First up, as always, let’s give a shoutout to the runner-up.
Another brilliant year for Calderon, who has really established himself as one of the greats of Robioland. He’s made the playoffs in ten of the last 12 seasons, taking four trips to the finals (three in the last six), winning two championships.
This season he put together arguable one of the deepest teams in league history and it only came up 53 points short of winning it all. Rich became just the second person in league history to score over 1,500 and lose in the title game. Also, the 53-point margin was the third closest in league history in a title game.
How close was this? A hail mary decided it.
In the Vikings game against the Lions, Kirk Cousins threw up a 45-yard hail mary with one second to go in the first half and Kyle Rudolph brought it down for a touchdown. That gave Matt 75 points in a game he won by 53. Now on to your 2018 champion.
This was not supposed to happen.
There was never a time when Neatock realistically belong in the conversation for a title. The defending champ had just one functioning running back. With A.J. Green out injured, he had no wide receivers worth bragging about. He couldn’t make a good decision at quarterback. More than anything, his record said everything.
Matt began the year 1-3. He sat at 2-5 through seven weeks. Heading into week 11, he was still two games below .500, just seventh in scoring. Yet, he was thrown a life preserver before week 11. Yet, who could have predicted how much he got saved at that moment?
That week was when I threw the towel in. Looking for a good category three keeper, I scored James Conner, Le’Veon Bell, Carson Wentz, Jamaal Williams and the Falcons D, giving Matt, Saquon Barkley and Dalvin Cook, plus Alshon Jeffery, Latavius Murray and Kirk Cousins.
It was the biggest trade in league history and unlike Bob’s trades earlier in the season, no one made a stink about it. No uproar. Of course, there didn’t appear to be any reason to have one. Barkley was solid, sure, but Cook had just one 200-point game and was in a timeshare in Minnesota (and was on my bench) , Jeffery couldn’t score 100 if you spotted him 90 (and was about to be benched) and Cousins had fallen out of the top-10 among quarterbacks.
Yet, like everything that involves me and Neatock, everything that I touched turned to shit, while everything he touched, turned to gold.
Conner was out for the year the following week. Wentz would join him two weeks later, while Matt suddenly started seeing things go his way.
In week 11, he got me. Barkley had his best game of the year, while Conner score 22 and got hurt. Without the trade, Matt would have lost and been in last place. The following week, he got back to .500, facing the eventual league scoring champ (Colby), but without Mahomes and without Kelce. Sure he lost to Bob to end the season, but it didn’t matter. At 6-7, he was the 7-seed.
Yet, in round one, he was facing 2-seed Bob, looking for a little revenge from the 2017 title game. Yet, Matt pulled off the Bob-like upset by just 22 points, thanks to 128 from the Vikings D on Monday night.
The following week, more love came Matt’s way, as 1-seed Marc produced his lowest point total of the season, putting Neatock back into the title game. Of course, it wasn’t all a fluke.
Since the trade, Barkley had become the best back in football with three 400-point games over a four-week period. Meanwhile, Cook was producing at least 200 in each game since week 12, hitting 446 in the semifinals. Alshon Jeffery, who was lucky he wasn’t cut, got his wish when Nick Foles was named the starting quarterback, which bumped his stats up. Even Kirk Cousins looked like a decent arm again.
Against Calderon in the title game, those players did fine. Both backs scored over 200 and Jeffery wasn’t fine, scoring 164, but in the end, there were four factors that decided this game…
#1 ZACH ERTZ Oddly enough, it was Matt’s oldest player who was the true difference maker. Zach Ertz, a seventh-round keeper, dominate with a career day: 12 catches, 110 yards and two scores. He scored 340 fantasy points.
#2 BALLSY DECISION Yes, Jared Goff had played bad the past two weeks, but it took balls to shove him aside for Kirk Cousins, who had proven very recently that a zero-TD, three interception game could come at anytime. Yet, that decision gave Matt the title. Cousins outscored Goff, 330-226. The 104 points mattered in a 53-point win.
#3 NO TOUCHDOWNS Calderon’s skilled players performed well. All five had 75 yards or more. The problem is, none scored a single touchdown. 61 combined touches, no scores. Nick Chubb had the best shots. He was handed the ball four times within five yards from the end zone and never managed to bang it in. Again, one 60-point touchdown matters in a 53-point loss.
#4 NO ROBBIE ANDERSON Rich said he debated picking up Robbie Anderson and benching Adam Thielen. A decision like that probably would have been mocked. Well, Thielen scored 166, Anderson scored 340 against the Packers. Should of, would of, could of…didn’t.
Anyhow, Neatock is now among the elite. He joins myself and Bob as the only four-time champions, which means 12 of the league’s 20 titles are in the hands of three people. Also like us, he joins us as the only people to win a championship in back-to-back seasons.
Congratulations to Matt. Enjoy yet another mug.
And folks, a second decade of Robioland Football comes to a close.
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