Even personnel decisions are perplexing in ‘different’ league
October 14th, 2009 by Chad B.One of my two leagues places an emphasis on quarterback performance by requiring each team to start two quarterbacks and awarding one point across the board for every 10 yards passing, rushing and receiving. Passing, rushing and receiving touchdowns each receive six points, with a two-point bonus given to every receiving touchdown between 40-49 yards and a four-point bonus given to every receiving touchdown between 50-99 yards. Quarterbacks receive an extra five points for 300-399 passing yards and an extra 10 points for exceeding 399 yards in passing. There are no bonuses for lengthy rushing touchdowns or for collecting at least 100 rushing or receiving yards.
As one competitor later put it on our message board, I figured this league would be “different” during Draft Day when one of my friends felt that he was set with Aaron Rodgers and Philip Rivers under center. I sent him an online message about having two quarterbacks with the same bye week. He took a second to think about it before responding that this was a two-quarterback league. His 3-1 record (the lone loss being a one-point setback courtesy of Peyton Manning’s Week Two heroics) told me that he would have this problem rectified going into Week Five.
Considering that my first win came courtesy of a 223-point explosion against another winless foe in Week Five, I have no business criticizing anyone. However, that is not going to stop me from analyzing the personnel decisions made by this friend in his game against an opponent with a 2-2 record. Bye weeks prevented this friend from posting starters in four of the 10 positions. Real life probably prevented him from correcting this problem, but he still would have been one quarterback short with the insertion of QB Shaun Hill, TE Anthony Fasano and K Jason Elam into his starting lineup.
This friend may have been conceding defeat and failing to comprehend how much of a role scoring can play in league tiebreakers, but he could have pulled out a tie. With Hill, Fasano and Elam’s scoring contributions from this past week, my friend would have had 45 extra points and a 114-114 tie.
The other competitor was limited to 114 points because he started Denver’s Correll Buckhalter and Jacksonville’s Mike Sims-Walker. Although he may not have learned of Sims-Walker’s team-imposed suspension until the receiver was scratched for Sunday’s 41-0 loss to Seattle, there was no reason to start Buckhalter when media reports throughout the week listed him as questionable at best.
Whether it was apathy or confidence, this personnel decision just demonstrates how “different” this league really is.
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Tags: Anthony Fasano, Jacksonville, Mike Sims-Walker, Peyton Manning, Seattle, touchdowns
