PLAYOFF TIME IS HERE (Charlie Brown Music melody)

Hello and Welcome to Hoff's Hot Takes. Would like to congratulate everybody on a hard-fought regular season. I would first like to start by recognizing the teams who earned a bye this season - Joe and Mike. Two teams who fought hard all season and deserve a little break this weekend. Hey - take the kids out, get a massage, do whatever you need to do for rest. Congratulations to the other teams in the playoffs as well - Nolan, Tidwell, John, and Micah. You are rewarded with a chance for glory in return for your blood sweat and tears spilled for the last four months or so. Everyone else is fighting for 7th place, so congrats to George, Jordan, BJ, Nick, Kyle, and Peter for sucking. A little different format today for the Takes. I have 21 thoughts to wrap up the regular season. Today's Takes are brought to you by Red Bull, Lemon Pepper wings, and
21 Thoughts on the Regular Season
1) Week 14 Recap - Kyle Kyle Kyle. Kyle loses to Nolan by four points. He earns a Top 6 point, but misses out on the win. And in doing so, Kyle misses the playoffs. That is a huge win for the other 6 guys, because I believe I would pick Kyle to win this week and be in the final four. Nolan put up big numbies to get the win and secure a 3 seed... Joe kind of limps into the playoffs (as much as a 1 seed can) by scoring less than 100 points to put away Jordan's team who was ravaged by bye weeks and injuries. Expect Jordan to lose big in the consolation bracket, and Joe to be in the final game.... Beej had Kyler Murray go down like 2 seconds into the game and he only scored less than 1 point. George had 50 combined from Mike Williams, and Jamaar Chase, and cruises to a good victory. See you boys in the consolation bracket...
2) Most points without a Top 6 point in a week - JB. 118. Week 2... Micah.114. Week 8... Mike and Tidwell. 113.Weeks 1 and 8... Micah.112. Week 2.
3) Least points scored to earn a Top 6 point - George 94. Week 6... JB weeks 7,9,10, and 13 with 97,98,101, and 101 respectively
4) Most points scored in a game - Nolan. 181. Week 8... Nolan. 178. Week 3... Joe 172. Week 9... Mike. 167. Week 3... Peter. 162. Week 2
5) Joe and Tidwell had the longest winning streaks this season with 7 games... JB got a Top 6 Point every week from Week 5 on.
6) As of 12/12 heading into Monday Night Football, Travis Kelce (TE1) has 228 points. Mark Andrews (TE2) has 134. That is the same gap between Andrews (TE2) and Isiah Likely. (TE33)
7) Only 10 times this season a team won a game while scoring less than 100 points. Beej won a game with 85 points, and that was the lowest total to win a game all season.
8) Kyle lost a game scoring 144 points. That is the most points in a loss all season. Only 9 times all season did a team score at least 125 points and lose.
9) Justin Fields has more fantasy points from rushing than Zeke, Alvin Kamara, and Antonio Gibson have total points (as of 12/12 5:30PM)
10) Kyle has RB 1, RB 2, and RB 6. Josh Jacobs, Derrick Henry, and Tony Pollard. Good moves sir.
11) Kyle and Mike scored the exact same number of points in week 6 (78.70). This is the first time in 8 years since ESPN went to fractional scoring where two teams have scored the same exact number of points in the same week.
12) Peter's week 14 produced the lowest number of points this season. He scored 43.2. In total, there were 10 games with teams scoring in the 50s and 60s, and Peter is the only one in the 40s. In fact, Peter in week 14 became only the 9th time a team scored in the 30s or 40s in Player Haters Ball History.
13) Nolan got the 3rd point 4 times this season. This marks the 5th time that somebody has gotten 3 points four times in a season. Nick did it 5 times in 2020, the record.
14) Picks of the Draft - Reminder, this is for regular season only. Nick picking Tyler Lockett in the 10th. Kyle picking Tony Pollard in the 6th. Tidwell picking Justin Fields in the 13th. Kyle picking Tua in the 14th. Peter taking Jamaal Williams in the 14th.
15) There were 107 Power Rankings Points for our Playoff teams combined. 103 in 2021. 99 in 2020. 92 in 2019. 93 in 2018. 99 in 2017... This season had the most points since we started tracking. Biggest gaps between the haves and the have nots in league history. 18 points seems to historically be the number to shoot for, as it is the most common Power Ranking Points to make the playoffs.
16) George had the 9th fewest points in a season of all time.
17) Week 6 was the lowest scoring week this season in total with 1,158 points. Week 8 had 1,476. That means that every team, on average, scored about 27 points more each.
18) Playoff Predictions - The 4 vs. 5 matchup is set. It is to be plyed between JB and Tidwell. Tidwell is falling a bit, and JB is about as consistent as it gets. Give me JB in a game like 105-99.... The 3 vs. 6 matchup features Nolan vs. Micah. I see this as a better game. I picked Nolan all year, so give me a win for Nolan. Something like 122-117.... That would lead us to Joe vs. JB and Nolan vs. Mike. Give me Nolan and Joe in those matchups. This would secure Joe's first win in the playoffs in PHB history. Give me Nolan in the other game over Mike by a handful. That would give us Joe vs. Nolan in the title game. I picked Nolan before the season, so give me Nolan. I like Kyle to steamroll everybody in the consolation bracket.
19) Bowl Game Preview - Give me the Wasabi Fenway Bowl between Louisville and Cincinnati on Saturday 12/17 at 11AM. This game is in Fenway Park and is sponsored by Wasabi. Apparently, a food can just sponsor an event. Watch out for the Citrus bowl presented by breadsticks... Wisconsin and Oklahoma State should be a random game. SERVPRO sponsors a bowl, so anybody looking for a certification in safe food handling should tune in... My daughter will really love the Tony the Tiger Bowl featuring Pitt and UCLA. Lockhead Martin sponsors a bowl this year too. Fun.
20) 2023 Top 24 Players 100% Available - Dalvin Cook, Austin Eckler, Josh Jacobs, Tyreek Hill, AJ Brown, Joe Mixon, Stefon Diggs, Travis Kelce, Davante Adams, Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Rhomandre Stevenson, Amon Ra St Brown, Miles Sanders, Tee Higgins, Mark Andrews, Deebo Samuel, Terry McClaurin, Cris Godwin, D'Onta Foreman, Amari Cooper, DeAndre Hopkins, and Hollywood Brown... Side note - CeeDee Lamb, Breece Hall, and James Conner would all be third round keepers, making them the second most valuable keeper after Christian McCaffrey. All three most likely would be top 20-30 picks if thrown back.... Rookie wise Michael Mayer at TE from ND is supposed to be the next big thing. There is another TE, 2 WR, and a RB projeted to be in the first round as well, so those guys may sneak up. Who knows.
21) 2023 Draft Picks Summary - Joe, Nick, and Peter have an extra 1st round pick. Jordan, and John have an extra 2nd round pick. Joe, John, and Nick have an extra 3rd. Beej and Nick have an extra 4th.
Good luck to everyone in the playoffs. Be back in a few weeks with a playoff wrap up, and off season look ahead! Below is an updated link to the Spotify playlist with every song ever used in The Takes.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4aWbKnJS5FZNXsUWbxEMXr?si=3a0ff14dbf8c4ec4