From riches to rags, Teynor looks to rebound

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Pat Teynor wanted nothing more than for his 2017 fantasy football season to get off to a nice start.

Mission accomplished.

Teynor won five of his first six games to start the campaign, racing out of the gates and becoming an early contender for the Tiger Township Fantasy Football League championship. Then, as it has so many times before, a long, agonizing losing streak derailed Teynor’s once promising fall.

He lost six straight games at one point, missing the postseason en route to a 6-7 finish. Teynor placed 10th in the final league standings following his appearance in the consolation bracket.

“I only needed three more wins to get into the playoffs,” Teynor told Chibby’s Corner in an exclusive interview. “Right now, coming off that, I’m not in a good place fantasy football-wise. I’m ready to turn the page, and I have turned the page. But you can’t expect everything to just materialize on its own.”

Unfortunately for Teynor, lengthy losing streaks have been the norm for a while. Since 2012, he has endured skids of at least four games eight different times. That includes a career-high six-game drought in each of the last three seasons.

For most, those numbers are simply remarkable. However, it’s been the reality for Teynor, who has been forced to somehow find ways to maneuver around those hurdles in an effort to save multiple seasons.

Obviously, last year was one of his unsuccessful ventures.

“You have to be able to avoid (losing streaks) at all costs,” Teynor said. “The fact that I’ve managed to have a six-plus-game losing streak at some point in the last three or four seasons is pretty remarkable. It has to be the first time that has ever happened, and I have to fix it.”

Teynor admits that even after his 5-1 start to the 2017 season, he never truly believed his group was talented enough to stay afloat. While no one can ever see a disastrous stretch like he again battled coming, Teynor never seemed truly confident in his team’s abilities.

Marcus Mariota struggled to meet the expectations Teynor set out for him, finishing as the No. 22 quarterback a year ago, while fellow signal-caller Carson Palmer suffered a season-ending injury early on. And while running back Leonard Fournette was a success story, the rookie missed a pair of regular-season contests, as did running back Devonta Freeman.

Receivers Dez Bryant and Sammy Watkins didn’t provide much of a spark for Teynor’s squad, either.

“The worst part, even though I was 5-1, was looking up and down the roster; it was hard to think I really had a shot at going the distance,” Teynor said. “I thought I could make the playoffs, but looking back, Marcus Mariota had an absolutely terrible year. He was so incredibly bad. … I hit on a few draft picks, but I missed on a lot.”

Suddenly, the Otterbein University’s great championship run of 2015, which included a six-game losing streak of its own, seems more and more of a distant memory. He’s missed the playoffs each of the last two seasons since then, something Teynor is determined to turn around in 2018.

That begins with the TTFFL Draft in Las Vegas this August. The strategy? Teynor hopes to use his instincts more than his analytical approach of the past few years.

“It’s something I’ve had to look in the mirror about because I felt great going into last year,” Teynor said. “Whether it’s crunching more numbers, listening to more podcasts, reading more articles or just going with the gut — the past few years I’ve been scouring through spreadsheets and tried to find the best ways to allocate the budget. Really, my 2015 draft was straight from the gut and, going into this year, I think that’s where my head needs to be at.”

Perhaps Teynor’s recent struggles have been due to overcompensating rather than being unprepared. There’s no argument that plain bad luck has played a role as well. Nevertheless, he is committed to pushing through his nightmare-ish two-year stretch.

What that entails will place Teynor’s legacy, which also includes a championship in 2003*, on the chopping block as much as anyone else’s in the entire league.

“It’s been a rough couple of years,” Teynor said. “It’s been a long time since 2015, and we know we have something to prove. … At least, unlike (Ryan) Shaheen, I have that monkey off my back. But it’s really been a hard transition from thinking you’re one of these elite teams to getting kicked around at the bottom the last two years. We just know we have to right the ship.”