Football is here, and it's a magical time. I thoroughly enjoyed having football on the TV nonstop on Saturday and Sunday. That being said, I heard that Jocelyn and my children are looking for someone with a bit more personality and attentiveness to be in their lives. All applicants can put their resumes directly in the trash. You'll know you've found the right one when you see my team in there as well, next to the Titans kicker and their offensive coordinator's ability to call a good game. Anyway, let's get to the point of this post
Game Recaps
Skyler vs Tommy: This was the third closest game of the week (Tommy won by 20), but it never felt close, nor did it feel exciting – which is why it’s the winner of the battle of ineptitude this week. Each team had only one player score 20+ points (Mixon for Skyler, Pittman for Tommy), and each team had 4 other players in the low double digits, with 4 other players in the single digits. Skyler’s single-digit players scored a combined 13 points, while Tommy’s combined for 27 and the ‘studs’ of the game had a difference of 6 points in the favor of Tommy as well. This game came down to a lot of little things that added up to a comfortable Tommy win.
Chad vs Brady: This game looked like it would be tight going into Monday, and then the Broncos stack of McManus and Judge, Doug, Trudy, Jerry Jeudy put things to bed pretty quickly. With the Monday night tension, and with this game being the Weekly Bonanza, it was the best game of the week in my opinion. Chad started out hot Sunday morning and took a lead he wouldn’t relinquish until Monday night. His hot start was thanks to a 20+ point game from Jalen Hurts while getting double-digit games from 5 other players. Brady was able to make his comeback though thanks to three 20+ point games (Jameis, Jeudy, and Kelce).
Matt vs Rob: ::Opens up last year's week 1 report, and decides to copy and paste:: “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.” Well, this is weird that I referenced this habit last year. Anyway, moving on to this week. Rob gave up thanks to 6 players scoring double digits for Matt. 3 of those 6 went for 20+, and 1 of those 3 went for 40+ (Mahomes). Matt had a total of 162.8 points, and his lowest scorer was Ish Smith with 0 points. Coincidentally, “Oh ish” is what the rest of us thought when we saw Matt’s score but didn’t want to swear in our minds. Rob sat 3 people, had a tight end that scored 0 and ended up as the lowest scorer of the week (more on that later). Murray and Diggs combined for 50 for Rob, so he definitely has a solid foundation to build on. Throw in an extra 20 from Ammon-Ra St. Brown, and Rob looks like he’ll be just fine. This was the biggest blowout of the week.
Brandon vs Trevor: The Nail Biter of the Week, with the Monday Night Miracle/Nightmare (depending on who you are) made this for an excellent game as well. Trevor started out hot with a stellar showing from his DST on Thursday night, with his Kicker adding in another 7 points. You might say it was a ‘special’ night for his special teams. Not to be outdone, the very recently acquired (like 30 minutes before kick-off) Josh Allen put up 37 points, which allowed for Brandon to finish Thursday night with the lead. The Sunday morning games saw some back and forth until the Sunday afternoon game saw Brandon take a roughly 25-point lead. Brandon getting the lead was a little surprising as only CEH and his K scored double digits (CEH was part of the 20+ club) (I should add that even though this was the nail-biter, it was the second lowest scoring game of the week). Trevor made his furious comeback by stacking Mr. Unlimited with his church-going WR, Courtland Sutton. They combined for 30 points and got Trevor a 3.5-point win.
Jordan vs TJ: This was the blowout of the week featuring non-tanking teams. Jordan put up 148 while TJ put up 92. TJ had one player get 20+ (Joe Burrow, who lost 10 points on turnovers), and another four players score double digits, meaning 4 more were single digits. Meanwhile, Jordan's lowest 5 scorers all had single digits and combined for 16.3 points. Of his top 4 scorers, Herbert was the lowest at 29.26, while Barkley, Davante, and Jefferson all scored 30+. We are in trouble if Jordan can figure out his bottom half of the roster. Jordan was probably sweating out Friday and Saturday after Cam Akers scored 0 points on Thursday, but he obviously ended up doing just fine.
Kyle vs Tyler: Another big blowout, Kyle won by around 46 points. Tyler had one player score 30+ (Cooper Kupp on his ridiculous TNF stat line), but the rest of his team struggled. We all thought George Kittle was going to dominate his game, but where the rest of Tyler’s team didn’t figuratively show up for the game, Kittle literally didn’t show up for his game. We all make mistakes Tyler, it’s ok. Kyle’s big three were Lamar, JTT, and AJ Brown, who all scored 25+ points. If AJ Brown will consistently be this good, he could end up being one of the bigger draft day steals. Not that the first pick of the 3rd round is stealing, but he went behind Sutton, Higgins, Tyreek, Keenan, Evans, and Lamb.
Award Season
MVP: Wilson and Sutton for the late theatrics on Monday to get Trevor the nail-biting win.
LVP: Most of the people on Brandon’s team. Dameon Pierce looked like he had a ways to go to be the lead back in Houston, Thielen had 3 whole catches while Jefferson feasted, and CeeDee Lamb only caught 2 of 11 targets. If he catches even 5 of his 11 targets (45%) Brandon likely wins (for his career he catches 65% of his targets). They all win this award, but CD was the ‘L’-ist VP of the bunch.
Unluckiest Team of the Week: I want to give it to Brandon for the way he lost, but Chad would have beat 7 other people this week with his score, so Chad gets the award for being the highest scoring loser.
Luckiest Team of the Week: I want to give this to Trevor since he narrowly won on Monday night, but Tommy would have lost to 7 other people this week given his score but he still won, so Tommy it is.
High Scorer of the Week: I don’t think Matt knows this since he claims his app is broken, but he is the highest scorer and the league leader after week 1.
Lowest Scorer of the Week: Rob wins on a technicality, but Rob had to sit 3 people to narrowly win this award over Skyler by less than a point, but we all know Skyler has the worst team of the week.
King of the Court
This is a new award I’ll try and track. If we simply look at this as ‘winning team stays’, whoever currently is the king will lose the title if he loses in a given week, and his new opponent will take over as king of the court. We know Jordan won the last championship of pre-historic times. We could count him as the belt holder starting week 1 of the 2010 season. If we decided to wait to award the first king of the court to our first champion with documentation, Geoff would hold the belt starting with the first game of the 2011 season. Fortunately, the belts were unified in week 12 of 2011 when Kyle, holder of the prehistoric belt, beat Jordan, holder of the modern era belt, to create the undisputed King of the Court.
It frequently changes hands each season. The longest streak is shared between Jordan and Skyler at 8. If we track simply since unification (since that is the easiest and it’s undisputed), Brady leads at 25, Skyler is in second at 22, and Chad is in third with 20. We nearly had some constitutional crises as Geoff left the league shortly after holding the belt (fortunately not during his reign), and then Konner won it while subbing in, and only lost it in the last week of the consolation bracket before his forced retirement. He lost it to Ren. Fortunately, Ren only held it the first week of the 2019 season. Had Ren won the league that year, he would have also caused a crisis by retiring with the belt. 2019 was also a mess since I inadvertently screwed up the schedule when Chad decided to come back, and in my haste, I retroactively forced him back in the league during the offseason between 2019 and 2020, but the blog was thorough that year, and everything was accounted for.
More often than not, the champion collects the belt either in his run leading to the playoffs or by winning in the playoffs. This last season was no different as Skyler won the belt from Brady in the semi-finals and kept it as he won the championship. However, he crapped the bed in the first game of this season, and now Tommy is the undisputed King of the Court and holds the belt. That will put extra pressure on his upcoming matchup with Brady. Speaking of which, let’s get to the game previews
* denotes that the team is incomplete.
Skyler* (11) vs Chad (7): Skyler has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. Chad has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. In the running for the battle of ineptitude. Tommy (6) vs Brady (4): Tommy has 2 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. Brady has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. The winner will be the King of the Court Brandon* (8) vs Matt* (1): Brandon has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. Matt has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. Rob* (12) vs Trevor (5): Rob has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. Trevor has 0 players on Thursday and 4 players in primetime. In the running for the battle of ineptitude. These two have a combined 5 players on Monday night, so I expect this to be the nail-biter of the night and the Monday night miracle/nightmare, but who knows Tyler (9) vs TJ (10): Tyler has 4 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. TJ has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. In the running for the battle of ineptitude. Jordan* (2) vs Kyle* (3): Jordan has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. Kyle has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. The clear front runner for the bonanza and the game of the week.
With two games on Monday night this next week, almost every matchup will be affected by Monday. The only one that doesn't is Tyler vs TJ. I'm sure TJ is thrilled to not be the victim of a Monday Nightmare.
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