Sports

The League: Breaking Down Their Teams

By December 16, 2011June 18th, 2018No Comments

“The League” is a good show. It has a nice combination of comedy with a little bit of fantasy football sprinkled in. In last nights episode I realized that you could see who was on a few of the teams and decided to break things down. Two assumptions need to be made: In season one there were eight teams in the league (two of the guys are from out of town and are never seen). Therefore we believe that there are still eight teams in this league. Next, they use standard scoring.

Here’s a glimpse of Pete’s team:

pete's team in the league, season 2

Pete’s Bench:

Pete's bench in the league, season 2

This week’s episode, which was during week 14, had Pete’s girlfriend putting Ben Roethlisberger in for Michael Vick. That would have made sense since Michael Vick was coming off an injury and he was facing a Miami D that had been playing well the last few games. On the flip side Big Ben was playing Cleveland which looked like a juicy matchup. Here’s the problem, if you look at who each player is scheduled to play it doesn’t match up. Pittsburgh is playing Miami, who they don’t play in Week 14 none the less in 2011. They played Miami in Week 7 last year but that was on the road, not in Pittsburgh. On top of that the Steelers didn’t have a bye in Week 10 this year, last year, or in any year as far back as 2000. For the sake of this article we’ll overlook the accuracy of the bye weeks and/or teams that each player is facing and only look at who is on his team and what he should do for Week 14 of this year.

After looking at his lineup it is safe to say that Pete is a horrible manager. As we mentioned his girlfriend put in Big Ben for Michael Vick (wisely). From what we saw on the show this seemed to be the only move that he made for his team. If he left his lineup as is he would have scored the following in Week 14:

Big Ben: 17
McFadden: 0
Tolbert: 8
Rod White: 14
Hakeem Nicks: 16
Dwayne Bowe: 6
Antonio Gates: 18
Gostkowski: 10
San Fran D: 8
Total: 97

Considering that he was playing a guy that’s been injured for weeks that’s a nice score. Any time you get close to 100 points is a pretty decent week. Had Pete been even half competent at fantasy football he would have made a few other changes to his team. First, he would have replaced McFadden and Tolbert with Marshawn Lynch and probably Johnathan Stewart. We give Stewart a slight edge over Tolbert because even though you never know which RB is going to do much in Carolina (if anything) he still receives more carries than Tolbert. With Tolbert it’s TD’s or nothing. Next we’d switch out Dwayne Bowe for Percy Harvin. Bowe has Tyler Palko throwing to him. Barf. Harvin, on the other hand, has been a stud since Adrian Peterson went down with injury. He had score 15+ points in each of his last three games and was coming off a 28 point performance vs Denver. With those changes here’s what his lineup would look like now:

Big Ben: 17
Marshawn Lynch: 17
Jonathan Stewart: 4
Rod White: 14
Hakeem Nicks: 16
Percy Harvin: 16
Antonio Gates: 18
Gostkowski: 10
San Fran D: 8
Total: 120

That’s more like it. I feel confident that if my team was scoring 120 per week that I’d win 85% of my games. Heading into the next round of the playoffs I’d feel good with that as my squad assuming that you could get one healthy QB out of Big Ben or Michael Vick. Plus, if Darren McFadden came back then he’d be sitting really pretty.

Now lets take a look at the Andre vs. Ruxin Matchup.

Andre vs. Ruxin Matchup in the League, Season 2
The first thing that I notice is that Rob Gronkowski somehow got a “T” added to his last name. Apparently in this league his name is Rob Grontkowksi. If we are taking the score of these teams as is then this is possibly the worst scoring playoff matchup ever. Scoring 75 points any week is absolutely putrid. Scoring 75 points in the playoffs and winning is a miracle of Tim Tebow proportions.

With only eight owners in this league you’d think that the teams would be a little more stacked. The Pete Top/Kevin Bottom squad is pretty broke and if he didn’t get lucky with Gronk he’d be completely screwed. Having to start Mike Williams and CJ Spiller is just gross. Because of some glaring holes on his team I’m guessing that he had Fred Jackson which is why he is starting CJ Spiller. Victor Cruz was certainly a nice pickup but you can’t expect him to have drafted him. Combining Cruz plus Mike Williams starting and there’s a good chance that he also drafted and lost Kenny Britt to injury. When you lose two of your top players it’s no surprise when you put up a 74.

As for The James Bandres having to roll out Reggie Wayne (9 combined points the last two weeks and only two weeks all year in double digits) and Plaxico Burress (only 3 combined points the last two weeks and only four weeks all year in double digit points) plus Zach Miller (only 12 points since week 5), that is not a recipe for success. Amazingly those aren’t the worst players on his team, he’s starting the Vikings D! The Vikings have given up 21+ point in each of their last eight weeks including 33+ five times. Over that span they only have one defensive touchdown and are the 7th worst fantasy team in football. The emergence of Chris Johnson is definitely welcomed but both him and Mathews are still a little too inconsistent for my tastes. No way this team wins next week.

Of the three teams that were shown I’d feel most confident going to the next round of the playoffs with Pete’s team. His WR’s have been playing at a near elite level the last few weeks and Marshawn Lynch has been an absolute beast lately. I am, however, a bit disappointed with these three teams as a whole. They have some glaring holes for this only being an eight team league.

 

 

 

Rob Cressy

Rob Cressy

Sports loving free throw specialist and yinzer living in Chicago who is awesome most of the time, has run with the bulls in Spain, and is a graduate of Second City's Improv program.