Little Lennie's Fantasies

Let's begin with this stat...Little Lennie is on a roll as he is 15-3 over the last 3 weeks in picks! How 'bout them apples, boys?!?! The fantasy gods have finally given his readers some reason to have faith in his weekly writeups. Let's see if he can keep the spot-on analysis for at least one more week.

We have now played 2/3rd's of our games with just 6 more to go, including Week 13's all-important final doubleheader. With 11 games down, let's take a brief look at how teams stack up...

Pretenders... Road Dogs, Government Mule, Moulton Lava. The Puppies are officially dead in the water and will spend the last weeks of the season playing the role of spoiler. Bobby just has never been able to get anything going for his club as the Dogs have been the highest scored upon team in the league.  The Mule is by far the lowest scoring team in the league and to that fact it is a testament that PFIII has his club sitting with 4 wins! And Wayne's Lava is just plain trending in the wrong direction, losers of 4 in a row. These teams are in trouble and need wins like right now if they are to stay in the playoff hunt.

Identity Crisis... BillyClubs, Chuddaheads, The Iron, Sunyvale Shit Hawks. All sitting at 5-6 and of the bunch the Hawks seem to have the best chance of making a legitimate run with their 4th ranked offense. The champs always seem to find a way but the Blitz is putting distance between them while Paul P. has pulled all the stoppers trying to get his team out of their win one lose one malady. Eddie's Chuddas may have hit paydirt with Matthew Stafford as they have won 2 of their last 3. All 4 teams are very much alive but with 6 games to go need to go better than .500 the rest of the way. One, maybe 2, at best from this group will advance.

Contenders... Bad Boyz, Blitz, TripleA, Straphangers, Hellraisers. The Boyz are just in cruise control right now, clearly the league's best team at the 2/3rds pole. I'm sure Mitch wishes the playoffs could start right now, but barring a major collapse, this team will be tough to beat going forward. The Strappies are loaded with talent and have the league's 2nd best offense behind the Boyz. Coach Q. has made a few trades to put his team in position to win in the playoffs and Little Lennie would be shocked if they didn't hold onto control of the Click division. The Blitz, Hellraisers, and TripleA are 3 clubs that have the talent to go on a roll as well. Right now they are a shade behind the Strappies in terms of chances with none of these clubs anywhere close to the Boyz at the moment. This is Mitches' race to lose, but, again, with 6 games to go a lot, namely injuries, could happen to change the dynamics of this playoff race. Out of the 3 teams (Blitz, Arsonists, Hellboys) at least 1 will likely drop enough games down the road to miss the playoffs. Just something that happens every year. 

Little Lennie's Quick Picks

Road Dogs +7 vs. the BillyClubs... Dismal outing by Bo Nix (4) Thursday night may have sealed the fate of the 1-10 Dogs. Deebo Samuel and Nick Chubb have disappointed this last month and Justin Jefferson, while still a great receiver, can't carry this squad. For the Clubbers, these are the games they need to win if they are  to be serious contenders and a top corps of receivers led by A.J. Brown and Michael Pittman Jr. should be enough to more than compensate for Prescott's bye week. The champs by 11 but don't think Granny, sitting up there in her Cement Stadium suite, is happy with her team's thus far underwhelming record! 

Beach Court Blitz -7 vs. the Chuddaheads... While the Blitz are favored by both Little Lenie and the computer, this game could hinge on the performance of the Nation's stud runner Devone Achane as he faces off in Miami against the Bills. Last time they faced each other, Achane was held to a mere mortal-like 4 fantasy points. The guessing here is that the warmer weather will produce better results for him and help his Nation team in a tighter than expected rematch against thei custodial brethren Chuddaheads. The Blitz took game 1 of this 3 game set, 82-77 in Week 5 and Little Lennie thinks this one will be just as close. DeVonta Smith just might decide things on Monday night as The Nation celebrates another win over the Bombers by 5!

The Hellraisers -15 vs. The Iron... Could this be Coach Polizzia's "Last Stand" against a much stronger offense in the Hellraisers? Could Josh Allen be doing a lot of handing off to the Satanic Duo's James Cook to take time off the clock in Miami? Will Kyle Monangai have another stellar game, this time at home against the Giants or will he be splitting carries with supposed started, D'Andre Swift? With Lamar Jackson back and looking refreshed, things are not trending in the right direction for four-time winners, The Iron. Little Lennie thinks this game might be decided by the leg (that's right Danny) of Jake Elliot on Monday night. If so, put it in the win column for Joe Po and partner by a comphy 13!

Bad Boyz -44 vs. Government Mule... Little Lennie decided to show the actual spread since 11 games have passed. 44 points as the league's top gunning offense takes on the bottom offense at Federal Stadium. Even the computer has the Boyz' chances at 98% right now. To say that this would be an epic upset might even be an understatement! Hurts and Goedert (thanks again TripleA) rested and ready after the bye while Jonathan Taylor looking to rebound after his worst fantasy week of the season, a mortal-like 45 rushing yards and only 2 fantasy points. That should vastly improve this weekend at home against the Falcons. The Mule is banking on the old Breece Hall and much older Derrick Henry to step up if they are to have any chance at pulling off the upset of the year. Little Lennie thinks Trump has a better chance of ending the Ukraine war in a day than the Mule has against this behemoth! Boyz by 39!

Sunnyvale Shit Hawks -17 vs. Moulton Lava... Another team favored heavily by both Little Lennie and the computer, the Hawks jumped up to 3rd in this week's Power Rankings. Now they need to show they deserve this ranking by taking care of a Lava team reeling big-time with 4 straight losses! Wayne continues to preach it's all a matter of luck. I guess we should just have our pets picking the lineups for us then if it's just luck. Coach Poliz corrected me last week. The proper saying is "The winner's tell jokes while the losers say deal the cards!" And while Little Lennie likes the Mule's Lion-heavy offense, ya still gotta give not-so-young Danny Brown's club the edge by a way too close 2 points! Smith -Njigba continues to be a difference-maker! Wayne seen dealing cards to some retired old-timers at the Senior Center...

Straphangers -3 vs. TripleA... Coach Q. got his team off to a nice 9  point lead Thursday night thanks to Aston Jeanty but let's not kid ourselves here. This game will be decided on how well the Pats defense can contain Baker Mayfield and how well Tua can perform against the heavily favored Bills in Miami. The Strappies took game 1 of this 3 game set back in Week 5 by 10, but Little Lennie thinks that this one just might go the other way thanks to Tua's possible decent showing along with the help of Josh Jacobs and Christian McCaffrey. Arsonist hold on for a 5 point win, leapfrogging over the Straphangers for the lead (at least temporarily) in the Click division. Coach Q. not sweating the loss but looking forward to future trades ahead of next week's trading deadline.

Good luck to all teams and let's not forget our veterans this upcoming Tuesday and all they have down and sacrificed to keep America the great country we are in spite of ourselves!