Dying In This Fantasy World

This is why I hate fantasy football.

Apparently, the stats aren’t “official” for a day or two afterwards.  Also apparently, the Saints did something to warrant them losing 1 point in the score column.  More than likely, they didn’t get as many return yards as originally thought.  Long story short… instead of a 1 point victory, I tied.

/facepalm

Living In This Fantasy World

Tonight was why I love fantasy football.  Probably the most intense thing that I can participate in with this disgusting cough.

Going into tonights game, I was trailing by 5 points.  Our league is a little bit crazy, giving out massive amounts of points for all kinds of things.  Needless to say, when I saw that I had the Saints defense and my opponent had Roddy White remaining, I felt extremely confident that I could pull off the victory.

Then Roddy White went off.  Absolutely crazy game for him.  4 receptions (4 points) for 108 yards (10 points) and a TD (6 points).  At one point, he had a 7 yard TD reception (which would’ve given him an extra 8 points) called back by review.  Every Atlanta possession, I’m alternating back and forth between elation and frustration.  White just seemed to have our number.  Saints couldn’t seem to return any kicks at all (only 89 return yards tonight).  But 3 sacks and 2 INTs (including a pick-6) helped me stay close.  (Oh, and to make matters worse for the whole game… I was rooting for the Saints to win, since I chose them this week in Pick’em.)

And then the final sequence of plays/possessions occurred.

I’ll have to set this up a bit.  I’m trailing 150-148.  Atlanta has the ball, and they’re driving.  I’m crossing my fingers that White doesn’t touch the ball, hoping that the Saints can pull something off.  At one point, the Saints sack Ryan (+2) and he fumbles the football, and a linebacker recovers the football (+2).  4 point play, and I’m in the lead!  But no, it was just an incomplete pass… (-4).  Rawr!

So as the drive progresses, the Saints end off getting a sack on 3rd down (+2), forcing the Falcons to kick a field goal.  I’m tied now, so this is better than nothing, right?  Wrong… by kicking that field goal, the Falcons scored 27 points on the day, moving them into a different points bracket, and giving me -1 point.  Suddenly I’m trailing 150-149, and the Saints are going to recover the onside kick.  19% chance for kicking teams to recover… this is so over.

Nope!  Falcons recover an onside kick and start driving down the field.  My whole “don’t throw to White” chant comes out in full force again, and I get my wish.  At one point, White got his hands on it, but it was an incomplete pass.  Then, with 11 seconds to go, Matt Ryan chucked the ball down the field in a hail mary pass, which probably has an even less chance of succeeding than an onside kick, and the ball is picked off for a 3rd time by the Saints defense.  +2 points for Nic and the Skol Crushers (yes, I’m a Vikings fan… get off me), and a 1 point victory, 151-150.

Seriously, people… play fantasy football.  You’ll be so involved in the game, even if you’re only cheering for one particular player/defense.

What A Thriller…

So I want to tell you a little game about a football game.

Today, I had excellent seats for the Iowa/Indiana football game at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City.  And by excellent… well, 8 rows up, on the 46 yard line behind the Iowa bench.  Yeah, they’re good.  8-0 Iowa was taking on 4-4 Indiana, one of two teams that’s notorious for giving Iowa fits on occasion (the other being Northwestern, who Iowa plays next week).  Obviously, we had some expectations for a massive blowout.  The spread was 17.5 points today.  We’d cover that, right?

Not the way we thought…

Indiana got the ball right away, and marched straight down the field.  11 plays, 69 yards, 5:01, 7 points.  Iowa proceeds to get the ball on a great kick return, march down the field, 9 plays, and miss a field goal.  Great.

Then we get into the turnover drought.  INT at 1:16 of the 1st quarter.  Trading punts, including an 8 yard shank by our outstanding punter Donahue.  Trading TDs (now down 14-7).  Giving up another TD right before the end of the 1st half because our punt returner picked up a bouncing kick and couldn’t hold on to the football.  Down 21-7.  Obviously things aren’t looking good.  It was so quiet late in the 2nd, you could clearly hear players on the field.  Deathly quiet.

Iowa takes the kick to start the 2nd half.  5 plays, and an INT.  Next drive, 3 plays and an INT.  Indiana drives down to the 2 yard line.  And then… the game changer.  If you’ve watched Sportscenter already, you’ve seen the play.  The ball gets punched out of the Indiana QB’s hands, hits 2 Indiana players and 2 Iowa players before settling into Tyler Sash’s hands, and he was off to the races for an 86 yard INT TD.  #1 play on ESPN’s Top Ten of the night.  The crowd went absolutely insane.

And then the defense showed up.  Indiana took the ball down to the Iowa 3 yard line.  1st down, a run.  Stuffed.  2nd down, pass.  Batted down.  3rd down, Indiana throws a fade to the far end zone.  Catch, ruled a TD, overturned (questionably, but I’ll take it).  Indiana goes for a field goal… missed.  No points.  more insane crowd.

Oh look… we’re not done throwing INTs.  I think Stanzi was confused… he thought the Iowa players dressed up in white for Halloween.  2 more INTs thrown, making 4 total in the 3rd quarter.  Indiana gets a grand total of 3 points out of those.  That had to be frustrating.  Crowd is extremely pissed during all of this, because we’re having great opportunities and not doing anything about it.

And then we get to the 4th quarter… Down 24-14.  Iowa decides to go for style points (and the victory, of course).  1 play, 92 yard TD from Stanzi to McNutt.  Indiana has a 3 and out.  Next play, Stanzi to DJK for a 66 yard TD.  Next posession, Iowa gets an INT.  Wegher, the other true freshman running back on the Iowa squad, ends off getting a 6 yard TD run.  Another 3 and out for Indiana.  Iowa goes to run out the clock, and ends off punching in a 27 yard run.  2 plays and another INT for Indiana.

The amazing stats of the game?  4 INTs for Stanzi and Iowa in the 3rd quarter… 3 points for Indiana.  11 plays in the 4th quarter for Indiana… 2 INTs, 4 TDs given up to the Hawks in that time.  Stanzi in the 3rd: 4-11, 48 yards, 4 INTs.  Stanzi in the 4th: 3-3, 177 yards, 2 TDs.

Honestly, I’m still in a small bit of shock over the game.  I can’t really wrap my mind around what happened, or how it happened.  I’m waiting for this game to be replayed on ESPN Classic so I can watch it from the comfort of my home.  You can’t script a game like this… it’s like a bad horror film that the good guys finally rise up and kick the crap out of the bad guy.  Ironic that a game like this lands on Halloween.

The Hawkeye Marching Band doing the Thriller dance.

My best football moment was obviously when Cris Carter made his 1,000th career catch for a TD 15 rows in front of me in the Metrodome.  My best football game in attendance?  This one, by far.  What a Thriller…

Other notes from the day in sports:

- Tennessee’s black uniforms look outstanding.  So do Georgia’s black helmets.
- I called Oregon upsetting USC.  I didn’t call Oregon blowing out USC.  Yeesh. 47-20?  Owie.
- I predict right now that Texas takes over the #2 spot in the polls, with idle Alabama slipping to 3 and Iowa slipping to #5.  Oregon should vault over Iowa, TCU, Boise St. Cincy, and LSU and claim the #4 spot.
- If TCU, Boise St., Houston, or any other team have a desire to win a national championship, then they need to start scheduling some real football games.  Play Notre Dame.  Play a high level Big Ten team.  Play a mid-high level Big East/Big 12 team.
- I’m more excited to watch 20-and-under ranked teams play “bubble” teams than I am watching LSU play Tulane (insert other equally-good and equally-not-good teams at your discretion).  The Oregon/USC game was only good because it was an upset.  The Texas/Oklahoma State game was just dumb.  Conversely, Auburn beat #25 Ole Miss 33-20, and Tennessee beat #22 SoCar 31-13.  #19 Miami held on against Wake Forest 28-27.
- Case Keenum should win the Heisman trophy.  Screw the fact he plays for Houston.  44-54, 559 yds, 5 TDs is just insane.  And he’s been doing this all year.  And the team’s ranked #18 currently.  Deal with it, voters.

“Blowing The Whistle”

So tonight, I decided that I wanted to write a nice little article about the NBA.  I figured I’d talk about who I thought had the best chances to win (I’m guessing Spurs/Lakers in the West, and Cavs/Celtics in the East… but don’t count out the Magic, or even the Nuggets this season), how I’m actually excited to watch the NBA for the first time in a long time… you know, something positive.  I mean, think about it.  We have all these high-profile stars being traded everywhere, tons of stars that have expiring contracts and want to make the best possible impressions… this has the potential to be an amazing NBA season.

And then I checked my RSS reader.

I had 2 stories that really caught my eye out of my “most read feeds” section.  The first was about how Tim Donaghy’s book Blowing the Whistle was being yanked by the publisher (courtesy of ESPN), as well as some more in-depth reasoning behind it (courtesy of Deadspin.com).  The second was actual excerpts from the book (more Deadspin).

Regarding the book being yanked, here’s an excerpt from Deadspin:

About 10 months ago, [Donaghy] shopped the book to Triumph Books, an imprint of Random House, according to a source close to Donaghy. Triumph, the source says, “put forth a huge effort to verify every statement in that book.” (Triumph’s editorial director, Tom Bast, declined to comment.) Two weeks ago, Blowing the Whistle was ready for printing; 60 Minutes had plans to interview Donaghy in conjunction with the book’s publication. Then the NBA came calling. “They came after Random House and threatened a lawsuit,” the source says, “and Random House just rolled and decided to not go with it. It’s really that simple.” To his knowledge, no one at the NBA had actually read the book.

“Which is why,” he goes on, “Triumph was so intrigued as to why the parent company decided to not go with it. Because there was no logical reasoning other than an open threat. It just doesn’t make sense. If they had come down and said, ‘There are some specific things that are flat-out lies or they’re wrong and we think there are fabrications or something,’ then there’d be some basis to say, ‘OK, we need to back up and double-check this.’ But this was just an open comment. And so we don’t know what the specific basis of that potential suit might’ve been.”

The book no longer has an Amazon page; it’s cached here. Meanwhile, Donaghy is looking for another publisher. He may even self-publish. “It’s dead right now,” the source says. “The whole thing has fallen flat on its face. … Obviously, the NBA has got some people running scared.”

And here’s exactly why I think this book should be published… an actual excerpt from the book, talking about Dick Bavetta being the self-proclaimed “go-to” referee for the NBA in big time moments.

The 2002 series certainly wasn’t the first or last time [Dick] Bavetta weighed in on an important game. He also worked Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and the Trail Blazers. The Lakers were down by 13 at the start of the fourth quarter when Bavetta went to work. The Lakers outscored Portland 31–13 in the fourth quarter and went on to win the game and the series. It certainly didn’t hurt the Lakers that they got to shoot 37 free throws compared to a paltry 16 for the Trail Blazers.

Two weeks before the 2003–04 season ended, Bavetta and I were assigned to officiate a game in Oakland. That afternoon before the tip-off, we were discussing an upcoming game on our schedule. It was the last regular-season game we were scheduled to work, pitting Denver against San Antonio. Denver had lost a game a few weeks prior because of a mistake made by the referees, a loss that could be the difference between them making or missing the playoffs. Bavetta told me Denver needed the win and that it would look bad for the staff and the league if the Nuggets missed the playoffs by one game. There were still a few games left on the schedule before the end of the season, and the standings could potentially change. But on that day in Oakland, Bavetta looked at me and casually stated, “Denver will win if they need the game. That’s why I’m on it.”

I was thinking, How is Denver going to win on the road in San Antonio? At the time, the Spurs were arguably the best team in the league. Bavetta answered my question before it was asked.

“Duncan will be on the bench with three fouls within the first five minutes of the game,” he calmly stated.

Bavetta went on to inform me that it wasn’t the first time the NBA assigned him to a game for a specific purpose. He cited examples, including the 1993 playoff series when he put New Jersey guard Drazen Petrovic on the bench with quick fouls to help Cleveland beat the Nets. He also spoke openly about the 2002 Los Angeles–Sacramento series and called himself the NBA’s “go-to guy.”

As it turned out, Denver didn’t need the win after all; they locked up a spot in the playoffs before they got to San Antonio. In a twist of fate, it was the Spurs that ended up needing the win to have a shot at the division title, and Bavetta generously accommodated. In our pregame meeting, he talked about how important the game was to San Antonio and how meaningless it was to Denver, and that San Antonio was going to get the benefit of the calls that night. Armed with this inside information, I called Jack Concannon before the game and told him to bet the Spurs.

To no surprise, we won big. San Antonio blew Denver out of the building that evening, winning by 26 points. When Jack called me the following morning, he expressed amazement at the way an NBA game could be manipulated. Sobering, yes; amazing, no. That’s how the game is played in the National Basketball Association.

There’s many out there that wonder how true some of these allegations are… some of this stuff is just too difficult to make up, in my mind.  I’m really bummed now that this book has been yanked… if any of this stuff is true, I hope that David Stern, as well as all of the commissioners of every sports league, are taking a good hard look at their staff, from the front offices to the medical staff (with all the NFL talks about concussions and the team doctors clearing players) and the umpires/referees.  It amazes me that Stern looks at these claims as, and I quote, “baseless”… makes you wonder if he’s in on it too.

Pick’em

I’ve noticed something over the past few weeks… placing Pick’em’s here in the main page has made me extremely lazy.  No new posts, things like that.

So… if you take a look up at the top of the page, you will see 2 new links… NFL Pick’em, and NCAA Pick’em.  If you’re curious about checking out who’s picking whom and how the season is going, check there.  I’ll try and leave the main page for news-related things from now on.

It’s Time To Go Zebra Hunting…

I’m going to be really honest with you all today…

I’m getting really annoyed with officials in all leagues.

You look at today’s Vikings/Steelers game.  Vikings were driving, inside the 10, and got called for a tripping call on a TD pass.  There was absolutely no trip on the play.  The Vikings lineman got flattened, rolled to try and get back up, and some greedy Steeler tried to hurdle him and failed.

Or you look at the Defensive Delay of Game that was called.  Pretty sure no one moved, so I don’t know how this penalty was called.

I’m really happy Dugan flattened that line judge on Harvin’s kickoff return.  That’s the one that called the trip just 2 plays earlier.

Or what about the umpires in MLB?  Blowing tons of calls left and right, ones so obvious a 7 year old that’s just learning to play can do better.  An easy double play call at 3rd, missed.  Neither was on the base.  Both tagged.  How the hell do you miss that?  Or the base hit that was really a foul ball off the batter.  Etc. etc.

Look, I realize that being a ref/umpire is difficult.  They have split seconds to make a decision that we get to critique for a week afterwards.  But I’m starting to agree with Shawn a little more.  We had a debate this summer that has continued off and on throughout the semester about how the various sports should include more forms of electronic monitoring/instant replay.  While there’s something historic about the human element being a part of the game, these blunders are just stupid and easily correctable.

Here’s the kind of water cooler talk I’d like to hear… “Hey, did you see that game between the Steelers and the Vikings?  It was incredible!!!”

… and not… “Hey, did you see that game between the Steelers and the Vikings?  The refs really gave that game away…”

Good refs/umps are the ones that go completely unnoticed during the course of the game.  Make the correct calls, and get off the field.  When we talk about you the following morning at work, or hear about it on Sportscenter, that’s when people like me get really annoyed.

I’m going to be really honest with you all today…

I’m getting really annoyed with officials in all leagues.

You look at today’s Vikings/Steelers game.  Vikings were driving, inside the 10, and got called for a tripping call on a TD pass.  There was absolutely no trip on the play.  Dugan (Vikings FB) went for a block, went low, and some greedy Steeler tried to hurdle him and failed.  Feet flailed out, and so the refs called a trip.

Or you look at the Defensive Delay of Game that was called.  Pretty sure no one moved, so I don’t know how this penalty was called.

I’m really happy Dugan flattened that line judge on Harvin’s kickoff return.  That’s the one that called the trip just a few plays earlier.

Or what about the umpires in MLB?  Blowing tons of calls left and right, ones so obvious a 7 year old that’s just learning to play can do better.  An easy double play call at 3rd, missed.  Neither was on the base.  Both tagged.  How the hell do you miss that?  Or the base hit that was really a foul ball off the batter.  Etc. etc.

Look, I realize that being a ref/umpire is difficult.  They have split seconds to make a decision that we get to critique for a week afterwards.  But I’m starting to agree with Shawn a little more.  We had a debate this summer that has continued off and on throughout the semester about how the various sports should include more forms of electronic monitoring/instant replay.  While there’s something historic about the human element being a part of the game, these blunders are just stupid and easily correctable.

Here’s the kind of water cooler talk I’d like to hear… “Hey, did you see that game between the Steelers and the Vikings?  It was incredible!!!”

… and not… “Hey, did you see that game between the Steelers and the Vikings?  The refs really gave that game away…”

Good refs/umps are the ones that go completely unnoticed during the course of the game.  Make the correct calls, and get off the field.  When we talk about you the following morning at work, or hear about it on Sportscenter, that’s when people like me get really annoyed.

Great Quote

A great quote from the great Vince Lombardi…

“Football is not a contact sport.  Dancing is a contact sport.  Football is a collision sport.”

Falling In Love, All Over Again

I love sports.

There’s really no question about it.  Sports rock.  Drama, passion, excitement.  The thrills and joy when your team wins.  The sadness and heartbreak when they don’t.  I’m sitting here right now rooting my heart out for the Angels, just because I hate the Yankees that much.  (Is that like hoping that an ex acquires an STD from a Peruvian transvestite?  Meh… I digress…)

But out of everything, football has to be my favorite sport.  The physicality, the aggression, and the size matched up with the guts, intelligence, and speed.  Brief spurts of action followed by a moment to catch your breath.  More “ooo” and “aaah” moments than Christmas morning.  College or professional, there’s something there for everyone.

Last year, football and I had a little bit of a falling out.  I had other things (work and World of Warcraft… *shudder*) occupying my time, and I just didn’t follow football like I used to.  It was really unfortunate.  The only game that I have any sort of recollection over is the Iowa upset over then-#3 Penn State.  I vowed pretty much from that time forward that I would not let football (nor any other sport) escape me again.

“Ah, but how can you do that?  If you’re busy, or you have other things you want to do, what’s going to get you to pay attention any more than you did last year?”  That’s the simple question… I’ll tell you how, in 3 easy steps.

1) Do a Pick’em with friends/online. To get immersed in a sport, there is no better option than this.  I’m serious.  Every week, me and 7 of my friends pick winners for a handful of NCAA football games, and 6 of them join me in picking all the NFL games every week.  You have to study the teams, know who’s good at what, and (of course) get a little lucky.  Originally I thought it would be something that I’d have to work really hard at getting people to participate, but I usually have their picks back to me by Wednesday at the latest.  It’s simple, it’s easy, it’s fun, and if you have enough people, it can turn into a nice little competition.

2) Participate in fantasy sports. The only way to really get more immersed than just doing pick’ems is to do fantasy sports.  Pick’ems is all about following a team, but you have to follow the players themselves in fantasy.  How is this running back going to fare against this defense?  Is this guy going to have a better day than this one?  Still a lot of luck involved, but also a lot of common sense.  (Side note: any time I see a stat line for a player now, I instantly convert those stats into their fantasy points in my league.  Kinda pathetic, but also extremely humorous.)  If you think you like a sport, and think you know a thing or two about the players, this will be a great thing for you.

3) Watch teams you don’t normally follow. To best describe this, I need to transition to a different sport.  In college basketball, I follow a couple different leagues… Big 10, Big 12, ACC, and the Missouri Valley.  Never have been a Big East guy until last year (go see my very very early post for talks about the big men in that league last year).  One night in early/mid March, I didn’t have much to do, and decided to turn on ESPN to their basketball game.  Syracuse/UConn.  For those that don’t remember… this was the Big East tournament game that ended off Syracuse 127, UConn 117 in 6 overtimes.  6.  Seriously, that was the best singular sporting event that I’ve ever seen (beating out any of the Yankees/Red Sox 2004 ALCS games, hands down).  I knew a handful of names, I knew the team’s reputations, and that’s about it.  Now?  I’m not going to miss a Big East game if I can avoid it this upcoming season.  You truly never know when you’re going to see an epic game, and you always have to keep your eyes open (or get a nice TV with Picture in Picture).

I guess you could even compare the Packers/Vikings game we already had this season to this.  The highest rated cable television show ever, most of them watching just because it’s Favre playing against his former team.  I’m extremely curious how many of those people were just casual fans, tuning in because of the “magnitude of the game”, and how many of those people have continued to follow either of those teams (or the NFL in general) ever since.

I really can’t wait.  Each week, I’m looking forward to every game, every score, every run and pass, every sack.  I’m already looking forward to college basketball, (some) NBA, more hockey, the Olympics, the World Cup, the start of the next baseball season… I love it.

Maybe this is why I don’t have a girlfriend…

Week 7 NFL Pick’em

This is also one of the crappiest weeks in terms of football games.  You know its bad when the majority of us are picking the road teams for every single early game.

• Green Bay (Nic, Detweiler, Drew, Curt, Jessa, Shawn, Sam) @ Cleveland
• San Diego (Nic, Detweiler, Drew, Curt, Shawn, Sam) @ Kansas City (Jessa)
• Indianapolis (Nic, Detweiler, Drew, Curt, Jessa, Shawn, Sam) @ St. Louis
• Minnesota (Nic, Detweiler, Curt, Shawn) @ Pittsburgh (Drew, Jessa, Sam) – This game broke my heart. Ugh.
• New England (Nic, Detweiler, Drew, Curt, Jessa, Shawn, Sam) @ Tampa Bay
• San Francisco (Nic, Detweiler, Jessa, Shawn) @ Houston (Drew, Curt, Sam)

• Buffalo (Nic, Drew) @ Carolina (Detweiler, Curt, Jessa, Shawn, Sam)
• NY Jets (Nic, Drew, Curt, Jessa, Shawn, Sam) @ Oakland (Detweiler)
• Atlanta (Detweiler, Jessa, Shawn) @ Dallas (Nic, Drew, Curt, Sam)
• Chicago (Detweiler, Drew, Curt) @ Cincinnati (Nic, Jessa, Shawn, Sam)
• New Orleans (Nic, Detweiler, Drew, Curt, Jessa, Shawn) @ Miami (Sam)

• Arizona (Shawn) @ NY Giants (Nic, Detweiler, Drew, Curt, Jessa, Sam) – I’m super surprised we didn’t get more picks for Arizona, especially after the Saints threw all over NY last week.
• Philadelphia (Nic, Detweiler, Drew, Curt, Jessa, Shawn, Sam) @ Washington (seriously?  What a s*** MNF game…)

Tiebreaker: Combined score of the New Orleans/Miami game: Sam – 41, Jessa – 47, Shawn – 50, Drew – 55, Detweiler – 56, Curt – 56, TOTAL SCORE OF 80 POINTS, Nic – 81

And here are the updated standings…

• Drew – 11-2, 31-10 overall
• Nic – 10-3, 30-11 overall (+1 tiebreaker)
• Jessa – 8-5, 28-13 overall
• Shawn – 9-4, 27-14 overall
• Curt – 9-4, 27-14 overall
• Sam – 10-3, 26-15 overall
• Detweiler – 6-7, 24-17 overall

Oct. 24 NCAA Pick’em

I *really* need to figure out something to write about.  Just doing pick’ems gets boring.  Plus, this week really kinda sucked for games to pick.

• South Florida (Nic, Detweiler, Drew, Jessa, Shawn) @ #20 Pittsburgh (Curt, Sam, Doug)
• Iowa State @ Nebraska (Nic, Detweiler, Curt, Drew, Sam, Jessa, Shawn, Doug) – Gotta love the in-state support.  Haha.
• Oklahoma (Nic, Detweiler, Drew, Sam, Shawn, Doug) @ #25 Kansas (Curt, Jessa) – Love the disparity in picks for this game.
• Boston College (Jessa) @ Notre Dame (Nic, Detweiler, Curt, Drew, Sam, Shawn, Doug)
• UCLA @ #22 Arizona (Nic, Detweiler, Curt, Drew, Sam, Jessa, Shawn, Doug) – After getting beaten by Cal, I’m not sure why I let UCLA back into my pick’em list this week.
• #8 TCU (Nic, Shawn, Doug) @ #16 BYU (Detweiler, Curt, Drew, Sam, Jessa) – Easily the best/most important game of the week.

Tiebreaker: Margin of victory in the TCU/BYU game?  Drew 3, Nic – 6, Shawn – 6, Detweiler – 7, Jessa – 12, Doug – 13, Curt – 17, Sam – 69 (Pretty sure he thought it was total score, but that’s what he put… learn to read, college boy!)

So, here are the rankings…

• Doug – 5-1, 11-6 overall
• Detweiler – 3-3, 11-6 overall
• Nic – 4-2, 10-7 overall (+1 tiebreaker)
• Drew – 3-3, 10-7 overall
• Shawn – 4-2, 10-7 overall
• Sam – 4-2, 9-8 overall
• Curt – 2-4, 8-9 overall (+1 tiebreaker for being closest to the 31 pt. margin of victory this week)
• Jessa – 1-5, 7-10 overall (our resident “Ouch” of the week)

I’m hoping next week has a better slate of games (aka Nebraska not turning the ball over 8 times, UCLA showing up, and the Iowa Hawkeyes not giving me a heart attack).

Doug – 5-1, 11-6 overal