The Diary of a Fantasy Virgin - Week 15 Dec 18, 2012 | More
More articles from Tim Davoll

It is Week 15 in the NFL season. It is the first week of the playoffs for most. It is time to go big or go home. Sometimes, however good you are, you get beaten by the tale of the tape. The story goes as the story goes. And this story went south on the art of the decoy.

Decoys Abound

To bring you back up to speed, I am in the fantasy football championship tier in my 12-team league. I got here on the strength of my pass-happy offense. Drew Brees threw often. Roddy White, Wes Welker and Dez Bryant really helped me out. Even my kicker Matt Bryant got into the act. Lately the Denver Broncos defense has been helping as well.

But, it is now the big day and you find out that these wide receivers are probable or questionable, what do you do? You play them all and your team goes for 130 points, which is the second-best score this week in our 12-team league. The best score was my opponent, who went for 157 points. So another championship has been made elusive by the vagaries of the perfect storm.

How did I lose? It came down to matchups and just weird timing. It began last week with the tie. Did I mention that in the Atlanta Falcons game, instead of kicking an extra point, they went for two points? That one point would have made me the No. 1 seed. Wow! How strange is that?

For every player I had, my opponent had an answer. My Drew Brees was offset by his Aaron Rodgers. My Alfred Morris was offset by his C.J. Spiller. Even my Denver Broncos defense was offset by a Cincinnati Bengals best performance of the year.  A timely pickup by my opponent. Touche! Where it really hurt was Roddy White was matched by Julio Jones. And that is where the separation took place.

So congratulations to my opponent Republic Steel. That team plays for the championship in our fantasy football league and I play for third place.

Dear Diary

Another year goes by and the fantasy football championship is not to be had. There were fantastic highs like the 188 points scored in Week 4. I also made it through the bye weeks largely unscathed. Things were looking up. And then it fell apart.

One more week where I try to get third place and then it is prognostication time for the “Virgin” articles. I can also finally answer all those questions I tossed out there in Week 1. I think that this symmetry is a nice segue into the NFL playoffs.

Buy those gifts! Make that list and check it twice.

Master D.

Tim can now be reached at tdavoll@fantasysharks.com and welcomes your opinions on the “Diary of a Fantasy Virgin” articles.