Week 8 Recap

The Undefeated...
The Nationals continue on their upward trajectory. Now at 8-0 they are threatening to become the first undefeated team since Stevie B. led them to an 8-0 record in a strike-shortened season. (That's them at the HB below.) They topped that run off, as you might recall, with a Hughes Bowl win over the Flyers. The Nats' schedule looks a wee bit tougher down the stretch so we'll have to delay etching the trophy for a bit, but I wouldn't bet high against them. 

The Unlucky...
Last week the Strawmenn got pummelled by the Flyers who had just the second pair of 40 point starters in league history. This week it happened again. The Legends are smacking the Smenn around and have two 40 point starters, Mahomes and Cook. 

The Unreal...
I'm typing this on Monday so there is a chance that James' guys (with 152 at the moment) could top the high mark for 2020 which is 161. They'd need 10 out of Succop in the MNF game. It's certainly possible. And keep in mind that they got only four from George Kittle who got hurt, and a donut from Diontae Johnson. With a couple of different starter picks (Moss and Miller) they would be at 179 and likely to break the all-time game scoring record of 181 (Holes, Wk 12, 2018)

The Random...
I'm 99.9% sure I'm going to implement a consolation bracket this year. The six teams that miss the 'championship' bracket will play in a parallel universe with the prize being, well, that part I haven't figured out yet. I'm thinking that it'll either be the #1 draft slot, the right to pick his draft slot or a waiver cash bonus. I'd seed those six teams just as I do the top six and award two byes. Then off we'd go. If you have thoughts as to what the consolation winner should get let me know. 

If the playoffs began this week (with seeds)

#1 Nats (bye)
#2 Flyers (bye) (2-0 vs Heroes for division, best PPG for seed vs Bliz and Holes since the three have not all played each other yet)*
#3 Bliz (Higher PPG vs Holes)
#4 Holes
#5 Heroes
#6 Legends (1-0 vs Giants)

WC Week-Bliz v Legends, Holes v Heroes.

Odds that this will stay the same for even one week...  0.00%

*=this is another good reason for the balanced schedule that comes with four divisions of three teams...every team plays every other team by years end so three-team ties are easier to break.

This is the first week of 2020 that has had the games wrapped up on Sunday (five are official, the Legends over the Smenn is a lock)... I still hate the way our tie-breaks read. My intention has been to go with head-to-head when possible and then PPG as second criteria. I planned to fix/simplify/clarify all of that this past off-season but preparing for the rest of the possible craziness got me distracted... Waivers have begun to settle down a bit, only four guys awarded last Wednesday. I think the thin level of talent to fill injury holes is the reason... the injury update email that came from my dynasty league team last Friday had 12 (TWELVE!) guys on it listed as IR, Out, Doubtful, or DNP (Did Not Practice). That's on a roster of 26. I got a few guys back by Sunday morning but with byes and breaks, I barely had a lineup. Luckily I do have Mahomes and Cobb. 

Dalvin Cook Update... McCaffrey still on track to return this week, of course, there was a chance last week and he didn't make it... Chubb, well I'm dubious that he's coming back soon. It's been too quiet on the Browns media...  Bell is on the field now, so he's off the 'watch' list... Godwin is hurt again and is deemed '50/50 for Week 9. If he plays one more game he's off the watch list... Michael Thomas is (apparently) some sort of head case. But he isn't IR'd so he's unlikely to get the Cook collar... and Barkley is done obviously.

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The Tech-ish...
Early last week Strawmann Mike alerted me to the fact that his browser was telling him that the league home page was 'Not Secure'. That sent me down a rabbit hole of coding and security issues I hadn't been down very far previously. I certainly learned a lot. 

That screenshot shows you what the URL of a 'secure' site should look like in your browser address bar. Of course, yours will vary according to which browser you use. In Firefox when the site wasn't secure I was getting a big yellow triangle there where the 'lock' symbol is. Others just use bold text for a warning.

To make this long story (sort of) shorter...I found that, in general, the warning was coming from images I've placed on the site that had an http:// address rather than https:// ....missing that single letter 's' is the culprit. I had pics hosted all over the place, Google, Photobucket, Flickr, etc, and I got them all moved to Imgur.com which is secure. I also found a bunch of small coding errors I'd made in the custom add-ons modules. Finally, as of this morning, I had everything cleared up, and the site shows as secure.