No one on this board picked the Colts to win, so for a while Ben Lapidot was the frontrunner for predicting the narrowest Raven win (26-20). Then the semi-miraculous comeback happened. So hats off to Lazy Daze for coming closest (31-17), and Ben still deserves an honorable mention for correctly predicting a six-point win.
For Baltimore, the fantasy results played out largely as expected. Yesterday I wrote that "Marquise Brown will continue to thrive, Mark Andrews can enjoy another TE1 outing, Sammy Watkins still offers some streamability, and either Devin Duvernay or James Proche is a deep-league dart throw." Watkins' injury opened the door for more production out of Brown and Andrews. It took awhile last night, but the points eventually game. I also warned that Latavius Murray was unstartable despite earning nearly 20 touches last week.
For Indy, a brutal loss. The Ravens' Justin Tucker kicked only one field goal and zero extra points, yet he was clearly the most valuable kicker on the field. Carson Wentz surprised me, as did Jonathan Taylor, who's obviously no longer a buy-low candidate after a sluggish opening three games. Congrats if you were able to trade for him earlier. And Michael Pittman came through again. He was my WR-39 this summer compared to a WR-45 ADP--so a slight bargain. He's currently the 24th best fantasy WR. It will be interesting to see what happens whenever T.Y. Hilton returns.
So I'll admit something here: I dozed off in the first half. Which is a little like dozing off at work, since watching and writing about football is now my job. But it was a long day, and I entered the night needing 31 points from Mark Andrews in our Premier Fantasy Football League. And for obvious reasons I wasn't that excited to observe my gradual defeat. My wife woke me up in the fourth, just in time to watch Andrews somehow collecting 27.8 points in the final minutes to take the W.
I want to take a moment to explain what it took to eke out this fantasy win, because I think it sums up everything I believe about team management. We have to be active participants in our success. We can't control games, but we can control probabilities.
Desperate for a win, I picked up Kadarius Toney and then traded Kenny Golladay for Laviska Shenault on Friday. Since I would have started Golladay, that bought be about seven points (though I expected Shenault to have a bigger afternoon). Later that day I swapped Toney and Michael Thomas for Antonio Brown and Latavius Murray. Despite Toney's heroics, that trade netted me another two points thanks to Brown going off against the Dolphins. Then I flipped Murray for Sony Michel (you can read why I had no faith in Murray's staying power here: www.profootballnetwork.com/top-ravens-rb-to-roster-latavius-murray-tyson-williams-leveon-bell-or-devonta-freeman/).
Finally, on Sunday I made the tough decision to start Allen Robinson over Clyde Edwards-Helaire in my flex. That got me another four points.
These trades and that last-minute lineup decision proved to be the difference between winning and losing. Andrews' improbable performance was just that. I got lucky. It was the second best fantasy TE effort since 2014. And yet, my roster decisions leading up to Monday night were designed to maximize my chance of success. Shenault seemed better than Golladay. AB seemed better than Toney. Robinson seemed better than CEH. And the probabilities worked out.
This is why I refuse to believe any of us are powerless to improve our teams. Good luck and bad luck will always influence results. But they're not the only predictors. We have an important part to play. So heading into Week 6, let's do our part.
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Fantasy Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-the-mood-for-fantasy-football/id1580114372
For Baltimore, the fantasy results played out largely as expected. Yesterday I wrote that "Marquise Brown will continue to thrive, Mark Andrews can enjoy another TE1 outing, Sammy Watkins still offers some streamability, and either Devin Duvernay or James Proche is a deep-league dart throw." Watkins' injury opened the door for more production out of Brown and Andrews. It took awhile last night, but the points eventually game. I also warned that Latavius Murray was unstartable despite earning nearly 20 touches last week.
For Indy, a brutal loss. The Ravens' Justin Tucker kicked only one field goal and zero extra points, yet he was clearly the most valuable kicker on the field. Carson Wentz surprised me, as did Jonathan Taylor, who's obviously no longer a buy-low candidate after a sluggish opening three games. Congrats if you were able to trade for him earlier. And Michael Pittman came through again. He was my WR-39 this summer compared to a WR-45 ADP--so a slight bargain. He's currently the 24th best fantasy WR. It will be interesting to see what happens whenever T.Y. Hilton returns.
So I'll admit something here: I dozed off in the first half. Which is a little like dozing off at work, since watching and writing about football is now my job. But it was a long day, and I entered the night needing 31 points from Mark Andrews in our Premier Fantasy Football League. And for obvious reasons I wasn't that excited to observe my gradual defeat. My wife woke me up in the fourth, just in time to watch Andrews somehow collecting 27.8 points in the final minutes to take the W.
I want to take a moment to explain what it took to eke out this fantasy win, because I think it sums up everything I believe about team management. We have to be active participants in our success. We can't control games, but we can control probabilities.
Desperate for a win, I picked up Kadarius Toney and then traded Kenny Golladay for Laviska Shenault on Friday. Since I would have started Golladay, that bought be about seven points (though I expected Shenault to have a bigger afternoon). Later that day I swapped Toney and Michael Thomas for Antonio Brown and Latavius Murray. Despite Toney's heroics, that trade netted me another two points thanks to Brown going off against the Dolphins. Then I flipped Murray for Sony Michel (you can read why I had no faith in Murray's staying power here: www.profootballnetwork.com/top-ravens-rb-to-roster-latavius-murray-tyson-williams-leveon-bell-or-devonta-freeman/).
Finally, on Sunday I made the tough decision to start Allen Robinson over Clyde Edwards-Helaire in my flex. That got me another four points.
These trades and that last-minute lineup decision proved to be the difference between winning and losing. Andrews' improbable performance was just that. I got lucky. It was the second best fantasy TE effort since 2014. And yet, my roster decisions leading up to Monday night were designed to maximize my chance of success. Shenault seemed better than Golladay. AB seemed better than Toney. Robinson seemed better than CEH. And the probabilities worked out.
This is why I refuse to believe any of us are powerless to improve our teams. Good luck and bad luck will always influence results. But they're not the only predictors. We have an important part to play. So heading into Week 6, let's do our part.
---
Fantasy Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-the-mood-for-fantasy-football/id1580114372