I'm not sure we've ever seen such a lack of parity before in the league. Five teams are 1-4, two teams are 5-0 and two teams are 4-1. There are two teams at 2-3 (one of which is the 6 seed), which should give the 1-4 teams hope to keep trying and hope to make the playoffs. When I have more time, I'll have to look at the worst start to come back and make the playoffs. I know the worse schedule to make the playoffs is 6-7, but I'll have to check if any of the 6-7 have ever started so poorly.
Game Recaps
Skyler vs Trevor: For the Tuesday Night Torture, Tannehill gave Trevor enough points to beat Skyler sometime in the 2nd quarter tonight. Trevor had two players score 25+ points in Tannehill and Hopkins. Skyler was let down by himself as the people he took risks on didn't pan out due to poor play (Hayden Hurst) and injury (Diontae Johnson)...<rant> Johnson led the Steelers in games he was healthy, and Claypool went off this week after Johnson went out. The process was right, the results were wrong, and fantasy is stupid </rant>
Brandon vs Tommy: Tommy took an early lead with Bridgewater, Waller, and Montgomery playing well, but Wilson put Brandon in striking distance, and then his trio of Henry, Singletary, and Diggs put him over the top on Tuesday. There was some Tuesday Night Torture to this, but Brandon didn't make it last long and put Tommy out of his misery early enough. Brandon had some mild concern over whether or not the Tuesday game would happen, but once it did, there was a good chance Brandon would pick up the win. Special shout out to the Ravens DST getting 30 points for Brandon. That doesn't happen often, but when you get that much from your DST, it means you are likely having a great week.
Jordan vs Chad: I'm not sure I've given out a weekly butt-whooping or beatdown of the week, but I might have to start after Chad dismantled Jordan this week and kept his undefeated streak going. Chad had four players score 19.9 points or more this week. In fact, those four people would have been enough to beat Jordan by themselves. Jordan's top trio scored 65 points this week which is rather solid. His other six players did him in by scoring a combined 30.5 points.
TJ vs Brady: There were six 1-3 teams this week, and none of them played each other. Five of them lost -- the only one that didn't, the only upset of the week -- your boi, Mr. Goodtimes, Travis James Morrison. It was the (first?) Monday Night Miracle for TJ, and the Monday Nightmare for Brady. Emmanuel Sanders outscored the Saints DST by 20, which was enough to give TJ the win over Brady by 14 points. This was TJ had a solid (20+) outing from three of his players, while Brady only had one hit that Mark. This was also the battle of ineptitude as this was the lowest scoring matchup of the week. They scored a combined 4 points fewer than the Brandon/Tommy matchup to win this award.
Kyle vs Matt: Kyle beat Matt by 40, which doesn't make a lot of sense when you look at the top scorers. Kyle had three players score 20+, while Matt had two such players. The bottom wasn't too far off either as Matt had two players score less than 10, while Kyle only had one. It seems Kyle was only marginally better when breaking it down, but it still ended up in a whooping, and *spoiler alert* it led to winning the highest-scoring team of the week by a healthy margin. Even though it was a 40 point margin victory, Matt did well enough to make this the weekly bonanza.
Tyler vs Rob: The nail-biter of the week, and another Monday Night Miracle/Monday Nightmare, Tyler was behind 50+ points, and on the backs of Kamara and Herbert, he won by 9. Tyler's TE and DST combined for -2 points, so it was an extra big miracle that he was able to come back from this. It's hard to blame any one person on Rob's team, but it would probably be Josh Kelley -- Ekeler is out several weeks, and Kelley looked like he would be the lead back for his team, but he ended up playing second fiddle and possibly causing Rob the loss.
Award Season
Eliminator: We've all given up, but Tommy is still winning, so he keeps getting the shout out.
Pick 'em: Tyler beat Tommy 10-9 this week. I was going to give this up, but these guys keep going and deserve their shoutout.
Highest Scorer of the Week: I mentioned it earlier, but Kyle ran away with one by 20 points.
Lowest Scorer of the Week: Tommy and Jordan battled this out, but Jordan "won" this "prestigious award" by scoring 3 fewer points than Tommy this week (95 for anyone who was curious). When your WR1, WR2, TE, and Flex combine for 10.5 points, it's a recipe for disaster. Two of his players were affected by injuries to themselves or their QB, which makes that 10.5 a little flukey.
Luckiest Team of the Week: TJ was the luckiest team of the week -- though he was the 7th highest scorer, so it wasn't a major dose of luck, but he won this award fair and square by being the lowest-scoring team to win and he should get his shout out.
Unluckiest Team of the Week: Matt was the unluckiest team of the week. He was the 6th highest scorer of the week (and only 5 points ahead of TJ), but he still lost because he ran into Magical (it should be capitalized TJ, don't let the haters get you down) Kyle Express this week.
MVP of the Week: This award will be split between Emmanuel Sanders and Justin Herbert. They were both able to lead their teams to a victory on the big stage Monday night
LVP of the Week: This is another split for the losing teams who lost to the teams in the MVP category. George Kittle and Joshua Kelley were being counted on to do bigger things, but unfortunately, they came up short when it mattered in the closest games this week.
Game Previews
Remember, there are no Thursday night games this week due to the schedule change for the Bills, but there will be two Monday Night games.
Skyler (10) vs Tyler (5): The center/left tackle vs his QB1. Skyler has no players in primetime. He has one player on bye. Tyler has two players in primetime. He has one player on bye.
Tommy (9) vs Kyle (3): Tommy has three players in primetime. He has two players on bye. Kyle has no players in primetime. He has one player on bye.
Chad (2) vs Brandon (1): I'll have to double-check, but I believe this is the latest we've ever had two undefeated teams play in the season, and is certainly the front runner to be the game of the week and the bonanza as they are two of three teams in the league to score over 700 points so far. Chad has four players in primetime. He has one player on bye. Brandon has three players in primetime. He has one player on bye. Their players on bye are Seahawks, which should make this matchup even more interesting since the Seattle passing attack has been so good this season. Having that many players in primetime should also make this matchup more enjoyable.
Brady (6) vs Trevor (4): This doesn't have the hype as the previous game (given that I'm the hype man, that's on me), but this is the other matchup this week that has two teams playing in the top 6. Brady has three players in primetime. He has one player on bye. Trevor has three players in primetime. He has one player on bye. This game also has a large number of primetime players, which should make it more enjoyable for the rest of us.
Matt (8) vs TJ (7): If Brady loses his game, the winner of this game should move into the 6th seed. So while the matchup isn't as good based on their seeds, it's still an important game. Matt has three players in primetime. He has two players on bye, but also has to replace Dak this week, so three of his starters from last week will not start this week. TJ has one player in primetime. He has two players on bye, but they are already on his bench, because TJ, like Bill Belichick, doesn't get hyped up on big wins, he's "already on to next week", and will only talk about the players who are available. Expect to see him in a cut off hoodie on Instagram this week.
Rob (12) vs Jordan (11): This has a "Loser Leaves Town" vibe to it as they are the two of the bottom seeds, and is the front runner for the battle of ineptitude. At least one "1 win team" will get a win this week. The other 1 win teams are playing teams with higher seeds and could keep their 1 win for a while longer. Rob has three or four players in primetime (depending on who he decides to start). He has one player on bye. Jordan has two players in primetime. He has one player on bye.
Well, that's all for this week. Thanks for your patience as I finished up. Good luck to everyone, except Tyler, this next week.
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