ASK THE EXPERTS appears weekly from training camp through the Super Bowl with answers to a new question being posted Thursday morning. How the guest experts responded when we asked them: What was your toughest fantasy playoff loss?
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
The CeeDee Lamb onside kick return touchdown last week knocked me out in the semifinals, a game I lost by 1.2 points. But perhaps my toughest defeat was in Week 14, when a late Jalen Hurts fumble led to a loss of 1.9 points. The fumble is scored -2 in that league. Had I advanced, Hurts would have single-handedly carried me to the finals. As Eddie Felson said so long ago, "The balls roll funny for everybody, kid." I also lost one semifinal game in part because I benched Logan Thomas (a player I like) because I didn't trust his quarterback. The game is lost, but at least Dwayne Haskins ultimately validated my decision.
An FSWA award-winning writer (with nominations in four sports) and podcaster, Scott has been with Yahoo Sports since 2008. On the rare occasions when the computer is turned off, he enjoys word games, poker, music, film, game theory, and a variety of condiments. He lives in suburban Detroit.
DAVID DOREY
For some reason I remember the wins more than the losses. But I do recall the one year that I had the most points scored in the league. I crushed every opponent and I entered the playoffs with an actual undefeated record of 14-0. I was matched up with the worst record team, of course, and it was the one week where all my star players just had a bad game. All of them. And my opponent crushed me by like 40 points with a team that just had a good week. Fate is a cruel mistress. By the same token, I have twice in my 30 years of playing had a team that just fell apart with rampant injuries and flops that seemed destined to be my first ever 0-14 team. And in both cases, I won one game near the end of the season by beating the best team in the league. You just never know.
Dorey co-founded The Huddle.com in 1997. He's ranked every player and projected every game for the last 23 years and is the author of Fantasy Football: The Next Level. David has appeared on numerous radio, television, newspaper and magazines over the last two decades.
IAN ALLAN
My first-ever draft was in 1986. Running backs went with the first four choices — Eric Dickerson, Roger Craig, Marcus Allen, Walter Payton. With the fifth pick, I decided to be the first to dip into the quarterbacks. Announced Dan Marino as my selection. But then, as I looked at a statistics printout in front of me, I noticed that while Marino had led the league with 30 touchdown passes the previous year, Dan Fouts had thrown 27 despite missing four games. “Wait a minute,” I said. “Can I switch that to Dan Fouts?” They let me switch to Fouts, and that’s where I lost the championship. Everything else about that draft went perfectly. I was able to connect later on second-year receiver Jerry Rice and veteran running back George Rogers, who went on to be the leading scorers at their positions that year (TD-only league). Marino tossed 44 touchdowns, and he would have put that team miles over the top. Instead, I lost in the semis (with Marino throwing 5 touchdowns against me).
Allan co-founded Fantasy Football Index in 1987. He and fellow journalism student Bruce Taylor launched the first newsstand fantasy football magazine as a class project at the University of Washington. For more than three decades, Allan has written and edited most of the content published in the magazines, newsletters and at www.fantasyindex.com. An exhaustive researcher, he may be the only person in the country who has watched at least some of every preseason football game played since the early 1990s. Allan is a member of the FSTA Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame.
SAM HENDRICKS
I was playing in the Championship game of a World Championship of Fantasy Football (WWCOFF) league, a high stakes league in Vegas. Winner won $10,000, loser took home $2000. I was down by 1.15 and my opponent was done going into Monday Night Football. I had TE Heath Miller (a UVA alumni to boot) playing Miami. Heath had at least one catch in every game his entire career so I knew in the WCOFF PPR league I was going to win the $10,000. I was in England so I turn on the TV and watch the game at 2 a.m. and turns out they are playing in the remnants of a hurricane. Are you kidding me? It is a slog fest. Mostly runs. Few passes and not many catches. Heath gets 3 targets and all are not catchable. 0 fantasy points. The first and only time in his career with no catches in a game. I lose by 1.15.
Hendricks is the author of Fantasy Football Guidebook, Fantasy Football Tips and Fantasy Football Basics, all available at ExtraPointPress.com, at all major bookstores, and at Amazon and BN.com. He is a 25-year fantasy football veteran who participates in the National Fantasy Football Championship (NFFC) and finished 7th and 16th overall in the 2008 and 2009 Fantasy Football Players Championship (FFPC). He won the Fantasy Index Open in 2013 and 2018. Follow him at his web site, www.ffguidebook.com.
JUSTIN ELEFF
As detailed on Tuesday’s episode of the podcast, a friend whose team I was “helping with” (ahem) decided not to play her Super Bowl this week. We won big in the semifinals, but she’s chopping the pot with the other finalist. So what exactly was I working for all season? Flags fly forNEVER.
Eleff hosts the Fantasy Index Podcast, available in the iTunes Store now. He has worked for Fantasy Index off and on all century.
SCOTT SACHS
(A tough loss -- that turned into a win two days later.) So a few years ago, I joined a new cash league. Auction, $300 budget, Superflex, IDP. I lost my last regular season game by a point and a half, meaning I ended up 5th, on the outside looking in. However, on Tuesday, a stat adjustment was made subtracting 2 points from my opponent's QB, so I was awarded the win. I won my 2 playoff games and cashed in as league champion.
Sachs runs Perfect Season Fantasy Football, offering LIVE Talk & Text consulting. He has multiple league championships including 2 perfect seasons. Scott is a past winner of the Fantasy Index Experts Poll and a 2-time winner of the Experts Auction League.
ANDY RICHARDSON
I think I have a short memory for losses, since I best remember the wins. But two losses I will always remember, one old and one new. The first was way back in one of my first seasons playing fantasy football, 2000, with Kurt Warner at quarterback. This was in a Week 17 Super Bowl, and he'd been my guy (when healthy; he was hurt some that year). All I needed was ordinary numbers to win a league with a very good cash prize. He got hurt in the first half and I lost by 2 points. The other was this year, and it still stings. I snuck into the playoffs as the 6th (of 6 teams), but was putting up huge numbers with Justin Herbert, David Montgomery and Travis Kelce down the stretch. But this one week my opponent outpunched his weight; I scored a season-high 165 but was up by only 4 heading into the Monday night Ravens-Browns game. He got 6 from the Browns defense on 4 first-half "sacks" (Lamar Jackson kept falling down in bad cleats; after changing them he wasn't sacked again) and then, in the latter stages, the winning 2 points on a blocked extra point. I lost 167-165.
Richardson has been a contributing writer and editor to the Fantasy Football Index magazine and www.fantasyindex.com since 2002. His responsibilities include team defense and IDP projections and various site features, and he has run the magazine's annual experts draft and auction leagues since their inception. He previews all the NFL games on Saturdays and writes a wrap-up column on Mondays during the NFL season.