December 29, 2020: Sleeping Dogs Rule

Getting 6 TDs from my first fantasy player during championship week should have been enough to get my first Fantasy Football title in this league I’ve been playing in for over a decade, right? Well…

Well, I wish it was that simple. Paying $53 for Kamara back in our auction draft was worth every penny. Kamara was one of only five guys that I drafted that were in my starting lineup in championship week. He was a no brainer to have in the lineup; no double thinking that one. There was another player I thought was a no brainer. Brandon Aiyuk, who I drafted for $1 btw, was another guy I was not considering removing from the lineup. He rewarded me with an absolute dud of a performance on Saturday. That’s OK… I have some Dolphins on my roster. Here was where my Joe Maddon Game 7 decision making started kicking in. I had Myles Gaskin and Lynn Bowden Jr, both undrafted free agents for my team. Gaskin was coming back from COVID, joining a backfield that had a great performance last week from Ahmed. Bowden Jr had some good games, and without WR Parker for the Dolphins, thought would be a solid choice this week as well. Play both? Well, I was certainly going to play one of them since they were playing the Raiders, my opponent in this week’s title game favorite team. I did… and I picked Bowden. Yeah, my first great move. 33.90 points on the bench with Gaskin; 3.60 points locked in for Bowden. Great, just great…

Now what do I do for an encore? How about benching a player I did draft in Juju? Yep, I did that too. 23.60 more points left on the bench. Why couldn’t I just leave my lineup as is? Why did I have to try to be a genius? This is killing me… Yet, for the entire weekend up until the 3pm Sunday games, I was still favored to win. Keke Coutee was in my lineup too for the first time this season in the final week; he did OK. Mark Andrews, who I did draft, did fine. Another draft pick Miles Sanders did well in the 2nd set of games on Sunday, as did Fant (drafted) and Herbert (undrafted), yet as the Cowboys Eagles game winded down, I was finally favored to lose. In fact, it was the 4th quarter of the game when I lost the lead… I thought for good. Going against Hurts, only having Sanders on my team, I thought I was dead. What happened next was unbelievable.

Hurts fumbled…. minus points. I took the lead again, but the game was not over. Heck, I heard it wasn’t even a fumble. Hey, the refs called it, so… That wouldn’t be enough though. As he lead the final Eagles drive, I fell behind again… certainly for the last time. The only thing that could help me is another fumble or… AN INT!!! Yes, he threw a pick; yes, he got more minus points. YES, I won… by 0.3 pts!!!! Holy shit!!!

I tried my hardest to screw this up, but in the end, it must have been destiny. Winning my first round game with 3 Mark Andrews receptions in the final minute. Winning my semifinal game by picking up Tony Pollard 45 minutes before the game. Now needing 6 TDs to overcome my stupidity to win the finals by 0.3 pts? I will say a couple more things. Although the defense I had, the Browns who I had picked up weeks ago exactly for this moment, didn’t really pan out, it was the other move I made this week that turned out to be huge. I replaced Robbie Gould with Cairo Santos, turning 2 points into 12 points; see, everything I did wasn’t stupid! But finally, at the end of the day, it was a moment early in this season that was the reason I won. I was showing my son my fantasy team; he wanted me to add a picture. I don’t like putting my son’s picture all over the internet, so my son picked out a picture of our dog; our pup was laying down, looking exhausted, looking like she was sleeping. Since we added a picture, I certainly needed to change my team name of Chicago Blitz. Heck, what has that name done for me? Nada. OK, I got it: Sleeping Dogs. Yep, adding a picture, changing my team name mid-season, THAT was the difference… the fantasy football gods agree. Sleeping Dogs Rule!!!