Champion

2009

SMOKERS · Christian A. · title number two
This season 9-5 · 1,314 points, 3rd of ten
All time 116–155 · .428 · 9th of ten
Titles 2007 2009 2019

The bracket

Champion
SMOKERS
9-5 · 1314 points
Won the final by 2
Runner-up
Washed UP
11-3 · 1256 points
4th of ten on regular-season points
Washed UP95
Hitmen76
Semi-final · by 19
SMOKERS95
there goes the Naberhood79
Semi-final · by 17
SMOKERS80
Washed UP78
The final, week 16 · by 2
Champion
SMOKERS

The path

Week by week
Points for minus points against. Solid ink above the line, halftone below. Weeks fifteen to sixteen are the playoffs.
12345678910111213+0.501415+2, the final16
Level with the opponent
Solid ink is a week won, halftone a week lost, and the gold chip under week sixteen is the championship. The axis is not broken: week 10, a 34-point loss, is the largest margin either way in the regular season, and two wins came by under five points, the closest +0.50. Margins run across all 16 weeks, playoffs included. The rail under the week numbers carries the result: filled disc a win, hollow a loss, gold the championship week, and an ink ring the highest score in the league that week. The ring is a regular-season measure, so the playoff weeks carry none. The SMOKERS posted the league's highest score two times, and Washed UP once.

The smallest final in the archive until 2018 came down to a Chicago defense on a Monday night. Christian A.'s SMOKERS had gone 9-5 and third of ten on points, which undersells how the season actually felt: they won three games all year by fewer than five points, including week fourteen by half a point and the final by two. Tony Romo carried them again, the weekly leader eight times and 116 points across the last five weeks. Dave St.'s Washed UP had the better record at 11-3 and the better names, Drew Brees and Larry Fitzgerald and Antonio Gates, and were carrying Brandon Jacobs, who returned 53 points below replacement across nine starts and is a lesson in what a keeper league does to a name.

Washed UP led at every checkpoint through Sunday afternoon, by 6 after Saturday, by 28 after one o'clock, by 11 after four. Then Romo went for 18 on Sunday night and the SMOKERS were in front by 7 with one man left on each side. Washed UP had the Chicago Bears defense on Monday, needing 8. They got 5. 80 to 78. Christian A.'s second title in three seasons and the closest anyone came to stopping him.

The final, player by player

Week 16. Lineup order is points scored in the final. Both scales are capped at the 90th percentile of this game, PAR 10.2 and points 22.7, and shared across all sixteen ribbons: never normalised per row.

SMOKERS
Washed UP
Tony Romo · QB
15 starts · 10 PAR
18
17
Drew Brees · QB
15 starts · 58 PAR
Thomas Jones · RB
12 starts · 36 PAR
17
13
Antonio Gates · TE
15 starts · 30 PAR
David Akers · K
15 starts · 31 PAR
13
12
Steve Smith · WR
14 starts · 8 PAR
Denver Broncos · DEF
9 starts · 2 PAR
8
11
Larry Fitzgerald · WR
15 starts · 42 PAR
Derrick Mason · WR
9 starts · -3 PAR
8
10
Kris Brown · K
12 starts · -8 PAR
Vincent Jackson · WR
15 starts · 35 PAR
7
10
Joseph Addai · RB
15 starts · 0 PAR
Ricky Williams · RB
12 starts · 20 PAR
6
5
Chicago Bears · DEF
15 starts · -17 PAR
Donald Driver · WR
14 starts · 1 PAR
3
0
Brandon Jacobs · RB
9 starts · -53 PAR
Total
80
78
Total
Won by 2
PAR against replacement, ink above the line and halftone below, thickness is raw fantasy points, and a gap is a week he did not start; benched, injured and not-yet-acquired are three stories drawn identically and the footnote says so. The newsprint band is the playoff weeks and the gold dot is the final. Replacement is the mean of every started player at that position, league-wide, that week; in playoff weeks, when only the surviving teams field a lineup, it is carried from that season's regular-season mean instead.
The weekend, hour by hour
How the final was won, by kickoff window
After SMOKERS Washed UP Margin
Saturday 7.30 13.40 −6.10
Sunday 1pm 24.40 52.40 −28.00
Sunday 4pm 61.90 73.20 −11.30
Sunday night 80.20 73.20 +7.00
Monday night 80.20 78.20 +2.00
The lead changed hands 1 time across the weekend.

Who carried it

6 different players led the roster across 16 weeks. The most any one man led was 9 (Tony Romo). A defence led the team 1 time.

The week’s top scorer on the roster
6 different men led the roster across 16 weeks.
WkLed the rosterPosPoints
1Tony RomoQB29.90
2Vincent JacksonWR20.10
3Donald DriverWR16.80
4San Francisco 49ersDEF32.00
5Tony RomoQB26.10
6Thomas JonesRB28.70
7Tony RomoQB30.70
8Tony RomoQB25.80
9Tony RomoQB19.40
10Tony RomoQB18.20
11Ricky WilliamsRB31.80
12Tony RomoQB23.50
13Tony RomoQB31.60
14Thomas JonesRB21.90
15Vincent JacksonWR22.80
16Tony RomoQB18.30
Source: content/titles/2009.md.
Mini-runs
Three or more consecutive starts at fifteen points or better
  • Tony Romo, weeks 12 to 16, 115.6 points
  • Tony Romo, weeks 7 to 10, 94.1 points
  • Thomas Jones, weeks 5 to 7, 63.3 points
  • Tony Romo, weeks 1 to 3, 61.6 points
  • Vincent Jackson, weeks 7 to 9, 54.3 points
Every man who started a game, in lineup order19 starters
PlayerPosStartsPointsPAR
Tony RomoQB1532310
Matt RyanQB118-5
Thomas JonesRB1218536
Ricky WilliamsRB1216921
Correll BuckhalterRB220-2
Jamal LewisRB15-10
LaDainian TomlinsonRB550-14
Vincent JacksonWR1517235
Donald DriverWR141291
Nate BurlesonWR651-0.3
Derrick MasonWR981-3
Josh CribbsWR11-8
Mohamed MassaquoiWR24-14
Kellen WinslowTE11-4
David AkersK1515232
Adam VinatieriK1104
San Francisco 49ersDEF4395
Denver BroncosDEF9612
Miami DolphinsDEF36-13
Season PAR for the SMOKERS in 2009. Rows sort by position in lineup order, then by PAR within position. Kickers and defenses are in a record, so they are here.Roster total 72 PAR
19 men started a game for the SMOKERS in 2009 and the roster came to +72 season PAR. Thomas Jones carried +36 of it and Vincent Jackson another +35.

League context

Fin Franchise Record Points
1 SMOKERS 9-5 1,314
2 Washed UP · lost the final 11-3 1,256
3 there goes the Naberhood 9-5 1,446
4 Hitmen 8-6 1,386
5 Reggie's 8-6 1,104
6 Caleboys 6-8 1,240
7 Alligators 6-8 1,219
8 IronCity Mudslingers 6-8 1,205
9 Aaron it Out! 4-10 1,127
10 Sweep The Leg 3-11 1,101
Checked against the 2010 draft order, which runs in reverse standings. All ten slots agree.

The champion finished third of ten in points scored.

The regular season. Best week 112 in week 6, worst 70 in week 10. The narrowest win was week 14, by 0.5. They posted the highest score in the league 2 times all season.

The runner-up. Washed UP, 11-3, 1,256 points, averaged 90 a week in the regular season and scored 78 in the final, −12 off their own pace.