Fantasy Football Playoffs Semifinals Start ‘Em & Sit ‘Em: Bucky Irving a should begin, plus sleepers

Fantasy Football could be merciless generally. It’s a bizarre feeling {that a} sport the place we won’t management what occurs can provide some unbelievable highs and a few gut-wrenching lows.

I skilled the latter in Week 15 towards my colleague Heath Cummings. I used to be going through Heath within the first spherical of the playoffs in certainly one of our dynasty leagues, and it was a back-and-forth matchup going into the Monday evening doubleheader between Chicago at Minnesota and Atlanta at Las Vegas.

It’s an IDP league, and Heath had Drake London, Jordan Addison and Jessie Bates III, whereas I had Justin Jefferson and Jakobi Meyers. I will not go into all the small print of what occurred with each participant — Jefferson dropped a straightforward landing for instance — however quite a lot of performs might have swayed the result in both path. And the final play of the evening determined our destiny.

I had pulled forward of Heath by share factors on a Meyers’ 22-yard reception with 26 seconds left within the sport. The Raiders, trailing 15-9, wanted a landing to win, and so they had time for 2 Hail Mary throws on the finish of regulation from the 35-yard line.

The first one from Desmond Ridder fell incomplete with 2 seconds left. The second one fell into the arms of Bates for an interception, and Heath ended up with the win.

I had no response watching it from my front room. What might I do? I set my finest lineup, my gamers did the very best they might and the Fantasy gods ripped away my victory and handed it to Heath.

I’m fortunate that I play in a variety of Fantasy leagues, so I’m nonetheless setting 11 lineups in Week 16. And, hopefully, all of them advance to the championship spherical in Week 17. But that is not practical.

I hope none of you expertise a troublesome loss in your semifinal this weekend, however any loss at this level within the season will probably be troublesome, whether or not it is by one level or 20. You hate to get eradicated proper earlier than the Fantasy championship.

So let’s suppose constructive. Let’s hope for success and that your gamers come by way of in an enormous approach. And let’s hope that the ball bounces your approach prefer it did for Heath if the sport is shut — and also you win.

It was nice to see Bucky Irving again in motion in Week 15 on the Chargers after he left the Week 14 sport towards Las Vegas with a again harm. When wholesome, Irving has been a star, and hopefully he is near one hundred pc in Week 16 at Dallas.

Irving did not have his finest sport towards the Chargers, however he turned 15 carries into 117 yards, which included a 54-yard run, and he added two catches for minus-4 yards on two targets. He scored 13.3 PPR factors, and he is reached no less than that whole in 4 wholesome video games in a row. He’s additionally scored no less than 15.4 PPR factors in six of his previous eight full video games.

This week, Irving is taking up a Dallas staff that’s No. 8 in most Fantasy factors allowed to opposing working backs. Three working backs up to now 5 video games have scored no less than 14.5 PPR factors towards the Cowboys, and Irving has top-15 upside on this matchup.

Now, he’ll proceed to share touches with Rachaad White, who’s value beginning as a low-end No. 2 working again or flex in Week 16. White has scored no less than 11.7 PPR factors in seven of his previous eight video games and labored properly in tandem with Irving.

But Irving is my favourite Tampa Bay working again in Week 16. And he is certainly one of my favourite working backs general this week. I’m excited to see what he can do on Sunday evening at Dallas, and it is nice that he is wholesome within the Fantasy semifinals.