Week 17:
For yet another year my opponent in the semifinal is the only team that my score isn't enough to beat while if I had faced anyone else I cruise into the championship. It's demoralizing every time it happens, but even more so than usual this season. This is one of the most solid rosters I've
ever put together. I absolutely hate that such a fantastic season ends like this, making the whole thing seem meaningless.
I had a great week, despite what the box score might suggest at first glance. Yes all of my receivers fell completely flat, but
all of my receivers did this week, including the ones on the bench. I knew going in there weren't good prospects for any of them, I played the ones that I thought had the best chances, and I was correct. I only had one move that could have scored better than these did, and it would have only been by a single point. That shows how bleak that position was this week.
So the loss wasn't the result of misplays in my lineup, I put up the best score I was able to this week, my opponent simply got a higher one. Normally that's the kind of loss I say I can't be upset about. But this time, yeah I can.
Laura had multiple duds of her own this week. Some were offset by a huge score from Adams, but not enough to salvage the matchup. What got her the win was a beyond huge score from Mike Evans - which was a complete and utter fluke! Seriously, where the heck did this number come from??
Yeah, this week is a hard one to swallow.
But accepting that that ridiculousness happened, I was never going to win this matchup. If Bills/Bengals had played out in full there was absolutely no way, Laura's QB was active so her margin would have shot way up. But even with the game cut where it was, the gap gets close but not close enough. There is one single lineup combination that would have put me ahead, by one point, but I never would have played it. It requires two specific player swaps and at any time this week I was only ever considering making one of them. Had I made that one the matchup would have been a nailbiter, but I would still have lost, by one point.
So it turns out my unbelievable Week 16 comeback win actually doomed my season. If I had lost there and taken the #2 seed I would have faced Presler in the semifinal and almost certainly have won and advanced. Definitely would have with the Bills/Bengals cancellation, but most likely still would have even if the game had been played in full. Week 16 meant nothing, I was locked into a playoff spot already, I should have intentionally tanked the matchup, but I don't play that way.
* Note: Because that is what goes into the league books, the above box score breakdown reflects the official scoring which discarded the half quarter of Monday Night Football that was played, but my postgame statements are treating our matchup as having a final score of 107-99 which is what it was at the time of the Monday Night suspension. I do not agree with ESPN zeroing those scores, I believe the partial play that did take place should have counted.
If we're going with this revised two point margin then there were any number of ways I could have tweaked my lineup that would have gotten the win, but I wouldn't have felt good about it. Honestly I probably would have requested permission to do a league manager override on Laura's score to add back those six QB points she had. I don't have to here since she still gets the win without them as things stand, which is only proper. She would have won our matchup handily had MNF been played in full, she won anyway with it played for only ten minutes when those stats were on the board, it wouldn't have been right if taking those points back had flipped the outcome.