Top fantasy football bad beats of 2020
Andy Behrens wraps up a unique NFL season by counting down the worst beats of an unforgettable year
Video Transcript
ANDY BEHRENS: Friends, our holiday gift to you this season, it's a series of hellacious bad bits from the 2020 fantasy season. These are the worst of the worst, the absolute most nightmarish defeats that any of you suffered all season. We're talking instances where you face a lineup full of injured and inactive players. We're talking about situations where you're just facing horrible Monday-night defeats. This right here are the very worst beats from a season of bad beats.
Our friend Michael writes in. He says that "this garbage double pass that the officials allowed to count because the Rams declined the penalty"--
[SYMPATHETIC AWS]
--that is why Michael's poor Born Again Hooligans, that is why they lost their match-up by a fraction of a point.
["PRICE IS RIGHT" LOSING HORN]
OK, this is a thing that I don't think I've ever seen. It's third and 10. It's the fourth quarter of the Monday-night game. Tom Brady drops back to pass. His pass is batted at the line of scrimmage. We see this all the time. Flies back to Tom Brady. He catches it himself, right? This is a thing that happens. It's rare, but it happens.
But it doesn't end there. Tom Brady then decides, oh hell, I am not taking this hit. No. I'm going to throw this ball again. What? Why does it even occur to him that he can do this? I don't know. Is that OK in the Canadian Football League? Maybe it is. Maybe that's something they do in the NFL. Maybe that's something they do in the Pac-12. That seems like a lawless league. But it sure as [BLEEP] isn't something you can do in the NFL, but Tom Brady did it.
But, of course, it's the second forward pass on the play. That is illegal. The officials rightly flag it, but because it would not have been enough for a first down, the Rams' actually declined the penalty.
[RECORD SCRATCH]
Why can they decline the penalty? This whole play deserves its own 30 for 30, deserves its own hour-long special. But be that as it may, the way this officially counts in the score book-- and there was a minute there where we thought this was going to be both a reception for Brady and a reception for Evans on a single pass, which is incredible and obviously record breaking. But no, it doesn't end up that way. They don't count the reception for Tom Brady. Because this penalty was declined, it becomes a reception for Mike Evans and an 8-yard gain, and that flips thousands of fantasy match-ups.
- Ha-ha!
ANDY BEHRENS: This is just incredible. It shouldn't count. It's bogus. It's a garbage pass. You're exactly right, Michael. Wow. Haven't seen this before. Probably not going to see this again. Tom Brady, you keep surprising us.
I'm looking at the Vermont Victors. This filed by Erik Post. Erik says, "Andy, I'm losing to a guy with"-- all caps-- "FOUR INACTIVE PLAYERS in his lineup."
[WA-WA HORN]
"The keys for him? Ryan, Julio, and Ridley. Were the difference makers on my bench? You know it."
This is a masterpiece of bad beats. This is like a hang it in the Louvre sort of bad beat right here. First of all, Vermont Victors loses to someone who never even changed their Yahoo assigned team name.
- Huh?
- It's just Devin's Team. Devin probably doesn't know that Devin is involved in a fantasy league at all. Perhaps this was an auto renewal? I don't know. Maybe this is some workplace thing and Devin has been fired. Who knows? Who knows what the situation here is with Devin. He drafted a nice team, but a lot of them weren't in action this week.
[LAUGHTER]
Alvin Kamara on a bye. Austin Ekeler injured. Dallas Goedert injured. Chris Carson on a bye. None of it mattered because he had all those Atlanta Falcons going for him. Had Harrison Butker in the kicker spot. That's something. This is incredible.
Plus the Vermont Victors-- poor Erik-- also started Alexander Mattison who was a bust--
[SOBBING]
--like an all-time single-week bust, right? Perfect situation for Mattison facing Atlanta. No Dalvin Cook in the lineup. He's going to go off. I had him ranked number three overall at the running-back position.
[SLIDE WHISTLE]
Absolute total bust. Erik, that's just the worst way to lose because you can't even-- you can't even say that it's about luck, right? You lost to a team--
["PRICE IS RIGHT" LOSING HORN]
--that had four zeros in the lineup.
[BELLS RINGING]
Bad beat of the week which comes to us from Quentin Quarantino. He merely says that he got Taysomed.
- Ha-ha!
ANDY BEHRENS: A lot of us got Taysomed on Monday night. Taysom Hill, of course, trots onto the field occasionally to disrupt a drive, grind things to a halt. Occasionally he will poach a touchdown like he did in the Monday nighter. Oh, that burned me. It clearly burned Quentin. Poor Quentin. He's got both Kamara and Drew Brees. Every time Taysom Hill touches the football, he's taking stats away usually from one of those two players, if not both of them. That is absolutely brutal.
Taysom Hill gets a touchdown that could have gone to Kamara, that could have gone to Brees. I'm heartbroken over this. We need a-- I don't--
[RECORD SCRATCH]
I don't even know how to address this. I don't know if Congress can act. I don't know if some government agency can take action here. I don't know who steps in to stop this Taysom Hill nonsense, but it needs to happen. Quentin, man, I'm so sorry.
JASON KLABACHA: Hi. My name is Jason Klabacha, head of Yahoo fantasy content, and this is the last place I wanted to be after week one. I lost by 1.2 points in my home league. It happens. Shake it off. I get it. But then I realized I lost because Stephen Gostkowski missed not one--
[BUZZERS]
--not two, but three field goals and an extra point.
[BOOING]
Andy, I've always been on your side of the pro kicker argument in fantasy football, but with the double doink and now this, I'm not sure I can stick with you, man.
ANDY BEHRENS: Your problem, sir, is not kickers. Kickers are not your problem. Kickers are part of the game. They are an essential part of football. It's called football. We need kickers. Your problem is when you make bad kicker choices.
["PRICE IS RIGHT" LOSING HORN]
It's not on me. That's not on me, sir. That's on you.
[DRUM ROLL]
Let's just take a moment to shout out the many fantasy managers who lost by hilarious margins, triple-digit margins this week.
- Ha-ha!
ANDY BEHRENS: It's bad to suffer a narrow loss. That can be painful. That can hurt. A fraction of a point, that's painful. But it ain't no picnic to lose by 50, to lose by 70, to lose by 100, some of you 200 or more fantasy points if you play in, again, crazy leagues with yardage bonuses. So to you, Stage Fright. To you, CoopedUpInQuarantine, and to Gym Tan Landry and J-Ville and Gran Armada and Dak to the Future and the Dozers and DemBoyz. DemBoyz lost by 255 fantasy points.
[GASPS]
To all of you and the many others who sent in your screenshots--
[CHEERING]
- --of just absolute total annihilation this week, to you. Like, hey, at least you made a kind of history. If you have to go down in your fantasy match-up, go down gloriously, and you did it.