Week #9

OldNo7 became the 7th different team to win with a crushing performance of 190.75 pts with the closest team being very far behind at 146.75 pts.  C McCaffrey was finally back in the lineup after missing 6 games to injury but even without any RB Old would still have won this week.  McCaffrey scored 22.5 pts and RB2 M Gordon scored a modest 3.25 pts which was not needed given the fireworks from A Rodgers (35.5 pts) and Old’s three receivers scoring 4 TDs combined, the lowest score being 13.25 pts from E Engram and the best being Ty Hill with 27 pts.  Defense was not bad either with both Poyer and B Martinez intercepting a pass along with 10 tackles+assists each.  OldNo7 is now only one rank-point behind Adm and holds the tie-breaker, and is not far behind Wax (3 rank-points) and Bas (4 rank-points) so suddenly third place in the standings is in sight.

The Decepticons did not have the most dominant week but they emerged on top of a tight pack between 2nd and 5th place to overtake Wax in the standings and move closer to Beaud in first place.  For all of Dec’s bad luck this year with injuries, at least this time things swung Dec’s way with David Johnson (Beaud) getting concussed early in the time which gave plenty of playing time to Duke Johnson who scored a TD and finished the game with 8 pts which was the difference between 2nd and 3rd place.  Also with L Collins out to injury, J Adams came back from his own injury to score 12.5 pts and he’s now only 0.2 pt per game behind B Baker (Adm) as the league’s top DB on a points per game basis.  For the second consecutive week the Chiefs ignored the running game and Mahomes took advantage with 34.25 pts while Ju Jones benefited from Ridley’s injury (Wax) to score 14.5 pts.  After a slow start in week #8, Tua Tago was more dynamic this week with 22 pts and led his team to victory against the Cards. 

The Ballers had a strong week with 3rd place but fell a bit short of Dec in part because star WR D Hopkins left to be desired with only 4.5 pts and the other WR P Williams got injured by a teammate in a TD celebration and left the game after scoring 12 pts.  The team leader this week was by far D Cook once again who scored 34 pts to extend a big lead as the PQBFL’s best RB at the midpoint of the season.  Tannehill started due to Newton’s struggles and he was adequate with 18.5 pts but he did not exceed his projection.  Ball had decent contribution from defense with all four defenders  C Jones, Ju Simmons, M Jenkins, and Wagner reaching double digits while the Bears defense beat their projection with 7.5 pts although that came at the cost of slowing Tannehill down.  The Ballers have had trouble starting the right rookie this season between Swift and Z Moss; this week Swift started with 7 pts and Moss did a bit better with 9 pts on the bench although it did not make a difference in the standings. 

Before SNF the GloriousBastards were projected to comfortably finish 2nd not far behind OldNo7 but T Brady and C Jordan were so atrocious that Bas fell two spots to fourth place.  C Jordan only had one QB hit and no tackle while Brady finished in negative territory due to 3 INTs.  Brady has had good games this year but this kind of game against a middling Saints defense shows that he is no longer a QB1 in this league.  So far he’s still a bit ahead of backup Goff (QB12 vs QB16), but the choice between the two was not applicable this week since Goff was on bye.  Those two duds on SNF erased another good game from rookie Herbert who scored 24.75 pts and almost had a third TD on the final play of the game.  WRs Diggs (14.75 pts) and DK Metcalf (17.25 pts) both had good games while Waller scored a short TD in replacement for injured Kittle.  Besides C Jordan, the rest of Bas’s defense did well enough to beat Beaud thanks to a sack each for both LBs R Smith and J Brown, plus an INT from DB Fitzpatrick who was playing due to starter Bates being on bye.

The BeaudoinBrothers finished in the middle of the pack in 5th place, beating Wax but finishing behind Dec and Bas which means that now Dec and Bas are the closest two to watch in the standings, it’s no longer Wax.  Beaud has been spared injuries for the most part this season other than M Thomas and Mostert, but this week they got stung by covid affecting 49ers WR Bourne who was a close contact to Aiyuk and because the game was on TNF Aiyuk could not play, which was unlucky because he would have been available if the game had been on Sunday.  Aiyuk’s replacement had a monster game which leads one to believe that Aiyuk could have had a great game; Shenault started instead and got injured early in the game to finish with only 1 point which possibly made the difference between 5th place and 2nd place.  However the coach can be blamed as well by starting overrated kicker Butker who missed an extra point for the 6th time this season; had Beaud started Myers they would have beat Bas.  Also at QB Beaud chooses the wrong QB almost every week and this week had a big impact, R Wilson struggled with 4 turnovers and Murray outscored him by more than 20 points.  The top performers on defense were the Ravens who scored a TD and held the Colts to only 10 pts, plus LB D White who was a tackle machine with 14 tackles+assists.

FlyingElvis was headed towards a decent week but the Pats defense came up small on MNF by allowing the Jets to score 27 pts and they did not create a turnover nor get a sack until late in the 4th quarter to salvage the game and scored 2 pts.  QB Bridgewater kept the Panthers competitive in KC with 27.75 pts and almost led his team to a win and JJSS had his third straight double-digit game with 17.75 pts against the porous Cowboys defense which was actually not too bad this week.  Otherwise the rest of FE’s offense was a let down, first of all RBs Fournette and Singletary combined for only 6 pts and Mike Evans was shut down like the rest of the Bucs offense with only 7 pts.  Rookie J Taylor scored a short TD but he also lost a costly fumble which led to the Ravens’ defensive TD.  Individual defenders did relatively well for example T Edmunds had his best game of the year with 16.5 pts and the same can be said of J Peppers: in fact Peppers has been non-stop uphill since he scored 2 pts in week #3 and missed week #4 to injury.  Since then he scored 5 pts, 6 pts, 10 pts, 13 pts, and now 15 pts this week. 

ProfessorMJ had some high scorers this week and finished not far from second place but bottom line it was still only worth 7th place.  Josh Allen exceeded 20 pts for the first time since week #4 with 36.75 pts in a shootout against the Seahawks.  He was not alone in having a great game; WRs McLaurin and Fuller both scored a long TD in addition to over 100 yards receiving for a total of almost 40 pts combined.  Even the Titans defense contributed offensively with a TD and decent defensive stats for 12.5 pts.  However Prof was held back this week from having two DBs on bye and T Walker was out to injury.  The situation was barely better at the rookie position where Ruggs scored only 0.5 pt: he did not even catch any of his three targets and he rushed once for 10 yards.  Kicker Bailey missed an extra point and finished with only one point but the biggest problem was first round pick Conner who is not playing like he should and only scored 1.5 pt against the Cowboys which was a big disappointment and he was the main reason why Prof did not finish higher. 

The Admirals stumbled in 8th place this week to slide in 5th place in the standings.  QB Watson had a good game in a juicy matchup against the Jaguars to score 29.25 pts which was even better than his projection and D Adams had another big game with 25.5 pts.  However Thielen has not been as consistent as Adams and some games he is just invisible like this week he scored 3.75 pts.  The problems were more acute at RB.  Adm benched A Jones out of caution because he was just coming back from injury; Jones scored 6.5 pts on the bench which was not much, but it was better than starters D Harris (5.75 pts) and Lindsay (1.75 pts).  At TE M Andrews has had his moments early in the season with scores of 13.75 pts or better in three of the first five games, but since week #6 he has not done better than 4 pts which was his score this week.  He keeps sliding down the TE rankings, now TE8 in the PQBFL which is borderline starter material.  Adm can also point fingers to defense this week to explain the poor result, for example B Baker only had one game below 9.5 pts all year and this week he only scored 5 pts which was uncharacteristic for him.  Byard and Jaylon Smith also failed to reach their projection and the Vikings allowed two blocked punts to finish the game with a subpar 1.5 pt. 

WaxOnWaxOff hit rock bottom with last place and fell to 4th place in the standings and now 11 rank-points behind first place which will be difficult to catch up.  Running back Lamar Jackson is one of the reasons why, he rushed for 13-58 and one TD and oh by the way he threw some passes but nothing memorable; he finished the game with 15.25 pts which is good for a RB but not for a QB.  Wax now has a clear problem at RB and it’s not really about injuries.  Besides Kamara who was so-so this week with 9 pts, Wax thought L Bell being signed by the Chiefs would be good news but he has been a non-factor in the offense so far.  This week he rushed 4 times for 8 yards and caught one pass for negative yardage.  But who else can Wax start, really?  Now that Fournette (FE) is healthy, RoJo is an after-thought and he had 1.5 pt on the bench.  Jordan Howard scored a short TD this week but he saw the field only for the first time since week #4 after being a healthy scratch for several consecutive weeks and he only played due to the Dolphins having injury issues at the position.  With WR Ridley injured, Wax started Hardman who only scored 5.25 pts while regular starter DJ Moore sucked with 2.75 pts.  The only bright spot was LB where both Cunningham and Warner beat their projection with 12.5 pts and 13 pts, respectively, however rookie DL C Young only scored 6 pts which is no match for regular starter Burrow who was on bye which hurt Wax badly this week.  





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