I've been sitting here for the last few minutes trying to figure out how to sum up what happened in Chris and Sam's historical semi-final matchup. For those of you unfamiliar the Broncos defense had their score adjusted overnight. The play in question that confused the Sleeper team was this Patriots' scoop and score on Special Teams. Sleeper had initially counted 6 points against the Broncos' defense, which obviously isn't the defense's fault. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the adjustment and how Sleeper handled it, but 6 fantasy points is the accepted score across multiple fantasy outlets. Beyond the wild 11th hour defensive score correction early in the morning on Thursday, the game was an absolute classic on its own. The projected score, from what I saw, was never more than 2 points apart after Saturday's games started. Chris got an incredible 46 point performance from Amari Cooper who has become Joe Flacco's best friend and target-whore. A hollow accomplishment now, but that does set Rated Eks' single game WR record. Consistency across the board was the name of the game for Sam, with double digits from a majority of his starters, and a big 12.4 points from the enigma that is Kyle Pitts. 

Amazing game, gentlemen. I kid you not when I say I might have refreshed the app 250 times just looking at your score this weekend. I'm truly sorry it ended the way it did as we were all robbed of an all-timer finish on Monday night. Chris handled the loss with as much grace as one can hope for. Sam was busy celebrating his wife's birthday yesterday and didn't get to keep up to date with much of anything fantasy football related and for what its worth was humble in victory even in our conversation back and forth this morning. 

Through no fault of his own Ben's Pinche Bendejo squad fell flat on their collective face this weekend. We all watched Brock Purdy take a steaming poo right on the field on Monday Night, throwing 4 picks and, frankly, looking like he was the last pick in the NFL draft for the first time in his career. This was exacerbated by Stefon Diggs continuing the stinky form of football he's been playing for the better part of a month. He's gone double digits just once since week 10. Unfortunately you could throw a dart blindfolded at Ben's roster and odds are you would hit an underperformer from last weekend. Andy's team didn't light up the scoreboard, but didn't need to. Rachaad White continued his absolutely fantastic season with another one of his consistent high scores. Beyond that Demarcus Robinson, picked up by Andy on 12/19 on a free signing, had a big game, 6 catches for 82 yards and a TD.

Congrats to you both on the great season. Ben, obviously not the way you wanted it to end, but your regular season was still nothing to scoff at. Andy, best of luck next week in the Superb Owl Championship.

We're gonna go quick roundup on these games. 

Starting with Bill vs Ryan. Bill continued his winning ways. Puka Nacua led the way with 28.5 points, which lessened the need for big scores out of the rest of his lineup. Ryan, on the other hand, might have sat starting RB duo James Conner and Aaron Jones for disciplinary reasons. Insiders are still investigating the reasoning for the benching. 

Dan vs Zach. Dan's squad picked a decent week to have their largest scoring output of the season. Breece Hall came alive after a quiet NFL week previously, putting up 37.1 points. Tee Higgins filled in admirably for Ja'Marr Chase as WR1 on the Bengals, but it wasn't enough to overcome other disappointing scores in the lineup.

Speaking candidly, and this isn't to brag, I'm in uncharted territory. Actually, no. I'm in Bill's territory. Bill took draft control in 2021 and has a previous championship in 2017. That's a wordy way of saying that Bill knows how to win the last game of the year, something I am yet to do in this league.

Bill's team is on fire winning 6 of his last 7 matchups. His only loss, however, was to Dan. Bill has some guys that you wouldn't have thought would be fantasy contributors 4 months ago. Baker Mayfield is a QB1 and has been red hot the last 3 weeks, averaging 23 points per game over that period. Rashee Rice, Puka Nacua and DK Metcalf is a high quality WR trio and Bill has Javonte Williams in his back pocket as a spot start, ya know, just in case he needs a relatively safe floor in a pinch.

Dan's team is sexier on paper, guys that you would figure to be on a playoff team 4 months ago, Breece Hall, Josh Jacobs and Justin Jefferson are RonCo players but some combination of injury, bad luck and manager incompetence has led them astray. Any fantasy owner in the world would happily hitch their horse to Mike Evans. WR3 on the year. The Lions have a shot at the #1 seed and that will benefit fantasy managers this week(I can't believe I just typed that) and Jahmyr Gibbs should get a lot of touches against a tough Dallas squad.

The winner of this game has the option of draft choice and, if they so choose, the "3rd keeper" by selecting the 1st pick. Best of luck!