All the off-season trades (you’re welcome for Najee, Alex). All the draft-day jockeying (thank you for taking Young over Stroud, Zach). All the preseason and in-season injuries. All the Pukas and Kyrens coming out of nowhere, or the Jeffersons and Higginses who didn’t deliver. All of it is now over.
But what a final week to close out the season!
We’ll start with the 3rd Place matchup, which showcased Packer Hater against Urban Achievers in the battle to win back their $50 entrance fee. All things being equal, this would have been a helluva matchup. Unfortunately, Urban Achievers has been in QB hell of late, losing Burrow earlier in the season and Herbert down the stretch. Howell’s negative points last week are a major reason why Redman found himself in the consolation game, and the roughly five combined points between Levis and Howell this week didn’t do him any favors either.
That being said, stranger things have happened in fantasy football, so it was still incumbent upon Packer Hater to run away with it. And wouldn’t you know it, running away is exactly what Alex did, getting 15 from Walker, 25.80 from Conner, and *rubs eyes* 24.20 from Najee(!!). The end result was a 125.10 – 99.90 beatdown by Packer Hater that really wasn’t even that close. Redman had about as good of a chance as Stephen Hawking did of ascending the stairway to heaven.
Which brings us to the Super Bowl, and for the second year in a row we had an incredible matchup. With a 13-1 record in the regular season (and a championship pedigree to boot), Evil Empire has looked unstoppable. That being said, he was going up against Puff’s Punishers, a regular-season beast since this league’s inception, who had finally gotten the one-and-done monkey off his back and put together a post-season run. The 1 seed vs the 2 seed. The irresistible force vs the immovable object. The battle for skull supremacy!
This was a fun matchup to watch over the long weekend, with both teams running into similar issues — the Empire lost Kamara early to an ankle injury, only netting 5.90 points, but Barkley was kept in check this week, getting Puffy only 7.3 points; after a massive week last week, Kittle only got 4.4 points for His Evilness, but the TE GOAT, Travis Kelce, bumbled his way to only 3.10 points for The Punishers. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Lamb went gonzo for the Empire with 33.7 points, but Puffy countered with 29.1 from Kyren Williams. After a 12-round fist fight to the final bell, it was Evil Empire who came out on top, winning his third championship in four seasons, 136.30 – 130.16. Congrats, Scott!
As for Josh, it was a case of coming up short…in more ways than one.
And that’s a wrap on 2023. You still have one more week to do waivers and free agency. I’ll shut that down after MNF. At the same time, I’ll transition the league to 2024, set the draft order, and we’ll be off and running on the new season. Nine of us will be chasing Evil Empire and trying to take him down; Scotty, in all likelihood, will just laugh and laugh at our weak effort. Who will come out on top? I’m not sure about much, but one thing I do know:
Best of luck in the offseason, fellas!
Andy
The Terrible Ten 