IS DECEMBER IN THE NFL A MONTH OF GARBAGE TIME?

by wwtb?, Pacifist Viking

Last night the Houston Texans defeated the Denver Broncos by an 18 point margin. If these sort of unclose football games entertain you, then December 2007 is just for you. Week 14 in the NFL featured margins of victory of 20, 20, 21, 21, 21, 24, 31, 31, and 34 points. That's 9 of 16 games determined by 20 points or more. The myth of NFL parity is getting exploded as December pro football is resembling September college football (well, college football in any normal year). Dr Z has pointed out the high number of blowout games, and Cold, Hard Football Facts has pointed out that there's not a whole lot meaningful out there, as a lot of the good teams have clinched (or will soon clinch) what they need to clinch.

There are a few clear reasons for the amount of garbage time in NFL December. For one thing, many teams know they can't make the playoffs and must be struggling to find the motivation to play hard (don't talk about how much money they make: you get paid for your job, but on days when it feels pretty pointless, do you have an easy time putting your energy into it?). Another reason is lousy quarterbacking: a lot of teams are starting quarterbacks for reasons other than the quarterback's current skills (injuries to starters, playing the young QBs to see what they have and give them experience).

So December 2007 hasn't exactly been a thrill ride. Furthermore, this turn of events can destroy your fantasy team prospects. What happens when your fantasy starters are looking at a 20+ point lead at halftime, and don't get a lot of opportunities to add points in the second half? What happens when your fantasy starters are hampered by a lousy quarterback, playing despite his clear suckiness? What happens when teams start resting their starters because they've clinched everything and want to avoid injuries before the playoffs?

So this brings us to yet another Fantasy Flukism: when your fantasy team's hopes are crushed by your players' real team's success or failure. Many leagues have a playoff before Week 17 to avoid the resting starters, but other leagues (for good reason) avoid playoffs in fantasy football. So you may lose out on a fantasy championship because your players are resting, because your players' teams have nothing to play for, or because your players are dependent on rookie QBs and backup QBs that just can't get the job done (if you drafted Steve Smith, you've felt this way all season).