2012, It Was Nice Knowing Ya: Redskins, [Fantasy] Wrap-Up, and Rankings, Oh My!

In all likelihood, this is going to be my last post of 2012, and there’s a lot to cover…so let’s get right to it.

The Redskins have exceeded every one of my expectations this year, and no different was this past Sunday when the rookie backup quarterback to the rookie starting quarterback played, looked great, and led Washington to a decisive victory, which was their 5th straight. With RG3 returning this week against a hapless Eagles team, I am still waiting for the other shoe to drop (lifelong Skins fan as I am). This can’t really be happening, can it? Washington in the driver’s seat for the NFC East going into week 16? Fasten your seatbelts, folks…

At the very least, I have confidence that Cousins can carry the vacated title if RG3 goes down again.

Fantasy football came to an early end for me again this year, as I bowed-out to my brother-in-law Nicky in the 1st round of our league’s playoffs last week. It was a fitting end to my season really. I backed into the playoffs with a 6-8 regular season record, faced the number 1 seed as the number 8 seed, and had James Jones’ 3 touchdown catches and 24 fantasy points on the bench. (I lost by 27, but it was still a sucker punch to the gut for him to blow up like that). At the end of the day, I would say I lost this league in the 1st (my keeper), 2nd, and 10th rounds. DeMarco Murray has missed 6 games this year, Stafford seems to have regressed, and Evan Royster was a wild swing-and-a-miss for a sleeper pick…Alfred Morris is the league’s 8th rated fantasy back, on the other hand. All of that is a recipe for disaster.

Less commercials, more touchdown passes, please (Jerry Rice stole the show in those ads anyway).

Weekly NBA Power Rankings? Sure, why not?!?

1. LA Clippers (19-6, PR=6)…Big leap for Lob City here in week 2, and the other teams didn’t really do anything that warrants getting dropped, but 11 straight is 11 straight. CP3 looks locked in at the moment and hungry for his 1st ring a la LeBron last season.

Showtime is back in LA, and it has nothing to do with the Lakers.

2. New York Knicks (19-6, PR=2)…Melo accumulating some bumps and bruises has to be a concern, but this team is still rolling right now. They might get some reinforcements soon with Amare’s pending return, but I’m wondering if that’s going to mess up their feng shui at all.

3. Oklahoma City Thunder (21-5, PR=4)…Have the league’s best record even with a loss last night in Minnesota thanks to a 12 game streak of their own. Durant looks to be on a mission on par with Chris Paul's above.

4. Miami Heat (17-6, PR=5)…LeBron and Miami looked like the varsity scrimmaging against the JV last night facing a depleted Mavs team. Looks like they can still turn it on when they want to.

5. Memphis Grizzlies (17-6, PR=1)…Damn, all they’ve done is win 3 in a row, and they drop from the top spot to 5th? Such is life this year in a very top-heavy league. Something tells me Team Grindhouse won’t pay outside perception much mind though.

30. Washington Wizards (3-20)…This team is such a mess that they probably deserve their own blog post at some point, and the story that the owner turned down a potential James Harden deal because he didn’t want to commit the money is depressing to say the least. Maybe they will at least split a home-and-home with nearly as dreadful Detroit coming up.