football 2007

December 19, 2007: Week 15 Football Notes

Quest for Perfection

Undefeated Teams, College (Div 1-A)
Hawaii

Winless Teams, College (Div 1-A)
none

Undefeated Teams, NFL
New England

Winless Teams, NFL
none

Saturday Night Football with Bryant Gumbel

The Bryant Gumbel "It would appear..." Tally*
6

*This tally is for the first half only and is in reference to every time The Gumbel said either "It would appear..." or "It would seem...", usually when describing the gaining of a 1st down, no matter how close the first down was.

"Welcome to Thursday Night Football on NFL Network..."
     Bryant Gumbel, several times during the Saturday night broadcast. The graphics all showed "Saturday Night Football".

"And the Bengals will stay in the hurry up."
     Bryant Gumbel, as the Cincinnati offence went into a huddle

The other habit Gumbel has is to mark the first time almost anything happens. Normally you would expect a first to be noted if it was an unusual circumstance, like Terrrell Owens not catching his first pass until the second half, or Rick Romo not looking up at his girlfriend for the first time until the 4th quarter. But Gumbel makes a note of everything and then throws in some seconds as well. Here are the firsts (and seconds) he noted just in the first half:

The Adrian Peterson Factor
Monday, December 17, 2007
White Russian
Here are the points going into tonight’s game. Both Tom Brady and Tony Romo sucked yesterday, so it is up to rookie Adrian Peterson to determine if Sandman can reach first place in SW Points.

Owner
Week 15
Total
Pts Behind
WRussian
1661.9
38172.4
-
Sandman
1719.0
37788.4
384.0
B.J.
2328.5
34734.1
3438.3
BNature
1776.5
33374.4
4798.0
DSL
1673.9
31748.5
6423.9

The only remaining player is Adrian Peterson for Minnesota tonight. Because Peterson gets a 10% points bonus for being ranked as Sandman’s number 1 running back, Peterson needs 349.2 Small World points tonight for Sandman to overtake the lead. Sandman has used Peterson 10 previous times at an average of 346.3 per week. When Sandman has had Peterson, his high was 843.7 and his low was 6.6. Of those 10 times, Peterson has gone over 349.2 three times (twice over 800). Tonight’s game is against bitter rival Chicago. Will Peterson rise to the challenge or will he defer to running mate Chester Taylor? Or will the other Adrian Peterson – the one from Chicago – surprise everyone and outshine them all? On Draft Day, Sandman said Peterson would be Rookie of the Year. The game will be played in a dome so weather will not be a factor.

Diesel
Awesome breakdown. Totally cool how it is down to one player who has scored enough several times but not all the time. This could be a tense 4th quarter for all concerned.

Sandman
Skip Bayless called Romo Tony Romeo and T.O. Team Obliterator - hilarious. Peterson better put on his dancing shoes this evening.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Diesel
That was an awesome ending to the season. AP almost broke one late in the game but needed a little more juice. I was tense and I didn't even have anything to lose or win. Congrats to Russian on winning the first leg of the decathlon.

White Russian
Peterson's dancing shoes came on in the 4th quarter - he helped Minny win the game, but it wasn't quite enough for the Sandman. Peterson's total was 312. With the 10% bonus, he contributed 343.2 to the cause.

So the final total is:

Owner
Total
Pts Behind
WRussian
38172.4
-
Sandman
38131.6
40.8

Sandman's strategy of not naming backups has cost him the Small World Points title. In week 1 he named Terry Glenn as his number 3 starter at WR. Glenn did not play due to injury, no backup was named, zero points for Glenn. In week 12, he named Patrick Crayton his number 2 starter at WR. Crayton did not play due to injury, no backup was named, zero points for Crayton.

On the other hand, WRussian, in week 5, listed Joseph Addai as his number 3 running back. Addai missed the game due to injury, Sammy Morris was the backup and ended up with 203.4 points for WRussian.

Every owner had at least one injured starter this season:

Owner
# of Injured Starters
Avg Pts per Backup
WRussian
1
203.4
DSL
3
170.5
B.J.
4
159.7
BNature
3
116.1
Sandman
2
0.0

Diesel
Veeeeeery egregious. Nice stat work. Just 20 more yards for AP and the title goes to Sandy. Sandy scored 99.893% of what he need to win (win= 38,172.5). Once he gets through his denial, anger, and depression Sandy will need to go through the 12 steps program to get through this. Please replace Alcohol with BMTG Fantasy Football and God with Ditka.

These are the original Twelve Steps as suggested by Alcoholics Anonymous.

We:

  1. Admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable.
  2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
  3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
  4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
  5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
  6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
  7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
  8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
  9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
  10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
  11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His Will for us and the power to carry that out.
  12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

White Russian
The modified 12 steps:

We:

  1. Admitted we were powerless over BMTG Fantasy Football - that our lives had become unmanageable.
  2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
  3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Ditka as we understood Him.
  4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
  5. Admitted to Ditka, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
  6. Were entirely ready to have Ditka remove all these defects of character.
  7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
  8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
  9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
  10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
  11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with Ditka as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His Will for us and the power to carry that out.
  12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to BMTG Fantasy Footballaholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

We need to vote on egregiousness next time we meet. Week 1 would not count as egregious because the tally had not been started yet. But after week 7, we voted on egregious errors after BNature played 4 Chargers players in their bye week. We voted and the decision was to start the tally with week 8. This means Sandman's week 12 injury situation is up for egregious consideration. We could also vote on the overall egregiousness of using a no backup strategy for the entire season (which actually seems more like laziness than strategy). Sandman will have an opportunity to present his case before we vote. The egregious hearing will be this Friday...

Prediction Tracker
NFL Draft Day predictions:

Will Miami go 0-16?

Sandman: No
Brother Nature: No
The Diesel: Yes
White Russian: Yes
ACTUAL – No

Will Indy go 16-0?

Sandman: No
Brother Nature: No
The Diesel: No
White Russian: No
ACTUAL – No

Will New England go 16-0?

Sandman: Yes
Brother Nature: No
The Diesel: Yes
White Russian: Yes
Progress – After week 15, New England is 14 and 0

What are your draft day predictions?

White Russian Marshawn Lynch will have a better season than Adrian Peterson. Brady Quinn gets caught with a prostitute.
Brother Nature Leon Hall shocks everyone and kicks ass.
Diesel Ginn plays 3 games. Quinn outperforms JaMarcus Russell.*
Sandman Adrian Peterson is Rookie of the Year.
* Diesel maintains that he said Quinn outperforms Russell, but there are conflicting accounts of the official prediction, as it is possible that he said the "Detroit rookie QB" (Drew Stanton) would outperform Russell. Let this be a reminder to mean what you say and say what you mean.

How the players have done so far:

Marshawn Lynch, RB, Buffalo:
Week 15 - 21 runs for 82 yds (at Cleveland)

Adrian Peterson, RB, Minnesota:
Week 15 - 20 runs for 78 yds and 2 TD, 1 rec for 17 yds (vs Chicago)

Brady Quinn, QB, Cleveland:
Week 15 - Did not play

Leon Hall, CB, Cincinnati:
Week 15 - 5 tackles (at San Francisco)

Ted Ginn, Jr., WR, Miami:
Week 15 - 1 rec for 14 yds, 5 kick ret for 112 yds, 3 punt ret for 31 yds (vs Baltimore)
(14 games played out of 14)

Detroit rookie QB (Drew Stanton):
Out for season - knee surgery - 0 games played

JaMarcus Russell:
Week 15 - 2 for 5, 10 yds (vs Indianapolis)

4. Name the NFL final four (prediction made on draft day). Includes their current record.

White Russian AFC - New England (14-0) & San Diego (9-5)
NFC - Philadelphia (6-8) & San Francisco (4-10)
Brother Nature AFC - San Diego (9-5) & Indianapolis (12-2)
NFC - St. Louis (3-11) & New Orleans (7-7)
Diesel AFC - Cincinnati (5-9) & Indianapolis (12-2)
NFC - Chicago (5-9) & St. Louis (3-11)
Sandman AFC - New England (14-0) & Baltimore (4-10)
NFC - New Orleans (7-7) & Dallas (12-2)

football 2007