Week #14

The Ballers do not intend to finish last this season and they smashed both OldNo7 and the GloriousBastards to take a firm hold of 7th place in the standings.  This week the Ballers scored a season-high 176 pts to beat the Admirals by more than 10 pts.  Almost every Ball starter had a good game except the three receivers, with A Rodgers and D Cook both scoring over 30 pts, Cook being the most notable because he was fresh off of injury so there were doubts whether he was in good shape or not.  Those doubts were eliminated with a 200+ rushing yard day and 2 TDs.  Mac Jones was on bye but M Parsons has started more often for Ball this year anyway; this week he scored double digits for the 7th consecutive week, a pretty stellar result for a rookie.  If he was a LB instead of a rookie, he would rank LB6 which is not bad at all and definitely saved player material.  The rest of Ball’s defense was solid as well, E Kendricks came back from injury in full force with 16 pts, the Browns defense scored on a fumble return, and S Thompson + J Abrams scored 12 pts and 10 pts, respectively.  Even kicker Prater had a good day, making all 5 of his kicks including three FGs of 49 yards or more.  As mentioned above the only blemish was receivers, mostly McLaurin laying an egg on 4 targets, and Diggs + Gronk both having ok stats but no TD. 

The Admirals were cruising to a week 14 victory but K Murray was erratic on MNF with no TD, 2 INTs, one fumble (not lost) and finished with less than half of his weekly projection at 10.25 pts.  Nonetheless Adm was able to finish second for the third straight week and have been the hottest team during this stretch with 24 rank-points, ahead of both Prof and Beaud at 20 rank-points each between weeks 12-14.  The Packers’ duo of A Jones and D Adams normally gets some TDs but one big game by one player tends to leave the other one in the shadow.  It was not the case this week with both of them destroying the Bears in a high-scoring affair, they scored 2 TDs each and Adams had great stats to go along his TDs for a total of 28 pts.  At RB with D Harris and Gaskin both on bye, Adm started T Coleman but he missed the game to injury which turned out to be fantastic news for Adm because eternally injured R Penny came out of nowhere as the default starter and scored 26.5 pts, a score that T Coleman would have been extremely unlikely to reach.  Speaking of injury recoveries, G Kittle had a second huge game in a row, this week he scored 26.5 pts and took sole possession of TE1 in the league if we look at points per game on average rather than total points scored.  Adm might have finished #1 this week if rookie Waddle had not been on bye week along with Gainwell because the only other rookie Michael Carter was out to injury.  Also defense left to be desired with all 5 starters scoring 8.5 pts or less, the worst being the Vikings getting crushed by the Packers, leaving WFT on the bench with 13.5 pts in a surprisingly good effort against Dallas.

The BeaudoinBrothers finished in the top 3 for the second time in three weeks and jumped over Wax in 5th place but lost ground to Adm.  The Bros had reliable but not great contribution from several players, first off R Wilson scored 2 TDs without an INT which is a rare since he came back from his injury.  That does not mean he is back to his normal self however because he was simply taking advantage of the weak Texans.  Fournette scored on a long TD and reached 100+ yds rushing while continuing to have the lion’s share of carries for a high powered offense which is always valuable.  He is now RB10 in the league – a level that sometimes warrants a first round pick after the franchise players are off the board.  Replacement player C Patterson was needed again with J Robinson banged up, Patterson did not do much but at least he scored a TD so 9.75 pts was not horrible.  A Cooper also had modest stats but scored, and it was the opposite for Claypool who was heavily involved in the Steelers’ comeback attempt late in the game with 8-93 but he did not reach the end zone.  The main offensive disappointment was Kelce who had bad stats and no TD for his second straight game with exactly 4.25 pts.  Rookie Z Wilson has taught us not to expect big things from him, and this week he was held scoreless but if he stays away from turnovers like this week, the outcome will be acceptable as per his 9.25 pts this week.  On defense Garrett scored a TD which provided a boost to Beaud and J Chinn continued to perform with 13 pts, putting his bad weeks 1-5 farther in the rearview mirror. 

ProfessorMJ had a so-so week but beating FE and Dec was sufficient to take another step towards the PQBFL championship.  With a 14 rank-point lead and only 4 weeks to go, unless Prof finishes last in the next couple of weeks, the crown is all but a foregone conclusion.  Winning 4 straight weeks almost never happens, and if FE can pull it off then all Prof needs to do is finish 4th-4th-4th-5th to win the league which is not that hard to achieve.  After a rough 3-week period from weeks 10-12, Brady had his second straight 30+ game with 33.75 pts this week which was his third best game of the season.  J Conner continued to take advantage of C Edmonds’ injury with 2 more TDs for 20.25 pts but he might slow down soon with Edmonds being close to returning.  Conner’s contribution was needed to beat FE by a small margin because D Henderson was out to injury and Chubb was bottled up by the Ravens with only 5.25 pts.  Prof’s best receiver of the week was M Andrews with 21.75 pts who showed an excellent connection with backup QB Huntley after L Jackson was injured so he might actually be QB-proof in this offense.  WR M Evans also continued to benefit from bone-head A Brown’s absence (this time a suspension not an injury), and scored a TD for 16.5 pts to edge his projection.  Franchise player T Lawrence joined other rookie QBs of 2021 into negative territory with a god-awful 4 INT day without a TD for negative 4.75 pts to drop to ROO7 in the league, barely ahead of J Williams who is ROO8 but he seldom saw the field for Prof this season.  Rarely do we see a PQBFL team with such a poor franchise player winning the league by a healthy margin. 

FE finished in the middle this week, losing to Prof by 1 but beating Dec by 1 so FE seems pretty locked in second place especially with Dec’s recent struggles.  FE made the wise last-minute decision to bench L Jackson in favor of Cousins, including perhaps a bit of luck because Cousins scored 16 pts and Jackson got injured early in the game.  This also affected M Brown who finished with only 7 pts.  Thielen missed the game to injury and FE simply does not have much depth at WR so Gallup started and did not do much with 8 pts.  J Taylor was on bye and he’s probably FE’s MVP so that limited FE’s prospects this week, backup Montgomery was pedestrian in his replacement with 6.75 pts.  Ekeler was ok with 12 pts but failed to reach his elevated projection which was a moderate surprise considering that the Chargers scored 37 pts against the weak Giants.  Rookie Kyle Pitts was equally lukewarm with 8 pts, as ROO14 he has not paid off on his early draft selection and even as a TE he would rank TE11 which is not that great for a saved player.  Defense was the saving grace for FE with 16 pts each from V Bell and B Wagner, and T Edmunds was not far behind with 13.5 pts.  The Packers D also scored a TD on an INT return for 13 pts, leaving the only poor defensive player as Q Williams with 4 pts. 

The fast sinking Decepticons finished 6th and lost hope for second place and must now worry about the rising Admirals not far behind who are surging since K Murray and Kittle came back from injuries.  In the last 4 weeks Dec only earned 15 rank-points, only one in front of both Old and Bas at 14 each, while Adm earned 29 in that period.  With Adm now only 3.5 behind Dec, one can argue that Adm might be favorites to finish 3rd instead of Dec.  For once it was not entirely Mahomes that could be blamed for Dec’s issues.  The Chiefs scored 48 pts but Mahomes did not have a huge game unfortunately, that said his 20.5 pts were not the reason Dec finished behind FE.  The main problem was Dec’s poor situation at RB2, M Sanders was on bye, and with two injuries the only possible starter was K Hunt who himself was injured recently but since coming back he scored 1.5 pts twice – hardly better than being out altogether.  Also Mixon had a quiet day with only 5.5 pts.  Rookie N Harris was much better than both RBs with 19.5 pts and will put Dec on the spot for franchise player, perhaps the duo Mixon-Harris would be better than Mahomes who could become available in the draft for the first time in years.  Dec’s top scorer this week was once again C Kupp with 24 pts in a stellar effort against the Cards on MNF but it was not enough to beat FE who finished 3.75 pts ahead.  On defense D Leonard was on bye and P Queen made a rare start, and he did not make his presence felt with only 2 pts in a loss against the Browns.  Queen now ranks LB29 and is unlikely to be back as a saved player in 2022.  The best defensive game was from the Saints who manhandled the Jets and finished with 12 pts. 

The GloriousBastards finished 7th with a poor effort of 126 pts but beat Old by 2 spots to create some separation away from last place.  This week both GB rookies did well with 22 pts from J Chase as the starter and Fields 20.25 pts on the bench so the starting decision was not important.  Ju Herbert crushed the Giants with 29.5 pts and moved up to QB2 in the PQBFL, starting to raise the question as to whether he might be good enough for franchise player status in 2022.  On defense the leader was D White with 16 pts – he has clearly been improving with an average of 13.3 pts per game in weeks 7-14 compared to only 8.5 pts per game between weeks 1-6.  The rest of Bas’ starting lineup was pretty horrible, most of all the RBs: 2.75 pts from Josh Jacobs, 0.25 pt from A Gibson, Swift injured and the two backups on the bench both doing better than starters with 7 pts and 6.5 pts from M Davis and S Michel.  CD Lamb scored 11.75 pts but no TD and it was short of his weekly projection, same for DK Metcalf except that 6 pts was clearly bad unlike Lamb.  At TE with Waller out for a second game, backup Engram was useless with only 1 reception for 8 yards.  On defense, besides D White the rest were not impressive with scores slightly lower than projections for example Kenny Clark 6 pts, Jayon Brown 8 pts, and M Fitzpatrick 7.5 pts, none of which could give a spark to Bas.

WaxOnWaxOff fielded an incomplete lineup due to injuries and the outcome was predictably subpar with 8th place.  Wax was able to avoid a last place finish with a valiant effort and come from behind attempt by Josh Allen who finished with 33.25 pts, and also Aaron Donald had a strong game on MNF with 3.5 sacks for 18.5 pts.  Wax also welcomed back Kamara to the starting lineup after missing 4 games to injury and Kamara was in good shape with 18 pts.  However replacement RB Ingram was injured and would have played second fiddle to Kamara anyway, and the only other active RB was Ronald Jones who was used sparingly by the Bucs and finished with only 0.5 pt.  WRs Jefferson and DJ Moore made an adequate contribution with 16.75 pts and 10 pts respectively, however TE Hockenson was out to injury, Jonnu Smith was on bye, which forced Cole Kmet to a rare start and he did not break the record books with 3 receptions for 17 yards, his final score being helped by a fumble recovery.  On defense, besides A Donald the rest was not up to standards, the worst news being TJ Watt getting injured mid-game again and was out after only scoring 2 pts.  This affected the Steelers defense which was porous and finished the game with 2 pts as well.  Budda Baker did not have an injury excuse and finished the game with 3 tackles 2 assists and no big play for 5 pts. 

OldNo7 finished last for the first time since week 4 by only scoring 107.5 pts this week and are now 4 rank-points away from Bas in last place with 4 weeks left which is not unsurmountable but definitely a precarious situation.  The Cowboys beat the WFT but neither Prescott (7.25 pts) or Elliott (8.5 pts) had good games, Prescott being held back by 2 INTs and Elliott only had 60 yards from scrimmage.  The best two players of the week were CEH with 15 pts thanks to 2 TDs and Godwin with 15.25 pts entirely because of good stats 10 receptions 105 yards, but he did not score.  The player who surprised the most to the upside was TE A Hooper because he scored a short TD and ended the game with 12.5 pts, as a nice substitution for injured L Thomas and T Higbee.  Defense was weak except for Poyer who scored 11.5 pts, but LBs were terrible with K Murray who is beyond useless with a goose egg this week and a grand total of 1 point in his last four weeks.  He was forced into the starting lineup because Singleton was on bye, Mack and Dupree were injured, and backups DLs and DBs were on bye so he was the only choice for defensive flex.  One other defender was rookie Jamin Davis who scored 6.5 pts with DeVonta Smith on bye – Old will automatically plug back Smith in the starting lineup and put back Davis where he belongs: on the bench.  Mind you, 6.5 pts was not too bad based on Davis’ poor standards because his season average is only 4.7 pts per game.





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