There are no moral victories in NESCAC fantasy football. That’s what I learned this week after an excruciatingly close loss to Jeff, which ends any hopes I had of winning our season matchup outright. I’m not quite playing for pride yet as I can tie Jeff 4-4 by running the table the next three weeks. Thus far, however, there’s little reason to believe that will be the case. This week I was doomed by our midweek moves last week, which turned out to be the difference. Less than a week ago I was championing essentially a Mallock-for-Nwosu swap that, in the long run, may be the right decision, but was incredibly costly this week. In a week that was decided by two points, our swap of kickers represented an 18-point swing. Further, Jeff’s week-by-week approach to defenses paid off, as Colby and Williams combined for 26 points. In contrast, I rode the Middlebury defense one week too many. While Doug Mandigo’s unit had a great performance on the field, their bend-but-don’t-break style did not translate well to my box score. Ultimately, kickers and defenses accounted for the difference in the Week 5 matchup as Jeff’s tandem outscored mine 36-11. In fantasy this week, like in real football every week, it’s hard to make up for that kind of difference in defense and special teams.
| Jeff | Damon | ||||
| QB | Warren | 9.3 | QB | Foote | 22.2 |
| QB | Lippe | 11.8 | QB | Marske | 17.58 |
| RB | Drew | 14.4 | RB | Zelkowitz | 12 |
| RB | Donnarumma | 2.6 | RB | Curit | 0 |
| RB | Bunker | 20.3 | RB | Scyocurka | 20.9 |
| RB | Gibson | 3 | RB | Crick | 18.2 |
| WR | Rankowitz | 9.6 | WR | O’Malley | 12.4 |
| WR | Jensen | 11.6 | WR | Minno | 7.5 |
| WR | Jones | 0 | WR | Hurwitz | 3.6 |
| WR | Duncklee | 15.8 | WR | Gonzalez | 1.4 |
| WR | Davis | 4.8 | WR | Fabien | 1.7 |
| WR | Payton | 0 | WR | Wheeler | 0 |
| TE | Hughes | 14.1 | TE | Way | 11 |
| TE | Budness | 0 | TE | Sadik-Khan | 11.6 |
| D/ST | Colby | 14 | D/ST | Trinity | 7 |
| D/ST | Williams | 12 | D/ST | Middlebury | 3 |
| K | Mallock | 10 | K | Nwosu | 1 |
| 153.3 | 151.08 | ||||
| Bench | Ciero | 34.28 | Bench | Stannell | 19.3 |
| Bench | Doherty | 1 | Bench | Trause | 11.2 |
So where to go from there? I could adopt the timeworn attitude of teams with their backs are up against the wall—“WE ALL WE GOT, WE ALL WE NEED”—but so often that logic, if you can call it that, turns out to be false. Similarly, I could have blown up my roster, gone for broke and added high-risk, high-reward guys, but in spite of my struggles I split the middle, attempting to improve my roster as I have each week. Outside of the running back position I believe I have an advantage at just about every position but running back and with a healthy James Stannell, I think I can compete there as well. The one place I looked for upside was at the wide receiver position where I added Greg Lanzillo and Grant Luna, who both have a chance to be breakout players over the second half of the season. That is especially true of Lanzillo who demonstrated a strong rapport with freshman quarterback Alex Synder, who I seriously considered adding. However, Marske’s matchup against Hamilton is far more favorable than Snyder’s (Amherst). The Lord Jeffs defense has recorded 12 sacks—second most in the NESCAC—and will have ample opportunities to take down Synder, who was sacked 8 times against Williams. Though Snyder looked immensely talented in Saturday’s loss against Williams, his internal clock needs to improve. If I scrape out a victory this week and Snyder performs well against Amherst, I may make the move next week instead. For now, however, this is how the midweek moves shaped out:
| DAMON | Add GREG LANZILLO Drop TREVOR WHEELER | JEFF | Add AMHERST D/ST Drop COLBY D/ST |
| DAMON | Add WESLEYAN D/ST Drop MIDDLEBURY D/ST | JEFF | Add GENE GARAY D/ST Drop GREG PAYTON |
| DAMON | Add GRANT LUNA Drop JAY FABIEN |