Weeks 8 - 13 Unicorn of the Week and Mini Recap

It is official - I am a terrible Fantasy Football blogger. The fall is just so busy for me in all aspects of my life and I just feel really behind. Next year I will be more realistic and better prepared because I did have a lot of fun with this!

After a little rough patch the last part of the "season" before playoffs was really great for me winning all but 1 game! Go Sports, Go! :)  Without further delay here are the Unicorns of the Week(s) for Weeks 8-13!

Week 8 was a close one but Justin Tucker really kicked it out of the park with 20 points! Hahaha! Get it? Kicked it out of the park! Because he is the kicker.... Look at me making bad football jokes!

Week 9 was the first and only tie of the season. Both Brees and Brown have been awesome for Team Sports, Go Sports and have held the honor of Unicorn of the Week more than once. 

Week 10 was the only loss in the second half of the season. It was just kind of a crappy week for my entire team except Antonio Brown. 

Week 11 was another one for the win column, but it was actually a crappy week score wise. I just got lucky that I was playing someone who ended with several negative numbers on the score board. That said I was super excited the Unicorn of the Week was finally my D/ST because I have wanted to put a horn on a team mascot all season! 

Week 12 was a crazy week. Half my team had a terrible week and the other half had a great one! I really thought the Panthers D/ST was going to pull out a second win, but at the last minute Brandon Marshall slide right in by 1 point to capture his second Unicorn of the Week win this season! 

Week 13 brought a third win for Antonio Brown and an awesome win for team Sports, Go Sports! I was playing team Witten Up For Bad Behavior who had been in first place and I didn't think there was a chance in hell that I would win. Then Antonio Brown went nuts and secured a win on the final week of the regular Fantasy Football season! 

After a pretty great first Fantasy Football season I made it to the playoffs! Woohoo! I know the chances of winning are so slim I can't even seem them, but that is okay. It was my first year. I really had no clue what I was doing. Seriously I could have named maybe 5 football players before this started. Excited to see where I end after the playoffs and will be ready to dominate next year!! :) 

Week 7 - Unicorn of the Week and Recap

Well once again - Kipper was right. Arian Foster paid off and is the Unicorn of the Week for the second week in a row!

Then he hurt himself again. Now he is out for the season. Sigh.

This week Team Sports Go, Sports was back in business racking up 110 points. Of course we had to play against a high scoring opponent who beat us with 131. This loss stung more than any other one. You see, Kipper drafted Lamar Miller for me and I was very loyal to him for the first 6 weeks.

Week after week he brought in less than half of his projected score so I finally dropped him. Then Amy Watts picked him up and he freaking scored 35 points!! 35 points people. If I would have kept him I would have won week 7 with flying colors. Sigh.

At least we are still holding strong to 4th place and still on target for the playoffs.

Week 6 - Unicorn of the Week and Recap

Kipper drafted Arian Foster and told me once he came back from being injured he would pay off in a big way. Well my friends I have been waiting and waiting and finally in Week 6 he showed up. I wish I could say the same thing for the majority of Team Sports, Go Sports. 

Another loss, worse than the week before. But I'm still hanging on to 4th place and projected for playoffs. Hoping for a better Week 7 and for life to slow down so that I can have the time to write a proper recap!

Better Late Than Never - Week 5 - Unicorn of the Week and Recap

Life has been a little CRAZY at work and home. I tried to stay on top of things but Team Sports, Go Sports felt the affects of the crazy. This week the Unicorn of the Week was easy - he was the ONLY freaking player to score above projection.

Seriously.

The. Only. Freaking. One.

Dion Lewis, thanks for being basically the only one who showed up and made it happen for Week 5.

Needless to say...we lost Week 5. I'm pretending not the be angry and a little bitter.

Week 4 - Unicorn of the Week and Recap

After team Sports, Go Sports terrible showing in Week 3, I didn't have high hopes for Week 4. But I still did my research and made my plan. Somethings worked out well for me, others not so much. Before we get into all that let's talk Unicorn of the Week (because I know the suspense is KILLING you!) 

For the first time ever we had a TIE for Unicorn of the Week! Last time I looked at my points there was 45 seconds left in the Saints vs. Cowboys game and the Panthers D/ST was the hands down winner. The suddenly my Facebook timeline started blowing up about the overtime touchdown and sure enough Drew Brees' points had jumped.

Breaking the tie was easy. Not only did Brees help win the game in overtime, he also reached two major milestones of his career. It was only natural that he had the honor of wearing the golden horn as the Unicorn of the Week for Week 4!

The winning touchdown was Brees' 400 career touchdown pass. Making him the fifth player in NFL history to reach reach this milestone. Earlier in the game he also reached 5,000 career completions to join Brett Favre and Peyton Manning as the only NFL quarterbacks to ever achieve that feat. And just think, he gets to top it off with the highest honor of Unicorn of the Week!! Not a bad way to come back from an injury. :)

This week I did take chances. Thankfully two of them paid off.

1. Drew Brees I almost didn't play him this week since I wasn't 100% sure if he would be back or if he was how well he would do.  My NFL despising husband loves him and from everything I have read so do his teammates. He seems like an all around awesome guy so  at the last minute I decided to chance it. Plus his little family is really adorable. Like REALLY adorable.

2. Panthers D/ST Everything I read said that they would be the big wildcard of D/ST this week. They could pay off really well or be super disappointing. Since I knew the Texans were playing Atlanta I decided to roll the dice and see what happened. At one point they were up to 25 points but by the time it was said and done they finished with 15. Compared to the -4 by my benched Texans, I think I made a good call.

3. Arian Foster This guy has been sitting on my bench waiting for his big return. Kipper and Ricky both kept telling me once he came back he would pay off big.  Well he came back this week, but 1 stinking point is far from paying off in anyway, shape or size. I am going to chalk it up to return game jitters and the fact that he isn't completely healthy yet. If he doesn't get it together he and his grumpy face photo are going to be getting the boot!

4. Lamar Miller I don't know what it is about this guy. The first week I said he was about to be dead to me but then he pulled through. Every week since then he has fallen short of his projections but some reason I keep putting him back in. After another lousy week and only bringing in 3 points he might be done on team Sports, Go Sports. He has caused too many glittery unicorn tears to be shed.

When it was all said and done, I was able to squeak out a win by a 2 points - Thank you Drew Brees!!  Team Sports, Go Sports is now 3-1.  Till next week my friends when we take on team Shake and Bake!

Week 3 - Unicorn of the Week and Recap

Oh Week 3 you were NOT my friend. Not only did I have a terrible week, others in the league had a freaking amazeballs week with multiple players racking up close to 30+ each. Lots of glittered unicorn tears were shed as one week has taken team Sports, Go Sports from first place to fourth!!!

The Unicorn of the Week was once again not my highest scoring player but had the largest percent increase from projection. It was really close between but Brandon Marshall squeaked into the honor this week. He also had something else to celebrate - passing 10,000 career receiving yards. Something only 44 other NFL players can say about their careers. 

Unfortunately the excitement of that milestone was upstaged by a failed lateral (some kind of play that is risky) that he called "probably the worst play in NFL history!"  The fact that someone who said they made the worst play in NFL history is the Unicorn of the Week should tell you pretty much everything you need to know about my bad Fantasy Football week! 

Here is to a better week as team Sports, Go Sports takes on third place Team L Train.

Week 2 - Unicorn of the Week and Recap

Week 2 of Fantasy Football has come to a close. I know you have been waiting in the edge of your seats to see who will be the coveted Sports, Go Sports "Unicorn of the Week" for Week 2!  (If you have no idea what I am talking about and think the Allie you know and love has been abducted by aliens...start here.) 

Just like Week 1, this week's Unicorn of the Week was picked off of points only. He wasn't my highest scoring player but he did come in 12 points over projection. That was the largest percent increase from projection (86% increase to be exact!) of any player this week thus landing DeAngelo Williams top honors as Unicorn of the Week!! Williams has been really good for me the last two weeks so I am bummed that Le'Veon Bell is coming back from his two game suspension so his playing time will be limited. :( 

Overall I had a really great week, scoring 113 points and winning my match up by 75 points! It was my first experience with some benched players doing better than my actual team. Everything I read said to keep Colin Kaepernick on the bench so I stayed with Drew Brees. Well Brees only scored 12 points  where Kaepernick brought in 26.  I also gave my friend Lamar Miller another shot since he pulled through for me in Week 1. Of course he got hurt and didn't return to the game, only bringing in 3 points. All the while benched David Johnson racked up 16 points! ahh! 

And because I am a sweet and wonderful wife, I will publicly admit that this one time Kipper was right. I should have played the Texans D/ST. The Rams were projected nearly 5 points higher than the Texans so I went with the Rams. This resulted in a 2 point loss for me... sigh. 

This coming week I am going to do a little more research on my players so that my only strategy isn't who is projected the highest. I want to keep my winning steak going as I face off with AJ this week! But for now, while I am sure this will be short lived,  I'm going to celebrate the fact that I currently have the highest points in our league!! 

Yay Athleticism!! 

That One Time I Joined A Fantasy Football League

Most of my friends are big football people. I am not. They call it football season. I call it tailgate season. They say halftime. I ask how much longer till intermission.

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE Football Sundays. They are normally my favorite part of the week. Generally it means yummy food and my best friends spending the day together where most everyone happens to be paying attention to football.  My version of Football Sunday looks more like this:

With the gangs love of football there is a natural love of Fantasy Football. Most play in multiple leagues and it can be a little competitive. This year I got a wild hair and decided to join the girls league - Wine Women! The buy in was a bottle of wine and the winner takes all. I know nothing about football or Fantasy Football (I wanted to draft a cheerleader for Kipper's team last year...) but I love wine so why not!

Unfortunately I had something come up and was late to the draft party so Kipper had to draft for me. This could have been good or bad. He knows a lot more about football, but isn't a fan of the NFL. I am pretty sure he tried his hardest to draft only players who were good role models and had never been to jail! Ha. Anyway it was official team Sports, Go Sports was born. (if you don't get them name you must check this song out) And our mascot is a unicorn and I imagine our team wears awesome rhinestone and glittered uniforms.

After that I sort of forgot I had signed up until a few days before Kipper asked if I had checked my team roster to make sure no one was out hurt. What?!?! I sort of thought you drafted and that was it. I didn't realize you had players on bench or that you could trade players. Suddenly my competitiveness set in and I need to know everything there was to know so I could win!!

Lessons of the Week:

1. Projection Numbers  At first I thought if a player had a projection of 1 that meant they were the top pick. Then I realized lots of people had 1's. This isn't golf and the lowest score doesn't win. Glad I figured that out before this week got started or I would have had the lowest score in the history of Fantasy Football. 

2. Player Selection   This might be the most important part of playing Fantasy Football. I started out following in Kipper's footsteps by googling players to see what type of person they appeared to be off the field.  After about 2 players I realized that was a lot of work so I would just go off of projections and if I thought they looked friendly or fun in their profile photo. Overall this did workout pretty well for me except in the case of a Running Back. Originally I had David Johnson from the Arizona Cardinals who was projected at 4 points. I switched him out at the last minute for Alfred Blue of the Texans because he was projected at 9 points and he was extra smiley in his photo. I also thought it he did well I could yell "You're my boy Blue!" which makes me giggle. Well in the long run Mr. Smiley Pants only brought in 4 points and guy on the bench brought in 11. 

3. Follow Your Gut  Kipper told me to keep the Texans as my D/ST (still don't really know what that is) but the Panthers were projected just a little higher. Since it was a team thing I couldn't really use the smiley photo thing as a tie breaker. At the very last minute I made the switch and it paid off big - 20 more points than if I would have kept the Texans! This could be beginners luck, but I'll take it.

Honestly can't believe I had so much fun playing this week and I didn't even have to watch football! I'm sure the fact that I had a good week and racked up 112 points out of a projected 100 didn't hurt. 

I had so much fun I decided I would turn this experience into a fun blog series. It would force me to get back into regular blogging and  I figure something funny has to come out of this - starting with the Week 1 Unicorn of the Week!!!  

For Week 1 the Unicorn of the Week was picked off of points only. He wasn't my highest scoring player but he did come in 11 points over projection. That was the largest percent increase from projection of any player this week thus landing Jason Witten the honor of being the first ever Sports, Go Sports Unicorn of the Week!! 

Here is hoping the beginners luck carries on to week 2! :)