Playoff Stuff
All Time Playoff Stats & Records
This includes appearances from this year, the first round, and the second round…. Will update as the Ship finishes.
Tale of the Tape
Roster Analysis
Power Rankings
Prediction
What if I told you… Kirk Cousins, Stefon Diggs, Denard Robinson, Bilal Powell, Charcandrick West, Ted Ginn, and maybe Hightower would be starting in the Championship?
Well, let’s start with the obvious… Jack Reachers have dominated pretty much all year and were destined for the Championship. Here we are. However, this is an odd time of year for fantasy. So many injuries and guys getting benched or rested. Reachers, only sitting 15 points back after the first week find themselves in a pickle. Beckham suspended (as he should be), McCoy hurt, Luck still out, and Yeldon hurt (although Denard is just as good right now). Not the ideal situation for a Championship. Still, they have built themselves to not only have a great starting core, but solid depth. Obviously they would want McCoy and OBJ in there, but we have seen that guys like Ginn and Diggs can go off any week.
MSIDE’s Year has had a roller coaster ride of a year to get to this point. Probably having the best draft of the year in terms of rankings right now (he actually did draft Baldwin, as well as David Johnson and J-Stew). However, David and Stewert only started to turn it on after he traded them away. Dealing with injuries, his starting RB’s have basically been a turnstile for the year. It didn’t matter. With Palmer, Walker, and Jones+Landry leading the way he was able to use the wire and play match-ups to find success. Now he sits with a 15 point lead and a hindered Reachers squad. It obviously has to feel good being in that position instead of the reverse, but it’s not anywhere near a comfortable one…. and it’s certainly not over.
Like last year for my prediction, which is all BS, I’ll go game times by game times…
Thursday Game: Chargers @ Raiders
Start Score: 135 – 120 MSIDE
Cooper: The only person going from either team in this one will be Amari Cooper for the Reachers. Going into last week Josh Norman was the highest rated CB in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus (PFF). It was great for Reachers that OBJ had the game he did, which caused Norman to drop to second with a grade of 89. The bad news.. the new #1 CB in the league with a PFF score of 90 is Jason Verrett. He is covering Cooper this week. If he covers him most of the game I can see Cooper pulling in a few for minimal gains, but taking advantage of any time he is not covering him. 6 catches – 76 yards, no score. 13.
Saturday Game: Redskins @ Eagles
Start Score: 135 – 133 MSIDE
Cousins: Like Thursday, Reachers again with the only player going on the Saturday Night game. Cousins has been a pretty great play lately and I think that continues this week. The Skins have been airing it out and are fighing for the divisional title. With a huge game vs the Eagles and a healthy receiving core (including Reed), I can see Captain Kirk going for 325 and 3 scores. Maybe one pick to bring that down to 23.
Sunday 1PM:
Start Score: 156 – 135 Reachers
West: He is back to full health and the Chiefs are fighting for a wildcard if not the division. Ware has been serviceable though. So, I see a heavy dosage of West with Ware sprinkled in here and there. Cleveland has been better against the run recently, but I don’t see that mattering this week. 2 Catches 10 Yards, 75 rushing, and a score. 16
Forte: Contract year and both teams are eliminated from the playoffs. He should still get a solid work load with Langford spelling him probably a little more often. TB has been decent vs the run, but that won’t matter much. 82 yards, 2 catch – 28 yards, and a score. 18.
Powell: Here is a tricky one for me to guess. Again, the Jets are fighting for a spot in the post season and Powell has been fully utilized recently (especially in the pass game). I see that trend continuing with Ivory seeing the bulk of the carries. The only difference this week is that I don’t see him getting in the end zone. 19 rushing, 5 catches, 56 receiving for 11.
Jones: Well, last week OBJ had him and this week Julio will go against Norman. As I mentioned in the Cooper snippet, Norman has dropped to the second highest rated CB. That isn’t going to sit well with him. I see Normal doing a pretty good job of shutting down Julio, but that is relative and Julio won’t always be lined up against him. 7 catches, 76 yards for 14.
Landry: Favorable match-up against the bad Colts I can see Landry having the biggest day for MSIDE. His targets have been crazy all year (7th with 143). This will continue, but a TD is going to be the question. 9 catches 78 yards and a score. 22.
Ginn: Ginn has been absolutely huge the past few weeks, but that is always at risk to come to an end. His hands have always been a question and the fact that the Panthers are known to run can hurt him. I see this game getting out of hand quick and exactly that happening. 1 big play for Ginn is a day changer, but I have him with 6 for 86. 14.
Walker: Over the past 10 weeks Walker has had single digits only once (and it was against the stingy Panthers D). The problem now is that Mariota is out who has loved looking his way all game. The Titans still lack any other offensive weapons so I see him getting used quite a bit this weekend. 8 catches 106 yards. 18.
Barnidge: One of themost consistent players with upside all year. Barnidge has been a great bright spot for the Browns. It seems like Johnny Football doesn’t slow his production much, if at all. The WR core there has been unreliable lately with drops, too. I see Big-Ole Barn finding a score early. 6 catches , 62, and that TD. 18.
Texans: Going up against THE best team for Defenses so far this year. MSIDE stashed these guys in the hopes that it would matter now. I can definitely see a pretty low scoring game and plenty of turnovers. I’ll say somewhere in the ballpark of 13.
Santos: Touchdowns could be the problem this week against the Browns (unless, of course, it’s West who is scoring them). 3XP, 1 30, 1 50… 11.
Sunday 4PM:
Start Score: 240 – 206 MSIDE
Palmer: This is one of the more interesting games this weekend as these two teams (GB) are still technically fighting for the other NFC bye. Last week we saw the Cardinals Offense keep doing what they have done all year. The only problem for Pat was that David Johnson is a monster. Seriously, that 47 yard TD run was Lynch-esque. Anyways, Arians will have no problem feeding the young guy the rock. I still see Palmer having a decent game with 2 scores and 350 yards. 20.
Robinson: It’s definitely better for the Reachers if Yeldon completely sits out, which is looking like it will be the case. Denard has shown that he is fully capable of carrying the whole workload and it a great pass catcher. The Jags Offense has been electric with Borts, Hurns, and A-Rob (maybe the biggest initial snub of the Pro-Bowl). He should have a pretty decent day in what could be a shootout. 5 catches, -32 yards receiving, 42 rushing. 1 TD. 18.
Baldwin: A little banged up but on a monster streak of 366 yards and 10. YES 10 Touchdowns over the past 4 games. Definitely comes back to earth this week. Maybe. I tried very hard to get Russ Wilson off of the Nightshift at the deadline and the week prior. I just had that feeling he was going to turn it on. Guess I should have tried harder. Anyways, I got Baldwin getting slowed a good bit with 6 catches and 62 yards and no score. 12.
Cardinals: Suffering some really tough injuries (Honey Badger done for the year and Peterson has a bum ankle) the Cardinals D will be going up against Rodgers, who can go off at any time. Maybe a turnover or two, but I can’t see them putting up the double digits they have the past 4 weeks. 8.
Sunday Night: Giants @ Vikings
Start Score: 272 – 232 MSIDE
Diggs: The Vikings offense has been really difficult to predict all year. Diggs looks like he has a promising future, but it’s just too hard to tell how he will perform on that team. Pretty hige game for both teams in terms of the playoffs and AP seems to be fine and ready to play, which helps big time. I don’t see him scoring this week, but definitely a great flex. 8 catches 72 yards and a TD. 15.
Monday Night: Bengals @ Broncos
Start Score: 272 – 247 MSIDE
McManus: Down 25 going into the Monday night game, Reachers will need a ton of FG’s. With the way these defenses play, I can actually see that happening. Well, I can see a decent amount of FG’s happening, not 25 points just for McManus though. Actually, I don’t really see anything crazy in this game for him at all. 2XP, 1 30, and 1 40. 9.
Final Score: 272 – 256 MSIDE
In the end the 15 point deficit and the loss of McCoy and OBJ were just too much for Reachers to make the comeback. Both teams with tremendous years and nice payouts, but this is definitely MSIDE’s Year.
