Gettin Chili With It

ROTC Offensive Stud: Jay Cutler (32.71): While his Bears lost, Cutler managed to lead Speed to an upset victory over St. Louis. Speed rolled the dice with one QB, it worked this week. While he has no playoff chance, it’s nice to see a veteran like Speed playing a diligent spoiler down the stretch. That’s what makes this league great!

Honorable Mention: Kurt Warner - FCC (35.79): An honorable loss for FCC. Warner made it happen. Greg Olson - RRD (24.05): Nice trade pick-up for Ramrod. His performance made it close and this is not a team anyone wants to play down the stretch. DeAngelo Williams - AAA (29.05): Almost lead AAA to a needed upset of Dark Phoenix. The key word being “Almost”. Michael Turner - AOH (34.49): Not a close match-up but Turner keeps proving that Matt made a great choice at RB with this pick. AOH another team that others should avoid down the stretch.

ROTC Defensive Stud: Clint Session – DP (17.90): Without Session, Dark Phoenix loses. Session came up way big this week. We are talking about a spare #3 LB (at best) averaging about six a game going way above with thirteen tackles and a pick. Stupid performance that kept DP in the thick of his division race.

Honorable Mention: David Hawthorne – FEC (17.80): Why nobody challenged me at $5 for him remains a mystery to me. I had him set at $85 but got him so very cheap. His performance earlier in the year with Tatupu out sold me on him. The Dallas game just re-affirmed that thought. This pick pretty much countered Olsen’s performance and knocked Ramrod out of the playoffs. Tanard Jackson - Hitmen (16.75): Great pick-up by Hitmen. Whenever you can grab a guy during a bye, start him the next week, and have him be maybe the pivotal play to get a win, super managing. Tanard had a good past year track record as well, Hitmen made a great play here. Josh Wilson – SP (23.55): Simply because he was the leading D scorer. It didn’t matter though because Stinky was so far down by 3 PM on Sunday he had little chance for the win.

The Divisional Races

It’s week ten. This is a light “bye” week by most standards and with a game on Thursday we have the added pressure of divisional and wildcard thoughts to look at. Let’s not dwell on all the match-ups, just a few in light of the divisions & conferences.

SackMasters

The division and the conference is Krypton’s to lose. While he got off to a rough start and still plays somewhat uneven, he is the best team in the league from a statistical standpoint. Ramrod and Chankla have already been all but officially eliminated and are playing spoilers. That leaves me, FEC. My team is all over the place but is not one to take lightly come playoffs. Assuming I don’t self-destruct.

FEC: St.Louis, FCC, KK, & Speed (18-22 to week 10)
KK: Speed, Ramrod, FEC, & St.Louis (17-23)
RR: GH, KK, FCC, & Phish (20-20)
FCC: Phish, FEC, Ramrod, & GH (19-21)

Midway Marauders

Grindhouse finds a way to keep on winning while St. Louis finds a way to overcome the odds every week. I’m not sold on either of these teams so far, personally. The dark horse as always is Phish. His remaining schedule is week, even with his under performing team. He simply needs to take Delbert Grady’s advise from “The Shinning” and “correct” his team. Grindhouse should win this division, gathering a #2 seed in the process.

GH: Ramrod, St.Louis, Speed, & FCC (13-27)
StL: FEC, GH, Phish, & KK (24-16)
PH: FCC, Speed, St.Louis, & Ramrod (13-27)
SP: KK, Phish, GH, & FEC (24-16)

Hollywood Joe’s

The only certainty here is that Stinky is fighting to stay out of the Toilet Bowl. The other teams simply cannot separate themselves. Angels has done a good job of getting back into it after a terrible start but that deficit also meant that he would not win the division easily if he made this comeback. Angels seems to have the inside track simply because he holds most tiebreaks against Jeepsters and Motown. Whoever wins it could be the only playoff team from this division.

AOH: SW, SP, Jeep, & Hitmen (21-19)
Jeep: Hitmen, ML, AOH, AAA (20-20)
ML: DP, Jeep, SP, & SW (23-17)
SP: AAA, AOH, ML, & DP (22-18)

House Of Pain

The best division by far in ROTC. Any of these teams could vie for a division title in the other divisions. The gut tells me Samurai, but it’s hard to ignore Phoenix’s impressive resume. This division will come down to week 12 when Samurai & Phoenix square off. I just cannot see Hitmen or AAA sneaking into things due to their lack of tiebreaks.

SW: AOH, AAA, DP, & ML (22-18)
DP: ML, HM, SW, & SP (20-20)
HM: Jeep, DP, AAA, & AOH (23-17)
AAA: SP, SW, HM, & Jeep (21-19)