Week 3 Recap: A Week of Firsts

This week saw 3 teams lose their first game of the season, and 3 teams win their first game of the season.  Tommy and Tyler (the two undefeated teams) don't play each other until week 6, and Brady and Kyle (the two defeated teams) don't play until week 8.  Odds are some of those streaks will be ended before then, but those are the hard cutoffs for those streaks to end.  If I had to guess, Tommy definitely ends sooner than that as he is the 4th lowest-scoring team in the league, and Kyle runs the risk of staying defeated until then.  He is the 2nd lowest-scoring team in the league, and he just lost to the lowest-scoring team in the league last week.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Brady: In a battle of defeated teams, Skyler got the much-coveted victory. Helping him get the win was his leading scorer and Sunday night star, Davante Adams.  Davante was recently acquired from B EZ and thrived in his revenge game.  Had the trade not happened, it would have been a close game, which likely would have been lost or won on if Brady would have started Trey Sermon or Nyheim Hines as his RB2. Skyler's victory was made possible by season-high weeks from his starting RB's, Kirk's best game as a member of Dixie, and Skyler moving away from the Washington DST and moving over to Carolina.  Brady was let down by recent free agent Evan Engram, and by season-low games from McLaurin and Lamb.

Tommy vs Chad: In a battle of undefeated teams, the Dark Knight took the night off and couldn't be bothered to score what we call 'triple digits'. Tommy has continued to have the league-leading defense and has only allowed 314 points over the season.  If that were a team, it would be 2 passing yards worse than Kyle's team. Tommy's actual defense was ok, scoring double digits, but where he really made his money this week was with the MMM club (Mahomes, Moore, Metcalf) all getting 20+ points each.  Tommy was so appreciative of Metcalf's efforts that he sent him straight to Hell. At least I assume that's what the BHers are since when anyone trades with Matt, it's referred to as 'a deal with the devil'. Chad was let down by a season-low Montgomery game, as well as Shepard getting hurt, a rookie TE not living up to the hype, and Leonard Fournette scoring fewer points than his new jersey number.  He's #7 now in case you weren't sure.

Matt vs Trevor: In the battle between the two people who historically hate their jobs the most in this league, Matt continues to beat Trevor -- in hating how things are going.  In case that wasn't clear, Matt lost to Trevor and is no longer undefeated, so he's probably hating how things are going.  Rubbing salt in the wound (I'm sure that's sound medical advice) Matt was the highest-scoring loser this week. Dr. T-Rev brought the un-numbed pain with 20+ points from Tannehill, Swift, and Cooks. Meanwhile, Matt had season-high games from Stafford and Chase, but they weren't enough to counteract injuries to Dalvin (announced pregame) and CMC (injured after only scoring 6 points).  Matt decided this kind of nonsense was ruining his team culture, and he promptly shipped CMC (and Henry Ruggs) to Tommy and got Metcalf and CEH back in the process. In the end, Tommy basically got an injured CMC and Ruggs for Dalvin. Not a terrible trade given it looks like a short injury for CMC and Tommy is a big Panthers fan.

Rob vs Brandon:  This was the weekly bonanza as well as the beatdown of the week.  That is code for Brandon had a solid week, but Rob had an amazing week. Rob had two 30+ point scorers (his 5th round and 9th round draft picks) and an additional three 20+ point scorers. In fact those 5 players were enough to beat Brandon by themselves. In the loss, Brandon had solid outings from Herbert (38.84) and the Browns DST (26).  Not that it made much of a difference given his opponent, but Brandon was let down by an injured AJ Brown, and another disappointing outing from Amari Cooper.

TJ vs Kyle:  This battle of defeated teams ended up being the battle of ineptitude, with the combined score being less than 200 points.  But as the sage Dominic Toretto taught us "it doesn't matter if you win by an inch or a mile, winning is winning", and after last night, TJ has joined the winning club, while Kyle remains defeated.  TJ was able to pull of his Monday night miracle with a season-high game from Zeke and another 30+ point game from Kirk Cousins.  Kyle's team finished with 95 points -- 45 of which came from Josh Allen.  That tells you how great Allen is, an how poorly the rest of Kyle's team played this game. This was the nightly nail-biter and the nail-biter of the week as it was the closest matchup.  It started with TJ being down 20 or so points and winning by 5.  Kyle was able to keep it close with Goedert, but the lack of a touchdown for Goedert on the last drive sealed Kyle's fate and helped TJ escape with the win.

Jordan vs Tyler: In the second battle of undefeated teams, Tyler look off the kid gloves, took Jordan behind the shed, and sent a message to the rest of the West that he still runs the division by beating Jordan by a full Curtis Jackson, but it was still somehow not the beatdown of the week.  When the lowest scorer on your team is Tyreek Hill, you know it's been a good week (or Tyreek has played poorly, but let's not focus on that). Barkley looked back and Kupp continued to light the world on fire with Stafford as QB.  Tyler got to 159, but only had 3 players score 20+ points.  One of them scored 30+, which obviously helps, but the rest of his team had really solid games and it showed us all what kind of weeks Tyler is capable of having.

Award Season

Tell your friends about Lucky #13

MVP: This is a split award this week between Captain Kirk and First Officer Zeke of the USS ManChestHair United.  TJ won by 5 points, so if Kirk or Zeke get one TD fewer, TJ stays undefeated and Kyle gets his first win.

LVP: This goes to all of Hit Squad or should I say Shi...no, that's low hanging fruit.  Ty'Son Williams, Chubb, Robby Anderson, and the Buccaneers all had their worst weeks of the season this week.  I know that's a small sample size of 3 weeks, but still, if you can avoid having half of your line up have their worst week at once, that would be nice.  No where to go but up right?...Right?

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Matt was the highest scoring loser, so I'll give it to him.  That being said, he was the 6th highest scorer, so it's not like he was that unlucky.

Luckiest Team of the Week: TJ outscored 2 people this week, and he was lucky to play one of them.

Game Previews

Skyler (8) vs Brandon (9): Welcome to the IS bowl.  Their rankings are just like their results in the core -- right around average at best.  Skyler has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. Brandon has 0 players on Thursday and 1 players in primetime.  Given that this is the closest matchup (based on rankings) this could be the nail-biter of the week.

Tommy (2) vs Trevor (7): Undefeated Tommy comes to town to take off the top ranked team not in the playoffs. Team has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. Team has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime.  All 4 primetime games are Monday Night, so this could be the nightly nail-biter and the Monday night miracle/nightmare

Chad (4) vs TJ (10): Chad has 0 players on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. TJ has 0 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime.  One of Chad's Monday night players is his kicker.  A Monday nightmare of a 50+ yard field goal to overcome a -4.5 deficit to give TJ the loss does sound possible given his history.

Brady (11) vs Jordan (6): Quick poll -- which of these two is Tyler's favorite possesion WR? Brady has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. Jordan has 0 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime.  

Tyler (1) vs Matt (5): Tyler has 1 player on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. Matt has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime.  Right now this looks like the bonanza for the week.  It's easily the best game based on combining the two rankings into one number

Rob (3) vs Kyle (12): The battle to be bequeathed 'Best Bolivian'. Rob has 0 players on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. Kyle has 1 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime.  This looks to be the weekly beat down has no one has this big of a disparity between rankings.

Good luck to everyone except Brandon.  Brandon I want you to be exactly half of an eleven-pound black forest ham, a myopic chihuahua, and this crevice in my arm. Also, you can suck it.

Week 2 Recap: Insert Snazzy Title Here

I suddenly got hit with the need to take a nap, so I don't want to try and think of anything (that I think is) creative or funny for the title or intro. So onto the recap we go. So I actually ended up taking a nap and now life is good.  I still don't want to come up with a good title, so I won't. There were no monday night miralces or nightly nail-biters since all of the games were basically decided on Sunday night.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Chad: It's a small sample size, but Chad is the leading scorer every week this year, and I don't see a way he will be stopped.  He is finally winning the championship this year based on this extrapolation.  I could just end the blog here, but I'll keep it going for tradition sake.  But seriously, at only two weeks in, he is 37 points higher than #2 in the league, and he's 105 points higher than #12 -- the North Division, it just means more. Derrick Henry nearly went for 50 during this slaughter.  I don't want to say it was meaningless, but Henry could have gone for 40 fewer points and Chad still would have won.  And Skyler was the 5th leading scorer in the league, so it's not like Chad blew out the worst team this week.  Outside of this defense, everyone scored double digits, including 20+ point games from Evans and Mr. Unlimited. Skyler had pretty good games from Lamar and McLaurin (27+ points each), but he had five players score single digits to compensate for it. This game was the weekly bonanza and was 0.32 points from being a combined 300 point game.

Tommy vs Brady: We go from the bonanza to the battle of ineptitude and the nail-biter of the week. Tommy had three players score 20+ and Brady had two cross that threshold. Tommy had two other 'medium' players who scored 10+ while brady had one of them. Tommy's bottom four players had a combined score of 8.1 points, so that's what kept brady in this game and made the winning margin as narrow as it was.

Brandon vs Matt: I won't naMe nAmes, buT someone in This matchup thinks he is a lock for the championship alongside Chad.  I suppose this player is technically in second place, but the gap between him and Chad, who is in 1st place (37 points) is larger than the gap between him and 9th place Skyler (34 points).  So I'll let you decide how real of a threat this player is.  Anyway, Matt beat Brandon behind 9+ points from every person.  Brandon had four of <9 and only one 20+.  Maybe Matt has a point if all of his players have a high floor every week.

Rob vs Trevor: Trevor had Aaron Jones score 41 on Monday night, and he still lost by 30.  Rob put the hurt on Trevor behind a combined 135 from his QB, and top 2 RB's and top 2 WR's.  That would have been enough to beat Trevor.  It must be nice not needing Kittle to bit your opponent.  Trevor didn't have anyone else who scored 20+, but he did have 5 guys who scored double digits. Trevor's in an interesting spot of knowing he has a guy who can drop 40, but also, if Jones doesn't drop 40, and only gets 20 (still a really good outing), Trevors floor could be around 105-110 points.

Tyler vs TJ: Tyler got 70 of his 120 from two guys, but the rest of the team was meh (he only had one other guy who scored double digits).  TJ got a good bounce back from Zeke, and a great game from Hockenson, but was let down by the rest of his team.  He was let down by the Ute Fan who had 4 interceptions -- but at least his mom helps people get out of bed in the morning -- Zach's mom', not TJ's.  Though if TJ's mom is now a social media influencer, good for her.

Jordan vs Kyle: Back by popular demand, it's the beatdown of the week (popular demand meaning I just remembered we did this last year), and Jordan laid the beatdown on Kyle by beating him by 45 points. Kyler Murray got Jordan ~40 points and 6 of his other 8 players 15 points a piece.  Kyle had an off week where he had 3 players who were right around 20 and another player at 15.  Those 4 players got him to 75 points, and his remaining 5 players helped him limp across the 100 point mark this week.  I don't know if the Bucs DST are legit, but that could be a big boost as the surprise DST who scores lots of TD's usually helps his team make a surprise playoff run.

Award Season

MVP: I'm going with the Bills DST.  Tommy eked out a win over Brady in the weekly nail-biter, and of his 3 highest scorers, the Bills were the biggest surprise by pitching the shut out against Miami.

LVP: Sticking with this same game, Dak came back down to earth and Brady lost by 11.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Trevor had the second highest score for a losing team, but he wins the award this week since his game was closer than Skyler/Chad's game.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Tommy was the 9th highest scorer this week and still managed to get the win.

Game Previews

Skyler (9) vs Brady (10): Skyler has 0 players on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. Brady has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime.  This isn't the front runner for the battle of ineptitude, but no one would be surprised if they won it. One of these two will be happy to get their first win of the season. This does have some promise to be the Monday Night Miracle/Nightmarge given the amount of primetime players.

Tommy (5) vs Chad (1): Tommy has 1 player on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. Chad has 0 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. This is the second leading candidate for the weekly bonanza since both teams are undefeated.

Matt (2) vs Trevor (8): Matt has 1 player on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. Trevor has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime.

Rob (6) vs Brandon (7): Rob has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. Brandon has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime.

TJ (12) vs Kyle (11): TJ has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. Kyle has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. As of right now, this is the lead for the battle of ineptitude. One of these two will be happy to get their first win of the season, the loser likely is in last place

Jordan (3) vs Tyler (4): Jordan has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. Tyler has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. This is the leading candidate for the weekly bonanza as both teams are undefeated and have a good amount of points.

Good luck to everyone but Brady this week.

Week 1 Recap: It's Good to be Back

 It feels like it's been a long time coming, but we're finally back to fantasy football. It was a fun week 1 with several games going back and forth and coming down to the wire on Monday Night Football. But let's not bury the lede -- BYU finally beat Utah and everything else good this week was gravy.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Tommy: In what looked to be a promising game with the potential to be the nail-biter of the week, Darren Waller ended up with 19 targets.  Sure, some of them were some garbage throws or Waller was double covered, but it's hard to fail with that many opportunities.  He led the NFL in targets this week, 3 ahead of Amari Cooper, and 9 more than the second most targeted tight end.  I don't imagine this happens every week, but if it does (or if it's at least indicative of a high floor), Waller will ball out this year.  Going into Monday night, Tommy had a 6 point lead, which was well within the realm of possibility for Lamar Jackson to overcome, but he wasn't able to do so.  Tommy ended up with 3 players with 20+ points, which was enough to cover for half of his team getting <6.3 points this week.  The only silver lining for Skyler is this should be a floor week for him.  He had a total of 3 team touchdowns for the week, which was the lowest in the league.  Then again, the person who got last this week had the most team touchdowns, so maybe it means nothing.

Chad vs Brady:  This was another contender for the nail-biter of the week with a 7 point differential, but it ended up losing out on that honor in the end.  However, it did ween the weekly bonanza award. Chad was the highest scorer of the week, and Brady was the 4th highest scorer (the North is back baby!), which means Brady ended up as the unluckiest team of the week. Chad was led to victory by his kicker scoring 11 points on Monday night.  It was close there for a while, and I'm sure Chad was sweating bullets when he was down by <1 point around halftime, but I think we all knew Oakland would at least get a field goal again, if not an extra point.  Brady had a career game from Joe Mixon (don't fact-check me on that.  It's truthiness Tuesday) and started out Thursday Night with 56 combined points from Dak and Lamb, and he let it go to waste. Chad only had two people score 23+ points, where Brady had three such players, but Chad was able to make up ground in the middle by having 7 of his 9 players score 10.7+ points, and Brady had 4 players score <10.7.

Matt vs Rob: Stop me if you've heard this one before -- Rob's opponent started out great, so instead of picking up a kicker or DST, Rob decided to sit out this week and play for the #1 waiver pick.  Rob gave up thanks to three 20+ point players from Matt, and 8 of his 9 players score 9+ points. Rob started out great with 35+ from Tom Brady, and even another 20+ from Lockett, but it wasn't enough to overcome 0 from Russel Gage and <29 from his first 3 round draft picks. Matt ended up as the 2nd highest scorer of the week, so we can't blame Rob too much for giving up.

Brandon vs Trevor: The Monday Nightmare and the nail-biter of the night all in one.  Brandon started with a narrow lead after Sunday night, and then Trevor's DST started and Trevor took a 13ish point lead.  He then had to watch as the raiders slowly whittled away the Raven's score.  If it's any consolation to Trevor, it's not like he was 10 yards away from getting more points.  He would have had a shot with something like one fewer TD scored, 100 fewer yards, and an extra sack. Bet let's be honest -- had Trevor not tried to get cute with starting Cooks over Swift last minute, he narrowly wins this game.

TJ vs Jordan: This game stole the battle of ineptitude by about 2 points from Skyler and Chad thanks to two of Jordan's players scoring <3 points.  However, I'm sure he will be consoled by his 8 point victory. Jordan was able to recover from those low scores by having his two highest scorers outscore everyone TJ's team.  Sometimes it's depth that wins you a week (Chad), and other times, it's thanks to Kyler Murray torching the Titan's and scoring 40+ points.

Tyler vs Kyle: This was another game that started out close with one team winning, and then another team taking the lead by end of the night.  Kyle started off strong Sunday but had to be worried seeing that Tyler had 3 players playing on Monday Night. Tyler was able to come from behind thanks to a 2 TD came from Jacobs, and good enough games from Andrews and Tucker. Tyler probably wanted more than 14 points from Andrews and Tucker, but he'll take the victory and move on to next week.

Award Season

BYU for beating Utah

MVP: Kyler Murray was the only started to score 40+ and his team won by <10, so it's not like those 40 points were just running up the score.

LVP: I hate picking people who get injured, but Raheem Mostert finished with 2 points (20 yards on 2 carries) and then left hurt. The guy who took over for him had 16 points.  Kyle lost by 8.  I think it's safe to assume a healthy Mostert scores at least 10 points and gets Kyle the win.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Brady for being the 4th leading scorer but going up against the leading scorer.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Tyler wins this for two reasons -- he was the lowest scoring winning team (he was the 8th highest scorer), and if Mostert stays healthy, Kyle likely wins.

Game Previews

Skyler (10) vs Chad (1): Skyler has 3 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. Chad has 1 player on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. 

Tommy (4) vs Brady (7): Tommy has no players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. Brady has no players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. 

Brandon (3) vs Matt (2): Brandon has 0 players on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. Matt has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. Based on the matchup, this could be the weekly bonaza

Rob (12) vs Trevor (8): Rob has 0 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. Trevor has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. Based on seedings alone, this could be the battle of ineptitude.

Tyler (6) vs TJ (9): Tyler has 1 player on Thursday and 4 players in primetime. TJ has 1 player on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. Tyler has Aaron Rodgers on Monday Night, TJ historically suffers from the Monday Nightmares.  Just getting this out of the way now.

Jordan (5) vs Kyle (11): Jordan has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. Kyle has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. 

Good luck to everyone but Chad this week.