Week 6: High Scores Will Continue Until Defenses Improve

Another week, another batch of high scores.  This week wasn't as high scoring as last week, but when you have someone who scored in the 140's and still lost, you know there were some high scores -- and some bad luck.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Tyler: Skyler came crashing back to earth after his record-setting week and was lucky to cross 100, while the 'DHS class of 2007 biggest flirt' flirted with 170. This was easily the biggest blowout of the week.  If you look at the graph of points, Tyler led from wire to wire. Cooper Kupp had 34 points for Tyler, and there were 3 other members of the 20+ point club with Rodgers, Hill, and Jones.  Those 4 were enough to beat Skyler. Skyler had a couple of players with alright games (mid-teens), but no one got to the 20 point threshold.

Kyle vs Tommy: This was actually a relatively close game (10-15 points) until Josh Allen put things away on Monday Night.  Perhaps there was a world where Allen played poorly, and the Bills DST played great and Tommy got the win, but this felt like a foregone conclusion given the lead Kyle had and the year Josh Allen has had. Josh Allen led the way for Kyle's team with 34+ points, and Courtland chipped in with 24+ points of his own. For Kyle to score 140+ and only have 2 players score 20+ points is impressive and would seem to indicate that his team is a real threat. However, this game came at a cost with Kareem Hunt getting hurt and being moved to IR. Tommy scored 94 this week, which gives him an average of 100 over the last two weeks.  Maybe this is a blip and not a trend, but it's still a cause for concern. Mahomes played well and scored over 25 points, but Tommy's team won't unlock its full potential until CMC comes back.

Brandon vs Chad: This game was close going into Monday night, the Bills had a good running defense, and the Titan's fans in the league assumed the Bills would win and that Brandon had a chance to hold on to his 12 point lead over Chad and his only player remaining -- Derrick Henry.  The Last King said he didn't care about Brandon's team, and he decimated Brandon's night with one swift 76 yard TD early in the 2nd quarter. Quick aside, but what would it take for Henry to win the MVP? It's become "the best QB" award, but if he goes for back-to-back years with 2,000 yards, and the Titans finish as a top 3 team in the AFC, does he have a shot?  Would the Titans have to be the 1 seed for that to happen? Sorry, back to your regularly scheduled fantasy football nonsense. Brandon had Jones, Henderson, and Fant all score 20+, but it wasn't enough to overtake the King, his Knight -- Sir Leonard Fournette (30+ points), or his squire Jalen Hurts (27 points).

Trevor vs Brady: This was the weekly bonanza, and has been one of the few 300 points combined games that we've had this year.  Trevor was down roughly 26 going into the game with his QB and K vs Brady's WR.  Tannehill was able to hit that mark consistently last year, but this year has been a down year for him and he didn't even hit 13 this game, which essentially sealed Trevor's fate, even though his kicker got him 13 points. Brady didn't actually need anything from Emmanuel Sanders to win this game, but I'm sure he's not complaining about the 14 points he provided.  Trevor had two 24+ point players while Brady had some stud games from his two cowboys (30+ points each) and then 23+ points from each of his RB's.  This was Brady's first win of the season, and we no longer have any defeated or undefeated teams this year.  Maybe next year?

Matt vs TJ: The only person who hates Mondays more than Garfield hates Mondays is TJ. Devin Singletary did just enough to squeak out the half-point win for Matt.  This ended up being quite the QB duel as each QB scored between 33-35 points.  Matt had two players score over 20, while TJ didn't have any others. Matt had 5 players score single digits while TJ only had 3 players in the single digits. I think this is just another example of how your studs win you fantasy football, and you just have to hope that you have enough of them or enough weeks with random studs that they take you to the promised land. This was clearly the nail-biter of the night and week, while also being the Monday Night Miracle/Nightmare.

Rob vs Jordan: This ended up being the battle of ineptitude.  Rob didn't break 100, which certainly doesn't help, and Jordan only had in the low 120's.  I say 'only' somewhat facetiously since it's usually a good score and it keeps you competitive, but the last two weeks have just been on another level. Jordan got his win with Kyler getting him 33+ points, and Hopkins and Diggs scoring 20+.  Rob had a shot thanks to Brady, Harris, and Robinson averaging around 21 points, but was let down by several players -- his DST getting -1 was probably the nail in the coffin that caused him to throw in the towel and not pick up a kicker.

Award Season

MVP: Singletary has a strong case, but I'm giving this to the Cowboys duo of Dak and Ceedee for their big combined games, a walkoff TD to give them a huge boost (roughly 17.5 points), and Brady getting his first win.

LVP: Marquise Brown picked a bad week to have his season low in scoring.  He wins this award for not showing up for TJ in a tight matchup.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: I wanted to give this one TJ for his Monday Night, but I realized Trevor was the 3rd highest scorer of the week and still lost, so it's going to Trevor.

Luckiest Team of the Week: This one will go to Jordan who was the 8th highest scoring team of the week, but still got a win.

Game Previews

Welcome to the Bye-pocalypse! Based on my numbers below, I counted 30 potential starters/rotation players on bye, and 5 roster spots that have yet to be filled.  What an ugly week.

Skyler (5) vs Kyle (7): Skyler has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Kyle has 2 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 3 players on bye. With a total of 3 people in primetime (the weekly high), this has some potential for the Monday Night Miracle/Nightmare.

Brandon (9) vs Brady (12): Brandon has 3 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Brady has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 5 players on bye who are all potential starters depending on the matchup in a given week, and his team still doesn't have a TE. This is the early front runner for the battle of inteptitude.

Chad (2) vs Trevor (11): Chad has 0 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Trevor has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 2 players on bye, and his team still doesn't have a DST.

Rob (6) vs TJ (10): Rob has 0 players on Thursday and1 player in primetime. He has 5 players on bye who are all potential starters depending on the matchup in a given week, and his team still doesn't have a K (that's normal for him) or a TE. TJ has 0 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye.

Matt (8) vs Jordan (4): Matt has1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Jordan has 1 player on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye, and his team still doesn't have a K.

Tommy (3) vs Tyler (1): Tommy has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Tyler has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 3 players on bye. This looks to be the game of the week and early favortire for the bonanza.  That is based on their reankings, and also because they appear to be some of the least decimated teams, while also having a high projected score.

Good luck to everyone but Kyle this week.

Week 5: Welcome to the Fantasy Big XII

Welcome the Fantasy Big XII, where blowouts happen with frequency, every game looks like a bonanza, and the defenses don't matter.  Let's play 'scenes from a hat'.  The first scene is 'things you can say to your fantasy opponent but not to your wife'.  I prefer we don't get canceled like Gruden so we'll cancel this game.  Let's move on to 'Irish Drinking Song', we'll call down Skyler, Brandon, TJ, and Jordan for this game.  Gentleman, give us a song, one line at a time, about your football weekend.

::In harmony:: Oh, idy, didy, didy, didy, didy, didy, di

Skyler: My week was amazing

Brandon: I like former Oregon Ducks

TJ: Mondays are no longer terrible

Jordan: I was the only one to score under 100, so my team really sucks

Skyler: I scored two-twenty,

Brandon: AJ Brown was a tool

TJ: Hollywood should be this weeks MVP

Jordan: At least I made loads of money on FanDuel

::In less harmony:: Oh, idy, didy, didy, didy, didy, didy, di

Brandon: I doubled my win count

TJ: I doubled mine too

Jordan: I'm still projected for the playoffs

Skyler: The south division is doo doo

Brandon: I have to play Chad next week 

TJ: And I have a get right game 

Jordan: I'm projected to lose to Rob 

Skyler: Losing to Tyler will be lame 

::In progressively worse harmony:: Oh, idy, didy, didy, didy, didy, didy, di

TJ: We’re a third of a way through the season

Jordan: This year's going too fast

Skyler: We’ve had a few fun surprises 

Brandon: Like how the defending champ's in last

TJ: We are starting with some bye weeks

Jordan: I need my team to get in a groove

Skyler: I'm still upset BYU lost

Brandon: I'm never going to tell you when or where I'm going to move

::In an exasperated tone of wanting this to end:: Oh, idy, didy, didy, didy, didy, didy, di

Jordan: This is probably the worst blog yet

Skyler: This song has me feeling like a prisoner

Brandon: Whose idea was this anyway?

TJ: We need a new commissioner

Jordan: This last verse is off the rails

Skyler: But our song really slaps

Brandon: TJ, please end our misery

TJ: Finally to the game recaps!

::In Sweet relief:: Oh, idy, didy, didy, didy, didy, didy, di; Oh, idy, didy, didy, didy, di-dy, di-dy, di

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Trevor: This was one of two games this week that crossed the 300 points combined threshold, but this one made it a little further and got to over 366 points, which officially makes it the bonanza. This was also the blowout of the week as Skyler won by about 75 points -- which is saying something given that Trevor dropped a season-high 145.  Skyler's lowest scorer was his DST at 14 points. Over half of Skyler's team scored at least 20, with one of those guys being 3 passing yards away from 50 points.  Trevor actually had a great week from Taylor Swift and Brown.  That is why grammar matters people.  Trevor had a good week from Taylor, Swift, and Brown, who combined for 85+ points, but ran into the wrong opponent this week. This week heavily skews the points allowed against Trevor, but those have literally never mattered as a tie-breaker in the history of the league. 

Just to make it abundantly clear and to annoy Tyler, but also because he does deserve a shout out,  his record of 'most points scored in a week' --which he set last year in the consolation, and didn't get any love in writing at the time which was probably wrong, but the blog historically ignores non-playoff games -- has been broken after only holding it for a few games.  Tyler (217.04)  took the record from Ren (217) by one passing yard, but Skyler (220.88) took it this week from an amazing performance from Lamar Jackson.

Brandon vs Tommy: Brandon came out dodging, ducking, dipping, diving, and dodging while also landing wrenches to the undefeated face of turbo.  In the end, the undefeated pit stains who gives a pit ended up having no pits to give and gave up after having an incredible week last week. Brandon was able to get a much-needed victory behind Herbert, a bunch of average joe's, and a low-grade beaver tranquilizer. Tommy was basically let down by anyone not named Mahomes or Bills DST.

Jordan vs Chad: Chad's smack talk seemed to have scared Jordan as Chad won by 60. How did a league founding father without a championship go a lot farther this week?  Was it from working a lot harder,  by being a lot smarter, or by being a self starter? That's probably not how he beat Jordan -- though Chad may have throat punched him, it was a blur, sir. Hurts had a good game on the bench, but Chad's going to have to use him eventually, with Wilson hurt on the bench next week. King Henry showed Jordan no mercy, by scoring a game-high 31 points, with help from Evans and Pitts.  Jordan tried to put up a fight, but only Hopkins showed up, with a measly 20 points. What comes next? Time will tell.  The last time Chad was in first place, he claimed to be our benevolent ruler, I remember that he served us well.

TJ vs Brady: This was a 25 point win by TJ, and that was close enough to be the weekly nail-biter.  As it happened on a Monday night, it was also the nail-biter of the night, and the Monday Night Miracle/Nightmare. TJ had some help from Zeke and Robert Woods who combined for 50 points, but even with the dark of Monday Night crashing in, TJ needed Marquise Brown to carry him -- even though half time had him broken on the ground, a victory was found. Brady was given some hope by 20+ point games from Dak and Sanders, but was let down by Scary Terry, who didn't realize he needed to be scary good all of October, and not just the first week of this scare field month. This was also the battle of ineptitude as it was the lowest-scoring game of the week, but this is only being awarded this week based on tradition since each game had a lot of points this week.

Tyler vs Rob:  This was the other 300+ points combined game.  Rob had a comfortable victory by scoring 189 points sans kicker.  His team may have been without a kicker, but he kicked Tyler out of the undefeated club. Rob leads the league in scoring now, which is nice because there's no one else in his 'division' who looms quite as large in wins and points.  Some have decent wins, some have decent points, but no one has both. Had Rob had the right kicker, we could have seen two teams score 200+ points this week -- given that we had only seen it 4 times before this week, that would have been cool. Rob got the easy win thanks to five members of the 20+ point club, three of whom were in the 30+ point club, and one of whom is either a vampire, necromancer, or possibly father time in the flesh, and scored 47.74 this week. 41 from Mark Andrews on MNF was enough to keep this from being the blowout of the week and to keep Tyler from being the lowest scorer, but that was about all it was good for.

Kyle vs Matt: The last matchup of the week saw a resurgent Hit Squad, who snuck into the 170 club in the last minute or two, put a beat down on Matt who suffered from poor play (Hooper), injuries (CEH), and poor coaching (starting an inactive cook). Kyle got to 170 this week with nearly 50 combined from his Browns RB’s, 25 from Sutton, and 42.5 from Josh Allen. Those 4 alone were enough to beat Matt, so the other team members' points were simply for pride and tie-breaking. 

Award Season

MVP: This could have gone to Lamar Jackson for being the highest scoring player on the highest-scoring team in a record-breaking week, or to Justin Herbert for being the highest scorer this week, and being one of the few players to hit the 50 point threshold, but instead it will go to Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown with his 33.5 points on MNF in the weekly nail-biter game. 

LVP: I DECLARE LVP FREE WEEK! There were no good candidates. I suppose if I gave out battle of ineptitude I should give out this too. Dalvin Cook, come on down. You wouldn’t have won your team the game, but whatever. 

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Trevor was the highest-scoring loser and had 145 points. That was only good enough for 6th highest scorer, so he isn’t too unlucky, but 145 shouldn’t be worth so little compared to others. 

Luckiest Team of the Week: TJ was the lowest scoring winner and had what may have been a career game from Hollywood, on Monday Night, where TJ usually has bad luck. So he gets the award this week for everything going right. 

Game Previews

There will be no naming of every game.  That is too much work to do every week.

Skyler (5) vs Tyler (2): Skyler has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Tyler has 0 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime.  He has 1 player on bye. Rankings indicate this could be the weekly bonanza.

Kyle (8) vs Tommy (3): Kyle has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Tommy has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime.  He has 0 players on bye.

Brandon (9) vs Chad (1): Brandon has 0 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Chad has 4 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime.  He has 1 player on bye.

Trevor (11) vs Brady (12): Trevor has 2 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Brady has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime.  He has 0 players on bye. This is the front runner for the battle of ineptitude. 

Matt (7) vs TJ (10): Matt has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. TJ has 1 player on Thursday and 0 players in primetime.  He has 1 player on bye.

Rob (4) vs Jordan (6): Rob has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Jordan has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime.  He has 2 players on bye.

I apologize for the delay in the blog, so hopefully this one has been worth it.

Good luck to everyone but Tyler this week.

Week 4: The South All Lost Again

Raise your hand if your whole division lost this week.  Feel free to make fun of those losers if your division won 75% of its games this week.  The South had a real rough week in the first week of inter-division play.  I'm sure it sucks to be them and it is super embarrassing and shameful, but I don't remember what it feels like since it hasn't happened to the North since week 8 of 2013.  I know I didn't really worry too much since I was living in Florida at the time.  I don't have the members memorized for the West, so I didn't check for them. Anyway, I hope you are embarrassed Rob, Matt, Trevor, and Brandon -- and that this doesn't come back to bite me next week.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Brandon: This was the battle of ineptitude, even though Skyler was the 3rd highest scorer.  Brandon's team looked like they had been coached by Urban Meyer while he was out at the club, sticking his fingers in random people. Justin Herbert scored 27 points for Brandon, and was actually the leading scorer in this game, he just didn't have any support this week. Brandon had one other player score 15+, and the rest of his players scored <8 points.  Skyler had three players who were in the 20+ club, and 7 of his 9 players scored double digits.

Tommy vs Trevor: The Skyler/Brandon matchup and the Tyler/Matt matchup would have been the blowouts of the week during a normal week (between 55 and 60 points), but Tommy decided to beat Trevor by 87 points.  To give you some context, Trevor and Brandon combined would not have beaten Tommy this week. Trevor had two players who tried this week (Tannehill and JT) by scoring 20+ points, but he had no shot after Tommy had one player go 40+, and two others go 30+. To give some more context, that means Mahomes, Moore, and the Bills DST beat Trevor by themselves, and the rest of the team was just helping boost Tommy's overall score.  This was also the weekly bonanza.  Despite Tommy's best efforts, we didn't get a 300+ point combined game this week. Yet even after this dominant showing to continue his unbeaten streak, he is still only in 2nd place.

Chad vs TJ: In a normal week, a 5 point loss would have been the weekly nail-biter, but two other matchups were actually closer. This wasn't even the nail-biter of the night as Rob and Kyle had a closer score, but it was the Monday Night Miracle/Nightmare since this was the only game where the lead changed on Monday night. I don't want to say I'm surprised, but if only one person was to lose a lead on Monday night, we would all bet on TJ right? TJ was given his false sense of security thanks to BHer Hall of Famer, Cordarelle Patterson. Now that he has a real coach/organization, it looks like Patterson is finally showing his potential (I'm insulting Matt AND the Bears here, just to be clear). Zeke also pulled his weight by putting up another 20 point week, but those two just weren't enough to get TJ over the finish line. Chad had 20+ points from Wilson, Henry, and Montgomery, but needed Keenan Allen and Dan Carlson to get him over the finish line.

Brady vs Jordan: This was the weekly nail-biter as Jordan only won by 3.1 points.  This game ended up being decided during the middle of Sunday, so that was a little anti-climatic.  I know Brady was considering Aiyuk, Sanders, Sermon, or Moss for his flex. 3 of the 4 on that list would have got Brady the win, but he got bad advice from multiple sources and ended up dropping a winnable game.  Jordan was able to eke out his win behind two 20+ players and four other 10+ players.  The players who got Jordan over the finish line were the Murray/Hopkins stack. The stack was only worth around 37 points, but when you win by 3.1, every point counts. Brady was let down by picking the wrong flex, but more from Chris Carson who had his first single-digit game of the season, as well as CeeDee Lamb and his steady decline this season.

Tyler vs Matt: This was a thorough dismantling of Matt by the law firm of Barkley, Rodgers, and Hill.  In fact, those 3 players would have beat Matt's whole team by 0.42 points. One of the silver linings for Matt is that he got CEH back for his best game of the season. That being said, Matt only had one 20+ scorer this week, and it wasn't even CEH. Tyler's team had three other players score double digits, but overall his players outside of his big 3 didn't off a ton of support.  I think Tyler cried about this lack of support with the second-highest score of the week and being the leading scorer in the league through 4 weeks with the best record.

Rob vs Kyle: This was another tight game with <5 points being the difference between winning and losing. Kyle was able to hang on to his lead on Monday night thanks to 16.5 points from Renfrow.  It was just enough to keep the 31.6 points from Ekeler and Williams from giving Rob the win. Other important players in this matchup were Josh Allen, who was Kyle Allen's only player to score 20+, and James Robinson and Najee Harris, who were the other 20+ members for Rob.  If you are wondering how Rob lost when he had three 20+ scorers when Kyle only had one, Kyle had 4 other players score 15+, and 7 of his 9 players scored in the double digits, while Rob had no one outside of his three 20+ players score more than 13.

Award Season

MVP: Given the number of close games this week, I am picking an MVP for each winner of the tight games.

• Jordan - The Murray and Hopkins stack got him the win
• Kyle - Renfrow did just enough to keep Kyle in the win column Monday night
• Chad - Montogmery had his best week of the year in a narrow game.

LVP: I'm going to give an LVP for each loser of the tight games.

• Brady - Even though Aiyuk is the easy pick because he was the person Brady was unsure about, this award will go to Chris Carson.  It's unclear if he was injured this game, but he was averaging over 14 points per game before this week, and then he decided to score 10 fewer points than his average this week.
• Rob - I almost gave Mike Williams the overall LVP of the week, but in order to keep the symmetry, I gave one to each losing team. Here are Williams scores by week in order 22.2, 22.1, 33.2, 2.1.  If I received these numbers from someone I worked with, I would ask if there was a typo/if they forgot to include an extra 2 on the last number.  He could not have picked a worst time to have his season low.
• TJ - Captain Kirk crashed back down to earth.  Weeks 1-3, he was averaging around 29 points a game.  He got 12 this week.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: TJ was the 6th highest scorer, but still lost.  It's not the unluckiest situation we've seen, but it still counts.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Jordan was the 8th highest scorer this week, but somehow got the win.

Game Previews

Side note, I'm going to try giving each of these a name.  They won't always be good or creative, so if you have any thoughts, feedback, or requests, I'm all ears.

Skyler (6) vs Trevor (8): Welcome to the Charger Bowl, or maybe the C4LB if Trevor were naming it.  Skyler has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. Brandon has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime.

Brandon (9) vs Tommy (2):  If I had to give this a name, I would call it the New Guy Bowl, since these are both the newest members of the league, though they aren't really new anymore, and Tommy is a prehistoric, sorry I mean a pre mission OG. Brandon has 1 player on Thursday and 1 players in primetime. Tommy has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime.

Jordan (4) vs Chad (3):  Welcome to the Chad Bowl.  I couldn't come up with a good name, but Jordan has a picture of Chad for his team, so I'm going with the Chad Bowl. Jordan has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. Chad has 1 player on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. This is one of the leading candidates for the bonanza given the rankings

TJ (11) vs Brady (12):  I dub this The Best Buds Bowl -- again, not my best work, but here we are. TJ has 1 player on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. Brady has 1 player on Thursday and 0 players in primetime (Brady's is expected to change depending on the Chris Carson news.  If Carson doesn't play Thursday, and Brady puts in Emmanuel Sanders, that will give Brady 1 player on primetime). Given the ranking of these two teams.

Tyler (1) vs Rob (5):  I have no good names here, so I'll go to a default name that will apply to multiple matchups this year, but let's call it something like "Members of the Championship Winning Marriott's Most Wanted playing against eachother while 'Hello' by Adele plays in the background" Bowl. Tyler has 1 player on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. Rob has 1 player on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. This is one of the leading candidates for the bonanza given the rankings

Kyle (10) vs Matt (7):  I shall call this the High School Baseball Bowl. Kyle has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. Matt has 3 players (potentially 4-5) on Thursday and 1 players in primetime.

Best of luck to everyone except Trevor this week.