Week #18

The PQBFL’s hottest team the Admirals finished the season on top with a week #18 win, surprisingly their first of the season.  From weeks 12-18 Adm finished in the top 2 five weeks out of 7 to easily lead the PQBFL.  This week Adm was trending to finish second during the final NFL game because Mike Williams and Joey Bosa were not doing much, by the middle of the 4th quarter M Williams only had 2 short receptions and Bosa barely had anything.  Then the Chargers attempted a furious comeback and Williams caught several receptions from the middle of the 4th quarter until overtime and Bosa also sacked and forced a fumble of D Carr on a key third down play with 3 minutes remaining in regulation, and M Williams caught the game-tying TD as time expired to help Adm beat Prof.  However the best score of the week for Adm was the WFT who had only scored into double digits once this season as the worst defense until week #18 when they scored 25.5 pts against the Giants to lead Adm on the scoreboard.  RB R Penny was quite productive as well with 23.75 pts which was the third time in 5 weeks that he scored over 23 pts after missing most of the season to injury.  Adm was able to overcome a quiet game from D Adams who rested in the second half and Kittle who was held to only 10 receiving yards.  What helped Adm was 1 TD each by K Murray, D Harris, and J Waddle although two of them did not beat their projection.  Among individual defenders, Oluokun had a good game with 13 pts and finished as the top defensive scorer with 224 pts on the entire season, however on a per game average TJ Watt edged him by a hair and only noticeable with 2 decimals (13.20 for Watt vs 13.18 pts per game for Oluokun).

ProfMJ rebounded from subpar weeks 16-17 with second place in week 18 to cap a dominating season with .743 winning percentage which is the highest since 2016 when the BeaudoinBrothers won with .745.  Brady led Prof with 27.75 pts and edged Josh Allen (Wax) as the PQBFL top scorer with 403.5 pts against 402 pts on the entire season because J Allen scored a little less than Brady this week with 24 pts.  At RB, Chubb was limited to only 5 pts, but because C Edmonds (Wax) was back on the injury list, Conner returned to productive days with 2 TDs and almost 100 yards from scrimmage for 19.75 pts.  After the final week results, surprisingly Conner finished ahead of Chubb on the season as RB5 compared to RB7 for Chubb.  Prof needed Conner’s contribution this week because WR Ty Hill got banged up early in the game and only scored one point, and WR K Allen was not as involved as Mike Williams in the Chargers’ comeback which ultimately cost Prof first place, with K Allen ending the game with only 8.5 pts.  This could have been avoided if the coach had started M Evans instead who scored 22.25 pts.  Defense carried Prof all season and this week was no different, the Bills were dominant with 9 sacks, 1 blocked kick, and a mind-boggling 53 net yards allowed against the terrible Jets.  In that game CJ Mosley was busy with 12 tackles but he was bested by DB T Walker who scored a season-high 19 pts in part due to an INT off Jordan Love who was subbing for A Rodgers in the second half. 

WaxOnWaxOff finished 2021 on a positive note with third place.  Wax ends up predictably in 5th place for the year as 4th and 6th were quite far ahead and behind.  This has to be a relatively satisfying result considering that Wax had the second most injury points in the PQBFL.  Wax was handicapped at the RB position again this week because all of C Edmonds, RoJo, and M Ingram went back to the sidelines due to injuries so Kamara was the only starting RB and he did well with 15 pts.  Also Garoppolo took back his starting job so T Lance scored zero and Wax had no other rookie to start again so considering the rookie and RB positions, Wax would arguably have had a chance to finish first this week with a full lineup.  The amazing Deebo Samuel was the top scorer this week, this guy continues to find ways to produce, this week he had another rushing TD on 8 carries but he also threw for a TD pass and was no slouch either as a receiver with 4-95.  He ends the season only 0.3 pt per game on average behind D Adams as WR3 which is perhaps even more of a surprise than C Kupp finishing WR1.  Wax had the best WR duo in the league with Ju Jefferson finishing WR4 and he scored 18.5 pts this week, benefiting from Thielen’s absence.   On defense as noted above TJ Watt finished as top defensive player with 1 sack and 3 QB hits this week for a total of 15.5 pts, and he helped the Steelers make the playoffs with a defensive performance of 11.5 pts by holding the Ravens to only 13 pts.  It should be noted that the Wax GM is expected to retire from his “other” job and become GM full time which means Wax might be a force to be reckoned with in 2022 if the GM has more time available to manage the team than in recent years. 

The Decepticons needed to beat FE and hope one team would slide in between in order to jump over FE and finish second in the standings, and this is exactly what happened with Dec in 4th place and FE finishing 6th this week.  Many teams limped to the finish line with injuries including both Dec and FE, and this week Dec did not have the services of Mixon so Jamaal Williams started and only scored 4.25 pts, and Dec needed an injured player replacement for his RB2 spot because everybody else was injured.  In what turned out to be the most useless injured player replacement of all time, Dec picked up Samaje Perine who was expected to be the Bengals’ lead RB with Mixon out to covid, however Perine did not play a single snap on offense – he only played on special teams so he finished with a goose egg.  His brief time in the PQBFL was short lived and will be remembered for the wrong reasons, but thankfully it did not prevent Dec from beating Bas and FE to secure second place.  The one coaching call which made the entire difference for Dec to edge FE by half a rank-point in the standings was starting Amon-Ra St.Brown and benching Najee Harris.  St.Brown scored a TD and 19 pts against the Packers’ B team and Harris was held in check by the Ravens defense and only scored 4.5 pts.  The rest of Dec’s scoring was once again C Kupp with 18.75 pts who was the PQBFL MVP with 3.9 pts per game on average better than any other WR, this spread of 3.9 being unmatched at other positions.  This week, Mahomes’ 26.5 pts and Lockett’s 23 pts also powered Dec in the first half of the rankings. 

The GloriousBastards had little to play for in the final week by being almost locked up in 7th place but ended up being trouble makers in the Dec-FE matchup by beating FE on SNF with Ju Herbert scoring a ton of points late in the 4th quarter to extend the Chargers’ game in OT which subsequently allowed Josh Jacobs to add 69 rushing yards in OT on 7 carries to end the game with 144 yards from scrimmage, one TD, and 17 pts.  Co-RB A Gibson missed week #17 to injury but he seemed perfectly fine in his week #18 return, with his best game of the year for 18.5 pts to hurt FE’s chances.  The rest of Bas’ starting lineup left to be desired with DK Metcalf who was not himself all season and only scored 7.75 pts this week in a game where the Seahawks scored 38 pts against the Cards.  Even more problematic has been CD Lamb who ended the season WR22 (vs Metcalf being less bad at WR17), this week Lamb scored 4.25 pts with the Cowboys putting 51 pts on the scoreboard, which is more puzzling than Metcalf’s performance.  In 2022 Bas’ most valuable receiver for voting might not be Metcalf or Lamb, it might be J Chase who only scored 3.25 pts this week but that’s because the Bengals were resting many starters and Fields was injured.  Chase beat Mac Jones easily as top rookie in 2021 (1.3 pt per game on average ahead of Jones) and if Chase had been a WR instead of a rookie, he would have been WR5 in front of notable names like Ty Hill, Mike Evans, and S Diggs. 

FlyingElvis was leading Dec by 10.5 rank-points after week 15 and Dec previously thought their team was locked in 3rd place when trying to trade away good starters at the trade deadline.  Nobody could foresee that FE would crumble to 7th, 9th, and 6th place in the final three weeks of the year with a flurry of injuries late in the season, with 245 injury points in week #18 which was second highest in the PQBFL.  Cousins was the only active QB and did well with 29.75 pts, however at WR it was slim pickings between D Parker (2.5 pts), B Cooks (4.25 pts), and on the bench M Brown (4.25 pts) because L Jax was out so FE’s coach thought M Brown would not do well with Huntley under center for the Ravens.  Brown predictably had a bad game, but D Parker was even worse – if Brown had started instead, FE would have finished exactly tied with Bas in 5th place and that extra half a rank would have put FE at 103.5 pts along with Dec for the entire season, and because FE scored more points in total than Dec (2625.5 vs 2570), FE would have finished second by virtue of the tie-breaker.  So FE rode excellent coaching efficiency all season long and finished #1 in that regard, however they fell on their own sword in the final week to miss out on second place.  FE could have still beat Bas if not for the Chargers’ late comeback because FE had a comfortable lead over Bas with 5 minutes remaining but Ekeler was not used enough in the Chargers’ comeback to overcome scoring from Ju Herbert (Bas). 

OldNo7 had almost no chance to get out of the basement in week #18 and predictably had a sub-par week with only 115.75 pts and finished the year 5 rank-points behind 8th place.  Unlike other teams, Old had a complete lineup this week, but the main problem was that the coach benched Prescott thinking that the Cowboys had little to play for, and started Wentz instead because the Colts were expected to destroy the Jaguars to make the playoffs.  This turned out to be a major mistake because Wentz was terrible with only 9.25 pts versus 37.75 pts by Prescott on the bench which cost Old 3 ranks.  Old could have easily finished last this week but TE Higbee came out of nowhere with his first game of the season better than 10.5 pts with 2 TDs and 19.75 pts this week which was significant outperformance relative to his low projection.  Key position players were generally modest, Gordon scored a long TD for 14.5 pts but Elliott was held out of the end zone with Prescott’s heroics, AJ Brown scored a TD but stats were nothing to write home about (4-68), and Dionte Johnson did not score and ended the game below 10 pts.  Old’s other receiver, rookie D Smith was also quiet with only 3-41 and 5 pts. 

The BeaudoinBrothers injury-riddled season came to an end with 8th place with once again an incomplete lineup and over 300 injury points for the second time in three weeks, this week DB J Chinn missed the game so the Bros were without a healthy DB in addition to only one RB.  Also C Patterson was banged up and barely played despite Mike Davis losing two fumbles, and Patterson only scored one point.  The Bros were expected to have a higher result than only 8th considering they scored 7 TDs and defense was not bad either with one sack each for Garrett and Chandler Jones, and Jones’ sack was also with a forced fumble which led to a TD.  For comparison purposes, Adm won the week with 6 TDs and equally had two sacks but the big difference was the Bros had poor stats, not only the zeros from the incomplete lineup but also Zach Wilson with less than 100 yards passing, Kelce only 4-34, and the Colts defense which can be blamed for missing the playoffs by allowing the Jaguars to score 26 pts.  At least because the Colts were playing from behind, it allowed M Pittman to be more involved in the game than in recent weeks when the Colts did everything on the ground, Pittman scored a TD, caught a two-point conversion, and also had 6 receptions.  R Wilson was by far the Bros’ best player this week with 4 out of the Bros 7 TDs but he had two turnovers which were costly. 

The Ballers finished last but they were already pretty much locked up into 8th place anyway.  Some injuries affected Ball but to a lesser extent than other teams.  The Ballers had a full lineup, but Kendricks missed the game and since he has been the team’s highest scoring defender in 2021, his absence hurt defense for Ball.  The four starting defenders for Ball was atrocious this week, notably Chris Jones who was held scoreless and the four starters combined for only 11 pts which is something that Kendricks beat on his own 8 times this year.  On offense the best was Diggs with 19 pts, not only because he scored a TD but also because for a rare time this season he caught a lot of passes, 9 this week was tied for his season high, which is not as good as in 2020 when he reached double digits 5 times.  While the Ballers were less affected by injuries this week, what hurt the most was Aaron Rodgers being rested in the second half of his game to prepare for the playoffs.  Rodgers had time to score 17 pts in 30 minutes of play, which was better than his limited projection, but Ball could have easily avoided last place this week if Rodgers had something to play for and if he was not benched in the second half.  The other main reason why Ball ended up in the cellar this week was RBs D Cook (6.75 pts) and S Barkley (4 pts) who both scored only half of their projection.  Those guys remain top candidates for franchise players in 2022 but the Ballers will need them to perform at a high level to compete.  Cooks finishing RB11 in 2021 was not as good as expected considering most saw him as a top 5 RB.





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