Tua Tagovailoa Let Dave Portnoy Down In A Big Way
Miami resident, Dave Portnoy is not a fan of Tua Tagovailoa, and for good reason.
This weekend, Dave needed Tyreek Hill to outscore the Miami D/ST to secure a playoff spot in his fantasy league with the big leaguers. Manny Machado, who managed the team with Tyreek Hill, had a 93% chance to win going into Monday night. He was facing the league's leading point scorer and Eric Hosmer. But with this play, it became a game.
Not much longer after, Tyreek Hill gets hurt and exits the game. Late in the game, Dave needed Hill to have 1 catch for 17 yards on the final Dolphins drive and he'd secure a playoff spot. Unfortunately, Tua did not look his way and the Dolphins turned it over on downs. The league's leading point scorer, Eric Hosmer broke through and pulled out the improbably victory to earn the 6th and final playoff spot.
Dave had an unfortunate matchup this week as Christian McCaffrey failed to score a touchdown, meanwhile his opponents, Shane Bieber and Austin Hedges locked up a spot with the Brock Purdy/Deebo Samuel stack that doubled up points vs. Portnoy.
Portnoy then fell from 5th to 7th, missing the playoffs despite having the second most points. Meanwhile, if the new guys, JT Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber could hand on against the last place, one win Wil Myers, who by the way is the defending champion, they'd secure a playoff spot. However, Deandre Hopkins went OFF last night with 25.4 fantasy points and knocked them out of the playoffs.
It's hard to blame them for starting Dak Prescott over Matthew Stafford in that situation, but that decision ultimately cost them a ticket to the dance.
We also saw Joc Pederson, Austin Barnes, and Alex Wood win the battle, but maybe not the war. In their matchup with Jake Marisnick and Andrew Benintendi, they won by 25.4 points, but they needed to win by 27.41 points to overtake them for the #2 seed and earn the bye.
The decision to start DeVonta Smith over Derrick Henry could haunt that group for awhile if they playoffs don't break in their favor. On the other end, Marisnick and Benintendi get the bye which is much needed with Justin Herbert's injury and Justin Jefferson's status up in the air.
In other news, Mike Trout laid an egg, but still gets the #1 seed and a bye and Mike Napoli finally gets a win after eight straight losses which followed a 5-0 start capping a truly wild fantasy season.
Special shoutout to Mike Moustakas and Alex Bregman/Brian McCann who kept fighting to the end, but really had an inconsequential matchup.
Here are the final regular season standings.