Who Are We Playing in the Semis, Walter?
I use a Big Lebowski theme for this post every year. I’m not aware of anything else you can do with such a scenario. So, the regular season came to end on Sunday. Fourteen embattled weeks. It was a hell of a year in D.A. We started off with some really solid QB numbers across the league. D.A. scoring was down by a good margin, but the last six weeks have been a renaissance, led by the Arizona Cardinals. It made me realize that no matter what the NFL tries to do help the offenses, there will always be terrible QB play and we will be here to celebrate it. So, thanks to everyone who came along for the ride this year, it’s one of the things that is keeping this blog chugging. No summaries this week, just a quick D.A. and then we’ll have the previews.
3-PT D.A. of the Week: John Skelton.
I don’t know how you lose a game 58-0 to a team that doesn’t have a good offense. And, the Cardinals were officially “feisty” on defense back when they were 4-0. But, the spirit of this team has been broken and why should the defense try when they have this collection of QBs. The Cardinals should be on their 3rd straight D.A., but we had a 1-week interlude to celebrate Mark Sanchez finally getting benched. What I don’t understand is why do they keep putting Skelton back in? What’s to gain? Against Seattle he was 11/22 for 74 yards, 4 INT (1 pick six) and lost a fumble for good measure. That being a 18 QB rating, and not 0.00, completely invalidates the statistic.
Final D.A. Standings:
- Fake Chow, 10-4
- Team Horse Face, 9-5
- The Shiva Cry, 8-6
- Doubleback Vineyards, 7-7
- Eli Esses D, 6-8 (298.5 points)
- Kraft, 6-8 (255.75 points)
- Neckbeards and Codeine, 6-8 (21.5 points)
- Happy Valley Tickle Monsters, 4-10
THE D.A. SEMI-FINALS:
Fake Chow vs. Team Horse Face
Fake Chow:
- 2010 D.A. Fantasy Football Runner-Up
- 2012 Regular Season Champion
- 26-16 All-Time D.A. Record
- 2nd D.A. Playoff Appearance
- Weekly High Score: 57 points
- Weekly Low Score: (-24.25 points)
- Total Negative Weeks: Two
Team Horse Face:
- 1st D.A. Fantasy Playoff Appearance
- 22-20 All-Time D.A. Record
- 2nd Total Points
- Weekly High Score: 77 points
- Weekly Low Score: (-23.5 points)
- Total Negative Weeks: Two
Analysis: Top two regular season teams meet in the 1st Semi-Final. Fake Chow was outscored on the year by over 150 points, but his 10-4 record speaks to consistency. Never too high or too low, Fake Chow lets teams beat themselves. Horse Face has been on a steady D.A. rise for a couple of years. Narrowly missed ’11 playoffs and makes it this year with ease. Averaging over 40 pts a week the last six weeks. This is like a Pats/Steelers playoff game from a few years back.
The Shiva Cry vs. Doubleback Vineyards
The Shiva Cry:
- Led 2012 D.A. in scoring with 373 points (All-Time Record 436 points/Kraft 2011)
- 2nd D.A. Fantasy Playoff Appearance
- 20-22 All-Time D.A, Record
- Weekly High Score: 94 points
- Weekly Low Score: (-5.75 points)
- Total Negative Weeks: One
Doubleback Vineyards:
- Inaugural D.A. Season
- 1st D.A. Playoff Appearance
- 7-7 Career Record
- Weekly High Score: 71 points
- Weekly Low Score: (-36.25 points)
- Total Negative Weeks: Four
Analysis: Shiva was the most consistent D.A. team all year with just one negative week. Some bad luck and a tough schedule kicked off a string of losses late in the year, but ended season with a win and the league’s highest point total. After 94 point opening week had only one other week over 40 points. Doubleback Vineyards started the year poorly, settling into last place for a spell before firing their VP of player development. The improved draft strategy kicked off a successful 2nd half. Seven of last eight weeks over 20 points, including league high 71 points in week 14.
3-Putt Territory 
My god, the stats. I feel like we’re on the brink of advanced DA metrics. “Ryan Lindley had a 23.4 JABRONI rating this year. That’s the second best/worst rating of all time, behind none other than Brad Goebel. Truly impressive stuff.”
What I regret is not keeping stats for the Individual QBs. I might have the numbers scattered around somewhere, but this was the 1st year I really organized things in one spot. If I get bored, maybe I’ll run some cumulative totals for this year’s top performers. There’s really reams of D.A. data that could use some processing.
Do you have some sort of excel spreadsheet set up to input the numbers and the let the computer do the calculations? If you did that you could save stuff. If you don’t I’d be willing to get one up and running for you. Just send me the scoring system.
1. Interceptions–6 points
2. Pick Six-10 points
3. Touchdowns–(-4) points
4. Fumbles–1 points
5. Lost Fumbles-2 points
6. Fumble Returned For TD—6 points
7. Getting Sacked–1 point
8. Taking a Safety–4 points
9. Every Yard Under 100 yards passing –1/4 point
10. Every Yard Over 250 yards passing–(-1/4) point
11. Incompletions–2 points
12. Completions (-1) point
13. Team Loss–5 points
14. Team Win Scoring 13 points or Less–2 points
15. Team Win Scoring 14-20 points–0 points
16. Team Win Scoring 21-30 points (-2) points
17. Team Win Scoring 31+ points (-5) points
That’s the scoring system. I actually like doing the stats by hand. I’m not sure why. I have some issues. This year I have them all organized in a little green notebook.
But, feel free to show off your Excel skills.
Incidentally, the “keeping stats by hand in a little green notebook” is very endearing, and also very 1993.
Hah, Well, it’s a Moleskine journal, so it’s pretty classy too.
Big Dub came through with the spread sheet. It looks very fancy and official.
Of course, with the way I do math in my head, will it actually be quicker?
Maybe, Maybe not.
I didn’t know that I have the all time season DA high pt total. I can walk a little taller….it’s like Jordan’s 37.3 pt season or the Brady 52 TD season.
I think you may also have the weekly high score (94.5 points–also from last year), besting Kobel by .5, but I don’t have the weekly totals from year 1, so I can’t say for sure.
PS, that was Henne, 33 points and McCown 61.25
Cade, Luke, or Josh?
Luke, For Jacksonville, week 2 of 2011
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201109180nyj.htm
4 INTs, a Fumble 6, and 59 yards passing.
Definitely a top-5 D.A. game of all-time.
This was my immediate reaction to McCown’s game:
Maybe the clearest winner of all-time. Thank you Jacksonville for being so cheap. I know David Garrard is not Joe Montana, but there is no way he’s anywhere near as bad as Luke McCowNown. It must have been like Christmas morning for the Jets defense. They came downstairs and McCown was the pretty present all wrapped up and in the shape of Big-Wheel. McCown was 6 of 19, which is sneaky bad, he threw 4 picks (21 percent of his attempts), and managed just 59 yards. He’d eventually get pulled, but the damage was done. His quarterback rating added up to a nice round 1.8. A new low for 2011, and possibly an unreachable benchmark for the rest of the year. The best news is, the soon to be unemployed Jack Del Rio isn’t sure he’ll go with Blaine Gabbert in week three.
Evidence that we should not overlook Jacksonville in the list of great DA franchises.
Fantastic- I smell adding a new feature next year titled: this week in DA history: “dec 16th, 2009- is that Todd Collins warming up? You bet your ass. Todd Collins came off the bench in this memorable drubbing and led the Bears to a humbling 35-6 defeat to the hated Pack. Collins’ line: 5-17 for 83 yds, 2 INTs, 1 pick 6, and too bad he didn’t warm up the legs because he was sacked 8x”
DA pt total, a whopping 43. Memo to bears, invest in a back-up QB
I also love the idea of a DA franchise ranking. The Jags, Bills, browns, cards all would be fighting for that #1 spot
For the interested fans, the teams are:
Fake Chow (Lindley & Kansas City) vs. Horse Face (Sanchez & Ponder)
Shiva Cry (Fitzpatrick & Luck) vs. Doubleback Vineyards (Henne & Cousins)