2024 Week 11 Preview

Winners

Fransburg (7-3), Oregon (6-4), Batavia (6-4), Dingle (1-9), Marshfield (9-1), Bestine (5-5)

Break up the Blow-Ins! They finally got the dub! Great things are on the horizon.

Prediction Record

Last Week: 3-3
Overall: 34-20

Being wrong about the Colliders and Blow-Ins was nice.

2025 Divisions (if they were being made today)

Tooz Town lost the battle but won the war for the Gold Division! Holley supplanted North Point. After weeks of having no movement at all, the divisions are shaking up.

Week 11 Preview

I’m heading into my last full week of work before having a week off for Thanksgiving break. Gotta teach the hell out of some math. I’m teaching fourth graders how to divide, but we don’t start with the standard algorithm (or long division). We try to build up their number sense by offering several solution paths. Here’s one example using a place value chart:

In this problem they’re doing 48 ÷ 3. They start by putting 4 tens and 8 ones on the place value chart (with counters) and then they make three groups to distribute them below. Three of the four tens can be distributed equally, but then there is one rogue ten leftover. They decompose that into 10 ones, so that now they have 18 ones to distribute among the three groups. Each group is 1 ten and 6 ones, so 48 ÷ 3 = 16 (I’m guessing you already knew that.)

Now consider 176 ÷ 8. Nine-year-olds don’t have a super handy entry point into a problem like this, so we think about 176 in unit form: 17 tens and 6 ones. Neither of those are divisible by 8, so we try to think of how many tens would be divisible by 8. You’re probably already thinking, 16 tens, obviously. Well, that’s great for your, but you’re older than 9. So, yes we can think of decomposing this into 16 tens, with the remaining ten being renamed as ten ones, giving us 16 ones. Like this:

Making a number bond with 176 gives us two parts that are both divisible by 8. So the kids finish up by dividing 160 by 8 (20) and 16 by 8 (2) and then combining their partial quotients to get 22.

We also do area models and some other stuff, but this is the general gist of it. It’s actually pretty cool, because when I used to teach middle school a lot of kids had poor number sense. They could do routines (if they remembered the steps) but had no idea what any of it meant. But these fourth graders have conceptual knowledge and they can use the distributive property like nobody’s business.

The only drawback is that most of their parents have no idea how any of this works (despite their workbooks having a parent page explaining it) so kids get into arguments with their parents about how to divide. I have to reassure parents we will indeed be teaching the standard algorithm for division in due time.

Those of you with elementary school kids – are they learning stuff in new in interesting ways? Regardless, this has been your fourth grade math lesson. On to the games!

Cleveland (3-7) @ Fransburg (7-3)

The Battery earned the distinction of being the first team to lose to the unvictorious Blow-Ins, and in retrospect, that tracks. They are currently leading in their game thanks to a solid performance from Brian Robinson and a mediocre performance from Devonta Smith. It won’t last, though.

The (r)EvoLUtion have this sickness where they score ungodly amounts of points. They are two tenths under 180 points per game on average. That’s disgusting. They’ve led the league in scoring 5 weeks and have cracked 240 points twice. They have 166 more points than the next highest scoring team, Marshfield. It’s almost like they have a whole extra game played.

Weird that they’ve lost thrice, but unfortunately for Ben I don’t see a path to 270 electoral votes.

Oregon (6-4) @ North Point (3-7)

The Dream Team is putting Anthony Richardson back in the lineup after the media has spent a couple weeks calling him soft for taking himself out of the game (which I believe led to his benching but I’m too lazy to look it up.) Anyway, I saw a comparison to the video of Matthew Stafford, playing for Detroit, who got absolutely destroyed by a Packers defensive lineman. Stafford’s shoulder was dislocated and he still threw the game-winning TD pass. All of this is to say that Richardson isn’t good and his injury rating is like 37.

The Dream Team are also starting Tank Bigsby at press time, which is news to the Jags, who have listed him as out this week.

Meanwhile the Chitons have opened up a small lead thanks to Jalen Hurts salvaging another mediocre game by scoring a rushing touchdown. Christian McCaffrey will play again, and I’m predicting he’ll find the end zone. That means it’s going to be UPSET CITY BABY.

Batavia (6-4) @ Tooz Town (8-2)

Batavia’s schedule does them no favors as they have a tough game when the Dream Team is predicted to lose. I’m never going to make up ground on those fuckers and their 34-point Jauan Jennings game!

The Colliders have tinkered with their lineup at wide receiver, giving Quentin Johnston the nod over Brian Thomas Jr, since Mac Jones hates good things. Johnston has 5 TDs on the year, but look for him to not partake in the massacre of the Bengals’s secondary since he finds himself in the starting lineup.

The matchups seem to favor Tooz Town this week. The only scenario where the Colliders pull out a win is if somehow the Bears curbstomp the Packers and D’Andre Swift is the player of the game (while Jordan Love gets sacked 17 times.) I think the Bears are cooked, though. The nuclear strong force will keep the Colliders as close to 0.500 as possible.

Dingle (1-9) @ Linn County (7-3)

Last week was fun for the Blow-Ins but it’s over now. Linn County has too many good players, and they just got 30 points out of Zack Baun and Reed Blankenship. If randos are already running up the score then Dingle is doomed.

Doomed I say!

Detroit plays Jacksonville, so look for Linn County’s Detroit-based squad to have a field day.

Holley (3-7) @ Bestine (5-5)

Zach Ertz scored a touchdown and I was confused for a minute because I was thinking of his Eagles days and I knew that Hurts didn’t throw any touchdown passes. But I discovered Ertz plays for the Commanders now. Anway, nice little bonus for the Banthas.

BUT WILL IT BE ENOUGH?

The Hawks continue their run with the serviceable Bo “About the throw 5 picks” Nix. They will start his backfield mate Audric Estime as well, but don’t worry, he’s on tap for an “increased role” in the offense. Does that inspire confidence in you? I’ve definitely heard of that guy before.

I love that the Jets have Davante Adams now and that Aaron Rodgers is force feeding him 5-yard passes. It’s so surprising that it hasn’t translated to wins yet. Looks like Rodgers is officially washed, and despite his protestations about playing next year, I can see the offer from RFK Jr. to be an ambassador for mushrooms to be too tempting to pass up.

Burrow should be in another shootout this week, so look for the Banthas to pull out the dub. Dub is shorthand for “W”, which stands for “win.” I’m very cool.

Marshfield (9-1) @ Madtown (2-8)

The Saquon Barkley revenge tour continues apace. He scored 25 points this week. Don’t worry, the Giants are doing great with Tyrone Tracy and Devin Singletary, and the GM’s big bet on Daniel Jones is definitely paying off.

Speaking of Eagles, the Pirates traded for AJ Brown and he immediately went to shit. LOL, amirite? I mean, $38.50 is a fair price to pay for 6 ppg, right?

Not to worry, though, because they picked up Jeremy Chinn off waivers and he’s blown up two weeks in a row. That makes up for Terry McLaurin’s clunker. I don’t see the Marauders’s Jalen Tolbert helping close the gap. Pirates should win this one pretty easily.

In Conclusion

While we’re on the topic of Enright, I’ve been trying to improve him on Madden to no avail. Madden 08 (like all Maddens I guess) is extremely buggy, so everytime I try to do drills the game freezes. I’m ten years into my franchise and I’m worried it’s not going to work much longer. I have to simulate preseason games one week at a time or it freezes. Sometimes that doesn’t work either. At some point I’m going to have to abandon the project and maybe do something productive.

What I wouldn’t give for a Madden that:

1. worked
2. allowed you to create teams
3. allowed you to import draft classes from the college game

The first thing on that list is pretty important to me, which is why I haven’t run out to get a PS5 yet.

Anyway, enjoy the games everyone!

© 2024, Josh Hammond. All rights reserved.