Week #15

FlyingElvis won for a league-high 5th time this season with a narrow victory of ProfMJ.  However by beating Prof by only 1 spot, the odds of FE orchestrating a comeback are slim even if FE wins the last 3 weeks of the season.  In what turned out to be a fairly low scoring week, any kind of unexpected decent performance was valuable and there was none other than Brandin Cooks who has rarely started for FE but this week his 27 pts were clearly a difference maker.  The 2 TDs scored by Hunter Henry were key as well because 20.75 pts was his best of the year and more than double his season average.  J Taylor was the third player on FE’s starting roster to exceed 20 pts with 22 this week which cemented his hold as potentially the most valuable franchise player for 2022.  L Jackson missed the game to injury which was problematic for FE and Cousins was not that great in replacement with 10 pts while backup Hurts did better on the bench with 21.25 pts.  This turned out to be a rare coaching misstep for league-leading FE in that regard but fortunately in the end it did not matter.  Defense was nothing to write home about for FE with the Pats finishing with 3 pts – quite weak for the PQBFL’s best defense of the season so far.  D Lawrence made a rare start for FE after missing many games to injury earlier this season, and this time he had an impact by scoring 12.5 pts, far better than backup DLs Q Williams (1 pt) and JPP (2 pts).  LB Wagner had a modest day on Tuesday with only 7.5 pts but his score combined with 8 pts from kicker Gay edged Prof by the slimmest of margins 0.25 pt.

ProfessorMJ came very close to a win but second place was good enough in the circumstances.  Most offensive players on Prof’s team underperformed but M Andrews’ 26.75 pts and Ty Hill’s 24.25 pts contributed to more than a third of Prof’s entire team which helped to Prof’s 10th finish in the top 3 in 15 weeks, although only the second time in the last 5 weeks.  Rookie T Lawrence did not have a turnover so he was not awful but the lack of TD was a drag.  Brady was worse because he had an INT along with the lack of score so his lead as the PQBFL’s top QB is down to peanuts in front of Josh Allen and Ju Herbert.  At RB Chubb was not too bad with a TD and 90+ yards from scrimmage but he was short of his projection, and Conner predictably had a slowdown in production with the return to health of C Edmonds with only 6.75 pts despite playing against the weak Lions.  On defense almost all starters scored within a point of their projection so there were very few surprises.  The one that stood out a bit was CJ Mosley with 14 pts, however it should be noted that he started instead of J Brooks who was left on the bench; Brooks only scored 0.5 pt more than Mosley but given that Prof finished 0.25 pt behind FE it cost Prof the win.  Brooks has outscored Mosley so far this season and it was not clear why the coach thought Mosley’s matchup against the Dolphins was preferable to Brooks against the Rams. 

The Decepticons created some breathing room in 3rd place by beating Adm by 5 ranks and now lead in the standings by 8.5 which is comfortable with 3 weeks remaining.  Mahomes led in scoring with 30 pts to climb to QB7 in the league which optically does not look great but he’s now only 2.9 pts per game on average behind Brady so relatively close to the top.  The other big score was once again C Kupp who continues his monster season with a lead of 5 pts per game over Ty Hill so Kupp is arguably the league’s MVP so far.  It should be reminded that Dec drafted Kupp with a cringe and tried to trade him later during the draft which would have been a castastrophic move.  This week Dec only had 4 active RBs+WRs which was the bare minimum, due to 6 injuries / covid.  Thankfully the injuries were mostly to secondary backups not the regular starters, except at WR where both Lockett and D Hopkins were out and Julio Jones got a rare start but he stunk: 1 target and no reception.  The only point he scored was a tackle on a fumble recovery by the Steelers.  In that game rookie N Harris also had an awful day with only 26 total yards and no TD.  The ‘Cons did ok on the defensive side of the ball, with 20 points from D Leonard who climbed to LB7 with this performance.  Also the Rams defense was dominant against the Seahawks and scored 14 pts. 

The GloriousBastards finished in the top half and cut the Ballers’ lead in half in 7th place from 6 to 3 rank-points.  Bas did not have a good week on offense but defense was very solid, first of all C Jordan had not scored double digits all year until this week when he had two sacks and a forced fumble for 17 pts.  M Fitzpatrick also had his best game of the year with 15.5 pts thanks to 12 tackles 2 assists – he has been on a tear recently with 13+ pts in three of his last 4 games.  The Broncos defense fell just short of 10 pts but it was significantly in excess of their weekly projection by holding the Bengals to only 15 pts.  GB’s two LBs D Davis and D White did not light up the scoreboard with 9.5 pts and 10 pts but it was in line with expectations.  Offense was a struggle, first of all Bas benefited from the Broncos defense but J Chase did not – he was limited to one reception for 3 yards, a return to the previous string of coaching mistakes considering that Ju Fields scored 15.25 pts on the bench.  TE Waller missed a third game which did not help, and backup Engram only scored 5.5 pts in his absence, pretty much in line with his season average.  Engram used to be a promising young TE but this year at TE14 his value has been very limited and he has not done the job when Bas needed him most: 13.75 pts in the last 3 weeks with Waller out.  Speaking of young receivers, the duo of Metcalf + CD Lamb has also been a letdown, this week they almost had identical stat lines 6-50-0 and 6-52-0 for 8.5 pts each which was worth a yawn.  At WR14 (Lamb) and WR22 (Metcalf), they have been key factors why Bas in near the bottom of the standings.  Besides A Gibson who scored 10.25 pts, Ju Herbert was the only offensive player to hit double digits with 21 pts and even that was below his projection.

WaxOnWaxOff finished in the middle which could have been better, but the important result was beating both Beaud and Adm to raise hopes of finishing 4th or 5th in the standings.  Wax was handcuffed this week by not having a rookie, Sermon and E Moore were injured and Trey Lance has been a complete waste this season because it’s clear he’s not going to start, and got a goose egg this week.  With the pick traded to Beaud for Lance, Prof bagged Mike Evans in the 5th round who has not been bad at WR13.  Wax had Kamara and C Edmonds back from injury but they only scored 6.75 pts combined so it did not really help Wax at all.  Wax was able to have a decent finish mostly because of Josh Allen who scored 26.5 pts and has a chance to finish as the top scoring player in the PQBFL which would justify his high draft status in the middle of the first round.  Wax also had unexpected contribution from Cole Kmet who started given Hockenson’s injury and Kmet scored 9.5 pts.  RB Deebo Samuel also scored another TD this week… errr WR D Samuel… in fairness he had 4 receptions this week, unlike some other games where he was not involved in the passing game.  Defense was generally solid for Wax, the coach did not have the courage to start the Steelers against the Titans but they scored 15 pts on the bench, the starters the Dolphins had an easier matching against the Jets and they did well but 11 pts was not as strong as the Steelers.  While Wax did not benefit from the Steelers’ scoring, at least Wax got the points from TJ Watt who battered the QB repeatedly again with 3 QB hits to go along 1.5 sack and one fumble recovery.

The BeaudoinBrothers beat Adm by two spots but lost to Wax in what turned out to be a mixed result.  The early outlook was great with Kelce having a monster game of 31.5 pts on Thursday to kick things off, however the rest of Beaud’s offense was beyond dreadful: the best of QB+RB+RB+WR+WR+ROO was Fournette with 5.5 pts and he got injured early in the third quarter to cap off this miserable injury-riddled season where all 6 of the Bros’ RBs have been injured.  For the rest, it’s hard to say who was worse because R Wilson, C Patterson, A Cooper, M Pittman, and R Stevenson all scored between 1.25 pts and 2.25 pts – their combined total (9 pts) was barely above freakin kicker Butker who had 7 pts, which is mind boggling.  Defense is what allowed Beaud to beat Adm.  The Colts blocked a punt and scored a TD on the same play to finish at 16 pts; surprisingly they have been by far the Beaud’s better defense this year as 3rd best behind NE (FE) and BUF (Prof), while the Ravens languish as DEF16 in part due to too many injuries in the secondary.  Lavonte David also had a productive day with 20 pts for his best game of the season.  With Logan Wilson out to injury the Bros started a DB at the flex position and both Chinn + L Collins had a good day with 12 pts and 12.5 pts, respectively. 

Exactly as happened in weeks 7-8, the Ballers could not follow up a win with a good week, they finished 7th and are now more likely to fall behind Bas than to jump over Wax in the standings.  Ball only had one active DL with C Jones and Flowers both out to injury, Kendricks had his first game below 10 pts of the season except for week 12 when he got an intra-game injury, and Shaq Thompson was poor with only 3 points.  The only bright spot on the defensive side of the ball was the Bucs who held the Saints offense out of the end zone but they did not create a turnover; they finished with 12.5 pts.  On offense A Rodgers was easily the leader with 25.5 pts, but the rest of Ball’s lineup was pedestrian.  Diggs scored a TD but otherwise with 4 receptions for 35 yds it was not the kind of stats he was supposed to deliver given his 2020 prowess.  Last year Diggs caught 6+ passes every game except one, but this season it was already the 5th time that he caught 4 passes or fewer.  D Cook did not do much with 7.5 pts, and Barkley was so-so with 74 yards from scrimmage but the worst is that he lost a fumble to finish with only 3 pts.  WR McLaurin was supposed to be QB-proof because he was able to have good stats last year despite a poor QB but this year it has not been the case.  Losing Fitzpatrick has affected him, this week he only had 2-51 with Gilbert because the journeyman QB relied mostly on short dump-off passes to the RB and TE.  McLaurin fell to WR26 on the season which is a disappointment and the lack of depth at WR has meant Ball has been stuck with McLaurin for most of the year.

After a hot stretch of three consecutive second places, Adm fell to 8th place and will have to fight to keep 4th place in the last three weeks of the year.  RB Penny had success in week 14 but against a better defense in week 15 it was another story, Penny was bottled up and finished with 3.5 pts.  A Jones and D Adams both scored a TD but yardage was harder to come by so in the end their 10.75 pts and 13 pts were modest and did not carry Adm.  TE Kittle had been on fire recently but was a bit more quiet this week, his stats of 6-93 were excellent for a TE but the lack of TD resulted in a final score of 10.5 pts which was short of his weekly projection.  However nobody underperformed projections as much as Kyler Murray who shockingly lost the game in Detroit and only had one TD in garbage time with less than five minutes remaining when the Cards were already being blown out.  Perhaps losing D Hopkins is hurting more than what the Cards tried to make it sound in the press.  To round out the offense, rookie Waddle missed the game due to covid and Adm has no worthy backups; Michael Carter could not do better than 1.5 pt.  WR Mike Williams equally underperformed with only 5.25 pts despite the Chargers scoring 4 TDs. 

OldNo7 lost to GB by 5 rank-points and is now 9 behind with three weeks to go which means unless there is a surprising turnaround, Old will finish the season last.  The only good news is that Old will have a high draft pick next year, somewhere between 2nd and 4th pick because Old is currently second in injury points, but Wax and Adm are not far behind.  With Old being almost sure to finish last, Old might actually not suffer too much if guys like Jarvis Landry and AJ Brown rest, however they are both expected to return in week 16.  Their return will help for what’s left of the season because C Godwin was injured and is out for the rest of the year, this week he exited after scoring 8.25 pts.  One of Old’s strengths before the season started was RB depth and with McCaffrey missing all but 7 games, E Elliott + CEH + M Gordon have been used extensively, even AJ Dillon has been used at times.  However this week all 4 of these RBs were nothing special, Elliott and CEH started but they combined for 18 pts which was a bit short of their combined projection.  WR Dionte Johnson has been having a great season as WR7 but it was not the case this week with only 7.25 pts so he was even worse than Godwin in limited time.  TEs Hooper, L Thomas, and Higbee all missed week 15 due to injury or covid so like many other teams, Old had an incomplete lineup this week.





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