We made it. Well, some of us made it. Austin could have made it, but he was a bad manager. Same goes for Aron and Chris. Really everyone that missed playoffs can blame themselves. Except for Kevin. Kevin had some of the worst luck I've ever seen.
Anyway, this week we'll take a look at the two winner's bracket matchups. But first, the final power rankings of the season.
I honestly don't know what I needed to do to finish higher than 4th in power rankings but whatever. I prefer being the underdog anyway.
Kevin finished last as we expected. I honestly think Dom's team is better than second to last, but I guess the algorithm disagreed.
Matchup 1: Bruce vs Larry
This is a rematch of last week, where Bruce defeated Larry 116.98 to 91.16. In fact, in week 3 Bruce also defeated Larry with another somewhat close score of 107.6 to 99.88. The differences in these two games in this one are pretty major though.
Week 3 Larry was starting the All-Disappointment Team of Herbert, Najee, Adams, Hockenson and the 2nd string RB of Tony Pollard. Last week he didn't have Jonathon Taylor, who has turned his season around, or any RB to replace him actually. This week he will get Burrow against a struggling Bucs team, Pollard who has become an RB1 over the last few weeks, a healthy JT against a bad Vikings D, and Hockenson who has become a top TE with the Vikings. His question marks come at WR. He traded Adams and replaced him with Godwin who has stepped up lately, but the Bengals D is pretty good. His other WR, Waddle gets to play in the 9degree, 9 inch of snow weather of Buffalo. I wouldn't expect much from either WR.
Bruce! Congrats! Playoffs two years in a row dude! Allen is about to run all over the Dolphins. Ekeler is one of the top 5 players on teams that made the playoffs in all of fantasy and will have a great opportunity this weekend. Sanders has had a resurgence this season no one was expecting. Blah Blah Blah. Let's talk about Bruce's WRs now. Like Larry, he has question marks, but his are because he has two ROOKIES starting. Sounds scary, but Olave and Wilson have proven they deserve these starting spots.
Commissioner's Pick: Bruce (Overall Record - 10-5)
Matchup 2: Bryan vs Rusty
In their first matchup, Bryan defeated Rusty 125 - 115. Then in Week 11 Bryan brutally destroyed Rusty with a score of 171 - 99. Fuck Rusty. How's that feel?
Bryan's team has been built on Kelce, Chubb, Adams, and Lockett for most of the season, and he will once again rely on the four of them this week. Chubb has a tough matchup against the Ravens on top of being really average since the sexual assaulter came back. Kelce gets Houston, the worst team in the league. Unfortunately that doesn't mean great things for the passing games over the season. Maybe Pacheco will get 30 carries to make up for Kelce's low score if he does in fact have a bad game as expected?
Here's the tough part. Bryan's WRs have been awesome, but they have extremely tough matchups this week. Adams gets the Patriots and Lockett gets the 49ers. Both teams can shut down QBs and WRs.
This week is set up to give Rusty the big upset, but can Rusty pull it off? Fuck. I don't even want to go through Rusty's team. He needs a lot of help this week. Gibson needs to be healthy, Murray needs to be a workhorse, Hill needs to get his 200 yards and a couple of TDs, Aiyuk needs Deebo out so he gets all the targets, Friermuth and Johnson need Trubisky to have the game of his life (plus Johnson needs to actually play and not be hurt). Finally, Rusty needs the best game of Rodger's season and then some.
The week sets up for an upset, but only against a team that is above average. That's why I have to stick with Bryan again unfortunately.
Commissioner's Pick: Bryan (10-5)
