Professional Grade: The Finals
GMC Pro Grade League: Week 16
So much for the stud quarterbacks leading their fantasy teams to championship glory.
Tom Brady and, to a lesser extent, Tony Romo, might have led you this far, ranking 1-2 for the season in terms of fantasy points, but in Week 15, they were anything but stellar. Both scored but three fantasy points, torpedoing many a team in such a critical week.
Not so in the GMC Professional Grade League.
Let our respective Brady and Romo owners serve as examples that one bad week by the "guy who got you here" doesn't necessary preclude you from a fantasy championship. Matthew Berry (beat Ken Daube, 209-185, in Round 1) and Eric Karabell (beat Howie Schwab, 195-190) made it to our league finals, thanks to keen drafting, smart lineup management and, well, a little luck, so says No. 4 playoff seed Karabell.
"I'm in the finals? How did this happen?" he said. "Hmm, I scored more points than only two teams this season, won only one more game than I lost and butchered my quarterback selection in the semifinals, unknowingly sitting the quarterback who had the best week (Drew Brees) for one who had one of the worst (Romo). And I get to keep playing! I love fantasy football! We should offer it on ESPN.com, write gajillions of stories about the game and put our talent on TV. Nah, that would be too weird."
Besides his eighth-place ranking of 10 teams in total regular-season points, Karabell also enters the finals as what must be considered a heavy underdog for a couple other reasons: He's the lower seed (Berry was the No. 2), he averaged 17.3 fewer points per game during the regular season and he finished 14 points short of Berry's score in the semifinals.
Still, Karabell has two things going for him: Hector and Victor's optimum lineup for both him and Berry has Karabell as an eight-point favorite heading into Week 16. In addition, Berry lost his No. 1 running back for the week, Willie Parker, on his first carry of the night in the Thursday game. That left him with a statistical void for the week, and perhaps more importantly a gaping hole to fill in his lineup in Week 17. Karabell seemed most pleased by Hector and Victor's forecast, though, and took their advice with a tough lineup call.
"I'm staying with Romo over Brees, because Hector and Victor told me that was the right move, and as I always point out to friends, readers, my mailman and people I meet at parties, Hector and Victor are never wrong," he said. "I just hope LaDainian Tomlinson plays more than half the game. Ron Dayne goes in over Darius Walker this week, which I should've done last week, and all else remains the same."
Berry, predictably, wasn't happy about the loss of Parker in the early game.
"I managed to survive Brady and Wes Welker stinking up the place last week -- good luck -- but also have Willie Parker in my lineup this week -- bad," he said. "It's just this kind of situation that I am really glad we play with the ESPN default rules of two weeks for a championship, because you hate to play all season long and then lose because of something dumb like Parker."
No. 2 running back, No. 2 wide receiver and the flex spot were Berry's biggest questions heading into the final showdown. He's chock full of options, including Earnest Graham, Santonio Holmes, Marshawn Lynch, Laurence Maroney, Brandon Marshall, Aaron Stecker and Welker, but what's most troubling is the two most productive options of the bunch in Week 15 were the least likely suspects as recently as a month or two ago -- Stecker (23 points) and Graham (17).
"The big concern for me is at running back, where I can make arguments for and against each," said Berry. "Lynch has been consistent but has a bad matchup, Graham is one of the hottest running backs in the NFL but San Francisco has stopped Adrian Peterson and Rudi Johnson the last two weeks, and who knows what you will get with Maroney? Meanwhile, Welker has the much better matchup than Marshall, but Marshall has been very consistent.
"My guess is I go with Graham, Marshall and Lynch, although I will probably tweak throughout. If it's bad weather in New England, I don't want all my eggs in the Patriots basket."
Karma -- appeasing the fantasy football gods, if you will -- sure seemed to be theme of our finals matchup, too. When pressed for some good-natured trash talk, both of our finalists remained fairly tight-lipped. Berry, in fact, didn't make a peep when prodded.
"I will not trash talk my opponent these next two weeks, other than to point out I have more hair," said Karabell. "Hey, I don't want to anger his quarterback, Tom Brady. He has more hair, too. I will say, my quarterback is pretty good, too, on and off the field, you know. Jessica Simpson has more hair as well."
Simpson, eh?
I guess we'll see which is the lesser of the two evils in Week 16: Romo's Jessica Simpson distraction or the weather in New England. Stay tuned!
Every fantasy playoff bracket has to have its losers and, unfortunately, despite his regular season-best 104.0 points-per-week average, Ken Daube took the "L" in his Round 1 matchup with Berry. He picked a bad time for a so-so performance, scoring but 185 points in Weeks 14-15, worst among our four playoff participants.
"Almost every member of my team decided that his season wouldn't be complete unless it wound up in Stephania's columns," said Daube, referring to fellow owner Stephania Bell's injury reports. "Recapping: LaMont Jordan started off as a monster, then his back gave out. Derrick Ward played very well, then hit IR; Sammy Morris -- same; Laveranues Coles played hurt almost all year; Mark Clayton never got going; Darrell Jackson -- same; Mike Furrey -- same, and Antonio Gates disappeared.
"My two good picks: Brian Westbrook and Jamal Lewis. All in all, I'd say that I had an amazing year. Two good picks and still finished the regular season as the highest-scoring team. I can't wait until next year, maybe I'll have a good draft. Can you imagine how much I would have dominated then?"
Tristan H. Cockcroft covers fantasy sports for ESPN.com. You can e-mail him here.
