Tartan Fantasy Football: Visual Editor Tracy Le’s futbol stays on top

Welcome back to our Tartan Fantasy Football League recap! As it has been the norm this season, I will be recapping the action of our league in the past two weeks.

As the Sports Editor, it’s been extremely embarrassing to see Visual Editor Tracy Le, who at the start of the season didn’t know a quarterback from a cornerback and had never watched a football game before, perch at the top of our league standings. Oh well. But since this is our last recap of the year in The Tartan’s final issue of 2018, I want to express how amazing it has been being the Sports Editor this year. I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished, and I’m excited for what comes next!

In Week 11, Le’s team futbol maintained its top spot in a high scoring affair over Photo Editor Lisa Qian’s team, who stayed in seventh place. In the most hotly contested matchup, Operations Manager Adam Tunnard’s team Slugs crept by News Editor Nora Mattson’s team newz, winning by less than four points and moving up in the standings to fourth place.

The closest matchup of the week was between Publisher Caleb Miller’s team Last Manning Standing and Pillbox Editor Michelle Madlansacay’s team mmichelle123, which was decided by just 0.06 points. Miller’s team came out on top to continue his winning head-to-head streak against mmichelle123. And finally, Assistant Pillbox Editor Izzy Sio’s team GOAT but Ironically defeated my team, Gin and Bear It. The loss doesn’t feel so bad because Sio is one of the few in the league who actually understands football and knows how to log onto her NFL.com account. Figures.

Week 12 saw most matchups ending up as expected, with one surprising upset. This caused some shakeups in the middle of the standings, but in the end, Le’s futbol remains in the lead going into the final weeks of the season, while Mattson’s newz remains in the cellar.

Last Manning Standing over TARTAN FANTASY, 134.98 to 112.00

This matchup between Miller’s second-ranked Last Manning Standing and Qian’s seventh-ranked TARTAN FANTASY ended as expected. Leading the way to victory for Miller’s team was Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, who had 189 receiving yards and a touchdown for 24.90 points. Not far behind were Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston with 22.88 points and Jacksonville Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette with 22.80 points.

Qian’s team TARTAN FANTASY boasted some high performances, including the highest of either team, 35.70 from Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCafferty, who finished the week with 125 yards rushing, 112 receiving, one rushing touchdown, and one receiving touchdown. Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson put up 29.40 points and Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliot added 20.30 points, but they made up a large majority of the team’s total points. None of the other four offensive players cracked four points, leading to TARTAN FANTASY’s downfall.

mmichelle123 over Slugs, 87.48 to 73.42

Madlansacay’s mmichelle123 bounced back from the previous week’s close loss to defeat Tunnard’s team Slugs. With the win, mmichelle123 moves up two spots to fourth place, while Slugs drops to fifth place.

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins led Madlasacay’s mmichelle123 with 27.36 points from 342 yards through the air, 17 yards rushing, and three touchdowns. Other than Cousins, none of her other starters broke 20 points; Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz was her second highest scorer, with only 15.10 points, and one of her players didn’t score any points.

However, mmichelle123 racked up enough to beat Tunnard’s Slugs, which struggled with scoring as well. The team’s highest scoring player was Los Angeles Chargers running back Melvin Gordon, who put up 18.60 points after rushing for 61 yards and two touchdowns. Two players were scoreless, including the Jaguars defense, while four others failed to score double-digit points.

GOAT but Ironically over newz, 123.92 to 86.86

Sio’s team GOAT but Ironically continues to improve, this week rising to third place after a strong win over Mattson’s newz.

After starting the season with three straight losses, Sio has definitely steered her team in the right direction. In Week 12, while the team didn’t have any standout performances, GOAT but Ironically’s starters all contributed. All but one offensive starter scored at over 13 points, and the Baltimore Ravens defense collected a whopping 18 points.

Mattson’s newz had some bright spots, including 26.20 points from New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley, who had 142 total yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns, one rushing and one receiving. Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers also had a good week, with 20.66 points from 259 passing yards and three touchdowns. But little production from anyone else hindered the team, including zero points from both the kicker and the defense.

futbol over Gin and Bear It, 112.04 to 68.50

Le’s futbol decided to run up the score on my team (not that that’s literally possible in fantasy football), beating my team by over 40 points. In the team’s fourth win in a row, Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb scored 24.80 points from 84 rushing years, 44 receiving yards, a rushing touchdown, and a receiving touchdown. Panthers quarterback Cam Newton put up 22.54 points from 256 passing yards, 63 rushing yards, and two touchdowns.

Not that futbol needed much to beat my team, Gin and Bear It. I missed the time to bench my quarterback, Jared Goff of the Los Angeles Rams who was on a bye, so I got zero points from the only position that has been reliable for my team. Usually consistent Steelers running back James Conner had a mediocre week, finishing with only 7.50 points, and Washington Redskins running back Adrian Peterson proved to be a bad pickup, as he scored only 4.40 points. At least I’m not in last place like I was earlier in the season — I’m perfectly content with sixth place.

So that’s it for our Tartan Fantasy Football League in 2018! Don’t worry, we’ll be back in Jan. 2019 with the final recap of what went down during the last weeks of the regular season, and then how the playoffs played out. I hope that by the end of the season, Mattson will be able to name a tight end not named Rob Gronkowski, and Qian will know that “running back” is a two-word phrase.