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.

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.

2021 Fantasy Draft Recap

Draft weekend has come and gone, and now it's time for me to find sources that tell me I have a good team look at how we will potentially do this year.  I'll break it down a little differently this year,  so I'm putting a template below so you understand how to read it

Team Name

FantasyPros Power Ranking Score: Number out of 100

Football Guys Grade: Letter Grade and source link

Football Guys Playoff Chances: Great in-season management playoff percentage/Good in-season management playoff percentage/Average in-season management playoff percentage

Rototrade Data: Percentage, Record Predicted, Playoff Position Predicted, and source link.

Commissioner Thoughts: Insert backhanded compliment here, or attempt to jinx.

Dixie

FantasyPros Power Ranking Score: 100

Football Guys Grade: B+

Football Guys Playoff Chances: 80/70/57

Rototrade Data: 76%, 9-5, Lose in Semifinals

Commissioner Thoughts: If you use fantasypros to draft, they're likely going to give you a high score, while everyone else wonders what you're up to.

Who Gives a Pit 

FantasyPros Power Ranking Score: 94

Football Guys Grade: A-

Football Guys Playoff Chances: 85/76/66

Rototrade Data: 75%, 9-5, Lose in Semifinals

Commissioner Thoughts: When you have a consensus top 3 player at QB, RB, and TE, it's going to set you up for a nice season, and you'll likely be favored in most matchups this season.

P-Town

FantasyPros Power Ranking Score: 93

Football Guys Grade: A

Football Guys Playoff Chances: 90/80/72

Rototrade Data: 68%, 8-6, Lose in the first round of the playoffs

Commissioner Thoughts: A lot of strong WR on this team.  If his RB's hit or he finds the right one off of waivers, I think this is probably the best team.

Dinkin Flicka

FantasyPros Power Ranking Score: 93

Football Guys Grade: B

Football Guys Playoff Chances: 75/65/48

Rototrade Data: 67%, 8-6, Lose in the first round of the playoffs

Commissioner Thoughts: His RB situation is his weakest spot, but I think he's got the most well-rounded team.

Native Americans

FantasyPros Power Ranking Score: 92

Football Guys Grade: C+ (would be higher if he had a kicker)

Football Guys Playoff Chances: 60/40/18

Rototrade Data: 76%, 9-5, Lose in Semifinals

Commissioner Thoughts: If you could take this team into a time machine 3-5 years ago, he would have the most dominant WR/TE group in the history of fantasy football.

B EZ ON MY SNAX

FantasyPros Power Ranking Score: 92

Football Guys Grade: B

Football Guys Playoff Chances: 70/50/32

Rototrade Data: 49%, 6-8, Miss the playoffs

Commissioner Thoughts: Most sites ding him for his weak RB. If Joe Mixon is the coveted 5th-year breakout, Brady's team will outperform all the expectations. Fun fact, I was looking up how many years Mixon has been in the league so I could make my 5th-year breakout joke, and I learned he is from near where I live.

So I live in Concord (blue square on the left), and Mixon is from Oakley (orange square on the right).  Bonus fun fact, Najee Harris is from Antioch (yellow square that's hard to see, just left of Oakley). Half of the starting running backs from the NFC North grew up 20 minutes from me.

Rob Dogo

FantasyPros Power Ranking Score: 91

Football Guys Grade: B-

Football Guys Playoff Chances: 65/45/24

Rototrade Data: 52%, 7-7, Miss the playoffs

Commissioner Thoughts: I think he's got great starting running backs -- though maybe that's the preseason Najee Harris hype from last night.  He already traded Henderson for Lockett, which helps his team.  If Tom Brady continues to defy father time (and mother earth, and dear ol' uncle Tony), and Kittle gets back to pre-injury form, Rob should outperform his projected finish.

Hukraine

FantasyPros Power Ranking Score: 91

Football Guys Grade: B+

Football Guys Playoff Chances: 80/70/55

Rototrade Data: 77%, 9-5, Lose in Semifinals

Commissioner Thoughts: The second round steal of Saquon Barkley will likely be what makes his season.  If it really is a steal, Tyler should have a great shot to be one of the final teams standing.  The same thing goes with Josh Jacobs.  Perhaps this is the year Mark Andrews joins the upper echelon of tight ends?  So there is a lot of potential with this team, but I've learned that potential gets you fired in the NFL (courtesy of The Pat McAfee Show), so perhaps this team won't take off like I think they will.

BHers 

FantasyPros Power Ranking Score: 90

Football Guys Grade: A-

Football Guys Playoff Chances: 85/75/64

Rototrade Data: 76%, 9-5, Lose in semifinals

Commissioner Thoughts: CMC.  Assuming no injury, that gives Matt a leg up every week.  He also has big-play potential at almost every position.  He will be hoping the CEH injury isn't serious, and that Brady backing out after writing CEH on the draft board won't go back to bite Matt in the butt.

I am Batman

FantasyPros Power Ranking Score: 89

Football Guys Grade: A-

Football Guys Playoff Chances: 85/75/61

Rototrade Data: 74%, 8-6, Lose in the first round of playoffs

Commissioner Thoughts: I like Chad's starters, and think his FantasyPros score is too low. His TE could not work out, and his Flex will constantly be rotating, but he's got a great 5 man core.  His Zeke shirt mishap was funny though.  Thanks for making that happen TJ.

ManChestHair United

FantasyPros Power Ranking Score: 88

Football Guys Grade: C+

Football Guys Playoff Chances: 60/40/20

Rototrade Data: 66%, 8-6, Lose in the first round of the playoffs

Commissioner Thoughts: TJ got his workhorse in Zeke, who could have a career year if the Cowboys somehow keep the pace that they did last year with Dak. I don't love his WR/TE's team situation, but I love how they should all realistically lead their team in targets and provide TJ with a very safe floor and should keep him competitive week in and week out.  It will all be a matter of getting the right boom player at the right time.  Also, his QB used to be a Ute fan.

Hit Squad

FantasyPros Power Ranking Score: 85

Football Guys Grade: B

Football Guys Playoff Chances: 70/55/35

Rototrade Data: 77%, 9-5, Lose in Semifinals

Commissioner Thoughts: I don't think Kyle's team is as bad as FantasyPros makes it sound, but I also don't love the semifinals call out of Rototrade.  I think the Browns backfield gives him a high floor, but a low ceiling.  Mostert could be great or could sit out most of the year.  I also love Corey Davis, but that's mostly because he's a former Titan and will be catching passes from Mr. Former Ute Fan. Actually, as a whole, Kyle has some really good WR depth, though FantasyPros disagrees with that statement.

Final Thoughts: Rototrade graded each team individually, which is why it has 10 teams making the playoffs, and 6 teams losing in the semi's.  What it makes me think is that we are all relatively close and hopefully it should be a competitive year. Given the additional game this year, it should make the end of season even more exciting when it comes to playoff races.

Good luck to none of you on the whole for the year, but good luck to all of you except Tommy in week 1.