Written by Cory Puffett
Published November 27, 2018

Playoff scenarios are always a bit complex entering the final three weeks of division play. With one of those three weeks now in the books, things are much more clear.

Before we dive deeper into the playoff picture, let’s look back on some of the highlights from the week. With 1477.2 points scored between our 12 teams, it was our second highest scoring week in our league’s history, which now spans 80 weeksof regular season games! Our average losing score this week was 113.7 points, the second highest we’ve ever seen.

Despite such a high scoring week, only one player made the top 40 list at his position. Christian McCaffrey went off for the Panthers and for Anthony, as he put up 42.9 points, good for 6th on the AFL’s running back list.

Despite no other players standing out in a historical context, we still had four team scores of note this week.

Sean’s 147-point game is good for 35th on the league’s all-time single game team scoring list. Evan scored 143 points to tie for 49th and Adam scored 137.8 points, the 72nd highest score in league history.

Stephen scored 136.1 points in a losing effort. While that doesn’t make our top 75 list, it isthe second highest losing score our league has ever seen. The four highest losing scores in league history now come from this season.

Moving on to the highs and lows of Week 12, Stephen, clearly, was our unlucky coach of the week. He had an 8-3 breakdown but was facing Evan, who was second in scoring this week.

Danny, on the flip side, had a breakdown of just 3-8, 9th in the league for the week, but faced Andrew, who was our lowest scorer. So Danny got a lucky win to move into a tie atop the AFL East.

Overall, Eric (+1.55), Evan (+1.45), and Brandon (+1.45) are the luckiest owners this season based on breakdown. Based simply on wins gained from weekly matchup luck, Brandon and Cory are the two luckiest owners.

Based on breakdown, our unluckiest owners are Will Massimini (-3.73), Anthony (-0.50), and Danny (-0.50). From weekly matchup luck, Will has lost three wins while Anthony, Danny, Eric, Stephen, and Andrew have all lost one win each.

Our best defensive coach this week was Evan, who got 22 points from the Baltimore Ravens defense. Sean and Adam tied for the top kicker score this week. Sean got 10 points from Ravens kicker Justin Tucker and Adam got 10 from Houston Texans kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn.

Congratulations to Will, the first player to reach 200 points from defenses this season. He has 203 points through 12 weeks, just shy of 17 points per game. Andrew (94 points) and Adam (99 points) are the only owners who have not reached triple digits from starting defenses this season.

Adam may not have much luck, or an eye, for good fantasy defenses. But he leads all owners in kicker points with 115, one of four owners to reach triple digits from the position this season. Eric has just 64 points and is in last place in kicker points.

Overall, our coach of the week is Evan. He earned 7.2 points and a win by succeeding on two of three coaching risks. He earned 15.6 points by starting Mohamed Sanu and Austin Ekeler instead of Doug Baldwin and Frank Gore, the latter of whom he dropped. He also lost 8.4 points by starting Lamar Jackson instead of Kirk Cousins.

Incredibly, Evan has cost his team the third most points in the league (-27 points from coaching), but has earned his team two wins and cost his team none. He has succeeded on just 4 of 13 coaching risks all year, but those successful risks have come in his tightest games.

Danny earns honorable mention for coach of the week after earning his team 14.8 points with one coaching risk, starting David Njoku instead of Evan Engram.

Our worst coach this week, as teased in the power rankings comments, was Brandon. He cost his team 20.1 points and a win with a failed coaching risk, starting DJ Moore instead of Amari Cooper.

Cory earned honorable mention this category after also costing his team a win, granted he only cost the team 5.6 points, by starting Jordan Howard instead of Dion Lewis.

This week, Adam had four players on his roster among the top five weekly scorers at their positions. Stephen had three such players and five other owners had two each. Will and Brandon were the only owners with no such players. Evan and Sean both won their matchups with fewer players in the top five at their positions than their opponents had.

Check out the review of Week 12 below, followed by next week’s playoff scenarios:

Game of the Week: Evan Ash at Stephen April

Melvin Gordon’s MCL sprain gave Austin Ekeler some extra work, which got Evan back into a game that looked out of reach around mid-day on Sunday. Ekeler’s 21.8-point performance allowed Adam Thielen’s big Sunday night performance to put Evan over the top and into a position to clinch a playoff spot next week.

Week 13 Playoff Picture

Before we look at Week 13, congratulations are in order as Eric clinched a playoff spot with his win this week. Evan't win against Stephen in the game of the week kept Eric's win from clinching him the division.

Heading into Week 13, Eric can clinch the AFL West with a win against Stephen.

Regardless of the outcome of Eric’s game, Evan will clinch a playoff spot with a win this week. He can also clinch a playoff spot with a tie as long as this week’s game between Brandon and William does not result in a tie. Let’s be honest though – two ties in one week would be pretty awesome!

In the AFL East, only Danny has a clinching scenario this week as he will clinch the division title with a win against Cory and a loss or tie by Anthony against Andrew.

The AFL Central is a little weirder. William Battle is the only owner who can clinch anything out of that division this week but stick with me through all these scenarios.

With a win against Brandon, William will clinch at least a tie for a playoff spot with Cory, Stephen, Sean, Evan, and Brandon potentially still in the hunt to challenge based on the points tiebreaker. The win against Brandon would also guarantee him at least a tie for the division, with only Sean in a position to challenge based on points for the division title.

William can clinch the division title this week with some help. He needs to beat Brandon and have Sean lose or tie against Adam. Considering Sean and Adam are two of the top three teams over the past four weeks, that should be a very interesting matchup considering the playoff implications.

At this point, Will, Andrew, and Adam are all eliminated from playoff contention. Keep in mind, though, that consolation ladder results affect where each owner selects his draft pick. It is still in their best interest to try to win games as they can certainly mess up other owner’s playoff chances and can move themselves up or down between the two consolation brackets.

Stephen is eliminated from the AFL West division title race, but still has a path to the wild card, granted he needs a lotof help. Anthony and Danny are both eliminated from wild card contention so their only chance of making the playoffs is to win the AFL East division title.

Good luck to everyone entering the final two weeks of the season!