After a brief break for Thanksgiving, it’s time for an update about our experiences this season participating in the world of fantasy football. 

During this fall football season,

I have shared many of the decisions which have been required to (a) draft our fantasy

football team (b) make weekly personnel moves (due to injuries or poor

performance) during the season, and (c) make the week-to-week decisions as to

which players to start and which ones to keep on the bench based on expected

performance, weather conditions, and other factors.

This week, I am proud to announce that our fantasy team (Swamp Gas) finished the regular season with a winning record (7-6) and has found its way into the first round of the league’s playoffs beginning this weekend.

Over the Thanksgiving break, our team finally has broken out of its recent offensive slump and has tallied 128 and 108 points in each of the past two weeks.  Though Swamp Gas went 1-1 over the Thanksgiving holiday, many of our players seem to be hitting their stride again at the right time. 

That’s the good news.

The bad news?  Our team features three New Orleans Saints players (QB Drew Brees, TE Jared Cook, and K Wil Lutz).  The Saints will play on Sunday against the NFL’s top defense in the San Francisco 49ers.  That will make for some tough decisions this week as this game is not expected to be a high scoring affair.

Let’s dive right in and do

our best to put the best team on the field for this first week of Fantasy

Football Playoffs!

General Manager Comments – The GM is charged with stocking the fantasy

football team with enough players (healthy and performing at a high level) to

give the Coach enough options to be competitive from week to week.

During this past two week stretch, it has been gratifying to see that recently acquired players such as Deebo Samuel (WR-San Francisco) and Darrius Guice (RB-Washington) are playing well and scoring significant points. 

On the flip side, our back-up tight end T.J. Hockenson (Detroit) appears to have suffered a potential season-ending injury over the weekend.  We may opt to find a highly productive offensive player (QB, for example) and hope that starter Jared Cook (Saints) keeps performing well.  We can always grab a back-up Tight End in the free agent pool, if necessary.

Coach’s Corner – The playoffs are here, and, sadly, it looks like several of our “star” players are in difficult defensive match-ups this weekend.  For example, our Hall-of-Fame QB Drew Brees (Saints) is facing the 49ers top ranked defense this weekend on Sunday in the Superdome.  Yahoo! Sports believes that Brees will struggle to reach 20 points, so we must consider the alternatives.  Alas, our back-up QB Josh Allen (Bills) is on the road at AFC leader Baltimore on Sunday.  Ouch.

If our GM locates a

productive QB in a weak match-up this week (such as Kirk Cousins of the Vikings

against the struggling Detroit Lions), we may consider making this difficult

choice. 

On the other hand, it’s hard

to go against Drew Brees at home in the Dome against any opponent.  Having 73,000 wild and crazy Who Dat fans is

bound to produce some positive plays for the hometown Saints, right?

The early projections show us as a 14-point underdog this weekend in the first round of the Fantasy Football playoffs.  We’ll need a great game from our starting group and hope that our opponent doesn’t meet his weekly projected ...

Though the regular season has ended with three 12-0 teams (Clemson, Ohio State, and LSU) atop the SwampSwami.com College Football Top 25 for 2019, the next question is “Who will be the four top BCS teams playing for the national championship?”

Great question!

By the end of the day this

Saturday, we may or may not have a clearer picture.

This coming weekend,

defending champion and unbeaten Clemson will square-off with 9-3 Virginia in

the ACC championship game.  The Tigers

are prohibitive (as in 29 points) favorites to advance to the BCS Final

Four. 

Meanwhile, undefeated Ohio

State will wrangle once again with 10-2 Wisconsin for the Big Ten

championship.  Earlier this season, the

Buckeyes clobbered the Badgers 38-7. 

This week, Ohio State is shown as a 16-point favorite to win again.

That leaves the Southeastern

Conference championship game between 12-0 LSU and 11-1 Georgia.  This game will be played in Atlanta, so the

Dawgs have the home state advantage.  They

may need it against the prolific offense of LSU.  Despite the location handicap, the Tigers are

listed as a 7-point favorite this weekend versus Georgia.

If all three favorites win,

who would be the fourth team to get into the playoffs? 

According to the SwampSwami.com rankings this week, it would be #4 Oklahoma sliding into the final spot. 

However, 11-1 OU must defeat

the upstart Baylor Bears (11-1) for the Big 12 championship on Saturday in

Arlington, Texas.  This is an opportunity

for revenge for da Bears as OU survived their first meeting in November by a

slim 34-31 count.  This week, the

oddsmakers have pegged the Sooners as an 8-point favorite. 

What about our other 11-1

teams?

The Memphis Tigers are 11-1 and will host 10-2 Cincinnati in Memphis for the American conference championship.   If that game sounds familiar, it’s because Memphis and Cincy just played each other last weekend! 

The Tigers won that game 34-24 (played in Memphis) and earned a right to host the rematch for the conference title on Saturday.  I’m not sure if I remember ever seeing two college football teams playing against each other on back-to-back weekends in the same team’s home stadium! 

The Utah Utes are 11-1 and

play 10-2 Oregon near San Francisco this Friday night for the Pac-12

Championship.     

The 11-1 Boise State Broncos

will host 9-4 Hawaii in a rematch for the Mountain West title.  Boise blasted the Rainbow Warriors 59-37

earlier this year. 

Last but not least, the 11-1

Appalachian State Mountaineers will host the surprising 10-2 University of

Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns on Saturday in the hills of North Carolina.   App State defeated the Cajuns 17-7 in

October down in Lafayette.  A big bowl

payday awaits the winner of this game.

Who’s going to be the fourth

team in the playoffs? 

If Georgia beats LSU in a

competitive match-up, then both SEC teams will likely advance.  If Georgia loses, then it’s a toss-up between

the winner of the OU/Baylor match-up and Utah (assuming they should pluck the

Oregon Ducks, that is!). 

Sorry, Memphis, Boise, and App State.  The country’s big media outlets will vote sympathetically for a West Coast entrant and Utah (assuming they win) would get the nod.

I’ll be on the road during

the upcoming Thanksgiving week.  While traveling

in the Bayou State to visit places both south and north of I-10 connected via

I-49, my lovely wife (aka “Swami Mommy”) and I will be enjoying a week of fun

and family.

Here at SwampSwami.com, we’re family, too!  We share a common bond with our desire to learn more about the inner workings of the sports scene.  We like to celebrate sports achievements – whether it’s the rise of the unknowns such as the Minnesota Golden Gophers or to marvel at the amazing continued success of the New England Patriots.   We also take note of the cringeworthy moments in sports, too!   

Sports can be a healthy outlet

to take our minds off work, personal problems, and, of course, politics.  With Thanksgiving 2019 coming-up, let’s take

a few minutes to recognize and give thanks for some of this year’s best sports

stories:

Joe Burrow and the magical LSU passing show – Let’s face it, Tiger fans, it’s seems like a dream (but don’t wake us up) in 2019 watching this year’s LSU offense.  Led by likely Heisman Trophy quarterback Joe Burrow, the surprising LSU passing game is ranked second in the nation in passing yards with over 360 yards per game via the air.  Burrow’s receivers seem as good as most NFL teams, too.  Dare I remind Tiger Nation that LSU’s last two national championships (2003 and 2007) came in championship games played in the Superdome of New Orleans?  Guess where is this year’s championship game being played?  Yep!  Happy Thanksgiving, LSU Tigers!

Teddy Bridgewater’s Saintly performance – Here’s a guy who was generally overlooked during

the 2014 NFL draft as he fell to the final pick (Minnesota) in the first

round.  After two good seasons as the

Vikings quarterback, Teddy suffered a left leg injury which sidelined him for

19 months (or two NFL seasons).  In 2017,

Bridgewater signed a contract to play for the New York Jets, but the Jets then

shipped him to New Orleans to be the back-up to Drew Brees.  This season, Brees was injured (throwing hand

thumb), and Teddy led the Saints to a 5-0 mark until Brees returned from his

thumb.  Regardless of what happens this

year in New Orleans, free agent Teddy Bridgewater will be offered a LOT of

money in 2020 and beyond.

The Officials (referees and umpires) – These guys have been getting hammered (and, in some

cases, for good reason) this year.  In

football, the game officials have become too reliant upon instant replays and are

becoming more reluctant to throw a penalty flag during pass interference plays,

too.  In baseball, the umpires are

getting hammered for missing balls and strike calls and bang-bang plays at the

bases, too.  The reason?  Instant replay!  It’s time to scale back instant replay and

force the coaches on the field to make the decisions about instant

replays.  Give football, baseball, and

basketball coaches at least two opportunities per game to question a call.  The officials are suffering from video

paranoia, and they need to do their jobs without feeling that every play is

being reviewed.

Minnesota sports – Between the Minnesota Twins winning the American League Central division and the Minnesota Golden Gophers winning their first nine football games (for the first time in 60 years) to assure them of a great bowl game, 2019 has been good to the Land of 10,000 lakes!

Baseball’s 2019 Wacky World Series – For the first time in professional sports history, the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros’ seven game World Series featured a total of zero wins for...

For major college football coaches, the pressure of the job never seems to end, but concerns about financial security seem to be a thing of the past.

Though there aren’t many coaches pulling in upwards of $10 million per season like Clemson’s head coach Dabo Swinney or the $8.8 million dollars paid to Nick Saban at Alabama, would you believe that nearly 90 major college football coaches are now earning $1 million per year or more?

According to one survey of the 130 BCS large division football schools, even the lowest paid head football coach was still bringing home about $350,000 per year. 

Other than Swinney and Saban,

the other top coaches (by paycheck) were Jim Harbaugh at Michigan and Jimbo

Fisher at Texas A&M (both about $7.5 million/year).  Three SEC coaches (Gus Malzahn at Auburn,

Kirby Smart at Georgia, and Dan Mullen at Florida) were all pulling down $6

million/season or more. 

The $5 million coaching club includes

Tom Herman (Texas), Scott Frost (Nebraska), Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State), and Lovie

Smith (Illinois).

Former Florida State head football coach, Willie Taggart, was also in that $5 million grouping.  However, Taggert was fired earlier this season less than two years into his five year contract.  FSU is reportedly on the hook for nearly $18 million to pay the remainder of Willie Taggert’s contract.

Nice work if you can get it!

Another recently-fired head coach was Chad Morris at Arkansas.  Like Taggert, he was fired before the end of his second season at the helm in Fayetteville.  His pay?  $3.5 million per year. Word from the Hogs is that Morris is still owed about $10 million from Arkansas.

Woo, pig…Sooieee! 

Based on relative pay based on the highest attendance teams, this season’s biggest coaching bargain is LSU’s Ed Orgeron.  With the current #1 ranked team, Coach O’s $3.5 million (soon to be $4 mm) would rank him in the mid-30’s range of highest paid coaches.

Speaking of LSU coaches,

former head coach Les Miles is now at Kansas and pulling down just short of $3

million for a Jayhawks team which is currently 3-7.

Other “bargain” coaches in

2019 who may get attractive offers from other schools include:

Boise State (9-1) head football coach Bryan Harsin at $1.65 million

Appalachian State (9-1) head football coach Eliah Drinkwitz ($750,000)

Louisiana Tech (8-2) head football coach Skip Holtz ($700,000)

In college, it’s not just the head football coaches making big bucks these days. 

According to another report, there were more than twenty assistant football coaches making $1 million or more per year.

Leading the way is LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda at $2.5 million.  Most of the other millionaire assistant coaches are employed by teams which, historically, have the largest stadiums, highest attendance, and, as a result, the largest operating budgets in college football.

These highly paid coaches

normally have a resume which shows a large number of stops along the way to

their current lofty perch. 

Ed Orgeron, for example, has

rented U-Hauls at least a dozen times over his 25 seasons as a football coach upon

According to a Mark Knofler song, sometimes you’re the windshield, and sometimes you’re the bug!

For the past month, my Yahoo! Sports fantasy football team named “Swamp Gas” can certainly identify with that song.   After being squished with regularity as our team struggled to put enough fantasy points on the board during our three game losing streak, we finally became the windshield this week in a resounding 140-60 victory over the league’s top ranked team. 

Wow! Nice job, team!

After failing to score more than 100 points in a game in six weeks, the point drought for my Methane Marauders finally ended with a surprising 140 point week as the team moves to a 6-5 record. 

Still hanging on for a playoff spot…

Every starting player on our roster

contributed at least 9 points or more with QB Drew Brees (Saints) leading the

way with 27 points and LSU/Jacksonville WR D.J. Chark adding another 22 points

last week. 

Let’s now chat with our happy

management team and learn where we go from here:

General Manager comments – As the GM’s responsibility is to assemble the talent

for this team, it is gratifying to see most of our starting players back in the

line-up this week and performing well. 

Unfortunately, we have lingering concerns about the hamstring injury for

starting wide receiver Adam Thielen (Vikings).  

We acquired Deebo Samuel (49ers) last week, and he immediately

contributed 13 points as a replacement. 

Obviously, we are pleased with the results, and now it is important to

win more games to make the playoffs!

For this coming week, we will

not have starting RB Austin Ekeler (Chargers) available due to his team’s bye

week.   We now have former LSU star Darrius Guice (Redskins)

healthy and ready to insert into the line-up if needed.  We do not plan to add or drop any players

this week.

Coach’s Corner

– As the Coach is responsible for determining the starting line-up and who to

leave on the bench, it was great to celebrate a terrific week from our starters

last week.  Going forward, though, we

need to hope that our key players remain healthy and that we evaluate each

player, their weekly opponent, and factor the weather conditions expected for

each game.

This week, our Swamp Gas

Methane Marauders will face the team called “Cruzan & Coke”.  That team beat us 128-82 in Week #3, so we’re

hopeful that our team will rally to achieve another win this week.

Now, let’s introduce our starting line-up for Week #12!

C’mon Team! Let’s get 2 in a row!

With apologies to the family

of Rod Serling of “The Twilight Zone”,

imagine if you will…

“You had some success working for your former employer.  Then, your skills eroded and your attitude on the job caused the company to lose money.

You refused to change, so the company eventually let you go.

The company’s losses extended for another year, but, financially, things are on the uptick again.

Three years later, you ask that employer if they would give you another chance to come to work for them again. 

The employer gives you a chance to showcase your current skills in a private setting with a group of potential hiring managers from within the company.

You agree to the terms of the meeting, so those managers fly in from all around the country.

Just before the proposed private meeting with these hiring managers, you have your “agent” advise the company and their hiring managers that you prefer to hold your interviews at another location with the media present and a host of invited supporters to cheer you on.

Your former employer says that you never showed-up for your interview.

Despite the awkwardness of the situation, a few of the hiring managers get into a car and go down the road to visit with you anyway. 

The hiring managers may or may not have liked what they saw, but the company is livid because you failed to do as you were asked.  Just like before.”

Would you hire this person

for your team if he hasn’t shown any contrition and still doesn’t follow

instructions?

Not me, and neither would

most other employers.

Colin Kaepernick hasn’t changed one bit.  He’s only three years older and, at age 32, still wants to do things his own way in a team sport (football).

The quarterback more known

for his on-field kneeling protests (about police brutality of minorities)

during the playing of the national anthem said he wants to (wink, wink) try to

make a comeback into the NFL.

The league, which suffered a loss of fans and advertising revenue after Kaepernick’s kneeling antics led to an exit of NFL fans from the league’s stadiums and on television, offered an olive branch to the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback last Saturday in Atlanta.

The NFL orchestrated a private workout event for Colin Kaepernick at the Atlanta Falcons facility.  Many teams from around the NFL sent representatives to see if Kaepernick’s passing skills were NFL-level sharp and, perhaps, to get a chance to talk with him to determine if he had become more mature in his attitude, too.

Nope.  That wasn’t good enough for Kaepernick and Company.

The prima-donna quarterback and

his agent wanted to have the media present at his workout to bring the show to

the masses and to “prove” that the NFL was still trying to suppress his

abilities and keep him off any team’s roster. 

So, with less than one hour

before the schedule workout, Colin Kaepernick and Company moved the event to a local

high school (an hour away from the Atlanta Falcons’ facilities).  He never showed up at the initial designated

location.

Yep.  He is still quite self-obsessed!

Colin Kaepernick was and

still is a free agent football player.  Today,

he has the right to contact and work out for any individual NFL team if they

are willing to do so.

With two more unbeaten teams (Minnesota

and Baylor) losing this weekend, there are now just three teams without a loss

coming down the home stretch of the college football season.

The SwampSwami College Football Top 25 rankings continue to spotlight the teams with the fewest losses and the most impressive wins in 2019. 

No team in this week’s

SwampSwami poll has lost more than two games in 2019. 

By contrast, the Associated

Press has four teams with three losses in their latest Top 25 (#16 Auburn, #19

Iowa, #22 Oklahoma State, and #24 Texas A&M).  

Nothing against any of those teams, but a three-loss Texas A&M has beaten 4-6 Mississippi State, 4-7 Ole Miss, 4-7 South Carolina, 4-6 Texas San Antonio, 3-7 Texas State, 2-8 Arkansas, and small division FCS Lamar (4-7).   The Aggies have lost to Clemson, Alabama, and Auburn. 

That is one of the reasons

why I do not trust the sports media to make the decisions and offer you the

opportunity to see how the teams in my survey earn their rankings every week. 

The SwampSwami.com College Football Top 25 team rankings are based on:

* Starting the year giving last season’s AP Top 25 teams a chance to maintain and improve their rankings until they lose their first game of the new season.  At this time, Clemson, Ohio State, and LSU are the remaining holdovers from last season’s final AP rankings.* Once a team has lost their first (or subsequent) game(s), I look at that team’s best win of the new season.  A one-loss team whose best win is over a 9-1 team will have a greater weight than a one-loss team whose best win is over a 4-6 team (right, Aggies?).* I adjust the rankings weekly based on how your team’s “best win” is doing.  Last week, several teams benefitted from Iowa’s win over previously unbeaten Minnesota.  If Iowa would have lost again, those same teams would have been downgraded based on Iowa’s performance.* There is no preferential weighting given to conferences.  A 9-1 Appalachian State team (Sunbelt Conference) will be compared to a 9-1 Alabama (Southeastern Conference) based on each team’s “best win” during the 2019 season.

With just two games (or, for

some teams, only one game) remaining for the 2019 college football season, I am

publishing my list of the entire 130 FBS large division teams so that you can

see how your team’s bowl chances are shaping up.  To cover the increasing number of post-season

bowls, it will take six wins for bowl eligibility. 

That said, with 37 college

bowl games this year (not including the 2-game BCS playoffs), there probably

aren’t enough mediocre 6-6 teams to fill all of the bowl slots.  Therefore, some 5-7 teams will likely be

selected to complete the field. 

There will be 74 teams (plus the

four teams selected for the BCS playoffs) for a total of 78 teams entering the

post-season of college football.  That is

60% of the 130 FBS schools.

Without further ado, it’s time to reveal the SwampSwami.com College Football Top 25 teams (plus the other 105) for the week ending Saturday, November 16, 2019:

Tuesday, November 12 just marked

the most recent peak of a “Full Moon” cycle.

For sports, the latest full

moon sports week has seen its share of thrillers and oddities.  LSU’s resounding thumping of perennial thorn

Alabama was an eye-opener on Saturday.  The

same goes for the Golden Gophers of Minnesota as they surprised previously

unbeaten Penn State. 

On Sunday, the lowly Atlanta

Falcons picked-up their second win of the season by traveling to New Orleans and

handing the home town Saints a very embarrassing second loss of the year.  Meanwhile, the supposedly-tanking Miami

Dolphins developed amnesia and forgot to “tank” Sunday by winning their second

straight game in beating AFC contender Indianapolis Colts on their home turf, too. 

Things still feel mighty strange

as we progress through this sports week.

Could it be that we may soon start to see a few NFL ghosts appearing again in the weeks ahead?   With Colin Kaepernick, Dez Bryant, and Antonio Brown in the news this week seeking their return to the NFL sidelines soon, this wacky week of football keeps on providing entertainment!

Colin Kaepernick?  You mean the “Ghost of NFL Negative Publicity“, right? 

Yep, that’s the one!  The 32-year old former San Francisco 49er QB Kaepernick will be center stage in Atlanta on Saturday as a handful of NFL teams plan to attend his special solo workout.  After leading the Niners to a Super Bowl appearance back in 2013, his quarterbacking performance hit rock bottom the following season while his on-field kneeling performances in a subsequent year kept him on the bench even longer. 

The social justice warrior hasn’t been employed by an NFL team for three seasons after the league’s owners joined the fans in their joint failure to appreciate Kap’s desire to keep advancing his personal agenda ahead of the need to improve his passing skills. 

With several teams reaching deep into their bench to find a healthy quarterback in the 2019 season, though, Kaepernick’s management team feels like this might be his last and best chance to play NFL football again.

At just 32 years of age, Colin Kaepernick is much younger than Tom Brady (42), Drew Brees (40), Philip Rivers (soon-to-be 38), Ben Roethlisberger (37), and a soon-to-be 36 years old Aaron Rodgers. 

On the other hand, most (if not all) of the above quarterback grouping may be headed to the NFL Hall-of-Fame in Canton in a few short years, too. 

There’s no doubt that any NFL team willing to sign Kaepernick is asking for a backlash from their fans (at least until Kap wins a few games for them, that is).  Most owners don’t want to risk a financial backlash from fans in the form of smaller season ticket sales, though. 

Chances of Colin Kaepernick’s returning this year?  I’ll

say 10%.

Then there is the developing story of another NFL ghost who may be returning soon.  We’ll call former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant, “The Ghost of NFL Receivers’ Past”. 

Though the 4-time NFL All Pro

Bryant recently just turned 31 years of age, he hasn’t played a down of NFL

football for nearly three seasons. 

Like Colin Kaepernick, Dez

Bryant is pushing hard to attempt another NFL comeback late this year. 

After taking a few days to digest the incredible 46-41 triumph of the undefeated LSU Tigers over the Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa last Saturday, the underdog story of three key LSU performers has remained in my mind.

There has been a strange confluence of circumstances which brought LSU head football coach Ed Orgeron, Heisman-hopeful quarterback Joe Burrow, and underappreciated running back Clyde Edwards-Hellaire all together in Baton Rouge.

All three of these men have

been instrumental in elevating the 2019 LSU Tigers football team back to the

top of the college football world again.

How they arrived in Baton

Rouge, though, is yet another story.

For Coach Orgeron, he easily could have been the head coach at the University of Southern California right now.   After working his way up to become the head coach at Ole Miss from 2005-2007, he became the ex-head coach of Ole Miss after being fired following the Rebels’ season-ending loss to rival Mississippi State.

Today, Coach O acknowledges

that he learned a lot from those years at Ole Miss.  He then went back to coaching defenses.  First, he landed with the NFL’s New Orleans

Saints (2008) and then he returned to college coaching again at the University

of Tennessee (2009). 

In 2010, the Cajun football coach from Larose, Louisiana headed west to join the staff of the University of Southern California under then-head coach, Lane Kiffin.  In 2013, Kiffin was abruptly fired during the season in late September.  The Athletics Director at USC handed the interim coaching keys to Ed Orgeron to finish-out the season. 

Coach O took over the team

with a different mindset from his time at Ole Miss.  This time, he said that he approached the

team in the same way that he mentored his own teenaged sons.  The team responded with a 6-2 finish during

Ed Orgeron’s interim head coaching job. 

Instead of being rewarded

with a second chance to become a head coach of a major university, Ed Orgeron

was passed-over this time for Steve Sarkisian (who had been coaching Pac-12

rival Washington).  Coach O then resigned

from USC to contemplate his next career move.

It was time to go back to the bayou again.  Enter LSU.

In 2015, Coach Ed Orgeron became the defensive line coach for the LSU Tigers and worked for head coach, Les Miles.  During Orgeron’s second season in Baton Rouge, Les Miles (like Lane Kiffin at USC) was fired in late September of the 2016 season. 

Louisiana native Ed Orgeron

was now asked to become the interim head coach for his home-state LSU

Tigers.    Ironically, just like at USC in 2013, Ed

Orgeron’s LSU team finished the 2016 season with a 6-2 record.

After the season, Coach O had to wait as LSU’s Athletics Director wanted to test the waters to land a “hotter” name head coach.  The school flirted with the University of Houston’s Tom Herman, but he took the job at the University of Texas instead.   Jimbo Fisher at Florida State also turned down a chance to come to LSU (he ultimately left the Seminoles for a lucrative job at Texas A&M the next season). 

Almost by attrition, LSU

meekly awarded the head coaching job to Ed Orgeron.  The fans of Louisiana rejoiced as they saw a

man who spoke their language, who had the intensity that Tiger Nation demanded

of their head coach,

This is the weekly chronicle of my Yahoo! Fantasy Football team called “Swamp Gas”.  The team started the season out with a stellar 4-1 record, but then the proverbial wheels have fallen off.

After losing our third straight game this past week by a score of 113-81 and falling to a 5-5 record, it’s time for the management team (pictured above) of the Methane Marauders to step-up and take responsibility for the recent failures of our beloved team as our playoff chances are starting to slip away.

My team is heading in the wrong direction!

With three regular season games to go, Swamp Gas still has a chance to make the playoffs.  Unfortunately, this week’s game will be against the #1 team in the league (The Houston Hard Hitters – or Triple H for short). 

It’s probably not the best week to be playing the #1 team in our league!

Ruh-roh!  Looks like we should have our work cut out for us this week.

Our bench looks to be on vacation, too!

Let’s analyze what seems to

be the matter with our fantasy football team.

#1 – We haven’t scored enough points to win lately!  Captain Obvious knows that our team’s weekly point production of only 78 points per outing over the past five weeks is a failing grade.  As we’ve said before, you need to score 100 points per game to have a legitimate chance to win week-to-week in this league.

#2 – The injury bug and “Bye” weeks have really hurt us during this losing streak.  Key injuries to nearly every drafted player on the roster have forced us to dig deep into our bench and an even weaker pile of free agents for help.  The offensive production of our bench players has been simply horrible.  This is an epic fail on the part of our General Manager and Coach.

#3 – Though none of our bench players’ performances would have made a difference in the outcome of last week’s game, the lack of productivity from our bench certainly shows that we aren’t picking the best players to turn our losing streak around.

This “Excuse Train” from management needs to end immediately.  It’s time to get this team back on the winning track as we’ll need to win two of the next three games to make the playoffs.  It’s time for our guys to get back to work and win again!

General Manager comments – Though the unemployment line may be beckoning, I’d like to remind our esteemed Owner that the drafted roster started the season 4-1 before the injury bug hit.  I will acknowledge that our free agent pick-ups have been a bust, but our starters have failed to produce, too.  Who would have thought that Saints Hall-of-Fame QB Drew Brees would look like an actual 40-year old man last week against the lowly Atlanta Falcons?

This week, we’re sending a one-week flop back to the free agent pit.  Saints WR Ted Ginn usually hooks up with Brees a few times every game, but he came up empty on Sunday.  B-bye, Ted! 

In his place, we will attempt to grab WR Deebo Samuel of the 49ers and add him back to the team.  He looked sharp in Monday night’s game with eight catches for 112 yards (11 points!). 

Coach’s Corner – The fantasy football coach must determine which players should be used from week-to-week.  Last week, I chose to start QB Drew Brees (playing inside the Superdome against the 1-7 Falcons) instead of Buffalo’s Josh Allen (outside in cold weather in Cleveland against the Browns).   Josh Allen finished with 24 points to Brees’ 11 points on Sunday. 

We probably should have played rookie WR Andy Isabella (Cardinals) instead of Ted Ginn.  However,