Wednesday, January 25, 2006

By The Numbers - Conference Champ Week

It’s time for a look at the numbers for the conference championship week (#20). If your name is Jake, step forward and be paddled. The Panthers stumbled on the way to XL, and the Broncos bumbled their way to the offseason. Who’s the top fantasy performer in SB history?

The Two Jakes

References to Jack Nicholson aside, I missed out on the confluence of factors on two QBs named Jake to late to realize that the Panthers and Broncos were doomed from the beginning. Between Jake Delhomme and Jake Plummer, we have the makings for fantasy disaster.

Mr. D was harassed mercilessly by an underrated Seahawks defense. He was 0 for 6 with 2 picks before he completed a pass. A late TD and 196 passing yards later, Delhomme totaled 3 fantasy points, the antithesis of his 23 fantasy points from the week before.

Mr. P finally turned in one of those breakdown performances that his supporters have feared all season. Mike Greenberg predicted it on his Friday morning show before the game, but I didn’t believe it. The line is indisputable, though – two INTs, two fumbles combined with a teaser 3rd quarter TD pass, 223 passing yards and 30 yards rushing to equal 3 fantasy points for Plummer (seem familiar?).

Fantasy players everywhere will take note of these performances and pick Matt Hasselbeck and Ben Roethlisberger long before either Jake next year – will they be right to do so?

The Good News

Shaun Alexander was the top fantasy play of the week, with 152 rushing yards and two TDs (19 fantasy points). Seems that knock on the head from last week is a forgotten memory now …

Cedrick Wilson and Hines Ward vs. Darrell Jackson and Jerramy Stevens was a fantasy draw, with good results for any owner (18 fantasy points for each duo). The unstoppable Steve Smith was finally stopped, but even on a bad day he collected 6 fantasy points on a punt return. Can you say #1 WR in most fantasy drafts next year?

What was that I was saying about John Fox being the next head coach to rack up his first SB win? Er, sorry John, that will have to be Bill Cowher – unless the Stillers decide to choke in Detroit City (click click BOOM) …

Best SB Fantasy

Which players had the best fantasy performances ever in a Super Bowl? By position:

QB - Joe Montana in XXIV (5 TDs, 297 passing yards = 35 fantasy points)
RB – Terrell Davis in XXXII (3 TDs, 157 rushing yards = 25 fantasy points)
WR - Jerry Rice in XXIV (3 TDs, 148 receiving yards = 25 fantasy points)
K - Don Chandler in II (4 FGs, 3 XPs = 16 fantasy points)

2 comments:

Professor Ellis D Trails said...

nice post, but isn't the best performance by a QB in Super Bowl XXIX when steve young threw 6 TD's and had 325 yards passing along with 49 yds rushing

mr ellipsis said...

Indeed, you are correct Professor. Young's fantasy total was 44 points with standard Yahoo scoring. Thanks for pointing out my error. Guess I got to Montana, saw the view and figured there was nothing else to see!