Week #5

After 2nd place in week #4 and first place in week #5, the GloriousBastards are right back in the race.  The Bastards are simply not the same team with Herbert in the lineup, this week he lead the team with 33.25 pts despite the Chargers losing to the Saints and he still has room to improve.  He has jumped ahead of Burrow as the top rookie in the PQBFL and he did not even play in week #1.  This week the coach chose the correct QB by starting Goff (25.25 pts) over Brady (13.25 pts) to marginally improve coaching efficiency but Bas remains dead last in the league in that regard.  E Elliott, J Jacobs, and DK Metcalf scored 2 TDs each while Diggs was left out of the end zone but scored 15.25 pts nonetheless thanks to 10 receptions and over 100 yards.  Kittle was less productive with only 6 pts as a follow-up to his monster week #4 performance, but in the end it did not matter because Bas finished comfortably ahead of Dec in first place.  On defense, D Davis, R Smith, and Bates all reached double digits which covered up the goof at DL where the coach benched C Jordan (12.5 pts) in favor of Ju Houston (2 pts).

The Decepticons bounced back nicely from last place in week #4 with second place this week.  I guess it makes a difference when Dec’s players don’t get injured mid game and can actually play 4 quarter for once.  K Hunt took over the RB responsibilities in the absence of Chubb and scored 12.75 pts while co-RB Carson continued to take advantage of Hyde being out and scored 13.5 pts of his own.  The situation was precarious at WR with Godwin, Ju Jones, and D-Jax all injured so Dec had no choice but to start R Woods and Lockett.  The former did well with a long TD but Lockett was quiet with teammate DK Metcalf stealing the thunder in Seattle and Lockett only finished the game with 6 pts.  QB Mahomes slightly beat his projection with 28 pts but his INT was costly to the Chiefs who fell to the Raiders.  Dec’s second best score of the week was surprisingly rookie P Queen who returned a fumble for a TD in the 4th quarter when he was already having a great afternoon with a sack, a forced fumble, and a previous fumble recovery, giving him two for the game.  The rest of Dec’s defense was up and down, led by the Rams (14.5 pts), J Baker (13 pts), and L Collins (10 pts), but JJ Watt is looking over the hill with only 4.5 pts (DL14 in the league so far) and D Bush disappointed with only 3 pts. 

The BeaudoinBrothers had an ok week with 3rd place and they have been the most consistent team in the PQBFL after 5 weeks.  The Bros have not won a single week yet and finished second only once, but this was the third time that Beaud finished in 3rd place and because they are the only team who avoided finishing in the red so far, they find themselves in first place despite not being particularly dominant.  R Wilson scored 25.75 pts which was in line with his projection but it took a second half comeback to score those points because he did not do anything in the first half of his game.  The second best score was the Ravens defense which schooled the Bengals with 25 pts, not only they barely allowed 200 yards, but they almost came up with a shutout, they sacked Burrow 7 times plus 3 turnovers and a TD.  With M Thomas getting into a fight with a teammate and not playing this week, backup Marquise Brown chose the right occasion to score his first TD of the year while Kelce scored but this is a more regular event for him.  The same can be said of D Henry who scored another 2 TDs to help the Bros beat Adm but more than only 63 total yds would have been needed to top Dec so that left a bit to be desired.  Individual defense was not ideal other than M Garrett sacking Rivers twice, for example the Bucs LB duo L David and D White underperformed with only 8 pts combined on TNF which started the week on the wrong foot for Beaud before they recovered on Sunday. 

The Admirals had a decent week with 145.25 pts which was better than expected given that franchise player D Adams was on bye.  Thankfully backup R Anderson filled in adequately with 8-112 for a total of 13.75 pts and Thielen scored two TDs on SNF for 23 pts.  The situation was more dire at RB with first round pick A Jones on bye, the problem being compounded by D Harris having his game postponed so he was forced into a bye, and C Hyde was injured so Adm only had one RB to start to go along Ingram who did not do much with only 4.75 pts.  In that game M Andrews scored another TD for 13.75 pts and he moved up to TE4 in the league.  On defense, Jaylon Smith was excellent with 17.5 pts and B Baker was almost as good with 14 pts.  Adm does not have a good backup LB behind J Smith so this week Adm started two DLs; it turned out to be the correct coaching call with Crosby scoring 7 pts, Bosa 6 pts, and all other players on defense doing worse.  Adm has three rookies in the top 11 (Gibson, Jefferson, and Jeudy) but none of them have been explosive this year so far.  This week Gibson was limited to 4.25 pts. 

WaxOnWaxOff finished in the middle of the pack which was not good enough to retain first place in the standings with Wax’s main three competitors Beaud, Dec, and Bas all beating Wax this week.  Wax had the highest projection before the start of the week but L Jackson was subpar with 13.25 pts as he did not have to do much against the Bengals.  He is currently QB13 in the PQBFL after five weeks which is not exactly what Wax had in mind when they franchised him.  WRs DJ Moore and Ridley combined for over 30 pts which was better than expected but Kamara failed to score on MNF and he was shy of 10 pts which hurt Wax’s chances.  TE Fant is injured so backup Jonnu Smith had to fill in which he did nicely with a pair of TDs on Tuesday night football to close the week but Kamara had not put Wax in position to beat Adm so Jo Smith’s effort was not sufficient.  One key issue for Wax was the Broncos bye week being moved to week #5 due to covid on the Pats’ team so McManus did not play and it happened at the same time as Prater’s bye week which was costly because it left Wax without a kicker and Wax finished only 4.5 pts behind Adm.  Burrow was a disaster with a negative score against the Ravens but Wax partially made it up with stellar defense, LBs Cunningham and Warner scored 26 pts combined and A Donald was the best of the bunch with 4 sacks and 22 pts. 

ProfessorMJ was in position to play troublemakers and beat league-leading Wax on Tuesday night but Josh Allen did not get the job done with 2 INTs and the Bills got destroyed by the rusty Titans.  WRs can also be blamed with starting duo Kupp and McLaurin scoring 9.25 pts and 4.25 pts, respectively, while benched backups Fuller and Crowder easily outscored them with 13.75 pts and 19.75 pts.  The best starting WR of the week for Prof was actually a rookie, Ruggs came back from injury and helped the Raiders dispose of the defending champs Chiefs on the road with a 72-yard TD and a total of 15.75 pts.  RBs Drake and Conner each scored a short TD and even the Cowboys defense showed some signs of life with a TD and 9 pts which was easily their best game of the year after being in negative territory the previous three weeks.  Individual defense was a bit thin with injuries and bye weeks but the four starters scored 32.5 pts which was a bit above their projection.  By beating FE by one rank this week, Prof moved to within one rank-point of FE in the standings. 

FlyingElvis finished in the red for the 4th time in 5 weeks and is the only team who has not finished higher than 6th place all year.  First round pick M Sanders scored a long TD and added another one later in the game for 21.25 pts as he finally got on track against a tough Steelers defense after a slow season start.  However with Ekeler injured, A Peterson on bye, and Fournette being active but banged up, the other starting RB could be no other than Singletary who did not do much with 2.75 pts.  QB Bridgewater might not be a starting caliber QB in the PQBFL but he continues to beat his weekly projections, this week he scored 23.5 pts in a win against the Falcons.  He moved up to QB18 in the PQBFL leaderboard which is better than Cousins (QB22) and D Jones (QB28).  Unlike the RBs, FE’s WRs are healthy, sort of, and M Evans scored 12 pts with Godwin (Dec) out of the lineup  but JJSS only scored 5.25 pts because rookie Claypool scored 4 TDs which is an ominous sign of things to come for JJSS and the ball distribution in Pittsburgh.  On defense, none of the individual defenders reached double digits and the Chiefs defense was atrocious in a loss to the Raiders, allowing 40 pts and almost 500 yards of total offense. 

Similar to Dec in week #4, the Ballers could not follow up a win with a second strong week, and this time Ball finished 8th.  The most disastrous news of the week was Prescott’s catastrophic ankle injury after scoring 10 pts.  The only consolation is that Newton was on bye this week so if there is no more covid with the Pats, at least the Ballers have their starting QB for the rest of the way.  Also backup Tannehill scored 32 pts on the bench and he actually ranks ahead of Newton so far (22.3 pts average vs 18.5 pts average).  After a huge week #4, Mixon came back to earth against the Ravens with 7.75 pts and AJ Green who has not done anything all year even got injured and finished the game with a goose egg.  Another underperformer on the Ballers’ squad has been Ertz who only scored 2.25 pts this week despite the Eagles being able to move the ball and score 29 pts on the Steelers.  Ertz has not benefited from Goedert’s injury (Beaud) and this week Ertz was outplayed by Cook on the bench with 13.5 pts.  Rookie was another problem for Ball this week with Swift on bye, Moss injured, and rookie DL Gross-Matos only scoring 2 pts.  Wagner had a good game with 14 pts but Dunlap, C Jones, and Jenkins all scored between 5 and 6.5 pts which was below their projections. 

OldNo7 had not finished lower than 5th this year but the team fell apart in week #5 with last place and a league-low 83.75 pts, not even close to Ball in 8th place with 101.25 pts.  Nobody can be expected to win without a single RB which was the case for Old this week with the covid postponement of the Pats-Broncos game hitting Old hard with bad luck as both Gordon and Michel were forced to a bye at exactly the same time that K Johnson already had a bye and T Coleman + McCaffrey both being injured.  But even with active RBs this was not going to be a good week, A Rodgers was also on bye and Rivers took over with only 2 pts.  WRs Hill and A Robinson did well with 13.5 pts and 14.5 pts but that was barely above their projections.  Individual defense was poor with all four players scoring lower than projections.  And what to say about high-priced rookie CEH?  He started the season in impressive fashion in week #1 with 18.5 pts but in the subsequent 4 weeks he averaged less than 8 pts per game.  The only position where Old has the top scorer at any position is team defense and the Colts were not bad this week with 9.5 pts but it was short of their season average which is now 14.4 pts. 

 

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