Ironman Fantasy Football - Season 2

Coming off of the inaugural season, I was looking to repeat. Mark was looking to even the score. 

Here were our week 1 starters:

And here were our benches:

Our week one projections were completely even. I won by 56 but it only counts as one win. 

18 weeks and week 17 is worth double, so you have to win 10 weeks to claim the title. 

There was a problem however. Week 1 I suffered two injuries: Harrison Butker and Keenan Allen. 

I chose not to backup my kicker and my backups at WR were Hopkins and Tolbert. Hopkins was on suspension through the first six weeks so I was counting on Tolbert. I was told he would be the #2 WR for Dallas. Turns out he was inactive all season. Whoops. 

For weeks 2-5, I didn't have a WR or a kicker. In week 6, Butker returned but my starting TE was injured and my backup TE was on bye, so I still had zeroes at 2 out of 9 positions. 

Through 6 weeks, I was 1-5. But I lost by two points in week 2 and one point in week 4. With either a WR or a kicker, I would have won those weeks. So I should have been 3-3. To be 3-3, all I needed to do was draft a backup kicker or draft a backup WR that actually plays football instead of Tolbert's inactive ass.

Hopkins returned in week 7 and guided me to victory but week 8 was a disaster. Chiefs were on bye and my backup QB was Jameis Winston who lost his starting job. Chase was injured and Butker was on bye. So I had triple zeroes that week. 

Week 9: I also lost. Chase injured. Keenan Allen is still not back from his week 1 injury. Tolbert still sucks. So still a zero at WR. The best ability is availability. 

Mark is up 7-2 through week 9. Three weeks away from clinching the title.

Mark's backup QB was Trey Lance who was out for the season in week 2. Which means when Lamar is on bye in week 10, he got blown out. 

Week 11 was our first fully healthy week since week 1! I won by 40 and there was still hope. 

But then week 12, both teams fully healthy, Mark had monster games from Jefferson and Higgins and beat me by 6.5.

Now Mark is up 8-4. Two wins away. And week 17 is worth double. It looks bad.

Virtually the only way Mark doesn't close this out is with an injury at a position where he doesn't have backups. And the only position that applies is QB. 

Week 13. Lamar Jackson injured. Zero points. Timetable to return: 1-3 weeks

Lamar doesn't suit up for week 13-16 and I reel off four wins in a row. Tie the season at 8-8. 

Week 17 is designed to be worth double for multiple reasons. Obviously we need an odd number of weeks. And it gives people hope and time to catch up. And it reduces the importance of week 18, which often has wonky rosters. But there's a nice benefit to this situation. 

The high drama of a one-week winner take all Super Bowl. 

Here were the projections for the biggest fantasy matchup of the year:

Dave: 120

Mark: 88

He's missing Lamar, which accounts for 24 points of that 32 point projection deficit.

The thing about projections, is that points on paper aren't as good as points on the scoreboard. 

So when my team is entering Monday Night Football with only Chase remaining and I'm sitting on 70.5, I'm not loving it. Not exactly going to hit 120. 

But it was one of the weirdest Sundays with players across the board falling short. Mark only had 44.5 entering MNF, with Tee Higgins and the Buffalo defense remaining. 

Trailing by 26, the app gave Mark a 2% chance of winning and projected me to win by 25.

And then we had the most tragic, saddest, strangest Monday Night Football ever. 

The game ended that night with the Bills defense at 18, Higgins at 1.5 and Chase at 0. So Mark was on 64. By Friday that game had been officially cancelled, ruled a no contest, all stats and points voided. 

We came up with a variety of solutions and we landed on this: Count Higgins 1.5 and award 9 points to the Bills defense...and combine our scores from Week 17 + 18. 

I went from being a 98% chance to win to now having to survive another week. 

Unfortunately for Mark, Lamar's 1-3 week timetable turned into 6. Andrews was also out so it wasn't that close. 

I was trailing 4-8 and ending up winning 10-8.

The reality is the Lamar injury definitely swung things. Lamar could have easily put up 20 points in Weeks 14 and 16 and got to 10 wins. Of course, if we had both had healthy rosters, I still think I would have won, but that's the whole nature of the game. 

Incidentally, even if he had gotten to 9, let's say he wins Week 14. Then I'm trailing 7-9 headed into Week 17. I would have won Weeks 17 and 18 and won the league 10-9 that way. 

But there is a little bit of redemption. The player that missed the most games for me, the one player most responsible for me going 2-7 in the first nine weeks, was Keenan Allen. 

And on Championship Sunday, he puts up his best game of the season and secures the Ironman Title for me.