win no matter how it comes. Especially when it means I stay undefeated and my opponent doesn’t.
COCONUT PETE (Tom Fitzgerald) 115.50, 4TH AND GOAL (Neil Parker) 88.50
For the second week in a row, Parker found his team in the Low Bowl. Even with a team that would make Igor jealous, he ended up on the losing end this time. The 4ths had five players with 1.50 points or fewer, which is actually impressively futile. Dez Bryant‘s 24.50 and 14 points from a kicker at least helped him get to nearly 90. As for Fitzy, he picked up his first win of the year, but just seemed happy enough early on to get a couple points.
James Jones already with 3 catches. At least I won’t have that Fantasy zero again. @XNSports
— Tom Fitzgerald (@tfitzpeace) September 15, 2013
Next to RGIII, Jones became Team Coco’s leading scorer. But, with Ray Rice, Anquan Boldin, Larry Fitzgerald, and Tony Gonzalez combining for just 12 points, he’s just lucky he played one of the two teams that couldn’t crack 100. Even escaping with the win, he recognizes his need for outsider advice.
The Fantasy Foundation run by @LordReebs and his son are just schooling us. Time to get my 6 month old into the mix. #XNsports
— Tom Fitzgerald (@tfitzpeace) September 15, 2013
So that’s a wrap on Week 2. Here are the current League of Champions standings.
