Serious Fun: The Fantasy Addicts Championship

FANTASY ADDICTS – Do you like things like punts? And kickoffs? And blitzes and blocks and…….penalties?  OK, that means you’re probably going to enjoy this:  The Fantasy Addicts 2017 Championship.  This year’s Championship features the first ever league rookie to make it to the Finals, facing a founding member of the Addicts and past Champion as Kizzy’s Krackbacks (11-2-0) take on Black Sheep (7-6-0) for all of the glory in the entire universe.  Ok, maybe not quite, but it’s a pretty big deal.  The two-week Addicts Championship kicked off in Week 16 and Kizzy leads by a scant 10 points, 298-288 at the half, with the second half set to commense in the final week of NFL play.  More often than not in Addicts’ history, the team leading at the half went on to win the Championship, but only one prior Addicts Final has been this close at the halfway point, and that would be the 2013 Championship between Black Sheep and Black Island Bandits.  The Sheep trailed in that one by just 2 points at halftime, and went on to win the championship by a 26 point margin.

The Krackbacks, meigzoh’s rookie franchise in the Addicts league has been purely dominant all season, coming out on top in both standings and total scoring.  They beat Black Sheep in their only regular season meeting by a slim margin, 299-283 in Week 2.  Black Sheep return to the 2017 playoffs for their 5th appearance in the Addicts post season for a 4-3 all-time record, including a 2013 Championship, and were just behind Kizzy in total scoring this season.  The first half of the game was a true barnburner,  a back and forth battle with four lead changes and a margin never any greater than 25 points.  Black Sheep’s offense was mostly flat, with 5 of 11 starters scoring 2 points or less, but that was offset by their lead back, Todd Gurley’s 276 all-purpose yards, 2 touchdowns, and 46 points.  The Krackbacks, on the other hand, had fewer underperforming offensive players, but also had several players on that side of the football pulling in no more than 16 points, though they did get 33 from their FLEXback, Dion Lewis.  Both teams were carried by their defenses in the first two quarters, and both defenses performed evenly, 148 defensive points for the Sheep, 140 for the Krackbacks.  Kizzy also had a 30-16 edge on special teams.

The keys to the second half of this one for Black Sheep will be to keep pounding the football with the running game.  If Gurley produces another good game, and if their other stud back Le’Veon Bell can turn in big numbers, it’ll go far toward helping to secure a Black Sheep victory.  They could also use some bigger numbers from their quarterback Brees who only contributed a statline of 239/1/1 in the first half.  For the Krackbacks, quarterback play is going to be huge.  They got 14 points from starter Case Keenum in the first half, while back-ups goff and Winston scored 39 and 31 (respectively) from the bench, so starting the right signal caller is going to be all too important for them.  Getting similar performance from their Special Teams and having at least one of their offensive skill players break out could keep them in the lead as well.  For both teams, defense will be very important as both teams put up a lot of defensive numbers, and if one of them blinks, they’ll be easily outpaced, in this final week of the 2017 Fantasy Addicts season, where we see who will reign supreme over all living creatures!