I have been playing fantasy football since I was 9 years old, joining a random free to play ESPN league and being invested in Maurice Jones-Drew’s stat-line. Last night I suffered the most heartbreaking loss of my entire life to miss the playoffs. The final score of my matchup was 149.82-149.76. I lost by .06 points. Yes, you read that correctly .06 points. That is less than 1 rushing or receiving yard, and less than 5 passing yards. Starting in July and ending in December, Fantasy Football consumes my life. Not only the desire to win behind my knowledge of football, but the will to beat the people you grew up with makes me obsessive over a roster of 15 NFL players.
I cannot chalk up the loss or missing the playoffs to one play because obviously any little thing can be different and I would be competing for a Championship. However, I picked out a few plays from last night that led to my demise. The first play is Bradley Chubb inexplicably took his helmet off on the field after making a stop on third down inside the red zone. On 3rd and 10 from the Miami 30 yard line, Will Levis dropped back avoided the sack from Chubb, scrambled and trucked Jalen Ramsey for a 5 yard gain. Bradley Chubb made the tackle but was so mad at himself that he missed the sack, he took his helmet off right after the tackle. In the NFL, this is an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for some reason and completely changed the game from a 7-3 game to putting the Titans on the 12 yard line. Levis then scrambles to the 1 yard line where the hardest running back to tackle in all of football, Derrick Henry, runs it in. A huge swing in not only the actual game but for my fantasy team playing against Henry.
The game script was in my favor, Tyreek got hurt, and even though he came back in, was not a huge factor in the Dolphins offense and the Phins had a two touchdown lead with 4:39 left in the game. The number one offense and a two score lead, this game should be over right? Somehow Levis drove down the field in two minutes, threw to Hop for a TD and got the 2-point conversion. All Miami needs to do now is get one first down and the game is probably over. Both Mostert and Achane looked great all night and the Titans are without probably their best defensive player in Jeffery Simmons. The Dolphins could not get a first down and punted the ball back to the rookie QB with 2:15 left.
2 minute drill for a rookie QB on the road is a great situation for me, especially since Tyjae Spears has played almost every passing play over Henry. Levis moves the ball down the field with ease and with 2 minutes left and no timeouts, Spears gets a carry to Miami’s 6 yard line. The Titans looked like they needed to throw the ball as they had no timeouts left and were still 6 yards out of the end zone. Now, the Dolphins are called for one of these penalties that I have never seen in my life and Zach Sieler gets called for a defensive delay of game penalty to move the ball to the three yard line. I was absolutely shocked for them to call this as it looked like a clear false start. The refs cited abrupt movement, but the D-line has movement on almost every play. Even JJ Watt tweeted “Did they really just call a penalty on the DLine for shifting laterally?” I was in absolute shock and new my fate as soon as Dan Orlovsky said on the broadcast “this will probably be a run play compared what looked to be a passing play.” Next play Derrick Henry runs the ball in for 6.3 points and I lose.
If you read either of my posts from yesterday, you knew that I needed Jordan Love to have a big game yesterday. He did not have a big game or even a mediocre game. He was not great yesterday and the two turnovers were costly. However, Jordan Love is a big time player and did what he needed to do to give the Packers their best chance of winning. In the fourth quarter, in back to back possessions, he marched down the field for 9 points in 2 possessions. The Packers scored a huge touchdown and went up 1 with 1:36 left in the game. They needed the two point conversion to ensure a Field Goal doesn’t beat them. I mentioned how good Jordan Love looked in the 4th quarter and Matt Lafleur decided to call a Jayden Reed end around for the 5th time in the night, not letting his blossoming QB make a play for the 2 point conversion. This was a horrible play call and let Tommy freakin Cutlets drive down the field and beat the Packers, diminishing their hopes of a playoff run.
These three plays are the ones that kept me up last night. Not mentioned was the ball Aj Dillion caught for negative 10 yards which he had no business trying to catch that. I put my heart and soul into this league just for a loss by .06 with the most points against in the entire league. I know as a 24 year old, I should not be this angry about a game but it is hard not to when you put as much effort into it as I do. The good thing about fantasy football is no one ever does just one league. In my other league, my good friend Jared and I clinched a bye and are trying to go for back to back championships and 3 rings in 4 years. I try every year to tell myself to not be as invested in my teams but I know when mock draft season comes around in July, I won’t be able to help myself.
JakesTakes 
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